A Birth and a Birthday....

My Daughter's Partner's Brother and his Wife (hope you followed that!) have just had a beautiful baby girl. I have made a book for my Daughter to give them.

Also a card from us to welcome Baby Elsie. This was inspired by a design I saw on Pinterest.

Next week is my Husbands Birthday and also, on the same day, my Son's Partner has a birthday. She likes anything Oriental, so that was obviously my theme, but I wanted it to be modern. The lady on the card is decoupaged to add dimension, which doesn't show very clearly here. The image came from  Crafters Companion Kimono CD.

Just for anyone who might have missed the announcement on Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog, the blog is taking a break for a while due to Cazzys personal circumstances. Hopefully the blog will start up again in the Autumn, meanwhile I will try to be a good blogger and post regularly.

I'm Pants....apparently...

I have been told recently (twice, actually....and by the same person) that I am a "pants Blogger"....do you know what? She is absolutely right! I am a pants Blogger. I used to be good, back when I had design team commitments to fulfill. Perhaps I ought to try to get back into a Design Team??

Anyway, after my Friends (?) comments I thought I really ought to have a catch up on here. So what have I been doing?

My Daughters Friends have just had their second child together, a baby girl called Rae. This is a quick shot of the High Chair I made for my daughter to give to them. I made a moses basket for their last baby, so had to do something different this time.

My Daughter's partner's Brother (hope you followed that) has just got married and this is the card I made for them to give. I really like this card design.

Our Niece is one today, and now the day has come I can post this picture. I don't think the family read the blog, but I didn't want to chance it.

I have spent any spare time over the last couple of days playing with my new love...my Altenew stamps. I just love how these stamps layer up. I am a Stampin Up fan, and love their two step stamps, but these take the idea a stage further, and the effect is lovely. I have tried several different ways to try to line the stamps up correctly....it can be a bit tricky to get the positioning just right. The best way for me is to use an acrylic block (even though I usually use the Misty). Trouble is I have twice dropped the block whilst trying to twist and turn it to line up the layer stamps resulting in having to start again with that panel. I am waiting for some little acrylic handle to arrive and I will hot glue them to my acrylic blocks to help with my problem. I wasn't aware that I had a problem with my grip...but I obviously have! I love this card shape too. I saw it on Dawns Stampin Thoughts and just had to have a go. A cutting file makes the job much easier though!
Well that's me all caught up (Karen!!).

A new member of the family....

My Husband's Niece is due to have her second child today, by C section. We know it is to be a girl, so I am being very organised and making the card ready to post.

The pink background came from my scrap box, originally printed from free kit I found online. The pink glitter backing circle was also from by scraps box. The image is from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with specrum noir pens. The white border cut with a docrafts die. The sentiment was from Stampin Up.

Fingers crossed for a safe delivery. Hope she likes the card.....

entered into the snippets playground over at Pixies Crafty Workshop.

Long time missing....again!

Honestly, doesn't time fly....etc..etc...
Well I wouldn't mind if I had been enjoying myself, as the saying goes. Actually we have had a rough few weeks.
The day after my last post was my Father in Laws Birthday. His 86th Birthday actually. Early that morning we had a panicky phone call from my Mother in Law. My Husband and I rushed around to their home, only to find that he had died during the night. It was all very sad and from that point on our feet haven't really touched the ground. Once the police and coroner had been dealt with that day, the enormity of the situation began to sink in. We worked our way through all the various procedures and red tape, informing everyone as needed, arranging the funeral and of course looking after my Mother in Law. She and her husband of almost 60 years had always been inseparable, two halves of a whole person so to speak.We wondered how (if) she would manage.
Well we had our problems and a lot more time and support was needed than before, but once we got her eating again she started to rally round, she was actually coping better than we had thought.
The only problem was her health was deteriorating, her long standing heart problem was getting worse. To cut the story short, 10 weeks to the day from my Father in Law's death my Mother in Law has joined him. Again our life has gone on hold to sort everything out all over, only this time it is more as we now have to dealt with the house and all the contents too. Here we go again!
In addition to all this mayhem I have had my facial Mohs surgery for skin cancer done. Quiet an unpleasant experience, but I am pretty happy with the result and the scar is healing well so far.
Well that is me all caught up, apart from the few cards I have managed to make....barely keeping up with family birthdays really...

This one for a cousins Birthday........

This one for the latest addition to the family, a forth great grandchild for my Mother in Law, born on the day she died...made using a stampin up image.

This one is also a stampin up image, for my best friend....

I did make a few more, but in the rush I had forgotten to photograph them.....brain is all of a mush lately! 

Birth Congratualtions

A Couple who are friends with my Daughter and her Partner are due to have their baby soon. I remembered a Moses basket in a box that I last made years ago. I found the pattern, no problem there, but could I find the instruction? Could I Heck! Now what to do????
In steps a blog friend of mine. I first "met" Jan (Blog here) when we were both on a design team together back in the day. I still follow her blog and I remembered that she had posted the very same Moses Basket a few times along the way. Well, she very kindly came to my rescue and sent me a copy of the written instructions so I could complete my project. Very kind Jan, Thank You!
We know the boy is a boy, so I can get this made ahead of time. This is the result.

(sorry about the shine from the acetate).

Hope you like!

For our latest addition....

No No No No! Not me!!!
Our Nephew and his lovely Wife are due to have their second child today by Caesarian. We know it will be a boy, so we are looking forward to hearing he has arrived safely, that Mother and Child are both fine, and of course that Dad is fine too! I have this card ready to send today, all just waiting to hear his name.

A few cards to catch up on......

I am really struggling to get back into the habit of blogging, so I apologise and here are a few things I have been working on lately....

Here is the first...I may has shown you all this one already??? Fathers Day card for my Husbands Dad, the digi was from Digistamp Boutique, one of my favourite suppliers. Looked great with puffy stuff put on for the head of the beer.

This one was next, for my Cousin. His Dad and I were bought up like brother and sister, so I always felt particularly close to his boys when they were born. I guess partly because I was an only child....that and the fact that they bought with them Baby sitting duties! The leather effect paper was a free download from Far Far Hill and looked really realistic. The guitar image from a Men's Cards Book I had ages ago.

Next up...this one for my lovely Husbands Birthday last weekend. ( See I am not that behind really). I did the whole think on my Cameo using a MOJO Monday layout cut file created by MichelleMyBelle. I use the background fill facility to drag in papers by Sherri K. The image was from PaperPrintables.com free download.

Nearly there now....
This one is for the afore mentioned cousin's wife. This comes from the wonderful Cd by KatieSue Designs called Fabulous Fashion. This is one of the many many designs on there.....love it!

And finally....if anyone has stuck with me long enough to get this far (Thank you!). This is for my Husbands Neice and her Husband who have produced a beautiful bouncing Boy this weekend, missing my Husbands Birthday by one day. The images by Cuddly Buddly are lovely and this is all 3D, but it doesn't really show in the photo.

well that's me done for now, thanks for reading and, as always, thanks for your comments.

Challenge Card

I have decided to enter the challenge this week over at Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog. This week there is a sketch to work from. This is only the second time I have been brave enough to enter a challenge. My first ever was on this blog to and I was honoured to receive a top 3 place, I was chuffed to bits. Well I haven't felt up to crafting much lately, but I really want to get back to it, so I thought I would have a go this week. I haven't worked from a sketch before, and found it a quite interesting experience.

This is what I have come up with. I have been asked to make a card for a soon to be new arrival, so I thought I could perhaps combine the two. The papers are from some 6"x6" Papercraft4u pads that I have had for ages. The stamp is an Anita's stamp, again had it for ages and ages. It is stamped twice and decoupaged. I carefully cut slits where the ribbon design was so I could actually thread some proper ribbon through. The edges of the frame shape were coloured with a chalk ink pad for shadow effect.

Hope to like it....

WOYWW- here again!

Hi everyone, welcome to my world once again. Well let me see what have I got to tell you all about...not much really, it's been a bit of a quiet week for me really. I do have a photo of my desk for you, but it is a bit tidy again I am afraid. I have just got to the end of making another moses basket to order, and before I have room to make the presentation box for it I had to clear up the nuclear fallout from the basket itself. Sorry about that!

This time I have been asked to do a lemon one, I must say that as this is the second one I have now done in as many weeks, this one was much quicker to do. Hopefully the box will be easier this time too.

Those eagle eyed amongst you will have seen what I have spent the rest of my time on the last day or so....I have now completed my collection of Promarkers. When I say completed, I mean I now have as many as I deemed to be essential colours, so I am done really. I ordered the whole lot at once having saved up what I have been given for making cards since Xmas. I found a really good online deal for a selection of your choice of 25 pens for £34. Bargain I thought so I had to have 2 sets didn't I? Of course that meant re organising my storage system, but I didn't mind really.

The rest of my time has been tied up with family stuff really. My Son is on work experience with the school. He came home last night absolutely exhausted, poor thing, and now can see why adults say that school days are the best of your lives. Only seems a short time ago that he was starting secondary school...time flies!
My Daughter is worn out too. She has her last A level exam today, which will be a relief and she has also been holding down two part time jobs the last few weeks, but it's her last weekend at one of them so things will relax a bit there too.

It was lovely to have contact with Jan and Chrissie during the week too. It is amazing when you think how big the web is that I discovered Spyder on a forum and found she was quite near me, and then discover that Chrisie and Jan are very close too. Quite a coincidence really.

Don't forget to visit Jan's blog at Stamping Ground to check out the rest of the WOYWW visitors.

Have a good day everyone.
XX
Di

Catching Up!!

This week has been a bit of a rush. I am still trying to catch up after the CBI last week put me out of action. I am all healed up now and am desperately trying to catch up on my card orders. Just though I would pop pics up for anyone who is interested in looking....

These two are the cards for my Cousins wife's birthday coming up, you might have seen the images part way done in my WOYWW post this week, so I thought I would show you the finished articles.

This one is for the same lady that ordered the moses basket the other day. She was really pleased with it and now wanted a card to send to the "other Grandma" to be. Nice thought!

Baby's Birth Request

My Mum is in her 70's now and goes along to "her Club" every week to meet up with her friends. One of them had seen some of the cards I make and she asked Mum if I would do something for her to give her niece who is about to give birth. She doesn't know yet if it is a Boy or Girl, so it had to be a neutral colour......well I had a bit of a think and then decided that this would be the perfect time to try out my new Arty Farty template. The moses crib. Now for a first attempt I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. What do you all think?