A great excuse to craft

So I've been told to rest up and take it easy. This week has been a week of pain. Last Saturday I suddenly found myself in a lot of pain, Sunday it got worse and up until yesterday I was living off two over the counter pain reliefs...without ease. Then yesterday evening I saw my Dr. but only because my personal trainer told me to...I thought it would just go. I got anti inflammatory tablets and they just took the edge off the pain. This morning I took them again, topped up on over the counter pain relief and a gel too...without success. I was in so much pain I found myself nodding off, not like me. So I decided to go to a local clinic that take my health insurance. I was examined, told to book an appointment for an MRI and given both a brace for my knee and crutches, with another prescription for pain relief. I was also given the advice/told to take it easy, rest up and not to over do it.

Yes, it's a nuisance that I can't do what I had planned to do BUT there is a positive. Due to having to take it easy, this now means that I can sit and craft. A great excuse to craft. So between tonight and tomorrow I'm planning on catching up on craft commitments and make caramelized red onion chutney tomorrow. It can all be done seated. Ok, I can think of better excuses than be in pain but as they say "every gray cloud has a silver lining".

DT time

It's DT time over on Pattie's Creations Design Challenge. Challenge No. 98 is to alter/recycle an item using a digi stamp. I'm so luck to be part of this design team because Pattie has some amazing digis to choose from. Check out her Etsy shop HERE.

For this challenge I decided to use a picture frame that's been hanging around the house, in need of some love. I chose her "Water Lilies" digi this time round.

I took the frame, painted it using a Dulux colour sample in "Skylight Blue" and then dabbed some Viva Decor Paste in silver. It gives the frame a nice shine and makes it look distress too. I then took some of my pearl gems and popped them around the frame. I used a mixture of colouring pencils and metallic colouring pencils the colour the image in. I'm pretty delighted with how it turned out.

Below are pictures of the process. Click HERE to visit Pattie's Creations Design Challenge and to join in the fun. If you take part, be sure to leave a comment below so I can check out your project too.

 

  

Altered bottle Steampunk style

I entered Josie's challenge over on Everything Steampunk. The theme was to alter a bottle Steampunk style. I really wanted to do this, got some lovely ideas off Pinterest and decided to get going. The only problem I had is that I've lost my mojo. The last two weeks have been a bit of a nightmare and very stressful, so my mojo has been hit and miss.

I sat down this afternoon and got some of my stash out. No matter what I tried I wasn't happy. This is what I've ended up with but I may make another. What do you think?

Typing in silver and gold font

A long time ago I came across a tutorial on how to do silver and gold font for typing. I haven't seen this in years but when I came across it tonight, thanks to the tutorial that Yvonne from Card Art Kilcoole Tutorials popped up on her blog, I had to copy it. Thanks Yvonne.

So you want to type in silver or gold font? No problem. Just follow these steps below. 

Type in your text and then highlight the text. Next, click the colour button on your MS Word. Go to custom and reset the RGB manually to the numbers below. You can adjust the settings to get custom colours.

Gold

Red 194

Green 164

Blue 104

Silveer

Red 155

Green 155

Blue 155

Simples!!

Check out her blog HERE. She has some great tutorials that you can try out. 

My first ever ATB

Here is my first ever Artist Trading Block. I'm delighted with how it has turned out. Despite being a crafter and loving it, I have a mental block when it comes to measurements. So when it came to making this ATB I was a bit worried...but thanks to my wonderful friend Maria, she helped me get the box made. Maria lives in Germany but drew up a template and Vibered me, so I could then copy it.

I used some free papers and images that I got with a magazine, ribbon that I bought at Michaels when I was last in Orlando and flowers from Wild Orchid Craft. I can't remember who the trinket is from because I don't have the packaging but that was bought at Michaels too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Inchie Tag

My dear friend Josie is hosting a tag swap over on DIGITAL ART & IMAGESBYKIM in the "Tag! You're it" group. This month's outline was to use inchies. I've recently rediscovered heat embossing and I'm kinda hooked. Here's what I made.

I particularly love the purple on pink with the silver embossing. There's a slight silver thread through the purple ribbon too. I think I've pulled it together for this swap. 

Mail Art

Each month I take part in a mail art swap hosted by the wonderful Candace, over on Your Paper Pantry. I just love these swaps and simply can't look at envelopes the same any more. Every month there's a different theme and this month's was "A Touch Of Gold". Here is one of the 5 that I made. Unfortunately the camera doesn't pick up on the shimmer and so you can't get the full effect.

Front

Back

Check out Your Paper Pantry through http://yourpaperpantry.ning.com/

Telescope card

I joined "The Craft Hole" yesterday, it's a FB group. They've many different challenges to take part in. I decided to participate in the "telescope" card challenge, I've never made one before. It was great discovering a new style of card.

I used my G45 Steampunk Spells paper pad...well scraps that I had left over. I knew those scraps would come in handy some day :) I then used various items stashed away looking to be used. For the most part the items used have come from the USA, gifted to me or bought during my many trips to Orlando. We'll be skipping Orlando this year.

Any way, this is my first challenge entry on the group. I'm looking forward to taking part in another challenge over there too. Crafting is a great form of escapism, a great form of therapy too.

  

What a week...a very stressful week!!

What a week it's been...stressful, emotional and frightening all round.

Last weekend was meant to be an enjoyable weekend. It was a long weekend here in Ireland and so I was planning a pretty chilled weekend...that was not to be.

Saturday started off well, did a few bits around the house, got started on some craft projects and helped my mum babysit two of my gorgeous nephews. One of them is turning 2 next month, the other is 5 weeks old. It was a nice relaxing day. I went to bed feeling really good about myself, having had a lovely evening and having made some positive decisions about the week to come.

Sunday morning however, was a nightmare and the week has gone down hill from there. I came down stairs at 10am. As I got to the bottom stair I saw my front door open. For a split second I thought my husband had gone out but he hadn't...he was still upstairs. What I was looking at was a hall door open, an empty drive way where my car had been parked and back in the sitting room, I realized that our computers were missing, and ipod missing from it's docking station in the kitchen. We had been robbed!!! I almost fell to the ground, heartbroken and really shook up. It was so frightening to discover.

It's been a week from hell. Phone calls to the insurance company, dealings with the police (some of which have been great), sleepless nights and living on my nerves. I'm jumping at the slightest sound and even though I've sleeping tablets, I'm still waking up in panic attacks. Needless to say we're heightening our security. It's been a nightmare.

A week later and I'm still on edge. I'm doing my best to move forward, finding new projects to get myself involved in and looking to adopt a second dog. We've been talking about getting a second dog for some time now but I think we're ready...extra security. It was already a rough year between losing my dad and me having numerous stays in hospital through ill health...I honestly didn't think it could get any worse but it did!!

I am normally a positive person and will do my utmost to find something positive no matter what comes my way but I'm struggling. But as somebody once said to me "This too will pass" and I know it will. My faith in Spirit will carry me and help me.