An emotional occasion.

Well, what a week I've had. Speedy had his third Hepatitis B injection last week as part of prep for a possible kidney transplant. He had a really bad reaction, partly because they gave him a flu injection at the same time. Sickness, trots, stomach pains, you name it he had it. On Monday he went to the doctor's and collapsed when trying to convince the receptionist that he needed to be seen.He doesn't usually go to the doctors without me hounding him, so he must have felt bad. He rang me to say he was on his way to A&E in an ambulance!! I managed to get there about an hour later ( on the train as I don't drive), and was taken to an isolation room.He looked so pale, he had his eyes closed, and for all the world he looked dead.I just stood there rooted to the spot. Then he woke up and saw me and he cried his eyes out. We both thought his kidneys were packing up. He was on a drip as he was dehydrated and there was also a paracetamol drip. He had been waiting for a doctor to see him. To cut a long story short it was the jabs that did it and blood tests showed his kidneys hadn't been made worse. It was very scary. He's OK now though, 9lb lighter but starting to eat again.

But that's not the emotional occasion that this post is about. We've been invited to an anniversary party on Saturday, which we will go to for an hour or so as it's only a short walk away. Sometimes I go to Google images/ line drawings and type in things such as fruit, cookies, toys etc and save free images for future use.This card uses one of them.

It was from a colouring page HERE.  The caption which came along just in time is from Create with TLC. The backing paper is Papermania. The little hearts were from the Papermill Shop before it closed down and the little tag is from the bowels of my stash. I used liquid pearls on the icing and decided I'll never make a confectioner, lol. Sorry about the photo, it's a bit blurred.

As a result of speedy not eating much, I've been taking advantage of not having to cook renal friendly food and made a big vat of bolognese ( tomatoes are a big no no) and have been scoffing it all week, so.....
Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, 9st 3lb. I did expect it to be worse.....................it will probably hit me tomorrow.

Another Anniversary Card.

A quick post today as I need to get ready for work. Another anniversary card, this time for my mum in law to give to her son.

Made with another Meljens digi image. The paper is from Craftwork cards. I got it earlier in the year when they were doing those goodie bags for a fiver. Card base is 6" x6".

Challenges.  Sweet stampin'  Anything but birthdays.
                   Alphabet challenge. P,  pretty pastels

Target weight 9st 2lb.  Today,  still 9st 3lb.

Love is Sweet.

Evening all. I'm a bit late today as I've been out shopping. I still had birthday money ( yes, from July ) which I hadn't spent as I've been waiting for the Autumn stuff to come into the shops.  I got myself a couple of nice knitted tops and some jeans. I got them from Wallis. They are boot cut with just enough elastic in the waist to hoist them over my bum. There's no sticky out bit at the front where the button would be so they make my stomach look quite flat. I got a dark navy pair and another pair the colour of............wait for it..........Caramac, lol. I' ve got quite a few creamy and beige tops and they look good with teal green too.
When I did get home I had to knuckle down and make a couple of cards I'd been putting off. It's my sister in law's Anniversary on Monday so Mum in law asked me to make one for her to give.

This is the one for me and Speedy to send. I don't really have much stuff for making wedding/ anniversary cards but Meljens came to the rescue with this image. The hearts are also Meljens which I resized to fit. I coloured them and added glossy accents before cutting them out.

The paper is from Craftwok Cards and the card base is 6" x6".

Challenges.  Creative Card Crew. Anything goes.
                    Deep Ocean Challenge blog. Hearts.
                    Do you stack up.  Friendly critters.

Whoops, nearly forgot.

I was sitting here eating my brekkie when i remembered my poor old blog. So it's going to be very quick,lol.

Image from Free Extras. Paper from stash, maybe Papermania. Sentiment done on computer.

Close up of image.

EDIT. Back from work now and found a couple of challenges
            Cute Card Thursday Clean and simple.
            Stampin Royalty. Photo Inspiration.
           


Weight 9st 2lb (target weight). Boring, I'll have to stuff myself tomorow, lol.

Funny Anniversary Card.

Morning all. I won't say "good" because it isn't, not here anyway. I hope it brightens up later as there is a street carnival up the road and we are nipping along to take a peek.The street is quite multicultural as there are Polish, Indian and Caribbean food shops and quite a few ethnic eateries as well as good old English pubs. I think they are trying to attract more people to the area as although this used to be the main walking route from the train station into the city centre there has been a free bus service for a couple of years now which has not been good for businesses.
Anyway meanwhile here's today's card. It's Speedy's sister's anniversary next week. Her and hubby are well into retirement so i thought i'd use my third stamp from Imag-e-nation (link in last post) for a bit of a laugh.

The papers are from my huge pad of K & Company "360 best of" papers. It was just under £30 but has loads of different styles and is well worth the money.

The glossy accents has been out again (see link in sidebar for flower digi). This time it's on the glasses too. The caption is from TLC again. I love my Fiskars deckle scissors. They are great for trimming a layer of coloured card around a smallish sentiment without having to cut it dead straight. Card base is 6"x6.

Challenges.  Simply Create. special day/event.
                   Stamp Something. Add a sentiment.

Guilty Purchase.

I've been loving all the free digi stamps lately but it was only a matter of time before i started feeling a bit guilty about just nabbing them and not giving anything back except for the odd "thank you" here and there. So i've bought a few of Meljens designs from Whimsy Stamps.

This one is called lovebirds and cost $3 which is just under £2. I was never really interested in digi stamps until the last couple of weeks when i realised  they had quite a bit going for them. I'd always been a bit envious of Americans as their companies seem to have new release every few weeks. Digis eliminate the p&p costs and the waiting for them to arrive. Also they don't clutter the craftroom, So I think i'm becoming a fan.

The paper is from Craftwork Cards and the card base is 6" x 6". The sentiment was added on the computer before printing out. The font i've used is Freehand 591 BT.

I added a bit of pink chalk around the image on this one and cream on the wedding one.

It's so dark again today. I was going to do a bit of colouring this afternoon but i'll have to have a rethink on that one. Never mind..............................

Peel offs to the rescue.

I had a phone call on Monday at tea time from the bloke who owns the pub opposite the shop I work at. "I need  an anniversary card, anything with Ian and Sue on it will do" he said. Ok I said , "when do you want it for"? "Are you in work tomorrow" he said!!!. Mind you, he did apologise for the short notice. So off I went and looking round for something for a quick card I stumbled upon my peel offs. Oh, bliss, they come in handy sometimes don't they, lol. These were from the Papermill Shop.

With a bit of scrap paper and my new computer skills (lol) and it was done in a trice. The light wasn't very good for the photo though. I took it into work, didn't charge him as it was such a quickie and was rewarded with a big bacon buttie, yum!! Very nice, but the whole world including my mother,(who made me a full size coffee cake) is unwittingly out to make me fat again, lol. Ok, the odd treat won't hurt, but when these treats appear every day they will hurt badly. I'm going to have to put my foot down again. People think that once you get to your target, the diet is off. Wrong!!

Quick wedding post.

A quickie post as i'm going out soon. I thought i'd post a couple of pics of the wedding yesterday, it was a beautiful sunny day but by 'eck it was cold.

Here they are Speedy, and his son Neil with his new wife Nina. A bit windswept and all looking at different cameras as everyone was taking pics at once,lol.

This one was taken at the afternoon reception at The Devon Doorway in Heswall on the Wirral. If anyone lives near there the food is excellent, not one of us was disappointed with their meal.

And last but not least the most beautiful mother and baby in the world. Why are they? Because i said so,lol. Now the wedding has been there is a nice big empty space in my brain, perhaps i can now start filling it with cardmaking ideas instead of dresses, suits, ties,shoes,flowers, invitations..................
Sorry there'n no piccy of me but that's because my lovely husband took 85 photos...............of eveyone else. Don't you just love 'em, lol. If someone e,mails me one i'll upload it, ( he will pay dearly for this believe me!).

Love is in the air.

Back with a couple of  love cards.The photo's aren't that good but neither was the light when i took them. I was about to give them out when i realised i hadn't photographed them so it was just starting to go, not dark, but dusky.The first one is for an order from my boss.

There's no stopping me now i've learned to print straight onto cards. The only facility i've got for adding text is "my craft studio". The good thing about this is that you can move the text around with your mouse and there's a little dot in the centre. My laptop screen now has a little dot done with a sharpie pen where the text dot should be so all i have to do is line them up,lol.My brain is wasted in that paper shop !.The background stamp is Penny Black and the heart stamp which i embossed was a freebie with a mag years ago.Patterned paper from stash and little hearts by Papercellar.

The first card saved me from racking my brains about Neil and Nina's wedding card .I don't have much wedding type stash. Just after i photo'd it i put a bit of stickles around the edges of the hearts an dried it with a cool hairdryer. I used red and cream to match their wedding theme. As i said the photos are bad and they look much better in real life. 
           Thanks for visiting, next time i post we'll have a new daughter in law and very lovely she is too.

Target weight 9st 2 lb   weight this morning 9st 1lb, that's a pound in my pocket to play with,lol.

Score, fold, stick, repeat, score, fold,........

Hello everybody!  First of all thank you for all your lovely comments on Wednesday, much appreciated. Secondly sorry for the lack of comments from me. One of the "excuses" is these wedding favours. I know these cartons are easy to make but as I said in the last post faffing on the computer is a challenge to me , something that is easy for most is a big mission, especially as I've chucked all programmes off except "my craft studio" to make space on my laptop. These little tags took me ages to get the right font and size for the tag stamp which is from a papermania xmas clear set.

The striped card is from The Papermill Shop. It's great because there's no need for further decoration apart from the tags and ribbon. The little clips are from Wilkinsons and I've used red, black and gold to match the wedding theme.

The chocs inside are from Thornton's. The whole room smelled of chocolate and me on a diet, lol. Luckily I've only had to make 38 of them as the day reception is just for the close families. They worked out at about £1.75 each. Instructions for the boxes are HERE.

And now for the Friday weigh in. Life is strange sometimes. I went out for a big meal on Wednesday and this morning I weigh 9st 1lb. That's 2lb lighter than last Friday, total loss 1st & 1lb. I'm at my target weight now but it would be stupid not to carry on reporting every Friday as I'm sure this is the only thing that's kept me on track. I will allow myself the odd pound or two as long as it comes straight back off and I know you'll all be "watching me". Thanks for all your supportive comments.

P.S. Straight after publishing this post a google ad popped up for Thornton's chocs !! Marvellous things these computers.

Silver wedding anniversary card.

I don't know why it took me hours to make this easy card but it did ! I started by using the silver embossed card (from Payperbox) as the actual card base but decided i didn't like it, so i used a white 6"x6" card instead. then i decided it needed another layer between the white and silver but couldn't decide what colour so opted for black.

The heart stamp was free with a mag about 2 years ago. I stamped it in silver and embossed with clear powder, and yes you guessed it took me a few goes to do it without singeing the paper,lol. I don't heat emboss very often so i'm not used to how far i can push it.

Then i couldn't decide on flower colour and where to put them. I started with a large silver bow but decided on lilac flowers with a small bow in which case i could have used purple card instead of black. I got there in the end though. Funnily enough i actually enjoyed making it! It is for Speedy's sister and brother in law for next week.There are 50 of us all going out for a big scoff, luckily it's on friday after my weigh in lol.
  Speaking of which.........................

The friday weigh in, 9st 6lb.  The pound i put on last week is back off, total loss back to 10lbs. I do hope i'm not going to be playing with the same pound on and off all the time. And i've told Patrick if he buys me a cake today he'll be wearing it, he still bought me one last week even though i'd put a pound back on, naughty boy!