First off, let me say a great big THANK YOU to each and every one of you, for all your words of support and encouragement during the tough times this year end has thrown at me. I know that some of you have faced equally tough times, which makes me love you all the more for your continued support whilst dealing with your own problems!
I also want to say a great big thank you to Loll, Kylie and the team at Happy Little Stampers for giving me the amazing opportunity of becoming a member of a Design Team for the very first time! I am saddened that I have to step down, but I wouldn't have been able to give it my all next year, and if I can't give 110% I don't think it's fair to anyone! Anyway, I am hoping to still join in some challenges as and when I have some time, so I will still be here!
On to the rest of this post. I just finished the last of the Christmas preparations (just the food to prep to do - Christmas Eve), so I have tried to get a few Christmas cards ready for next year - as I was caught unawares this year - so, this will probably be my last post until 2017!
I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year in 2017! Here are the cards! The first one up was a card inspired by one I received from my very dear friend Loll.
Thank you Loll, I hope you don't mind that I 'pinched' your idea! The second one was made with the negative die-cut of the first. The third was one of a set of identical cards I made for Mum's support workers (I made eight) and the rest were made from die-cuts from some new dies I purchased and tried!
** Picture Heavy Post **
As ever thank you so much for your visit today . . . have a great one, and . . . see you next year! Hazel xx
Hello Lovely people. Another very quick card today. This one was made with a Clearly Besotted set. So simple it needs no explanation. Here are the pics.
Not a wonderful creation, but quick and cheerful!
Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment. You are all appreciated more than you know! If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.
Hi my lovely friends, today starts a new challenge over on the Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge blog. I also have to tell you that this will be my last DT post for that challenge, as, unfortunately, I won't be able to give it one hundred percent in 2017 and if I am unable to give anything one hundred percent I feel that it would be unfair to everyone and so, regrettably, I have had to step down. Next year is going to be a very busy one for me. However, I still hope to enter the challenge from time to time, as and when I am able!
Now, to this month's challenge,
As you can see, this month we get to choose our favourite technique. For my technique, I chose to do watercolour spritzing and I also used a die cut inlay technique. Here is my card.
First I cut a watercolour panel and a red card-stock panel with the largest of the Simon Says Stamp 'Frames' die set and put to one side.
Next, I inked the Penny Black 'La Fluer Rouge' stamp with markers and spritzed it with water. Then I stamped the image on the panel of watercolour card-stock and stamped the greeting with the Clearly Besotted 'Holly Berries' stamp set.
When it was dry, I then flicked some splatters of ink - mixed with water - on to the focal panel and finally I mounted the focal panel and the frame to the front of a card base, finishing everything with a lick of Wink Of Stella.
Why not pop on over and see the rest of the DT creations and show us your favourite technique!
Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment. You are all appreciated more than you know! If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.
Hello my lovely friends. I hope you have had a wonderful weekend. I managed to have a little time in my craft room today and as I am so behind with Christmas arrangements (I haven't even had time to think about it much) I decided that any Christmas cards I get around to making this year must be very quick and very simple.
I started this one off by punching out around six circles with a circle punch, folded them all in half down the middle and adhered them together in a stack. Next, I adhered the two back layers to a plain white card front. Then I drew the string with a ruler and gel pen, added a computer generated sentiment and scattered three small gems, and called it done.
The beauty with this, besides being very quick and very simple, is that it folds fairly flat for posting and it's a fun design for the recipient.
Here are the photos.
That's it for today my lovelies. I hope you have a marvellous week, don't forget to wrap up warm, if it's as cold as it is here at the moment.
A quick update on Mum, she is so much better and almost back to her old self and it's lovely to witness! However, she will never be back to 100% - because, of course, there is no cure for heart failure - but she is as good as she can be at ninety and with the health problems she has. She still requires a great deal of support, but I have had a care package put in place for her, and it has eased my workload to a certain extent.
I have also arranged for a mobile hairdresser to go to her home to do her hair once a week and I still ring her every day of course. I also do all of her shopping and paying of her bills and so on, plus I will have to get all her cards and gifts that she loves to give at Christmas . . . and all my own Christmas shopping too (Mum is going to have Christmas with us), so still heaps to be going on with, so I had better say, cheerio for now. Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment. You are all appreciated more than you know!
If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.
Hi my lovelies, Sorry it has been so long, but Mum was discharged on the 10th and my feet haven't touched the ground since! She is at home now, but I have had to have a lot of support put into place as she is still far from 100%.
First, she was discharged without enough medications, and what medications she did have were just in boxes (Mum needs a blister pack, as she still gets confused with them), so I rang her pharmacy and they said they were waiting on a prescription from Mum's doctors and they were, "closed today for staff training and won't be open again until Monday", it was Thursday, so I asked what we could do to get the crucial medications! They told me to ring 111, which I did, and the doctor said he would fax an emergency prescription to Mum's pharmacy, but I would have to go and collect it. I was without my car and it was five-o-clock and the pharmacy closed at five-thirty (and it's not an insignificant jaunt from mum's house), I ran all the way - boy, am I out of condition - and got her meds.
I won't bore you guys any longer about the string of catastrophes and cock-ups, since, but suffice to say, I literally haven't had a minute to myself until last night, when I managed to grab a whole hour to do my own thing!
As I haven't even had time to think about Christmas, I thought I'd better get some cards done, so I made eleven, mass production style, cards. I pre-cut all the panels, cut all the triangles by hand out of foil card-stock, cut the glitter paper borders, folded the card bases, and punched out a load of little stars with my EK Success star border punch. After getting all the pieces needed, I stamped the sentiment on the panels and heat embossed with gold EP and got to assembling them.
I won't post all the photos, but here are a selection and then a 'group shot'.
So sorry I have been very remiss in my visits to all your lovely lovely blogs and thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment. You are all appreciated more than you know! If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.
Hi lovely people! Yesterday, I got a phone call from 'Adult Care' people, who are putting measures into place for Mum's discharge from the nursing home. They asked me if I could go up to my mother's house and be there for the fitting of a key safe, to be installed between 13:00 and 17:00 hours. I asked if they could narrow it down, they said, "sorry, but no". So I just grabbed a few scraps and ready made panels (practice pieces), some glue, scissors and a few other bits and pieces and got up there at 12:45 - of course, the guy didn't get there until 16:50 - but no matter.
Whilst I was waiting, I put together the following cards, which I finished off with some stamping when I returned home.
These are the cards I ended up with.
It was a good exercise for me as it challenged my creativity, with so few supplies to hand, and, in the end, I actually enjoyed that I didn't have too much choice, as it forced me to 'think outside the box'.
The news of Mum is, they want to send her back to her home on Wednesday 9th and I am meeting with 'Adult Care' tomorrow up at Mum's house to ensure they carry out a full risk assessment to my satisfaction.
I'm linking the last one to Loll and Bonnie's new watercolour challenge as it was kindly pointed out to me that it fits - the pink is 'smooshed' watercolour spritzed with shimmer spray.
Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment. You are all appreciated more than you know! If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.
