Baby Shower Card....

My lovely bride and groom from last year had a very busy first year!  She is now 32 weeks pregnant with her first baby and having a rough time.  I was invited to her baby shower and not having been to one here in Ireland I was not sure if a card was needed.  But as I have a room full of craft tools and papers, it was best to make one anyway!

Amanda is not sure if she is having a boy or girl yet, so I kept the colours neutral just in case...

Bottom paper is from MME - Lost & Found, but the top is just a random paper in my stash.  The flowers are made from tissue paper.  Rest is pretty simple!

Close up of the small details of the card.  Amanda had a fab day and got loads of pressies for her new baby!

Thanks for popping bye!

Slow blogger.....

I am the slow blogger - I know, there are loads of things I want to share, but time and inclination are not on my side.  We had a really bad week, another dose of the vomiting bug for the 2 small girls and another chest infection that has been treated with 2 anti-biotics but still lingering.  These issues on their own are hard but add into the mix a so loved family cat who was just failing in front of your eyes.

My precious cat, nearly 10 yrs old had to be put down this week.  Ozzy was my cat, she was lost at a few days old with her eyes closed, and rescued by my uncles dogs who kept her warm until they came home from work.  Ozzy came to me with cat flu,  not able to feed and a swollen mouth.  The vet said that she will die and to take her home and do the best I could.  Well she survived by being wrapped in fleece, carried around in my pocket or my top and kept warm and fed every 2 hours by syringe.

She was a lovely pet, very much the home bird, hated going into a cattery, only wanted to stay here and we always had to get someone to look after her.  Life is different, no flashes of black scooting down the stairs in front of you, and a huge tug at your heart when you see the empty space where food bowls lived for years.  I am heartbroken, but know that I did the right thing, her quality of life was declining daily, and having her put down was a kind act (I hope!)

Right - (wallow over!)....  These are a couple of cards that I made recently.  Just thinking that my blog is becoming a card blog and mainly I am a scrapbooker, which is what really makes me happy.  So must make sure I get more time to scrapbook!

 I had a bunch of birthday cards to make - so I started with this design using Melissa Frances Papers and then ended up with the one below as the final version of the card.  I loved the last one, and really like the others.

Thanks for looking!  Michelle

Piles of Thank You cards

Since Christmas our house has seen - 3 chest infections, a sinus infection, 2 throat infections, 2 vomiting bugs and a chest infection.  We have had 4 lots of antibiotics and one child is still sick!  Needless to say I am so over this sickness and crafting was the last thing on my mind.  The first full weekend of the new year we ventured to our holiday home and I packed a craft bag, with really good intentions, but when the fire is lit and the house is warm and cosy, sometimes I fall asleep and no crafting gets done.

This time, the little one was not sleeping well with the end of her cough, so she woke a ridiculous o'clock one morning and I spent 3 hours keeping her amused in the kitchen to stop the noise from traveling to the sleeping family.  In an effort to let her play a little I took out my craft bag and while she ruined my stamp pads, wrecked my scissors and cut my papers up into confetti, I managed to make this card - and then a few more of the same design.

All products are Papertrey Ink and I just adore this card.  Simple to make, and I think I would be happy to receive a card like it.  PTI have some new stamp pads and from the first few uses, I like them and have the rest of the collection in my virtual shopping bag for when I can justify the expense of more crafty spending.  I did make 8 of these cards so I think that it counts towards using up the stash mountain, and saving money too!

I had the stamps out and made this card up too, it's a bit more grown up and it started off as a Birthday card but didn't look cheery enough for me so I finished it and made a different card that I will share soon.

As the kids were sick, and I had some family and other stuff going on I fell behind in my Crafty Bloggers DT work, but I am working hard to catch up and get back ahead of the challenges.  I uploaded 2 tonight and will share them when I can.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and I will try and get back early next week.... I think I might be featured on Melissa Francis blog some time soon too!  Yah!

Last mention of the "C" word!

I am the first to admit that I am a little strange!  Every year I break my neck to get my Christmas cards out in the post on the 1st December.  I adore my photo cards and I take a lot of time to find the right one for me and get the shots of the kids done and sent off for printing.

Anyway - once my cards are gone, the received cards start arriving and over the last few years I have always played the game of guess who is sending the card by the handwriting (see I am strange!!) and then read the card, and put it with the other cards strung between the door frame on the sitting room.  This year I took the string down, and tried to put the cards up on the Radiator cover, but the kids kept knocking them down, and the garlands were on the fireplace so that didn't work either!  My DH never got to see the cards either as they were put high up on the string, so he really never noticed who sent us cards or what they said.  So this year, I gathered up all the cards, got the kids to punch them with the 2 hole punch and made up two very plain corrugated cardboard covers so that when I got a moment I could decorate them.  

The book sat (eeek! with no lovely decorated cover!) on our coffee table and everyone looked at it, the kids  had great fun punching the cards when they arrived and were able to file them away in the book, DH actually got to look and read the cards, and I had a joy of not having to pick them up every day when the kids knocked them over!!  Works for us!

Just after Christmas I found this post from one of my favorite blogs!  They had these lovely downloadable covers for storing Christmas cards.  So pop over and download them if you feel like storing your card like this for next year, or even taking all the cards you got this year and keeping them safe for posterity!

Normal crafty service will resume next week! LOL, storing up all the projects now!

Thanks for popping bye!

Nearly finished with Christmas!!! - Promise...

I really hated putting away some of my Christmas decorations this year, I really enjoyed having the garlands with lights on the fireplaces and the teal and white theme I picked for this year.

Here are some of the photos of it all just before it came down....

Fireplace Garland in dining room

Front Room Garland

White Ameryllis - fab!

No name cards - so I made up these little flowers with name for the table on Christmas day.

I made a lot of sweets, cookies and cakes for Christmas, but by far the most popular was the Chocolate Marshmallows for Christmas Eve.  3 Marshmallows stuck on a stick, then dipped in chocolate and then drizzled with white and red chocolate and sugar sprinkles.  All wrapped up and ready to be enjoyed just before bed on Christmas Eve.

I have 1 more Christmas related project to show you and then I promise I won' mention the C word again till November!!!

Whew - so glad it's over and back to normal!

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but OMG it's so much hard work!  Shopping, cleaning, baking, wrapping, lists, planning and cleaning up - Seriously, it's a good thing it only comes around once a year!

We had a lovely Christmas eve at my mums house opening presents, and home to just put some Reindeer feed out and cookies too, and then the hard work started with prepping veg and getting ready for the big day.  Santa came and was really good the girls - it was a bit of a worry if he would come as the Portable North Pole video said that the girls had not made it to the good list just yet.

We hosted a little present opening for my DH's family, 20 people for a little mulled wine and appetizers, and then we waited and had dinner later on.

From St. Stephens day on were were all sick - sore throats, coughs and sinus infections and we trundled off the the doctors, and 3 of us on anti-biotics, so the bit between Christmas and New Year were spent quietly.

I am sick of Christmas now, the house was de-christmased on New Years day and the tree not long after, and it's nice to have my normal house back now, and it's all clean and light.  Here are some of the last projects I wanted to share.

My Ribbon Reel Tree was picked up by Crate Paper Blog and I waited patiently for it to be shown, but in the end they didn't use it.  Made from Crate Paper Peppermint Collection and some empty ribbon reels.

While I was taking the photos above, this little man was sitting under the tree just waiting to be told off for being there!  Cute or what!

This card was made ages ago, but again held off as I it was for Making Memories blog, and I had to wait to see if it got used before I showed it.

I have not even looked at any Christmas photos I took, not bee out to take any or even try and edit any I have waiting to be finished - I've been that sick that all I did was sit on the couch every night and try and get over this dose.  

So finally - here is our Christmas card, I took the photos of the girls and found a template that I liked and Viola - a family Christmas card!!!  I loved it this year and will have to work hard to get something good for next year.

Happy New Year to you all and I am looking forward to finding some inspiration in 2012.