Published in Crafting Ireland Magazine!

I took a chance and submitted a card to Crafting Ireland Magazine, and much to my surprise and delight, it was chosen for publication. First time submitting anything, so I am very happy. The theme was Halloween. I used my Basic Grey Eerie papers and an old stamp I found (not sure where it's from). The orange ric rac is from Ribbon Girl.

I made a challenge card for the magazine, which was also picked as one of two winners. So I was very lucky with Crafting Ireland this month lol. The bike stamp & sentiment are from Everyday Button Bits from PTI. The pom pom trim is Ribbon Girl again. Thanks for looking :)

A Great Charity Shop Find

I love using sheet music on cards and I came across this book in the charity shop on Friday. It's so beautifully aged, so no need for any Tim Holtz distress inks!

It's a lovely big book so I should be able to get lots of projects out of it. I will be posting a few next week :)

Engagement Card

I made this card using my new PTI Turning a New Leaf stamp set and die. I'm totally in love with it and can see myself using it a lot in the future. My other new set is called Congrats All Ways and it is perfect for any special occasion, be it engagement, passing an exam, a new job etc. It really is one of those essential sets. I bought it with the engagement sentiment in mind, but I can see now it has tons of uses. The orange border is cut using a Martha Stewart punch and the damask background is Hero Arts. Thanks for looking!

Another Quick Share

This is another card made using Echo Park's For the Record. Love their mix of muted and bright colours.

On another note, I got a wonderful package in the post this morning! I won a prize from Glue Arts and Nikki Sivils on Facebook, with loads of Graphic 45, Sizziz, Glue Arts and other scrapbooking goodies in it. I can't wait to get stuck in!

For the Record- Echo Park

I treated myself to some new Echo Park paper and made a few quick cards with it. the first one is inspired by a card I saw here on Wendi's blog. I loved the way she matched the colours, so I went for a similar scheme. I stamped the newsprint background using PTI Background Basics: Newsprint. The polka dot paper is from Bo Bunny Circa 1934. 

This card was made with the remnants of the first one and sticker embellishments from the paper pack. It literally took a minute to make!

Quick Card to Share

This card was made very quickly using PTI's Happy Trails, love those images! I used Smoky Shadow card as a base and layered Summer Sunrise on it. Very simple but I love it :)

Bad bad blogger!

Just realised this morning that it has been over two months since I have posted anything on my blog! Does anyone else ever get blog guilt?! Because I have it in buckets today lol. I will just post a few pictures to ease myself back in slowly!

This first card was made using my new PTI babygro die. Really love the idea of it, but finding it so difficult to get a clean cut. I used the Bundle of Love stamp set for the image and sentiment on the front. Throw on a bit of trim and some glossy accents on the letters and stork and there you go!

I LOVE black and white colour schemes for wedding cards. I just think it looks so classical and elegant. I used In Bloom impression plate for the black cardstock and Tiny Treats Birthday + Tag Its #5 for the die cut.  For the white line going across, I used two of the pencil diecuts from Happy Trails stuck either side. I really liked the look of the rounded edges and it leaves a nice finish. 

The reasoning behind my lack of blog posts is my laptop died. I replaced it with an iPad, thinking it would be great for blogging. Newsflash!! It's not... not for me anyway. I love it in every other way, except for blogging!

Baby Girl Card

I had to make a quick baby girl card today but I didn't really have any images I could use. So instead I focused on the sentiment. This comes from a PTI set called Inside and Out Baby. They have the cutest sayings :) The background paper is old Basic Grey and the pink velvet ribbon was saved from a Christmas present. Then I stamped the little girl's name around the edge using PTI's Simple Alphabet.

Cards using Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934

 I just got this Cosmo Cricket 6x6 pad yesterday and I am so in love with the patterns! So vintage looking, just gorgeous. I had a load of cards to make, so I just made several in more of less the same design (just different paper combos). This is so much more efficient for me, otherwise I am dithering over colours for ages! I really need a paper pack where everything matches everything else!

 This flower stamp is from Basic Grey and the red polka dot bow is from Papermania. All paper is from Cosmo Cricket.

 Thanks for looking :)

More Wedding Cards.

 You would never think there was a recession on with the amount of wedding cards I have been making lately!  For the first one, I was told their wedding colours were purple and black so I just heat embossed a damask design in black glitter embossing powder. I added a purple ribbon and PTI sentiment and matted the image on black card. Easy peasy!

As you can probably guess, I got fed up of making wedding cards at this stage and just made another of these hearts cards. I can see this being a bit of a go-to card for weddings now!

Clean and Simple :)

I felt like making a few cards today but inspiration was running low! I spotted a card from Maile Belles that I loved so I cased it for the card above. She uses chevron stripes instead of polka dots on her card, but that is yet another stamp set that is winging it's way to me. Sometimes I wish I lived closer to Papertrey Ink HQ!

My mum asked me to do a quick wedding card for her today and I only had about 15 minutes to make it. My only option was clean and simple! The paper was from a free 6x6 pad that I got with a magazine. Great way of using up scraps! Thanks for looking :)

Keva's Blogaversary Challenge

I came across Keva's blog through the PTI forum and all I can say is wow! She has such great ideas. Keva is currently celebrating her one year blogaversary by hosting a CASE challenge. I love the card she made for PTI's blog hop so I thought I would CASE that one. Even though I have ordered both the Rock On and Grunge Me stamp sets, they haven't arrived yet, so I had to make do with what I had! I used the PTI numbers die and the sentiment is from the Framed stamp set. The guitar die cut is one of a few I bought off eBay years ago (back when I had no idea where to buy craft supplies!) The skull paper is from DCWV. You can see Keva's card below my one, love those Grunge Me circles :)

Keva's card that I was inspired by.

Soaking up the Sun

Just a quick post to test if I can post pictures from my iPad. This is a layout of my mum from when she was my age :)

No Time for Sleepin'

I have just discovered the Pencil Lines Sketch Challenge blog and there is some great inspiration there. I decided to join in the fun right away and started with Sketch 232.

This card is just a variation on my last post. Instead I stamped the flower on pink paper and accented it with white pen. Thanks for looking :)

Wee Memories Challenge: Tangled Up

I made a quick card last night to enter into the Wee Memories challenge: Tangled Up. It is sponsored by The Twinery this week and they want to see projects using any kind of twine. Love their bakers twine so I had to join in. This was a fairly quick card to make. The longest part was stamping and cutting out the flower, which I then covered with Glossy Accents. Thanks for looking!

Perfect Beauty

What a lucky girl I am! This is the view that greets me every day and sometimes I feel I really don't appreciate it enough. So I decided to do a layout using a picture I took in January. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was just setting over Mt Nephin, a moment I'm really glad I captured. I think it looks kind of magical :) It's a very simple layout (I don't seem to be able to do anything but simple!) The paper is all Basic Grey and the butterflies are from K & Co. Thanks for looking!

PTI's Tiny Treats Birthday Set

 I made two birthday cards to have on standby last night. They are both made using PTI's Tiny Treats stamp set. When I first saw this release, I didn't really have any interest in it. HOWEVER as always, once I saw what the design team had done with it, I had to have it! The images are so cute and once they are combined with the Mat Stack #5 die and the Limitless Circles dies, they just go off the cute scale for me! For the first card, I stamped the background using Polka Dot Basics 2 and added a Smirk ribbon, a Mat Stack die and Limitless Circle die. Simple and easy to do!

For the second one, I decided to use up all those Basic Grey rub-ons I had lying around. I used a load of them to create the background and then just used a little cake image on the mat stack. Et voila! Thanks for looking :)

Third post for today!

 Ok this is the last one I promise! I just wanted to post the layout I did last night. It is a bit jumbled but I just love the picture. We bought a goldfish on Valentine's Day this year (so romantic I know!) and I took a picture of Ethan holding it on his knee in the car. He decided to call him John, who knows where he came up with that, but he was very stubborn about it! The paper is from American Crafts and then I just used a mish mash of letters for the title. I tried to make a little goldfish out of orange ribbon but that didn't work out too well! The pearls are supposed to be air bubbles :)

This is very like another card I made but I really like the red and white combo with the airplane stamp. I made this for a friend who has moved overseas and who I haven't chatted to in a while. Thanks for looking!

Some cards for my Nan's 94th Birthday

This is my second post for today so please scroll down for the other one :)

These are two cards for my Grandmother who is turning 94 tomorrow. I thought the sentiment was very appropriate on the first one because she truly is a treasure :) The paper is Basic Grey and I left the cards very simple as the paper is so detailed and pretty. 

Ribbon Flowers

I made a few more of these ribbon flowers to have on standby for making quick cards. And below is one I made for Mother's Day. I just stuck 3 flowers of varying sizes, added a rub-on border and some letters and ta-dah! It's simple but I like it :)

PaperPlay Challenge- For a Mum

My brother asked me to make a card for him to give to our Mum for Mother's Day. He told me he didn't want anything too girly or pretty though and instead to concentrate on more natural colours. My Mum loves to garden so I wanted to use browns and greens. I pulled out my new PTI woodgrain impression plate and inked it with Fresh Snow. Once I rolled it through the machine with some kraft card, it left a lovely impression and the ink transferred onto the embossed areas. It looks very delicate and I love the effect it leaves. I attached that to a white card base and die cut Mat Stack #5 in brown card, which I stamped with the matching stamp from Tiny Treats Birthday in brown ink. I cut a strip of Ripe Avocado cardstock and stamped it with another stamp from Tiny Treats in Memento Pear Tart ink. The Thickers were white but I inked them up with Pear Tart to match. I added some PTI Chartreuse buttons to finish it off. I would like to enter this into the PaperPlay Challenge- For a Mum. Thanks for looking :)

BasicGrey Recycled Challenge

Ah the 80's, the time that style forgot! That's me in the pink, black and white party dress! I wanted to scrap this photo of my 3rd birthday because I think I look like a proper brat in it! The BasicGrey Challenges blog encouraged me to recycle some things with their recent challenge. I had lots of ribbons that had been used to wrap up some things I bought online. They weren't great quality but were pretty so I decided to make little ribbon flowers out of them. I really like how they turned out and they didn't take too long. To make them, I punched out a circle, covered it in really sticky tape (use Scor-tape or ATG gun) and stuck the end of a ribbon to it. Then you just keep twisting the ribbon in a circle and sticking it down firmly. I added some Prima bling to the centres to finish them off. The number 3 is die cut from PTI Raspberry Fizz felt and the letters are a selection of American Craft Thickers. The little russian dolls strip is a roll of patterned sticky tape I got from Accessorize in the sales. The background paper is from the Basic Grey Sultry collection. Thanks for looking!

Enjoy the Journey

 Such a beautiful day in Ireland today. The sun is shining and it feels like the middle of Summer. I was able to test my new tripod and take pictures of my cards outside today. Without sounding like I'm complaining, I think it was a little too bright to take pictures! This first card was made for my friend who is moving away to start a new job. I used my Newsprint background stamp from PTI and stamped it with Memento London Fog ink on Ocean Tides card stock. The frame is die cut and stamped using Fillable Frames #10. The sentiment (kinda hard to see in this picture) reads "Enjoy the Journey" and is from American Crafts. The inside of the card reads "You deserve it!" (sentiment from PTI's Say it with Style) The bakers twine is from The Twinery and the button is from my stash.

 This next card is made using a Papermania card base, onto which I stamped Hero Arts ledger stamp in Memento's Rosebud ink. I die cut some AC cardstock in Mat Stack #5 and topped it with a Limitless Layers circle die cut in Raspberry Fizz cardstock and one in felt. Then I added a butterfly diecut and a button tied with bakers twine. The Congrats sentiment is from Say it with Style and the smaller sentiment is from Inside and Out Baby.

I ordered a few supplies from Addicted to Rubberstamping last month and they threw in a free gift of a little flower sponge stamp. I used it on this card to stamp directly onto the cardbase. I used the Mat Stack #10 again and stamped a sentiment from Inside and Out Baby on it. The border is punched with an EK Success punch and I used Perfect Pearls to accent the scallops. Thanks for looking!

A New Addition to my Craft Room

Well I have been missing for over a week and I kinda have a reason for it! My Cuttlebug broke the Saturday before last and along with died any creative urges whatsoever! I spent all of last week researching new machines and wasn't sure if I should stick with what I knew or try something different. After having my attention brought to Spellbinders new machine, the Grand Calibur, I kept coming back to it again and again. The reason being, it has cutting plates that are A4 in size! So after much deliberation (it's €140 yikes!) I ordered it from CardznScrapz and it arrived today! Here it is in all it's glory (it's actually a dark pink, not red)

The three plates- Base plate A, Embossing plate B and Cutting plate C + tan mat.

 

Look at all the dies you can cut in one go!!

I am so impressed with this machine. The sandwich runs through really smoothly and gives a really clean cut. You can pack all your dies in close together and really get the most out of your card stock. The only downside is it doesn't take any of the Sizzix Bigz or Original dies, so if you have these dies you will still need your Cuttlebug/ Big Shot for these. 

Hopefully my creative flow will return with this little beauty in my craft room! 

A Clean and Simple Card.

I needed a quick card for an order so I used my new Tiny Treats frame stamp from PTI. This stamp set comes with a matching die which makes everything a lot easier! I stamped it using Memento Rosebud ink and then die cut a scalloped circle using the Limitless Layers 1 3/4 circle die. The letters are AC Thickers and the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl. Bling is from Basic Grey. A quick card which took about ten minutes to make! Thanks for looking :)

Cased Card.

I'm sure most of you are very familiar with Dawn McVey's work. The woman is a hands down genius when it comes to crafting! When I saw this card on her blog, I fell in love and just had to recreate it. So I bought the Hero Arts Starburst, Starburst Lace and Ledger stamp all in one go! They arrived today along with some PTI goodies and so I got to work. I didn't change the layout of it at all and just added and removed a few other little bits. I needed a 50th birthday card, so I used my new PTI numbers dies (which are amazing by the way!) Everything is stamped in Memento Rosebud ink and the edges are inked in Tim Holtz Antique Linen. I also added a PTI flower cut from Raspberry Fizz felt and an old button. Please pay no heed to the wonky cutting of the medallions. I'm a leftie and I find it so hard to cut delicate shapes out! Thanks for looking and please do check out Dawn's blog; she is amazing!

Happy Birthday Lou!

Another card I made on Sunday but I couldn't share it until Lou's birthday today. Hopefully it has already arrived! I used my Hero Arts peacock stamp again, this time using Memento Bahama Blue ink. I distressed and inked it and then layered it on Basic Grey Marrakech paper. Love the blues and oranges in this set. I attached it all to a card base made from PTI's soft stone card. The card is finished with some Kaisercraft gems, grosgrain ribbon from The Ribbon Girl and an orange button. I am fairly rubbish at tying ribbons so I just stuck a strip of ribbon onto the card and then folded and stuck two other pieces of ribbon to look like a bow. I would like to enter this card into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge (1 image, 2 patterned papers, 3 different embellishments)

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday

I have missed the last few Make it Mondays so I wanted to participate while this one is fresh in my mind! The theme is distressing edges. I used a kraft card base which I stamped with the library card stamp in Fresh Snow. I only inked the stamp once because I didn't want the lines of the image to be perfect. I diecut the notebook page twice in soft stone and some American Crafts paper and distressed the edges. The sentiment is from Everday Button Bits. Then using an old star chipboard shape which I distressed and inked, I attached an AC brad to the centre. The little brass charms are from a pair of earrings that were reduced to €0.50. Finally I wrapped some bakers twine around the notebook pages and inked all around the edges of the card. Thanks for looking!

Demons are a Ghoul's Best Friend!

This month's challenge on Creative Craft World is to use circles and I really loved the sketch they provided. So in my quest to use all my hoarded paper, I did this Halloween page. I adore the Basic Grey Eerie collection and used lots of it for this layout. I only have a 3" circle punch so I just roughly cut the other circles. And then because they were pretty rough, I distressed them and inked up the edges. The letters are a mixture of Euro shop foam letters, Basic Grey Eerie and Pink Paislee Pumpkin letters. I added a few matte black buttons to finish it off. This layout would have taken much less time if I had some more circle punches!

Close up of me and my friend Lou dressed up for Halloween!