Phoenix Inspirations

I have a quick card to show you today - another thank you card this time made with Stampin' Up's Stippled Blossoms set. Take a look A bit of left over DSP matches perfectly with Crisp Cantaloupe and Calypso Coral inks. I also threw in a bit of Certain Celery and Mossy Meadow. I am entering this card into this week's sketch challenge over on the  Paper Players  blog Feeling very chilly today - it's very gloomy and grey outside. Never mind just had notification that the swim suit I ordered for my holidays is on it's way - hope it warms up a bit!! Thanks for joining me today - see you soon xx

During the last couple of weeks Mum and I have been helped out a lot with various things. Here's one of the Thank You cards I made For this card I followed the theme over on  The Male Room Blog I added washi tape down the side of the card matching up the pattern to create stripes and embossed a section of the card with my dotty embossing folder. The colours came from the  Colour Throwdown  blog I used Old Olive, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate and Basic Gray. The layout was inspired by the sketch over on the Freshly Made Sketches  blog My stamp set of choice was Wetlands - perfect for males cards and perfect for the recipient who lives by the river where there are literally hundreds of geese! Thanks for looking today - see you soon xx

So I'm back to crafting now. I gave my crafting area a bit of a clean up yesterday and got down to a bit of card making. Now normally at this time of the year I have a nice pile of Christmas cards made as I used to design for the  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown . Sadly I had to give that up but I do miss making Christmas cards and using all my gorgeous Chritmassy stamps. So I decided to make one using the theme from this weeks  52{C}CT  'Snowman'. Here is my card Although this looks quite clean and simple it took ages to make! This is also the second attempt as the first went a bit wrong! I stamped the snowy ground first using Versamark ink and clear embossing powder. The snowman from White Christmas was stamped, coloured and embossed too so that I could make a mask and sponge the blue background. Some gems were added for stars and a simple greeting from Good Greetings to finish it off. Dad's funeral was earlier this week so things are still a bit strange. M

Hello everyone. A quick update - my dad passed away Tuesday of this week. It was very peaceful and dignified and me and mum were by his side. We managed to keep him at home which was what he wanted but that was with the help of carers, district nurses and hospice nurses. We will be eternally grateful for all the help we received, it gave mum and myself the strength to carry on each day and give dad the support he needed. I'm sure I shall be back blogging very soon - thank you  for sticking with me xx