Good news and some cards!

Hi everyone! Hope you're enjoying the hot weather. I'm being a bit of a spoil sport and saying it's TOO hot!! We had to sleep in the lounge last night as it was too hot in our bedroom and in my book, that's too hot!!

Thanks to all of you who left kind messages re my Mum. The good news is that her operation went very well and she has come home today! She had to have a blood transfusion but they managed to do the whole op via keyhole surgery- it's so amazing what they can do now, isn't it? No news yet re the biopsy but the consultant is very pleased with her progress so at least we can say it's the first hurdle over. She's so strong and positive, she's an inspiration.

I've had a bit of an accident prone week- I fell down the stairs, fell over in the hospital car park and then someone drove into the back of me! It's certainly true about bad things happening in threes!

My sis is looking after my Mum for a couple of days before I take over nurse duty (!) so I managed to get a couple of cards in for birthdays coming up. Hope you like them :0)

Here is my first card for a friend's 30th birthday. Just to make a change, I'm using a Stamping Bella image called Winobella. (Sounds like me recently having a glass of wine every night after the stress of visiting my Mum!!) I've coloured her with watercolour pencils and highlighted her with a copic pen. I've added Stickles highlights. The papers are by Stampin Up. The sentiment is Pink Petticoat cut out with Nesties.

I've entered this into the following challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenge- sketch

Simon Says Stamp- make a card for a friend

Here is a bit of a close up of Bella and her bit of bling- can you see the pink champagne sparkle?!

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Copics; Paper (Stampin Up); Assorted cardstock; Sentiment (Pink Petticoat); Nesties; Stickles; Ribbon (Stampin Up); Brads (Stamp Addicts); Gems (K&Co); Flower (Ebay)

And then I made this for a friend's little girl called, you guessed it, Isla! I was a bit cheeky with this card as I haven't had a lot of time recently so I recycled this image that I'd coloured and used on a card for my hubbie and cut out the image to use on this card. The papers are by My Mind's Eye and the letters are the Smart Guy Sizzix alphabet.

I've entered this into:

Cute Card Thursday- recycle

A close up of the wee mousies coloured with copics.

Crafty stash used: Stamp (Penny Black); Copics; Papers (My Mind's Eye); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Flowers (Poppicrafts); Brad (Poppicrafts); Lettering (Sizzix)

Hope you have a lovely week x

Personal stuff, a card and new crafty stash

Hi all. Thanks for all your kind messages. Once again, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to visit any of you, it's been a rough couple of months culminating in some bad news. My Mum has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. The biopsy she had was inconclusive but we've been told that it's "highly likely" to be cancer. For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, you know that we lost my Dad to cancer last year so I needn't explain how I'm feeling right now. My Mum is having an operation to remove the affected part of her bowel a week on Monday, they then biopsy that to grade the cancer. It feels highly surreal and is hard to believe we are going through the same thing again.

So as you can imagine, there hasn't been much time for crafting but I did manage to get home this week and make this card for my best friend's birthday. I am dearly hoping to get back to my crafting soon as it's a great distraction and release from all the stress so I think I really need to make time to do it for my own sanity.

So here is the card I made using this brilliant Stamping Bella stamp- I just love the sentiment and her palazzo pants! I coloured the image using watercolour pencils and then paper pieced her pants. I used Glossy Accents on the crystal ball to get the shine. The papers are beautiful from American Crafts- I love the bright colours on them! I used a piece of card to thread through my nesties labels instead of ribbon.

I've entered this for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge who's challenge this week is a recipe of one image, two papers and 3 types of embellies. I've used a Prima flower, a punched embellie and a gem stone for my embellies.

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella); Watercolour pencils; Glossy accents; Stickles; Paper (American Crafts); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Daisy punch (Woodware); Prima flower; Prima gemstone

I also wanted to show you some new stash I got which is crazy really cos I've got some stuff from Christmas I still haven't had a chance to use yet but hubbie was going to the US and I couldn't resist the chance to pick up some stamps cheaply and avoid paying customs duty!! So the clear stamps are Papertrey Ink stamps. I got the 2 On my Couch sets, a sentiment set and the Everyday Button Bits set. The rubber ones below which I've just realised is the worst photo ever- why didn't I spread the stamps out????!! DOH- are Riley stamps which I've coveted for ages!!! I got 8 in the end. I can't wait to use all of these!

So I hope you're all doing OK, better than me anyway!! I hope to visit you all sometime this week. Take care xxx