Woohoo!!!

I've just noticed that I've had 4000 hits on my blog!  I'd best hurry up and put something more 

on for you all to look at

Thank you, my Blogland friends for your support  :o)

Make it Shine

I'm entering this card into the Paper Pretties Monday Challenge  where the challenge is to Make it Shine

I haven't used a stamped or Digi image so I hope that it's okay to enter into this challenge but if not that's okay too.  

 As well as the shine from the silver mirri board I've also added shine to the car windows and the lights

Materials used

Cardstock and mirri board from stash

Toppers and background papers from Kanban

Brads from stash (a bit more shine!)

Anita's 3D gloss

On Your Special Day

Another multi challenge card for the following 

Charisma Cardz here - Sunshine colours

Our Daily Bread here - Paper piercing

A close up of the piercing

The tag embellishment

Materials used

Cardstock from stash

Spellbinders Impressabilities Flower Silhouette

Brads from stash

Topper from Making Cards Magazine 

Black and White

I'm entering this card into five challenges.  I think that's a record for me lol

Stampin' Sisters in Christ here - Black & white

Playdate Cafe  here- Black and white with a splash of one colour (scroll down for the photos for this one)

Paper Pretties here - Embossing

Crafty Creations here - Seeing double

Allsorts here - Anything goes

The Black and white with a splash of colour version

Materials used

Cardstock from stash

Spellbinders scalloped circle die

SpellbindersImpressabilities Flower Silhouette

Spellbinders Shapeabilities Butterfly

Cuttlebug flower die

Card candy

Pink Bootees

A plain and simple card today.  A bit of colouring and matting made this a quick card to make.

I'm entering this into two challenges, Crafty Creations #128 here, Seeing Double

Allsorts #113 here Free and Easy

A close up of the two teddies

Materials used

Fizzy Moon stamps A New Addition

Promarkers ivory, satin blush, tan, cinnamon, dusky pink, pale pink, baby pink, rosepink

Memento ink pad Rich cocoa

Spellbinder's dies Labels #1 small, Labels#1

Backing paper and card from stash

If this is your first visit to my blog please take a few moments to look back through my previous posts.  I would love to have your comments on my creations

Taking things easy

I have been very good yesterday and today and am taking things very easy.  We did go shopping yesterday but it was only a quick trip to Wilkinson's and then on to Asda for the food shopping with Adrian doing all the work and me holding on to the trolley.  The shopping in Wilkinson's was exciting (for me anyway but not for Adrian lol) as we bought the wallpaper for what was Michael's bedroom and will now be my craft room when it is all done woohoo!!!!!  It's only a very small room but it has taken Adrian all day to get the old paper off.  We decided that the previous owner must have used super glue to stick it on.  He also had problems removing the hooks for the curtain tie-backs as the same person who used the super glue used screws that would have held the Clifton Suspension Bridge together!

I'll keep you posted as to how it's progressing :o)

I made it......

...back home, all in one piece!! It was a bit of a nightmare journey home, the car found every bump and and pothole all the way :o(     I've had a lie down on my own bed which felt really good as it's firmer than the one in the hotel.  I'll be taking things very easy over the next few days to see if everything settles down. If not I'll have to go to see my GP if only to get the fall registered on my records. I'm on max pain relief and anti-inflammatory medication so there is nothing else that the doctor can give me at the moment. Now that I'm back to my own bed I might manage more than 4 hours sleep tonight. I sure hope so! Many thanks for all the messages and emails, I really appreciate your best wishes and prayers. Hugs to all :o) xx

Going home

Well we're definitely going home tomorrow morning (Thursday) as I fell down some stairs in the hotel today.  It was only three stairs but I really hurt my back good style.  Thankful though that I wasn't further up the stairs when I fell and that Adrian managed to grab me before my back hit the stairs which would have been even worse.  When my back is as bad as it has been it can affect my legs.  I didn't slip on the stairs so all I can think of is that my leg gave way :o(

Hopefully once I get home and into my own bed things will be better but it will take us 3-3.5 hours to get home.

Oh dear!

We had booked our holiday a few months ago and when we arrived on Saturday it was to find that we were booked in for NEXT week!!!!!!  Luckily there was a room available for us to use so we didn't have to start walking the streets looking for somewhere to stay.

The weather has been a mixture of showers and sunshine and the rain hasn't deterred us from doing what we wanted to do.  Tomorrow night we are going to the Stephen Joseph Theatre to see Dear Uncle which is a rework of Chekhov's  Uncle Vanya, adapted and directed by Alan Ayckbourn.  We've seen some amazing productions at the SJT and would recommend that you pay them a visit if ever you're in the area.


On the downside I'm in a great deal of pain with my back and it's looking doubtful that we'll be staying until Saturday.  We will probably head for home on Thursday :o(  .  I hate it when we have to come home early from holidays as Adrian really needs a decent break away from work and home.  I feel so guilty but he say's that it's no holiday for him watching me struggle to get through the day even though I try my best not to show it.


Off to read some of my book, One Perfect Day by Lauraine Snelling.  It's about two families one of which tragically loses a child and the other family who has someone who receives the donor heart.  A bit of a tear jerker but it's very well written and I want to see how they all cope.  I've got the tissues at the ready and some choccy to help me through it :o)

Almost time........

.....for me to go on my holidays!!!  Yeyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!

I won't have any time for crafting today or tomorrow :o( as I'm busy getting everything ready for our holiday in Scarborough at the weekend.  I'm taking my laptop with me to keep up to speed as to what's happening in Blogland as it will take me too long to catch up with everything you've all been doing after a week.

I'm also getting excited about the imminent arrival of my first grandchild.  The due date is the 26th July.  As soon as baby arrives I'll be putting some Blog Candy up for grabs, so watch this space!

One card,two challenges

I'm entering this card into two challenges

Paper Pretties challenge 162 here to use an animal

and

Crafty Creations 127 here subject Boyz to Men

This is one of those cards that you can throw together at a moments notice using decoupage and a bit of creative matting and layering.

I used Jolly Nation decoupage and matching background paper
Memento Rich Cocoa to edge the paper
Cardstock from stash

Crafty Individuals July Challenge

I've made this card for the Crafty Individual's July challenge (http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-challenge-details-blog-candy.html)which is to use the colours pink, cream and brown (neopolitan ice cream immediately pops into my mind, yum-yum) and to use at least one of their products.

For the brown card I used a 5.5" square of card and used the border punch to create the scalloped edge.  The way that I had used it meant that the panel popped out from the original mat.  I used the square frame that was left as an additional mat directly on to the pink card and used 3d pads to lift the centre layer.  Even though the punch isn't one of the punch around the page ones I managed to get a uniformed corner that looked ok

 Products used

Crafty Individuals stamps Lady CI-303 and crackle background CI-116

Pink cardstock with brown and cream pearlescent cardstock

Adirondack Mushroom ink

Memento ink Rich Cocoa

Promarkers, rose, dusky rose, blossom and caramel

Martha Stewart border punch

Ribbon and gems from stash

Folksy shop

I've finally got round to making the boxes for my little biscornu pillows.  Hopefully I'll be able to get them uploaded for sale today.  I'm going to have a quick look round first so I know how to word the listing in the best possible way.  Once I'm up and running properly I'll put the shop in my side bar

Just one more cross-stitch

Meet my Dad!!

This is a cross-stitch picture that I did from a black and white photograph.  I did have to send a copy of the photo to DMC and they did the  pattern conversion with a list of the colours that I would need.  Since then I have bought a software package that enables me to make my own patterns and design.  I will show some more pictures of those at a later date.  Dad was about 20 at the time this photo was taken and serving in the British Army in Burma at the end of WW2.  He passed away in 1990 and in 2000 I did this as a birthday gift for my Mum.  Needless to say an awful lot of tears were shed when she opened it.  Since Mum passed away two years ago the picture now hangs in my hallway.

Staying with the cross-stitch

A couple of years ago I was asked to make a cross-stitch picture for a retiring priest.  The brief?  something religious lol  It was an easy choice to make though as the priest went to the Holy Land every year so I knew that he would like this picture.  I left the wrapping on until the last minute, didn't want to spoil it by marking the frame.  I had stitched some items for him for use in the church which I'll leave for another time.

Staying with the decorated canvasses

This is a cross-stitch project that I did a couple of years ago for a friend's birthday.  I mounted the fabric to an 8"x8" canvass rather than a frame and glass as it was going over to the USA  The designer is Berni Parker and it is one of her "Ladies Who Lunch" series of pictures.  There wasn't a sentiment or title for the pattern but I added my own.  Along with two friends from the USA we always referred to ourselves as "The Three Cuties", a long story which I won't bore you with.  Suffice it to say that we longed to live the ladies who lunch lifestyle lol