Back for Rudolph Day

I thought Rudolph Day was maybe a good time to return to blogging.

 As some of you already know my beloved Roy died unexpectedly just before Christmas. I say unexpectedl, as although he had been unwell for a couple of months there had been no indication that I would lose him and in fact he died of sepsis. The last few months have been difficult but I'm very slowly adjusting, so think it's time to start taking up some of my hobbies again, which have all been on hold for six months.

I haven't actually started crafting again yet but I do have some cards saved in drafts that I made last year. So here is my offering for this month's Rudolph Day.

 

This was a very old Kanban topper mounted onto a piece of 6x6 paper from my stash and finished with a bit of ribbon from Stampin Up.

Taking a break

Those of you who follow my blog will have noticed the lack of posts. Roy, once again deteriorated and had another stay in hospital, this time with sepsis. He’s home now  but not at all well. I’m just waiting for an emergency care package to be put in place, which the hospital should have done . Meanwhile absolutely no time to craft. In fact I haven’t even written the cards that were already made. 

Hopefully I’ll be back sometime next year.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Rudolph Day October

I've just noticed that I published last month's Rudolph Day card as October when it should have been September -  now corrected!

Roy's troubles certainly weren't over last month as he then went on to have 12 days in hospital -  his difficulty walking was apparently caused by cellulitis, but also had to have more blood transfusions as the anaemia kept returning. We're waiting now for the results of another test but at least he's home and enjoying the stair lift! 

So as you can guess I have done very little crafting, fortunately I still had these two cards made in advance. Wonder if I was being psychic?

Another two cards made using up some old decoupage. I've mounted them onto an embossed background which has removed the need for a sentiment. 

 

Challenges:

Rudolph Day

Peace on Earth Challenge

Rudolph Day September

A really quick post from me this month for Rudolph Day.I completely missed last month. Life got really hectic then and hasn't stopped yet. Roy had to have emergency blood and iron transfusions plus lots of investigations to find out why he was so anaemic, then was diagnosed with heart failure because of the anaemia. I've lost count of the number of visits to the hospital and he's not out of the woods yet. He's having difficulty walking anywhere and needs a lot of help, so crfting time is non existent.

Fortunately I had got  ahead of myself so had a card ready for this month, Nothing very difficult just a large and old Kanban topper.

Birthday Salute!

Recently it was Roy's birthday and as he is still very miltary minded , even though he has been out of the army getting on for forty years, I thought that Cpl Clegg from Dr Digi was very appropriate.

 I coloured him with pencils and added some gold paint for the buttons and end of the pace stick, and glossy accents for the boots. The background paper is a 6x6 sheet from my stash, which I thought made a nice frame, matted onto a piece of Sahara Sand card.

 

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More

March Rudolph Day

This month seems to have flown by. I seem to have been very busy but not sure with what! Certainly very little carmaking or indeed any sort of crafting. Although I suppose I could class painting Roy's very small military miniatures ass crafting!

Anyway I did manage a card for Rudolph Day. I used a very old Dufex decoupage sheet. I've still got one or two left which are about to get used up. It was also just the right size for me to use up another old stash item - an aperture card.

 

Challenges:

Rudolph Day

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge

Unicorn Birthday

Today I have for you two of the 'same but different' cards. Roy;s great niece is obsessed with unicorns, so I went looking for unicorn stamps and found these sweet ones from Lawn Fawn. I decided to make two cards while I had them out as the little girl next door is 4 later this month.

 

I used some lightish blue card from the snippets box and stencilled some darker blue "clouds"as a background. The unicorns, fairies cake and clouds were all stamped on snippets of white card and fussy cut before being arranged. Some glitter stars added to one and the fairies' wings were also glittered.

 

Challenges:

Snippets Playground

Happy Little Stampers Birthday Challenge

NBUS

Military Birthday Card

I’m afraid I’ve been MIA for a while. The reason? I’m doing an online drawing course and it’s taking up a lot of my time, so card making has taken a bit of a back seat.

A friend of Roy’s recently had his 87th birthday so I made him a suitable card. He’s ex military and also collects model soldiers as Roy does. 

I was really pleased that I was able to make use of the stamp I’d bought for Roy’s birthday card as I thought it might only get used once. The badge and sentiment were computer generated.

Challenges:

Seize the birthday

Roy's birthday

The beginning of April brings a number of family birthdays, all fairly close together. The first one is Roy's. As many of you will know he is a keen collector of model soldiers, so when I came across this stamp from Picture This last year I had to buy it, and had been waiting to ink it ever since.

I coloured him with a mix of Copics and Promarkers then fussy cut him out. The background is made up of snippets of scrapbooking paper. I thought the stripy one looked a bit regimental! The sentiment strip is computer generated as I added his old Regimental cap badge to either side. I'm pleases to say it was very well received.

Challenges:

NBUS 

Snippets Playgound

Happy Little Stampers Birthday Challenge

Happy Easter

The only Easter cards I make are for the grandchildren, so I can slip some money inside to buy chocolate! 

It’s easier than trying to post Easter eggs.

So we have four very similar cards made using up some of my 6x6 papers.  The sentiment was computer generated and printed to match the mats (or as close s I could get). The top two went to the two boys and the bottom two to Roy’s grand nieces.

Oporto Port House

I hadn't realised how long it has been since I last did a blog post. Note to self - must do better!  no cardmaking has been taking place but I have done some more scrapbooking, an online art course and some major clearing out of books and magazines stored in the garage!  Now I only have to contend with the fact my craft room is like a sauna, despite having the window open, blind down and fan on! Anyway on to crafty things and here is another layout for my Canaries Cruise scrapbook.

Our first port of call was Oporto where we did an excursion to a Port House( I had to look up what they were called) which included sampling some of their products. As Roy is totally teetotal I had double tasteing!

The embellishments were cut out on my Cameo.

Anyone for coffee?

Roy's birthday is coming up soon and I was feeling a bit stuck for ideas for his card. I was sure I had bought a stamp sometime ago especially for it, but there was nothing sitting on my desk that looked remotely suitable, so thought I must have dreamt buying it. The trouble was I couldn't even remember what the image was! So Plan B got put into action.  Coffee!

The stamp set is from Altenew . I used a piece of gingham paper to represent a tablecloth, although that well known chain of coffee shops that he frequents for his flat white certainly doesn't have any!

Typically as soon as I had finished this card and was clearing away I found the stamp I had bought. Oh well it will come in handy for next year - if I remember I've got it.

 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Food and /or Drink

I'm Back!

Well it's been quite a while since I posted anything! First of all we went on a cruise over Christmas, which was great even with Covid measures in place. Then after we got back had paperwork to do, dental visits, and setting up a new computer plus reformating the old one for Roy. Then I had to help son with his tax return, Today I have managed to make a card for two challenges - hooray!

It is fairly simple though. I heat embossed the Woodware stamp in gold then mounted it on gold mirri card. 

Challenges:

 Rudolph Day

  52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Lilies

There's not been much card making going on here recently as I have been doing some art workshops and I have so much stuff out there's little room left. So I thought I'd show you some of the pictures I've done - well only the ones that are fit to be seen!

This one was a workshop arranged by Unison Pastels and led by Cathy Pearce. It was only my second time using soft pastels which I love, even though they can be incredibly messy.

In fact I thought I was going to have to buy a new bedroom carpet when I did this one!. The bright orange pastel crumbled and unbeknown to me a tiny bit had got onto my sandals underneath the sole of my foot. Later when I went to shower I walked across a pale green carpet in bare feet - leaving bright orange footprints.Fortunately I managed to get it off with soapy water as I don't think Roy would have been impressed. He did like the picture though and it is now framed and hanging on our bedroom wall.

A Golf -Playing Unicorn?

No I haven't completely lost it - this is what Roy's great niece has asked for for her birthday! Of course it is impossible to buy such a thing so silly me has set to to crochet one for her ( I must be totally mad!) I'm still working on it but will show it when it's finished. Meanwhile I have made a card. It's been a long time since I took 3 days to make a card.

I found the unicorn and golfing bits on the Silhouette store. I cut all the pieces out in white and then coloured them with Copics. The grass paper has been lurking in my stash for a long time. Once I'd assembled all the pieces and placed on the card I added some stars to the unicorn. As a number of white snippets were used I'm going to share at the Playground. I'm also sharing over at Crafty Creations.

Rudolph Day June

Thank goodness it's a bit cooler her so I was able tospend a pleasnt afternoon making a card for Rudolph Day while Roy hosted the monthly meeting of the local branch of the British Model Soldier Society. he van no longer paint them as he is unable to manipulate the paintbrush with the arthritis in his hands, so every so often I get the job!!!! Here is a photo of one of the ones I am currently doing. The background is my SU grid paper showing centimetres.

 

Anyway onto more interesting things like cards. I have used a NBUS stamp that I bought last September and which has been sitting on my desk ever since.

 

The die is from an old SU set and is the only Christmas one I have that fitted the space. I'm going to share this at the NBUS challenge as well.

Golden Birthday Buddha

It was recently Roy's birthday and as he is very fond of oriental things having lived in Hong Kong many years ago, I wanted to make a suitable card. He is particularly fond of Buddha's and when I saw this stamp last year, I knew it would make a perfect card for him. I have to thank Jane for her enabling post here.

I stamped and embossed on gold mirri card and then mounted it onto a leafy background, made with a Uniko background stamp and inked around the edges.That should have been the finished card but I made a mess on the inside! So cut the front off and mounted it on to a gold A5 card, then was much more careful stamping on the inside. I'm sharing this at the NBUS challenge and Watercooler Challenge.

Walk all over Cancer in March

Good morning all! Those of you who have been following my blog will remember that five years ago Roy was very ill with viral encephalitis and spent four months in hospital. Two of which were spent learning to do everything again including walking. He has come on in leaps and bounds (not literally) since then, although he still has limited use of his hands. This year he has decided to take up the challenge of walking 10000 steps a day in March for Cancer Research. I have put the link to his just giving page on my sidebar, just in case any of you lovely readers would like to sponsor him. 

I am incredibly grateful that he is able to even consider doing this.

Paw Prints

I rently had to make a pet sympathy card for a former colleague of Roy's. This is probably not something I would usually make but Sammy was a surrogate child! I had a search on Pinterest for a bit of inspiration and then remembered that I had bought these paw print dies at a craft show last year and of course never used them.

They were a bit fiddly to use and the smallest one (which I didn't use) would I think, have had me tearing my hair out. The tiny hearts were from the SU owl punch.

I'm joining in with :

Happy Little Stampers - Anything goes with Dies

Pixies Snippets Playground

NBUS challenge.

The Cruise continued

Next port of call was Arendal, a very pretty place.

We had just docked and were having breakfast when out of the window I saw all these girls appear. They were forma local school and proceeded to give us a delightful welcome by dancing (in the rain) to music from Frozen. I quickly popped out of the restaurant onto deck to get some photos.

.

After breakfasr we headed into town and a visit to another church,

Both the churches we visited had these ships suspended from the ceiling and are apparently called votive ships.

fter leaving Arendal we sailed Hardangerfjord  to the waterfall Furebergfossen.

 Next stop was the small town of Eidfjord.

Unfortunately Roy was suffering from the nasty virus so stayed in the cabin. I had a walk around  before visiting the tourist office to claim tax back on our purchases, and came across a row of knitted trees! Apparently when they first appeared they were so popular that they have been replaced every year.

 Our last day was cruising in Lysefjord which was truly spectacular. The photos really don't do it justice.

Next post will be back to crafting.