Spiderman Birthday Card

This card was created using a Kanban Spiderman - Wall Crawler kit (ref No CON9043), I can't remember where I found it but I just HAD to have one for my Nephew's birthday card.

It was very easy to make, with Spiderman being made up of 4 layers.

Also with the card was a 2nd sheet of Spiderman elements, these will be used to create Table Place Holders on the day of his party (I hope to add photos later) and will complement the Spiderman Plates, Cups & Napkins... well it just had to be done!

Happy Birthday "L"

Pirates Treasure...

My Nephew ('L') loves Pirates, so when we knew that we would be visiting him, DH & I started to collect Pirate Treasure. In our world this was things like the Lego figures, small toys & Super Hero pants/socks, to 'L' this all equals Treasure.

His mum had told him that DH & I had found some Pirate Treasure and that we would be bringing it with us.  As the Treasure came from Pirates, I decided that I had to create a 'Treasure Hunt' just for 'L' :)

So I set to work creating something that I hoped he would find fun.  I found a set of Pirate Stamps created by Woodware and these formed the basis of the whole treasure hunt.  I punched out lots of white card circles using a 1 3/4" circle punch, I then stamped one of the pirate images from the stamp set onto the circle.  I finished each by using the Antique Linen distress ink around the edges of each circle.

 

The Pirate Discs were used to let 'L' know where to find a piece of treasure.



So when he found a Pirate Disc he knew that Treasure would be nearby (in this case under the cushion) ;)

However, the Pirates did not leave treasure every day... sometimes they left 'L' a task.  One day he found his drawing pad alongside a Pirate Disc...

 

On one of the pages the Pirates had left some pictures for him to colour, provided this was done they promised to return the next day to leave some more treasure.

Some of the images included in the Woodware stamp set :)

It really was nice to find that something so simple was able to keep 'L' entertained for quite a few hours during our visit.

Birthday Card

This week was the birthday of one of our nephews, he is now a young man and I really find it difficult to create masculine cards.

However this card just flew together without too much thought:

The image of the boy riding the rocket was cut from a Cricut cartridge (A Child's Year).  I used some 'glitter card' for the mounting of the sentiment and it just happens that the left over card was a perfect shape to act as a background.

To highlight the stars I coloured them in using a glitter pen and then finished the card with 4 dots of glitter glue.

I do like it when a plan comes together :)

Happy Birthday

On this day ?? Number of years ago DH's Brother & oldest Sister were born.  They are not twins but share a birthday - exactly 1 year apart.

This year I am making cards of birthdays & anniversaries for all of our imediate family, so 2 more cards were required.

Created using the Changing Tree stamp set from Little Claire Designs

Created using of of the Cutie Patooties 'Bert' die cuts again from Little Clair Designs

On 23 June I celebrated my 1st Blogaversary, if you would like chance to win some Candy please go to my Blogaversary post HERE.

Fathers Day Card

I made this card during May, but did not want to post it until after Fathers Day... So here is the card I made for my Dad.

It was created while on a workshop at LLinda's Card & Craft shop in Laneham, Notts.  The card uses a cog embossing folder for the background (with co-ordination card which has been sanded).

The main element is the sentiment & motorbike, which was created using the 'out of the box' technique.  This is something I had seen, but never tried and was surprisingly easy to achieve (I can feel a How To... coming on LOL).

Well all that remains to be said is:

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Birthday

Today is my sisters Birthday :)

As this year I am trying to make individual cards for everyone I set about work on her card.  Now 'P' loves her animals (so much so that she owns & runs a pet shop), so the theme of the card was easy.

While at the NEC I visited the Hougie Crafts stands and had a look at the Design House Decoupage Sheets - I love their designs and they are so easy to cut out.  I found that they had 2 sets of sheets featuring West Highland Terriers, as 'P' has 2 of this breed & the images were sooo cute I decided that I just had to have them.

So earlier this week I sat down and cut out the decoupage images (although they provide layers for 1 image, I tend to split them to create 2). Once cut I used my Pinflair Gell and left them to dry.

As the decoupage sheets come with backing paper as well I started to have a play with card layouts & colours.  In the end I was able to create 2 cards, 1 would be sent to 'P' for her birthday, the other would remain in my card box until required.

Happy Birthday 'P'

A spare card for later

Florida 2010 8x8 Layouts

At the Crop on Wednesday evening I was able to complete 1 x Double Layout and 1 x Single Layout & I must say that I am pleased with both.

1st the Single Layout...

I used background paper and a tag from the Paper Pack I brought from Kennedy Space Centre.  The little space man is a wooden button that I found at the NEC.

The Journalling reads - "Jimmy joined others on the Shuttle Lauch Experience.  As for me I watched from the gallery."

In the gallery was a TV screen showing those on the 'experience' I used my camera to take a photo and point out DH. 

The Double page layout featured the Newspaper you saw on my workdesk back on Wednesday morning...

Left Page

Right Page

The Journalling reads - "On 20 July 1969 the first man walked on the moon.  One display featured a selection of Newspaper front pages from around the world."

I took photos of a number of the newspapers and I wanted to use Newspaper print on the layout, so I kept a couple of pages from the daily newspaper that had columns of text - I then cut these into strips to use as part of the background.  The Layout was finished off with the Kennedy Space Centre logo (from the Paper Pack) and a rub-off split between the pages saying "The Eagle Has Landed".

The Return of Sidney

This post is for DH...

It is official, Sidney has returned, Bigger and Badder than before... & he has a new friend.

DH has been told that he no longer has just 1 stone, he has 2!!!!

Sidney is now 11mm & this second stone is about 5mm - So I have decided that as DH named Sidney, it should be up to me to name Sidney's new friend.

I therefore spent some time thinking of various names... and finally decided on.............

Sophie

I hope DH approves of the name I have given the smaller stone :) 

What a Day!!

The good news is that on the whole today has been better than yesterday.

After a quick visit to the local NHS Walk-In Centre, I was booked in and seen in less time than it would have taken me to try and arrange to see my local GP... + 10 points for the NHS :)

Even better news, I don't have a throat infection, but do possibly have a virus, and antibiotics would do no good (more good news - so far so good).

I headed home to wait for a phone call from DH to say that he has been set free from hospital. At 10am he phoned to say that after he had an x-ray the Drs would give him the Ok to leave and completed all of the relevant paperwork (even more good news).

By 1pm DH had been to x-ray & had his picture taken and was waiting for the Drs to return to the ward to review his notes.

At 5pm DH gave me another call, the Drs had not returned to the ward to review his notes & do the paperwork.  Drugs that he should have been prescribed were not, and the pharmacy staff had finished for the day!!!  When I arrived on the ward at 6.20pm to visit & find out what was happening the Drs had gone home - this meant that DH could not go home!!

As I am sure you can imagine DH was not impressed (and neither was I!) -10 points for the NHS :(

The only thing we can do now is wait until the ward round tomorrow morning to find out if they will get the paperwork done tomorrow so he can come home.

It is now 11pm & I have spent the last 1.5 hours at my craft desk taking pictures for another 'How To...'.  Last night after getting back from the hospital I finally figured out how to create a Waterfall Card.  After watching a video tutorial on YouTube I have made a few tweaks and am going to create my own 'How To... Create a Waterfall Card' using plenty of pictures.

Now I have taken the pictures, all I have to do is put them on the computer and add the instructions, which will be a job for tomorrow morning.

The next bit of good news is that I am feeling better in myself and feeling more like me, even though my voice sounds very husky - DH calls it my 0898 voice :)

Once again my positive message at the end of today...

Tomorrow Will be a better day!

I'm Feeling Down

Just a quick update on DH, he does have a bigger kidney stone than before, this time it is 11mm (I just picked up a ruler and 11mm is huge!!!!).

DH was taken to surgery this afternoon and has had another stent fitted (not such so good news) and has been told that in 4-6 weeks he will be back in hospital to have laser treatment to shatter the stone. I one respect this is good news, but the timescale of 4-6 weeks takes us up to Christmas week - again not so good news.

Hopefully DH will be allowed to come home tomorrow, but we will just have to wait for the ward round to take place tomorrow. 

In the mean time to top it all off I have had a sore throat since the weekend and I have noticed this evening that the back of my throat has white patches, last time I had this it meant a trip to the Dr for antibiotics... so guess what I will be doing at 08:30 tomorrow morning!  Trying to get a Dr appointment for tomorrow, failing that I might just nip down to the local 'NHS Walk-In Centre' & just wait to be seen.

So all in all I'm feeling a bit down, added to that the silence of being in the house on my own.  My anxiety is at a level that I can cope with (about 2 out of 10) so not a big deal, but I just feel like sitting in a corner and crying my eyes out.

On a final positive note... Tomorrow WILL be a better day.

WOYWW - 16 November 2011

It is now a more civilised time on Wednesday and I have had some sleep & visited DH in Hospital.  I am now back home to quickly upload my photos take of my desk & grab some more sleep.

I decided for What's On My Workdesk Wednesday that I would take a photo of my desk from a slightly different angle, why, cause I felt like it :)

So this week it is a bit of a mess, well the right hand side of my desk it.  Each time we have a take-away from the local Chinese I keep the plastic boxes to use for storage.  I now have quite a collection and some even contain 'stuff' and they are labeled.  All I need to do now is to sort out the shelf in the background to put them all on.

I have been wanting to have a go at a Waterfall Card for a while, and even brought this Papermania template, I have just sat and cut out all of the pieces in a white paper to see how it work, however it does not seem to be very smooth - I have seen various videos on the YouTube and think that I need to go back and have a look again.

If anyone has a tutorial/video on their Blogs can you please let me know by email or in the comments :) Many thanks.

These delightful Elephants (from Little Claire Designs) are what I want to use as the feature on my Waterfall Card.  Just looking at them makes me smile :)

This is a quick post & I will show you the finished Waterfall Card, when it gets done.

TTFN

Am I Too Early...

I know that it is technically Wednesday, but I think I might be a bit too early for the What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!

The reason I am posting this at 04.08AM - yes in the morning (other wise known as 'Silly O'Clock') is that I am wide awake after getting back from A&E.

I arrived at A&E at about 1.30am with DH, he has got all of the symptoms of another Kidney Stone (or maybe it is Sidney returning???).

He has now been taken on to the Surgical Emergency Assessment Unit and I have got home and plan to go to bed, as I have not really had much sleep.

Well that was the plan, however, I now find myself wide awake! Typical! I have made myself a cuppa and thought that I would just add this quick post before checking emails (and maybe doing a quick Blog Hop) I will then try and get some sleep.

As the famous saying goes 'I Will Be Back' - later to take a picture of my Workdesk.

TTFN

A Busy Weekend

This was due to be posted yesterday - but it did not appear...
---------

This weekend has been a busy one, but I have not done any crafting. 

On Friday DH & I drove down to Longstanton, Cambridgeshire to attend a Heritage Society Meeting.  In September 2010 DH & a group of others were given the opportunity to help recover a crashed Lancaster from a remote area of Scotland.  After a weekend away they returned happy but knackered!!.

As a result of this, DH has developed a great interest in the history of this particular Lancaster and its history (and that of the crew of 7 men who all died in the crash).

DH did a talk to the Cambrdigeshire Family History Society at the end of last year, and he had been invited to the Longstanton Heritage Society to repeat the talk. 

It was a very enjoyable evening and those who attended the talk were very interested and found the talk DH gave very good, especially as he focused on the crew as well as the aircraft.

We then stayed with my Mum & Dad overnight, and spent some of saturday with them, returning home late Saturday evening.

As for Sunday... well it was spent doing the various jobs that need to be done each weekend, such as the washing, ironing and generally getting ready for work today.

I hope to get some time over the next couple of evenings to do some craft, providing that life & work don't get in the way too much.

14th Anniversary

This is the second post for today...

Today 14 years ago DH asked me to marry him, and my answer was… YES J

We had spent the day at the Raptor Foundation working with the Birds of Prey, at the end before we headed home I went to give a European Eagle Owl called Gus a cuddle, Gus was our European Eagle Owl’s father.

While I held Gus and we had a 3 way hug (yes you can do this with an owl – provided they don’t mind!) DH asked “Will you M…?”

I was so eager to answer with “Yes” that I did not even let him finish the question, I was so sure that I knew what he was going to say.

It is now a standing joke that DH never did ask me to ‘Marry’ him but was going to ask “Will you Make me a cup of Coffee?”  Despite this we did get married 8 months later J

RIP Sidney (the Kidney Stone)

This is the first of two posts today...

This is an update on Sidney, DH’s kidney stone… after a visit to hospital yesterday for another lithotripsy session a x-ray revealed that Sidney was no longer in DH’s the kidney.

The lithotripsy appointment earlier this month did the trick and over the last 2-3 weeks Sidney has disintegrated into little bits.

We were not expecting this outcome, so in the end DH did not receive any lithotripsy and had the stent removed.

DH has recovered from the procedure very quickly and is now feeling better than he has in months.

I can definitely say that we will be celebrating the death of Sidney at the weekend and are not sorry to see him go.

Crafty Evening

Last night was Crop Night... and a very good evening it was too :)

As you may have noticed by now my craft style is very "Less is More" and I don't 'do' fussy and complicated (it hurts my brain too much!)

At the last Crop I started on a layout of my Nephew on his Balance Bike, trying to find any embellishments that fitted was so hard - and ended up being impossible.  So I decided to do something I had never done before... Paper Applique (using paper to build a picture)!!

Using a image of a balance bike (which was the wrong colour) I cut out the different elements (frame, seat, wheels) and used them to create a patten which I cut in paper, add a few buttons and it was done. Here is the finished Balance Bike...

Once I had created my Balance Bike I went on to create the rest of the Layout, and here it is...

Creating the Bike took me about an hour and I then struggled with the words for the journaling, but got there in the end.

The remainder of the evening was taken up with cutting images from the 'My World' Cricut Cartridge, these will be used on the next layout I have started on.

All about 'Sidney'

DH & I have been at the hospital today for the 1st appointment to have his stone shattered by Ultrasound (otherwise known as Lithotripsy) the stone is 7.8mm in size and we have seen it on the CT scan they did a couple of weeks ago.

Just because we could we have named the stone 'Sidney', I don't know if anyone else remembers a character calls 'Sidney the Kidney' - at least I think that was what he was called.  I think it was something to do with kidney transplant or fundraising.

Despite being at the hospital all day it was not too bad & DH is feeling a bit sore but not to bad.  On the down side we were due to go to France on a holiday on Sunday... but the consultant has advised us not to travel :(  So tomorrow will be spend making phone calls to cancel our accommodation & ferry booking.

Even though the holiday has been cancelled this will give DH the best chance to get better and he is booked into the hospital again at the end of the month for more treatment to shatter 'Sidney'.

I just needed to sit down and quickly write an update about DH's Kidney Stone. 

For something so small it causes a lot of problems... Before the surgery DH & I spoke with the Consultant and he gave us a plan of action.  As DH had not had any contact from the hospital since being discharged (despite being told he would have an appointment within 1-2 weeks) he contacted them.

The plan has now changed, but nobody told us!!!!  On Monday I will be taking DH to one of the local hospitals for them to use Ultrasound to shatter his stone.  DH had a long chat with one of the Drs from urology last night who explained the procedure in detail.

On one hand it is good to know that something will be happening, on the other hand the whole process will not be a nice one, especially for DH.  Not surprisingly he is getting rather anxious about the whole procedure - in turn this is rubbing off onto me.

I am trying very hard to stay positive, but it is not always easy.  I  know that if I start thinking negatively, my anxiety could spiral out of control - and it has been so good lately.  DH needs me to be strong, but if my anxiety grips hold, I focus totally on me & me alone.  So I MUST remain positive, regardless how helpless I might feel and regardless of how anxious DH gets before/during Monday.

In the mean time I am asking for any spare Angels to help us both and thinking POSITIVE thoughts:

• 'On Tuesday it will all be over'
• 'I am a strong & loving person'
• 'I won't let the anxiety drag me down'

Finally all I can say is.... Roll on Tuesday!

Hospital Visits & Weight Loss

Things have moved slowly for DH in hospital this week, yesterday he had surgery for his Kidney Stones.  The good news is that the doctors have told him that he can come home today :)  The care that he has recieved on the Surgery Emergency Admission Unit has been fantastic.

On the weight loss side, I think that the exercises of walking to and from the car park to the ward has made a difference and I have lost 1.5lb this week (despite eating several McDonalds & Chinese take-aways)

Total weight loss = 29.5lb

Waiting...

I have just got back from the Hospital, DH will be staying for another night... he is currently waiting for a CT scan, but it looks like it won't get done until tomorrow.

I am just sitting and watching Create & Craft and having a giggle at Dean on the Tool Box program... When this is finished I will be heading to bed for a early night.

Tomorrow should be a better day as when the CT scan has been done we will have a better idea on what is happening and it will also confirm that DH does have a kidney stone.