Spooky!

My last post was a Christmas one, but today I'm thinking of another fun time of the year - Halloween. Much and all as I love Halloween, there really isn't a tradition of sending Halloween cards to each other here. But this card is for a sweet girl in the US, whose mum is a friend of mine. The card and some Irish spooky trick or treat goodies will be winging their way to her in October.


Stamp - Ghostly Greetings (Hero Arts) Die - Geometric Shapes (Hero Arts)

I started by die cutting the hexagons and clear embossing the spider webs on the black card. The sentiment was also embossed. Then I stamped and cut out the ghost owls, added them to the hexagons and stacked them on the card.



To finish, I added some googly eyes. Lol can you tell I sorted out and stuck on the googly eyes at night, in the dimmer light of energy saving light bulbs? It was only this morning that I noticed my mistake - two of the owls have different coloured eyes! Oh well, I've seen this in people and animals in real life so I just left them this way!

I'm submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge as the stamp set and die are from the Holiday catalogue. The card was inspired by this card by Jennifer McGuire - the geometric shape framing the character, the stamped background within the frame and also the added embellishment to the eyes.

Rainbow Quilt

Cath's Mixy-Matchy Style Challenge in the Moxie Fab World looked like a fun but also challenging challenge. I usually don't have much of a mix of patterns on my cards, but with six different patterns on this card really gave it a whirl this time!



Stamps - Happy Hexagons (Papertrey Ink) & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

I love the pretty Happy Hexagons set my good friend Trinh sent me recently - thanks again, Trinh:) So I decided to make a "quilt" with a mix of patterned hexagons in a rainbow of colours. I used distress inks (barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, tumbled glass and dusty concord) to stamp the hexagons, cut them out and adhered the hexagons to black card. I'm hoping the black base helps to tone down the mad mix of colours and patterns! As I had some hexagons left over, I added an edging to try to mimic prairie points sometimes found on quilts.

The rainbow colours are probably very appropriate at the moment. As you can see when I was taking the photo this morning the sun was streaming in the window. Now after a number of showers, one of which included hailstones, there are big dark clouds overhead again. With the mix of sunshine and showers over the past few days, I've already spotted a few rainbows this week. Oh the joys of an Irish summer:)

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!

Bee Happy

After playing with hexagons the other day for the Hooked on Hexagons Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I just had to make something else. Can you tell I'm hooked on hexagons?!

To start with I made a hexagon card base, then cut out little hexagons and a hexagon frame - love my Cameo! The little hexagons were cut from white card and I adhered them to a piece of white card and applied mustard seed distress ink. The sentiment was embossed on the frame and I added this and the "honeycomb" to the card base.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Be Happy

I coloured the little bees and applied diamond stickles to their layered wings. For the hearts I just used a little punch. I'm also submitting this card into Paper Crafts' July Gallery Challenge and the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I spot a bit of sunshine outside, so I'll have to run out into the garden to make the most of it:)

Make Every Moment Count

Do you ever have an idea in your head for a card that you just have to make? Sometimes I feel that way and the feeling won’t go away until the card is finished. Lol it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a good card, but it’s one I just have to get out of my system.

Well that’s how I felt when I saw Cath’s Hooked on Hexagons Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. A whole jumble of thoughts rushed into my head when I saw the challenge – memories of my first attempt at patchwork (a grandmother’s flower garden table mat, with lots of wonky stitching!) when I was about 10 years old, my dear dad making some of our clothes when we were younger and a visit to a museum in the US years ago, where I spent so much time looking at every last detail of the patchwork quilts there.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Old Letter & Special Time

Some of the quilts in the museum were accompanied by a full history which had been passed down through the generations. However, some quilts had little or no information on their origins. So much time and love had been poured into each and every one of them and the unfinished ones on display really had me wondering what had happened to the people behind them. Also I was fascinated by the little snippets of information that could be gleaned from the back of some of the unfinished paper pieced quilts. Sometimes the backing papers were cut from old newspapers, letters, postcards or whatever was available to these very resourceful quilters who made the most of everything, including their time and supplies.



So I wanted to recreate something like that on my card by using paper, inks (antique linen & walnut stain), a stamp (Linda, thanks again for the Old Letter stamp) and some old floral fabrics. After cutting, inking and stamping the hexagons, I tacked fabric on them and whip stitched the hexagons together. I left the tacking and the end of the piece of thread I had used to sew the hexagons together to add to the unfinished look. The red tacking thread I’ve had for years and is one I use sparingly, as my dad used it and also the thimble in the photo. When I finished the card I realized I hadn’t a clue what sentiment I’d use on it, but as soon as I saw this Hero Arts sentiment in my supplies, I knew it was the one for this card.