North Antrim coast

 These are some photos I took on the way home from Ballycastle.

I'm glad there was no one else around (apart from David and Andrew) to hear the noises I had to make to get those cows to look up for the photo!

 We had company today - Andrew came along too :)

 Cushendun

 Sign still up from  festival in Cushendall two weeks ago

Ould Lammas Fair, Ballycastle

 Dulse and Yellow Man - staples of  the Ould Lammas Fair :)

I hadn't been to the Ould Lammas Fair for about 30 years but my lasting memory is the Dulse (seaweed) and Yellow Man (a chewy textured honeycomb) so I had to have some yesterday. 

This is the area at the back of the fair where the horse trading takes place.

The centre of the fair area always attracts a large crowd, apparently.

We arrived quite late in the afternoon as we were busy in the morning and had a picnic on the way, then sat in a traffic jam for over an hour trying to get into Ballycastle. I'm kind of glad we went but I think it might be a long time before I'd go back. I do love Ballycastle  but I love peace and quiet, scenery and animals in their natural environment. I enjoyed the rest of the evening better when we toured around the coast on the way home .

Thank You - Trimcraft

I had a card to make for a friend who is an estate agent so I chose the Trimcraft "Sail Away" papers with the houses and added various different Trimcraft dies - Scalloped Circles, Buildings, Locks and Keys, Traditional Sentiments and Foliage.

Just for fun

I was chatting away to my good friend Doda on Skype this morning as I was doing other things at the same time...like some die cutting, making up a picnic for later etc and she teased me about die cutting the lettuce! Well, this is the result. I should have taken a photo of the mess left behind on my die cutting plates - .eugh! Definitely not hygienic at all! Die and cutting plates are now washed, lettuce "flower" binned and I'm back to doing one thing at a time. 

I'm hoping to get to the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim today so may be back later with photos :)

Co. Down - Groomsport, Kearney and Portaferry

Groomsport

 We packed up a picnic for a late lunch today and headed off to Crawfordsburn this afternoon.After we'd eaten, we did a mini tour around the Ards Peninsula, down to Portaferry and back up through Newtownards to home.

Groomsport

 Groomsport

 Kearney

 Portaferry

The water was like a mirror.

Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine issue 161 - October

Issue 161 (October) of Cardmaking and Papercraft has just been delivered and I have some cards in the Quick Cards section this month.

I've just given sneak peaks as I can't show the whole cards....you need to go along to your newsagent!

There's plenty of super papercrafting ideas inside and a fantastic free gift of 4 foiled papers, two embossing folders and two beautiful festive stamps :)

Plaid Barnwood paint with stencils

 Good morning :) I've been trying out the new Barnwood Paint which I received from Plaid last week and I'm really impressed! It's got such a beautiful finish.

  I painted the dark Barnwood Tint on to an unfinished wooden heart...

...and then gave it a coat of the light coloured wax. Once this was buffed off with a kitchen towel the beautiful barnwood finish appeared :) The next stage is to scrape the excess wax off with a piece of plastic/wood in the direction of the grain to achieve the grainy barnwood effect.

 I used Glacier and Sheepskin Chalk Paint from Plaid to stencil the chicken wire and hen onto the heart.

These are the products which I used.

Demo in Craftworld, Belfast on Sat 3rd September

Good morning! I'll be demoing in Craftworld, Belfast on Saturday 3rd September (11.00am - 4.00pm) and will be using lots of beautiful new Christmas papers and dies from Trimcraft's new collections along with lots of gorgeous new Tonic Studios dies. All crafters are welcome. 

This card is one I made with Trimcraft's Magic and Sparkle collection which I'll be using in the demo day. Looking forward to seeing some of you there :)

Hope and Joy - Trimcraft's Christmas Promise papers

Hello - I'm sure lots of you have made a start on your Christmas cards by now. This is one I made several weeks ago using Trimcraft's First Edition Christmas Promise papers cut and attached in a sunburst shape to show an array of the beautiful designs together. These paper pads are available in the usual 3 sizes - 6x6, 8x8 and 12 x 12.
I've also used the Trimcraft First Edition Christmas Sentiment and Christmas Tree dies.

You can see the lovely coppery/gold shimmer from the snowflake patterned paper.

Many Thanks

 Another Thank You card today - this time using Kaisercraft papers and embellishments with Tonic Studios Ornate Frame die set with the Many Thanks Miniature Moments die and Frond Finesse flourish. I've also used Tonic Studios Glitter Drops on the flowers and butterflies.

Some cards from last Saturday's demo

These are most of the cards which I made at Killusty Crafts last Saturday -using Tonic Studios dies and Trimcraft papers.

I still find it really difficult to get good photos in shop light but I hope you get the drift:)

I also did some foiling with the Trimcraft First Edition Foil Applicator but I must have forgotten to take photos of that too :(

 This one was particularly hard to get a good photo of but the glint of the Trimcraft Foil was too beautiful to leave out.

Killusty Crafts - a big thanks :)

Lorraine, Zara and Zoe.

A great big thanks to Lorraine for inviting me to Killusty Crafts, Co. Tipperary last weekend and for looking after us so well and I have to also must thank Lorraine's mum, Margaret for all her lovely baking and Richard for making all the scrummy sandwiches.

I couldn't believe how much Zoe and Zara have grown since my last visit ( they probably thought the same about me lol!)

Special thanks too, to everyone who made the journey to  the shop and spent the day with us. I'm so grateful that I get to meet so many lovely people while I'm working. It was lovely to have the opportunity to spend some time over lunch to get to know some of you better and to catch up with "old" friends :)

So, here's a selection of photos of the day - looks like you all enjoyed yourselves :)

 Breda and Liz

 Kay, Joan

 Siobhan

 Phil, Phil

 David and his buddy, Margaret.

 Lorraine

 Amy and Zoe