Blue and white

There are some colours that just go together like; brown and gold, green and yellow, black and white, navy and cream, well you get where I am coming from, but there is one colourway that reminds me of warm weather, Mediterranean holidays especially Greece.  It just gives the impression of been crisp and clean and that is...........

 Blue and White.

This is a card I made with out any images just relied on the colour scheme to give it -  oomph!

I embossed the card with cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder. As the card is slightly bigger than the folder I used an edging punch along the bottom, put in a blue ribbon in between to finish the edge.  The blue and white die-cut panel came with the glittery blue border and the blue dots all I had to do was add the flowers and butterflies. Voilá, one crisp card.

Recipe:
Die-Cut: Papermania - Capsule Collection
Embossing: Cuttlebug - Swiss Dots
Flowers: Blue - Capsule Collection, Silver flowers from stash
Ribbon - Local haberdashery
Butterflies: Stash


Hope you like,

Teachers Card

I had put off showing this card as it has been a while since school's out here in Ireland, but in other places it is only now finishing up for the summer holidays.

Happy Holidays to all!

This is the card I made for Sonny's principal, as she has been a great help to both Sonny and us during his primary school years.

It is a simple card. The base is a blank Kraft card. I embossed white card using a Cuttlebug EF, Roses, I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the edge and wrapped a ribbon between the embossing and edge.
The sentiment is computer generated and reads "Go raibh maith agat", Thank You Very Much - in Irish.
I cut it out using Labels 4 and layered it onto a large piece of Kraft card also cut out using my Labels 4 die. I used a brad to attach it to the embossed card and then mounted it all on to the blank card. I added a Prima Flower to finish.  And Voila a finished card.

Recipe:
Blank Card: Kraft - DoCraft Papermania
White card - Stash
Ribbon: Local haberdashery
Embossing: Cuttlebug EF
Punch: Martha Stewart - Scallop Dots
Flower: Prima

Hope you like,

Summer Time - What?!

What does summer time mean to you?

Long hot sunny days, children playing in the garden, going for walks in the long grass (don't let the farmers see you or there will be trouble) eating breakfast, lunch and dinner outside on the patio - well if it does, lucky you.

For us it is trying to dry wet outdoor clothes inside for 13 months in a row. Watching the tide coming and going from the inside of rain drenched windows. Eating breakfast, lunch and dinner by the fire (okay that's a fib, but some times we wish the fire was on!)

Where did the summers that we had as children go to? Yes, even in Ireland we had sunshine and long dry days spent outside and eating meals sitting, on a tartan rug, on the grass in the garden. Along with Sunday trips to the seaside and trying to eat a 99 Ice Cream before it melted all down you hands or fell on the ground.

I understand that summer and winter weather has changed all over the world but I just wish it just dried up here for more than one day in a row!!  Well to be honest we did have a good week last week but this week is rain followed by more rain on top of rain. But as an Irish person I am entitled to have a rant about the weather, our national pastime!

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I made this card for a fellow PCP member who celebrated her birthday last week, I had to ensure she received the card before I posted here.

I used a white square blank card base.  I dry embossed some white card using a cuttlebug embossing folder. The yellow gingham paper is from a DoCrafts Me to You, Spring Chic paper pack. I stamped the papermania sentiment straight on to the backing paper after afixing to the card. The pink layer is from a paper pack that I have for ages - Papermania Sweet Nothings. Then the image is a freebie I got with a crafty magazine some time ago, it is a "Lili of the Valley" image, in fact there was a little pack of images ready to be coloured and used on cards, it is one of the best freebies I received in a crafty mag, each image is as gorgeous as the last. I coloured the image using colouring pencils, I need to get some decent skin coloured pencils. I sparkled up the flowers a little with Sukara gen pens

Recipe:
Designer paper: Docrafts - Me to You Spring Chic, and Papermania - Sweet Nothings
Embossing: Provo craft embossing folder
Die Cut: Xcut nesting set
Image: Lili of the Valley
Colour medium: Pencils, Sukara Gel Pens
Sentiment: Papermania
Miscellaneous: Ribbon - stash
                         Ink - Papermania


Hope you like,

Something I'll not be able to do for another 4 years......

......write a blog post on the 29th February. HaHa.

Happy Leap Day to all.

There are lots of traditions surrounding the 29th of Feb, mostly regarding women asking their man to marry them. Here is an Irish tale,

 Legend has it that St. Brigid of Kildare, a fifth-century Irish nun, asked St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, to grant permission for women to propose marriage after hearing complaints from single women whose suitors were too shy to propose. Initially, he granted women permission to propose only once every seven years, but at Brigid's insistence, he acquiesced and allowed proposals every leap day. The folk tale suggests that Brigid then dropped to a knee and proposed to Patrick that instant, but he refused, kissing her on the cheek and offering a silk gown to soften the blow. The Irish tradition therefore dictates that any man refusing a woman's leap-day proposal must give her a silk gown. From Huffpost Weddings

I suppose it is appropriate that the Irish tradition included both St Brigid whose feast day is in Feb and St Patrick whose feast day is in March.  Huffpost Weddings also writes about other leap year wedding traditions.

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Yesterday was my niece's birthday, time is flying, it seem only like 5 years ago when I was changing her nappies etc, but it was 23 years ago. :0

Even if I say so myself, she has turned into a lovely woman. Of course her parents are to be responsible for that, I was just passed through her life every-so-often. lol

Here is the card I made for her. The photo is not the best, I know I have said this before but I must organise a light box for taking photos in all weathers and at any time.

The card itself was meant to be much simpler that it turned out. I had an accident, while stamping the sentiment there was a tiny blob of ink on one corner of the block, (stamp was acrylic and I had to mount it on a block) and when I stamped the sentiment, I accidental marked the top of the card. :(  To cover that up I had to add the blue ribbon on top then to finish it off I added the "bling", the little gems.

I embossed the bottom 1/3 of the card using Swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The "present" is just a square of metallic card embossed with another cuttlebug embossing folder.  I add the ribbon and bow to look like a wrapped gift.  The sentiment was then stamped straight on to the card. It is hard to see in the photo but there is another ribbon just above the "swiss dots".

I printed out the inside sentiment onto ordinary cardstock and used nestibilities labels 4 to cut it out, this sentiment is a freebie from Create with TLC.

Recipe:

Cardstock: DCWV Hippie Chic Cardstock.

Embossing folders: Cuttlebug - Swiss dots and D'vine Swirl

Ribbon: Local haberdasheries.

Bow: Papermania - Capsule collection.

Stamp:Papermania - Clear stamps Sentiments.

Ink: Archival ink

Bling: Papermania - Adhesive Gems

Hope you like,

December is here

Happy December.

 I love this month in many ways, I love the excitement of the build up to the big day and the holidays. Then there is the weather, usually grey and dull lots of rain, which I do not like. I don't understand why we put ourselves under so much stress to have the biggest Christmas tree, the biggest turkey with ALL the trimming. To go out every night for the month of December and on into January. Why do we do this?  Christmas to me is about family, friends, a warm and welcoming fire and lots of TV.  Do others really care what size of tree you have or how many different types of vegetables we have on our dinner plate?
I was listening the Christmas FM last night, it is an Irish Charity station that is broadcast only at Christmas (as the name suggests :) ).  Its nice to hear Christmas music again. The first major sign that Christmas is on the way.

Even though it is December I am going to show you a card I made for Halloween, yep nothing like keeping up with the seasons. lol
This is a card I sent to a friend. I must confess that the only scary thing about this card is the color!
I sent one like it to another friend, Bridget, but she never received it, bummer! What is up with the mail these times. Bridget's card had same image but the dress was colored in purple and the backing paper was black. The border on the edge was also purple. The sentiment reads, "Have a Brooming Great" and "Halloween" is on the inside.

Recipe:

Backing Paper: Halloween Crackle Paper,

(it was a freebie that I picked up a few years ago but never kept the source.)

Other Paper: Ordinary card from stash

Image: Bewitched - Sassy Designs.

Coloring Medium: ProMarkers

Die Cut: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4

Border: Martha Stewart - Scollop Dots

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug - Herringbone

Sentiment: Computer generated

Hope you like,

It's Monday.

It's Monday. So? So it is the beginning of a new work week and I have made a decision regarding my work V craft time. As I pointed out yesterday, I am no where ready for the festive season that is fast approaching so I have decided to divide my day in 3, morning - house work, afternoon - crafting while helping Sonny with his homework and while he is playing, than evening - either crafting or catching up on here.
This is our 6th Christmas since we adopted Sonny and in that time, we have had only one Christmas day here. Other Christmases we have traveled to Limerick to family on Christmas day. It's great, no cooking but it is nice to spend the day here at home. Therefore, I have to do a big clean out of the house, and I detest house-work but it has to be done. :( Anybody care to help?

The following is a card I made.  The verse is one that hangs in my mother home and I seem to read it every time I visit her and I thought it would make a lovely sentiment for a card. I just googled it when I got home and printed it out from there. I had some "fun" trying to line it up so it would appear in the aperture windows created by Spellbinders labels 4. I used MME Wild Asparagus backing paper and embossed it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The ribbon is a Martha Stewart ribbon.  The little flourishes are a Waltzing Mouse Stamp from the Very Vintage Labels No. 4 set. I stamped them first in pink than again with a clear embossing pad, sprinkled some clear embossing powder and heat embossed them to give them a little 3D effect. I used some clear gems just for some bling.

Recipe:

Designer Paper: My Minds Eye - Wild Asparagus

Aperture: Spellbinders Label 4 Die Cut

 Cuttlebug Folder: Victoria

Stamp: Waltzing Mouse - Very Vintage Labels No. 4

Ribbon: Martha Stewart

Bling: Clear Gems.

Hope you like,

Doodle Dog.

Isn't this image cute, it is of a "Doodle Dog". Now to be honest, I never heard of this breed of dog until very recently but the person I made this card for has a "Doodle" so I looked it up.  They are really cute. They are a cross between a Labrador and a Poodle. Just so cute. awwwwwwww But not as cute as our own little Tiny, (check profile photo).

This is a Tri-fold Shutter Card, here is the tutorial that I used for measurements. I love the paper she used on her card.

Recipe:

Card Stock: Stash

Embossing: Cuttlebug folders

Dies: Nestabilities "Fancy Tags" & "Labels 4"

Ribbon: Recycled from a Chocolate Box

Image: Google

Colors: ProMarkers

Hope you like,

Its Christmas Time

Well it is time I show some of my Christmas cards for this year. I have not made many just a few for a shop and them some for family and friends. I just find that people will buy Charity cards, which is a good thing, and they can be bought for such a great price, at Christmas. Some of these cards are lovely and cute though I do find that people will commission a card for that someone special in their lives.

I got most (if not all) of my inspiration for this years cards from Path of Paper. Deneen is so creative and I just love her style, simple but elegant. You should hop over and just see what she can do to a sheet of 12"x12"paper. Marvelous in my opinion. (No money changed hand for this endorsement, hehe) in second thoughts wait until you finish reading this. lol

This first set is very simple, I printed out the sentiment from my computer using different fonts on top of an A6 piece of Card Stock (CS), I then embossed the lower part of the CS with some Cuttlebug embossing folders. Than I added a ribbon between the sentiment and the embossing. This was then layered onto coloured pearlscent paper and then onto the main card. I left the inside of these cards blank.

In the second photo the cards are made in the very same way as those above, except, I have printed the sentiment in Irish, which is the official language of Ireland. The sentiment says "Nollaig Shona" meaning "Happy Christmas"

The card on the right is embossed using a Papermania embossing folder.

Since I photographed these cards, I have added some sparkles but I never updated my photo's - naughty me, tut tut.

Hope you like,

Mami Doodles Challenge #4

I am so lapse at writing that my blog is falling well behind, what would you say to me catching up some tomorrow, June 11th. Yeah, I agree, not much lol.

I am on here tonight just to enter Mami Doodles Challenge #4 hope I make it, last time I said that, I was a week early but today I don't have that leeway.

I used pearlescent card, not sure what you call the colour but to me it is a very pale grey. The backing paper is embossed with "Fleur De Ly's" Cuttlebug embossing folder. I cut the frame with nestabilities label 4 from the same pale grey pearlescent card. The image is coloured with Pro-markers.

Hope you like,