Blogtastic thanks to Shellie!!

Hello, hello, hello!  yes I know I've been in hiding but life has a habit of throwing the odd curved ball in our direction and its happened again.  You get over one hiccough in life (believe me I've had a whole life's worth in the last 3 years!!) when the next one comes along and takes the wind right out of your sails - again.  Well the hiccough erupted on 8th March when my darling hubby was rushed into hospital, ambulance the lot, and had to have emergency surgery on his foot. 

The awful thing was that I couldn't get to see him for 2 days as me being of dodgy leg, sticks/wheelchair and all that, can't get out of  the house on my own so was devastated not to be able to be with him, he is also my main carer so things were rather 'dodgy' trying to do things myself, the joys of no family in this country, and being too proud to ask for help until I was desperate for a shower and hair wash! Anyway, to cut a long story short, the outcome was good, we were expecting the worst, he is laid up still but the long term prognosis is good and no major damage has been done.  Life is strange with two of us clicking around on sticks, housebound and hating it but after over 8 weeks of being together 24/7 we haven't had a cross word so life is sweet and things are getting back to some kind of normal!!  I have to start planning nice things for all our fab friends who were so kind and helped out so much, handmade cards and lots of cakes and brownies on the way me thinks!

using new stamps from CWC

Card making has taken a bit of a back seat but have been stamping like a mad woman, new techniques learned from the lovely Amy Shaw and sooooo enjoying experimenting with the fab new stamp range from Craftwork Cards.  They are so lovely, flowers and butterflies, tiny birds with lovely cages and super sentiment stamps to suit so many occasions.  I'm using them at the moment to make loads of little cards, these are going to be boxed in groups of 8 (I'm making the boxes) for auction at my local catholic church to raise funds for a new mini bus.  While Frank was in hospital Sr Christine heard I was on my own and was on the phone instantly and visiting the next, so its just a little way of saying thanks. 

I have also just received the latest CWC recipe updates and the free book of flowers is absolutely beautiful, it was a fab surprise to find, also that the last few pages were lovely co-ordinating papers.  The flowers are so lovely, all of them, and the colour combinations are great too.  I can't show what I've done with them yet as I may use for a design team submission I'm making (if I pluck up the courage to apply).  Will post them here in a week or two. 

As part of the design team entry I need to have a blog, well I've had a blog for a little while but as you can see I don't get on here often enough.  With that in mind I did a little housekeeping on it but there were some techie bits and pieces I couldn't master.  Yet another lovely friend to the rescue, Shellie, who lives many miles away in the sunny Canaries has been beavering away making everything work, thanks so much Shellie, another special card to make!

CWC card with some fab new Giraffe candi



Mars xx

Craftwork Cards Stamps

Wow its so good that Craftwork Cards are doing more stamps as everything they do is such great quality and as I've only started stamping recently its great to work with such good products. The sets include beautiful butterflies, pretty flowers, birds and their pretty cages and varied sentiments and all fab to mix and match with CWC card stock and papers etc.

Just a few samples of my 'play' with them in the craft room

I have used CWC's tiny cards as I'm making a set to box up for a charity raffle.  On the cards I have stamped using various butterfly stamps and Tim Holtz distress ink pads, have also stamped and cut out some and layered on with foam pads, a dot of stickles here and there and a cuttle card is born!

Candi flowers, stamped stems and sentiments, another butterfly and a tattered layered flower for this trio.

stamped back ground with little flowers and added stamped and cut out butterfly, ribbon dyed with dewdrop inks to match.  WC paper and craft paper flowers with candi flower centres, stems and leaf stamped with distress inks and stickles for a little hint of sparkle.

A little more stamping, a touch of embossing powder,  punched border with stamped panel, centre of flowers in sweet pea candi, flowers stamped, some cut out and layered back with foam pads accented with Glossy Accents for a little gloss and texture, stickled centres and ribbon dyed pink and marigold to match flower colours.

What fun I've had experimenting, these cards are for charity, have to make lots more and then will be making pretty boxes for them (bundles of 6 or 8) and they will be an auction lot at my church who are trying to raise funds towards a new community mini bus.

SOOOOO looking forward to Alfie bear stamps, a very cute little bear with endless potential, better get out the pro markers in readiness!

back soon

Mars xx