A Tribute....

I find myself at the ripe old age of 30-something pondering about Life, the Universe, and Everything. Why do bad things happen to good people? And how do these good people carry on with life in general? I am incredibly lucky and am healthy as a horse, but I do know several absolutely wonderful ladies who cannot say the same, and yet never grumble and are always upbeat and the first to jump in and help where needed.

One such person is Tanya. She was diagnosed with a particularly agressive form of breast cancer last summer, and has undergone some pretty heavy radiotherapy and chemotherapy. As a bystander it was hard to watch her lose her hair and her energy, but she never lost her determination and will to live. Can I tell you what she's doing this Saturday, a meer 10 months after her diagnosis, and just 6 short weeks after her last bout of chemo? She's doing the Maggies Monster Bike and Hike. This involves a 30 mile cycle through the Scottish Highlands, immediately followed by a 43 mile hike, again through the Highlands! She has trained almost everyday through her treatment, and in the horrendous snow and ice we had this winter, and quite frankly I'm in awe of her.

She also returns to work on Tuesday next week, as a Real Nappy Adviser, and so today's card has been made in honour of her. I'd deliberately not made her a Get Well Soon card as I felt this was not what she would have wanted or needed, and so I have made her a Celebrate card. To celebrate all she has personally achieved and I hope will continue to achieve for a very long time yet.

But of course I couldn't make a card without it fitting with a couple of challenge blogs could I? So I'd like to enter this one into this weeks Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge, Cute Card Thursday, which can involve using a sketch from another site, and the For Fun Challenges blog, which this weeks calls for Green cards, as in environmentally green not the colour. My BP is all about the environment and Tanya is an advocate of re-usable, washable nappies :D

This is the sketch from the Outlawz which my card is based on:

The Dotty Princess

Catchy title for a movie? Well maybe, but it's also the basis for the card I've made this evening for a friend's daughter's 3rd birthday. The fabby image is a freebie from the nice people at A Day for Daisies, and she's been coloured in with promarkers, with a bit of tattered rose distress ink around the edges. Their challenge this fortnight is for "Dots and Stripes" so I think I can tick that box.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
A Day for Daisies - Dots and Stripes
Crafty Catz - Children's cards
The Outlawz Copic/Promarker Challenge - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - No text

Get Well Soon, Uncle Jim!

So for those who know (or indeed, care :D) my MIL has been in the land of Oz since the beginning of February, and is not expected to return until the end of May. The reason for this extended trip is that hubby's Uncle Jim (MIL's brother) had to have a fairly major op, and the doc's insisted that he had to have someone around when he was released from hospital to fetch and carry otherwise he would have to recuperate in the ward for eons.
Well, the op has finally happened and he is doing well, so thought I'd better get a card sent off in anticipation of his arrival home.
I've never met him, but I'm led to believe he's fond of fishing hence the subject matter. I'm not a huge fan of the sentiment "Get Well Soon" so chose a "Thinking of You" which can work in just about any given situation.

The stamp is from The Angel Company, and I've coloured him in using Promarkers, a button and a bit stripey MME paper and it's good to go. Just hope in the glue on the button holds in transit.....

I've not found many challenges this week to enter with this one, so I'll just go with the one from I Love Promarkers, which this week is Anything Goes.

Candy time!

No card today (sorry P) but the very nice lady over at Sarah Wright Designs (I believe she is called Sarah Wright, co-incidence or what?) is offering some blog candy - a cute LOTV stamp called Gone Fishing. I have a couple of LOTV stamps and they are great quality and a joy to colour, so another one in my collection is always welcome :D

New Card on the Blog...

Sadly a VIP follower is probably to young to understand the title, but no doubt she will be pleased to have some reading material ;)
This quick and easy card has been made primarily for The Outlawz Monday Greetings Challenge which was to keep 50% of the card white. I'm not going to sit and measure everything to calculate if I have hit the magic five - 0, but it can't be far off!
I used a scrap of yellow paper and bit of ribbon, and stamped the image with a versamark pad and brushed over some chalk. The chalk looks a bit faint on the photo, but it is there!The edges were distressed with Old Paper Distress ink and then mounted onto craft card.
A certain person, who some of us know and love, has been telling half the population of Papercraft Planet that my favourite colour is yellow. Unfortunately this couldn't be much further from the truth - the result of a yellow jumpsuit my mother insisted I wear at the age of 9. And no, there are no photos in existence. Thankfully.

Best laid plans of....

Me! So, busy day at work today, annual stocktake/inventory thing going on. Work tomorrow involves delivery of new stock to unpack and put away. An early night sound like a good idea? Well that's what I thought too. Absolutely was not going to make a card. Thought maybe I could do a bit of colouring and print off some digis, and then go to bed. Did that happen? Well no. Not quite. Nearly 11.30pm and I have a finished card to blog about.
One of the main questions of the evening involved a lengthy debate with the Dunderthal (my other half) about when does blue become turquoise and vice versa, and how much green was involved in the whole process. I had been intending to make the aforementioned card fit in with a Colour Challenge on the Outlawz site which involved brown and turquoise and a bit of distressing. Got so distracted with the "is it blue" or "is it turquoise" debate I forgot to do any distressing!
Anyway I can still enter the Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge, and the delightful image is a freebie for the challenge on A Day for Daisies - Stitching and as it's coloured with Promarkers, why not enter the I love Promarkers - Easter challenge too.

I must have an inquisitive mind tonight, as I also spent rather along time pondering exactly how many stitches I should use to hold on the buttons in the corners, I momentarily debated stitching around the edge, but wary of a further blood injury (I stabbed myself with the needle with my first stitch), I decided against it. Good job I did, because I would probably still be sewing now.

April Showers....

...... have been in plentiful supply around here! So in honour (?) of this, I have made a card for a friend of mine, and then found a whole load of blog challenges based on the same theme! Dontcha just love it when that happens?

Here's the card:

The image and sentiment were printed in a craft mag which came last week, and you're allowed to scan/copy/resize at will. I find if I try and resize them, they get really pixelated which I hate, so I kept it small. She's been coloured with Promarkers and the edges inked in Tattered Rose distress ink, I also coloured the sentiment in with promarkers to tie it all in. Minimal, but bright and cheery. Unlike April Showers.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar Challenge - April Showers
The Outlawz Monday Greetings Challenge - April Showers
Passion for Promarkers - yellow and pink