Another Quick Update

Hi All

Just to let you know the latest happenings here.

My brother is doing well after his stroke. He is now home and we're playing Carer/Nurse/etc ensuring he is doing OK. His Rheumatoid/Osteoarthritis are holding him back at the moment. He's in a lot of pain with that and the Dr has upped his meds to see if it helps more.

I've been in hospital for nine days with worsening kidney failure. I've now had the pre-dialysis talk and am deciding which route to go for on dialysis which will probably have to start in the New Year.  I've got a CT scan the day before Christmas Eve and another type of scan in a different hospital on New Years Eve!  It's all good fun huh!

Not a good start, but it can only go up from here now can't it!!!! Fingers crossed it goes upwards anyway after all the downs we've had with health issues.

 

Have a very Merry Christmas and

a Happy New Year too! 

 

 

Once everything is more stabilised I'll see you all in the New Year and be back to some sort of crafting too! Who knows, I might even be able to do some whilst having dialysis.

PS. If anyone has dialysis please contact me as I'd love to ask some questions if you don't mind!

Quick Update

Hi All

Just to let you all know, our little Domi went to sleep and didn't wake up again - aged 21 years and 2 weeks young. She is sorely missed every single minute and has left a huge hole in all our hearts and everyone who knew her. Such a sweetie.  I'm collecting her from the Pet Crematorium today to bring her home again.

It was supposed to all our family collecting her, but more bad news, my little Brother has had a stroke and is in hospital.  He is going on well and hopefully once he can stand and do the tasks he needs to do to satisfy them at the hospital he can go to Stroke Rehab Hospital next.  He has Rheumatoid Arthritis really bad so this is hampering his recovery as it's on happened on his already weak side.

Watching him having the stroke and calling the ambulance was scary, but it's loads better seeing him make small improvements each day we visit.

I spent all day from 8.45am and got home about 8.45pm at the hospital as I still have my hospital appointments to get to. My Brother is our driver in our family as I'm not allowed to drive so it's really difficult getting to places with two crutches myself, but hey, life goes on.

We smile, we laugh, we carry on....!!!

Karen x

Halloween Night........spooky...!

 Sorry I've not been blogging much - too many health issues are getting in the way of enjoying life!!!

However I made time to make these up before Halloween and in between hospitals.  I hope your parcel has arrived Gill and sorry it was a bit late. Hospitals have taken over lately. I'll do my best to get back up to date!

WOYWW 228 - I'm back.....!

I'm back for WOYWW again and sorry as I've been away for so long. Not for anything delightful like a holiday or a gorgeous surprise but for health reasons/problems.

 

Rather than go into everything, let's just say not much time for crafting, but I've now managed to get in a little and have enjoyed it so much! It's amazing how better you feel for doing a little crafting!

 

Our Domi has been to the vet but he is still amazed how remarkably well she is for a 21 year old, and described her as "feisty" after she had an in-stay for some extra help with her fluids etc. She never lashed out but has now started to growl a bit if she is kept waiting for anything she wants LOL!! She had her 21st Birthday Party at the weekend (yes, I know it's a cat but she IS family to us and we love her dearly bless!).

 

Above are the beginnings of two cards I made for her.  I've not got much else to show you but hopefully things will start to improve with some fingers crossed!

 

Enjoy WOYWW and keep crafting!!!!

Rudolph Day - it'll soon be here...aargghh!!!

Here's the little Dog I was using before.  His name is Barkley and he's so cute - thanks Gill...!!!  I had some die cuts from another card I'd made and used them on this card.  Just adding the little small silver stars from some old peel offs I've still got - they still come in useful I find.

 

Here's another card with the little dog and a cute kitty on as well.  Anything cute is good in my book!  Hope you like them - and don't forget - it's getting nearer all the time!!!

Enjoy!

WOYWW 224

Hello WOYWW'ers!! Check out the link to find out why we're posting photos of our work desk, work cupboard, work trays etc. It's very addictive, so give it a go and join us!

So on my little work tray (and including my bed this time as it kind of spread out a bit) are some Christmas cards I'm working on for the charities I support.  I've had some lovely toppers sent to me by Gill and they are SO cute! 

Unfortunately I cut the top off two of them as I didn't realise I had two pieces of CS in the trimmer, oops.  I managed to save most of them though and will be using them on other cards. A crafter can fix anything huh! I'm a bit accident prone at the moment, my hands don't belong to me!

In case you missed it, my previous post shows you the Golden Wedding card I was commissioned to make. Hope you like it!

Have a great day!

Golden Wedding Card

If you saw my previous posting, you'll know all about this card!!  I had lots of golden items on my worktray and it was a while before the idea came into my head of what I was going to do with it all to finish my card.

It's a combination of matt and shiny gold, and as you can see, I had enough of the matt card to make three more flowers (just) after my disaster with the trimmer. Phew!!!

I coloured the edge of the hearts with a Promarker, can you believe the "Gold" one was nothing like Gold so I used "Sunflower" instead!!!

Enjoy!

WOYWW 223 (Goldfinger.....!)

 

Now why did that song come into my head? Well it could be because my work trays are full of all things golden!  Yes, I've been asked to make another Golden Wedding card.  What an achievement huh! (The golden wedding, not my cardmaking efforts!).

 

Another achievement is making it here to WOYWW as my screen is going kaput....!  I'm not sure how much longer it will last.  It keeps turning itself off when I'm using it. 

 

As I was using all things gold I also took the chance to make some other gold things I might need for my next Christmas card. 

Oh yes, you see those lovely golden flowers? Well they don't look like it anymore!  After taking the photo, I put my trimmer across the little tray and cut some card.....then after taking it off, noticed my flowers were all squished!!!  The glue hadn't dried totally and they were all ruined...! Cue sad face!!  I only have one piece of the matt gold card, so it's cutting it a bit fine (no pun intended!).

Before I wear out my !!!!! key, I will now leave you all to go snooping around the world...have fun!!!

Oh, don't forget to check out my previous post to see the "Bird Sympathy Card" I made.

Enjoy!

Finished Cards!

Here's the finished card I made for my bestest Auntie.  Along with the card I gave her some Yellow Roses (I love the smell of flowers!).  She appreciated the card and told me she was going to show her friends that evening as she'd been invited to a girls night in!  Not bad for an 82 year old huh!

These three cards were for my Mum on her birthday.  The first one is from Domi, yes our cat does give out cards and presents too! She's very clever with her pocket money...LOL! This is a Stickeroo from my lovely friend Gill.  They are so easy to use and I just had to have a cat on here didn't I!

 

 

 

 Sorry about the backing of this, it was all I had to hand! It doesn't show it off very well but at least you can see it.  This was my first effort at distressing flowers with ink. 

 

This final one was a bit of a worry, I put silver glitter glue on it and by the morning the card had warped in the shape of the glue!  Argghhh!  However by the next evening it had gone back down again, phew! I used my faux stained glass effect on this one.  The little flowers I've had for ages, and decided to give them an airing.

Enjoy!



WOYWW 222

Hello and welcome to WOYWW 222! Another week gone by and someone told me it's now only 111 days until Christmas! 

I had good intentions of doing some crafting but hospitals and illness got in the way again. Never mind, I did manage to do this.  It's not a card we all like making, but sometimes they need to be done.

My bestest Auntie rang me to tell me her little cockatiel had died, she'd had her for 12 years and as she came from someone else they didn't know how old she really was.  I know it may sound daft to some of you making a Sympathy Card for a bird, but birds are also part of our families as well as cats and dogs and when one dies it is like losing a member of your family.  I'll miss her I know that.

If you come back later in the week you'll see the finished card.  Talking of finished cards, check out the posts below and you'll see the Wedding Cards and also some different style Christmas Cards I've made. I'm trying to get outside of my comfort zone and try different styles.

Happy WOYWW everyone!

Enjoy!

Thank You!

After winning all those lovely paper pads after being the "Star Letter" in the Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine, I just had to say "Thank You" with one of my cards didn't I.  Being brung up wiv manners this is typical of me!

I found this gorgeous piece of backing paper in a parcel sent from the lovely Gill.  I'll have to find out where she got it as it's just perfect for so many cards!!!  I got the felt flowers as a bargain from a cheapie shop.  They are very well made and I couldn't believe it when I saw them so got a few colours all at the same time!

I backed the butterflies with vellum and coloured it with my Promarkers to match the paper.  I can post this as I've already sent it off to the Editor.

I hope you like it too.

Enjoy!

Rudolph Day...a bit late....but got there in the end!

Here's my latest "Rudolph Cards" ready for Christmas.  I had the intentions of making Birthday and Thank You cards, and ended up making these Christmas ones too!

The above one is a plain and simple one using the Poinsettias I made earlier and using the brilliant glue that Julia sent me to try.  It's really wonderful and sticks anything to anything included me to my Poinsettias when I was holding one down onto the card! The ribbon is, as they say, donkeys years old but it suits this card and it's a shame it's the only piece I have in that colour!

As you can tell I'm trying to make different styles of card at the moment.  I've had these beautiful peel offs for ages and not used them.  Then all of a sudden in my offcuts I found a piece of vellum over from making the flowers for the wedding card and voila - I tore the edges and just stuck them to the vellum and I quite liked the finish!!

I've made a few different styles of cards with this idea so you may see some more later.

Enjoy!

Mr and Mrs.....love one another......

As promised, here are the two Wedding cards I made for a lady who commissioned them.  I wasn't sure what style to go with, so I made two different ones. best!

 

The first one here, is the one with all the very tiny vellum flowers on.  They did look better on the card than on my work tray that's for sure!

 

 

 

As the only information I had was there was terracotta on it and two birds I decided on making one with birds on it.  I checked with my judges what they thought of the colour and they said it was OK, it looks more orange in this posting than it is IRL. I love this one too.

As you can tell I couldn't make up my mind, so I left it to the lady to decide!  I hope that she likes them - she's not come back saying could I make something else so I'm assuming they are OK!

Which one do you like?

Enjoy!

WOYWW 221

Here we are again, another WOYWW Wednesday here. Some peeps are already counting the sleeps until Christmas!!! Well I suppose it is the end of August and soon Christmas will be in the shops!

Talking of which, as you can see from the above photo, I am still in the Christmas mood!  I made a couple of Christmas cards at the weekend and also made some "Thank You" cards too.

Thanks for the glue Julia!!  I don't know why but I was expecting it to be thin runny glue, so when I blobbed a great big blob on my tiny little embellishment I was totally surprised I can tell you. You are right though, it's a great glue and it stuck those Poinsettias on to the cards with ease!

One important thing I forgot to tell you last week you can see in the above photo (sorry it's not very clear!).  I am in print! Yay!  In Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine!!!  They asked me to send in some photos of my cards and I chose a few and they decided on these two - the one I made for the lovely Gill for her and hubbies Wedding Anniversary and one I made with my gorgeous Magnolia stamp.

As I was the "Star Letter" I won £50 worth of crafting items!!!! Yes £50!!!  I received in the post a huge parcel containing loads of pads of DCWV (I think that's how it's spelt!). Gorgeous shapes and colours, all wonderful and will be using some of them soon!!!!!

Keep an eye out as I'll be posting the Wedding Cards soon along with a few of the Christmas ones too.

WOYWW 220 - not a Christmas Card anywhere!!

Welcome to WOYWW - check out the link to see what it's all about - but be warned - you WILL become addicted! It's a lovely addiction to have though!!

So what is on my little work trays on my bed today?  Well some partly made vellum flowers!!! It's taking me ages to do these as each individual petal has to be embossed, then you take two flowers and put them together with a little pearl and/or gem in the middle. The leaves are easy, just one quick line with the embossing tool and they're done. Some of them don't look too fantastic at the moment, but believe me, when they're finished they look beautiful. I had my doubts when I made the first one, but seeing the finished article really made my day!

I've been asked to make a Wedding Card, I'm actually making two so the lady can have a choice - one CAS style and one more traditional in style. Nothing too OTT.

You'll have to come back soon to see the finished articles - when all the flowers are finished - phew.....!!!

Happy WOYWW!!

WOYWW 219

Welcome to my new follower - hello Evalila!!

We're back on another WOYWW and today on my little work trays there are pretty flowers everywhere!  I'd seen something on a blog about making faux stained glass and as you saw my beautiful church stained glass I thought I'd have a go and here are the results.  I used this flower as I didn't want anything complicated for my first effort!

After cutting the flower I stuck some vellum on the reverse side and then coloured it with my Promarkers.  My first effort went wrong when I decided to add some more colour onto it and it turned into a river with splodges everywhere. I corrected this by just rubbing it with a tissue. Voila!  All done!  You'll see the finished card soon!

Being a crafter, I decided to use the cut out parts of the flower to make another card for my charity box of cards.  I actually made two out of them and you can see one idea in the first photo.  I seem to never do one thing at a time, and usually have at least a couple on the work trays!

Enjoy!

WOYWW 218

Well here we are again already - WOYWW time again!  Check out Julia's page on the link to see what we're all talking about!  You WILL become addicted believe me!

 

So I finally decided to go with the "Blinging Everything" option ready for the Christmas cards!!!  I took you all at your words and glittered everything I could find.

Including - our little Domi - she had glitter on her tail, her head, her body, everywhere!  I was trying to take a photo here and you can see she was determined to stop me by putting her paw up on the camera and giving me her 'hard Paddington Bear stare!'.

Anyway, I'm off to have another Blood Test now, had about six in the last week or so! Lucky me huh!

Have a great day everyone!

Thank You Auntie!

I made this special card for my Auntie, we went to have a scrumptious Sunday Lunch with her, and I made dessert - a Banoffee Pie!  I know, very naughty, but you have to have something special every now and then! 

I constructed the flowers out of card and added some Cosmic Shimmer Pearls to the stamens to make them stand out.  My only problem is getting them to dry without kitty deciding to sit on them on the worktray on the bed! I achieved it this time! Yay!

A while back I ordered some new stamps and in with the stamps, they enclosed some die cuts - I've just been putting some of them to good use for my Charity Card Box.  I've had this backing paper for many years, even before I started cardmaking!  It's just perfect for this hot air balloon which I backed with some holographic card I have in my stash.

This cute little bear came from I don't remember where now.  He's in my little box of stamped images I've been sent at different times.  I use them to make Charity Cards as you know and he's so cute.  I'm not sure of the make as it was sent to me. If anyone knows, please tell me and I'm going to add him to my Wish List - which is growing ever longer by the day LOL!!

Enjoy!

WOYWW 217 - it's still Christmas here!

Welcome to WOYWW everyone! They sure come around quick! Can you believe we're nearly into August!  Yikes!!

Anyway, so what am I up to on my little work trays on my bed.  Well not too much to be honest with you!  As it's so hot still and my body doesn't cope with the heat too well, I've been trying a few little ideas out for Christmas cards.

This time, is it best to keep the Poinsettia flowers plain or add the glitter on the edges? What do you think everyone???

I won some gorgeous Blog Candy as you know (with all the glitter strips in it amongst many other things!). Also in there were some gorgeous mirri type cards and envelopes in Christmas colours - they are fabby!!  I've used one of them here with the Poinsettia backing paper on it. 

The pearls, now I don't have a glue gun, only a Quickie Glue Pen, a cheapie imitation Pritt stick someone gave me and some Anita's glue which is quite old now but still works!  Can anyone tell me how I can get them to stay on a card without spending lots of money on doing it???

That's it for now and I hope you all have a great WOYWW!
Enjoy!

Rudolph Day 7 - Something completely different!

Welcome to Rudolph Day again!!!  I thought I'd do something completely different this time and went with a clean look!  Just three colours (I'm counting white as a colour).

 

Most of the work is embossing which is gorgeous when using white card, it looks so pretty and elegant.  I've used my Holly Die cut which got a LOT of use last Christmas too!  I'm working on a few Christmas cards at the moment so you might see a them in between Rudolph Days too!

 

Enjoy!

WOYWW 216

Welcome to WOYWW ladies and gentlemen!!!  Another Wednesday comes around and it is still too hot for me!!!  We had a brief time with a little rain and thunder and lightning, but sadly it didn't last long enough for me. So back to the crafting it is then! 

My little helper is still helping, as long as there is some chicken or other such delights at the end of it for her she's quite happy to sit and wait....for a while....anyway!

Here's an idea of the snow globe I was making before.  I've not glued anything down as I'm not sure about it yet.  I think the snowflakes are a bit big after laying them above the Christmas trees.  Good job I haven't stuck it down and I might need a re-think on this one.

Good job I've got another idea for Rudolph Day isn't it!!! LOL!!

Keep cool everyone and Happy WOYWW!

WOYWW 215 and it's a hot one....phew....

 

Phew...this is way tooooooooo hot for me, I don't know about you, but I need to find a walk in freezer, and quick!!! I'm still on the idea that by making Christmas cards, it'll make me feel cooler, but it doesn't seem to be working just yet...!! LOL!!

 

So here is another WOYWW and wowser, is it a hot one!  It's even, dare I say it, too hot to craft isn't it.  I did have a go at the weekend, but ended up eating a nice fat free yoghurt frozen ice cream type treat and watched some mindless TV and thought about what I should be doing! My body just shuts down on me in the hot weather.

 

Even my little helper isn't so keen as you can see her disappearing off my bed to find a cooler spot to hide.  As she needed some new meds we took her to vet this morning for her check up too.  However, it wasn't such good news sadly.  She's almost 21 and they haven't advised doing any biopsies or anything at her age.  She's still fine and dandy, eating M&S chicken slices no less! Well the vet did say if she didn't want to eat cat food, then let her eat whatever she likes even if it's not the healthiest of foods, like cheese or Tempura prawns (don't ask! I know, she's really really spoilt!).

She's also really really loved as you can tell and I know I spoil her a lot, but she's worth it.  My brother said we'll do our shopping in any old supermarket, but her food comes from M&S!!!  As you can tell, she's loved a lot. Bless, such a sweetie.

So I hope you all manage to keep cool, I'm thinking of what I'm going to do craftwise at the moment, so when (fingers crossed!!!!) it cools down I'll be all ready!

Keep smiling and keep cool!

Two more for the charity card box!

This is a little cutie!  I used a freebie embossing folder I got with a craft magazine and then cutout a shape using my spellbinders I won in a competition!  Not bad huh!  Offcuts of paper from my little envelope and I had the flowers done.  I've had the brads for ages, and am soon running out of them.  There wasn't so much choice then as there is now, but I still go back to my old favourites!

A male card completed here.  The backing tape measure is actually washi tape that was another freebie from a magazine!  I do love those freebies, they help my charity cardmaking in so many ways.

The stamp was purchased in a sale a few moons ago now.  It's so easy to colour and looks just like those tree houses we had as kids (ours was the garden shed really made into a den!). 

Memories are just great sometimes aren't they!

Hope you're all keeping cool!

WOYWW 214

Hello everyone and welcome to another WOYWW! A bit different this time as I have sun here with me,  which is a bit cooler today (which I love! - I'm definitely a Winter Girl not a Summer one that's for sure!). Someone told me if you're born in the Winter you love Winter weather and vice versa for Summer babies. Not sure if it's true, but it is for me! Is it for you?

So as it's way toooooo hot for me, what am I working on? Christmas!  LOL!!! I thought it might make me feel cooler!  Seriously now, I saw some lovely looking snowy acetate and decided it was way too expensive for me, so my little grey cell, it is working, yes.  Yes!  I got out my acetate and looked at what was on my craftbed. The little grey cell, it woke up and voila.  It doesn't look much in the photo, but I used my Cosmic Shimmer white bottle and dotted it over the acetate and it looks a lot better IRL!!!!  You will see it being used soon!

So here it is - As you can tell I'm making a snowglobe.  I have an idea in my head but I don't quite have all the equipment to do what I need, so I'm going to improvise with it and see how it turns out!!

Finally, I have my little card to show you where I used all those glitter strips up and made my background.  I decided to keep the image plain as well as the card too.  I think with that much glitter you don't need much else!!!

So have a great WOYWW whatever you are doing and enjoy!

WOYWW 213

 Firstly welcome to my two new followers, Gibby and Annette!

Secondly, Happy WOYWW everyone!!  As you can see I've got a few things on the go at once on my little work trays!  It seems to be all purple and silver, but believe me, the rest of the bed had more things on it too.

Namely Domi!!! Our little old lady!  She wanted my attention and the best way of getting it is to lie on top of whatever I'm crafting with at the time!!!  It usually works and here she is sneaking a peak at me to make sure I'm getting off the bed to go and attend to her requirements (remember dogs have owners and cats have slaves?!?!?!).

Finally here is what is resting against my pillow on the other side of the bed!  A bit of everything really and just to show you all it's not always neat on the trays and the bed, sometimes it's neat on the trays and chaos on the bed! LOL!!!

 

So hope you all have a very Happy WOYWW and will be around later to have a peak at your workdesks!

 

Enjoy!

WOYWW 213 - What IS That...?!?!

Welcome to WOYWW! So what is this mess on my work trays you ask???  Well, I won some candy and in it was lots of lovely strips of glitter paper - my first thought was - what the hell am I going to do with those? Then I stopped, thought about it and .....

Voila!!!  I came up with the idea of putting them on a piece of waste cardstock from some packaging I had (Recycling Queen does it again!). At first I interwove them but I didn't have enough of the colours to do a whole piece of cardstock, so I just decided on the stripes instead.  You will see this soon as a backing on a card I've got plans for!

Lastly, here is the card I made which you saw on my WOYWW previously.  Julia - you are right - it was a bone.  I added the little bones all over the card - you can just see them in the photo (sorry light wasn't too good).  I just love this stamp set, so many good uses for different cards.

Gill, you might recognise the bone from one the lovely packages you sent me.  I always use every last bit if I can!  Recycle Queen again!

Have a great WOYWW everyone and I'll be putting on my best Visitors Hat soon!

Enjoy!