Demo today at Craftworld, Belfast - thanks :)

 Some of the ladies who came along to Craftworld today.

Thanks very much to Gillian and "the girls" for having me and to everyone who came along for the demo. It was a totally chilled day with lovely company and hopefully you all enjoyed seeing what I was making.

Every time I looked to my left I wondered what side of the border I was on as I'm more used to seeing Mirza in Dublin, but it was really good to have her up here today :)

 Yvonne and Catherine

 Rachael and Angela....and Cathy

 Patrick had the right idea!

 Mandy

 with my "wee chum" Rachael :)

Caroline and Angela

 Craftworld

 The cards I made today

I was also using the fabulous Plaid Sheer paint - on glass, wood and paper.  I left them aside for the paint and glitter to dry and forgot to take photos but I'll be doing a blog post very soon featuring some of the things which you can do with these paints.

Demo at Craftworld, Belfast tomorrow (3rd Sept)

 Good morning :) This is another card which I'll be demoing tomorrow at Craftworld, Belfast - using some gorgeous Tonic Studios dies. This is "Baby Rudolph" and some dies from the Mini Wreath Decorations set on top of a panel from the Delicate Embrace die set.

Demo time are 11.00am - 1.00pm and 2.00pm - 4.00pm.

I'll also be demoing lots of lovely Trimcraft products. There will be lots of Christmas card ideas but also some general use cards.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there :)

Many Thanks card

 Good morning :) I'm back with another Thank You card. All the dies I used are from Tonic Studios - Ornate Frame, Many Thanks, Verdant Vines and Woodland Aster with Glitter Drops and Crystal Drops in the centres of the flowers.

How to make an overlap fold card with Trimcraft's "A Christmas Story" papers

This unusual fold card has been made with Trimcraft's "A Christmas Story" papers and First Edition Christmas dies.

To make it you will need:

Trimcraft First Edition "A Christmas Story" 8x8 papers

Trimcraft First Edition Build a Scene dies - Merry Christmas FEDIE124X16

Dovecraft A4 Gold Mirror card

Dovecraft A4 Premium white card

double sided tape 

3D foam squares

Simply Creative gems

white gel pen

black fine liner pen

die cutting machine

How to make it:

1. Score and fold an A4 piece of white card in half then cut down the fold to 10.5cm and cut across the card.

 2. Cut a piece of gold card to 14.5cm x 20.5cm and a piece of red patterned paper to 14cm x 20cm.

3. Attach the red patterned paper to the gold card with double sided tape and then attach the panel to the inside of the card.

 4. Cut a piece of white card measuring 8cm x 26cm. Score and fold at 13cm.

5. Attach this to the centre of the inside of the card with the fold at the top.

 6. Cut a piece of gold card to measure 12.5cm x 7.5cm and a piece of music paper to measure 12cm x 7cm.

 7. Layer these pieces as shown and attach to the inner "card" with double sided tape.

 8. Cut a piece of gold card to measure 14.5cm x 10cm and a piece of floral paper to measure 14cm x 9.5cm.

9. Layer these pieces and attach to the bottom flap with double sided tape.

10. Die cut the pieces from the Build a Scene die set using brown, green and red patterned paper.

 11. Assemble the pieces on the music paper, adding the robin on 3D foam squares.
Die cut the Merry Christmas from gold card and glue below the robin and wreath. Die cut 2 snowflakes and glue to the top left. Add a little white shading below the robin's red breast and some black outlines to the wing and eye.


12. Die cut the Snowflake strip from gold card. Glue the strip along the top of the card and add 2 of the snowflakes on top of the white ones.

13. Die cut 3 more white snowflakes and glue to the bottom flap just where the corner of the robin panel meets it. Add 3 more small gold snowflakes in the centres. Add small gems to the centres of the berries.

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 :)