Meg

My heart is broken, my beautiful daughter Meg, passed away on Friday 7th August.

Meg was born with a condition called Arthrogryphosis, the condition can vary from mild, affecting only 1 joint, to severe, affecting every joint, Meg had the severe version and the only joints that weren't affected were her elbows and jaw. The condition also means that instead of having plump stretchy muscles, Meg had stringy, tight muscles, she also developed scoliosis (curvature of the spine) at an early age and along with the Arthrogryphosis, this got more severe as she got older. Due the tightness of Meg's muscles, her rib cage couldn't expand enough to allow her to breathe properly and over the years she had adapted her breathing to suit, which meant it was very fast and shallow, the hospital told us, that she was using her diaphragm to get more air in, as her lungs just couldn't expand enough.

Meg was admitted to hospital with severe pain in her upper left abdomen and a CT scan showed a problem with her bowel. In a previous post I mentioned that Meg ended up having an emergency bowel operation and was going to be in the Critical Care unit, sedated and on a ventilator straight after the operation. The operation was a great success, but because of Meg's breathing problems it became more and more difficult to get her off the ventilator. At the first attempt her heart rate rose so high, that they had to shock her to get it back to a normal rate, (in Meg's case this was in the 120's, which for most of us would be the rate it would be it would be if you were running a marathon). They sedated her again and kept her on the ventilator until the next day, when they tried again, twice, both times Meg stopped breathing. They did finally manage to get Meg off the ventilator and onto a CPAP machine, (which was still doing most of the breathing for her), on the third day after the surgery, but it was too powerful for her small lungs and she couldn't tolerate it, during the night they had to take her of that too and just give her oxygen through a mask. Meg was also getting very distressed if her dad and I weren't with her, so they moved us into a private room on the CCU and brought a fold up bed in so that we could stay overnight with her.

Meg seemed to be doing a lot better, was chatting and laughing, (she even asked if she could have a Mackies once she got home) but couldn't breathe fully on her own. Suddenly that afternoon the pain that she was admitted with and that we thought was caused by the bowel problem, returned, the bowel operation was almost healed by this time and we knew it wasn't the cause of the pain. The pain got worse and worse as the night went on, her heart rate got faster and faster and was in the 160's for most of the night (more than double what it should have been), the alarms on all the machines she was connected to were going off all night and she was in a huge amount of pain. 

They put Meg on a morphine pump, and every time it lit up for another dose we had to press it for her, because the pain just wouldn't ease up, they were giving her extra doses of morphine and other painkillers too, but nothing would take the pain away. Even though she was on 100% oxygen her saturation levels were dropping and she was finding it harder and harder to breathe.

Finally on the Friday afternoon, the doctors took us to one side and told us that Meg wasn't going to make it, which by then, we had already guessed anyway. We had a few difficult decisions to make about Meg's care, but couldn't bear to see her suffer any longer and decided it was time to let her go.

The hospital told us to contact any close family members and get them up to the hospital quickly if they wanted to see Meg before she went, so my daughter Stacy, who was at the hospital at the time, contacted them, and was about to leave to pick up my mum, when the doctor came back and told us that there was no time for the family to get there, Meg's death was imminent.

We sat with her as the oxygen mask was removed, she grabbed mine and her dads hands and pulled herself up twice, she didn't want to go and was fighting until the end, so we told her to close her eyes and go to sleep, to look for her grandad, take his hand, and go with him, she lay back, took a couple of breaths then she was gone.

We held her funeral yesterday, a celebration of the almost 25 years we had her with us, we didn't mourn her loss as she isn't lost, she will always be with us, in our hearts. The service was beautiful and fun, just like Meg, there were so many people there it was standing room only, and it was lovely to see that so many people loved and cared about her as much as we did,that her fun, sunny personality had made such an impact on so many lives.

Even through all her problems, including several major surgeries during her short life, she was still the happiest person I ever knew, our lives will never be the same without her, but I would rather suffer the pain I have now, than see her endure the intolerable pain she was suffering, 

We still don't know were the pain came from, but suspect that it was due to the scoliosis, which was pushing her over to the left, we think that maybe it was squashing or trapping something on that side of her body.

Please take a few minutes today to give your loved ones a hug, or tell them that you love them, cherish every moment you have with them, because none of us know what is around the corner.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

More Madness and Superheroes

Today I have a couple more of the cards I made for the latest issue of Papercraft Essentials, using the fab All Mad Here and Super Duper bundles from Kate Hadfield. Once again the papers are part of the kits I made to go with the images, and can be downloaded for free from the Papercraft Essentials website.

All Mad Here bundle - Kate Hadfield

Freebie papers

Fiskars border punch - Apron Lace

Gingham ribbon - Meiflower

Super Duper bundle - Kate Hadfield

Freebie Papers

Thanks for calling in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Missing in Action

We ended up at A+E with Meg again at 1 am on Wednesday morning, she was admitted straight away and has been there since, because of her disabilities she needs lots of care, so Eric and I have been going in every morning at 7.30 and coming home around 10 each evening.

She has been really poorly, and in a lot of pain with her stomach, it was really swollen and rock hard. When none of the painkillers, including morphine were having any effect on the pain, and she started vomiting up dark green bile, they decided to do another CT scan and found she had a problem with her bowel.

They put a nasal gastro tube up her nose and down into her stomach to drain away the bile, hoping that she would improve without surgery, as they said the problem was in an awkward place and because of Meg's other problems too, surgery would be long, difficult and dangerous and was only a last resort.

Unfortunately Meg just got worse and worse, her pulse got really fast, she struggled to breathe and they had to give her oxygen, her temp was getting higher and higher, and she was still in lots of pain. Anyway, yesterday evening (Saturday) they decided she needed an emergency operation.

She finally went down to theatre at midnight, they told Eric and I to go home for a few hours and get some rest and they would phone us as soon as the surgery was over. They rang about an hour ago (3am) to say that surgery went well, Meg was in recovery and would be transferred to the High Dependency Unit, where they plan on keeping her asleep until sometime tomorrow, they also have a machine breathing for her, as her lungs were so squashed up because her tummy was very swollen, that the surgeon said they need a bit of time to get working again properly.

The surgeon also said that Meg's likely to be in hospital for at least the next week, maybe longer, as it will take a while for her bowels to start working again properly, and they won't let her come home until they do, and then obviously she will need a lot of looking after for a few weeks after that, so I don't think I will be getting much time for crafting.

I will pop on and do a bit of commenting when I get the chance, and see what everyone else is up to, but apart from a post I have scheduled for Monday there probably won't be much on my blog for a few weeks.

Right, going to try and get a couple of hours sleep now (it's 4.30am)  before we are up and back at the hospital.

Take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas birds rocker

It's the first of the month, so that can only mean one thing, it's time to start a new challenge over at The Paper Creator, and this time around our theme is

Dies and/or Punches

You don't have to use Paper Creator products to play along and be in with the chance of winning a £10 voucher to spend in store, but if you do, you get two entries into the random draw.

For my card I used one of the fabulous kits from the Rocker card Mega bundle, there are cards for every occasion in this kit, but I decided to get a head start on my Christmas stash and use the Xmas Birds Kit.

I die-cut a scalloped circle and added the rocker section of the kit to it, to make the card base, I also decoupaged the owls onto the topper using the layers that came in the kit.

Xmas birds Rocker card kit - Paper Creator Rocker card Mega bundle

Go Kreate - XL Scalloped Circles

Sue Wilson - Classic Poinsettia and Filigree Poinsettia dies

Martha Stewart Pine Branch Punch

Gems and ribbon - Meiflower

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

All Mad Here and Super Duper with digital papers freebie

The Papercraft Essentials magazine, issue 123, came out yesterday and I have 7 cards in the Cut Out and Keep section using two fabulous Kate Hadfield kits - All Mad Here (Alice in Wonderland themed) and SuperDuper (Superhero themed), I am going to try and show you them all over the next week or so.

Both kits are full of pre-coloured images and elements, but for those who like to colour their own, there is also digi-stamp version of the kits or you can buy both sets as a bundle, unfortunately they don't contain any papers, so I made a set of my own for each kit, if you like the look of the papers you can download them for free from the Papercraft Essentials website

All Mad Here bundle - Kate Hadfield

Freebie Papers

Tonic Layering dies- circle and scallop circle

Glossy accents (middle of biscuits)

Paper Doily - stash

Sentiment - computer generated

Super Duper bundle - Kate Hadfield

Freebie Papers

Black cardstock

I coloured up one of the digi stamps for this card

Thanks for stopping by

hugs,

Colette xx

Dare to be Fabulous! 2

Haha, I am an idiot!

I have just realised I used the title of this card for another blog post, I think I meant to add this card to the other post, then got all confusaduddled and added a different card, luckily I added the correct details to go with the card posted, and not the details to go with the title, and that was probably more by good luck than judgement LOL!

Right, here is the card that I meant to post a fortnight ago

All papers and images came from Nitwits Dress Shoppe collection,

the gems and scotty dog diamanté charm are from Meiflower, and

I used Tonic Layering dies Scalloped squares for the matting and layering.

The shoes and bag are decoupaged, although you can't tell from the photo.

I'll be back on Friday with a couple of the cards I made for the latest edition of Papercraft Essentials magazine

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Anything goes at the Paper Shelter

It's the start of a new challenge over at the Paper Shelter, both teams are taking part and the challenge will last for two weeks, we won't be leaving any comments as we will be on our summer break, but there are still the same fabulous prizes up for grabs, so if you make a card, then be sure to enter, after all you have to be in it, to win it! and for the next fortnight we have the super easy theme of -

Anything Goes

 If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate to spend in store, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice from the store.

I chose to colour up one of the more recent releases, a gorgeous image called Moon Goddess.

Image - Moon Goddess - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Nighty night digital scrapbook kit - Just So Scrappy

Flower - Die-namics Upsey Daisy die

Dangling stars - Memory Box Precious Stars

Leaf strips - Britannia dies

Tonic layering dies - Plain and Scalloped Circles

X-cut punches - Stars - Large and Medium

Ribbon - Meiflower

Large Gem Brad - stash

Make sure to pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous DT inspiration, don't forget you get double the amount this week.

thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Circles

The latest team B challenge over at The Paper Shelter starts today and this time around our theme is

Use Some Circles

(pearls, buttons, flowers, gemstones etc., will not count as circles)

There are great prizes up for grabs! If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice.

Now I have to be honest, I had almost finished making my card before I remembered that it needed to contain circles, oops! so I had to quickly change my design.

I used one of my very favourite Paper Shelter images for this card, I love this little angel, but it has taken me nearly two years to finally get around to colouring her, mainly because there are so many fab images, it is always hard to decide which one to use, and the newer releases are always fresher in my mind than some of the older ones in my collection.

Papers - Sunshine and Laughter - Nitwit Collections

Tattered Lace - Studley die

Lifestyle Nesting frame 2

X-cut punch - Petals, large and medium

Cheery Lynn  - B147 Olive branches

Crispy Lace - Turquoise - Cuddly Buddly

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Shelter challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies (who probably all remembered to use some circles LOL!)

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

On the bench stepper card

Today I have a boy card to show you using the On the Bench Ultimate Kit from Paper Creator, This is my go to kit when I have to make cards for young boys, so you will have seen cards made with it before. This time around I used the kit to make a stepper card. I changed the wording on the sentiment and added some polka dot grosgrain ribbon and a football shirt charm, but everything else came from the kit.

On the Bench Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Grosgrain ribbon and charm - Meiflower

This afternoon I'm off to an Afternoon Tea party in aid of Breast Cancer, the party has been organised by my friend Anita, who has battled with the condition and happily beat it into submission. Last years event was brilliant so this year's has a lot to live up to, although I'm sure it will. 

Whatever you are doing with your Sunday, I hope you're having a good one,

hugs,

Colette xx

Dare to be Fabulous!

I seem to have a lot going on at the moment, Meg is still up and down with her stomach problems and she also has quite a few hospital appointments coming up over the next few weeks, I am trying to get cards made, but there just never seems to be enough time, although to be honest I have been spending part of the weekends painting garden benches that my hubby has made out of pallets, I want to try and make some nice cushions for them too, another thing to add to my list of things to do LOL!

I have done a bit of colouring in and just need to find time to make the images up into cards, but in the mean time here's a card I made without any colouring, just cutting, punches and dies.

Papers - Romance and roses - Nitwits

Fern leaves - LR0227 Anja's Leaves 2 - Marianne Creatables

Mini Leafy Flourish - Joanna Sheen Signature Dies

Flower die - Freebie from a magazine

 Sparkler X-cut border punch

Sparkly flower centre - Flat back glitter ball - Wild Orchid Crafts

Diamanté key charm and organza ribbon - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

For the boys

For my second post of the day I am bringing you the new challenge over at The Paper Shelter, and this time around it's

For The Boys

There is a fabulous prize up for grabs! If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice.

I've coloured up a brilliant image called Mad About Video Games, as it totally reminds me of my oldest grandson Will, who is on his Playstation at every opportunity, in fact I think I will put this card away for his birthday in September.

Digital stamp - Mad about Video Games

Papers - It's a Boy thing - Crazy 4 Monograms

X-cut palm punches - traditional stars

Glitter card - stash

Ribbon and buttons - Meiflower

If you pop over to the Paper Shelter challenge blog, you can check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies

thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette

Iiiiiiit's Chriiiiiiistmas!

I've just made my first Christmas card of the year, as the challenge over at Paper Creator this week is

Christmas in July

the prize is a £10 voucher to spend in store, you don't have to use Paper Creator products to play along, but if you do you get a second entry into the draw.

I've used one of the fab ultimate kits, called You'd Better Not Pout for my card, I've decoupaged the image and added flower soft to his hat, glitter to his beard and pearls for holly berries

It's my favourite Christmas card make of the year so far - LOL!!!

Better not Pout Ultimate Kit - Paper Creator

Martha Stewart Roller Coaster deep edge border punch - (punched both sides of a strip of card)

Tonic layering dies - Scalloped and plain ovals and scalloped circles

Polar white flower soft, glamour dust and pompom - stash

Ribbons, pearls and gems - Meiflower

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous creations from the rest of my teamies,

thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Just a quickie

I'm off out to the theatre this evening, with my daughter Stacy, my friend Julie and her daughter Alison, we are going to see The Jersey Boys, and having a meal first.

I haven't done much in the way of card making recently, just don't seem to be able to find the time, but I have some cards that I made a few weeks ago and haven't yet blogged so today I thought I would show you one of those.

I used a paper and image from Nitwits Romance and Roses Collection, arranging the flower image around my computer generated sentiment. I printed the flowers out twice and layered up some of the blossoms, finishing off with a tiny gem in the centre of each one.

Paper and blossoms - Romance and Roses collections - Nitwits

Sentiment - computer generated

Lace - Stash

Ribbons, gems and diamante ribbon slider - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bertie Blue Bear

Paper Creator do some fab ultimate kits, these include papers, pre-coloured image, toppers and extras, at the moment they have an Ultimate Kits Mega Bundle, (which contains 10 different kits) on sale for only £7.50, that's 10 sets of papers, 10 images, 10 toppers and 10 lots of extras, what a bargain!

To show how versatile these kits are Debbie asked everyone on the DT to make a couple of cards each, using the same kit, here's what I came up with,

I used papers, image, circle topper, bunting and sentiments from the kit and added ribbons, a button, die-cut letters and baby border.

Check out the Paper Creator blog HERE to see all the fabulous creations from my teamies, don't forget we all used the same kit. You can see how many different creations we've come up with from just one kit, so imagine what you can make from 10!

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

A challenge, a hospital stay and Ray Quinn

Finally managed to get a blog post done, my daughter Meg was admitted to hospital on Thursday 4th June and was only discharged at the end of last week, she had a gastro-intestinal bleed, which showed itself by Meg having vomiting and diarrhoea which turned into old brown blood pouring from both ends. She had lost so much blood, she needed a blood transfusion. She also had high temperature spikes and a very fast heart rate, so ended up with IV antibiotics, a heart monitor, a couple of ECG's and an echo cardiogram, all of that as well as a CT scan of her tummy and a camera down her throat to try and find where the blood was coming from.

She is doing fine now, her haemoglobin count is back where it should be and we have some follow up appointments with gastro, cardiology and gynae (the CT scan showed up a cyst on her left ovary). They never found the cause of the bleed, so fingers crossed it has healed itself and she will be back to full health soon.

Eric and I were going in every day from 7.30am and staying with her until 9.30/10pm, coming home, getting all the things sorted that we needed for the next day and then falling into bed around midnight. It's amazing how tired you get sitting around all day, we are all still feeling a little tired.

The whole time she was in hospital all she wanted to do was get better and get out in time to go and see Ray Quinn (here and here are a couple of her fave youtube vids), who was doing a show at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton on Sunday June 14th, she absolutely loves him, so it was brilliant that she was well enough to go, and to really make her day, she got to meet him at the end of the show and have her photo taken with him. She was absolutely thrilled when he greeted her with" hello darlin'!", she keeps telling everyone she sees that he called her darling LOL!

It's time for a new challenge over at The Paper Shelter and this time around our theme is

Make it Digital

now that couldn't be any easier could it? and there are great prizes up for grabs! If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice.

I used the gorgeous Make A Wish digital stamp, she is actually sitting on a tree stump, but had been there so long she was getting a bit of a sore bottom, so I liberated her from the tree before I printed out the image and she is now resting on some supersoft organza ribbon LOL!

Digital Stamp - Make A Wish - The Paper Shelter

Digital Papers - One Birdie Lane - Nitwits collections

Sentiment - Computer generated

Ribbons and gems - Meiflower

Heart button - stash

Pop over to the Paper Shelter challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies, and don't forget to enter our easy peasy challenge.

Thanks for dropping in,

Take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

Cute Nurse

It's time for a new challenge over at the Paper Shelter and this time around our theme is -

Make it Colourful

We would love for you to play along with us, there are great prizes up for grabs!

If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice.

I decided to use one of the images from the Cute Nurses set for my card, and after colouring up the image I matched it with papers from the Ouchies kit from Nitwit Collections. I used a black background as I thought it would make the colours pop a bit more.

Image - Cute Nurses - The Paper Shelter

Papers, doctors bag and tablet bottle - Ouchies Collection - Nitwit Collections

Ribbon - Meiflower

Pop over to the Paper Shelter challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Anything Goes with Paper Creator

It's June already, can you believe it, this year has flown by so quickly, it will be Christmas before we know it (206 days to go) LOL!

As it's the first of the month it must be time for a new challenge over at Paper Creator and this time around the theme is an easy peasy

Anything Goes 

We would love for you to play along, the randomly selected winner gets a £10 certificate to spend in store, and you can use any products from any company, but if you use Paper Creator products you get a second entry into the draw.

For my card I've used the On The Bench Ultimate kit, perfect for birthday cards for boys.

The only things on my card that didn't come in the kit are the spotty ribbon and football shirt charm, which are from Meiflower

 The kit is on offer for only £1.40 at the moment and for that you get all this - 

 - A selection of 12x12 Papers
 - Coloured digi image
 - Topper in PNG format (approx 8 inches)
 - Sentiments in PNG format
 - Build A Topper Sheet - compatible with Spellbinders Standard Circles (approx 3 3/4 inch)

& Grand Scalloped Dies (approx 4 5/8 inch).
 - Small toppers sheet
 - Large toppers sheet
 - Selection of paper bows

Make sure to pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies,

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Owl be there!

Today I'm off to the Great British Craft Festival North at Bolton Arena, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I still have some money left, so probably going to treat myself to lots of crafty stuff that I don't really need LOL!

I also thought I would show you a couple more of the cards made for the last Complete Cardmaking magazine, using the Owls from the Kraftyhands kit - What a Hoot , this time around I have a birthday and wedding card.

Papers and topper - What a Hoot CD Rom - Kraftyhands

Tonic layering dies - plain and scallop circles

Magnolia Doohickey - DH004 Leaf swirl

Memory box - Scalloped Posie

Grosgrain ribbon and stick on gems - Meiflower

For the wedding card I added white organza ribbon as a veil with a crystal headdress, part of a doily made her gown and was finished of with more gems. The groom has a silver grey dickie bow and matching hat band, small pearls for shirt buttons and small gems for his waistcoat buttons

Owls - What a Hoot CD Rom - Kraftyhands

Centura Pearl blue and white cardstock

Embossalicious A4 folder - Floral Trellis - Crafters Companion

Marianne Creatables - LR0326 - Bow

Lea'bilities - Branch 4 Seasons

Tonic layering dies - Scalloped circles

Ribbon, pearls, gems - Meiflower

Doily - stash

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Roses are red...

...violets are blue,

we have a lovely

challenge for you!

That's right folks it's the start of a new challenge over at The Paper Shelter today and this time around our theme is

Roses

There are great prizes up for grabs!

If you are our randomly selected winner and play along with a TPS image then you will win a $30 gift certificate to spend in store, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice.

I coloured up a gorgeous stamp called A Summer Walk, I love that little doggy!

Digital Stamp - A Summer Walk - The Paper Shelter

Papers and butterfly - Romance and Roses collection - Nitwits

Small roses on sentiment tag - Impression Obsession Dies - DIE042 M

X-cut corner small corner rounder punch

Large Rose and teal ribbon from stash

White ribbon and pink pearls - Meiflower

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Whooo gives a hoot!

I recently did a magazine commission for Complete Cardmaking using a fab kit from Kraftyhands called What a Hoot! If you haven't guessed it already, the kit was all about owls. On the free CD that comes with the magazine you get 10 different coloured owl shaped cards with decoupage, a collection of owl toppers and some papers. The magazine came out a few weeks ago, but I have only just managed to get around to showing you some of my featured creations.

The first two cards are made using the Owl shaped cards with matching decoupage, I decided to do a female and male version.

I gave the boy owl a little waistcoat using the decoupage tummy layer as a template and cutting it from one of the papers in the collection, I added a ribbon dickie bow and if you look very carefully you can also just see a little matching handkerchief sticking out of his waistcoat pocket.

The girl owl has a little lacy top made from a doily and decorated with pearls and a pretty organza bow topped with a satin rosebud trio, from Meiflower.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

First birthday card

I'm back!, we had a lovely holiday, the accommodation was perfect with all the facilities we needed for Meg, and the hot tub was pure heaven, I think I was in it nearly every night!

While on holiday we travelled over to Yorkshire and met up with my lovely blogging buddy Christine, it was such a joy to finally meet up and we chatted for England, the time just flew by, our poor husbands and Meg barely got a word in LOL!

Meg is off to respite this Friday, which is also my birthday, in the evening we are heading into Liverpool town centre to see my Grandson Will as the Mad Hatter, he's part of the Huyton Children's theatre group and they are performing Alice in Wonderland as part of the Liverpool Light Nights event, then Eric and I are going to Wales for a few days on Saturday for a proper break, as although we have a lovely holiday with Meg we still have all her needs to take care of so when she is in respite we can have a lovely relaxed break.

I haven't had chance to get back into my card making properly since we got back but I am hoping to get some work done this week before we go away again at the weekend. I do have some cards made that haven't yet been blogged, including some magazine work, so at least there is something to put on the blog.

This card was a last minute request from my sister-in-laws friend, so for quickness I printed off the decoupage and papers from the Bebunni Baby Collection CD from Crafters Companion.

Bebunni Baby Papercrafting CD rom - Crafters Companion

Crispy Ribbon

Organza ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Lace

Today is the start of the latest challenge over at The Paper Shelter and this time our theme is

Lace

There are great prizes up for grabs! If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you will win three digis of your choice.

Digital stamp - I Love You Baby - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Life's Little Lemons - Nitwits 

Lifestyle doily circle die

Cheery Lynn B175 Lace Corner Deco J

X-cut border punch - Sparklers

Ribbon, stick on gems and diamanté ribbon slider - Meiflower

Lace - Stash

Don't forget to pop over to The Paper Shelter challenge blog and check out the fabulous creations from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Birthday Bash

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to have my card chosen as the winner of the Humour challenge over at My Sheri Crafts challenge blog, the prize was a GDT spot for this weeks challenge.

The theme of the challenge is

Birthday Bash - Create a birthday card and coordinating envelope

I made a card and matching boxelope, as the die-cut flowers made my card too thick to go into an ordinary envelope, anyone who knows me well will also notice that I have used my most favourite colour combo too.

Digital stamp - Teen Fairy Pia - Mo Manning

Papers - Birds of a Feather - Crazy 4 Monograms

Die-namics Upsy Daisy die

X-cut large corner rounder

X-Cut scalloped border punch

Joanna Sheen signature die - Leafy Twist

Ribbon, gems, diamanté ribbon slider - Meiflower

Make sure to pop over to My Sheri Crafts challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the DT, and play along with the challenge for your chance to win a GDT spot.

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Time for....

...a new challenge over at Paper Creator and this time around our theme is

Animals

so show us your cards and creations containing animals and be in with a chance of winning a £10 gift certificate to spend in store.

I am off on my holibobs today for the next week, we are off to a little holiday complex that has all the adaptations we need for Meg, it's only just over an hour away from home, but we are in the perfect place to easily visit the Lake District and Yorkshire. Fingers crossed that the weather is good because we have a hot tub and I'm hoping to make sure it gets plenty of use, Meg will be able to use it too, as it has a hoist to get her in and out.

Kitty triple over the edge card kit - Paper Creator

EK Success Paw prints border punch

Glossy accents- eyes, nose and bell on collar

Ribbon, gems and gold jingle bell - Meiflower

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous creations from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx