Love

Hello! Hope your week is going well :) I am counting down the days until my eldest girl finishes school for the summer. Can't wait to have the relaxed, stress free days :) We are having glorious *summer* weather, which always helps everyones moods!! :)

Today I am showing a project that has been in my head for quite some time. I eventually took the *plunge* and started on this project, slightly smaller than an A4 (208mm x 270mm).
 Two years back I attended Ania's classes in Newbridge. As part of the classes we got some materials to do some projects with. Well to my shame, I have not been able to bring myself to use them since the class! I love the colours and found it desperately hard to force myself to cut on some of the papers. But with a new focus, to use all the beautiful supplies I have, I have started using my pretty papers.

This is a mixed media project I completed. I am hoping to frame it, and possibly add more text to it. I am just practicing my scripty writing and trying to think of something *UBER* inspiring first!!

I used watercolours paint and watercolour crayons for the blue evening (sun-setting) sky. I drew and cut out all the houses from some 7 Dots paper, and stuck them down with some paste/glue. Next I drew and cut out the hills. I went over the hills with some watercolour crayons, and then blended them altogether with water. When they were dry, I drew the designs on with permanent marker. I also used a white permanent marker to add some details to all the designs.

Then I deliberated for a few days. I knew I wanted to add a tree to the left side, but wasn't sure whether I would paint it or fussy cut it. Painting won over, so I mixed some red and green acrylic paint together to come up with the shade. Of course my painting supplies are limited, (ie non existent) and I had to raid my children's painting stash for a paintbrush :/ Needless to say, the quality was pretty poor and the tree did not have as much detail as I would have liked. The edges were not very defined, so I went over them with a gold marker to add definition. I highlighted a few other details as well.

While I had acrylic paint out, I used some white to add the clouds in. I fussy cut out a stencil, and sprayed the tree with some mists.

I only have blue and yellow, so I sprayed the blue mist first and then the yellow on top. It gave a yellow tinge towards the edge, which was perfect - nearly like a sunset glow. I added some jewels to the tree for interest and dimension, and added some butterflies on the right of the night sky. I used a wooden embellishment "LOVE" to ground the tree ;)

With all the watercolouring and gluing used, the board is slightly buckled. When it is framed hopefully the pressing from the glass and backing board will reduce the buckling, but if you know of any magic solutions, please be sure to share them with me!!!! :)

Supplies used:
Paper for the hills - 7 Dots Studio - Nights Fever Dreamers Collection
Paper for the houses - 7 Dots Studio - Sweet Dreams Dreamers Collection, Domestic Goddess Over Used Tablecloth & Kitchen Wallpaper. (It is a little bit difficult to see the papers, as I went a bit heavy handed over with the designs ;)  )
Wood Embellishments (LOVE) by Prima Marketing Inc
Some embellishments I had in my stash
Gold, Black and White permanent markers.

I hope to enter this into the following challenges:
7 Dots Studio - Tree


Simon Says Stamp - Use Paste 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Favourite Technique and/or product (at the minute my watercolour crayons are my favourite product and hand drawn designs are my favourite technique)


Thanks so much for popping by.
Have a wonderful day,
Eithne :)

Best Wishes Card

Hello and hope your Friday is going well. Over at Craft for the Craic this month, the challenge is "Wings". 

Today I am showing a card I made with a combination of stamps, dies, papers, embellishments and an embossing folder!

I die cut a heart out of some Kraft card, and then embossed the rest of the sheet of card. This was layered onto some beautiful My Minds Eye "Oliver" glittery paper.

I used the house, windows and doors from the Simon Says Stamp "Where the Heart is" collection. I used some Promarkers to colour them in to add some colour that would co-ordinate with the rest of the card. (I only recently bought some Promarkers, so this is my first project to colour with them yet...!!)

I used some blue and cream embellishments - a butterfly bead (Wings), flat backed pearls, buttons, beads to add some detail on the embossed card.

I then die cut a frame from some more My Minds Eye "Oliver" paper, and also cut the banner. I used a stamp set I got free with a magazine for the sentiment and used a wooden veneer heart for the right hand side.

This card is for some friends who recently moved house. If you are crafting and it matches the theme for Craft for the Craic, why not give the challenge a go?!
I am going to enter the card into the following challenges -
Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge SSS Brand Product (The house stamp is from the "Where the Heart is" set)
Wags 'n' Whiskers - Lots of Layers
Creative Card Crew - Embossing
Whimsy Images - Colour an Image

Thanks for Stopping by,
Hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Eithne :)

Something suitable for a child

Hello! Hope your Friday is going well :) I've been very busy lately with Birthdays! My youngest daughter will be 3 next week, so just one more birthday hurdle to go ;) For my eldest girls birthday, she wanted to decorate the cake - so after a morning of roll out icing shaping, this was the finished look!

Don't you just love when kiddies help decorating?!!!??!?!?!!! It tasted delicious, we are especially partial to cream and jam sponge! Yum yum!


Anyway, enough thinking of cakes! ;) This week over at Craft for the Craic I am posting for the mid month inspiration. This is my card:

 I was commissioned a while back to make a card for an 8 year old girl, this is what I came up with. The girl loved it, and she particularly loved the fairy, as she got a fairy door as a birthday present.

I used a series of punching, embossing, die cutting, and sticking down some embellishments along with my favourite embellishment - WASHI tape! I am in love with washi tape, if you haven't noticed from my previous projects ;) :)

Why not pop over and give the challenge a go? Don't forget about our wonderful GIVEAWAY sponsored by Mixed Media Place - "Early Fall" kit. Look at that fabulous kit. You can enter here to be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize.

Have a wonderful Friday, and if you have a Bank Holiday I hope you enjoy it also.

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy crafting,

Eithne ;)

"Through a chink too wide.....

... there comes no wonder..."

Advent by Patrick Kavanagh

This week over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges, the new challenge is "butterflies and other garden lovelies" The kind sponsor is Floppy Latte, offering $6 coupon for the winner.

I have changed teams, so I am now on team B. This is my first week on Team B! This is my card for the challenge:

I used the lovely digi image as a second layer, die cutting a circle out to look in. It reminded me of spying on some delicate butterflies or birds through a chink in the garden fence. The Patrick Kavanagh poem, Advent, lent to the title perfectly!

I used some pencils to colour in the digi image.

The side strip is a piece of printed vellum. Then I used a styled label to place my sentiment and quilled petals on top.

I used part of a scalloped lace die to partially frame the die cut circle. Using some gems, I added a bit of bling to the front!

Hope you like my card, if you use this digi leave me a comment and I would love to see what you make with it. Why not give the Through the Purple Haze challenges a go?

These are the challenges I would like to enter my card into:
C is for Challenge - Fresh and Bright (15/8/13)
Crafty Boots Challenges - Die Cuts (18/8/13)
Eureka Stamps - Blooms and Blossoms
Pink by Design - Round out your summer (11/8/13)
Simon Says Stamp - Use your dies 


Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful day :)
Eithne