Moxie Fab Thanks! Blog Hop

I'm delighted to be part of the Moxie Fab Thanks! Blog Hop, to celebrate and thank the moxie fab Cath Edvalson, former editor at Paper Crafts Magazine and brilliant blogger at Moxie Fab World!

You should have arrived here from sunny California from the blog of the very talented and sweet Nancy Krueger. If you didn't begin at the start of the hop, you can go to Moxie Fab World where the hop begins. A list of all of the stops on this blog hop will also be listed there.

Cath has been such a big part of the paper crafting world so needless to say I was very shocked and saddened when I read Cath's farewell post over at Moxie Fab World. So today I'd love to say thanks a million to Cath for everything and let her know I'll miss her so much.

In her farewell post Cath quoted Winnie the Pooh, and today I have to say to Cath, also in the words of that wise bear, I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen. And what adventures I've had since I came across Cath's wonderful, inspiring, eloquent, fun and intriguing posts in Moxie Fab World. Because of Cath, visits to Moxie Fab World have always been a must for me. I've also thoroughly enjoyed playing along with the Tuesday Trigger and the amazing variety of challenges Cath has come up with over the years. Cath has always been so generous with her kind words of encouragement to paper crafters. She has even managed to keep me, a non trendy person, interested in and abreast of all the latest trends. My online “visits” to CHA with Cath have been fantastic. Often because of her I’ve ended up with a very long shopping list indeed!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Exotic Bloom & Dolls (sentiment)

Cath, this card was made for you and about you. The panel represents all the colour you have brought into my life, something for which I will always be thankful. I want to wish you all of the very best in your new adventure in life. I'm sure many, many exciting and fun experiences lie ahead! As the blog hop banner says, Cath, you'll always be moxie fab! Hugs and best wishes :)

Thanks so much for visiting today and now why don't you join me as I hop from here in Ireland over to Switzerland for the next stop in the hop. You will be visiting the lovely and talented Isha Gupta . Happy hopping and hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Wreath of Thanks

Between busy times at work and being sick, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get inky in three weeks. So I was delighted this morning to finally get back into the swing of things and get up to my eyes in ink and paper!

I love Cath's gorgeous Tuesday Trigger photo over at the Moxie Fab World and am definitely one of those people who is enthralled with fall. I do love to see the first green shoots in spring, but for me nothing can beat the splendid display of colours that nature puts on for us in autumn.

My card was inspired by a number of elements from the photo - the gorgeous leaves, the wood in the background and the circular shape of the container.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Scattering Leaves & Celebrate Everyday

To start with I stamped the leaves using Hero Arts shadow inks (pale tomato, butter bar & orange soda), cut them out and then applied distress inks (barn door, spiced marmalade & mustard seed ) to the edges. I embossed the woodgrain background and embossed the sentiment in gold. To finish I just add a few gems.



I'm also submitting this card into The Die Cut Divas Autumn and Animals Challenge.

It’s a bank holiday weekend here so we’ll get to enjoy an extra day off as well as the extra hour in bed we had this morning with the clock going back. Hope you have a great weekend too!

Happy Happy Birthday

Given the day that was in it, I was delighted to have a chance to join in on Jennifer's fun scramble yesterday afternoon. The theme of the scramble was to make a birthday card for someone aged between one and eighteen years old.

One of my favourite stamps for birthday cards for boys is a cute rocket from the BAM! set by Hero Arts. So I inked it up yet again for this card.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - BAM!, Tiny Star Background and Fantastic Birthday

To make the stars for the background, I embossed the Tiny Star Background in white, applied faded jeans distress ink and die cut into stars. I wanted a few more stars in the background so added tiny star gems, again from Hero Arts.

Initially I paper pieced a rocket, but it looked too dull so I just layered it with another rocket that I coloured with ProMarkers and a silver gel pen.



The sentiment was also stamped with faded jeans distress ink. I'm submitting this card into the Color Media Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. Hope you had a wonderful World Card Making Day yesterday too!

Home Is Where the Heart Is

I've been having great fun trying out different things with Hero Arts' Brush Strokes set, but as soon as the Tiny Star Background (love this new stamp!) arrived the other day, I knew I wanted to combine it with one of the brush stroke images.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tiny Star Background, Brush Strokes and Right at Home

I love this fun card by Kelly Rasmussen and fell for the tiny banner at the top of the card with the heart cut out. So I thought I'd make a banner with a cut out heart too but have it as the focal point on my card. I embossed the stars in white, applied faded jeans distress ink and cut out the heart and banner shape. On another panel of white card I stamped the brush strokes using barn door distress ink and placed this behind the banner using foam pads.

I used a lovely sentiment from the Right at Home set brought out by Hero Arts for Operation Write Home.



By changing the sentiment I could also use the card for a 4th July card or for our older son's birthday as he was born on 4th July. I'm submitting this card into the Color Media Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Hope you have a great weekend:)

Gingerbread Christmas Wishes and a Trip to Trim

Today is the last day for submitting items into Holiday Home Decor Challenge in the Moxie Fab World so I thought I'd make a little decoration to hang somewhere around the house at Christmas.

I embossed the little gingerbread men and did a bit of paper piecing. Then I added some diamond stickles to the white parts of their Santa hats for a little bit of shimmer.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Gingerbread Fun

The letters were die cut and I stuck them and the little gingerbread men to a piece of baker's twine.

A couple of weekends ago we had a fun day out at Trim Castle during the celebration of National Heritage Week. If you've seen the film Braveheart you will have seen Trim Castle and other historical buildings in the area that were used for the shoot.

There were fun activities outside the castle walls that day including this poor knight who had to battle off soggy sponges being catapulted at him by the kids!

One of my knights enjoyed trying on a typical helmets and battle armour. Seemingly the armour a knight had to wear in those days could weigh up to 35kg - I don't know how they managed to walk around not to mind go into battle!

A birds of prey exhibition was also there - these owls were gorgeous and super soft to the touch.

We had a great tour of the keep and grounds within the castle walls.

I'm never the best at heights but the views from the top of the castle were well worth the jitters I had at the top!

These walkways within the castle were a great way of seeing various sections of the castle

including the small chapel with this holy water font.

I fell in love with this pretty row of colourful houses in the town of Trim

and thought these were a couple of interesting buildings near where we parked, with the windows in this one decorated with old Guinness advertisements

and the great mural and old messenger bike atop this one.

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!

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.

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:)

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.

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:)

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:)