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....

Crafting while camping?!

Hello!

Hope you are enjoying the summer. Here in Ireland we have a few days of summer, and then Winter takes over!! With all the "summer" activities going on, I'm finding I have so many photos and trips to journal/scrap about. Keep a watch on this space for some scrapbooking adventures!

We recently went camping, a first time as a family to Westport House, Co. Mayo, Ireland. My husband and I camped around New Zealand in 2003, but with kids it's very different! Priorities change, and this time the best camping spot was the one closest to the kids sand pit play area!

If you are ever in the West of Ireland, near Westport, Westport House is a definite must. It is built in rememberance of Grace O'Malley, on the same land of her tower, by her ancestors. Such magnificent house and gardens.

I am so tempted when going camping, to bring some crafting supplies with me. This time I didn't bring any, and I was quite glad not to have. We had quite a few torrential showers, and I didn't fancy having to protect any paper supplies from the wet west weather. Do you ever craft while camping?!

 After all the camping adventures, on my return I was able to craft in my dry room!! I made for my neighbour.

I used a 5x7" Kraft card (I'm particularly in love with this tone of card ;) ) and used some of My Mind's Eye paper collection to layer up.

I die cut and stamped the sentiment and used a beautiful Prima Pebbles Cailioux.

Hope you have a wonderful day, and do you ever craft while camping?

Eithne :)

Good day sunshine :)

Hello, and hope this July day is finding you well and your summer is going great. I have been quiet the last few months here on my blog, but busy crafting away in the background. So much to craft, so little time!

Here is a card I made for the July challenge over at Craft for the Craic. This month's challenge is Summer Time, how ever you decide to interpret it.

A few years back, I very luckily won a blog candy from the wonderful Sheena. I used the beautiful Tilda stamps a few times, but never blogged about them. Recently I have been using my ink pads correctly (ie the water resistant ones I've been using with water colours, and not wondering why the ink was bleeding!!) and it has opened up a whole new world (a lightbulb moment ;) )

So I stamped this Tilda girl, and decided to use my inktense pencils to colour her in on the watercolour paper. I then used some watercolours paints for the water and sand, and added in a bit of glitter and heat embossing for the sea foam.

I used a broken scissors to roughen the edge, and layered it on black card. With a few scraps from my desk I layered up the lovely pinks in the background.

I then stamped the sentiment, and die cut it out. I used a pen to outline the frame of the die cut.

I recently went to a class with Finnabair and was so inspired by her, I bought some of the Art Basics 3D Matte Gel, which I used with a stencil to make the textured dot background. (I can also say I'm using the gel on EVERY.SINGLE.PROJECT since! ;) )

I really enjoyed making this card, along with the new techniques I used and learned from.
If you are crafting why not join in the challenge?
I hope to enter a few challenges with this card.
Simon Says Stamp = Wednesday challenge - Sparkle and Shine (glitter as the foam in the sea)
Southern Girls Challenge = Get Messy with Ink or Paint (Watercolour paints for the sea and sand)
Magnolias Midweek Challenge = Embossing (the foam on the sea was embossed)
The Sisterhood of Crafting = Summer Heat
Kraftin' Kimme Stamps - Wonderful Wednesday
Crafting by Designs - Summer Holidays
Fantastic Tuesday - A Day at the Beach
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Build it Up
Thanks for stopping by,
Eithne

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 :)

Good day sunshine!

Hello and happy Wednesay to you :) We are being treated to a glorious day of sunshine here in  Ireland after the weeks of rain and gale force winds!

Today I would like to show you a layout I created and framed for a present. It includes a photo of my two cheeky girls ;)

Recipe:

7 Dots Studio - Night's Fever paper for right background

Tim Holtz Sizzix Honeycomb die

KaiserCraft Clear Stamps "You!"

Project Life Journal card (numbered 1-9 on Left side)

From my stash:

Red card to layer the photo, buttons and gems.

Thank you so much for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful day :)

Eithne

Floral Best Wishes Card!

Hello! Hope you are enjoying the long weekend :) we are having a repeat of Winter here in Ireland!!!

This month over at Eclectic Ellapu the challenge is Anything Goes for the Pink Team.

This is the card I made for the challenge. It is a card for a friends wedding coming up.

 

Using some kraft card as a base, I followed it over to an A5 size and used a 6" x 6" sheet of paper pad, cutting it with a wavy blade on the guillotine. With a combination of die cuts and punches I layered the paper/card on the left side.

I used a selection of skeleton leaves, flowers and embellishments to decorate the card.

If you are crafting this month, why not enter the challenge?

Thanks so much for popping by,

Have a great 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 :)