Lavender Sachets

Now that lavender is in full bloom here, except in my garden where it seems to be a bit behind this year, my sister gave me two big bunches from her garden which I am currently drying out on trays covered with tissue paper.

I still have some dried lavender in a jar which came from both of our gardens last year so I decided to make lavender sachets using some pretty felt die cuts my friend Linda gave me recently. You can see gorgeous sachets that Linda made here and pick up some great tips from her too.

These Simon Says Stamp dies have gone straight to the top of my shopping list - thanks for enabling me, yet again, Linda;) The first sachet was made for my sister so she could enjoy the glorious scent of lavender from her garden year round.

Dies - Plush Blooming Heart & Plush Charmed Heart (Simon Says Stamp)

I popped the heart in a little cellophane bag and die cut and folded over the larger oval die to use as a topper.

Dies - Plush Blooming Heart & Plush Charmed Heart (Simon Says Stamp) and Elegant Ovals Nestabilities (Spellbinders
Stamp - Sew Artsy (Hero Arts)

The other sachet is for my Mam. Next up I think I'll make one for myself and get an order in with Simon Says Stamp:)

Dies - Plush Blooming Heart & Plush Charmed Heart (Simon Says Stamp)

Hero Arts Hostess Hop

Hello and welcome to the Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring fabulous stamps from the new 2015 release!

Hero Arts Stamps - Playful Animals, Lines Background, Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Write Your Message

If you’ve been following along, you’ve just arrived from Virginia's blog! I know Virginia will have shared fantastic creations with you - I can't wait to see them! If you find a broken link or didn't know about the hop, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts 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! I have comment moderator switched on so don't worry if your comment doesn't appear immediately. Good luck:)

I’m so happy to be hopping along with my Hosti sisters to show you what we’ve made with products that Hero Arts generously sent us from the 2015 Spring Catalogue. I was delighted to receive the gorgeous stamp and die set with stitched detail - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut. I just love stitching so the set was barely in the house before it was inked up! I decided to make a birthday card using the flowers and leaves from the set and a gorgeous new sentiment stamp Happy Birthday to You. Isn't the handwriting on the stamp just beautiful? It's by Kelly Rasmussen and you can find other wonderful new stamps with her handwriting here.

Hero Arts Stamps - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Happy Birthday to You

As well as the stitching I love the cute button centres on the flowers.

After making the card I thought it might be nice to make a matching gift tag using the stem included in the set and making the flower in a slightly different way.

Hero Arts Stamps - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Birthday Messages

I have to admit I’m often guilty of overlooking smaller images in sets (maybe my eyesight is getting worse!) but I wanted to ink up the cute ladybird image in the Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut set too. I decided to make wrapping paper using just plain parcel paper, the ladybird stamp and a hole punch. For the tag I again used the Happy Birthday to You stamp and omitted the lower part of the sentiment to leave space for the ladybird to nestle under the “birthday”.

Hero Arts Stamps - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Happy Birthday to You

The cute cat image on my first card is from a fun set called Playful Animals which includes the cat, a mouse, hedgehog, fox, dog and pig. In addition, playful accessories for the animal are available - a fish bone, ball of yarn, cheese and dog bone, so cute! I know I’ll be pairing the yarn with the cat very soon but I couldn’t resist borrowing the yarn from the cat to make tags for items I’ve knit. I will cut the washing instructions from the yarn I’ve used and put it on the back of the tags.

Hero Arts Stamps - Yarn, Sew Artsy and Dolls

I love the cute images in the Playful Animals set and feel they will appeal to both children and adults alike. Also I think it would be a great set for children to stamp with as the animals are so easy to stamp and cut out. I opened my post with the cat from the set and now I'll finish with the sweet pig from the same set.

Hero Arts Stamps - Playful Animals, Thanks Stamp & Cut, Pinstripe Background, Be Happy and Clouds Background

Before you head off to your next stop along the hop I want to thank you for visiting, thank Hero Arts for yet another fabulous release and for their generosity, thank Deborah and Tami for all the work they do behind the scenes in organising the hop, thank my Hosti sisters for all the fun and inspiration they provide and last, but most definitely not least, thank my dear friend Linda for items she sent me for the hop.

Your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop is Sue's blog. Sue is such a lovely and talented lady, I know she'll definitely have lots of inky goodness for us to enjoy! Now I'm off to have fun hopping too:)

ATC Trade With Marilyn

Recently over in the Hero Arts Flick group I came across some fabulous ATCs that Marilyn had up for trade. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to add these beauties to my ATC collection and was delighted when Marilyn said she'd trade with me. Marilyn, a great big thanks yet again for swapping with me:) For a little bit of extra fun we decided to make an ATC background for the other person to complete. Apologies in advance for the photo heavy post, but I forget to photograph the ATCs and backgrounds in groups before I sent them to Marilyn! I haven't made ATCs in quite a while but now after making these ones I'm itching to make more!

For my first ATC I used a flower set I love from Penny Black.



Stamps - Party Petals (Penny Black) & Woodland Wreaths (WPlus9)

I made a background with glossy card and alcohol inks and then embossed flowers and leaves from the Penny Black set. After applying distress inks I layered the flower and added lots of diamond stickles and a gem to finish.

One of my newer stamps which I hadn't used before is the Large Petal Background from Hero Arts. For its first outing I decided to emboss it and colour a portion of it with ProMarkers.

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Stamp (Hero Arts) - Large Petal Background

I must have been in a sparkly humour that day because I ended up adding diamond stickles to lots of different areas on the ATC. It's nice and shimmery in real life but hard to capture in a photo! I'm submitting this ATC into a2z Scrapbooking How Does Your Garden Grow linky party.

If you've seen my last two posts you'll know that a certain funny moose has become a firm favourite of mine so of course I had to include him on one of my ATCs!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Missing You & Sew Artsy

I used a couple of fabrics for the background and added lots of machine stitching. The moose was coloured with ProMarkers and I added some dots with a white gel pen and glossy accents to the eyes. Stitching is the theme for Virginia's View Challenge #3 so I'm submitting this ATC into Virginia's fun challenge.

I'm submitting the two floral ATCs into Simon Says Spring Flower Challenge.

Next up are the backgrounds. We were only going to swap one background, but I made three and couldn't decide which one to send to Marilyn, so ended up sending the three of them. They were made by applying distress inks to white card and stamping with water instead of ink.



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Watch Gears



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Tiny Star Background



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Time to Stamp


I'm really looking forward to receiving Marilyn's ATCs and her mystery ATC background which I know will be great fun to play with! It looks like we're in for a bit of a soggy day here today but I suppose that's always a good excuse for doing a bit of stamping;) I hope you have a fun and inky weekend!

Snowy Hearts

I wanted to incorporate hearts into my hubby's Christmas card and needless to say I was back to the snowflakes again too!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Designer Snowflakes, Very Merry Christmas & Christmas Reindeer

I die cut a heart from a square of red card and embossed lots of snowflakes all over the panel. Then I applied some white ink to the edges and did a bit of distressing. After dry embossing a panel of white card, I placed it behind the heart window and then embossed the sentiment on another die cut heart. All of the pieces are popped up on foam pads and to finish I just added some gems.

As I had bits and pieces left over from making the card, I decided to use them to make a small card to act as a gift card holder.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Designer Snowflakes, Very Merry Christmas, Christmas Reindeer & Sew Artsy)

Again I just embossed snowflakes on the large heart left over from making the first card. This time I added a bit of silver embossing on the sentiment and stitched line holding the heart ornament. To finish I added a gem, a bow and a little pocket on the inside to hold the gift card.



I'm submitting these cards into Simons Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge and the current Hero Arts challenge (A Few of My Favourite Things category, as I love stamping and embossing and also love using individual stamps to make a background).

Tonight we'll be watching one of our favourite programmes that really signals the start of the Christmas season for us here - The Late Late Toy Show . So we'll be setting down with a big bowl of popcorn, hot chocolate and will make some s'mores by the fire - ah bliss! Hope your weekend gets off to a great start too:)

Tuesday Trigger: Pretty Little Petits Fours

I made this card based on the Tuesday Trigger: Pretty Little Petits Fours over at Moxie Fab World.



It was inspired by a number of items from the Trigger photo – the various shades of pink, the woodgrain background and the wavy placement of the the petit fours on the plate.



Stamps Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy & Designer Woodgrain

The background was very easy to make and the idea was borrowed from a quilt I made a long time ago. I cut two rectangles from two different shades of pink card and cut wavy lines in one direction on one rectangle and in the other direction on the other piece of card. Then I just wove them together, trimmed and added stitching.



When I originally saw the Trigger photo I was inclined to a put flower on the card, but because of the background I had made, decided to go with a sewing theme instead. I stamped the woodgrain on kraft card and embossed the thread holder. To finish I added thread and a needle.

Hope you have a great weekend!

ATCs Swapped with Libby

Last week I blogged about the fabulous ATCs I received from Libby in a swap organised over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group. Now Libby has finally received the ATCs I sent her. Unfortunately, this set was made in bit of a hurry as I mislaid the set I had originally made for Libby, so please ignore the dodgy bits on the ATCs! Libby came up with the great idea of making the ATCs based on what we love, so here are some of the things I love:

1. Family and home & 2. Gardening and butterflies


Stamps (Hero Arts) 1. House with Plant & Right at Home 2. Leafy Vines

On the first ATC I just applied distress inks to a piece of paper from a book and coloured the house with markers. For the second one I embossed the vines, applied mowed lawn distress ink and spritzed with a mix of perfect pearls and water. The tiny layered butterflies were punched out.

3. Sewing/fabric & 4. Ireland



Stamps (Hero Arts) 3. Sew Artsy & Be Happy 4. Postcard Collage

For the sewing ATC I embossed the machine, cut out the image and added some thread. Then I frayed some fabric for the background, stamped the sentiment and hand stitched over it. On the Ireland ATC I just stamped the map on some kraft card, distressed the edges and used markers to colour the map of Ireland.

5. Hillwalking & 6. Glendalough/historical places



Stamps (Hero Arts) 5. Be Happy 6. Scattered Leaves & Magical Background

On the hillwalking card I rummaged through my fabrics for a mix of colours, shades and patterns and tried to make a background that looked like a lake and mountains. The sun was stamped on card with distress ink applied. Then on my last ATC I framed a photo from Glendalough in a die cut window and added it to a background which had been covered with distress ink and stamped with the Magical Background and leaves.

I had so much fun making these little cards and really enjoyed my swap with Libby.

You're Sew Nice

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas:) We certainly had a very enjoyable one and are still making the most of our break from work/school. It feels a bit strange not to be making Christmas cards and a pity to be putting away those Christmas stamps for another year. So today I made a card which is a bit of a break away from my norm as I used a lot of patterned paper, bold colours and a (very!) wild colour combination for me!

My friend Linda sent me all the gorgeous, gorgeous papers on this card and I wanted to use them on a sewing related card - thanks again, Linda!



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy

To start with I embossed the sewing machine, added the gem and thread and placed the machine on a frayed piece of fabric. The sentiment was also embossed and I stitched on the patterned papers for the background.



I'm submitting this card into the Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Clear Take 'n Make. The picture of the challenge project must include the stamp/s used. As you can see the Sew Artsy set is much loved and much used by me! I'm also submitting the card into the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Rainbow Star

Recently I’ve been busy, busy with a lot of things going on here, but I knew with the Hooked on Hexagons Challenge going on currently over at the MoxieFab World, it wouldn’t be long before I'd start playing with hexagons again!



Stamps (Hero Arts) – Sew Artsy, Woodgrain Background, Magical Background, Friend Definition, Dot Flower Pattern, Lattice Background and Hydrangea.

As I was trying to make different patterns out of hexagons, I realised that by removing one from the centre of a cluster of hexagons, I could form a star shape. So I used up lots of little scraps, which had already been stamped, to fill my star centre. Then I just added some machine stitching and a sentiment to finish.

One of the things that has been keeping me busy is preparing for a class I'm doing in An Siopa Bui in Spiddal on Saturday and I just finished cutting 75 circles of fabric (thank goodness for Cuttlebugs!) as part of the preparation - phew! Kerry has some sneak peeks here of some of the cards we'll be making. I can't wait for it!

Celebrate with Style and Crafting Ireland

When I saw all the fun challenges for Card Creations Week over at the Moxie Fab World, I thought I'd try to make a card for each of the five categories, but with the deadline looming tonight, it looks like I'm only going to manage to squeeze a card into three of the challenges!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy, Classic Fabric Background and Birthday Messages

So for this card I went with the Damask and Brocade Challenge. I white embossed the background with the Classic Fabric Background. Then I had some fun making a dress for the dress form using some ribbon, beads and gems. I just added some more ribbon and a big gem to finish.

Recently Nicole Mullen of Crafting Ireland asked if I'd do an interview and pick some of my favourite cards for a feature in the free online magazine. Yikes it was hard to pick favourites and when I was looking back through my cards, I wondered what on earth I was thinking when I made some of them. Yes, the good, the bad and the ugly are all there in my Flickr photostreams and blog! Anyway if you'd like to see some of my favourites, you'll find them in Crafting Ireland Issue 10.



The magazine is brilliant as it's packed full of great tutorials, articles and tips. Also I've realised through reading it how many crafty shops I didn't know existed here - looks like I'll have to plan some more shopping trips!

Sew a Rainbow

Thank you so much everyone for all the wonderful comments from the Hero Arts Hostesses Blog Hop, I really appreciate them:) If you are here for the blog hop you can find my post here.

My fabric mountain needs to be tackled a bit so I decided to use up some scraps left over from quilt projects on this card.


Stamp set (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy

I foundation pieced the scraps and added some meandering stitching to each colour panel. Also zigzag stitching was added to the outer edges to prevent fraying. The sewing machine was embossed in white and I just added a heart gem and some thread to finish.

I'm submitting this card into the Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Fabric Flowers for Friends

I love making fabric flowers and over the weekend spent time making them for some friends. Instead of just putting the flowers in an envelope, I make a holder for them and also a little card with a tiny fabric flower to match.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Be Happy, Clouds Background, Antique Engravings & Sew Artsy

A tutorial for the fabric flowers can be found here. I applied tumbled glass distress ink to the Clouds Background, lightly spritzed with water and stamped on white card.



The butterflies were stamped on scraps of white card which had barn door distress ink applied. I used some patterned paper for the grass\leaves and a little piece of baker’s twine for the flower stem.


Just to show the size of the tiny flower on the card.

I'm submitting these projects into the Fabric\Felt Challenge at Lily Pad Cards, Creative Card Crew's Hand Made Flowers Challenge, Paper Creations Ink's Show Us Your Flowers Challenge and also the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Ribbon Bandage Dress

I just thought I’d squeeze in another card before I go back to work, so two posts today but it will probably be a while before I post again! This is a congrats card I made for a friend who is a big movie buff and big into fashion. I thought I’d make her my version of an Oscar statue in the form of a bandage dress.



I embossed the tailor’s dummy in white on black card and made the “dress” with thin ribbon and some gems. The sentiment is also embossed in white and I just added some gems and gold yarn to finish. One of my kids asked me if I was making a mummy when he saw it, hopefully it doesn't look too much like a mummy!



I’m submitting the card into a few challenges – Lily Pad Cards Ribbon Challenge, the I’m Sew! Excited Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, the current Hero Arts Challenge and Lisa Spangler's Make-It + Mail-It Challenge.

Fuzzy Quilt Card

When I saw Cath's I'm Sew Excited! Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I just had to make something! The challenge is to use sewing icons on a project. I love quilts so I wanted to incorporate something to do with quilts on my card and used this sentiment because I thought it would go with the idea of being snuggled up in a quilt.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Everyday Sayings & Sew Artsy

I had patterned paper (Tulip by Andrea Jayne) left over from some baby cards and cut these into squares and circles for the scallop edged “quilt”. The pieces were randomly put together and machine stitched with a small zigzag stitch. The base of the pin cushion was coloured with watercolour pencils. I cut the top of the pincushion out of a scrap of felt and added the Hero Arts heart gems (thanks again, Anita) to the tops of ordinary pins. The “fuzzies” letters were also cut out of felt scraps using an X-cut alphabet die.



I love Lisa Spangler’s Make-It+mail-It Challenge so I’m also submitting the card to her challenge as it will be on the way to a friend very soon.

ATC swap with Marijke

When I was making ATCs for the current Hero Arts challenge, I thought it would be fun if a group of us got together to do an ATC swap. So that’s exactly what a bunch of us did in the Hero Arts Flickr Group. With the random draw it turned out that my ATC swap buddy was Marijke in the Netherlands.

It’s been great getting to know Marijke a bit better through the swap and I was delighted that she was as keen as me to swap quite a few ATCs! We decided to swap six and wanted to surprise each other with our ATCs so didn’t mention a particular theme or stamps. I sent two ATCs I had already made this month – the owls from here and the bees from here.

For the other four I tried to incorporate a bit of both of us and what we like into them. Marijke loves flowers and nature and with her being from the Netherlands I had to include some orange (reminds me of when I see the Dutch football team on tv!). For me I included some of my favourite things – fabric, vellum and patchwork. The typewriter with the Friend Definition background represents all the emails we've sent each other for the swap. Marijke has received her ATCs so here they are:


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Clouds & Big And Small Flowers
The clouds are stamped with tumbled glass distress ink. I paper pieced the leaves\stem and made the fabric flower. Sally kindly sent me the baker's twine I used on the button - thanks again Sally!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy
Using patterned paper I made a little strip quilt pattern for the background. I coloured the sewing machine with watercolour pencils and covered with a layer of Glossy Accents.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Happy Wishes & Old Letter Writing
I applied broken china, faded jeans and shabby shutters distress inks to white card and spritzed lightly with water. Then I white embossed the Happy Wishes image and added touches of diamond stickles here and there. The butterfly was punched from a piece of vellum which had been white embossed with the Old Letter Writing.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Type, Friend Definition & Small Variety Alphabet.
The typewriter was embossed using red embossing powder and the background was clear embossed. I used some letters from the alphabet set to create the message and just added a pearl heart to finish.

If you are still awake after this loooong post, well done!! Hope you all are having a fab weekend!

Rainbow of ATCs

Part of the May challenge on the Hero Arts blog is to make ATCs. I haven’t made ATCs in a while and had forgotten how fun it is to make them. Another bonus to making ATCs is all the scraps I get to use up!

I wanted to make an ATC for each colour of the rainbow so just picked the first stamp that came to mind when I thought of each colour. All stamps mentioned are by Hero Arts.



The Poppy Background was embossed in red and I added some beads to the flower centre.


I applied spiced marmalade distress ink to white card and stamped the Exotic Bloom in black. Then I just added punched butterflies.


I clear embossed the Clouds Background on yellow card. The bees were embossed in black and I coloured them with a yellow ProMarker and added diamond stickles to the wings. Trinh, thanks again for the black & white baker's twine:)


For the background I applied shabby shutters distress ink to white card, using the same ink stamped with the Envelope Pattern and embossed. Froggy was stamped on patterned paper and coloured in places with a ProMarker. To finish I added some leaves and green & white baker's twine (thanks again, Linda!).



On this one I clear embossed the Friend Definition on blue card for the background. The sewing machine was stamped on gingham patterned paper and I just added some thread and a fabric scrap to finish.


I applied some worn lipstick distress ink to white card, clear embossed the Magical Background and then applied dusty concord and faded jeans distress inks. The butterfly from the Antiques Engravings set was embossed in white and some purple pearls (thanks again, Sharon!) added to the centre.


Now I better go catch up on what I should have done yesterday instead of making these!