QACAS Christmas

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.

The Hard Work Starts Now

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.

Four Hours To Kill

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.

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge - November

Hello lovely crafters!  November already?  Where does the time go?  It's time for another challenge over on the Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge blog and this time we want you to use 'Faux Metal' techniques.  If you aren't sure what they are, there are a number of video tutorials linked over at the challenge, so you can just pick one and follow along with it, but don't forget to link back to the challenge for a chance to win a prize!  As usual Happy Little Stampers are sponsoring the challenge!

Here are the pictures of my card and below the pictures will be the method I used.

For the card base I used watercolour card and used my Simon Says Stamp 'Air Vent' die for the border and cut a strip of gold, pearlised card to place beneath to peep through the slots.  I mounted that on to the card base, with a thin strip above and below to give a little margin.

To create the 'faux metal' leaf, I took a piece of plain white card-stock and crumpled it up in my hand.  Then I flattened it out with my fingers and die cut a leaf with my Stampin' Up 'Leaflets Framelits'.

Next, I covered the whole leaf in Versamark and sprinkled on some copper embossing powder in places and then some gold, in the areas without the copper and heat set it.  I repeated the process for a second layer, so the coating was thicker and looked more like metal.  I then tied a piece of gold twine around the base and adhered it to my card front with thin, foam tape.

I finished the card, by cutting a gold foil sentiment and adhered that flat to the card.

I do hope that you join us and give this fantastic technique a try, it is so much fun!

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!