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)

Penny Black Saturday - Recycled!

Good morning all, at least I hope it is as I've scheduled this post because I'm currently in Durham visiting my sister for the first time since she moved!

I can't believe my time on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge has come to an end! This is my last week and I've had such an amazing time! I'd like to apologies to to the ladies for not having gotten round to commenting on your gorgeous creations for Spring but I've had a sudden mad influx of orders! You wait ages for one to come along then you receive 6 in a week!!!  I will be posting them over a period once they've been finished!

Anyway, onto this weeks Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  This week we would like to see something recycled on your card or creation! This was a bit of a struggle for me as I'm not a massive hoarder of things and the only one thing that I could think of was the ribbon that I'd used on my homemade Christmas cake last year! Those of you on Facebook may have seen this cake!  Anyway, this meant only one thing, it had to be a Christmas card that I created!

I know, the bow is possibly too big but it was the smallest that I could make it on my Bow Easy due to the width of the ribbon.

Sorry for the lack of details but I'm writing this post just before I leave for my train!  If you have any questions, please ask and I'll get back to you!

Beth, thanks again for inviting me onto the team for March, you're a diamond!

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

xx :0)

Spring has Sprung!

Good morning to you! I hope that you have got a lovely weekend planned and that weather stays kind to you.

It's time for another Penny Black Saturday Challenge for you all!  With the moving of the clocks to British Summer Time in just over a week, it means that Spring is just around the corner so our challenge is Spring is Sprung.  We want to see lots of lovely cards relating to Spring so you can bring out all those lovely colours and flowers and use them to your hearts content.

I took the chance to use an old stamp that was probably in the one of the first batches of Penny Black stamps that I purchased and has been quite a while since it was last used.  I've also had these Papermania Rose Garden Papers for about a year and this is the first time I've used them too.

 Supplies:

Stamp: Duckling - Penny Black; Inks: Copics & Memento Tuxedo Black

CS & DP: Core'dinations & Papermania Rose Garden

Tools: Martha Stewart Punch, Swiss Dots CB Folder & Oval & Scallop Nesties

Embellishments: Rose - Wild Orchid Crafts, Sentiment - Craftwork Cards & Gems - Stash

How cute is he? I can't believe he's been left neglected for so long!

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

AiFactory - Things with Wings
Crafty Sentiments - Animals
Southern Girls - Use Flowers
Creative Cottage - Spring has Sprung
Simon Says Stamp - Happy Birthday!
Penny Black @Allsorts - Welcome Spring
Sketch & Stash - Sketch

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

xx