Happy St. Patrick's Day from Ireland!

Did you know that if you shorten St. Patrick's Day to St. Paddy's Day it does indeed have to be PaDDy and not PaTTy. The D comes from the Gaelic for Patrick "Padraig." So... Put that in your ale and drink it!




This picture was taken on the Aran Islands at the site called "Seven Churches." The island was riddled with ancient ruins and it was very easy to imagine was life was like in medieval times because not a lot has changed because of the isolation from the mainland. The locals all speak "Irish" (not Gaelic... Irish) and their English accents were very unique and thick! It was awesome!
This will be my last post from Ireland, sadly... Tomorrow being St. Paddy's Day we will be right in the thick of it all and later that night/early in the morning we'll be on our way back to Canada.
So... HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY and thanks for joining me!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Harmony Row,Ennis,Ireland

Ireland - Days 6 and 7 in Galway

(click on any picture to see it full-size)

Galway is a lovely little town on the west coast of Ireland. Being in Dublin and being in Europe period you get glimpses of history everywhere you look, but it's when you go into the smaller towns and villages where you really feel like you're somewhere ancient. All of the little towns look like this:




Skinny little roads, cars parked on the sidewalks, and shops everywhere. So many shops!!!








This is the main shopping street in Galway just off Eyre Square:




This has been my favourite shopping experience/cultural experience thus far. There were amazing musicians busking in the street:




This is a woman playing the Uilleann pipes. The instrument is kind of like bagpipes except it has a beautiful sound that verges on haunting, and you pump up the bag with your arm.




This trio played traditional Irish folk music and the singer (on the left playing the guitar) had the most resonant bass voice I've ever heard. His voice carried all the way down a very busy street - no amplification needed.




I should have put my wide angle lens on for this shop but yah... It was a cheesemongers shop, cheese, cheese, and more cheese. I am very lactose intolerant but I cannot give this stuff up. I pop a couple Lactaid and dig in. Ian and I bought about 8 different cheeses (only about 100 grams of each) and they are all amazing. My favourite though, was a nice, aged, Irish Gouda.. I'm a sucker for a good Gouda!




The country roads are littered with old ruins like this. We must have told our bus driver, Greg, to slow down 15 times to capture beautiful sights like this.




Lovely old graveyards,




picturesque churches,




and ancient stone walls and fences. I just found out today that the stone fences weren't built because the Irish love their privacy! They were built because most of Ireland was covered in stone ( we saw areas of un-quarried stone on the ground today - it looks like tile floor ) and the most efficient way of getting rid of it was to build fences. They have stood the test of time without mortar by allowing air to pass through the holes. It's a pretty ingenious invention!
Today we visited the famous Aran islands. I can't wait to share those shots!
Slainte!
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Galway, Ireland

Mint Motif New Releases!!

If you saw my sneak peek last week then you know something new is available from Kimberly Crawford’s stamp line: Mint Motif from i {heart} papers! There are two new sets:
Beyond Borders Too
Simply Sentiments
 
Here are some projects featuring these new sets.. The ideas kept coming, so I kept creating!!



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I made this card with two background stamps stamped with two different materials: the honeycomb was stamped with black ink and the white dots were stamped with distress stain in "Picket Fence." I love that you can get that artistic painted look without the fuss of a paint. I then finished the card off with a lovely Tim holtz rosette and dress form die (both by sizzix) and a lovely sentiment. I love the font that Kimberly chose for the set..




Sorry that this picture is so crappy.. I didn't realize it was bad until I was in Ireland! Lol.. But I love how this card turned out.. I coloured the dots with distress markers on the NEW stamping paper by Ranger. It's awesome for this kind of project. The ink showed up nice and crisp and highly pigmented.. So pretty.
I punched out the heart and at first I was just going to leave it ... But it looked a little plain.. Then I had a lightbulb moment and I wrapped some divine twine around the punched out heart. So... Cute new idea!







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To make this background I didn't clean off the ink from the distress pens and covered the stamp with picket fence distress stain to re-energize it and give it that milky quality.. A lovely subtle rainbow effect was the final result and I am so happy with it.. Again! See why I shared 3 cards?
Take a look at my friend’s blogs to see what they’ve made for today’s reveal!
Kimberly Crawford
i {heart} papers
Julie Masse

Location:Talbot Pl,Dublin,Ireland

Dublin days 4 and 5

So day 4 we got to play some rugby! Our girls got smashed -literally -and after this game we took three girls to the hospital... One of the three is ok, but one girl has a concussion, and one suffered two broken ribs.. It was a tough game because the girls were still pretty jet lagged, not eating properly, and as the game went on we lost all of our subs and suffered a little shot to the ego.... But it was a good game and a good challenge!




The coolest thing about that rugby game was it was nestled in this sweet little village and the cottages that were surrounding the pitch were so sweet.. Picturesque!




You guessed it, the next day we visited the Guinness brewery and it exceeded my expectations! The exhibits were beautifully done and there were some cool interactive aspects to the tour as well ( if you know what I mean.... )




Cool bottles! I wanted to steal those blue ones..




We then went to Aviva stadium.. It's a brand-new facility just for Gaelic sports.. Apparently all the kids and my hubby new what this place was but was like, "oh.... Nice...." lol. It was a good tour though!




For dinner we went to a part of Dublin called "temple bar." There were some pretty snazzy restaurants and bars in the area like the one above..




This was my last shot of Dublin. That's our bus driver, Greg. Doesn't he look like a rock star?
Now we're in Galway and so far I am in love!!!! I can't wait to show you pics. Talk to you soon!
Slainte!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:St Brendan's Ave,Galway,Ireland

Dublin, Ireland... Days 1-3

To be honest with you, I have never had to deal with that kind of sleep deprivation before... We had a particularly grueling schedule that began at midnight on Wednesday (which meant we were up all day Wednesday obviously) and ended with my head hitting the pillow at 10:00pm here in Ireland on Friday night. If you're the math-type, that was 54 hours. My poor son did not deal with it well... I couldn't get him to sleep more than a couple of hours on the bus on the very first leg of the trip, and consequently he was VERY fatigued, VERY cranky and VERY hard to deal with. I let him have an hour nap on Friday morning when we arrived in Dublin and when I attempted to wake him up for a shower (giving in to the jet lag would have been very bad for him) he pretty much hallucinated. He was talking really strangely, confused, not making sense, and I was pretty worried about him, but once Ian helped him into the shower he got a little better. We still had a full day of activities planned so we had to "power through..."



The first thing we did was have a "traditional Irish breakfast" that everyone devoured. It was just so nice to have real food...




Then, we decided to take the morning a little slow and boarded the public transit to a local mall. I was dragging Phoenix AND Ian around trying to keep everyone energized. (in case you're wondering, I used my powers of being able to nap at any time of day to my advantage - and I took a lot of gravol -and I slept on our second flight, woke up just before we arrived and jet lag was beat!!)




Look at him... He's so tired... He has been doing all of the shopping and I just have to remind him to pace himself.. We have a whole week and lots of other destinations to explore..




Tomorrow we're doing a couple of tours - including the Guinness brewery!! I promise I'll have some more scenic/pretty/historic photos for you.
Till then,
Slainte!


Favourite quote of the day:
"You're from Canada? Do you know Justin Bieber?"
- 10 year old girl


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Talbot Pl,Dublin,Ireland

iSpy Sketches #6

Greetings from Ireland!!


ISS06 is from Patter Cross (identicaltriplets @ SCS) and is based on this card
 
 

I made this card the other day and thought I would have a chance to post it but so far I've been awake for 40+ hours and no WIFI for most of it!! The horror.... I used some October Afternoon paper for the background, and just added those perfect little hexagon tiles by pink paislee that helped me achieve the look of the sketch. The coloring: more adventures with Tim Holtz distress pens on watercolor paper.

Sorry I don't have the links for you, but please click on the iSpy link on the side to see this week's challenge!
Ps.. I will update with some Ireland pics soon! I am so excited to be here with my husbands girls rugby team!!

TSG146: Tag it!

This week our challenge is brought to us by our new Trendsetter, Kim O'Connell! She has challenged us to make Tags!! Tags are great for gift giving, or adding to a card base to make a card…the sky’s the limit! I used a new-to-me set called “Puppy Love” and once again decided to harness my inner “Kim Teasdale.” Instead of Copics I coloured with Tim Holtz’s new “Distress Markers” on watercolor paper.



I got a quick lesson on how to use Tombows from Kim a couple of years ago and whatever stuck in my brain is how I managed to colour this in… I didn’t own any watercolor markers until now, so this is my first crack at it..

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Turned out alright, EH? lol… Watercolouring is something so new to me, but with a little patience I started to get how the markers and water pen worked with each other..



I still coloured in much the same way I would with the Copics, I just had to do the blending very differently!!

To be eligible for the giveaway, create a Tag or group of Tags, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (March 12th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!
By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the lookout to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)
You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG146 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Mint Motif Sneak Peek

Hello!  I am SO excited to be sharing a sneak peek today from the two upcoming Mint Motif releases, Beyond Borders, Too (a companion set to the wildly popular Beyond Borders) and a new sentiment set, Simply Sentiments.  We’ve had a hiatus for a few months but Kimberly is back with a couple of great new releases.. I literally squealed with glee when I saw the Beyond Borders, Too set… You’ll see why when you see my sneak peek. Both sets will be available March 12, exclusively at IHP. 

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HONEYCOMB!!!

I created this honeycomb background by lining up the stamps to make a background. Can’t you just think of a thousand-and-one uses for this??

Be sure to check out the rest of the team’s sneaks today:

• Kimberly Crawford
• AJ Otto
• Latisha Yoast
• Ryann Salamon
• Geny Cassady
• Kimber McGray
• Melissa Bickford
• Julie Masse

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great Monday!

iSpy Sketch–Week 5

Welcome back to iSpy Sketches! This week we are featuring this gorgeous card by DJ Rants (DJRants at SCS) that was posted in her SCS Gallery on March 19, 2011. We love that you can add some big, bold flowers or that you can use the main panel for the image of your choice :)

Here’s my card:

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This is a new to me stamp set from There She Goes called Aim for the clouds. There were a lot of cute images to choose from but I loved this little scene.. When I was a kid I only knew how to draw one thing: rolling hills, just like this! Too funny… 

Copics used:

If you have a chance, please pop by DJ's gallery or her blog to congratulate her on her feature and to check out her gorgeous creations :) Thank you so much DJ for inspiring us this week!

Here’s the sketch.. I loved it. Lots of layers to feature my new patterned papers.. (The papers I used were all from a company called Simple Stories.)

Here's how to play:

• Create a paper crafting project (card, scrap book page or 3D item), based on the sketch provided.
• Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery (using a code ISSC05), and link it here with the inlinkz widget. Please provide a direct link to your post - not the generic link to your blog.
• A new challenge will be posted every Friday at 12.01 AM EST, and you have until noon on Wednesday EST to submit your entry.
• You may enter as many times as you like, but please provide a newly designed project with a new link for each additional project.
• We will choose the top 2 creations to be featured in our "Top 2 Thursday" post where we will announce who we have picked :) The winners will receive their very own iSpy Sketches blog badge!
• Don't forget that you may combine our challenges with others and use supplies from any company that you wish :)
• Have fun and we look forward to "spying" your creations!

Click to go to blog post!

Yah… I scrapbook… So??

I remember when I used to scrapbook… That was fun…

Then I got into cards… Even funner!!

But I have 5 trillion photos hangin’ around… So I should scrapbook more… There is a challenge over at 2peas right now to make a layout with candid photos. I had two amazing photographers at my wedding and one was the straight-on photo taker and the other was almost purely the candid-taker. I love all of the candid shots from the day, they captured some great moments!

I love the “white space” style of scrapbooking and I love doing it, but it’s so darn hard to keep all of the elements balanced yet still leave some white space.

Controlled crowding…

I stuck a bunch of chipboard elements in the corner.. This served as my title because a large title didn’t quite fit anywhere else…

From left to right is Kyle, our MC (he’s my BFF’s hubby); then my fricken brother Ryan who brought up my dead cat and the fact that our parents never told us they love us in his speech; and finally my handsome Daddy.. In his speech he actually said he loved me *gasp* and brought a few tears to everyone’s eyes, it was quite scandalous, hehehe.

I made the faux polaroid frames by cutting the photos to a square and matting them on white cardstock.. Way easier to write on cardstock than slippery photo paper!

Supplies: All patterned paper and elements are My Mind’s Eye. The only stuff that’s NOT is the white cardstock (Bazzill), and the red gingham ribbon (May Arts).