Horrid week.

Morning all,
Here, at the homestead, it's been a very horrid and difficult week because my other half had a heart attack in the early hours of last Saturday morning.
He was very poorly, but our amazing NHS have cared for him really well and found out his heart is in dire need of fixing!
He's to have a triple heart bypass in the near future so it's come as a shock to all of  us and this week really has been a hard one.
He came home last tuesday evening and he's doing alot better than I thought he would but I think that's down to all the correct meds and that he's a stubborn old duffer and won't let it get him down.
The only thing that bothers him is this not being able to work malarkey!  He's bored out of his skull and there's only so many jobs for him to do!!!
My daughter and her hubby have bought some furniture bits for her office from IKEA and at least one item took him 2 hours to build so that was a bit of peace for me and it took his mind off things for a while -  so we need more flat packs!!!
On a lighter note, I've had very little time to spend in my craft room,so there's every chance my mojo has had a break and it will come flooding back as soon as I open my latest issue of Creative Stamping mag! I always find the stamps, and the projects, inspire me to have a bash at something, even if I use their creations as a guideline. It makes me feel all warm inside knowing I've created something again!
So, that's what I'm about to do right now while I listen to PopMaster on Radio2!!!

Hope you all have a good week
TTFN
Lesley xxx

Published again and something different!

Hi all!

Well, where has this year gone? I can't believe the date! This morning, I actually double checked it was April and not March! for some reason, and probably 'cos I''m "losing it", I thought it was still March and when I had to use the date on a hotel booking, I really did do a double-take!
So, time's flying by really quickly again and I guess it won't be too long before it's the dreaded Christmas!!!
Enough of that now. It's quite gloomy :(

So, this weekend, I had some time to make a nice little "something different" using the free gifts which came with Papercraft essentials magazine - issue 158. I haven't opened the mag yet to read it but I was just desperate to make something with the freebies and this is what I came up with!

Alongside the free stamp/die/stencil set, I used distress inks for the background/reeds and water effect and Spectrum Noir sparkle pens for colouring the cute frog, the duck and the frame. I bought the little cloud dies from an online store but no idea when or where from!!!

I used the little wooden easel to display it which I bought (I think) from Stamps Away!
They do come in handy now and again!


Recently, my cards have been published in Papercraft Inspirations magazine, as part of their Reader Tester Team.
I say recently, but in reality, I think I've been in the mag every month, bar one, for the last 9 or 10 months!
This is 2 photos of this months mag , issue 177 May 2018 - the front cover and my project :

As the pic is quite small, here's my card in a larger photo -  I'm unable to blog my pictures until they've appeared in the mag for obvious reasons!

This image is from one of my favourite stamp/digi stamp companies, Lili of The Valley, and, if you follow the link it will take you directly to their page to purchase this gorgeous digi stamp.

She's my fave because she's also my birth month!!!

With the stamp, I used First Edition paper pad Wanderlust  (which is available from The Range) and I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir marker pens.

While we're on the subject of published pieces (!!!), here is  my carousel card in issue 176 (April).

Apart from cream and pink cardstock, I used a circle die and a border edge die to make this card, as all of the imagery is created from the printables, available to download in the magazine.

So, there we are for now.

I'm still waiting to hear from Craftstash re the design team, although I was so happy to hear my name and see my cards on their Facebook Live show a couple of weeks back!

Here's wishing you all a peaceful and happy day/night :)

TTFN

Lesley xxx

Kate's card First!

Hi all.
....and a Happy Easter Monday to everyone!

We have had a very, very wet day here today with nothing but constant rain and a grey sky so Easter Monday has been a complete wash-out :(.
If anybody around here was planning on going out to roll their Easter eggs, then I can only guess they took their wellingtons and a huge umbrella!
I can't remember the last utterly rained off Easter Monday we've had. I know it's early this year but still............!!!
Anyhoo, I spent an hour this afternoon just making a card for some friends of mine who have just moved into a new house and I do hope they'll be very happy there too.

I used this house stamp from an old Creative Stamping magazine (so old I can't remember buying it!), and some patterned cardstock I had in my stash for some paper-piecing.
The "Happy" is from an unknown stamp set but the "new home"script is by Clearly Besotted.
I know the design isn't original but it serves a purpose - Clean and Simple designs make cardmaking so easy!

Have a lovely evening and I'll be back with a couple of 70th birthday cards soon.

TTFN

Lesley xxx