Missing You

I thought things were beginning to settle down in my life after all the upheaval of the last couple on months but last week was another where me feet didn’t seem to touch the ground.

It wasn’t really bad stuff, just hospital and doctor’s appointments and a very nice girly day shopping at Bluewater but it meant I was out and about every day and in between I still had card orders to fulfil, so a bit manic at times.

I managed my card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge by the sink if my teeth and even then it turned out to very, very basic.

It was Lythan’s turn to set the dare this week and because her daughter is away from home at the moment and she is missing her dreadfully, she ‘dared’ us to make cards with a ‘Missing You’ or ‘Thinking Of You’ theme to them.

So there I was at 11pm on Thursday evening trying desperately to make my card for the 10am Friday launch….and this is what I came up with.


As I said, very, very simple!
Just two sheets of 6 x 6 with part of the pattern cut from one of them and layered over the top of the first with 3D foam and then some faux stitching around the edge of the card…….and there you have it!
Card Blank – Papermania
Patterned Paper – Basic Grey (Wisteria)
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Dusty Concord)
Dies – Spellbinder Nestabilities (Labels One)
Pen – Marvy LePlume (Wisteria)
Half Pearls – Basic Grey Opaline

Other BitsRibbon
Computer Generated Greeting
The hospital appointment I had was the first time I’ve been back since having the surgery on my knee back in April.

Although I’m still getting some pain in it, he seemed pleased with the way things have gone and said that I have very good movement back in it already so I can now start exercising and swimming again, which is great!
As for the pain, well, he did say it’s early days yet and most of it should go in time but I have to except that I do have arthritis in my knee and unfortunatly that’s not really going to improve.
Still, it’s certainly much, much better than it was before and if the pain can be controlled I can cope with it.
I have to go back in six months by which time I hope to have lost some of the weight that I’ve put on from not being very active.

Love’em or Hate’em……………Peel-Off’s, that is!

When I first started making cards most of my goodies came from QVC. Like lots of other people I would find myself avidly watching all the craft and card making slots for some pointers on where to start and inevitable would have ordered two or three things before the show finished. As a beginner to this exciting new world of crafting, the lure of the Peel Off was far too strong to resist because according to the presenters you could produce the most wonderful cards in seconds with this ‘can’t do without’ goodie in your craft box.

Now, I’m not really a lover of peel off’s and don’t use them very often but I honestly can’t say that I hate them either. I brought shed loads when I first started out but now the only ones I occasionally use are the borders and text and at Christmas time Silver snowflakes, all the rest are just sitting gathering dust.

Lythan, over at the Daring Cardmakers has made me blow the dust off them this week with a dare that I thought would have me scratching my head for ages. She says:

You can blame Keryn with her rather lovely cool colours dare last week (great cards all BTW!). I found that I needed to use a peel off and was quite pleased with the results and that got me thinking of a fiendish dare. At least it is for me (Lythan) who is often disparaging of the much maligned shiny sticker. But actually there are some really nice examples of the genre around now. And also people who can do all sorts of gorgeous things with peel off stickers that I would not have thought of. Are you one of them?So go on, rummage around in your craft stash and
Make a card with Peel OffsIf you really truly honestly don't have any peel offs in the house (and remember I know where you live and will be checking personally) then and only then, are you allowed to use another type of sticker in its place. Go on, I dare you!
I decided to have a go with this Silver Poppy design which I’ve never used before.


The peel-off has been stuck onto a sheet of Silver metal foil and then dry embossed from the back, giving a raised appearance on the right side. I then painted the flowers with Twinkling H2o’s.

The two papers used are from Memory Stor and I’ve added a computer printed greeting and some ribbon from my stash