With Sympathy ...

Hello sweet friends ...

I don't seem to have stopped working lately ... my Hubby and I are going away shortly so I had quite a bit of stuff to clear before I go ... DT projects and the like ... and projects for Thursday Club ... I need the break I can tell you ... I have been worrying about my sweet brother who is going through a really rough time ... this has affected his health and sometimes the frustration of not being able to do anything is incredibly draining ... I am using all my teaching of Philosophy to get by ... But last week my brother's friend lost his son ... a tragedy in itself ... but I know it brought back sad memories for my brother who also lost his son ... I made this little card for his friend 

The funeral is today ... my thoughts are with them ...

My heart goes out to them ... and to my brother and SIL and to all of you who have suffered such tragedies

If you have a prayer to spare ... can you offer one for my brother please?

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Happy Mail

Hi There ... 

I have been trying all day to post this ... Blogger has been having an off day I think ... 

Yesterday I got some Happy Mail  ... you may remember that we had a challenge at CCCB for ATC's and anyone who entered could also join in the 'swap' ... we were all given a partner and we then send our ATC plus a vintage gift to our partner ... I was paired with Marion who is popularly known as "Tante Kathe" and Marion won a spotlight award for her beautiful ATC ... so I was thrilled to receive it in the post along with some lovely braid, vintage pictures of pretty ladies, pearls and a beautiful handmade card 

and I promise you ... that little ATC is quite stunning IRL ...

Thank you so much Marion ... I am very grateful ... and thanks to Kirsty for organising this 'Swap'


Have a lovely evening ... 


~ Ros ~

City Crafter Challenge ...week 63

Hello and Good Morning to you all ...

Today I am hosting the challenge at City Crafter and I've set a sketch challenge this week ... I am still quite new to doing sketches ... but if you hop over to CCCB you will see that the DT had no trouble at all coming up with beautiful projects ... and our Guest Designer Julie Tucker-Wolek created two beautiful projects ... This is the sketch ...

I chose to flip it and make a sort of buckle card ... sans the buckle!

This is how it opens ...

and the inside ...

I made this for a friends birthday ...

Are you going to join us this week? ... I hope so ... Pixie Dust are kindly sponsoring us again ... and their goods are beautiful and just in case you are worried about the postage ... from someone who lives in the UK I can promise you that the postage is really reasonable ...

Now hop over and take a look at the lovely projects from the DT and our GD ... you will be amazed!

Thanks for stopping by ... have a lovely day

~ Ros ~

Jingle Belles Card 26 ...

Hello to you ... 

It is a beautiful hot ... yes hot! Sunday here and I intend to spend time in my craft room ... 

I am going away in a couple of weeks for a very much needed break ... so I have a lot to do before then ...

right now I have just finished my card for Jingle Belles Rock week 26 ... this week the theme is "Lonely This Christmas ... " which basically means that we are to make something to go with our card ... so it won't be lonely ... this can be a tag ... a gift bag ... a box ... anything really ... and Jingle Belles has also teamed up with Order of the Opus Gluei  for this challenge so if you are doing the challenge ... don't forget to link up to both blogs 

Here's my card .....

Quite simple really ... and I made a couple of tags to go with it ...

The paper is digital from DHD and though it doesn't look it ... it is a lovely soft aqua .. and I used it on card number 9 Here ... but I guess the lighting today is making it difficult to photograph ...

Now I really need to get some DT work done ... have a lovely day sweet friends and thank you for stopping by and leaving such lovely comments ... I am very grateful

Till soon 

~ Ros ~

Play Date Challenge

Hi everyone ...

How is your Friday? ... I confess I am really tired ... and glad that this week is over ... 

I needed to create something today ... it always makes me feel better when I do ...

So I did a card for the challenge over at The Play Date Cafe ... it has been so long since I had time to enter one of their challenges ... though I look in every week ... This week the lovely Stef is Guest Designer and the photo inspiration is gorgeous ... I love it ...

I particularly like the worn look to the slate blue oars ... (I think that's what they are) this was my inspiration and my card is a little different from my usual ones ... 

see what I mean ... I wanted something clean but with a bit of texture ... and I searched my whole supplies to find the slate blue ... and ended up cutting a strip from a patterned paper to adhere to the grey ... it was just the right shade ... I had a little distressed piece of slate blue string and netting too

... then I found the button and the tiny envelope ... so I cut a heart from corrugated card and distressed that ... but the little seagull was the star ... he came from an old picture frame that I bought on holiday once ...

what do you think? 

Now I'm going to relax for the rest of the evening ... Have a lovely weekend and thanks for stopping 

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Another gift ...

Hi there

Ok ... so assuming Blogger will behave and allow me to upload ... I have one more notebook to share with you ... this time made for a dear friend who loves her garden and celebrated her birthday this week ...

I paired it to go with this card ...

How I love making these ... I don't plan how it is going to look ... I just play around with colours and bits and bobs ... I love these Bella Narratives with the butterfly ... they were a gift from sweet Lynnda  on our first swap at CCCB ...

The flower is from my stash and I cut some felt hearts .. punched some leaves and added some of my canvas cut with SB ...

Inside I used a Maya Road envelope ... just added some white ink and a few gardening related scraps ... and a stamp 

Popped a few seed packets in there too ...

No ribbons or bows needed for this one ... and just a peek at the back ...

Thank you Blogger! ... I had a feeling I would be struggling with this post ... my day started rather badly 

... 4am the cat began to cry  (did I tell you her family took off on holiday last week ... so she seems to be a permanent fixture here?) ... I came down to see if she wanted to go out ... no! ... back to bed ... meowing again ... ok ... maybe some food will settle her ... feed her ... back to bed again ... meowing starts again .. even louder ... this time no asking her ... just tell her she IS going out ... back to bed ... but all this running up and down stairs ... I need to go to the bathroom ... it's dark ... crash bang ... toilet seat falls off!!**!! leave it ... leave it ... go back to bed ... trying to ignore the dawn chorus ... fall back to sleep maybe an hour later ... wake up to phone ringing ... Now yesterday I was doing some online banking and it took almost 2 hours and a long phone call due to 'improvements in security" ... to finally transfer funds ... and the phone call this morning was an automated call to see if I was indeed the person who transferred these funds!!**!! I had to key in all sorts of answers ... heck I could barely remember my own name by this time ... and what was that in the background? ... the cat meowing outside my window. So I give in ... get up and make a nice cup of tea ... let the cat in ... See,  I am not a morning person at all ... I like peace and quiet .. no questions ... no noise no fuss ... and tea ...  followed by a coffee before I am totally able to take on the world ... and then the phone rings again ... before I have even had my tea ... ARGH!! someone wanting to speak to my hubby ... who is in blissful slumber ... I say I will take their number and he can call them back ... no pen ... fumble around .. phone falls to the floor ... caller is rather disgruntled at all this ... Duh! ... and you guessed it ... the cat continued to meow ... but the "lets play" kind of meow ... No my day didn't start too well at all ... 

Hope yours is better 

Till soon

~ Ros ~