Ahoy There Matey...

It's my little nephew's 3rd birthday tomorrow and after our team lost the All Ireland final on Sunday, I decided to steer clear of the gaelic football theme...

So I decided to go with a hearty pirate theme!

Here's my card:

I used the fabulous "Captain Scurvy" from Kraftin' Kimmie and I coloured him with my copics. The die cut letters are from a Sizzix set called "Tina thinks you're cute" - strange name, but that's what it's called!

The papers I used are My Mind's Eye - The Spiders Web, Cauldron Bubbles and Witch's Lace. The wee bit of map is from Crafty Bitz. I wrapped some thin leather for making jewellery around it.

I used the papers again on the inside

I also made a tag to match

Again, I used stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie, coloured with Copics.

And here's the set

I'm entering this into the following challenges;
2 Sketches 4 You, A great sketch
Copic Creations, Shading on and around images - not sure if there's a limit to how often you can enter...
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, Mostly black and white
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, Anything goes
The ABC Challenge, D for distressing

I hope you like it, thanks for dropping by!

Up Down!!

We have a big weekend this weekend - It's the All Ireland Final, the senior gaelic football championship final and our county is in it for the first time in 16 years! I remember being at the final the last time we won it in 1994 and the excitement was electric!
County Down's colours are red and black - my 2 favourite colours - and the whole county is covered with flags and banners and paint - lots of buildings have been decorated especially - it's brilliant to see everyone with All Ireland Fever!
I just got my ticket last night for Croke Park and I can't wait to see Down beat Cork! Fingers crossed anyway!

It's also my Da's birthday today, so I made a card appropriate for the weekend!

Of course I used our county colours!

I used a download from Mo's digital pencil and I blanked the football out of the main image so as I could place it like it has just been kicked. I coloured it with my copics.

I didn't use any design papers as such, but the holey paper is from Creative Imaginations. The die cut swirl is a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the red block to tie in with the circles from the rest of the card.

The inside is just red and black again!

It's also my nephews 3rd birthday on wednesday, but he's having his party today (which I'm now late for! :P) So I thought I'd stick with the theme and make a tag for the part of his present that I'm giving him today - it's a wee mini Down football strip! so cute!

Another image from Mo and also coloured with copics. The ribbons are from a collections of ribbons I bought ages ago and never use cos they're so narrow, but they're perfect for a tag.

These two projects fit a few challenges:
Alphabet Challenge Blog; U for unused stash (the ribbon on the tag)
Copic Creations; Shading on and around images
Creative Inspirations; Tag It
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge; Anything goes (I actually followed the sketch from last weeks challenge but didn't get it blogged on time, so lucky that I can still enter this week!)
Simon Says; Move it (that ball won't move by itself!)
Stampin' For The Weekend; Tag it

That's it, I hope you like it. Thanks for dropping by!

Oh, and..... UP DOWN!!!!

An Anniversary

Yesterday was my sister and brother-in-law's fourth wedding anniversary - how time flies! I remember the day well, right from being 40 minutes late to the church to persisting and keeping my shoes on my aching feet til the very end of the night! T'was a great day!

Anyway, this is my card, I followed the beautiful sketch from this weeks Just Magnolia challenge.

I've only just realised that the green colour matches the colour my bridesmaid dress was on the day! I should really say that was intentional! lol!
I used this lovely Tilda and masked her off to get the Magnolia heart in the background. I coloured her with my precious Copics. I tried a new technique when I coloured this one, and I think I like it better. Rather than starting with the lightest shade and working my way up to the darkest and then blending with the lightest shade again, I started with the darkest shade and worked my way down to the lightest shade, blending as I went.

I cut the image with my nesties using the Out of the box technique and then, before I removed the image from the nestie, I shaded around the image with distress inks.
I struggled to find something round that was the right size for the large circle. The only thing I could come up with was a saucer, which was still a bit too big, so I used the saucer as a guide and drew a smaller circle just inside and cut that out. As my cutting of circles is not the best (lol) I used a distressing tool to rough up the edges of the circle and that disguises my bad cutting nicely!
I stamped the heart into the corners of the base card using Versamark to give a watermark look and added some pearls from Wild Orchid Crafts

I made the flower out of organza which I cut into various sized circles and singed the edges with a candle, sewed them together and added a little bead to the centre. I saw a demo for it somewhere and while back, I'll have to have a think where that was.
The flourish is a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die that I love! I also added a few brown skeleton leaves.

A fairly simple inside, just a couple of nestie shapes to follow through from the front and a few pearls to finish it off.

This card fits with quite a few challenges;
Just Magnolia, Sketch
Scrappy Frogs, make your own flower
The ABC Challenge, D for distressing
Totally Tilda Challenge, make your own flowers
Charisma Cardz, try something new (my new colouring technique and the flower)
Copic Creations, shading on or around your image

That's me, I hope you like it. Thanks for dropping by!

Birthday Mermaid

We had a very emotional weekend in our house. Our cat, Bush, was killed on Friday night. She had been part of the family for almost 13 years and had gone through a rough time of it.
She lost an eye and damaged her back legs in 2001 after being hit by a car. I spent a lot of time with her then as she was nursed back to relative health. She became very petted on me and when I moved out to my own house in 2003 she missed me at home and would've been searching for me. She seemed to have developed her own language and had different meows for different requests!
Then in 2007, on the same day my nephew was born, she was hit by another car. This time she lost her tail and broke her leg, requiring a pin. Again, it was me who nursed her back to health. We tried to keep her in the house but she loved to get outside to go for a ramble and it was more cruel to try to keep her in.
She seemed to know the sound of my car as she would appear out of the bushes whenever I would arrive. She was such a wee flirt too!
She was a lovely pet and she will be sadly missed.

Onto my card...
I made this card for a friends birthday

I used the lovely Magnolia mermaid from the last set that I got (I've lost track which one it is!)

I coloured her with my copics and I used a brayer on the background. I painted Tilda's tail and the bubbles with my glittery paint from Stampin' Up! (which I can't remember the name of! Oops!)

I added the sentiment onto the ribbon to give it a wavy look. I can't remember the name of the paper, but I think it's Basic Grey - I'll check when I get home.

And this is the inside, the seahorse was also coloured with copics.

This card fits this weeks challenge at Craft Your Days Away which is Girly 'N' Glitter.

I hope you like it, thanks for looking!

Starting to feel human again!

What a week!
I spent last weekend in Belgium at the Formula One and it was brilliant!

We left late on Wednesday night (last week) and were on the track for the pit walk on Thursday!

I met Lotus driver Jarno Trulli

I was on pole position!

The whole weekend was fantastic - even with the rain! And boy did it rain!

I got to see my 2 favourite drivers race this year (neither of them were there last year)

All time favourite, Michael Schumacher

And current favourite (bordering on obsession!) Felipe Massa

As well as a few other beauties!

This is me and my brother on the run off area at La Source - the first corner, with the start/finish straight in the background and the run down to Eau Rouge behind us

And here's just a bit more rain if you didn't get that it was wet!

We woke up at 6am Belgian time (5am our time) on monday morning and didn't get to bed until 1pm on Tuesday and I couldn't really sleep, even after being awake for 32 hours! So I'm just starting to get into a routine now.

Over-all, a very tiring, wet and noisy weekend, but I enjoyed every minute of it!

Bye for now!