Friday, July 19, 2013

long time no blogging...

... and apologies from me for not posting in ages! To all the friends and workshop ladies who I have come to know and have passed on their thoughts and kind words during the last few weeks, thanks from the bottom of my heart, they mean so much.

Two months ago, my Mom passed away to be with the angels, unexpectedly, but with little suffering. I was fortunate enough to fly to the UK from Ireland to be with her for a whole day, but the shock of what was to happen has been a lot to take in as it came suddenly. I am thankful for small mercies, that Mom didn't suffer long in hospital because she wouldn't have wanted that, and that I got to spend time with her too even if for a very short time.

Getting back to crafting has been hard going, but mr mojo is back now for the meanwhile and when the mood takes me.  My love of all things crafty, not just papercrafts, but drawing, painting, colouring, crochet, knitting and calligraphy, was instilled in me from a young age by a crafty Mom. I lost count of the number of colouring in books and bumper colouring crayon boxes I was proud to own and play with, the more colours, the bigger the surprise LOL! 

So thanks Mom, those years of scribbles led me to love what I do today, and I will use my spare hours to continue to create things I know you like to see :)

I have a few posts / cards to put on the blog, and will get around to doing these over the coming days, but in the meantime, I have started back with my workshops, so just posting an update for this month.

Marion in the Crafty Bride in Kilkenny wanted me to show some previews for the July workshop, so here is a little snippet. I will be making these projects in the Enniscorthy and Kilkenny workshops in July on 20th and 27th, so if you want to book a place, please contact me or Marion (head over to the workshops tab at the top of the blog for more info).


We will be making:
a gable box which is of course strawberry - themed given the season and big enough for 2 cupcakes!,
young baby and childrens' birthday cards,
punched die cut and embossed floral card and
simple and effective stamped summery card.

July 20th will be in Enniscorthy and Marina or Karl from Cottage Crafts Gorey will be there with the shop.
July 27th will be in Kilkenny at the Craft Bride Wedding studio with Marion Kilbride.

Any questions, just leave me a comment with your contact details (these comments do not automatically publish so your details will not be published).

I will end with a music video. We played this amazing music for the entrance to Mom's funeral service and the words best describe a little of my thoughts and feelings.



Life is for the living, make the most of every day!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

April workshop cards

Hi everyone, as promised here are the June workshop cards I am only getting around to post now. thanks again to all those who came and thanks for being so understanding with my having to change dates etc.

I don't have much time to blog for the foreseeable future, so I will show mainly photos, but if you want to know any more about products used on any cards, email me or leave a blog comment and I can reply.

A large boxed wedding card, measures around 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches




 We made our own flowers for this one using Spellbinders' bitty blossom dies



A5 black and white masculine card



The punch used for the border is a Martha Stewart flourish one.



A simple card made with the versatile crafts too Happy birthday folder and any of your little stamps, quick and easy to colour and the same image used inside




Stamping techniques including masking and  and introduction to '3D stamping' using one layer. I will do another project using this technique in a future workshop with more layers, I think its fantastic - decoupage for stampers or stamping for decoupage fans?!







... and last but not least some men's gardening cards with the season that's in it! the images are from Lili of the Valley (the little boy) and from Mo Manning (some of the Mo Manning are in rubber and I am thrilled about that!)



Loved making the faux carrots on these, MS branch punch, orange card, green thick paper and a wood grain embossing folder and hey presto!


  

Have some more to show but that's loads of photos for one post for now :)