City Crafter "It's for the Birds"

Hello!

Charlene is hosting for us this week at City Crafter with her challenge 

It's For The Birds

use a Bird on your card or project

This is her lovely inspiration photo

Source

We never see birds like this in the UK I can tell you ... It's gorgeous!

Of course we do have lovebirds ... of the human variety ... 

This is a card for some friends of mine who celebrate over 40 years of marriage this month

Those cute little birds were a gift from my sweet blog friend Stella ... I'm so glad I had them in my stash

... they are perfect for this card

The vellum 'hello' was cut from a die from PTI but I printed the word 'lovebirds' on the computer and my leaf stamp is so old I can't even remember were it came from 

Our GD this week is the lovely Maria Patrick hop over to the CCCB Blog to see what Maria has created for us together with the lovely creations from the rest of our team

I hope you'll join us this week ...

Have a good day!

~ Ros ~

NBUS (New But Unused Schtuff))

Hi there!

I hope you are having a good start to the week ... Just for a change we have rain ... It never seems to stop ... there's a hint of a blue sky each time the clouds shift - Just teasing us I think

So.... I have a card I made for few of challenges ... 

The lovely and so very witty Darnell of djkardkreations not surprisingly recently hit 500+ followers and to celebrate she has organised a challenge ... A NBUS challenge

That stands for New But Unused Schtuff ... (It's Darnell talk)

Whilst Lee over at The Mod Squad has just celebrated her 25th Wedding Anniversary and the challenge there is to make an anniversary card

So here we go with a NBUS Anniversary card 

The NBUS is the stencil ... I ordered some a while back ... so eager to use them but by time they came I was on to something else ... Not that they took anytime at all to arrive ... But the creative world moves so fast ... I get the idea for one thing and something else appears ... So this brick stencil lay untouched

Actually this is also a NBUT (to me) card ... New but unused technique

The technique of mixing inks with the modelling paste ... I think I'm going to need a little practice with those stencils judging by the result ... but I had fun

As Lee celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss I stamped and embossed the sentiment is Silver

Paper Crafting Magic - (new to me too) has a stencil challenge going on so I'm going to link up there too

Ok ... that's me for today ... 

I hope you have a brilliant week!

'See' you tomorrow

~ Ros ~

Animals

Good morning!

How are you all? Ready for a new prompt word at Our Beautiful World?

This week Manuela has chosen our prompt and it's Animals

It's no secret that I am a huge animal lover ... and that I have cats ... I've always had cats ... they find me... homeless cats, sick cats, pregnant cats ... they all know where to come ... My son feels the same affection and empathy for animals ... probably even more than me  

So you'd think this prompt would be easy for me ... and having so many animal photos, in many ways it was ... but looking back on those animals I've lost was really really hard ...

 If I am being totally honest ... nothing is as wonderful as having a dog... especially one you have rescued

This is Holly ... so named because I rescued her from death row at the RSPCA one Christmas ... She was in a sorry state and they thought she couldn't be homed ... She had fear aggression, all her ribs were cracked from being kicked and she was painfully thin... Nothing that a whole lot of love couldn't and didn't fix in my opinion

The photo was taken years ago when we rented a place in Derbyshire and spent a week hiking around. Holly was terrified of horses but this guy followed her the whole length of that road behind the wall and eventually they got close... 

I lost Holly to cancer some years ago ... My heart still aches

Kelly was her predecessor ... another rescue dog who was a four legged angel ... These girls got me through some of the toughest times of my life.... They really rescued me

But now we just have cats ... If you've been following my blog you will know that recently one of them ... Gipsy ... returned after being away for almost 2 weeks

She's reclaimed her box and the house ... And constantly reminds us that we are her humans 

This photo sums her up ... 

She is so rude to little Ginger ... or should I say big Ginger ... he's gotten fat!

Now is that a sad face? 

He's become my shadow ... in many ways he reminds me of my dogs ... never far from my side, devoted and grateful for being taken in ... unlike Miss Gipsy who had us up from 4am once again ... Of all the cats needing a home my son picks that one! 

We're really looking forward to seeing your photos this week ... me especially Lol!

Please link them up to 

Our Beautiful World

Have a lovely day 

~ Ros ~

Life's A Circus

Hello there ... 

I know I've been a bit quite on my blog I've just been so busy with life ...

Gipsy got a clean bill of health and is fine but back to her routine of waking me around 5am ... I swear she has the loudest meow ever! And she's really giving the little ginger cat a hard time ... It's worse than a bunch of kids!

My DH has been in the hospital having heart checks and couldn't drive for 24 hours after ... or golf ... or lift anything ... Thankfully the results were good and he's out golfing again.
My son is also having blood tests today for a throat problem ...

If that hasn't been enough, my sweet friend Pat who helps me at the club has a granddaughter Faye ... Faye flew of to Wisconsin to join Summer Camp ... within a few days got sick and collapsed and is now sick in hospital in the USA... She's coming up for 19 and being so far away on her own is very distressing for her and the family ... Yep, it's all happening ...

Last night was Thursday Club where I do a craft class for my group of Special Needs adults ... Want to see what we did?

A circus ... quite appropriate for the way things have been ... but it's not just a tent

It's a mini exploding circus box - Once I had the design sorted and sized on my cameo I cut 24 of these ready for them to assemble

I took some pictures from the web to print for them to decorate the inside ... cut some straws for the centre and some 'grass' and cut triangles and strips to decorate the outside

They  We, had a fun albeit busy night ... Naturally they wanted to make one for Faye ... A photo of it has been sent to her phone in the hope of cheering her up 

As for me ... well, I'm meeting up with some GF's for lunch later this morning ... I really need a bit of 'me' time.

I hope you had a better week ... here's hoping the weekend is good ... though our weather forecast is not good here... sigh

Thanks for looking in on me ...

Take care

~ Ros ~

Magical Midnight

I knew you'd want to know ....

At midnight last night our little Gipsy arrived home ...

Her distinct howl woke me and there she was at the door! 

A little thinner and certainly very wary ... she's a mixture of happy and angry right now and she has a couple of ticks stuck in her ... Yuk! 

So not knowing where she's been, what's happened to her etc., she booked in with the vet later today.

Fingers crossed all goes well and one day she will realise that

" There's no place like home"

We're so appreciative of your prayers and kind concern ... she may be only a cat and not even an affectionate one ... But to my son she's the world!

Catch you later

~ Ros ~

City Crafter - Nautical

Good morning!

I'm hosting the challenge this week at City Crafter and I've chosen this lovely photo to inspire you

Source

I just love the nautical look so this week I am asking that you 

Create a card or project with a nautical theme ...

A male friend of ours is due to retire this week so my card is for him

I used a stamp from the New Day set by Precious Remembrance along with distress inks to create the background ... 2 other stamps sets were used here as well and a little paper piecing on the sails

The beads I've had forever and that broken piece of fence and I never discard any little pieces of string

Our Guest Designer this week is Jenny Martin of My Paper Epiphany Jenny was our winner in week 206 ... hop over and say hello!

My fellow DT members have more inspiration for you up on the blog ... And the winner will have a GD spot with us too so get nautical and come join us this week

Wishing you all a wonderful day

~ Ros ~