What a week!

Where to start?

As some of you know, my Mum, Jean, passed away last Tuesday, 10th July.

In some ways it was a blessing as she had been suffering with Dementia for quite a few years now.

Here she is with Dad when they were first together.

I hope she will find some peace now.

Thanks to everyone for the wishes, cards and flowers (below)

(more cards arrived after I took this picture)

Then, whilst sitting on the phone - doing nothing I might add! - my right knee decided to swell until it was the size of a watermelon!

The results?

A trip to A&E

A course of Anti-Inflamatory tablets

A pair of crutches

A visit to my private consulant

An MRI scan

A second visit to the consultant

An arthroscopy of my knee (surgery)

All within a week - Thank God I kept on my Bupa from a previous job!

Can't get worse I hear you say?

Saturday night - Dad broke his dentures

George (the cat) starts limping and can't put pressure on his back leg.

Sunday - trip to vets - he's now on Anti-Inflamatory medication too (Good job they don't give crutches to cats or we'd have three pairs - Dad still using his following knee replacement!)

Monday - trip to dental technician for repair.

If someone wrote this in a book you'd say - No! not possible, totally implausible!



Christmas in July!

Well, Doctor's orders dictate that I have to rest my knee, so I'm catching up with my scrapbooking as this can be done sitting down - feet up!

I am adding pages to my great-niece Megan's album which I started when she was born - she'll be 4 next week!

I had already made pages of her Christening but Christmas was before this so....I remembered a page made a while back at a crop in Suffolk with Lynn where I had used a photo of Megan with her Mum, Cheryl. I had a double page space so found the leftover papers and made the following to match.

I added a sheet of cream bazzill for the background, the rest are Echo Park - Everyone loves Christmas.

The Poinsettia below was made at the same event to decorate a box we made from 12x12 cardstock.

I added it here instead as the box is still on my craftroom shelf.

The snowmen were cut from a sheet of the paper and mounted onto stamp effect punched squares (Stampin' Up punch) some decoupaged, one glittered and the other with twine added as a scarf.

The borders and letters are leftovers on the sticker sheet which came with the kit.

I had run out of e's so adapted the f's - hope its not too obvious?

I used a fine-liner around the edges too and added diamante to the border.

The larger letters for "Little" were the same colour in the middle (all I had left) so I drew onto them to alter them a bit.

The original page was designed by Lou Collins, my version is below.

This is the box the Poinsettia came from and the kit.

 

Thanks for looking :)

XXX



Scrapology July Challenge - A floral swathe

This month's challenge was set by the lovely Marion of Sugar & Spice who can often be seen on QVC too.

She challenged us to use heat embossing and here is my card.

I stamped and embossed the flowers with clear embossing powder which gave a lovely glossy finish,

the paler ones have a stamped centre too with a pearl added.
The stamps are from Stampin' Up called Punch Posy, and have been punched with the five petal matching punch.

I used an embossing folder for the panel attached to the easel and inked the edges.

Lots of leaves and branches were added too.

Below you can see the flower on the base of the card, unfortunately the embossing doesn't show up well on photograpghs. Stickles were added the the centre of these flowers.

Over at Scrapology are the designs made by the rest of the DT and details of the challenge.



Look who's 1 (or was a while ago!)

I was looking through my papers the other day and found a kit from Jill's first retreat (Cardinal Colours) which was designed by S-J (Little Musings). As Lynn and I were teaching & helping out we didn't have time to take part in classes.

As I am working on a second album for my great-niece Megan, I decided to use it for these pages.

The papers are Echo Park - A walk in the Park - Flutter, Playful stripes and Element cards.

There was also some coloured butterflies to cut out, jewels, buttons and bakers twine.

The sticker sheet had the flags on it to create the bunting.

I added glossy accents to the strawberry, balloon and flower head. 

This is S-J's original - lovely isn't it :)

As I wanted a double page, I created this layout with the leftovers.

I used the flags down the centre then added alphabet stickers from the sheet.

The cut out butterflies were mounted onto 2x2" squares with the pearls in the centres

 

I punched the remaining butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch and added them down the centre strip against a faux stitched line and added some small gems from my stash.

The alpha's read - Birthday wishes - Butterfly kisses.

Thanks to S-J for a lovely kit, I really enjoyed making these pages.

Leftovers.....

As many of you know, Lynn & I produce a monthly Scrapology kit and there are always bits left over.

I have decided to try to make a few cards (or another project) each time with the remnants, so, here are this months.

Using Bo Bunny Country Garden and some Green Tea & French Silk Bazzill.

I used a panel from the cut-outs sheet for the main image.

The flowers are a retro daisy punch which I have doodled onto, the centres are a small circle punch.

The birthday message is from Stampin' Up and is cut from their oval punch.

The bird and branch is also an Stampin' Up punch.

The second card uses a different sentiment from the cut-outs sheet plus leftover patterned papers.

I used the small retro daisy punch plus Martha Stewart Small Butterflies, Hydranga & Branch punches. Cinnamon stickles are the flower centres.

And whats left? A small piece of French Silk Bazzill :)

Thanks for looking

XXX

Gel Manicure - week 2

An update....I removed the glitter topcoat as it had become rough and kept catching on things.

I used non-acetone remover as they said and the red stayed put.

There was a little bit of growth at the base so I used Magic tape on the diagonal and painted the base with Nails Inc silver glitter polish called Electric Avenue, followed by a clear topcoat.

It does look better IRL!

Lets see how it lasts

I name thee...........

I made a second page for this months challenge using BG Out of Print papers.

I gutted the etchings paper and tore a sheet of white bazzill to approximately 11".

This formed the base of my page. Mats of special feature, globe and etchings were added some with torn edges too.

I used two paisley style stickers from the accompanying sheet, on on 3d foam, at the bottom then added flat backed green pearl beads.

Flowers were punched from my small retro flower punch, edges inked and shaped with a pearl added to the centre. The fronds were from a McGill punch.

I added a strip of paper vertically then a punched border (Martha Stewart) with a torn edge.

Seam binding was glued into place randomly then more flowers and fronds added.

The title is letters from the BG pack which have been coloured with a Copic pen then outlined with a fine-liner in black.

Here is a reminder of the sketch, I have rotated it for this page.

Closing date for the Scrapology challenge is 5th August.