Thursday, May 27, 2010

Polly Rises To ITICA Challenge...

Yesterday, over on my other blog 'Vinca'a-In-Tha-Kitchen', thanks to Hey Pesto's Yvonne Carty, I introduced the concept of Ireland's very first National Fish & Chips Day! Yes, you read that right, participating chip ships all over Ireland were selling their very finest fish and chips for half price in celebration of this new event in Ireland's history.

Anyway, as usual in the Pierce household, one thing lead to another with the end result being that I made a jokey bet with Sandie, from Paper Play Challenges that I would make a card to celebrate. What a laugh?! I mean, who in their right mind would be celebrating fish & chip day - for goodness sake...

Well, for one me! I took myself off to my local Italian chippers, Macari located in Tullamore's Market Square and treated myself to the best fish and chips since New Years Davy 2009. Just in case you're wondering why I made a point of emphasising the fact that Macari's is Italian, yesterdays feast was supported by ITICA (The Irish Traditional Italian Chipper Association).

For the sum of €3.75 I enjoyed freshly cut chips and fresh cod cooked in a lovely light and crispy batter which was piping hot and absolutely delicious. In fact the whole family enjoyed an Italian-Irish dinner of fish and chips last night, DG in Luigi's, Monasterevin and the rest of the brood in Macari's at different times throughout the evening. Apparently the promotion has paid off as both outlets were superbly busy...

Later on in the evening, inspired by my full stomach and having ingested so-called brain food, I set about my task. For a while I just sat there and wondered if I should call a halt to the proceedings, after all, it was only a joke. But as time wore on and my other two cards were finished, it slowly began to dawn on me that I've at least a couple of stamp sets with an overall fishy theme running through them.


Sadly I can't recall the name of the first set, although I think it could be a Glitter Girls set for men, the large fish is from one of Anita's See D's Sets and the smaller fish and the air bubbles are from PaperTrey Ink's 'Pond Life'. The image is coloured with Pro-Markers Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Colour Box Chalk Inks, using a sponge dauber to achieve the desired effect.

I wrote the sentiment: 'Celebrate National Fish & Chip Day!' in a black Sakura gel pen, as I didn't really expect to be able to find a suitable rubber stamp at such short notice! All the card and ribbon is from The Paper Mill Shop at Junction One, in Antrim.

All in all I enjoyed the challenge. It certainly was an unusual one and I only wish that I'd have realised what day it was just a little earlier, because as usual for a Wednesday night this challenge lead to burning of the midnight oil, yet again!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my exploits as much as I enjoyed pitting my wits against what can only be described as a bizarre challenge. Suffice to say that my friends and colleagues at this morning's BNI meeting were thought it hysterical when I held my card up as an example of how to put an image together using smaller stamps in a multi-stamp image!

Polly Pierce
Vinca Cards

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