More to show..........

My poor computer is so slow at the moment, it will probably take me all day to write this post and upload some photos, so please bear with me. :)

Well, Autumn is well and truly here, morning and evenings have that slight touch of "burr" in the air and even when the days are bright and sunny, the sun is not as hot as it would have been just a month ago. Ah! well, time moves on. :)

The Dingle Marathon was held last Saturday and it was a great day. This is not just a straight forward marathon, it includes 4 races; the usual 26.2 miles - full marathon, 13.1 half marathon (running) 13.1 half marathon (walking) and then the Ultra Marathon this was 50 miles.

Over the past few years I have just kept out of Dingle on the day but this year I decided to volunteer.

I was on the last water station along with some 4th year students (Transition year), there was also 2 Civil Defence (First Aid) Personnel and 2 Search and Rescue Personnel, they were there to help with road closures. We even had our own "dunny"!

But what made the day were the runners themselves.

Our water station was the last before the finish line, the runners still had just over 3 mile to go, but it was at the top of a really steep climb and still they had a smile and a joke to share with us as they sweated, drank and left a line of part empty bottles in their wake.

I suppose what gave me the incentive to volunteer was that my sister and some of her friends walked the 13.1miles, I also had a nephew and BIL run the half marathon.

 

I will certainly be helping again next year if I am free.

 

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Now onto what this blog is mainly about - Paper Crafting.

 

This is a card I made this card for a friend in Germany just because I wanted too. lol

 

Most of the papers I used came with a magazine I purchased some time ago. I knew that Maria liked butterflies so this paper suited her. The center butterfly is a spellbinders die, inked using distressed inks and then "blinged" up with glitter and some adhesive gems. I also added gems to the holes in the edging around the "V" on the card. The sentiment is computer generated and cut out using another spellbinder die and again inked with distressed ink. The sentiment reads "{Hugs}".

Recipe:

Designer paper: Freebie with magazine

Punch: Martha Stewart, Scallop

Ink: Ranger Distressed Inks

Bling: Adhesive gems.

Butterfly: Spellbinders Butterfly 2 shapeability

 

 

Hope you like,

What a month....

Hi all,

Where do I start? Not a lot has happened since I was last here, but time has just zoomed by. Here I am near the last days of August and not much to show for it. I have been busy working and then Sonny and I went visiting family for a week. I have also been crafting but cannot show all as it is a secret!

Here are some things that I can show. First up is a wedding card, I started this sometime in July but finished it in August.

 

I embossed some cream linen effect card and distressed it with Antique Linen distress ink, wrapped some green ribbon on the bottom, then mounted it onto gold card which I have edged with Martha Stewart Scallop dots punch. I mounted all this on to a square kraft card base. The image I used was a Pink Petticoat image, I left this plain except for highlighting the flowers with pink and green pencil and pink Sukura pen, I mounted this at an angle onto the card, just for effect.

Recipe:
Card base: KraserKraft square base 13.5x13.5cm (5.31"x5.13")
Gold card: Stash
Ribbon: Lidle's Christmas Ribbon pack
Image: Pink Petticoat "Lola Rose big day"
Embossing Folder: Provocraft D'vine swirl
Colouring Mediur: Pencils and Sukura Pen, Ink - Ranger Distressed Ink "Antique Linen"

Second, is a baby card.

For some reason there has been a lot of boy babies born this year. It seems to be a ratio of 3:1, boys to girls around here. Pity all the girls in about 20 yrs time! lol.

I printed out a giraffe, coloured it using Promarkers and cut it out. I highlighted the mane, tail and hooves using Anitas glossy accents. I mounted it onto blue core'dination card stock, Mother Nature elements collection, - love the colours in this pack - and distressed the edges with tumbled glass distress ink, then corner punched diagonal corners to soften the image. I used the same core'dination cardstock to layer onto a white card, onto this I layered some contrasting blue Papermania "Sweet Nothing" paper one vertically and one horizontally I inked all the edges using the same distress ink just to pull them all together. I mounted the giraffe onto this and added some card candy in contrasting pale yellow. 

Recipe:
Card Base: White Greeting cards 12.7x17.8cm (5"x7")
Backing Paper: Core'dinations "Super Assortments" Elements Mother Nature
Designer Paper: Papermania "Sweet Nothings"
Ink: Ranger Distressed Ink "Tumbled Glass"
Image: Google
Embellishments: Card Candy


Hope you like,

No eye candy, just words....

Today is 31st of July, it is in my (school) books the last day of Summer, but what a day, it looked and sounded like November, all except the temperature.  The wind howled, the rain lashed against the windows but it was still warm enough to wear a t-shirt.

Did you ever feel like you had to get away, even just for a few hours?
Well I do, every so often I need a break. I love where I live, love the sea and the mountains - even on November days, lol.
So that's what I did today after work.
I needed to get the car insured instead of doing it on-line I drove to the brokers about 40mins away, not too far but away from here!

Sonny came with me.
Up to a few months ago the car was a place we could just chat, listen to the radio or some music, just spend some time together but not now,
 he is a teenager.
 So while I drove and listened to the Beatles on CD he sat in the front passenger seat with the hood of his jacket up, head-phones on, and his sun-glasses,  remember the day is like November, wet and dull. And hardly a word between us. It was funny really.
How they change, from boy to teenager, almost over night!

On our way back we stopped at Inch Beach, it is a beautiful sandy beach that stretches for miles, like a finger out into Dingle Bay. This is Sonny's favourite beach and it was his intention to go for a run but when we got there it was so wet and windy he decided not to, so instead we went for dinner! From fitness to filling in one foul swoop. lol
We sat by the window looking out at the wet, the sea with its thundering waves and the wind-surfers dancing over them almost fluidly. We watched the seagulls glide effortlessly in the wind, while little birds on the ground were been (almost) blown over. We watched people dressed in winter gear heading out for a walk and young children running in from the sea in their swimming gear after been tossed about in the shallows - after all it is their summer holidays!

Quite an interesting sight really.

Now I as sitting here listening to the wind and rain as I am sure I will do for many months to come.

STRANGE WEATHER

The seasons as I knew them
Have simply gone away
They all seem to come now
In or around just one day

Spring arrived yesterday tea time
Then summer arrived with the moon
Autumn in the earlier hours of this morn
And winter came today around noon                                                        by Luckilye

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,

Quick Hello

Hi all,

This is going to be short and sweet today. I have not made any cards lately to show you so what I am doing today is show some card that I received from lovely friends.

First up is a friendship card from Maria.

Second is a card I received from my Secret Pal over on PCP. I will not know until December who she is but she has sent me some lovely cards since last January.

This is a photo of the prize I received for winning the May Challenge on PCP. It only arrived yesterday and I cannot wait to get "messing" with it.

Hope you like,

So what's new?

Off today, so I will catch up with you all.

Not much happening in my little world, weather all over the place but not much summer here.  Haven't even been to the beach this year! What's that about?

Have you ever heard the saying "if you want something done, ask someone who is busy" don't know where it comes from but is so true.

For most of the past 6 years I have not been working and have been getting lazier and lazier by the year, seriously. Everything gets put on the long finger because it could be done tomorrow. But as I have been working for the past week and a half, yep that's all, but I have gotten more house work done in that time than I have in the previous month. Today I am off and this morning I was out gardening, well clearing rubbish from borders that were meant for flowers at one time. That was something that I had intended to do early in spring so I could have some colour in the garden this year other than green and yellow - weeds and dandelions. :) Won't have much colour this summer either but at least I have started something. Even worked in the rain. Go me!!!!!!

******************

Last post I mentioned that I had taken part in two tea swaps and showed what I had received and sent in the first swap. This time I am going to show the second swap.  The criteria for this swap was "Tea Pots"

This is the card I received.

And the inside,

I forgot to take a photo of the card I sent out, but have asked the recipient to send me a copy of the photo she took of it, once i get it I will upload to here. It was a cute card even if I say so myself. lol


Hope you like,

Catching up.

Hi,

I have a few things to say first:
I want to thank all my followers, readers and commenter's here, I love hearing what you have to say and it makes my day when I read your comments.
Second, sorry for not reading and commenting on the blogs that I usually do but I have been working for the past week and just don't have the time that I did, to follow up on all the blogs.
It is great to be working again even if it is only for a few weeks.

I actually have some cards, to share with you tonight and I will keep some until tomorrow or Sunday, just to keep you following! hehe.

Over on PCP there is a Tea Party Group and they have swaps once a month and I have taken part in 2 of the 3 swaps so far.  This is a strange group to have on a crafting site but it is surprising how many enjoy the cuppa while crafting.

This is the card I made for my first swap. The criteria was to include, 2 different samples of tea along with something nice to eat! And as it was in summer, flowers had to be included somewhere on the project.

I used DoCrafts "Hot Diggity Dog" by Andrea Jayne designer paper as the main focus for this swap. I folded it into a "Tea Bag Baggie" I used a template from Watlzingmouse Stamps.
On the front is an image of a teacup, which I cut out using my nestabilities circles, I inked this with Tattered Rose distressed ink. I mounted this onto a scalloped circle die cut also from my nestabilities set. The "Baggie" is closed with a white brad. The tea bags themselves are wrapped in other designer paper, K&Company Designer paper which I have for so long I have no idea where I purchased. These are tied with bakers twine.

On the back is just a flower Rosette which I make from Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Designer Paper.

I, in turn, received these from "RATS" (not real name!). This is the front, isn't the little teapot charm the cutest?

and it opens to this,

Recipe:
Designer Paper: DoCrafts - Hot Diggity Dog by Andrea Jayne, Cosmo Cricket - Early Bird, K&Company.
Baggie template: Waltzingmouse Stamps.
Colouring Medium: Distress Inks - Tattered Rose, ProMarkers.
Miscellaneous: Brad - No idea, Bakers Twine - PCP Secret Pall 1st.

Hope you like,