2022 - Cards in Review

Welcome.

I thought I would once again review my cards for the year - although I have blogged more than over the past few years, I also had great 'gaps' in my card making, and times when I was using others supplies... 

All the cards are linked to the post they were first shown in

January

February

March

This was the part of the time I was staying with my friend and using some of her supplies

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Needless to say there were months where I could have chosen more than one card.. and months when those cards were not florals, which seem to be dominating this review.

Thank you for visiting once more, and may 2023 bring you lots of joy, hope and love.

Silver Sympathy

Welcome

I was asked to make a sympathy card recently, and this is the outcome.

The background was blended using Distress inks, then splattered with water to add some interest

The wee jewelled cross sticker was one gifted to me some time ago, and I came across it recently and put it on my desk - and today was the day I used it - it is by Recollections.  It fitted perfectly in the aperture, which was cut using a S/B classic oval

The sentiment (by Divinity Designs) was silver embossed,

As were the edges of the base and top layer, which was attached using foam tape for some subtle dimension

I added some siver washi tape to the inside panel to finish

I am linking this to:

Polka Doddles Challenge Week #52 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #245 - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge Week #708/9 - CAS

Word Aft Wedensday Challenge Weeks #575 + 576 - Anything Goes

Double Trouble December Challenge - A Kaleidoscope of Color

Dare 2B Artzy December Challenge - CAS

Dragonfly Dreams December Challenge - Anything But Christmas

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #196 - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations December Challenge - Anything Goes - opt not taken

A Gem of a Challene Week #26 - Anything Goes

 

A Yellow Rose

Welcome

 Firstly may I say to all who read this, may you have a wonderful Festive Season, no matter how you celebrate.  Thank you for visiting, and I so appreciate your support.

This card was made some time ago, and I am not sure of everything I used - opps

The background was one I made while I was house sitting, and I seem to recall it was a Memory Box cover plate.   I water coloured the leaves in a pale yellow.

The background for the rose (one of my original stamps, so about 20 years old) was a piece of textured card I had used for 'mopping up' inks, then flicked gold paint over.  The image and sentiment were gold embossed, then the image highlighted with my Polychromo pencils.

I also gold embossed the edges of the focal panel, the textured background and the yellow card base. 

A strip of lace lemon was added to one side of the panel.

I finished the insert with some gold dotted washi tape.

On a personal note, the concussion is finally receding, but it has been a very quiet week!

I am linking this to:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #662 - Anything Goes

Crafty chicks Challenge #643 - All Occasions

EllieBelle's Crafty Wednesday December Challenge - Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter Christmas Break Challenge - Anything Goes

The Paper Funday Challenge #48 - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Weeks #51 +52 - Anything Goes

Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge #689 - Annual Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2251 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #575 + 578 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #51 - Anything Goes

From a High to a Low - and a Card

Welcome

Life is never without it's challenges, and this time it's me.  

We have had a very wet start to summer here, and the deck at this rental is uneven, so the water pools on it, and then gets slippery - and yours truly managed to slip and clonk my head on the concrete surface on Friday, much to my daughter's consternation.. she saw, and heard, me fall... 

After 3 hours at the local hospital I was sent home with a check list of what to watch for, and a sore head!!  On the list was a "Do not have a lot of 'screen' time recommendation", and I know why after spending some time online last night... 

But I have a Design team commitment to fulfil, so here I am - but this will be brief.

Our theme for December at We Love Stamping is "I love..."

One of the things I am loving of late is to use my mop-up sheets and mica sprays to make backgrounds, and here is a result...

The mica spray does not show well in the photos, but gives a really subtle sparkle on the wonderful textured card I used as a base. 

All the stamping was done in Versa Clair ink, Pinecone, on the sentiment I clear embossed it

I stamped a truck stamp from Montarga, in the same ink, and covered the windows, and lights with Glossy Accents, and coloured the bumper with a silver pen to add interest.

I slipped  wee snippets of gold paper under the opposing corners of the front panel

And again under the inside layer.

I am linking this to:

Snippets Playground Challenge #443

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #51 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2251 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge Week #26 - Anything Goes

Allie's Angels Challenge #65 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #573 + 574 - Anything Goes

Dare 2B Artzy December Challenge - CAS

Dragonfly Dreams December Challenge - Anything But Christmas

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #196 - Anything Goes

The male Room Challenge #169 - Transportation

The FarmQuest Challenge #18 - Anything Farm/Country

Amazing news for Christmas

Welcome

I know I have been pretty quiet on this blog for some months now - some of it was due to my own health issues, then my daughter's issues, which included a one sided mastectomy.

This week we got the best news ever - and I am going to quote what my daughter posted on social media - with her permission

It has taken me a little while to process this... and figure out what I am going to say, or even how I am going to explain it.

Yesterday I was given the best Christmas present EVER!

I went back to Waikato Hospital to have my wound checked, take my drain out and get my results. Everything happened as expected, except my results - they're better than I could have ever dreamed of.

I went into surgery believing I had Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, and it was a 4.2cm by 2.4cm by 1.7cm tumour, with the possibility of lymph node involvement.

Preliminary results were that there is no lymph node involvement, which was a huge relief but not the end of it.

So yesterday when my surgeon sat me down I was blown away - not only is there no lymph node involvement, there is also no blood vessel involvement. The 4.2cm cancer had shrunk to 2.5cm, and the Invasive Lobular Carcinoma had been misdiagnosed, and was actually Invasive Ductal Carcinoma...

All the cancer has been removed, I don't require any further treatment - NO chemo, NO radiation and only hormone blockers required. No further cancer cells in my body

.

Two things stand out here:

The size of the cancer - I have the MRI report describing the size and where it is.

The apparent misdiagnosis - Lobular is a lesser known cancer (only about 10% of breast cancer diagnosis), is unpredictable and the future prognosis is not great. Ductal, however, makes up 80% of diagnosis, they know much more about it, and it is 100% curable if caught early like mine. These guys are cancer specialists, they have diagnosed literally 100's of ladies between them - they don't make mistakes.

I don't say much about my personal beliefs on here - but this is an exception. I believe, 100%, that God intervened... He shrunk the tumour and changed the diagnosis - He promised me a future and a hope. I am a living, breathing, walking miracle.

NO MORE CANCER

To those who knew - thank you for all your support over the past three or four months - it's been quite a journey

Happy Birthday Napkin

Welcome

I have not been very creative of late, with one thing and another, so when I had to make a card for a child, I was at a bit of a loss, until I noticed a napkin that had been wrapped around a gift I had been given a wee while ago... 

I tried to match some card with the pink, but didn't have anything appropriate, so used the yellow instead, which resulted in a very cheerful card.

The napkin was glued onto white card which I had cut to size, before mounting on the yellow

I added to the image with a background stamp, randomly stamped with Versamark ink and  embossed with WOW Gold Glitter EP.  and then layered Glossy Accents over the letters

The inside was finished with some washi tape, and all was done and ready to send. 

I am linking this to:

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #49 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #573 +574 - Anything Goes

Pammie's inky Pinkies Challenge #2249 - Anything Goes

Double Trouble Challenge #127 - A Kaleidoscope of Colour

Colorful Options December Challenge - either White or a Rainbow

through The C raft Room Door Challenge - Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add Some Sparkle

Ellieblee's Crafty Wednesday December Challenge - Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter 12th Birthday Challenge - Celebrations

Paper Funday December Challenge #48 - Anything Goes Opt Holiday Time

Another Handmade Background

Welcome

The theme at this month's challenge at We Love Stamping  is "I Love...." 

This month's  prize is a matching scrapbook kit and dies from Craft Stash

                                

What I am currently really loving is making my own backgrounds, and this one has been made using the bubble technique, stamping over it using two different stamps.

The bubble background was created using food colouring, the small circle clusters from the Art By Marlene  Exclusive Textures set. were stamped using Broken China DI, and the stars using Delicata Gold ink.

The wee bird is from another Art By Marlene set. Back to Nature, Crazy Birds.  Stamped in Memento Danube Blue ink on a white piece of card and clear embossed, then painted with some mica paints, The  body was trimmed out - then mounted over the same image stamped on the card base.

It was a bit 'lost', so it was framed using a circle cut with two circle dies and painted with Blue Allure Lustre Polish, and grounded with the same medium painted directly onto the background.

The sentiment came from the same Back to Nature set, gold embossed, and outlined with a deep blue marker for it to be more easily read.

The inside was finished with a strip from the background and a simple greeting.

I apologise for not visiting other blogs as much as usual, but my DD underwent surgery this past week - so far the preliminary biopsy results are very encouraging, and we are praying she will make a full recovery with minimal further intervention. The result of that is that I am somewhat busier than usual...

I am linking this to: 

A Gem of a Challenge Week #25 - Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar December Challenge - Anything Goes

polka Doodles Challenge Week #49 - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge Week #48 - Anything Goes Colouring

Crafty Catz Challenge #617 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #244 - Anything Goes

Patties Creation Challenge #201 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2248 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #571 + 572 - Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks Challenge #640 - Stamp Act

Flowers for a Friend

Welcome

I  have finally managed to get back to post a card - it's been a busy time with the gardens needing attention and visitors calling in - which I have loved.

This card was made for a dear friend, who has the most magnificent garden, so it was only 'right' that I make her a floral card!

You may just recognise another bubble background - this time multi coloured

The sentiment was stamped onto a the back of a snippet of the bubble background - it still merged a wee bit too much for my liking, so I gave it a pink ribbon to nestle on after inking the edges of the banner with the same blue ink I had stamped it in. 

The florals were on a card in a package from Altenew that was able to buy, as I won a voucher from them recently - I coloured them using some Altenew watercolor markers that were in the package.

The colours are very bright, and I wanted a more muted colour, so toned them down using a water pen.

Trimmed them out, and added a very pale blue background to them before adding them to the card base.

The colours were inspired by some peony flowers that my friend grows.

I mounted the feature panel on blue metallic paper, then the yellow card base.  

The final touch was the add some wee butterflies cut from the same blue paper.

I added a verse from a hymn to the inside, and have just managed to (unintentionally) delete the photo!😕

I am linking this to:

Pixies Snippets Playground - Challenge #442

Allsorts Challenge #704 - Wings or Tails

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Happy Birthday

A Gem of a Challenge Week #24 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2248 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenge #283 - Lots of Layers

Jan's Digi Stamps November Challenge - Anything Goes

Make My Monday Challenge #188 - Things with Wings

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #571 + 572 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #194 - Anything Goes