I heart Birthday's.. especially my own..

Hey!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Yes, I am super vain I like to write blog posts about myself on my own blog on my birthday :) But surely that is the benefit of having your own blog?!

This year has pushed my patience and ability to feel the joy.. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Boscat in January, I have gained a serious amount of weight thanks to an undetected Thyroid issue, I have had a blood pressure issue meaning I can do barely any cardio AND then I broke my foot in May and 4 months later we discovered a deeper fracture that had happened at the same time, so I am back in the boot AND on crutches.

UGH!

These things have been taxing, to say the least, but I have realised that every grey cloud, comes with a sunny one..

We got Clint - he is amazing and we couldn't have dreamed of having such a wonderful, loving, gentle creature. The foot got fixed long enough for me to enjoy the trip to Ibiza for Hubby's 40th (and oh man did we enjoy that trip). The Thyroid issue has been tackled now and the tablets are fixing my blood pressure issue and once I am back on my two feet, I can deal with the journey that is required to shed the excess weight.

The reality of my situation is that I could be in a cast (UGH) and I could actually be waaay heavier, but they found a way to keep me out of my cast AND I found a way to keep going to the gym, despite the fact that I have been gaining weight no matter what I do!
I finally achieved my dream of being a deadlifter and reached my goal weight of 185lbs - YES that is right - me?! I can deadlift 185lbs. Every time I say it and watch the video of me doing it, I smile. I impressed myself.
I mean do you know what it takes to get your body to the point where you can do that? Trust me I did not. It takes a LOT of repetitive exercises that made me want to scream out in frustration and pain!

So remember - negativity doesn't help, maintain your joy at the little things in your life, no matter how hard that might seem sometimes, it's always better than feeling sorry for yourself.

I'm grateful, happy and feeling the joy for the life I have, no matter what the hardships, I still have Hubby, Clint, my family, and my friends and that makes everything A-Ok.

Cx

CASology: Dragonfly..

Hey,

Happy Friday to you!

I have the day off today, my Goddaughter Amy is here and we are going to be spending a day doing fun things, ahead of the first of my birthday weekend events!

I wanted to play along with the currently CASology challenge..

I actually thought I had a couple more Dragonfly stamps, but turns out I only have this teeny tiny one, which is by Pink Fresh Studio and is from their 'Itty Bitty Elements' set.

I love Dragonflies and one of the great things about living in NYC is that I get to see them flying around all Summer.

For some reason, I have had a hankering to play with a tag! So I used a Tim Holtz 'Mosaic' stencil with Spiced Marmelade and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxides to create the background on my tag,

I stamped, coloured and die-cut my little Dragonfly and after I figured out where I wanted him to sit, I stamped the sentiment onto the tag.

I then used foam tape to mount the finished tag onto my card blank.

Super happy with this, it came out just like I pictured it..that so rarely happens.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

Christmas Cards 2019: Whimsical Winter...

Hey,

I wanted to show you another set of fun Christmas cards I made two weeks ago.

This time slightly more elaborate..

Two weeks ago the girls (aka Craftgang) and I went to the Mama Elephant birthday bash at the Westbeth Center - major fangirling moment for me, as I got to meet Kathy Rac, my colouring heroine and the creator of the Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge.

I bought the fab Whimsical Winter set that I used for these cards at the event, it was on super bargain sale WITH THE DIES!!!

I was making Christmas cards over Labor Day and used texture paste through the Clearly Besotted 'Snow Day' stencil for a snow effect and as I had the paste and the stencil out, I made a few extra - smart.

So the backgrounds I used for these x3 cards were the extra ones. I really must remember to do this more often.

As I have mentioned before, I do the prep first and the fun stuff later - meh. To prep these cards, I stamped and die-cut the trees, the Deers, Squirrels and Robins first. Then I affixed my backgrounds to the card blanks.

I coloured all the stamped elements and started arranging them on the x3 cards, so I would know where to stamp the sentiment, before I affixed everything down.

I think they came out really well, there was a fair amount of prep, but the outcome was worth it.

Fun times ahead, it is my birthday on Saturday and my Goddaughter Amy arrives tonight to spend the weekend celebrating with me..it's going to be interesting with the crutches and the boot!

Cx

Botanical Borders..

Hey,

I bought a few new things in the Labor Day sales this year.

One of the things I bought is this awesome Botanical Borders set by Ink Blot Shop.

I love it, it is very versatile and I've made quite a few different things with it..

I liked the idea of leaving a border below the stamps, I had originally planned to put a strip of glittery washi tape along the bottom straight edge of the stamp, but I didn't like it when I tried it!

These cards were SO easy to make, I stamped and watercoloured the images and then I die-cut them using a stitched rectangle die and added the sentiments.

I used a new-ish watercolour block that I have - super cheap from Amazon, the colours are very vibrant.

Cx

Less is More: Love Your Face...

Hey,

Twofer post from me today...

I really like the current Less is More challenge -

I love typography, I think that has to do with the fact that I work in advertising / marketing. The creatives I work with do such awesome things with type.

I decided to use a fave technique of mine - freezer paper masking.

I die-cut the Lawn Fawn 'Scripty Love' die out of freezer paper - making sure that the shiny side would be face down.

Then I ironed it onto my cardstock - I know sounds weird, but it works - just put a cloth over the freezer paper and you won't scorch your cardstock.

Then I added a patch of watercolour over the top and dried it with a heat tool. The freezer paper then just lifts off to reveal the word  - like a resist.

Easy and fun. I added the 'your face' stamp - which I had to mask off, as it says 'Love Your Face'.

I die-cut the panel, affixed it to my card blank and added a teeny bit of bling to finish it all off.

Super simple and I have a recipient in mind.

Cx