Summer Breeze with Craft for the Craic!

Hello! Happy Sunday to you :) over at Craft for the Craic this month, the challenge theme is Summer Breeze. I have been working a lot on crochet lately than paper crafts. There have been a lot of new babies, and I have been making baby blankets! This one I made for my friends baby girl -

I recently printed myself some tags for my crochet, and they have been a Godsend! I left them pretty bare purposely, so I can decorate them as I need them.

This blanket is made up of granny squares crocheted together. I can't resist the colours. They are so summery and cheery. I made sure to have loads of pinks in, and I love the brightness of it!

If you are crafting and it suits the theme, why not give it a go? You can link up here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Love and light to you, wherever you are <3

Eithne :)

Luck of the Irish :)

Hello! Happy New Year!!!! Two months later ;) I haven't been blogging much lately, enjoying too many great television series and crocheting! You can check out some of my unblogged crafts on my Instagram account. In the future there may be some calligraphy coming up, I got some beautiful Calligraphy pens at Christmas and have been doing a bit of doodling.

More to follow!!

Today, I am showing you a card I made for my brother, and for the Craft for the Craic's March theme - "Luck of the Irish". In the middle of March, we celebrate our Patron Saint's Day, St. Patrick or Paddy's Day (*NOT* Patty's Day ;)  ) and our theme is "Luck of the Irish". You can interpret the theme, as usual, anyway you like!

My brother recently changed career paths, so I made him a card to wish him luck on his new journey!

The base was a kraft A5 card, and I used some papers from My Minds Eye 6x6 paper pad - "Follow Your Heart". I absolutely LOVE this paper pack. Love the different colours and how they all combine so well together. (it does help I'm particularly partial to teal and tan lately ;) ) I am forever on the look out for more of this paper, only problem is I noticed a spelling mistake on one of the quotes. I contacted the manufacturer and they said they were not reprinting the paper pad. :(  I will need to look out for old stock and ignore my OCD urge to correct the mistake!

I also used some embossed vellum paper, a kraft tag, some blue raffia, some cork and chipboard embellishments. 

 I stamped a few different stamps in brown ink, to the background layer.

 

I did some doodling around the edge of the tag in a gold pen and added some raffia to the twine to lift the colour.

Thank you for stopping by today, and hope your Friday goes well :) If you are crafting and it matches the theme, why not enter our challenge over at Craft for the Craic. 

I am entering this card in the Simon says Stamp challenge - Touchy Feely (the embossed vellum and all the chipboard embellishments)

Lá Fhéile Pádraig duit! (Happy St. Patrick's Day)

Happy Crafting,

Mise le meas,

Eithne

End of month inspiration over at Craft for the Craic

Hello! Happy Friday to you! Can you believe it's the last Friday in August? This week has been pretty chaotic, my eldest daughter went back to school, my second girl started playschool and my husband started a new job, having changed careers to become a teacher. All school based this week! Thank God for the weekend ;)
I'm posting a card I made for my husband, before starting his new job.

This month over at Craft for the Craic this is the photo inspiration. I chose to let the greens inspire my card.

I wanted to avoid the "good luck" messages, so chose a more thought provocative one from KaiserCraft.

I decided to use up a selection of my off cuts (scraps - don't tell my husband ;) ) that worked well together.

I die cut some vellum and embossed it with my heart folder, it complemented the heart die cut. I used Versafine Sepia ink to stamp the sentiment onto some kraft card I had, and used some kraft card to layer the two lime green papers. I used a top folding cream card, 6" square.

Thank you for stopping by today, do you ever get to use up your scraps/off cuts?

Have a great Friday, and if you are crafting, why not give the challenge a go?

Eithne

Craft for the Craic: August Challenge - Photo Inspiration

Check out the new challenge over at Craft for the Craic with a photo of my "wild" garden for inspiration! ( *PLEASE do NOT look for the weeds ;) ;) )

Craft for the Craic: August Challenge - Photo Inspiration:



Hello, and happy Friday to you! Hope the summer where you are is better than the Irish one....

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 ;)

Craft for the Craic's May Challenge

Hello and welcome :) Hope you are enjoying your Friday, wherever you are :) Today the new challenge for Craft for the Craic goes live, and the theme this month is 'Something for a baby'.

At the beginning of last month, my niece Anna was born. I made this for her, and that in time she could put it up in her bedroom.

I used a combination of papers, tore them and stuck them onto some cream board at the back. It created a patchwork affect. Then I punched the elephant paper into the circle, inked it and stuck it down in the middle. Using two different tones of vellum, I created an area for Anna's name to go. I cut out Anna's name with the same board as per the base (although it is rather hard to see, it is so well covered ;) ) I sewed some pink thread up each side, and stuck down a serious of buttons, gems and other bling.

I created this flower with some quilled paper and a flower embellishment.

My aim is to make Anna's older sister, a similar, but not so 'babyish' one, so in years to come when they are sharing a bedroom, it will be fair!! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hoped you like my creation. Why not pop over to Craft for the Craic and join in, in the challenge?
I hope to enter a few challenges.

Have a brilliant weekend, in Ireland we have a long weekend! Woohoo!!
Happy Crafting,
Eithne

CFTC - Something for Easter or Spring

Hello, and happy Friday!! :) Can you believe it is April already? Where are the weeks going. Here in Ireland we have been enjoying snippets of spring/summer weather. It is such a tease, but a great way to ease us into a nice (hopefully) summer!!

This month's challenge over at Craft for the Craic, is Something for Easter or Spring. As usual, the themes are very broad to allow for a range of crafts to enter. Why not give it a go?

This month I made a card, with some Spring colours and floral papers which remind me of Spring.

I used some distress ink, and a stencil to ink up the background. Then used a combination of handmade papers, printed papers, washi tape, greyboard and some embellishments to finish off the card.

I left the card with no sentiment, as I'm between minds what occasion it is for. 

Why not pop over and join in in the challenge?

I am entering this card into the

Simon says challenge blog - birthday challenge http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-happy-birthday/

Thanks for stopping by,

Eithne :)

Craft for the Craic Challenge #2

Hello, thank Crunchie it's Friday :D :D :D Today the new challenge over at Craft for the Craic begins. This month, in honour of St. Patrick, our Irish patron saint, the theme is:

Our challenges are open to ANYTHING crafty or arty - cardmaking, scrapbooking, altered art, crochet, knitting, sewing, baking, painting, drawing, candle making, jewellery making, whatever makes you craft or be creative we would like to see it!

I made a folder as a gift for a friend. (they have yet to receive it as I'm making cards to fit inside!)

This started out as a rather large sheet of SRA3 card (450mm x 320mm) which I then folded and cut down to the final size of 260mm x 150mm.

Here are some side profile pictures.

I round cornered the edges, and corner punched some green card for the front. I die cut a doily from a Sizzix Bigz die.

I then proceeded to embellish - 

I embossed a tag, and used a wooden word 'live' to it. I undid the twine on the tag and threaded through a flower and button.

I used a strip of the left over base card for the punched border in the background.  I punched and die cut some flowers of different shapes and designs, layered them and used either flat backed pearls, buttons or swirls as the centre piece.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Why not visit the rest of the design teams projects -

Michelle - Emily - Katya - Geraldine - Pixie/Margaret - Sylvie

or give the challenge a go?

Have a wonderful Friday and a fantastic weekend :)

Happy crafting,

Eithne :)

Craft for the Craic #1

Hello again,
Hope you are enjoying your weekend :)
Here is a step by step of the card I made for the first challenge on the new challenge blog I started, Craft for the Craic. Have a look at Michelle's beautiful projects and why not take part?!

This is the card I made, it's an A5 landscape card. First I used some distress ink and a mask to do the dots on the background.

With a heart doily I inked the edges with the same ink. Using my nested dies, I cut out the largest heart shape and a smaller one within the large heart. Roughened the edge of the heart with a broken scissor (very advanced tools I use :D ) and then inked the edges with the same distress ink as per the background and doily.

 I also die cut out the doily from a different paper pad that had complementary shades. 

I got these beautiful wooden words as a Christmas present, and couldn't wait to use them on a project! It worked really well with the colours and shades of this card.

 I am a huge fan of washi tape. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! This is a roll I got to push myself out of my usual colour comfort zone. The shades of peachy/pink and light teal are not a colour combo I would use often, if ever, so it was a great way to adventure with it. I cut the arrow edge on it, and did the inverse of it on the top left hand corner (photo below)

I couldn't make a card without some buttons, so I glued some in the middle of the die cut heart. I remember years ago some bride-to-be informed me that, anything wedding wise/love should have three - it represents three words 'I love you'. But alas, I am not that romantically-inclined and just felt the uneven number suited the look of the card!! :D

Thanks for stopping by, and would love you to join in the challenge.

Have a wonderful, crafty day :D

Eithne