...an Open House card

I absolutely love the Boards and Beams stamp set from PapertreyInk and I wanted to make a wee card using the Palette chocolate ink. I also wanted to use a little of the ribbon I bought in Westport, Mayo when I was there recently. I liked the cream, aqua and brown colour combination.

I stamped the house in chocolate ink onto patterned paper (Basic grey) and then stamped it again onto cream cardstock - I cut the shutters and door from the cream image and stuck them to the Aqua house for a little interest.

I punched curved slots to poke my ribbon through - which I just folded back on itself to show off the pattern.

I shaped the text panel with a nestabilities die, and I stamped some polka dot basics (PTI stamp set) above and below the longer sentiment. I used versacolour celadon ink for this.

It's the sort of card I might give out to friends if I'm going to have a get together at my house.

Hope it tickles.

...something for the Bloghop

This was tough. I went through loads of ideas (most awful) before deciding to make a Christmas receipt keeper. I always end up losing the receipts for gifts that i buy people and sometimes those gifts need to be exchanged so I thought it would be a great idea to create somewhere to keep them. The CD case is fab because it is slim enough to fit in my bag (purse to all you American ladies) and sturdy enought to last a season at least.

I used a standard CD case (scavenged from a PTI stamp set which is temporarily homeless!) as I had already placed my PTI order before I read the bloghop challenge for this month. I can't wait to see what you ladies did with the Calendar CD cases!!

I managed to make a mini expanding file, a note card for keeping a reckoning of my spending and a little pencil which I stamped with snowflakes to match the theme. My pencil is a little slimmer than most to allow it to fit inside the CD case - I went rummaging through my girls' stationary drawer to get it - I think they're common enough.

My only regret is that I didn't have a 'Receipts' stamp or a 'notes' stamp - I'm waiting on the simple alphabet set from PapertreyInk (PTI) so I won't be caught out again. I used sentiments from the Believe set by PTI that seemed to work with the theme.

I used Basic Grey Papers that were sent to me by Beverly (Thank you again Beverly, they're yummy). The Stamps are from Believe and Snowflake Serenade sets by PTI. Inks I used were, Spring Moss and Dark Chocolate from PTI.

If you click on the pics they should get a bit bigger.

Hope you like this wee item - I think they might make good gifts. Thank you for stopping by.

...an award

A very dear lady called Mary gave me this award - Thank you Mary.


Here are the rules:

1) The winner can put the logo on their blog
2) Link the person you received your award from
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Put links of those blogs on yours
5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated

As usual - I'm going to chicken out of nominating just 7 people and invite you to browse any of the blogs on my list - they're all super. I'm intending to add a few more soon - I keep finding more great people!!!

Start with Mary K herself and I know a few nice comments might cheer her day - her little pet goldfish Sam passed on the other day.

I'm working away on the upcoming PapertreyInk bloghop challenge - Wow what a toughie!! Check out the link if you fancy playing along. Hopefully I'll have some cards to show you all soon.

...a few more snaps

I must apologise folks, I haven't made anything in a few days - I've been unpacking and then I caught a really yucky bug which I'm just begining to get over today. I'm miles behind with replying to comments and thanking you all for your lovely remarks.

So thanks to everyone who has visited my blog and/or left a comment - I thrive on your encouragement.

So I'm posting a few more holiday pics and hopefully I'll have some cards to show in a couple of days. While I was on holiday I kept a little notebook of ideas for things to make when I got back, hopefully I'll get working on them tomorrow.

From the top:
Carrowniskey Beach - this beach is vast, favoured by Surfers and local cows.
Carrowniskey Beach - the little guy is off to sort it all out.
Doolough
Another Sunset over clew Bay - I'm nearly sure that I read somewhere that the golden reflection of the setting sun on the water represented the path to the otherworld in Celtic mythology - don't quote me tho' - I have a sieve for a brain.

...a return

There really is something very special about Ireland - It's in the air and it's in the ground - you can breathe it and feel it. I just got back from two weeks in County Mayo - possibly my favourite part of Ireland, It has everything - beaches, mountains, history, it's all there - I'm working on a long term plan to move there (I've been working on this same plan for 12 years now.. you see where I'm going with this.)

Anyhow, I just got back a couple of hours ago - the flooding is incredible at the moment, we've had a few 'soft' days here lately.

I have a few pics to show you and one card - it's the card I made for the Guest star Stamper submissions for August over at PapertreyInk.

I used the recently released Quilters sampler stamp set. I made a little quilt by stamping the blocks onto fabric. I stamped a border using a Faux ribbons stamp. I coloured the quilt blocks using a soft pastel pencil to match the Aqua mist.

The quilt was backed in a floral fabric that matched Aqua Mist and the wadding is two layers of kitchen paper. I then quilted the quilt on my sewing machine. Attached to the front of the card over a piece of Dark Chocolate card that had been stamped in versamark with quilt blocks. The sentiment was manipulated to match the layout of the card. Everything was put on a base card of Aqua Mist.



I must've taken over 1000 photos while I was away - 985 of them feature my kids and husband - the rest I kept for you!! Lol. I won't bore you with them all now but expect a few to pop up now and again inbetween cards.

The first is Sunset over Clew Bay - they say there's an Island in Clew bay for every day of the year - I'm inclined to believe it.



The second picture is the River at Cong - the place where they filmed 'The Quiet Man' starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara - an absolute gem of a place - more pics of this will follow.




The third pic is Murrisk Abbey. Murrisk is a charming village at the foot of Croagh Patrick in Mayo (more on this later). The Abbey is a ruin now but has the remains of a fine window. The day was very overcast and on days like this I sometimes take Black and White photos as they seem a little more atmospheric. Hope you like them.

...a vellum Pocket Card

I've been dying to make a pocket card for ages - this one was inspired by Niki Estes fantastic dry embossing technique that she posted during blog hop night. Check it out here

I love the snowflakes in Snowflake Serenade ( PapertreyInk)and they seem perfectly suited to this technique. The Sentiment is from Holiday Wishes, also PTI. The papers I used were part of a goody stack sent to me by Beverly of Precious scraps - Thank you so much Beverly - they are gorgeous to work with.

Again this post is scheduled to go up on it's own - hope it works. I can't believe i'm going to miss the release party on PapertreyInk!!...

... a Bouquet

I'm on holidays at the moment and I've scheduled this post to go live on it's own - hope it works.

Recently Nichole Heady from PapertreyInk challenged everyone to use Vellum as part of their Blog hop project - I'm hooked on this fab material - I ran mine through a swiss dots embossing folder to make the Bouquet wrap. Love those wee dots.

I made this wee card for my mum. I was in flower mode after last weeks ribbon flowers - Hope it tickles.