Afternoon Tea Birthday Box Card

My sister and I put together an afternoon tea on our Mam's birthday. I just took a quick photo as we were starting to put everything out on the table, so lol it's definitely not artfully arranged for a photo, but it's the only photo I got of some of the spread before we started to eat! Anyway I thought it would be a nice idea to use the afternoon tea theme on the birthday girl's card.

Die - Docrafts Flower Doily (under the mini teacup and saucer candle)

A little while ago my friend Linda gave me a pretty die which was perfect for the card - thanks again, Linda! The die is Afternoon Tea by Joy Crafts which I've already enjoyed using over and over again. To make the box card base I used a die I bought recently, Lawn Fawn's Scalloped Box Card Pop-up die - love it! I made my first ever box card a few weeks ago using instructions I found online, but I have to say this die by Lawn Fawn means I can make box cards so quickly and easily.

Dies - Scalloped Box Card Pop-up (Lawn Fawn), Afternoon Tea (Joy Crafts) and Advent Drawer Deco (Tonic Studios)

The tea set was cut out from a scrap of patterned paper and the little hearts were cut from the tiny scraps I had left over using the hearts die from the same Lawn Fawn set.

To finish I cut out numbers from glittery gold card using Tonic Studio's Advent Drawer Deco die set.

I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge.

Ruffled Flowers

I was sorting out my woodblock stamps and came across a flower I love but haven't used in a while. Since I needed to make a couple of cards I embossed the flowers four times, trimmed them to the sizes I wanted and applied distress inks (dried marigold for the first card and a mix of shabby shutters, salty ocean and tumbled glass for the second one).

Stamps - Ruffled Flower (Hero Arts) & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)
Dies - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) & Tags and Bookplates (Docrafts)

The background for this card was made by dragging a Hero Arts mint to green ombre ink pad across white card a few times. After cutting the background into panels I used a die from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes to add the stitch lines. The sentiment was embossed in gold on a die cut from Docrafts Tags and Bookplates die set. A little sparkle was added to the flower with diamond stickles and some gems. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Ombre Challenge.

For the next card I used up scraps of silver glitter card I had left over from making Christmas cards. I just cut strips of the card to go behind the flower and used it for the die cut sentiment too.

Stamp - Ruffled Flower (Hero Arts)
Die - Thanks Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)

A sprinkling of sequins and gems were added for a little sparkle.

Ombre Butterflies

I love the ombre look on cards, clothes, hair etc. so I wanted to join in on Simon Says Stamp's Ombre Challenge. Anyway I thought I'd use some distress inks to make an ombre background. As I seem to have a lot of blues in my stash (no surprise there!) I used tumbled glass, broken china, faded jeans and salty ocean for this card.

Supplies - It's Your Day (Hero Arts), M-Bossabilities Bricks and Bark (Spellbinders), Isabella & Pippi butterfly dies (Memory Box) and distress inks (Tim Holtz/Ranger)

To start with I die cut a circle from a panel of white card and embossed the panel with the aperture. Then I inked a panel of white card with the distress inks and after stamping the sentiment adhered it to my cardbase. The embossed panel was then adhered to the card. I die cut the butterflies from scraps of white card and pieces leftover from the inked background. To finish I added a gems to the butterflies' bodies.

Making the card was the enjoyable part of the day and now I'm off to do the not so enjoyable bit - washing machine shopping as our current machine has given up the ghost. Exciting shopping here I come!?!

Happy Birthday Rocket

I wanted to make a birthday card with a space theme for a two year old boy so pulled out a cute freebie stamp set (Rocket Thanks) that Hero Arts recently gave out with orders.

After stamping and cutting out the rocket, I coloured it with Promarkers and added stardust stickles to the flame. The star background was made by applying distress inks (salty ocean, peacock feathers & faded jeans) to white card and stamping the stars in faded jeans distress ink.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Rocket Thanks, Fantastic Birthday & Tiny Star Background
Die (Tonic) - Advent Drawer Deco Die

I die cut numbers out of the side of the card base and added a panel of acetate behind the number two so that I could inlay the birthday boy's age. As I wanted it to appear that the rocket flame had ignited the number, I coloured it in the same colour as the flame and applied stardust stickles.

I'm submitting this card into Allsorts' Numbers Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes Challenge.

Another Makeover

I wanted to do another makeover on a card and picked this CAS card I made a little while ago.

Stamp set (Hero Arts) - Missing You

This time I wanted to stick with the same basic design but decided to add a blast of colour and include some hand stitching. After cutting a card front from kraft card, I stamped the sentiment and funny bird. Once the stamping was completed, I hand stitched a frame using embroidery thread. As I wanted some dimension on the card, I stamped the bird again on white card, coloured with Promarkers and added it to the card with foam pads.

Next it was time to add some sparkle and sheen to the bird with stickles on the crest, glossy accents on the eyes and wink of stella on the body.

I'm submitting this card into Hero Arts Makeover Challenge.

Scramble Shaker Card

Over in the Hero Arts Flickr Group last night LaVon hosted a fun Scramble in which we had to make a card based on one of these three sketches.

It turned out to be a real scramble for me as I started the Scramble a bit late because I was yapping on the phone. Then after scrapping the first card I started, I decided to make a shaker card. I don't know what or if I was thinking as I'm slow at making shaker cards even at the best of times not to mind when there is a time limit!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Playful Animals & Birthday Messages

Anyway I started by embossing the mini card base I made and then set to work on the shaker element. I used scraps of blue and green card for the sky and grass. My Mam gave me a bag with a lovely mix of sequins a while ago and I used some of these as they are pearlescent white with hints of pink. After stamping the pig twice, cutting and colouring, I popped one of the heads on foam pads for dimension. The sentiment was embossed badly and in a last minute hurry as you can no doubt see from the stray flecks of powder!

I'm submitting this card into a2z Scrapbooking's September Challenge.

Two Card Makeovers and a Little Recycling

Hero Arts' fun Makeover Challenge gives us a chance to makeover old projects. I definitely have plenty that could do with changes but picked two butterfly cards for makeovers today.

The first card I picked is this one.

I wanted to make a butterfly in the same colours using the same inlay technique but changed the background and used less enamel hexagons. For the background I light applied distress inks (broken china, tumbled glass & shabby shutters) onto white card. Then I inked the background stamp with shabby shutters distress ink, spritzed with water and stamped on the panel. After stamping the sentiment I added one little enamel hexagon to finish.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Fantastic Birthday
Dies - Butterfly (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Next in line for a makeover was this card.

With this one I wanted to reverse the colours and add even more sparkle to the butterfly. I inked up the background stamp by dragging Hero Arts' mint julep to emerald green ombré ink pad across and down it. Then I stamped the image on a panel of white card and applied peacock feathers distress ink. Once the panel was dry, I embossed the sentiment.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Celebrate Everyday
Dies - Butterfly (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Next it was time to do a bit of recycling to make the sparkly butterfly. I die cut the butterfly from a piece of white glitter card I had saved from a Christmas card. The butterfly was backed with glittered tulle taken from a mini bag I had received a pressie in. After adding a few gems to the butterfly's body, it was adhered to the card with foam pads and I added some sequins to finish.

Have you seen Hero Arts' new website? It looks wonderful, has a fantastic ideas area filled with inspiration and of course there are so many tempting goodies in the shop. I couldn't resist ordering lots of new stamps and dies the other day and thanks to Hero Arts' super speedy service they are already winging their way to me - can't wait!

Felt Flower Card and Tag

I had a birthday card and gift tag to make for an upcoming birthday so thought I'd join in on a couple of challenges while I was making them - Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Use Your Favourite Technique and/or Product.

In the Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge I picked the line with circles, birthday theme and your favourite colour. My favourite colour would be a toss up between blue and green and I love combining both colours with white. For the Simon Says Stamp Challenge I used a favourite technique, stitching, and favourite product is Hero Arts Stamp & Cut sets.

Stamp & Cuts sets (Hero Arts) - Butterfly and Flowers and Happy

I stamped the flowers and leaves on felt and, after the ink had dried, hand stitched the images and cut out. To finish I added buttons and sequins to the flower centres. The die cut sentiment on the card was cut from a scrapped watercolour background that I made ages ago and the "birthday" sentiment was stamped using faded jeans distress ink. To finish I added a sprinkling of sequins.

After die cutting the gift tag, I stamped the sentiment with faded jeans distress ink, added a flower and some sequins.

Butterfly and Flowers Stamp & Cuts set (Hero Arts), Birthday Messages (Hero Arts) and Pierced Circles Dies (Spellbinders)

Card on a Card Scramble

Yesterday in the Hero Arts Flickr Group Jayne hosted a great Scramble with the theme a card on a card. I don't think I've ever made a card on a card before but I think it's something I'll do again and again.

The ninety minutes to make, photograph and upload a card really flies by so I just tried to make a quick and easy card. To create a mini card I folded white cardstock and then die cut a circle (through both layers) at the folded edge but kept the fold just inside the circle die. After die cutting the flower shape out of the front of the mini card, I added a piece of backing card which had been stamped with the woodgrain pattern. I used shabby shutters distress ink spritzed with water. The flower was stamped on patterned paper and layered.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Butterfly and Flowers Stamp & Cut set, It's Your Day and Woodgrain Background

To finish the flower I added clear Wink of Stella and a button. After adding the flower to the mini card I used foam dots to adhere the mini card to a kraft die cut scallop circle.

I'm submitting this card into Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge using the circles, background stamp and watercolour.

Making Roses out of the Messy Bits

Recently I bought a beautiful set of Spellbinders dies called Tudor Rose and used a couple of the dies on a card, gift bag and set of cards for a friend's upcoming birthday.

I have lots of what you could charitably call experimental pieces but in reality they are messed up inked or painted backgrounds that didn't work out and could never use in solid pieces!

Anyway over the years I've found that these kind of yucky panels can look okay if used in smaller amounts rather than in big solid pieces. Because of this I never dump my inking disasters as they'll always get used up in some way.

For the flowers I used the die cut inlay technique which I always enjoy. This is the card I made for my friend

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamps (Hero Arts) - It's Your Day & Be Happy

and this is the matching gift bag.

Dies - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders) & Goodie Bag (Lawn Fawn)
Embossing Folder - Textile Texture (Cuttlebug)

Since I was enjoying making the flowers and clearing out some of my messy pieces, I continued making flowers and put together a little set of cards to include with my friend's birthday pressie.

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Making the World a Better Place (Hero Arts)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Butterfly Corner (Darice)

Die - Tudor Rose (Spellbinders)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Butterfly Corner (Darice)

It's hard to see in the photos above, but each flower is layered in the centre and I've applied Wink of Stella (love that stuff!) on the flowers for some lovely shimmer.

I'm submitting these cards and gift bag into Simon Says Stamp Friends or Superhero Challenge.

Happy Rainbow

It's a beautiful sunny day here today but this week we've had our fair share of rain and enjoyed seeing some spectacular rainbows. So I thought it might be fun to add a different kind of rainbow to my card today.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Happy Stamp & Cut, Clouds Background & Fantastic Birthday

I started by inking up the clouds background stamp with salty ocean and faded jeans distress ink, spritzed it with water and stamped on white card. Then I die cut and stamped the sentiments and added a sprinkling of silver sequins to represent raindrops and also to use some of the big stash of sequins I seem to have accumulated in no time!

Next it was time to make my "rainbow". I applied double sided sticky tape to a piece of scrap card and added rows of embroidery thread in rainbow colours.

Then I trimmed the excess threads around the edges and added it to the back of the cloud panel.

After adhering the tiny extra pieces from the die cut sentiment I added strips of yellow card to the panel and used foam pads to adhere it to a red card base. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamps' Happy Birthday Challenge.

Happy Birthday Splash

A week ago I hurt my right hand and haven't been able to make anything. Oh it's been a long week as I'd been hoping to start putting together a quilt I'm making for my younger son. This morning my hand is feeling much better so I thought I'd test it out with a quick card and I'm happy to say that I think I'll be sewing this afternoon:)

To make the card I applied peacock feathers distress ink to an acrylic block, spritzed with water and stamped on white card. I repeated with the process until I was happy with the result. After the card had dried I stamped the sentiments - LOVE this gorgeous and versatile Stamp & Die set with Kelly Rasmussen's pretty handwriting. To finish the background I added a sprinkling of sequins.

Stamp - Happy Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)
Dies - Isabella & Pippi Butterflies (Memory Box)

So then it was time to make my butterfly. I used scraps of black card and a piece of card, covered with spiced marmalade distress ink, which had been left over from another project.

After assembling the butterfly I attached it to the card using foam pads. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Happy Birthday Challenge.

Spring Chicken Birthday

I just love the fun images and sentiments in Simon Says Stamp's Party Animal set and decided to ink up the chicken, and a spring one at that, for the first time for a birthday card for a friend.

As I wanted the background to go with the dotty parcel that the chicken is sitting on, I used the two circles dies from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes to make a dotty background. After randomly cutting out circles from the panel of black card, I applied backing card and adhered circles of white card which had been cut from scraps and coloured with Promarkers.

Stamps (Simon Says Stamp) - Birthday Farm Animals, Dies (Simon Says Stamp) - Bundle of Stitched Shapes

Then it was on to the chicken which I stamped twice, coloured with Promarkers and layered. After applying glossy accents to the eyes, the chicken was added to the card with foam pads.

I'm submitting this card into the Spots n Dots Challenge over in the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Group,

the Something New Challenge at Simon Says Stamp and the Die Cut Diva's Anything Goes Challenge.

Happy Birthday Sparkle

I needed to make a quick birthday card and this time used only dies rather than stamps to make my card.



Hero Arts die - Triangle Background
Xcut die - Large Sentiments

I used a Triangle Background die cut (thanks again, Linda!) as a stencil, applied distress inks (spiced marmalade, worn lipstick, mowed lawn and peacock feathers) to white card and spritzed with water. Then I die cut a sentiment piece and embossed it with stardust embossing powder.



The sentiment was layered on another two die cuts and added to the card with foam pads. For the card base I used card from Hero Arts pool mixed layering paper pack. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge and A Blog Named Hero Die a Little Challenge.

Butterfly Birthdays

This morning I still had a Hero Arts Butterfly die on the table and couldn't resist making another butterfly card using this die. I love the dramatic colour combination on monarch butterflies so went with these colours on this card.

Die (Hero Arts) - Butterfly
Stamp (Hero Arts) - It's Your Day

I started by die cutting the butterfly in black. Then I applied distress inks (dried marigold, spiced marmalade and barn door) to white card and die cut the wing pieces from this and scraps of white card. After the pieces were inlaid into the black butterfly I placed it on an embossed panel and added some enamel dots and the sentiment.

Last night I also made a butterfly card using the same die for a fun scramble Judy hosted over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group. Judy's theme was to make a card using pastels but also to add touches of black. Whenever I've made pastel coloured cards in the past I've always stuck with white or pale colours, so it was great to try out Judy's theme and see all the wonderful creations everyone came up with. Now I'll definitely put black with pastels more often. You'll find all the cards here.

Die (Hero Arts) - Butterfly
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Solid Dots Pattern & It's Your Day

To start with I embossed the sentiment on the background and then embossed the dots with a stamp that Marilyn had sent me (thanks again, Marilyn:)) I used stardust embossing powder which has given a lovely sparkle to the card but is impossible to photograph!

As we were restricted to 90 minutes last night (and I'm a very slow cardmaker!) I just added pastel pieces to the main body of the butterfly and left out the small dots all around the edges of the butterfly. Also in my haste I managed to poke holes in a couple of pastel body pieces but sure a scramble wouldn't be a scramble for me without those kind of mishaps! For my touches of black I added some enamel dots and a black mat.

I'm submitting these cards into Simon Says Stamp Emboss It Challenge. Hope you are having a lovely and inky weekend. I'm hoping to get inky again later with some fun images my son Mark drew for me. I asked him to draw some quirky images for me to put on cards and now I can't wait to play with them!

29 Again and On The Road Again

I just love sending and receiving humorous cards, so as soon as I saw Art Impressions' 29 Again stamp set I had to get it!



I started by stamping and cutting out the images and coloured them with ProMarkers. Then I added some embroidery thread to the balloons and added a layer of glossy accents on them, the earrings and lips. I wanted to emboss the background and thanks to my friend Sally I have a pretty Cuttlebug flower folder called Caramelo that I think goes well with with lady's dress - thanks again, Sally:) After that it was just a matter of adding baker's twine and the sentiment. I used one of the colour combinations from the Die Cut Diva's Challenge for June - Is it Yours, Mine or Ours so am submitting the card into that challenge.

Last week I blogged about the start of my friend Linda's holiday here and now I'll post some more about our little trip around part of the country. Our first stop on our trip was Waterford and the first place we visited there was Waterford Glass. I hadn't visited Waterford Glass since I was on a school tour many, many, many years ago! Needless to say everything had changed quite a bit, including the location. Anyway we went on the tour and here's a flavour of what we saw.

It's hard to imagine this is how a Waterford Glass bowl starts out!

Shaping the bowl in moulds

Marking the design on the piece

Cutting the patterns in the glass

Some of the commissioned pieces

Although it doesn't look like a typical piece of Waterford Glass, below is one of my favourites. The piece was divided into quarters and the etchings on each quarter represented the seasons. Here you can see the flowers, birds and butterflies of summer and beside it the bare trees, acorn and pumpkin for autumn.

After visiting the showrooms in Waterford Glass we had a little walk around Waterford and then headed on our way again. Linda is a big fan of Nora Roberts who set some of her books in the village of Ardmore, Co Waterford, so naturally enough we had to stop there. I don't remember ever visiting Ardmore, so thanks to Linda and Nora I have become acquainted with this gem of a place.

The beach there was beautiful and more or less deserted

We took a stroll up to St Declan's Cathedral and the round tower which are situated on a hill overlooking Ardmore Bay.

An ogham stone in the Cathedral

Hopefully you won't have fallen asleep after this long post! So I'll stop now and post some more photos from our trip another day.