Triangular Thanks

I thought I'd play along again with the Trendy Triangle Challenge over at Moxie Fab World. This time, as well as using triangles on my card, I decided to make a triangular card.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Friendly Flags, Lattice Background and Antique Brocade

For the orange and darker green triangles, I applied Hero Arts tide pool and orange soda shadow inks to white card and stamped and/or embossed images. I used pool layer paper for the lighter green triangles. After cutting out the triangles, I adhered them to white card and did some machine stitching before adding the back of the card. As I've used inks from the Stamp Your Story catalogue, I'm also submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge. I was inspired by the colours and mix of patterns on this gorgeous card by Kelly Rasmussen.

Hope you're having a great weekend:) Our National Heritage Week starts today so we're hoping to fit in as many fun events as possible over the next seven days and are trying not to think too much about the imminent return to school!

Hexagon Christmas Tree

I know, I know, here I go again, it's August and I have another post about Christmas! But Volume 8 of Holiday Cards and More, my favourite magazine, was published last week and I'm feeling all Christmassy and eager to make Christmas projects because of all the wonderful inspiration contained in the magazine.

I'm still pinching myself that I have three project in the magazine - a card, a gift tag and this home décor item

Stamps - Happy Hexagons (Papertrey Ink) & Very Merry Christmas (Hero Arts)
Die set - Geometric Shapes (Hero Arts)

A while ago my good friend Trinh surprised me with the gorgeous Happy Hexagons set from Papertrey Ink (thanks again, Trinh!) and this was the first project I made using them. Along with the hexagons I just used a couple of my favourite things (distress inks and stitching) to make this.

Mmm I wonder how many days do I have to wait before I can put up and decorate our Christmas tree!!

Nativity Gift Tags

Today I'm playing along with two challenges, the Holiday Gift Tag Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and Hero Arts' Stamp Your Story Inspiration Challenge.

Well the sun may be splitting the stones outside but with the release of Holiday Cards and More I'm already thinking of Christmas, and a good thing too as I'm usually rushing at the last minute with Christmassy bits and pieces! I love the cover on the magazine and can't wait to get my hands on it so I can see what else is inside!

I'm thinking of wrapping some Christmas presents in plain white paper embossed with snowflake and for a few will steer away from the usual Christmas colours. So going away from traditional colours, I made some gift tags that were inspired by this gorgeous and fun Halloween card created by Kelly Rasmussen. I just love the fabulous sky Kelly created as well as the colour combination and silhouettes against the sky.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Special Delivery & Greatest Gift

I wanted the tags to have a similar shape to The Stations of The Cross in our local church, so to start with I die cut the windows using Spellbinders Window One die, and cut off the pieces in the middle that I didn't want. Then I applied distress inks (mustard seed, dried marigold, spiced marmalade and barn door) to cream card and sprinkled some water on it. Once dry I cut out panels, stamped the scenes and adhered the panels behind the windows. To finish I just added a tiny star rhinestone to the centre tag and added string to them all.

Rainbow String Star

With Cath's Trendy Triangles Challenge over at Moxie Fab World, I seem to have triangles on the brain at the moment! So this morning I made another card using triangles.

I love string quilts and the added bonus is that they are great for using up scraps. So I thought I'd use up some scraps by making a star with string points for my card.



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Fantastic Birthday
Die (Hero Arts) - Geometric Shapes (used diamond shaped die)

To start with I cut strips of card in various colours and adhered to a piece of backing card. Then I die cut triangles using half of the diamond shaped die out of Hero Arts' Geometric Shapes set. In the same way I die cut the central triangles for the card. To finish I just stamped the sentiment and added a rhinestone.

I've only a few more days of holidays left so we've been making the most of our days off and headed off to Cahir Castle and the Rock of Cashel last week. Here are some photos from our trip.

Cahir Castle

A cannon ball from a siege in 1599 can been seen lodged in the wall to the left of the lower arrow slit.

Thick walls with arrow slits.

Another defensive area inside the main walls with working portcullis and holes above the gate for dropping boiling water, rocks etc on any attackers.

A Tudor fireplace.

Rock of Cashel

12th century round tower and 13th century cathedral

View of nearby abbey

A carving in the cathedral. It reminds me of St Patrick but I'm not sure if it is of him.

Ceiling of 11th century Cormac's Chapel. Only fragments of the original frescoes remain. The frescoes were covered by whitewash during the Reformation.

A cheeky lad in Cormac's Chapel!

Sorry for all the photos but I love spending hours exploring places like these! Enjoy your weekend!

The Trendy Triangles Challenge

After three weeks without rain, we've probably had more than three weeks worth of rain in the past three days. It's another soggy day today, so I decided to get inky while the rain lashed down.

I've been eager to play along with Cath's Trendy Triangles Challenge over in the Moxie Fab World. Today I wanted to make a gift tag for a present for a friend and thought it would be an ideal opportunity to give the challenge a whirl.

My friend is a quilter and her present includes some fabric, so I made a mini quilt for the gift tag.


Stamp (Papertrey Ink) - Boutique Accessories Mini Stamp Set

I punched out lots of tiny squares from scraps, cut them into triangles and made the mini quilt measuring 1¾ inches square. The quilt is hanging on a Maya Road heart hanger - I couldn't resist buying a packet of these cuties! I hadn't bought any Papertrey Ink goodies before so I was delighted when my good friend Trinh kindly offered to order items for me awhile ago. I was like a kid on Christmas morning this week when I received my Papertrey Ink order - thanks again, Trinh:) For this tag I inked up one of the images from the Boutique Accessories Mini Stamp Set. Then I just added some ribbon and attached the quilt to the tag with foam pads.

Hero Arts Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to your next picnic spot on the Hero Arts Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop!

If you’ve been following along the picnic trail, you should have just arrived from the blog of the talented Kryssi Ng. In case you come across a broken link or didn't begin at the start of the hop, you’ll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also please report broken links to blog@heroarts.com.

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning - best of luck! I have comment moderator switched on, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear immediately.

Recently we’ve been enjoying the most glorious weather and have had lots of days out in some of our local scenic areas. Each time we’ve loaded up our wicker picnic basket, so for our virtual picnic today I thought I’d make a picnic basket shaped card.

Hero Arts Stamps – Picnic CL599, Designer Woodgrain S5208 and It’s a Day for a Cupcake AR171 (Archiver’s exclusive)

I die cut the basket using my Silhouette and stamped the outer layer and handles with the Designer Woodgrain stamp. The sentiment was heat embossed in white. Then I made a little tablecloth/blanket by repeatedly stamping the strawberry from the Picnic set on a triangle of white card and coloured it with ProMarkers. The borders were made from scraps of card left over from other projects. After stamping and cutting out the cupcakes, I added some dimension by adhering the “cream” topping with foam pads. Some swirls of stickles were applied for added sparkle and the “chocolate” and strawberries on the cupcakes were covered with a layer of Glossy Accents.

All week I’ve been enjoying this calorie free picnic and want to try out all the mouth watering recipes my Hosti sisters have provided. So now it’s my turn to come up with something for our picnic. One of my favourite summer time combinations is strawberries and cream, so pavlova is one of the (many!) desserts I love.

Hero Arts Stamps - Remember & Picnic

As well as being a cool and refreshing dessert, pavlova is also easy to make. If you’re having a garden picnic, the pavlova can come straight out of your fridge or if you’re going on a picnic out and about, just pop the pavlova or elements needed for the pavlova into your cooler box to keep chilled. With the recipe below you can either make one big pavlova or a batch of mini pavlovas as I did.

Since we have a coeliac in the family, it’s great to have this delicious dessert that can be enjoyed by all of us, even those on a gluten free diet. If you are making pavlovas for a coelic, please just ensure that the cornflour and white wine vinegar do not have any added gluten or have not been on a production line where they could have been contaminated by gluten. If you live in Ireland, just to let you know the Coeliac Society of Ireland produces a wonderful booklet that is an invaluable source of information and provides a comprehensive list of gluten free manufactured products on sale in Ireland. Anyway here is the recipe if you’d like to make mini pavlovas:

Mini Pavlovas

Ingredients

3 egg whites
6oz caster sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar or lemon juice
½ pint cream
2 teaspoons icing sugar
Strawberries and cherries (or any other fruits) to decorate

Method

1. Line baking trays with non stick baking parchment.

2. Whisk egg whites until stiff. Whisk in the caster sugar a third at a time, each time whisking until the mixture is stiff and very shiny. Fold in the cornflour, vanilla essence and the white wine vinegar or lemon juice.

3. Spoon dollops of the mixture into small round shapes on the baking parchment. Form a hollow in the middle of the round mounds.

4. Bake at 130 C (250 F) for approximately 45 minutes or until pale brown and dry but a little soft in the centre. (If you are making 1 large pavlova, adjust the cooking time to 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours). Leave to cool slightly and peel off paper.

5. Whisk the cream until thick and fold in icing sugar. Spoon cream onto mini pavlovas and decorate with strawberries and cherries (or any other fruits).

6. Now sit back, relax and enjoy!

I've made my card and my dish so now it's time for me to find a lovely picnic spot. I'd dearly love to have all my Hosti sisters right here with me, so we could enjoy a little hike and picnic together overlooking the lakes at Glendalough, Co Wicklow.

I'd like to say a great big thanks to Hero Arts for letting us loose having us on the blog this week and of course for all the fab must have goodies it produces! Also a great big thanks to Deborah, who has put in an amazing amount of work behind the scenes for the hop and has had us all in giggles as she's let the cat out of the bag over on the Hero Arts blog about our shenanigans at the picnic!

But for the moment why don’t you join me in hopping over to the next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop where we'll visit the lovely and talented Kathy Wade – I can’t wait to see what she has lined up for us! Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of the hop!

I'm submitting this card into the Simon Says Stamp Summer Food and/or Drink Challenge.

Happy Birthday

I arrived home yesterday evening to some very happy mail from my good friend Linda! Included with Linda's fab card and other beautiful goodies was the gorgeous Remember set from Hero Arts.

So first thing this morning I had to get inky! I love Cath's gorgeous Tuesday Trigger photo over at Moxie Fab World and have been wanting to play along since I saw the photo.

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I love the pretty muted colours, texture of the lace, the sheer fabric, pearls and pretty scalloped edging so tried to incorporate these elements into my card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Remember & It's Your Day

To start with I embossed a panel and die cut a frame for the flower panel, using Labels 10 Nestabilities. The flowers were inked with Hero Arts' soft pool shadow ink and Memento's new sprout marker and stamped on cream card. I added an organza ribbon bow and pearl to finish the panel. The sentiment was embossed in gold and I die cut the tips of the sentiment strip with the Labels 10 Nestabilities so it would tie in with the frame.



I'm also submitting this card into the Birthday Card Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the Die Cut Divas Summer Flowers Challenge. The sun is still shining here and we haven't had rain in over two weeks - I can't remember having a summer like this in such a long time! I hope you're having a lovely summer too:)