Merry Christmas!

Supplies - Decorative Ornament Stamp CG226 - Hero Arts,  

Holiday Sayings Sentiment CL343 - Hero Arts, 

Snowflake punch - Martha Stewart, Opaque White Color Mist - 

Mister Huey's, Sail boat blue acrylic Paint - Adirondack 

Brights by Ranger, White Enamel - Ranger, Blue 

Cardstock, Faded Jeans Distress Ink - Tim Holtz, 

White Cardblank - Anita's, Roller Adhesive 

and machine stitching.

I dug out some of my Hero Arts Stamps (one of my favourite companies!) to create this card.  I painted a layer of acrylic paint directly onto the stamp and stamped onto kraft.  I waited until it was dry and then cut leaving a border.  I added dimension on the ornament using white enamel by Ranger.

When completely dry I machine stitched it to the base (which I had already "splattered" and let dry) and then raised it on pop dots for added dimension.  The sentiment was stamped on white cardstock and I cut out a notch to make it into a banner.

Layered onto blue cardstock and added white snowflakes (Martha Stewart Punch).  Thanks so much for peeking.

Challenges

Card Mania - Snowflakes

Made Especially for You - Use 3 Snowflakes

Simon Says Stamp - What's your favourite - Hero Arts/stamping technique

Hope you have a wonderful day/evening - thanks so much for stopping by.

A Special 70th!

I had to create a special 70th Birthday Card recently and this is what I came up with - a masculine trifold card.  

I used the Hero Arts Digital Kit - Sillyscape - printed it numerous times, cut it out, coloured sections, layered it, stamped 70 (digit stamps by Papermania) over one print out, cut out the numbers and coloured them to make the numbers "pop".  I adhered these to the base with foam squares - I forgot to take a side view of it before it was handed over!  The little hedgehog (hedgehopper) in the plane is by Penny Black and I coloured, fussy cut and added glossy accents to the hearts and goggles!.

The world is part of a digital stamp By LORi Designs - the little plane and boat are by PTI.  I coloured with copics and added the dotted line with white gel pen.

 Then the full "skyline" was revealed when the card was completely opened.
 I printed the message directly onto the clouds background (Hero Arts Digital kit!).
I layered some of the buildings for dimension and added glossy accents to the clock face.  I erased the message on the inside for privacy reasons (hope you understand).

Challenges

Come and Get it - More than one fold

Here Come the Boys - Birthdays Only

Pile it On - Anything but a Christmas Card
Simon Says Stamp and Show - A project with heart

Thanks for peeking.  Sorry I have been absent from blogland - hope to rectify that over the coming weeks.  Thanks so much for stopping by today - I really appreciate all your comments. 

Hero Arts March Challenge

Supplies:  Hero Arts Daisy Reverse Pattern S5473, Hero Arts Sending 

smiles messsages CL490, butter yellow textured paper - Papermania, 

kraft card blank - Anita's, copics Y11, E43, B12, B45, G82, pop dots, 

tombow adhesive, clear embossing powder, 

versamark ink and heat gun.

This month's challenge on Hero Arts runs until March 29th and I wanted to put in an entry before I ran out of time.

I have had this daisy woodblock stamp in my stash for a while without inking it up!  

 I love how the embossing looks almost like a ceramic tile.

I coloured the non embossed flowers with the copics that matched the colour challenge this month.

Challenges
Lily Pad Cards - Simon Says Stamp presents a Flower Challenge

Thanks for peeking.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Paperplay - Anything but a card

So the challenge this week on Paperplay is "Anything but a card!"

We are very kindly sponsored by La La Land.  Check out all the details and DT creations here.

The flower I made uses the Tattered Florals die by Tim Holtz.  I used an old French - English Dictionary for the petals.  I added some Papermania coloured gems in the centre.  I glued it together using glossy accents.  I needed the flower to cover a sticker on the packaging I was recycling!

Covered the other packaging sticker with Fancy Pants Designs - "Delight" collection patterned paper which I stamped on with a Waltzingmouse Stamps "say it loud" set.

 

 Close up of the packaging.

Fun! Tim Holtz Flower using an old dictionary - gems in the flower centre.

Mini Album close ups.

Made a mini meander album to co-ordinate.  The tutorial to make this little creation is on the SRM blog here.

Thanks so much for peeking.  Hope you have a great weekend.

Make your own happiness!

Love this sentiment from Hero Arts.  Paired it with a stamp I picked up recently in Crafty Alley in Killarney.  It's a 2005 Hero Arts stamp that I inked up with distress inks, spritzed with water and had fun with!  I then coloured the pearls with copics to match the textured cardstock.

Challenges

ABC - P is for Pearls

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Use a stamped flower image

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Spring Flowers - Everywhere

Gingerloft - Use those Flowers

Thanks so much for peeking.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Edited to add - Sending prayers to all in Japan and Hawaii.  News just reaching us here of the earthquake and tsunami.

Paperplay - Monochromatic

Wanted to post the card I made for the 90 min scramble over on the Hero Arts FLICKR group on the 30 November hosted by Judy.  These are so much fun and it was the first time I managed to play along.  The Challenge for this "scramble" was a one layer card.

Got very inky and the time goes VERY fast but lots of fun.  There is a timetable for the scrambles right here.

I used the inking technique demonstrated by Jennifer McGuire in her holiday thinking inking class - block background (week two, project one) using distress inks (I used milled lavender) and memento london fog (grey) for the sentiment and snowflakes.  The snowflakes were from the Hero Arts Tree-mendous Poly Clear set CL465 and the sentiment from CL343 Holiday Sayings. 

This card is from a box of 50 white card blanks by Royal Langnickel (slight watercolour texture to the paper) - purchased in Cork Art Supplies/Cardz n Scrapz.

Still doing the happy dance that I won a fab Digital kit from Hero Arts for this scramble.  Off to play with it now.... thank you Tami, Judy and Hero Arts.

Now, not my week on Paperplay - but it is Thursday so that means a new challenge.  This week's challenge is Monochrome and is set by Vera.  We would love for your to play along and have two new wonderful DT members strutting their stuff today.  Feel free to check out all the DT creations here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Stay warm!.

September CCC

The options were endless on the September Card Chain Challenge organised by Deborah - here were the sketch and colour palette.

As you know... I LOVE orange and russet tones... so I played along with the colour palette and sketch (a little less LOL!!).  Here is what I came up with to send to Rikke. (She has received it ... so now I can post!).

I used the brand new digital kit from Hero Arts called Basic Tree - available here.  I printed it out, cut it with Spellbinders Labels One and used blending chalk around the edges.  I then really enjoyed colouring it with the colours from the colour palette.   I am entering this into this month's Hero Arts Challenge - "Everything Autumn".

I matted and layered and added the sentiment from HA Clear Design Anytime Messages.  Added machine stitching, embroidery floss and one of Jane Beljo's wonderful fimo buttons.

I received this wonderful card from a HA Flickr Buddy - Joy (dustypenny) in the mail yesterday - isn't it just beautiful.

It has the most amazing crackle effect on the leaf.  I got some fun bits to play with in the envelope too.... thanks Joy.

Another wonderful Card Chain Challenge - for more information and the full reveal check out Deborah's blog here.  She would love for you to join in - it really is wonderful getting a card in the post from somewhere different in the world each month.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Set of Cards - Teacher Gift

Hard to believe that we are at the end of another school year - my DS's finish on Wednesday - woohoo!.  Looking forward to getting to spend fun times together without the daily chore of homework and assignments.  We are all looking forward to getting to spend time on the water, play outdoors and generally have fun - therefore my blog will suffer and I won't be here as often as I would like... but hey!  it's only 8 weeks and I have set up some auto posts so that I can truly focus on my boys.

Want to share a set of cards that I made yesterday morning for one of my DS's to give to a helper in his school.  I used the new DeLovely range from Cosmo Cricket - boy do I ADORE these new papers.  I only purchased a 6x6 mini stack so I managed to get two cards from each sheet of 6x6!  

I used kraft card blanks with matching kraft envelopes.  Used my "ruffled bloom" stamp from Stampendous and coloured them with copics in YG03, B02 and BG15 and also a promarker in Cerise (as my copic in that shade was dry!).

I added machine stitching, gems from Papermania and Hero Arts, glossy accents (on one flower centre) and the sentiments are from Hero Arts, PTI and Papermania.

The kraft card blanks are from Paperchase (sold in Ireland through Awear).  I then packaged them up in a clear box from Clear Bags and made a thank you tag to attach.

I am entering them into the challenge on my partner in crafting crime which is school, teacher or student inspired creations.  Thanks so much for peeking - hope you have a wonderful day.

Battle Challenge Finals - voting is TOMORROW only

ROYAL BATTLE CONTINUES over on The Greeting Farm

YOU CAN ONLY VOTE FOR ONE CARD THIS WEEK. 
Voting will be One Day only - TOMORROW SUNDAY

Voting: Voting/commenting will start on Sunday, April 25th and last 24 hrs from the time the poll goes up on the blog. Voting will be on the blog poll. There will be no voting in the gallery for this.

All entries will be located on the Blog on Sunday, April 25th.
Each person can vote once so please select your favorite and vote for them. Please only vote once per card.
_____________________________________________________

I wanted to post this as I know not everyone checks their blogs/emails etc at the weekend, but reckoned I would post one last time about the Royal Battle.  We are at the closing stages of the battle ....  it is down to 6 teams...... the challenge this week is to create a his and her project (co-ordinating).

We would LOVE your vote - so click here to pop over to cast your vote (poll will open Sunday for 24 hours from the time it is made live).  Thanks from the Dream Team - Kathy, Fika and me. 

Now for a card share.  Made this for this month's Hero Arts Challenge - Mother's Day and Home. 

I used the Hero Arts digital kit - Poetic Petals and a sentiment from TLcCreations.  This was a freebie saying/sentiment and be sure to check out their blog/site where they do wonderful word art on a weekly basis.

I am loving my new curved rectangle die cuts and added a little fimo button which I made.  The sentiment reads dan.de.li.on (yellow, golden annoying weed, when picked by a child, is all mom needs.)  Whilst I realise this flower was suppose to be a daisy and not a dandelion I think it holds a striking resemblence to a dandelion.  I added some stickles too... for that extra little bit of sparkle.

Thanks so much for peeking.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will post our entry to the Royal Battle in my post tomorrow.  Many many thanks for all your well wishes and support to date.

Munch, Munch! and a Special Day

I know I will have one person peeping today to see if I have posted her Birthday Card !!  Happy Birthday to my SIL who is THIRTY today ... ha ha!!! Not going to post it until she receives it... and spoil the surprise (better go make one!!) LOL!! 

Today is also the anniversary of our move to the USA.  Nine years ago today we started on a marvellous adventure and loved every moment of it.  Hi to all our US friends - we still miss you loads and there are many days that we wish we still lived there!. 

My card share for today - after I added the Hero Arts sentiment - "Smile, Laugh, Giggle" to this card - I realised that I should have stamped - "Enjoy every moment"!!! and should have put it on kraft cardstock.  But cards don't always turn out the way you want them to.... and this is one of them!!  think I may "unmake" and redo this one.

Doesn't it really look like Louis is enjoying every bite?  This is an image by the very talented Maurie J Manning - Mo's digital pencil called Bronte and Louis.  She ran a blog hop for the week - this week - it finishes today to celebrate her six month anniversary.  Her Design Teams produced some AMAZING work.  If you haven't had a look - be sure to check it out - the blog hop starts here.  There are also fantastic digital images up for grabs... fingers and toes crossed!!

I coloured it with copics, added it to a blue scalloped circle and white card blank.  I cut bite marks on the scallop and card with a circle punch and hole puncher.  Munch... munch!.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

p.s. Paula from Tales from Pollycraft has the most amazing baby image called "willie" as a freebie this week - get it here.  I am off to make a baby card with it right now!

Happy Valentine's Day

I made this card for all my Hero Arts Flickr Friends - I used a Hero Arts Sentiment with My Mind's Eye die cut sheet.  I get such fantastic support and encouragement from all the group - this is my "thank you" and Happy Valentine's to you all.  Hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends.

Did you know the history behind St Valentine's Day?

Saint Valentine's Day (commonly shortened to Valentine's Day) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards (not in the Hero Arts Flickr Group!!! LOL!!!).

I was inspired recently by Krysten's ability to make LOTS of cards with only 2 sheets of 12x12 - wow .... so I decided to try my hand at something similar and used two sheets from My Minds Eye (one was a die cut sheet) and managed to produce quite a few quick and easy (simple!) cards but not as many as the talented Krysten!. 

This one is for my hubby - another one with My Mind's Eye die cut sentiment, card blank from DCWV and the Forever Friends Bear stamp.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Another Christmas Card Share and Caardvarks Entry

Another entry for the current Caardvarks challenge.  This digital image is from Alison Spelman over on StretchnBubbles.  She has a freebie digital image every Wednesday - so be sure to check out her blog/store. 

I used a gold pearlescent tall card blank, - love the shimmer off the card.  Stamped the sentiment with Hero Arts Holiday Sayings set and stazon ink.  Used Alison Spelman's Unity Image and I coloured/shaded with copics and promarkers.

Just a simple card which I am going to make a few of to send out shortly.  My card sending is WAY BEHIND!  Off to start writing Christmas cards.  Thanks for stopping by.

Caardvarks and Hero Arts together - what a wonderful mix

 and

Hero Arts are the sponsor on Caardvarks at the moment and there has been some amazing Hero Arts artists featured each day.  Today they are featuring Eva and have featured Kelly Rasmussen, Heidi Van Laar, Jenyfur of Caardvarks, Lucy Abrams and Kathy Racoosin to name a few.

The current challenge is to make a "new" card using a digital element on it and the closing date is December 20th.  There are some free digital kits available on 2peas if you would like to give it a try including a number of Hero Arts kits.  Believe me, once you make your first one... you will be hooked!

My card is made using Jane's wonderful monster digital image available here.  I attached him to white cardstock that I put through my Big Shot in the swiss dots embossing folder.  I coloured him with copics/promarkers, added a purple prima flower for "punky" hair!  A touch of purple ribbon from Papermania and one of my fimo buttons with white embroidery floss.  Hey presto!  he is done!

I haven't added a sentiment yet - was thinking of adding a sentiment inside - .... Have a Monster Birthday!!

I am also entering this card into Jane's current challenge - check it out here... she is giving away amazing goodies to the winner.

I didn't post over the weekend as I was a busy girl!!!  I did a craft and card making party on Saturday for a great friend's daughter who was celebrating her 11th Birthday.  We had so much fun - cutting, colouring and "making", just hope the girls enjoyed it as much as I did !! LOL!!!  I did bring along my camera to capture the fun but didn't manage to shoot off any shots. 

Yesterday, the boys helped Grandma and Grandpa to hang the baubles on their tree (which they do each year).  They discovered the had a willing (captive!) audience and so performed their "pieces" for the School Concerts which are on later this week.

Sorry for the very long post.... and thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a great Monday.

Happy Birthday Sharon!

It's a very special friend's birthday today and I haven't managed to get her card in the post!  So I am posting it here and sending her the link so she knows that I am thinking of her on her special day and that the card is on it's way. 

Supplies: Forever Friends Birthday Bear stamp which was free with this month's Creativity Magazine,

Sentiment from Hero Arts, PP from Autumn Leaves - Heather Bailery range, Ribbon/ruffle!,

flower and gem from Papermania, coloured with promarkers and copics,

 clear gemstones from Hero Arts (I just love these)

The weather here is dark and dreary again as well as blustery and wet!!! So the photo isn't as bright as I would like it to be... oh well!.  Tomorrow is Dec 8th and I am going to spend the day putting up the Christmas decorations with the boys.  I have been working on my December album and went to the processors this morning to get some shots printed - so I will upload and share some pages tomorrow. 

Happy Birthday Sharon - hope you are having a terrific day.  Hugs x

Jenn's Blog Candy

Jenn is one of the Hero Arts Flickr Gals who is just amazingly talented and produces masterpieces on a daily basis.  I just popped over to her blog to find that she is giving away some AMAZING blog candy/loot.... you must check it out..... quick... I mean... this minute

and a close up of the Purple Onion Designs stamps

Jenn is giving away AMAZING loot.... RUSH over NOW!!!