Hedgehogs and heartaches

Hello ...

Well the heat here has caused me sleepless nights ... but more than that my husband's cousin ... who you may remember from previous posts fell and broke her hip in April has been hospitalised once again after only being released into a nursing home a few days ago.

Having spent the last 3 months in 2 different hospitals - social workers, contrary to our opinion, decided that she was fit to go back to her own home this coming week but things have taken a turn for the worse ...

 Yesterday we were informed that she had  fallen in the nursing home but was 'fine' ... an hour later she was rushed into hospital ...

At 4am this morning we were called out to the hospital ... It's not looking good at all and we are having a little respite before going back to face whatever will be ...

So what's a girl to do? Breathe deeply ... trying to dispel the frustration and anger brought about by those who would not listen ... stay calm and stay strong ... and fold book pages ...

This little guy cheers me up ... Just an old book with a simple fold

I had a notion that I could write down my words of anger and frustration onto little cards and put them here ... instead of keeping them inside

Perhaps I will ...

.. after all it's a prickly situation

Time for some tea I think ...

Till soon 

~ Ros ~

Papercraft Star A Decorated Tray and a little Tutorial

Hello!

My we are having lovely weather ... what a difference to be working with the doors and windows open and the sun filtering through ...

Today is a brand new Photo Inspiration challenge at Papercraft Star

There's so much to choose from in this photo ... Beautiful colours and just look at the piano covered in foliage ...

The hydrangeas jumped out at me here and a light bulb went on ... See, I have this pretty tray which got damaged

So it was time to play with my digital images and see what I could do ... Here's what I ended up with

Now doesn't that look better? A close up before I give you an idea of how I did this

I use an iMac computer ... it's my best friend ... so the program I use when working with digitals is Print Shop ...

I started here with a digital paper by Erica Coombs which looked like this

... Until I lightened it in Print Shop so that it looked something like this

Then I took this image from The Graphics Fairy

 and changed it to a transparency (using Adobe Photoshop Elements) and saved it as a png file ... 

Once saved I could open it in Print shop and change the colour to get more of a blue shade as in the Inspiration photo

... So it then looked like this

I could then layer this in different sizes and directions onto my paper ...

when I was happy with the design I then used Hero Arts digitals (Formes & letters) on top - you could of course stamp instead if you wanted but with digitals you can alter the sizes

As a final touch I found the definition of Hydrangea on the internet written in French

Once I was completely happy I just printed the image on ordinary copy paper and used Mod Podge to adhere it to my tray and added a few coats of clear lacquer to protect it 

So thanks to this challenge I now have a pretty 'new' tray ...

I hope you will be inspired as I was to join us this week ... please hop over to the blog to check out the creations from the rest of the DT 

Thanks for stopping by ... keep safe

~ Ros ~

Postcards from Paris ... City Crafter

Good morning ...

I am hosting today at City Crafter Challenge and you all know I love to dress things up and alter something simple to make it pretty ... so my challenge this week is 

"Dress It Up"

I want you to take something ordinary ... a book, a box a peg ... anything really ... and dress it up!

I had this simple box lid 

 Which I first covered in black (washi type) tape 

 Then I downloaded some pretty postcards from the French Sparrow ... (grateful thanks to Kerry) and also made some postcards myself using photos of my great Aunt and some digitals to create this ...

... Accordion album

It's made from folded black cardstock which is adhered into the box lid ... Each side has these lovely postcards plus a blank page to add your own photos or memorabilia ... 

Let me take you through Kerry's postcards

... and theses are the ones I made which I will add to Free Stuff at the top of this page in case you would like to use them

I love how an ordinary box lid can become something pretty ... 

... and I would love to see what you can dress up so please come and link up at City Crafter where the winner will have a Guest Design spot with us ...

This week's GD once again is Linda Breedlove ... I can't wait to see what beauties Linda and the rest of the team have created so I'm hopping over to the blog to take a look ... But not before I've linked up to

LESSology where the challenge is all about Packaging

Thanks so much for stopping by ...

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Cornwall

Hello ....

I've been on a little trip .... 

To Cornwall 

Chillin' with the locals

... dipping my toes in the sea ...

... seeing the weird and wonderful people

... with equally weird and wonderful stores

I've made some new friends ...

... and I've marvelled at the beauty of nature in every hedgerow

I've eaten plenty of fresh fruits

... and indulged in Cornish clotted cream ...

... I've marvelled at my surroundings, the peace and tranquility ...

where every corner reveals a new surprise

and I've photographed just about everything ...

At 5am I joined the birds to watch the sunrise on St Just

... and congregated with people from all around the globe to see the sun set at Land's End

I've caught up with my husbands "Cornwall family"who welcomed me with open hearts and open arms which meant more to me than they could ever know ... We forged new bonds ... and discovered our love of creativity in different styles ...

... and I've smiled ...

... a lot!

See you tomorrow for a new challenge at City Crafter and don't forget ... we would love to see your photos on Our Beautiful World blog where the theme this week is lace ...

Have a beautiful day ...

~ Ros ~

Lace ...

Hello ...

My post this morning is scheduled as I should be on my way back home today from Cornwall ... 

Hopefully I will have photos to share with you sometime but today it is week 3 at 

Our Beautiful World

Where our creator Kirsty has picked this week's prompt

 "Lace"

Like most of you I have lots of lace in my stash which I try to keep tidy but somehow I am never successful ... It always ends up a jumbled mess in my box ... Not a pretty photo ...
I love pretty lace lingerie ... but I'm not about to share that Lol!
So my photo this week?... Well, something precious to me

These are the little lace shoes worn by my son on his christening day ... which also happened to fall on Mother's Day in March 1983 ...

 They fit into the palm of my hand ... now he wears size 11's!

Something else I treasure ...

This beautiful lace top ... made in Paris for my Grandmother probably 60 or more years ago ...

I wore it many times until I could no longer squeeze into it ... It's tiny! What more can I say? Lol!

But it's beautiful ... and still in perfect condition ... things were made well in those days

What comes to your mind when you think of lace? At Our Beautiful World we love to see your photos so come and link up with us ....

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Packing my Bags

Hi there!

I hope you are having a good week so far ... Today starts a new photo inspiration challenge at Papercraft Star and here's the fabulous photo Jan has picked

I have a case exactly like that one on the top ... It belonged to my Grandmother so I dread to think how old it is - One day I am planning to get it out and paint it

 It's filled with memorabilia  I received both the day my son was born and on his first birthday ... I know ... He's 30 for goodness sake ...  I just can't help it ... the things I keep ... it's just that they are so special to me ...

So I pondered for about an hour with this photo ... I've seen some lovely suitcase cards on Pinterest but I wanted to go a little different and decided to make a passport cover

See ... I even got the suitcases on there

It has a plastic cover ... not that I had one so I improvised ...

I printed the Sage coloured (Pink Petticoat) digital paper onto white card stock to start  ... measured and cut the size needed to fold around my passport and added some stamping ... then using the paper above (DCWV World Traveller Collection) I cut and stitched various sayings and images onto the card.

This is the front

and this is the back ...

This gets tucked into a clear plastic cover that I made using the 2 clear CD covers you see in the above photo and then the passport gets tucked in too ... I hope I am explaining this properly

Here's the finished item - you can click to enlarge and you will see the clear cover

Phew! ... all that said ... I really hope you will come and play along with us this week at Papercraft Star ... We would LOVE to see your interpretation

As it happens I will be packing my bags today ... I'm off to cornwall tomorrow to visit with some of my husbands family ...

Don't forget to hop over to the blog to check out the projects from the rest of our design team ...

Have a beautiful day

~ Ros ~