Pretty Shabby Chic

New blogger is giving me a run for my money, been locked out, stumbling along and then it posted a very strange layout so trying again.

Not much spare time recently but my diary is getting back to normal again and I can see the wood from the trees again, and have done more crafting and will show you soon.

This card was made for a special friend Audrey who has always cheered me along with my crafting.  She likes hand crafted stuff and I enjoy making it for her.

I was thrilled to play with some papers from this company The scrapcake and I had great fun ordering these paper thru a Polish site, using google translator and making loads of mistakes but the papers are fab, great quality, lovely colours and designs.

Will be back soon!  Promise!!!

This card....

is one of my favourites.  I just love everything about it and I recently submitted it for publication and Yah it got selected.

The full article is here, and there is a lovely story to go with it.  There is
even a step by step guide to making the card if you feel inclined.


More coming soon - Promise!

Babies, babies and more babies....

I have been having a fun time photographing some newborns and enjoying it.  Now I have my new camera a 5d Mark III it's time to start taking this seriously.  This is my new Logo and OMG I adore it (I did not make it myself so I can say how much it ROCKS!)

So more to come from me when I get myself sorted!  But I just wanted to share some Baby Announcement cards that I just made as a sample for a new mom!

Thank you for coming for a look - it's appreciated!

.....working my way back to you......

Been a while - so sorry but here is a little update....

OK not much crafting going on - even a full morning with the girls crafting could do much for my mojo, I pushed paper around tried to make a card and then covered the pages of a mini album that has sat on my desk since.  So maybe in the next few days when the kids go back to school things will get back to normal.

Two weeks off school = 2 weeks of play referee!  Seriously no fun for all of us, after 2 days I de-camped to Leitrim with the girls and we arrived home just in time for Easter and there is a basketball camp planned for 1 little bear tomorrow which will help.

So what have we been doing...  Well I found a local pet shop that has some Meerkats and I adore them so I have been going to visit them....I think I like it more than the kids!

I have taught myself to crochet - so this has been keeping me busy at night when I would normally go to the office and play with paper.  Without any plan I tried to crochet a granny square and when I got the hang of it, I went and got some lovely cotton and as the plan came together in my head I needed 96 squares, and over 30 balls of cotton.  Its been a labour of love and really good therapy and the helped to get me over my little "moment"!  So it's nearly finished, just small bits of string to be tied off and sewen in place and I will be able to do the big reveal.

Crocheting is great for passing the time early morning when you are forced to watch Blues Clues on Netflix at silly o'clock.

 We went on a picnic to Powerscourt waterfall and had such a fab day. 

I got a new camera (so spoiled but adore it) so I was able to get the use of a hotel room for an afternoon, and two willing (fab fab fab!!!) models and I styled and shot a Boudoir photo shoot and OMG I had so much fun.  I just want to sit and edit and swoon over the images, which turned out better than I could have ever wished for.  (Just before I left I had a mini moment thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew and I was in over my head but so glad it worked out).  On the same week I got to photograph a lovely new baby boy and OMG baby J gave me a workout!  Not your normal sleepy, limp limbed baby, this boy was wide awake, not happy to be posed and had already gotten control of his arms, legs and head!!!  This time I had a serious mini moment and wondered if I was going to have anything to show Baby J's parents!  Will promise some photos but have to be sure parents and models are happy for me to share.

As they say - I WILL BE BACK!  Next time I will share some crafting that I did before my dry spell and some stuff I did for a design team (I resigned recently as I felt this coming on!).

Thank you for everyone who kept stopping bye - I hope you will keep coming!

Nite all!

Lost it again!

Yup - yet again my crafting motivation has packed up it's bags and gone for a hike.  Sitting down and trying to put something together is such hard work and when it's hard I am less likely to even try.

I also have to admit that I have been dealing with a few family issues that have put me in a spin.  For other people it might be something that would not cost them a thought and they would pick themselves up and brush it off, but I am not that sort.  Unfortunately I take it all in and I am sick with upset and my poor head won't stop turning the problem over and over - but one thing I do know is that time will help and I won't feel like this for long.

This card was something I saw on one of the Papertey Ink sites - the folded banner is stamped on both sides and then folded and stuck in place.  Loved the ides so much that I had to have a go at it.

The card below is one I made at one of our evening crops - I had only little bits of the My Minds Eye papers left so it was perfect to make into a quilt style card.  It looks much better in real life but the light here in Ireland is so poor at the moment the photos look grey and dull.

This last card was the one I made and sent out for St. Patricks Day - I think I made 6 of them in the end. The shamrocks are cut out of felt and sewed into a circle and a small button put inside.     

Hopefully things will return to "normal" and I can find my lost mojo!  Wishing you all a lovely happy St Patricks Day!  

Love Michelle

The Brief - The Result!

I get a phone call from a friend to say that she needs a card type of thing, something to put a note inside to say that there is a voucher coming via email for a vice-principle who is retiring.   Can you make me something that we can give her to say that an email be coming to her, something we can present to her as Aer Lingus go not give out gift cards or gift vouchers.

So I put my thinking cap on and here is what I came up with.

Inside.....

I think they were all happy with what I gave them and it did what they wanted it to do.

This is another one of the cards that I have been messing around with.  Playing with paint and bubble wrap, while it's not my usual style, it's nice to work outside your comfort zone every now and then.  I was trying to stamp white on the kraft but it was very opaque and not the effect I wanted so I switched to white paint and it was a huge fail in stamping with the paint.  So rather than put it in the bin, I tried the bubblewrap and liked it!

Hope you like - have a lovely weekend!

Ta M

It started with Pinterest!

OMG I just love Pinterest!  My huge guilty pleasure at the moment, and I can just sit and browse in awe at the images that people have pinned.  The photography and the craft related images are the ones that I am most interested in.  So one night, I found a great pin showing how to make these paper roses, and I opened the site and started to play around with the strip of paper trying to follow the tutorial!  

OK! - It might be me (probably is!) but I found this tutorial hard to follow, and it was a big fail for me, but I did keep messing with the paper and finally got something that kinda resembles a flower.

Anyway - the reason I shared all this info with you was that I get very carried away with myself and I had taken apart a gift a friend had given me.  It was a wicker heart with a small wooden chalk board hanging inside.  The ribbons were red and did not go with any of my decor, so I took it apart and had a little shop in A. Rubesesque for ribbons (be still my beating heart!  I have died and gone to heaven when I go to that shop!) for Teal ribbon and went home with 17.00 worth of ribbons for my stash.

So after altering the colours of some items in the house with ribbons I had the bits left over and I got the wicker heart I had saved (but not taken a before photo!).  I went for a rummage and found some hessian that I had bought, a bunch of white sticks I bought for Christmas and got the glue gun out and started to play!

I love it and it's hanging up in a temporary home until I finish my photo wall and add it to the layout of the photos!

Well do my roses look like hers?  Not really but I tried and happy to keep trying too!