You make each day brighter...

Yesterday afternoon the sun shone and it was so lovely I had to craft. My craft table is by the window looking into the garden and as the back of the house is south-west facing, it gets very sunny and very hot!

The sunshine inspired the card design-all fresh and bright and pretty!



Today I'm nursing a front chipped tooth.When I woke up this morning my mouth felt odd and when I looked in the mirror, ta da! No idea what I've done although I do watch 'The Wire' and it's on really late and can be very violent so maybe I've been thrashing around trying to escape the baddies and somehow bumped my tooth! I can't see my dentist until Saturday morning although I could see other dentists. My dentist is endlessly patient, so as my tooth isn't hurting (as yet) I'm going to be very brave and try and wait until Saturday!

Poor Ernie has an eye infection at the moment-not entirely sure of the cause though suspect a claw possibly! I saw it when I went down on Tuesday afternoon so fed them, came straight home, phoned the vet and got a virtually immediate appointment. Considering Ernie's not been in a carrier, or to the vet in 8 years or so and barely had any human contact for that time, he did really well. He spent the entire time at the vets huddled into me poor sweetheart.



It's antibiotic cream twice a day in the infected eye, which Ernie finds extremely disturbing and cannot for the life of him understand. He doesn't get aggressive just confused and frightened which is really awful for me too. I'd rather he hissed and bit me than flinched and shook. Extra cuddles and love have been prescribed by Dr me and hopefully his poor eye will be better soon and everything can get back to normal for Ernie once again.

Ingredients:
Daisy rubber stamp from Sugar Nellie
Sentiment from Stampin Up
Stampin Up card-Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink
Pretty in Pink ink from Stampin Up
K & co paper
Papertrey white card
Copics
Chalk ink pad
Memento black ink pad
Gems from stash
Green gingham gathered ribbon from Bazzill
Pink faux suede ribbon from haberdahery shop
Heart locket from stash
Paper flowers from craft shop
Hydrangea petals from Prima

Cherish the Gorjuss-ness & a Mr B progress report!

I couldn't resist doing another Gorjuss girl card. I love these images-they seem so ethereal and there's something almost bewitching about the images. Somehow I'm back with turquoise again;considering I'm not keen on the colour, I seem to have an astonishing array of turquoise bits and pieces!

As for yellow- I LOATHE yellow but I've managed to sneak it some Certainly Celery which I adore and which helped me to cope with two scary colours! Phew!




Apologies for the photos-I'm going to have to try and figure out what is going wrong. It's the editing that seems to be messing the quality up-I do auto enhancement and the result tends to be worse than the original photo-not better. It's hugely frustrating but I've been cardmaking and PC-ing for some time now and need to clock off and catch up on some bunny and pussy cat time.The awful photos will have to stay for now, sorry. Aaaargh, why can't things be easy?

It's a gorgeous evening though so can't stay cross for long. I'm watching Mr B (Blackbird) demolish his latest batch of apples and pears so photo quality seems somewhat insignificant right now. He's eaten all the winter apples so I've now resorted to buying him vast quantities of apples and pears (his clear favourite), which he gobbles in record time.

Yesterday I noticed he was being uncharacteristically quick with his return journey and discovered that at the end of the garden was a rather large baby blackbird sat happily on a wheelie bin, with the biggest mouth you've ever seen optimistically open wide.

Poor Mr. B was desperately trying to keep this 'baby' fed but the baby was huge and his appetite even bigger. Meanwhile, I was split between ensuring there was a plentiful supply of fruit for Mr B and 'baby' and ensuring that Tom, Basil and neighbouring cat McCauley didn't suddenly take it upon themselves to satisfy any hunger they might have by eating Mr B's beloved baby!

Needless to say all the fruit I bought yesterday which I had anticipated lasting several days was actually all gone by lunchtime (our lunchtime-it appears blackbirds have a permanent lunchtime). I thus had to trek back into town today, battle the crowds and lug home another hoard of apples and pears. Lets hope (for my sake at least) that these last a little longer!

Must dash, but the sweetest thing in all this is that poor Mr. B doesn't seem able to eat the apples unless I've cut them in half! Poor sweetie-not only do I have to provide the food but serve it to the specific requirements of this handsome man! If any of you had ever wondered why I don't manage to post a card a day-now you have your answer! Sorry, no up to date photos of Mr B and family-must do some, oh and we have baby duckies too down at the river and blue tits in the nest box-it's all so exciting;how amazing this time of year is-new life everywhere!


Ingredients:

Gorjuss girl rubber stamp from Sugar Nellie
Certainly Celery card and grosgrain ribbon from Stampin Up
Tempting Turquoise grosgrain ribbon from Stampin Up
Paisley background stamp from Stampin Up
Basic Grey papers
Basic Grey brad
Prima hydrangea petals
Paisley vellum from stash
Copics
Memento black ink
Brilliance Peacock ink pad (turquoise colour used)
Basic Grey chipboard heart
K & co rub on sentiment
Yellow organza ribbon from stash
Gems and sequin flower from stash

Sugar bowl challenge 8

Oh goodness me-this has been a challenge. Nope, not a challenge, an ordeal! Marlene drew an amazing sketch for this week's challenge which I initially thought I'd love doing. I have really, really, really struggled with this right from the start. I kept losing track of all the layers-couldn't draw the sketch for the life of me so had to repeatedly refer back to the Sugar Bowl blog, and it just has been so hard trying to work out the dimensions of each of the pieces! I've used another Little Cotton Rabbit stamp-gosh I really do LOVE these! I just hope I've got the sketch right! I'm sure I've messed it up somewhere!

This evening as I've desperately been trying to put it all together and embellish it etc, my cat Tom has been the cat from hell! He is demanding at the best of times-Maria Carey (reportedly an absolute horror in the world of the demanding) has nothing on Tom. Tom suffers from an extreme form of 'cat indecisiveness'. This indecisiveness is well known to cat carers. Cats cannot make their minds up and Tom is the dictionary definition of this condition.

This is bad enough if you consider that it manifests itself in an inability to decide whether to be in or out, whether he wants to eat of not, whether he likes the food or not, whether he wants to sit her, or stand there or go anyway at all (all this whilst standing in a doorway or the narrowest part of the house or garden) so it's a case of having to climb over him (following an emergency stop to avoid trampling on him!).

This evening he has been at his most indecisive.

Despite FIVE bowls of different food, Tom remains dissatisfied in the food department, he has been in and out the house so many times I literally am in a daze and has been doing his 'cat staring' to the point at which I am a nervous wreck and exhausted by him! I have a headache as a result of trying to use my non existent psychic powers to deduce what on earth is wants! Tom has a cat flap which he used for goodness knows how many years. Now, he has arthritis and when I'm in a kindly mood I put his refusal to use the catflap down to it possibly aggravating his arthritis.

When I'm feeling less charitable (usually after opening and shutting the door 1000 times in the space of 30 seconds, so every day!) I put it down to Tom being a Diva and the fact that he sees the situation as something in the order of why should he demean himself by wriggling through a hole in the door when there's Mum to open it whenever I want?

Good point-you've got to hand it to him-he's got brains.

So, this card isn't right-I've tried and tried but am waving a white flag of defeat. I haven't been defeated by the card-nope, I've been defeated by Tom and I'm going to have to go and see if I can work out why he remains extremely dissatisfied with life!

On a more humorous note, I've mentioned Tom's amazing toes before now. He has many more toes that cats normally do, which happily means there's even more of him! Our last vet used to say 'there's toes everywhere' when he saw Tom and he's been found surrounded by people with one of the neighbours pointing out knowingly his many toes and 'boxing glove' shaped paws.

We had to go to the vet yesterday for Tom to have his cortisone injection he has to reduce the arthritis pain. The vet mentioned Tom's toes as we finished the consultation. He said that he's seen cats with extra toes before but never anywhere near as many as Tom has. He said Tom has the most incredible number of toes and it's very rare indeed to have so many.

That's reminded me, I must trim his nails. I don't need to do all of them but some of Tom's toes are hidden and so the claws if left untrimmed would simply grow into Tom's feet. If you look on your hand at the gap between your thumb and first finger. In that gap, Tom has a small toe. Cutting that nail isn't easy believe me. I have to single handed, hold Tom (who does not consent to this procedure), open the toes up, find the toe, find the nail and clip it carefully not cutting into Tom at all. Phew. What a job and lucky me-I'm the lucky girl who's got to do it! I have to keep a close eye on how these nails grown and regularly trim them. So instead of cardmaking, I'm going to be savaged by a yowling cat who I know is saying very bad things to me!

Wish me luck!

Ingredients:

Card blank from stash

Little Cotton Rabbit stamp by Sugar Nellie

Jenni Bowlin paper

The English Paper Company paper

Karen Marie Klip paper

White hammered card from stash

Whisper White card by Stampin Up

Happy day stamp by Stampin Up

Bashful Blue ink by Stampin Up

Watercolour pencils by Faber Castell and Derwent

Queen & co felt ribbon

Felt flowers from stash

Lace from stash

Pearls from Kanban

Touch the Stars

Thought I'd try and add a colour that is way out of my comfort zone-turqouise. This decision came after my light blue Copic turned into a turquoise type colour after a couple of layers! I'm really pleased with this card-I can still see messed up bits but the essence of what I want to create remains-this is more like it!

Aargh, the sentiment's moved a bit for the photo! You could never imagine the problems I've had using the silver hodgepodge frame and cutting the sentiment to fit it! It's been awful! I just couldn't seem to work out how to cut it to fit properly-my brain totally failed me!


Ingredients:
Card blank from stash
Basic grey papers
Whipsper White card from Stampin Up
Chipboard flowers from Stampin Up (covered in Basic grey paper)
Chipboard stars from American Crafts
Chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon from Stampin Up
Ribbon charm and silver frame from Silver Hodgepodge set from Stampin Up
Sentiment stamp from 'Dreams and Dragons' set from Stampin Up
'Gorguss girl' rubber stamp from Sugar Nellie
Chocolate Chip ink from Stampin Up for sentiment
Dark Brown chalk ink for edges

Gorgeous bunnies

Being an avid bunny fan I simply HAD to have the set of Little Cotton Rabbit rubber stamps from Sugar Nellie in my collection. This is my first card made with them and I've been playing with Copics-trying to learn how to blend them etc. I still need more colours so I'm rather limited now. Currently, I have got mainly browns and pinks-browns for bunnies and pussy cats and pinks because I'm a pink fan! I really hope I'll get the hang of Copics as I've been in awe of some of the photos of cards on blogs I've seen. Even without the blending, I still adore them, they're gorgeous colours and the lack of brush strokes is something that for me makes them worth every penny. I did try the Stampin Up markers and though the colours are gorgeous, brush strokes are a real issue. It's so disappointing to try really hard with a card and then all you can see are brush strokes all over the image.

I've done a few fussy cards recently so thought I'd keep this one fresh and simple. I've wanted to use one of the Jenni Bowlin journalling pieces on a card forever; one of the pink ones seemed perfect for this card. I received a card from someone which had a little piece of the new Stampin Up pink striped ribbon. It's from the new mini and after I had tried with goodness knows how many bits of ribbon of various colours, I spotted the card and couldn't believe how perfect the ribbon was for this card! So, it's cannibalised ribbon I suppose but for me it just matches the stripes on the Jennie Bowlin journalling card perfectly!

Ingredients:

Square card blank from stash

Little Cotton Rabbits stamps from Sugar Nellie

Copics

Barely banana card from Stampin Up

Pretty in Pink card from Stampin Up

Scalloped border punch from Stampin Up

Anna Griffin paper

Anna Griffin rub on sentiment

Jennie Bowlin journalling card

Stampin Up striped grosgrain ribbon

Gems from stash

The Sugar Bowl challenge 7 -Spring or Easter

This weeks Sugar Bowl challenge from Sugar Nellie challenge is by way of acknowledging the much better weather we've been having! The choice therefore is either Easter or Spring. I liked the idea of Spring as a theme-I feel so much better when the sun shines and am compelled to use pretty and fresh tones. I've never made a card specifically dedicated to the theme of Spring either so why not? There's still time to join in-cards need to be posted on The Sugar Bowl blog by midnight on Wednesday 8th April and you'll be entered into a draw to win some Sugar Nellie goodies. Pop over and have a look-the design team have as always created some amazing items.



Sorry the photo isn't very good. It's a beautiful day so no blaming the weather-I'm just not a very good photographer alas.

Ingredients:
Pink card from stash for card blank & matting
Basic Grey paper-various
Sugar Nellie stamp by Leanne Ellis
Paper flowers from Sarahs cards
Papermania brads
Copics
Flourish made from Basic Grey paper using Maya Road chipboard flourish as a template
Leaf buttons from stash (knew I'd use them one day!)
Butterfly from stash (felt certain I'd NEVER use this so yipee!)
Spring sentiment by Jolees boutique
Ribbon from stash

A quick hello

Just a quick hello and a card before you all think I've been abducted by aliens! The reality is considerably less interesting as I'm just feeling pretty awful at the moment.The culprit this time is ongoing vertigo which is worsening and starting to really get me down. I've had problems with vertigo before and have had what I call 'background' vertigo for several years which tends mainly to raise it's ugly head when I lie down.

Before Christmas the vertigo increased in severity and it's essentially 24/7 vertigo now. It is not nice and I really struggle to stay on my feet sometimes. I even get big 'waves' of it when I'm sitting down and being perfectly still. I've been back and forth to the GP each 'back' bit clutching another different lot of medication that it's hoped will alleviate the symptoms; each 'forth' because it hasn't.

I feel very nauseous as you can imagine living in a world that's forever spinning, and I'm utterly exhausted. I'm always tired thanks for M.E. but this is different, quite simply I feel I could go to bed to sleep throughout the day and by the evening I'm struggling to keep my eyes open when Eastenders is on!

My GP says the tiredness is due to the strain mentally and physically of trying to keep a 'grip' and stay on my feet and hopefully walking in the direction I want to (which is harder than it sounds for me). She said it's also tiring as it's so frightening and it's true it isn't pleasant at all and I am worried about what is causing it and if it will go away or carry on like this forever which is an unbearable thought.

Anyway, I have more tablets to take as well as some other tablets I've been given so this is the big guns by the sounds of it! I have to go back again in a week, so back along that well trodden path again...

Not sure if you're all totally asleep (other people's health can be so boring I know) but back to more interesting matters. I latterly have discovered the joys of Sugar Nellie. I'm not into all of the children stamps (and there's a phenomenal amount of them on the market), but I do like Tilda though not the baby who's a bit scary! I adore the girl on the card above part of the range by Leanne Ellis. The range is so pretty and lovely. I really, really, really like them!

This is my very first attempt at a card and I hope I've done the beautiful stamp justice. I wanted to do a pretty card to reflect the character's prettiness and I'm pleased with the result-I'm getting better at playing with papers I think though still lots of practice to be done.

Sorry I've not been here alot but been shattered, too tired to blog and too tired to play-too tired even to blog hop!!! Shock! Horror! Gasp!

I'm trying to play a bit with my cardmaking but it's alot of looking up and down and it's not good with vertigo alas. I'm off to cuddle my bunnies now ( my calming medicine) and I'm sure Basil will take part as when there's cuddling going on Basil always seems to know and appears from nowhere to join in! Ahhhh!

Ingredients:

Royal & Langnickel cardblank
Sugar Nellie Leanne Elllis rubber stamp
Pebbles paper
Paper blooms from Sarah's cards
Pink lace from haberdahery department
Stampin Up sentiment
Stampin Up Old Olive & Barely Banana card
Stampin Up markers
Papermania gems
Stazon black ink