National Scrapbooking Day

First of all I want to thank you all for your good wishes, they really have helped me through a very stressful time which isn't over yet. Roy's recovery is going to be very slow.  He was still running a temperature yesterday. Now that he is on a ward the visiting times are more restricted which means that I have a little more time to myself, but still not crafting. Fiona is still here with me along with her cat, which is using my craft room for its food and litter tray, as her food has to be kept away from my two cars as she is on a special diet.

However I do have some things made and photographed ready to be blogged so thought I'd quickly show you another Oz layout as it's National Scrapbooking Day.

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to make this page. I think it was on my desk for about 3 weeks while I shuffled elements around! Right that's it from me for now -will be heading for the hospital soon.

Rudolph Day - June

I made this card some time ago but have never blogged it. So Rudolph Day is the perfect time to do it.

It was made with some very old decoupage and papers that have been in my stash for ages. The edge of the scallop circle is glittered although it is not showing up very well in the photo. I shall also pop across to the playground as the red was out of the snippets box.

Roy Update!

He was transferred on Tuesday to the neurorehab unit in Woking so everything was looking good. That is until he decided to be Mr Independenceand tried to stand on his own and fell cutting his head. It required stitching so they sent him to hospital in Chertsey!!!! and he's still there. I'm waiting for a call to find out whether he is going back to the rehab unit today or not. Fingers crossed he is otherwise I'm going to have to drive all the way to Chertsey to see him! Feeling VERY stressed!

Good job I had this card waiting in the wings!

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

Something for a Child at MMM

The challenge this week at Make My Monday is "Something for a Child" which fitted quite nicely with making a card for Roy's great-nieces's 7th birthday. I decided to make her a girlie card and used the SU T-shirt set.

The banner is a Little Claire set that I've had for ages and never used. I really wanted to put Happy Birthday Polly but couldn't fit it in.

Look forward to seeing what you come up.

More Trifold Cards and update

When I made these cards I also made two yellow ones. The first uses SU Flower Patch stamp set and the second flowers from my stash.

I am still not crafting but still have a few things to blog in due course.

Roy is still in hospital and will be there for a few weeks yet I think. His hand has been sutured now so that is slightly more comfortable. There was no infection in it bu they had to operate to make sure after it had swollen up so suddenly and alarmingly. Apparently it was caused by damage to the nerves where he had been lying on it for so long when he was on the floor. he's got no movement in it but I'm told that will come back but will take months to get full movement back.He's still being treated with antivirals and antibiotics for the encephalitis, and I gather that will also go on for quite a long time.  Meanwhile it has made us both rethink our future plans and priorities!
 

Less is More - Green and Blue

When I read out what this week's Less is More challenge was to Roy last Saturday, he commented " I'll be interested to see what you do with that!" Well this is what I did.

I used a NBUS die from Simon Says Stamp and cut it out twice, once in blue and once in green then pieced the bits together. The blue paper was the backing paper from a Clarity stencil and the green was a snippet of holographic card. I'm off to make a second one with the remaining die pieces - obviously in reverse colours. Thee sentiment is a peel off coloured with a green copic pen. The snippets used mean that I get to have a go on the swings at the Playground!

LIM 249 Colour Challenge

The colour challenge at Less is More this week is to use the colours of "Fire". I immediately thought of autumn leaves and started making a card on Sunday.

After stamping lots of leaves my mojo went for a walk so I didn't finish the card until yesterday  - then I saw that lots of others had used leaves as well. I thought of doing something else but as my crafting time is very limited these days and the creative juices seem to have gone into hiding, decided to stick with the original plan. I used SU's Vintage Leaves and I think the background is from the You've Got It set. I added some gold embossed splats to the background as well. The leaves are actually shiny as I covered them with Versamark and clear embossd them. I think my photography skills, which were never very good, have also gone for a walk.

Roy is making slow progress but every day he can do a little more. He does get very frustrated though and very irritable, which is so unlike him. Unfortunately encephalitis can cause changes in personality, so I'm hoping it is just the frustration which will get less as he improves.  I do find some time to craft but blogging has taken a bit of a back seat I'm afraid.  And some days I'm just too tired to do very much at all.

I'm also going to join in at the Playground as the leaves were snippets of white card.
 

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

Shades of Brown

It's time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week we are looking for Shades of Brown. I was originally going to use this image from Dr Digi for Roy's birthday  as  part of his therapy is to do some exercises every morning using a weight. But I went down a different route for that!  However I thought it really lent itself to this challenge.

I coloured him with copics and fussy cut him out. The background papers are out of my stash and the sentiment is from Penny Black. Do try and join in the challenge but remember your makes must be for a male.

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.

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.

Rudolph Day - June

Well Rudolph Day really took me by surprise this month, as I didn't have a card ready. So a quick visit to the craft room resulted in this.

The stamp is from Hobbyart bought at this year' s Make It Show. The fat robins really appealed to me when I saw their samples. The backing paper was a plain green out of a very old Christmas pad, so I stamped on it with a small holly leaf from the set with a brilliance pad to give a bit of shine. The robin us coloured with Copics and some Dazzling Details glitter glue added for the white sparkle.

I'm afraid my blog posts may become even more erratic than they already are over the next few months. We have really got to concentrate on getting Roy's flat emptied and put on the market, and at the same time I need to clear out my garage to make room for the men to install new garage doors.No mean task as it's been used to dump everything in just in case it becomes useful. I do have a few things saved in drafts which I'll post from time to time and I'm sure I'll fit some crafting in, just tokeep me sane!!

I seem to have lost my signature as well, will have to create a new one but meanwhile, a temporary one.



Sue

Father's Day at Cards for Guyz

We're coming up to Father's Day here in the UK and that is our current challenge at Cardz for Guyz.
I don't often make a card for it unless it is a DT card as I lost my Dad fourteen years ago.
However I made this one with Roy in mind, hence the owl, as they are one of the many things he has collected over the years. I'll see if his daughter wants to use it!

The owl and background paper is from a Making Cards CD, and the sentiment was created in Craft Artist. The pieces of card are all snippets, although the pile never seems to get any smaller! I fussy cut the owl out and glossy accented his eyes. Make sure to check out the rest of the DT's work.
I'm also going to take this across to the Playground

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.

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

Rudolph Day - March

Well Rudolph Day is here again! This was a very quick card to make as time has been a bit short the last couple of weeks with lots of appointments. Hopefully that will calm down now that Roy has had his cataracts removed. Just need to get his tendonitis sorted !

I made this as I was tidying some stuff away. I had a Simon Says Stamp kit that had been sitting on my floor since it arrived, and the contents were perfect for a quick Christmas card. A card blank, some patterned paper and two stickers - job done!

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

Less is More - New baby card

Wonders will never cease! Two posts in one day from me! The reason is Roy went out with some former work colleagues so I had a whole FOUR hours to myself!!!

The theme this week at Less is More is to leave plenty of "white Space" but not white! I have a number of coloured card blanks, bought many years ago when I first started cardmaking, that are now sitting unloved at the botom of my card blank box, so a perfect opportunity to use one!

I diecut the little suit from some dsp and hand drew the seam lines then diecut the hanger.  Very simple card but I rather like it. No new babies to give it to though so it will go into my box of cards - just in case! I'd better make a blue one as well!

70th birthday

 It was Roy's 70th at the beginning of the month and this is the card I made him instead of this one. The digi image was another from Dr Digi, coloured with copics in what I hope were the Welsh Rugby team's colours. I even added a very small splodge of white to represent the Prince of Wales Feathers.

I cut the numbers out with SU dies and added 3 thicknesses of card to make it stand out.  He seemed to like it!!

The Blues!

I managed to find a little time to craft over the weekend and made this card for Less is More who want us to use sprays and mists.By a happy chance it also fits the theme for Addicted to Cas who want "Blue"

 Stampin' Royalty who want "circles" and as it was also a snippet used for the butterfly I'm going to take it over to the Playground as well. WOW - four challenges with one card, not sure I've ever managed that before.

Roy and I are slowly getting into a sort of routine between various outpatients appointments, but most of my time seems to be taken up now with food shopping (ugh!) and cooking! need to get it more organised!