One Happy - One not so!

Hello again and thank you for your visit.

I have a couple of cards to share with you today (there would have been two more but I forgot to take pics ;D). 

This first one was for my OH who shares his birthday with Queen Elizabeth II ...... perhaps I should have made her a card as well, lol!  I took inspiration from a card I found on Pinterest here but as usual tweaked it a bit.  I think OH was very pleased not to receive a card from me that wasn't shades of brown, lol!

 The stamps I used are from Inkylicious and I worked directly onto linen look card to get the texture.

My second card is one of those all crafters wish they didn't need to make and doubly so in this case as it was for a relatively young person who died from pancreatic cancer.  He's left behind 2 boys from his first marriage and a little girl who isn't 2 yrs old yet and her Mum.....so sad!

I inked and stamped three squares of card, stuck them to the base card and stuck the poppy die cut ovr the top.

A few more pics of our neglected garden's little treasures.

 Beautiful Helibores

Delicate Pieris Japonica

 

Lovely waxy Hyacinth

See you again soon!

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Swap Time!

Good Morning ......on what is an absolutely glorious Spring day here in my little bit of the UK.  This is my perfect weather :-)!

Well, I've been a very bad blogger again because most of my time and energy has been taken up with spending time at the hospital with a very poorly Mum.  Hopefully, if all goes to plan she should be discharged back to the nursing home tomorrow and I'm really hoping they can work their magic a second time and rehabilitate Mum to some measure of mobility and at the same time relieve some of her frustration.  The five changes of location during her 3 weeks in hospital (different wards/rooms) have been so bad for someone with Alzheimers.

Anyway, I have managed a bit of crafting 'me' time in the form of this month's Tags and ATCs for the swap organised for a small group of friends by our smashing crafting buddy, Sam (do hop over to her blog HERE where she shares some fab painty/inky makes).  The theme this month was 'black and white for the tags' and 'either monochrome or just two colours for the ATCs'.

TAGS

This first one uses stamps from the really lovely Chocolate Baroque Lace Fragments set.  Like many of my other stamps I've had this for ages and never managed to ink them up before.  The techniques are very simple (as usual, lol) with just stamping onto a black tag using Versamagic ink for the background and then stamping the main image with black Archival onto white card and clear embossing.

 

I fussy cut the beautiful main image and added some Ranger Rock Candy Stickles to the mesh looking bits and Black Diamond Stickles to the stamens before sticking it to the tag.

 

On the second tag I applied PaperArtsy crackle glaze to a black tag and when dry painted it with Snowflake Fresco Finish.  I then applied black Archival ink with Cut n Dry foam through a small section of a fab 12 x 12 Prima stencil.  The dragonflies and words are from Indigo Blu sets.

If you click on the above pic you might just be able to see the touches of Black Diamond Stickles I added to one or two of the 'spots'.  The lattice die cut is one from the relatively new Tim Holtz/Sizzix thinlits set and I love it.

ATCs

  

For my ATCs I used Dusty Concord Distress Inks and one of the oranges (can't remember which one, lol).  I created mountain ranges using torn copier paper with a wooded area in the foreground using Chocolate Baroque stamps.  I can't remember what they're called but they do 2 or 3 sets with 'miniature' stamps on which are perfect for ATCs and I love these tiny trees.

Those are my swaps for this month which I hope my more 'arty' buddies in the swap don't find too boring, lol!

Before I head off to get a couple of chores done (to appease my conscience, lol) I have a couple of photos I took in the garden this past week of the pretty Spring flowers I love so much.

Gentians

 

Clematis 

 

Miniature Tulips (These close up every evening and then reopen with the sun)

Have a lovely day everyone!

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Variations on a theme!

Happy Easter Saturday to you all!

Hi everyone, it's been a bit of a tiring week this week having spent all one night in A&E with my Mum following yet another fall.  I feel so sorry for the staff at her nursing home because they do their best to make sure she's safe but short of strapping to her bed (or chair) they just cannot stop her from trying to  move about unaided and twice this week she has got out of bed after they had tucked her in for the night and then been found on the floor at their next check on her an hour later.  She's not broken anything this time but she's so badly bruised her hip her mobility has gone again.  We can only hope they can get her back to how she was a few weeks ago.

At least I have a couple of cards to blog that I made for friends birthdays last week!

This  first one uses my favourite script stamp in the background overstamped with a gorgeous bluebell, both stamps from PaperArtsy Hotpicks sets and the sentiment is a Lin Brown one from a set of her Eclectica stamps for PaperArtsy.  I also used some of the new Fresco Finish paints to colour and when dry I painted over the image with PaperArtsy Metallic Glaze which I think you can see on the second photo if you click on it.

This second card uses the Stampin Up Lotus Blossom overstamped on the PaperArtsy script using Versamagic inks and a Chocolate Baroque sentiment.

Once again, these are my variations of a card I found on Pinterest which gave me inspiration but I can't seem to get a link to post here without joining some sort of group so my apologies to whoever designed the original.  Such a lovely elegant design I think.

I have a few birthdays coming up in the month of April too but most of them are for males so I will have to find a different style of inspiration, lol!

I hope you all have a lovely long holiday weekend and I'm hoping for a bit of craftroom R&R in between hospital visits.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx