Paperplay Challenges '11 - Week 38 - Autumn Leaves

These days I rarely get the opportunity to enter a card challenge, which is a shame because I enjoy doing things like that. Sadly between various work and social committments, plus the fact that I'm not as energetic as I think I am I get distracted and sidetracked. That should read as sucked into the great white box on the computer desk!

Anyway, it just so happens that Autumn or Fall is one of my favourite times of the year and I've been lucky enough to be able to take a few days off this week. The result is that while I seem to have done very little around the house or in terms of sewing as planned, my fingers have been very active elsewhere.

Amongst other things I've updated a number of blogs and websites that I'm associated with, caught up with correspondence outstanding, arranged radio interviews and telephone interviews with journalists in a last bid to save our gymnastics club (to put it bluntly we're being evicted!)

I've also attended two meetings with the dyslexia group here in town, a business networking meeting, made a load of cards for friends and generally taken life easy this week. The card went down so well with the young man who ordered it for his wife and earned him a few brownie points for the weekend!

My time had been tentatively booked to clean out and tidy up my 'studio.' At the moment it's looking more and more as though a bomb's hit it, but like I said earlier, I got distracted. Maybe that's why I couldn't find my PTI leaf prints collection of dies. It's bad enough that I actually broke my beloved Cuttlebug a couple of weeks ago, but this is ridiculous - they've vanished into thin air!

That of course led to fussy cutting of the oak leaves, which while it's not an arduous task is really juat a bit daft under the circumstances. For the rest of my card I've used WMS Blessed By You & Victorian and the PTI Leaf Prints stamp sets with Ranger Inks Big & Juicy Ink Pad in Spice on card from the PaperMill Shop, ribbon from my amazing stash of grosgrain and the DoCrafts Scalloped Border Punch...

I'm entering this into this weeks PaperPlay Challenges ('11 - Week 38) Autumn Leaves Challenge, I hope you like it!

Have a great weekend!

Polly

Polly Says Get Digging...

It's that time again!

So, dig out your pen and ink, stickers, rub-ons, or whatever takes your fancy and start making a Masculine card for Waltzing Mouse Stamps monthly Blog-waltz!

Polly Plays Along With PaperPlay Challenges & Waltzing Mouse...

Phew! I've just checked over on Paperplay Challenges and they haven't quite closed the doors on last week's challenge. So it looks as though I might be in with a chance to win one of Claire Brennan's beautiful stamp sets afterall!

The challenge is to create a wedding card using one of Claire's stamp sets. So here is my card made with the 'Celtic Heritage' set, I have used two of the ornate bird images to create one over lapping heart...

The sentiment comes from one of Claire's more recent sets; 'Fancy Phrases' and I think you'll agree that it is fitting for a wedding or any number of romantic occasion cards. All cardstock is from The Paper Mill Shop and the images are stamped in Memento's Tuxedo Black and then coloured with Pro-Markers.

So, fingers crossed that Sandie hasn't locked the door while I've been writing this post. Wish me luck...

Polly Pierce

Polly Says: Come Waltz With Me...

This is the moment I've been waiting for sooo very patiently. Having checked out the WMS forum this morning for instructions and in the hope that Claire would be opening the blogwaltz early, I busied myself doing a couple of things which I put on the long finger a couple of weeks ago.




So, finally having drawn up the proposals for various schools in the area, whom I hope will be eager to host next years dyslexia workshops, I logged into Facebook for a moment. Surprise! She's already opened the links and I'm behind as usual...

Here goes then! First of all I must apologize for the ghastly photo quality, but I figured that even this is better than forgetting to photograph my cards altogether which is what I normally do.

This card was made for a Mum's birthday using one of my favourite all time stamps from last months stamp release 'Roses In Bloom' by the ever so talented Ms Brennan, hope you like it...

Personally I think it just comes alive with the 3 dimensional touches to the petals and the leaf. It'll never quite replace a bunch of the real thing, but it'll sure last a lot longer!

Much Love,

Polly

Polly Pierce - Vinca Cards

ps Claire, I hope your Mum's on the mend!

Polly's At It Again - Rope Ladders and Blog Waltzes...?

Yes folks, it's fast approaching that time again! Claire from Waltzing Mouse Stamps is running her monthly blog hop again, only in her case it's more of a waltz...

I missed last month due to my committments with Scouting Ireland. I spent the weekend camping in gorgeous weather conditions out on the lovely Charleville Estate near Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Setting off from the den with great intentions and no firm venue for our camp, we started off with just five scouts and two leaders. Having arrived up at the castle and been given an impromptu tour of the place we still had nowhere to camp, because our kindly hosts already had an event on that night. Seems that the spirits aren't too keen on the company of young people during a paranormal investigation!

Eventually we struck gold! The land owner of the estate allowed us to use what is affectionately known as The Shinfield. So called because my partner in crime somehow managed to rip his shin open in this very spot this time last year, resulting in a scar that took well over three months to heal...

Thankfully this years camp took place without any great drama's, and my partner in crime's shin remained intact. The scouts and leaders spent many happy hours setting up camp and gathering wood of all shapes and sizes, stacking most of it in preparation for this years County Challenge in an adjacent field. They even brought some of the smaller stuff back to our camp so that we could use our alter fires to cook on and practice making rope ladders...

Funny thing is that this all started off quite innocently. Within a couple of days it transpired that for the County Challenge I was to take charge of the rope ladder base, whereby I taught the scouts how to prepare and make one. This entailed engraving their names onto the logs that they prepared and it was very much a challenge! Over the course of the following weekend I taught 85 scouts how to do the honours...

I should have some nice pics later on, if I can locate the disc and figure out how to upload them. As some of you already know, it seems that I blew my mother board up so am having to reinstal all my lovely programmes onto my son's pc and the laptop. Of course that wouldn't be much of a problem, only I seem to have mislaid some of the discs in amongst the chaos that I like to refer to as my filing system. (Cough, splutter, blush...)

Polly Wishes You A Happy St Patrick's Day!

In case you didn't see yesterday's post I'm participating in Claire's blog-hop over at WaltzingMouse Makes...

So what exactly is a blog-hop then? On this occasion it's where a bunch of folk who just happen to love Claire's range of photopolymer stamp designs come together and celebrate our national holiday, aka St Patrick's Day.

apologies for the washed out background I was trying to show off the script on the ribbon!(see below)...

Aside from the fact that we will be showcasing our own fabulous talents in relation to card making and scrapbooking we will also be showing off our fave designer's abundance of creativity.

I first met Claire a couple of years ago on another favourite stamp designer's forum and we've been friendly ever since. After all, it's something of a treat to meet like minded folk who love to craft and make cards, especially when they're on the same turf - so to speak!

Unfortunately, I have a tendency to make up lovely cards, be very creative in the process and then conveniently forget all about photographing or scanning them! Usually I remember during the small wee hours of the morning, by which time it's too late to do anything about it.

The original incarnation of this card was very similar, however the ribbon at the bottom was a little thinner, a little brighter and it was stamped all over with the words St Patrick's Day rather than just in the middle.

The ribbon I chosen for the second card is PTI Rich Avacado saddle stitched twill ribbon which I just love. I think it fits in quite nicely with shading of the shamrock (watercolour pencils) and the slightly larger celtic script. I was unable to use this larger more decorative script with the thinner ribbon, but it was tied with a pretty bow...

Have you noticed how I've incorporated the colours of the Irish national flag...

I hope you've enjoyed my take on St Patrick's Day which was created using Claire's free digi-stamp created for today, this is just one example of how talented our Claire is, for more examples of her lovely stamps check out here store here.

When you've finished exploring Claire's lovely creations why not hop on over and visit with more of her dedicated followers and see what they've been up in celebration of their two favourite Irish people?

Polly Shows Off Her Favourite Waltzing Mouse

A friend of mine; Claire Brennan of Waltzing Mouse Makes, recently released her own line of stamps which have taken off like a bomb since her first set back in May. Anyway, Tuesday is a special day for Claire. Not only is she having a huge bumper release this month; ie six stamp sets (wow!) but she is also re-releasing her range of stamps.

This coincides with the opening of her new on-line store; which promises to be interesting not least because of the new range of stamps that she's been torturing her fans with over the past few days. Her release dates are always exciting due to the fact that she's been giving us sneak peaks; which are wonderful. Personally, I'm beginning to feel something like a peeping tom as I seem to be stalking the poor lassie...

Here in the world of Crafting with Polly, ie Vinca Cards I always think that it's nice to be nice. I love to give local businesses and friends of the flesh & blood and the cyber variety a little bit of a write up from time to time. I'll be honest though, there are times when my motivation to do this can be a little clouded by the fact that occasionally these friends are offering some really nice prizes for doing so. That said, this is mainly in terms of my crafting pals and their blog candy!

Well, today is simply one of those days. I can't miss the opportunity to give Claire a fanfare; which I would do anyway as I love her style and find her stamps invaluable, but also to wish her the very best of luck. Now for the ulterior motive which is to show my favourite stamp which has to be printed out in green - those were the conditions, honestly! It doesn't have to be one of Claire's, it can be any stamp which is your fave but it does have to be green, very green...

I don't know whether this card really fits into that category but I can't get it out of my head because this truly is my favourite stamp of all time. It is my all time favourite card which features a combination of the ornate heart from the Celtic Heritage stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps, the most amazing designer backing paper from Die Cuts With A View's Luxury Stack (8"x8") a golden organza ribbon and my favourite paper of all time which is a luxurious metallic bronze type of colour with more than a hint of green in the right light.

Add all this together with Luxury Pearlised Cream card and some fabulous Gold Velum from The PaperMill Shop at Junction #1, Antrim and you've got something pretty special. So much so that I seriously can't get that card out of my mind! The name of the bride and the groom were hand-written in a matching bronze/green Sakura Gel pen along with a traditional wedding message written in Italian. As you can see Vanessa & Norman got married on the 9th September 2009 at Lake Garda in Italy and I have to say that this is the most romantic wedding card that I've ever made. I just hope that this sentiment continues into their lives for years to come and that they will be very happy...

I know that there's not a whole lot of green included in this card, but that which is there really does make this one stand out from the crowd. Regardless, I enjoyed the making and the giving of this card and that's what counts.

Meanwhile, if I'm lucky Claire might include me in the MONSTER COMPETITION for all six (yes, all six!) sets due for release on Tuesday. If anybody reading this fancies entering this competition why not whip up a card and post a link on Claire's blog - you've got until Midnight tonight!

Ciao!

Polly Pierce
Exclusive Hand-Made Cards From Ireland