I'm Still Here .....

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe I have been away so long :( or that I still have some followers left, thank you so much for sticking with me I'm hoping to be posting regularly from here on !

A lot has happened since I last blogged, got a shock diagnosis of borderline diabetes when I developed a very painful problem with both legs where they swelled dramatically and broke out into blister type sores which resulted in my having to have my legs dressed  twice a week for six weeks.
I have been very down and unable to craft at all due to not being able to sit with my legs down for any period of time, anyway after a stern talking to by my doctor I gave myself a massive kick up the backside and decided things had to change and started eating healthily etc and 4 weeks in I have lost 1 stone 4 lbs which I'm thrilled with (I have many more to go but this time I am feeling really determined that I will get there) and am starting to be able to do some exercise now my legs are almost healed.

I was thinking to help keep me motivated I might do a separate page to keep updated with my journey so that my lovely blog friends can choose to read it or not as I don't want to put anyone off looking at my blog because of waffle about things other than my cardmaking...what do you think ?

Anyway after said waffle Lol I do have a card to show you that I made before I became poorly for my friends wedding (the same friend I did the invitations for)

It was an 8 x 8 card and I used my Joanna Sheen bride and groom dies which I gave a coating of Wink of Stella, I scored the lines on the background with my hougie board and just added the joycraft heart stem and paper roses bought from Ebay. 
This was the first time I had ever made a predominantly white on white card and I really love how it turned out, I will definitely be trying it again.

Off now to catch up on some of your wonderful blogs, I'm so glad to be back I have missed everyone !
Thanks for reading,

Hugs,
Kaz x

Gone Fishing

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Woohoo twice in one day ! Thought I would pop on to share my last card from last weekend's crafty session....then I can start catching up with this weeks makes Lol

I love Digistamp Boutiques character images... this is Ralph - Birthday Fishes. He is coloured with Promarkers/Spectrum noirs and the papers are from LOTV. I added some card candy type embellies that have been in my stash since I first started cardmaking I think, I just thought they went with the papers well.
The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and for some reason looks absolutely huge in this photo.

Hope you are all having a fab weekend, unfortunately we have rain but that's ok as it means more time in the craft room ;)

Bye for Now,
Hugs,
Kaz x

Snowflakes in Spring

Good Morning,
I have a couple of Christmas cards to share with you today, the first one is made using a freebie snowflake background stamp from a magazine.

All I did was stamp sideways onto a pale blue panel using white pigment ink then switched the stamp around and stamped again so that opposite corners matched. I then stamped a Clearly Besotted sentiment with white pigment ink onto a strip of vellum and heat embossed with clear powder. I wrapped the sentiment strip around the panel then fixed the panel to an A6 blank. I really liked how this turned out and think I will probably do some other variations of it for my christmas box.

For my second card I used a sheet of Pink Petticoat (now sadly closed) paper which I just matted onto some pink card after printing a sentiment also from PP straight onto the paper. I mounted this onto a 6 x 6 card blank and added a couple of die-cut snowflakes and pearls.

Thats all for now,
Hugs,
Kaz x

Catching Up....

Good Morning,

I had a lovely morning yesterday with my grandaughter, she seems to have shot up all of a sudden as I hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks. She started nursery 3 days a week about a fortnight ago and she absolutely loves it, she was full of chatter yesterday telling Nanny everything they do there and all about her new friend Charlie. The nursery staff  tell my daughter that they are besotted with each other and hold hands all day lol even while they are eating lunch ....they are nearly 3 !! Bless them :)

Anyway I have a couple of cards I made at the weekend to show you, the first is a Christmas card....

Very simple and quick this one, I made a top folding A6 blank first, then on another piece of white card which I had already printed with a Pink Petticoat sentiment I stamped the gorgeous reindeer with clear embossing ink and heat embossed with fine detail gold powder. I love this little stamp which was a magazine freebie, I love all the detail in it and it stamps beautifully. I just added a little dot of red stickles for his nose :) and then matted onto red card. 

As I said very quick and easy and great for batch making if you have loads of christmas cards to do at the last minute like I always seem to !

My 2nd card was probably even quicker lol (lately I haven't had any time for colouring but still need my crafting fix !) all I did was print one of the Sketchy Flowers from Digistamp Boutique onto some dp from Tactile Studio, stamp the sentiment (magazine freebie) and added diamond stickles to the image. Matted onto Kraft card.

Back soon with a couple more cards from the weekend,

Hugs, Kaz xx

Guest Book

Good Morning Everyone,

Well I am back at last, my crafting has been very sporadic of late unfortunately just been feeling so tired. I have my machine now for my sleep apnoea but it is taking me a while to get used to it. I didnt realise quite how claustrophobic I was, so far I have only managed a maximum of 2 hours before waking in a panic and literally ripping the mask off my face but I will perservere I know it will be worth it once I settle into using it.

One of few good things about not getting much sleep is that I have been managing some crafting in short bursts, and yesterday I finished decorating the Guest Book for my friends upcoming wedding so I thought I would share that with you today.

I bought a plain ivory guest book online and decorated with Noor/Joycraft foliage die-cuts, the red bobbly strings (technical term ! lol) pearl strings and chipboard words are from Love to Craft and Create and the yummy flowers are a mixture from Joycraft and ebay. 
I have never decorated anything other than cards before so I was quite pleased how it turned out and my friend was over the moon with it so that was good.

Two weeks left before the wedding and I still have the table plan to do but several guest drop outs including the Best Man who decided yesterday that he can no longer do it ! mean I can't do it yet so looks like it will be a very last minute panic lol...bless her she is tearing her hair out....

I have managed quite a few cards lately so I will be back later to share one with you or maybe even two .... ;)

Bye for now and thank you all for your lovely words I appreciate it so much,

Hugs, Kaz xx

Inkylicious Fun !

Hi Everybody,
Firstly I apologise for being absent again, I have been trying to keep up with commenting but I know I haven't managed to get around to everyone's lovely blogs.

As I have mentioned before I have been having health issues for a while now (18 months of sticking my head in the sand :() but finally have the answer to why I am so tired all the time yet dont sleep more than an hour at a time at night, I recently had to do a sleep study at the hospital being monitored over 2 nights and they have diagnosed me with severe sleep apnoea....the consultant said to me that I am one of the worst he has ever seen as during the monitoring on average I stopped breathing 47 times per hour !! To be honest I have been wondering how on earth I am still here considering the amount of time I have been feeling awful now.
Anyway I am being given a machine to keep my airways open at night so that hopefully I can get a decent sleep and not be so tired during the day and to tell you the truth I am just relieved it isnt the big 'C' as I was beginning to think it was. I am now on a strict diet so wish me luck lol...I'm a chocolate addict so I'm going to struggle with that !

Well if you are still with me after all that waffle I do have a card to show you .... I ordered some Inkylicious stamps with some of my birthday money recently and they arrived at the weekend so I had a play with one of them...

I was quite pleased with it although it turned out a bit more 'tropical' than I meant it to lol, I find ink blending quite hard I have to admit. I just cant get a good technique going using the foam applicators on bigger areas so I use the Inkylicious Duster brushes now which I find a bit easier but I still tend to use hammered/textured card as I have done here. More practice is definitely needed and I have a few more new stamps to try out so you will be seeing a few more inky cards from me this week hopefully.

Thank you so much for looking today and I'm off to do some more catching up on your lovely cards !
Hugs,
Kaz xx

Birthday Sparkle

Hi Everyone,
Hope you have all been having a lovely weekend, its been gorgeous weather here until this evening and now we have a bit of a storm going on !

I managed to make a few cards this weekend, the new copy of Quick Cards arrived and the first thing that caught my eye when i was flicking through were the pretty bonus papers inside. Such gorgeous colours - pinks & aquas I could'nt wait to use them so here is the first card I made....

I mounted the patterned paper onto some scrap card before cutting out using MFT Blueprints stitched rectangle, I then adhered that panel to the card base using foam tape. The cute little fairy was a free download from a magazine (I'm not sure of the origin/designer so if anyone knows please let me know) I coloured her with Spectrum Noirs/Promarkers and added a liberal amount of Wink of Stella to the hair bows, wand and her wings, fussy cut her out and mounted her on the panel with glue gel.
Final touches were a Joanna Sheen bunting die-cut and a sentiment from CB Many mini messages set.

Thats all for now, back later with another card from the free papers :)

Hugs,
Kaz x