Crafting Fairy Blog Candy

Hi again, have just been looking over some of my fave blogs and Crafting Fairy is also offering some fab blog candy for her 39th birthday. Happy Birthday. Check out her blog using the link on my page for Crafting Fairy and good luck.

Have a great day xx

Stamping Caz Blog Candy

Hi guys and girls...
Just thought I would mention on my blog that Stamping Caz is giving away some fantastic blog candy as she has reached over 200K hits on her blog. It's a truly fantastic blog and having met her in person in 2008, she is a truly lovely person too. She makes some fabulous cards and offers a whole host of inspiration on her blog. Keep up the good work Caz and have a fab birthday on 12th May.

My birthday is on 14th May so I will be raising a glass for you too Caz.

The Karma Award

Oh my...how wonderful it was to log into my blog this morning and see that Mandy had awarded me with this lovely award.

It is really nice to receive this award as I only met Mandy about a month ago at the Glitter Pot and it was nice to share a crafting session with some old friends and make some new ones too. I hope that Mandy will keep in touch and maybe I will meet up with her again some time, if we ever get the opportunity to meet up again at the Glitter Pot. Anyway, as part of the rules of receiving this award, I now have the difficult task of choosing eight people to pass this award on to. The rules are as follows:

The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I would like to pass this award onto the following friends who are very talented crafters and just lovely people to boot:

Stamping Caz
Bev at All The Things I Love
Hollie (an 11 year old inspirational genius)
Sharon at Mad Stamper
Debbie at Crafting Fairy
Yvonne at Vonnie's Blogspot
Jen at My Stampin' Spot
Mel at The Creative World of Mellie Moo

I would of course have given the award to Sarn and Julie too, but Mandy had already given it to them and I wasn't sure if you could receive the award twice. The above people have received the award from me as their blogs are inspirational, creative and amazing all at the same time. I love looking at all of these blogs and taking inspiration from them. Thanks girls and keep up the good work.

News

Well, Steve had his operation on Thursday morning. He went down at 10am and came back at 3.45pm. He spent most of Thursday night comfortable but woke up Friday morning in agony. The surgeons had to remove the middle lobe and the bottom of the top lobe of the lung. Apparently, the middle lobe was totally destroyed and therefore they had no choice but to remove it. They have sent it away for analysis and we hope to have an idea of what it was on Wednesday. They haven't ruled anything out at this stage.

He's still very breathless and finding it very difficult to get comfortable as he has two chest drains in, one going through his armpit and the other going into his waist. He is also on a nebuliser and still has the epidural attached to control the pain or at least ease it off a little.

Thanks again for all your wishes and texts, I will keep you updated as and when we know anything more.

Update News about Steve

Well I took Steve to the hospital today, he wasn't happy about it and isn't looking forward to his operation at all. He isn't going to theatre until Thursday so I don't really have that much news for you. While I was there with him he had blood tests and MRSA tests, he was just going down for his chest x-ray and ECG when I left.

We won't know how much of the lung will need to be removed until they have opened him up and had a closer look at what might be causing his problem so I will be able to let you know a bit more Friday or Saturday.

In the meantime, I want to thank you all for your texts, emails and messages wishing him a speedy recovery and I will pass them all on to him when I see him tomorrow with the children.

Silly About You

This lovely little fella is from Penny Black and is called 'Absolutely Silly About You' another purchase from the Glitter Pot. I kept it really simple by just colouring in the tie and then mounting it onto coordinating cardstock and then re-mounting it onto a blue glitter adhesive sheet. Letters were made using the Big Shot.

Baby Bunny

This one was made BTBS (before the Big Shot), see how each letter has been cut out by hand. Love this stamp but I cannot remember what it is called as after stamping it I put it away and I'm not at home at the moment to get it back out again. I added three crystal gemstones to one corner and glitter to highlight each letter for a little bit of sparkle.

Louis in the Rain

This stamp, from Wild Rose Studios, is called Louis in the Rain. I love this stamp as I think it could have quite a few uses... winter birthdays, feeling under the weather, get well soon sort of thing. I added some glitter to the rain and the umbrella and used the Big Shot to cut the letters from silver cardstock.

Dog and Bone

Another stamp from the Wild Rose Studios collection (also purchased at the Glitter Pot... I really must stop going there). This one is called 'Dog with Bone'.

As you can see, the Big Shot is definitely being used a lot.

Louis with Flowers

Guess who's been using her Big Shot??? After using one of the girls Big Shot's at the Glitter Pot recently I just had to have one myself. She couldn't believe that I cut all my letters previously out by hand and sometimes layered them and cut them out again. She said that this would cut my card making time in half and she wasn't wrong. At the school where I work, one of the teachers very kindly sends his students a birthday card on their 18th birthday and he asks me to make them. I have always personalised them with their names to add some individuality to each card. The Big Shot is definitely going to make my life much easier from now on... The stamp is one of my purchases from the Glitter Pot, Louis with Flowers.

Chinese Girl 2

This was my second attempt and as you can see there are still several layers involved and I have added a colour coordinating flower with gemstone.

Chinese Girl 1

This card was made using a chinese decoupage sheet. I love these ladies as there are so many different effects that you can create. This one has several layers and I have added some green crystal gems in the corners for more depth.

Glitter Pot 2

Upon arrival at the Glitter Pot I was eager to start shopping before crafting and so scouted the shop for some lovely stamps and some gorgeous flowers. The base card was made using a Sizzix Big Shot, it was brilliant as one of the girls had bought one with them and I had never seen one in action before and she kindly gave me a quick tutorial and then let me loose on it for a while with some of her dies. This was what I created with one of the new stamps I bought, it's by Wild Rose Studios and this one is called Louis with Flowers.

Glitter Pot 1

On Saturday 28th March, I met up with Sarn and some other crafters at the Glitter Pot for a crafting sesh. A couple of the girls, including Sarn, provided us with a few challenges. This was one of the cards I made there, this is Sarn's challenge.