...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.