Christmas Card Club #18- Use mainly Red

This fortnights theme was set by Lorraine, who wanted us to use mainly red. A real challenge, and took some thinking about! I'd finally decided I was going to emboss some red card with a  Christmas words folder, when I recalled I had a Tim Holtz pad of embossed card, and I was sure there was a red Christmas one, so in the spirit of trying to use stuff I've had forever, I dug it out with fingers crossed. And indeed there was a red, as well as a green, for Christmas. The whole pad is embossed with various holidays/special days, not all applicable to anyone outside the US, lol. Have no idea what I'll do with those.

I cut 2 6" square pieces of the card, then die cut a couple of bauble shapes from each. The die set is from Spellbinders- Heirloom Ornaments 2010. Most likely retired long ago. I backed this with some cream paper marbled with gold, bought at the NEC Christmas show more years ago than I like to recall.  The string for the baubles is some sparkly peel off lines, and then I added a peel off sentiment, again using stuff I've had far too long.I matted this onto some gold glitter card for a bit of sparkle. I decided the baubles didn't look 'finished ' enough, so found some red ribbon to make a bow at the top of each, which looked better. Looking at them now, I think I may go back to these and add a few acrylic gems in a pattern on the baubles, as they look a little plain, I feel. Or maybe some liquid pearls in dots to follow the swirls of the marbling. Don't know, will have to give it some thought. So thats my offering for this challenge, for the first time in ages, I'm on time, lol.

WOYWW #586-The Starting to catch up Edition.

 As that's pretty much what I'm doing. Had too many health issues attack me one after another. There is a run down in the Christmas Card Club post below, but it seems I may possibly getting on top of it all now. I haven't crafted for weeks, and being honest, as yet, still not done any, but that will change this week.

Blogger apparently lied to me when it said I was on the new format-as in the last week or so everything has changed!

Not happy with how you change image sizes now, nor how you get the type where you want it. But as it's not going anywhere, I just have to deal with it, I suppose. Long shot of the desk, showing mainly wallets of Christmas stuff, which I'll need for Sunday- I finally got round to making some for last week, and I need to get going on some birthday cards, as I've gone through quite a lot recently.

The piece you can see on my desk is a Lunarscape, made for me as a birthday present, from Eldest Son, Ant.It has a hanging hook on the back, so that'll be going up on my wall soon.

And so thats all from me this week, as always I'll see you over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for our weekly desk shennanigans.

 Which just leaves......And Finally.......and thats true, you know. 😁

Christmas Card Club #17- A Winter Scene

 

Hello Ladies, sincere apologies for having missed two challenges, I'll explain at the end!

I hope these are suitable for Mrs.A's choice of a Winter Scene. The stencil is from Sweet Poppy, called North Pole. The top 3 were done in glitter paste- made by mixing my own glitter into various pastes. Having seen the price of tiny pots of ready made glitter paste, I had a go at making my own a while back, and it works absolutely fine. Plus the bonus is that as the glitter is mixed into the paste, there's no shedding!

The bottom three were done with plain white stencil paste- again from Sweet Poppy Stencils, and I added a little Diamond Stickles to give the snow a little sparkle. I managed to use up some off cuts of Christmas papers to cover the front of the cards, but don't really have space for a greeting on these.

 So, it feels like I've just stumbled from one medical issue to another lately. You may recall I had some real pain from my right shoulder, and being right handed that was not good. I thought it was down to my old injury when I snapped off the part of my shoulder blade where the rotator cuff joined, and it's not the first time I've had trouble from it. However, as it was taking forever to heal, and I'd noticed that some days I had no trouble, then would get up and be in pain again, I did what you shouldn't and Googled it. Turned out the most likely cause was actually a trapped/pinched nerve in my neck, and the fact I could wake up with it made me think maybe it had something to do with how I was sleeping. Added a second pillow,and within days it had gone! Next came a UTI, and thats taken 4 weeks to get on top of- at least I hope we're on top of it. Had a weeks antibiotics, and they helped, but two days after finishing the course it was back. So, I got given different antibiotics, and a sample was sent for testing. Well, these antibiotics did absolutely nothing, and I got worse every day till they got the results back. I was literally getting up in the morning, and laying down on the sofa, having naps, reading, wanting to go to bed about 9, then repeat every day. Once they got the results back, I was given a new antibiotic, and so far, that seems to have done the trick. In this time I also had a CT scan, which shows the nodule from the cancer isn't doing much, but also showed that the stent I have between my kidney and bladder seems to be blocked, which is probably whats causing the UTI, and will mean being admitted in the next 2 or 3 weeks to have it changed. Finally, not to be indelicate, but for the last few weeks, it's felt like when I sit down, I'm sitting on very bruised buttocks. So bad, that mainly I've been lying on the sofa again, trying to take the pressure off. Literally could not sit for more than 5 minutes. Anyway, my GP looked at the CT scan,and said she can see thickened scar tissue going into my buttocks, and is most likely from the bowel surgery when they took muscle & flesh from my abdomen to cover the area removed on my bottom! So, painkillers and painkiller gel, and trying not to sit on it for too long, and that does seem to be working, as it's nowhere near as bad as it was. Funny thing was I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it should have started causing problems, then last night I had a light bulb moment. The one thing that HAS gone my was lately has been losing some weight- I've lost a little over a stone, and ideally want to lose another half, to get to where I'd like to be. Suddenly realised I was probably feeling that pain as I'd lost some of the natural padding in that area I'd accumulated, lol. But, it seems much better, I'm still spending as much time as I can not directly sitting down, and that and the gel seem to be doing the trick.

I will be doing my best to keep up with the challenges, and am going to pop round and look at everyones from last week. Hugs to everyone.

WOYWW # 584-The Catch Up Edition.

 

Back again, as always our regular world wide meet up of desk sharing, hosted by our amazing Julia over at The Stamping Ground.

 This is whats currently on my desk - ready for some Christmas cards that I should have had done for a couple of Sundays ago, but more about that in a while.

 A Sweet Poppy stencil, that also has a matching die. The bottom left one is on a Brusho background- it just looked all stormy/Blizzard like.

Talking about Sweet Poppy stencils, and the mistake in my last order. Lucy got straight back to me- literally within 5 minutes of me contacting them, said she'd put the correct one in the post, and as the mistake was theirs, there was no need to return the Postbox. 

 Well, I was MIA last week, as I'd already said, I'd developed a UTI and had some antibiotics. Well they seemed to work ok, but two days after I finished the course, it was back with a vengeance. So, a sample was sent to the lab, and I was given a different course of antibiotics while they waited for the results, This was on the Friday. This anti biotic turned out to be totally useless, as it did nothing, I just got worse each day- hence the last batch of cards for the Christmas Card Club didn't get done. I was literally getting up in the morning, making a coffee, going and lying on the recliner, having naps, reading a bit, wanting to go to bed about 9.00! Repeated daily.

 On the Wednesday I had to phone for results, and now they knew what it was, gave me a different anti biotic, and slowly but surely it seems to have dealt with it. Fingers well and truly crossed, today is the first time I've been in my craft room since the last WOYWW I posted in.

Anyway, that just brings us round now to .........And Finally.........