Sending Hugs

Okay, I know it's been a couple of weeks again since my last post.  Unfortunately that's the way things are going for me at the moment.  I may be intermittent for a while yet I'm afraid.  I know I've not commented for a while, but that doesn't mean that I'm not always looking because I am.  It's just that blogger doesn't always allow me to comment on everyone's posts still.  Very frustrating!

Anyway, I've been able to have a little play today with my crafty stash so thought I would show you what I have created.  I've used one of my new Me To You stamps.  You know me and teddies, I just can't get enough of them!!  He's been coloured with copics and I actually think he looks pretty good!  The backing paper is also from the Me To You paper pack and the cardstock is Aqueduct Core'dinations.  It was my last sheet so I made a note of the name so I can get some more as it's very pretty!!  I've finished off with some Wild Orchid Roses that have been lightly spritzed with Glimmer Mist and a Craftwork Cards Sentiment oval.

I've used the sketch from A Gem of a Challenge.  I don't own any Pink Gem images but luckily you can use any image to participate.  I'm also entering this into:

Stamping for the Weekend - My Favourite Things - Teddies!!!

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.  I will try and pop round everyone's blogs later.

xx :0)

Father's Day Card

Good evening all.  It's been a while again since my last my post.  I've really been suffering with my back, not just physically but mentally as well.  I've been having to take days here and there off work and it's really been getting me down.  I hate not being able to do things which gets me frustrated and this then gets me down.  I've not been able to craft much either because of that but also because I was feeling down. It may seem strange especially when crafting helps so many people who suffer with depression and other illnesses but I was getting so annoyed with myself that I was unable to want to do anything, if that makes sense!!  I had all of these lovely goodies that I'd purchased that were just sitting there!

Today I decided that I was going to do something about that and I've managed to make my Dad's Father's Day card as well as one for Jon's dad!  I am paying for that now but boy did it feel good!!  My mojo was suffering so I had a look around some blogs which helped to inspire me. 

Tonight I will show you Jon's dad's card.  My inspiration for this came from a card the lovely Marcea made.  I used the Cheers Bear from Lili of the Valley which was purchased at the Masterclass in May.  I love all the LOTV bear stamps!

Supplies:

Stamp: Cheer Bear - LOTV; Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black & Copics;

Card & DP: Doodles of Dots & Harlequin - Pink Petticoat, Core-dinations; Tools: Circle & Scallop Nesties

Embellishments: Glossy Accents, Sentiment Oval - Craftwork Cards & Gemstones. 

A close up of this little cutie. you can't really tell that the beer glass has had the glossy accents treatment, the sun deserted me at that moment!  I don't know if you can tell either but I've started to use some polychromo pencils to enhance the shading on my bears.  We were shown this at that Masterclass. I'm hoping that I'm doing it right!

This weeks Lili of the Valley challenge is Bring on the Music.  I really wanted to enter this card & the only song I could think of was Boney M's Daddy Cool!! I think he looks a pretty cool dad so I hope that's acceptable!!

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Blogger Challenge - Masculine Card
Fashonista Friday - For Men
Craft us Crazy - Father's Day
Crafty Sentiments - Fathers Day
Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - For the Boys
Lili of the Valley - Bring on the Music - Daddy Cool!
Southern Girls - Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Crafters - Dad
Papertake Weekly - Dad's & Lads

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

It's been a while!

I know, it's been a while since I was last in blogland. I would be very surprised if there is anyone still out there reading this.  If there is, thank you so much!

The main reason for my lack of crafting has been my back which has been giving me a lot of pain.  Without saying too much, I'm now waiting for a fairly serious operation to remove the troublesome discs and fuse that area of my spine.  The list is 3 months which, at the moment, seems a long way off as the pain has been quite bad this last week.

My other reason was that, for a while, Jon and I thought we were going to lose Bozzy.  He's 20 years old now so is quite remarkable in that sense, but it did look like we would be saying goodbye.  However, he seems to have cottoned on to what we were thinking and has turned around quite remarkably as if to say "I'm not ready to go just yet!".  Here's the gorgeous boy here enjoying a sleep in the sun:

I do have a card to show you too!  Last Saturday I was very lucky to be able to attend the LOTV Colouring Masterclass in Ashford.  We had a whole day with Jacqui and Bev tutoring us and helping improve our colouring skills.  I had an amazing time and learnt some new techniques which I'm hoping to put into practise very soon.  We coloured in 4 LOTV images trying out these techniques and were given a pack to complete one of Bev's stunning cards.  I finished mine this morning and am really pleased with it.

I am so pleased with the colouring of this image.  I have the stamp as I think it's really cute but have been nervous about colouring it in.  Hopefully I won't anymore.

I was also very lucky to meet some very lovely ladies who I spent the best afternoon with; Pam, Lisa, Caz and Caz's mum (sorry, my mind has gone blank for your name!!)

Thank you for still being here and supporting me when I've not been able to visit you all in return.  I will try more.

xx :0)

A very basic card

Good evening all, apologies again for my absence.  I don't really seem to be with it in the world of cardmaking at the moment, hence the topic of my post.

It's my hubby's birthday tomorrow and I wanted to make him a fabulous card, as we all do for those people that we love, but I could not find the inspiration, or even the desire so I've ended up with a really basic card, almost like one of thise that I started out with.

Is it possible to go full circle and then unable to improve anymore and just end up as you started?  Okay, that probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm feeling a bit flat.  I don't know if it's because I was so poorly a while back as I've not really made any cards since then.

I will show you my card now and live it for you to decide.

Hopefully I'll feel better about it all soon, but I'm not too sure at the moment.

xx

Happy Birthday Mum

I would like to start off by thanking everyone for the lovely comments left on my previous post, especially after such a long absence, they are truly appreciated.

My mojo seems to be returning slowly as I managed to make a card over the weekend for my mum who celebrates her birthday tomorrow.  I needed to do this as unfortunately I was unable to make a Mother's Day and I felt very guilty about this.

My mum, like me, loves teddy bears so for me the perfect stamp was one of my favourite Penny Black stamps, Gentlest Kiss.  I adore this stamp and was very lucky to purchase it half price at Ally Pally last year.  The papers are from a Papermania Henbury Lane set and match perfectly with the cardstock I'd chosen.  I think I over-Glimmer Misted my large rose though as the petals opened up a bit too much, hopefully they still look okay.

 Supplies:

Stamps: Gentlest Kiss - Penny Black; Happy Birthday - Woodware; Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black & Copics

DP & CS: Henbury Lane - Papermania & Core'dinations

Tools: Circle & Scallop Nesties, Love Language CB Folder, Martha Stewart Lace Valentine Punch

Embellishments: Wild Orchid Craft Roses, Glimmer Mist, Ribbon

I don't know what everyone else uses for their copic colouring, but my favourite is Ryman's Brilliant White Super Smooth.  It blends really nicely and evenly.

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Stamp with Fun - Birthday
Pile it On - Use a Rubber Stamp
By the Cute & Girly - Cute & Girly
Copic Creations - Favourite paper to use for copics - Rymans
Sketch Saturday - Sketch
Crafty Catz - Furry Friends
Daring Cardmakers - Spring or Easter
Creative Card Crew - Spring

Thank you again for stopping by and for any comments you leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

Apologies

I hope there are still people out there reading this.  I'm sorry it's been a couple of weeks since my last post.  I have been rather unwell since I had my injection two weeks ago.  On the day that I went in for the procedure I was feeling a little unwell with a sore throat and the feeling that I was coming down with a cold.  The anaesthetist was still happy for it to go ahead but warned that having a breathing tube may exacerbate the problem and that, if I did start to feel unwell, then I should go to the docs sooner rather than later due to my asthma.  Unfortunately things went downhill and I ended up on steroids for 10 days and antibiotics for a week.  I've been off work for two weeks and only the last day or two have I started to feel better with the exception of being tired.  I am allowed back to work on Monday though.

The only thing that I felt like doing at my worst was reading and, in less than a week I managed to read the entire Twilight saga on my Kindle!! I'm sooooooo behind everyone else in reading this series but am completely hooked!  I now have to start on the films!

Before I went into hospital, I'd been busy with a few card orders and I thought I would show one of those cards for you today.  This card was the Mother's Day Card for the first time mum.  I was really pleased with how this turned out.

 I decided to use one of my Popcorn Bear Baby stamps and the DP has been printed from one of the Popcorn CD's too.  The roses and lace trim are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

 I made an easel card as I wanted it to be really special as you only have one first Mother's Day.

 The sentiment says "To the most Special Mummy in the World",  The stamps are from a few Elzybells sentiment stamp sets that I have in my collection.

 I created a pocket to hold a tag that I created using Marianne Designs Tag die so that a message could be included.  I have to admit that the fitting was a bit snug for the tag but I don't know how else to add this!

My mojo has been AWOL since I became poorly but I'm hoping that it's starting to return as I have a run of birthdays coming up that I need to make a start on!

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.  I am hoping to have a blog hopping evening so I can catch up on everyone's blogs.

xx

Swing Time

Good evening all! I know this is a late post from me but I know I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight so I thought I would get on and post this whilst I was still up.  For those of you that know I've been having trouble with my back, I'm going into hospital tomorrow for a Caudal Epidural.  It is just a day case but requires a general anaesthetic due to the placement of this.  I am unable to have a normal epidural under a local because of all my previous spinal surgery.  This is another attempt to control the pain that I have been suffering.  If this fails then I will be looking at more surgery.  It's an early start for me as I have to be at the hospital for 7:30am!

Anyway, enough doom and gloom, my main reason for posting was to show a card that I made for an order.  The card is for a friends partner who celebrates her birthday tomorrow.  She is a dog lover and I didn't have many stamps so I thought I would treat myself to some Lili of the Valley stamps and couldn't resist the adorable stamp called Swing Time.   The other criteria was that her favourite colours were purple and green.

 I know the colours look slightly washed out in the photos, no matter what I did, I couldn't get them to any better without over saturating.  I really loved this card as the colours are all nice pastel shades!  The DP is from an old free My Minds Eye pad with a crafting magazine.  The sentiment is one of the great circular sentiment stamps also from Lili of the Valley.  I can't believe this is the first time that I've used them!

I know I've not included the details list like I have been doing recently, but I think I've mentioned most things in the post.  I can't type much longer as my cat, Bozzy, is trying to walk across the keys!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

The Sweet Stop - Sketch
Lili of the Valley - Spring

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.  I hope to do some major blog catching up whilst resting over the weekend!

xx :0)