Confetti Love

Yesterday I received the March/April issue of Paper Crafts magazine and I've already spent so much time looking through it and drooling over the fantastic projects in it. I was lucky to have had this card selected for the Pretty Pastels section and was thrilled to see it in print.



I really don't have a lot of pastels in my stash so when the call went out for submissions, I had a bit of a rummage around and came up with some pastel copy paper. So I decided to make a confetti background and team it with a simple sentiment. A lot of punching and a lot of sticking was involved in making the background, but the panel travelled with me and I did little bits during lunch breaks in work, while cooking, watching tv and waiting for the kids to come out of school. The sentiment was the quickest part of the card as it whizzed out of my Silhouette Cameo. Lol I think this is the shortest supply list I've ever had for a card!

Here's my card in the magazine



and here's the front cover of the issue - love how fresh and springlike it looks.


The daffodils are starting to bloom here but the weather is turning to winter again here with snow falling outside now - brrr! Hope you are having a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day Honey

When I got the Hexagon Background stamp I thought it could make a great honeycomb and had an idea for cutting out a window in it for one of the cute bees from the Be Happy set. So this is the card my Valentine (aka my hubby who has been my Valentine for 21 years - those years have just whizzed by!) ended up with.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Hexagon Background, Be Happy & Celebrate Everyday

To start with I embossed the hexagons and cut out the piece I wanted to use as well as the little window for the bee. After stamping and colouring the bee I added little punched hearts to the antennae and stickles to the wings. Then I just added a scattering of hearts to the honeycomb and card base. I'm submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge and The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog's Valentine Card Challenge.

Hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day! I've enjoyed a wonderful day with the four special men in my life (yay for midterm holidays falling on this week). We had a brilliant time in one of my favourite fairly nearby places, Glendalough and enjoyed a beautiful walk and some yummy food.

The Round Tower at Glendalough


A closer view of the Round Tower


A view back at the Upper Lake


On the Miner's Road on the way to the ruined miner's village


Some ducks battling the waves on the Upper Lake


The furry guy in my life enjoying his trip to Glendalough


Blogger seems to have a new way of uploading photos so I'm not sure why the photos from Glendalough are so small! If anyone knows how to change the size, I'd love to know:) Edited Thanks a million to Arlene for the tip on sorting out the size of my photos:)

ATC Swap

Recently I organised an ATC swap over in the Hero Arts Group on Flickr. It's wonderful to see all the gorgeous ATCs that have been whizzing their way around the world. You'll find photos of the ones that have been received so far in this discussion thread in the group.

One of the swaps I'm doing is with the very talented Linda. Linda came up with the fun idea of us sending each other one ATC plus an ATC background for the other to complete.

I'm delighted that we have now both received our ATCs so I can post here. This is the completed ATC I sent to Linda.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Old Letter Writing, Exotic Bloom & Right at Home

I called it Dreaming of Summer Sunsets as I was certainly dreaming of Summer on the day I made it - we had a mixed bag of weather that day, including rain, wild winds, hailstones and a teeny tiny bit of sunshine. To start with I applied lots of distress inks (spiced marmalade, barn door, dried marigold, mustard seed & worn lipstick) to white card and spritzed liberally with water. Once the background was dry I stamped the Old Letter Writing on it, after firstly stamping on some scrap paper to lighten the ink load on the stamp. After stamping the Exotic Bloom I added some stickles here and there. The sentiment was embossed and I just added some pearls to finish.

This is the background I sent to Linda for her to complete


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Looped Circle Pattern & Old Letter Writing

Here you'll find what Linda created with it.

Next is the ATC I made using the fabulous ATC background that Linda had sent me. As you can see here the background looks fantastic but it looks even more amazing in real life with a wonderful overall shimmer.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings & Right at Home

As I was afraid of ruining the background by stamping on it and wanted to keep as much of the background visible as possible, I just stamped and coloured the dragonfly and added the embossed sentiment on vellum.

Finally, here is the gorgeous ATC that Linda sent me. Lucky me to have received this absolute beauty! Linda, thanks again for the fun swap, I really enjoyed it!

Hope you are all having a brilliant weekend!

Owl Love You

I wanted to try to make a masculine Valentine, so instead of the usual pinks and reds, went with kraft, black and white with some touches of red.



To make the base, I embossed the Looped Circle Pattern (I'm officially addicted to that stamp!!) on the back and front of the card and cut out some of the stamped areas to make a scalloped outline. Then keeping it fairly plain and simple I just embossed the branch and owls. I coloured the leaves with a gel pen and added little dots of white to the flower centres. The hearts were also embossed and covered in a layer of Glossy Accents for some extra sheen.

I'm submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Have a Heart Challenge

Itty Bitty Hi

Cath over at Moxie Fab World has lots for fun challenges for the 75 Creative Card Challenges Week. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to play along until today, which also happens to be the last day for submitting entries! So when I had some spare time this morning I decided I'd join in on the Make an Itty Bitty Card Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. Lol little did I realise that making a tiny card would take nearly as long as making a normal sized card. Of course having butter fingers this morning and dropping all of the fiddly bits didn't exactly help!



Card size 1 1/2 inches x 2 inches

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Looped Circle Pattern & Ghostly Greetings

As you can probably tell from the photo it's a lovely sunny day here today and after all the rain we've had recently everywhere is looking very green. So as I'm thinking of Spring I decided to make a green background by applying mowed lawn distress ink to white card and spritzed it with water. When the panel was dry I embossed the sentiment and added some machine stitching.

To make the flower I embossed the Looped Circle Pattern on vellum and cut out three of the flowers to layer.

I just added a raffia string stem and bow and a little pearl to finish.

I won't get a chance to play along in the other challenges Cath has set but will definitely give them all a go in the future.

Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring fabulous stamps from the new 2013 release!

If you’ve been following along, you should have just arrived from the blog of the ultra talented Lisa Carroll. In case you come across a broken link, you’ll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also please report broken links to Tami at 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.

The Hero Arts 2013 catalogue is packed with the most wonderful stamps! I can tell you after browsing through the catalogue many times, my shopping list is very, very long! Thanks to the ever generous Hero Arts, I’ve had a chance to play with some of the new stamps, before my shopping order arrives. When the stamps arrived from Hero Arts I was like a kid on Christmas morning and have had so much fun playing with my new “toys”!



The New Baby set is one of the most adorable baby sets I’ve ever seen! The images are so cute and I love the stitching details on the stamps. Not only is the set brilliant for making baby cards but I know I’ll be using some of the images on cards for kids and also for cute cards for adults. Anyway above is the first card I made using this set and the gorgeous new Looped Circle Pattern stamp – oh I love all the possibilities for this stamp!

Hero Arts Stamps – New Baby & Looped Circle Pattern
Other Supplies - Card (white & blue), broken china distress ink, VersaMark, white embossing powder, baker's twine, tag punch, gems, glitter, paintbrush and water.



On this card I again used the Looped Circle Pattern but in a different way to my first card, by using an embossed strip and cutting out pieces from the pattern. Along with this stamp, I used the Fantastic Birthday set which contains beautiful sentiments and lots of yummy, calorie free images – I can’t resist sweet things and I certainly couldn’t resist this sweet set!

Hero Arts Stamps - Fantastic Birthday, It’s Your Day and Looped Circle Pattern
Other Supplies – Card (cream woodgrain, white & brown), white embossing powder, VersaMark, patterned paper, shabby shutters and tumbled glass distress ink, markers, pearls, label die, glossy accents and diamond stickles.



I’ve always loved patchwork and my first attempt at patchwork involved cutting out lots of hexagons from card and fabric and piecing the hexagons together, using the card as backing for the fabric. So when I saw the Hexagon Background, I knew I had to have that stamp! I just love it and can again imagine using it in so many different ways – love when a stamp does that for you! My good friend Linda included the fab It’s Your Day set in a wonderful bundle of goodies she sent me at Christmas – thanks again, Linda:) Talk about being spoiled for choice for birthday greeting with this set! Anyway to make this card I did a lot of embossing, a lot of paper piecing and a lot of stitching too. I had great fun making my mini paper quilt!

Hero Arts Stamps - Hexagon Background and It’s Your Day
Other Supplies - patterned paper, VersaMark, white embossing powder, pink card, thread, sewing machine and gems.

Thanks to Hero Arts for another fab release of new stamps, to Deborah and Tami for all the work they put into organising the Hop and of course, the Hero Hostesses for all the inspiration they provide me with on a daily basis. Also thanks a million to you for visiting and best of luck in the draw – I know Hero Arts prizes are always fantastic!

Now it’s time for you to leave Ireland and take a big, big hop across the Atlantic to Canada and your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop where you’ll meet the super talented Tracey Kuzniak. Brrr snow is forecast here, I wonder if Tracey has any in her neck of the woods! Enjoy the rest of the Hop and I’m off to join you hopping with my hot chocolate in hand!

Edited for questions I've been asked in the comment section or by email

1. Quite a few people have asked me what tool I use for cutting. I just use a curved nail scissors that I bought in Boots Chemists when I first started card making a few years ago. I've never tried any other type of scissors as these work well for me.

2. A few people asked me if I really did emboss, cut and stitch all those hexagons. The answer is yes! I embossed a mix of patterned papers and also a backing piece of card stock, cut out the patterned paper hexagons and adhered them to the backing card. Then I just used a tiny zig zag stitch setting on my machine and stitched away. It did take a while to do but I really enjoying cutting and sewing when making cards:)

Thanks so much to you for all for your lovely comments, I really appreciate each and every one of them:):)

Rainbow of Thanks

I recently received a wonderful parcel of new goodies from Hero Arts, which included the fab Looped Circle Pattern background stamp. This is another Hero Arts stamp that I just can't seem to put down, as soon as I've cleaned it, there it is all inked up again!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Looped Circle Pattern & Celebrate Everyday

Today I decided not to use it as a background stamp but as the focal point on my card. I rummaged through my scrap stash for some rainbow coloured card and embossed these pieces. Then I embossed a panel of black card and randomly paper pieced the coloured card onto it. I trimmed the panel and added pearls. To get the sentiment I wanted, I just inked up the Thanks part of Thanksgiving from a sentiment in the Celebrate Everyday set. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp Black/White + Splash of Colour Challenge and the New Year, New You Challenge over at A Blog Called Hero.

I'm so excited about next week as.....

....the annual Hero Hostess Blog Hop is taking place all next week! I know all of us Hostesses have had a brilliant time playing with the fabulous new stamps from Hero Arts' 2013 catalogue. So from Monday to Friday there will be 5-6 blogs to visit each day. The Hop will start off each day at the Hero Arts Blog. I can't wait to go hopping to see what everyone has come up with! Hero Arts will have fantastic prizes for some lucky, randomly picked hoppers who leave comments on the blogs. I hope you'll come hopping along with us and you never know you could be one of the lucky winners!

Hope you have a fun and inky weekend!