Mixy-Matchy Congratulations

As I tend to shy away for mixing lots of papers or patterns on my cards, I thought I'd have a go again and play along again with Cath's Mixy-Matchy Style Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Warmest Wedding Wishes

My good friend Linda sent me an exquisite Pink Paislee paper pad called London Market. The papers are so pretty and romantic looking, I couldn't wait to use them! Just to be a little more mixy matchy I teamed some of these papers with a brown text paper from a Docrafts Wellington Bear paper pad. To make the card I layered the papers and punched some circles for the scalloped border. After adhering the papers to the card base, I cut out an extra butterfly and popped it up on a foam pad. To finish I added lace and gems and embossed the sentiment.

I'm squeezing this card in on the last day of the challenge, but if you'd like to get mixy-matchy today too, you'll find all the details here.

Flying Scramble

Last night Jayne hosted a fun and challenging scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr group.

Jayne was inspired by baseball in picking the theme for her challenge and went for a triple play. I haven't a clue what that means in baseball terms but our scramble card had to include a triple play of trends - 1) use a photo frame 2) have at least one element on a slant and 3) have a metallic element.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Magical Background, BAM! & Ghostly Greetings

I haven't had a chance to play along in the scrambles in quite a while and had forgotten how quickly those 90 minutes whizz by! The fact that about 20 minutes of my time was taken up searching for my craft knife didn't exactly help, lol! I had tried cutting the photo frame with a scissors but it looked so bockety that way! I've seen YouTube videos of people completing a card in 10 minutes - lol I don't think I'll ever be capable of that!

For the background I stamped the Magical Background on blue card using faded jeans distress ink. I stamped the rocket twice, coloured and layered in parts for some extra dimension. To complete the metallic element part of the theme I added gold stickles to the flame from the rocket and silver pen to the rivets and piece protruding from the rocket nose.



Yikes got a bit splodgy with the stamping but that's what happens when you're scrambling! The next scramble in the group will be hosted by Janet on 28th July. If you'd like to join in on this scramble you'll find more details here.

Céad Míle Fáilte

If you know me you'll know I love Hero Arts and the Hero Arts Flickr group. Over the years it has been brilliant getting to know members in the group and make great friends there. As most of the group live far away I never thought I'd actually get to meet anyone from the group in real life. But all that changed a few weeks ago when I finally had the pleasure of meeting Lin who is such a sweet and talented lady. On the day we met it was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to stroll around Dublin city centre to see the sights and pop into a few shops. My goodness we chatted non stop for hours - I had such an enjoyable and fun afternoon with Lin.

Lin's lovely hubby Denny took this photo of us when we had finished rambling around Dublin. As you can see from the photo he had us both giggling away!



As part of our stroll around Dublin we went into Trinity College which is such a peaceful oasis in the middle of the city. Here's student Lin!



When I used to work in the city, the greens at the back of the college were a great place for a summer lunchtime picnic.

I have already received gorgeous cards from Lin but look at this beauty which she presented me with along with a very meaningful and thoughtful gift on the day we met. It's so Lin, I love it!



This is an ATC I made to say a hundred thousand welcomes (céad míle fáilte) to Lin. My friend Trinh sent me lots of pretty papers one of which I used on the main panel. It was only when I took the photo of the ATC that I noticed the text in the upper left hand corner contained the word "American" - what a happy coincidence! I hope Lin did find Ireland a very welcoming place to visit and I'm hoping to see her back here again some day very soon!



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Collage Postcard

Moxie Fabber and Thanks

Moxie Fab World is one of my favourite places to visit and I can't tell you how surprised and delighted I was when I received a lovely email from Cath inviting me to be a Moxie Fabber of the Week! I would definitely never think of myself as being moxie fab so it was amazing to have been paid that compliment - thanks a million, Cath! If you'd like to see the post, you can find it here.

I have a few thank you cards to make and want to make a variety of cards using the gorgeous Hero Arts butterfly die. Today I only had a chance to make one card, but I suppose it's a start anyway!



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Celebrate Everyday
Die (Hero Arts) - Butterfly

For the background I sanded an embossed panel my friend Linda had sent (thanks again, Linda:)) and added some stitching around the edges. The sentiment is a Happy Thanksgiving one, but I love the font, so often partially ink it to use on thank you cards.



I was trying to mimic the light, papery look of a butterfly's wings so backed the die cut butterfly with a wrinkle ribbon from May Arts. A little baker's twine bow and heart gem completed the butterfly.

Thanks so much for visiting:)

Rainbow Quilt

Cath's Mixy-Matchy Style Challenge in the Moxie Fab World looked like a fun but also challenging challenge. I usually don't have much of a mix of patterns on my cards, but with six different patterns on this card really gave it a whirl this time!



Stamps - Happy Hexagons (Papertrey Ink) & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

I love the pretty Happy Hexagons set my good friend Trinh sent me recently - thanks again, Trinh:) So I decided to make a "quilt" with a mix of patterned hexagons in a rainbow of colours. I used distress inks (barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, tumbled glass and dusty concord) to stamp the hexagons, cut them out and adhered the hexagons to black card. I'm hoping the black base helps to tone down the mad mix of colours and patterns! As I had some hexagons left over, I added an edging to try to mimic prairie points sometimes found on quilts.

The rainbow colours are probably very appropriate at the moment. As you can see when I was taking the photo this morning the sun was streaming in the window. Now after a number of showers, one of which included hailstones, there are big dark clouds overhead again. With the mix of sunshine and showers over the past few days, I've already spotted a few rainbows this week. Oh the joys of an Irish summer:)

Flowers and Butterflies Gift Bucket

I'm playing along again with one of Cath's 350 Cards and Gift Week Challenges over at Moxie Fab World. This time I thought I'd try the Gift Packaging Challenge .



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Blossom Art & Birthday Messages

Sometimes I like to give gifts in small buckets and picked up this little one a while ago. I embossed the flowers on vellum, cut out and layered. Then I added little flower gem centres and adhered the flowers to the bucket. To try to give a light, airy feel I used some organza ribbon for the bow and tulle as packaging.



I had loads of tiny little butterflies left over from punching borders for cards, so to use up some, I sprinkled them over the present and tulle. Well I better go tidy up my stamping supplies, you'd never guess the huge mess I made putting together this tiny gift bucket! Thanks for visiting:)

Let Your Dreams Take Flight

The Gift Challenge in the Moxie Fab World sounded like fun so I was delighted to get a chance to play along with it today.



I bought some 5x7 canvases recently and covered one with mixed watercolour paints (prussian blue and white) in varying intensities. On my first attempt I tried some stamping but it really looked awful, so on went another layer of paint to cover up the mess! Once this had dried I splattered some white, violet and prussian blue paint on the canvas as well as myself!



This time to try to speed up the drying process, I left the canvas out in the sun. After about 20 minutes I realised it was starting to rain and ran out to retrieve it. I obviously wasn't quick enough as there were some splodges on the canvas but I liked the effect the raindrops had left so decided not to go with attempt number three on the canvas! The letters for the sentiment were die cut using my Cameo.



The fabulous butterflies by Pink Paislee are thanks to my good friends Linda and Trinh. Both Trinh and Linda sent me sets of these beauties recently - I was thrilled to receive two set of these stunners! I added some frosted lace stickles to the bodies for some extra sparkle. To finish I sprinkled gems around the canvas. I'm also submitting this into the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Hope you are having a great weekend! It's a bank holiday weekend here so we're looking forward to an extra long weekend.