Will be away for while #3

We share our happiness with each other

  and it becomes greater.

We share our troubles with each other

  and they become smaller.

We share one another's griefs and burdens

  and their weight becomes possible to bear.

I read this somewhere , some time ago , and it has come to mind  often of late .

Hello every one , welcome to my room once more . Hope that you are all blessed with good fortune .

I certainly have been . I have a " pantry " full of warm wishes and hugs to last and last as they don't seem to have an expiry date at all.

Progress for Doug is slow but small achievements are noticed every day . I am being supported by family and friends in style.  Last night when I arrived home at 7 pm,  a  group of my papercraft ladies turned up with a meal fit for a queen . Even the washing up after was tended to !

Thank you Sandy , Fran , Jane and Wilhelmina.

As always , life goes on and I have a birthday card to make for a lovely member of our family , hope she likes it . My usual quick and simple style .

All SU products . DSP is from Blueberry Crisp pack. Centre tag is from set Just Believe and sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments .
                                              I hope that I can catch up soon with all your lovely work . Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers . Cheers for now , Shirley-Anne.

Will be away for a while #2

Hello everyone . Calling in tonight to give you all an update . Doug has improved wonderfully .
Still has trouble staying awake , swallowing and is still very weak on his left side but thankfully his humour is intack. He often comes out with funny one liners when answering some of the questions from staff.
Michelle went back home this morning and I miss her already . Thank you Michelle for the cooking , cleaning ironing and all your wonderful support . THANK YOU TOO  to her Hubby , Andrew , for supporting her by  looking after the homefront there,  so that she could make it here to be with us . 
  I cannot believe all the love and prayers , well wishes and offers of help that Michelle and I have had through emails,  cards , and  on our respective blogs .
I have shed a few tears I will admit but I have also been so uplifted , feel so much stronger because of this  extending hand of friendship.
So thank you all .
I am going to try to visit some of you before closing off . Please forgive me if I dont get to you  all , I will try again tomorrow night .
       Thank you for calling in ,         Hugs !
Catch you again soon .  Cheers for now  Shirley-Anne

will be away for a while

Just a quick post to let you, my new and precious friends in blogland , that I may be missing for a few days. It has been a rough day . Doug had a stroke this morning and is now in Hospital . It is a critical time now and I need to be concentrating on his needs for now .
If I can I will come here and spend some time with you at night  but card making will be unpredictable .

Joy

Hello and welcome to my room . Hope that you are not bored yet with all these Christmas cards because there is one more then I promise I will give you a break! I am showcasing some SU  Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper to my Sunday ladies and I am also adding to my ' 50 for the 1st of December'  challenge .

Sentiment and stockings are from set , A Holly Jolly Christmas. Real Red ribbon is clipped with a brad , a
Fire Circle  rhinestone.
Took a little longer to make . There was a little cutting out as the stockings are 3D, and a little punching for the sentiment .
Hope that you like it . Stay safe , stay well.
Catch you again soon , cheers for now Shirley-Anne.

Merry Christmas

Hello , welcome to my room . Hope that you are having a good week and to  those of you who are not feeling so well or are just not as happy as you would like to be right now, then you are especially welcome. Sometimes losing yourself in blogland is just the right medicine. I'd love it if you would browse through my blog and then go on to all the lovely blogs I have listed as ones I follow. Hopfully that will cheer you up no end .
My card today is another in my style of clean and simply quick.
A Christmas card for my  Sunday  ladies .

Here I have used SU cardstock ,inks, ribbon  and  the standard wheel Soft Holly . My first use of the Scallop Trim Border Punch was pleasing . Love that border and will have to try and use it more ,as I think it is quite decorative . The sentiment is from set Christmas Greetings.

 Then I made a punitive attempt to use something from my stash of " have not used for ages " items . In this case it was a gold sticker border peel off which I placed at base of card.  

Thank you for calling in to see me.  I do love you all .

Catch you again soon , cheers for now Shirley-Anne.

Traditional Christmas colours

Hi there , welcome to my room . Hope that you all have had a fantastic day . Came here  to catch up on commenting and blog browsing but have just finished this card so will add it in post . Oh,  before I forget AGAIN ....Thank you to those of you who have decided to follow my blog especially to the newest , Rurry. I went to see if you had a blog for me to visit but could not find you . So here is my email if you would like to let me know a bit about you  shirlb1@bigpond.com .

All with SU products , this is a 10 minute card.  Another for my tally , 41, I think . Will check later . Off to visit some amazing artists .
Catch you again soon , cheers for now , Shirley-Anne.

Dance the night away.

Hello there , what a glorious day we had in Adelaide today ..30 degrees ! Back to showers tomorrow afternoon maybe , can you believe that ?  Any way welcome to my room . Hope that you are all well.
Before I post todays card I want to give a plug to a new on line store .
http://bizzybecsstore.blogspot.com/
Here you will find some Welcome Candy  that we all have a chance to win .

Now to my card .
I needed a card for a young lady just out of teens . Hope she likes this one .
Did not have disco ball image  so had to make do with a streamer like border.

Here I began with a dark blue card base and Whisper White for embossing with  the Journaling Card Folder. Using the stampa ma jig for all the panels I stamped the streamers from Hero Arts set of 5 borders.
Then the dancers , Stamp-It and finally the greeting from Kaiserstamp. I sponged some Blushing Bride SU ,  around dancers .
 Finally adhering to card front .
Hope you enjoyed your visit , thank you for calling in .
Catch you again soon , cheers for now Shirley-Anne

Enjoy your day

Hello ,welcome to my room . Hope that you are all enjoying your day ,wherever you are  and whatever you are doing.
Sandra    recently sent me a blog award , thank you again Sandra

And I would like to share it with Curt. Now this is a blog that is well worth a visit . It is always packed with wonderful photos. Photos which draw you into his life,  his loves and his enviroment. That is apart from his amazing creations. Thank you for being you Curt, and for sharing so much of yourself.

Now onto my card for today which will be for workshop on Tuesday.

I want to show how to ground your image . That is just adding a little shading at base of image .

Now I think I need a lot more practice but I hope it inspires my ladies to try the technique too.

Cant wait for Michelle to get here to show me how to use my camera outside to take pics . Sorry about aweful photo . Perhaps Curt would share tips?
But hopefully you do get the idea . After I  had stamped images from set I won recently from annabelle stamps , Branch Out,  I used my watercolour pencils to shade under and connecting  each plant . Then with my aqua pen I " swiped  " over pencil colour to spread it to blend  into white card. Not quite as I have seen on better crafter's blogs , but I will practice . Got to start somewhere ..right?
All paper, ink  and cardstock is SU.
Catch you again soon , cheers Shirley-Anne

Morning Tea

Hello , hope you are having a happy day . Welcome to my room . This is my 201 st posting , since beginning here in late 2009.
I love sharing my ordinary creations , am appreciative of all the comments I receive and am always inspired by other bloggers.
This effort today is a template for what I want to do for the friends I have in my group of units later in December. 

This mug image is a single stamp  from "Judith" T37. I cut a piece of card 10 cm x 18cm and folded in to 10x 9cm  card . I placed the image as close to the fold as possible .I inked in Soft Suede , stamped onto the   Textured cardstock SU . I cut out the image , even the handle was easy .
I then decorated the bottom of the mug with flowers and leaves from set Peruvian Lily SFL 34003
This one happens to have intial A diecut  in Whisper White , then swiped with Rose Red ink . The beverage has been created with Soft Suede and White Pen

So you see when  card is opened I can decorate to suit .
Unusual do you think? Might give my friends a laugh.
Hope you like the idea and my card .
Catch you again soon , cheers for now , Shirley-Anne.

Flowers

Hello ,old friends and new. Hope that you are all well and have  had some craft time lately.
Welcome to my room and hopefully  you see something that you think  makes your visit worth while .
Todays card is extremely simple . I am entering it into Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog,  Challenge 12, Flowers.

Card base is SU River Rock. Whisper White has the  images . ink , Rose Red. Stamps are , Stampendous Ruffled Bloom Set, and SU Vintage Vogue, and Expressions.

I write quite a few  short letters [ the old fashion kind ] and I like to use cards like these .

I decorate the inside a little like this .

 I hope you like this card as it is my favourite style .

Catch you again soon , cheers for now , Shirley-Anne.

Just for you

Hello , here we are again . Welcome to my room . Hope that you are all well .
Spring sprung away today here in Adelaide and it has been cold . Michelle has rearranged  to visit at the end of this month ....WHOOPIE!! so am hoping it will be a lot , lot warmer , her coming from Queensland and all.  Please can you all send positive thoughts to us hoping that nothing pops up again to delay our Daughter's flight. Thank you in anticipation .
Todays card still in Autumn tones . Have used more scraps of dsp . And I practiced using Copic colours.

All card stock and the DSP is SU.
The flowers are from Hero Arts and I use them a lot .  The sentiment is from Expressions . Both are inked in Soft Suede. The little craft safety pin was laying around...
I must be getting old as I am feeling so tired and it is only just after 10.15  so I had better get on with comments and blogging . Hope that you like todays creation .
Catch you again soon , cheers for now Shirley-Anne.

Blue Bird

Hello to all my visitors . Welcome to my room and thank you for popping in . Hope that all is well with you .
Happy news day here actually for two reasons .
1.. My son's partner, Rachael is a crafter , and we managed an hour or so of card making .
2.. I opened my email and found a surprise from Sandra. http://rosepetalcreations.blogspot.com/
        A pretty blog award . Thank you so much Sandra . I love it that you thought of me . I would love to share it around but not tonight  as will have to consider my choices.
 Todays card was using Brayering technique and paper piecing .

Friends 24/7 set used for paper piecing , Peach Parfait ink used for brayering onto White Gloss card.

I made a mask from scratch paper to form a frame around DSP before brayering .

The sentiment was from set, Elements of Style.

Flowers and pearls from stash .

Hope you like it as we had fun sharing this,  a common interest. Catch you again soon ,cheers for now .

You're on my mind

Hi there,  I am thrilled that you have taken the time to visit . Hope that you are well and managed to get some crafting into your day .
We have had a wonderful day , Doug and I . My son Sonny ,his new  partner and our two  grandsons are back  from visiting Michelle in Queensland . They spent today with us and will do again tomorrow . We all talked and talked , as you do when loved ones who live far away come to visit.
No card made today but I would like to share this one I made the same time as Warmest Wishes post 26th September.

Chocolate Chip card base here with pink  from DSP,  Patterns Stack  Subtles Collection and River Rock for image and sentiment . It too has been made with sympathy wishes in mind.

I tore  pink piece just a little smaller than card front and adhered it flat .

When I stamped the flower spray . from Kaisercraft, I cut around right hand side so that it would fit snugly into card corner overlapping pink layer when attached with foam 3D tape The sentiment from , Upsy Daisy, was punched out with SU 1 3/4"  Circle Punch and adhered to pink .

I added some rhinestones to finish .

A friend said to me , regarding this card , isn't the bright pink and the sudued  colour of image and sentiment at odds with each other ?. This was my rational . The darker colours represent,  to me,  the sadness we feel for their  loss but the pink is for the happy memories we hold dear.

Complicated arn't I?
Hope you like it . Catch you again soon , cheers for now , Shirley-Anne.

Celebrate You

Hello and welcome to my room . Hope that you are all well and have had a great day.
Only came into blog to check out blogs and leave comments but will show this little 5 minute card made tonight from " stuff on my desk" It's from off cuts and end of stickers and embellishments . The sentiment is from retired set , A Little Birthday Cheer

I embossed 3 lines on left as border and used dsp for tag for words.

Thats it, more scraps from stash gone .

Catch you all again soon , thanks for popping in , cheers Shirley-Anne.

Birthday celebrations

Hello there , welcome to my room . Hope that your weekend has been rich in memory making moments .
 You're just in time to see the card I have this minute finished . I have made this one to put away for Doug's birthday in December . YES I KNOW it's early , but I like to make a few cards  and have plenty  in reserve in case of..?? who knows what.
Doug loves trees and parks so when I bought this  SU set , Lovely as a Tree, I knew it was for him .

Dark blue card base is from stash . There is a Whisper White mat , then a Baja Breeze then DSP. The tag I made with one of the trees from the set and the sentiment from Upsy Daisy.

and the inside is as shown ...

I used DSP from the Patterns Stack Subtles Collection  for insert.
I stamped row of trees directly onto it at centre top,  in Creamy Caramel,   then again on Whisper White , which  this  I cut around  to use as base for pop up  and sponged  top edge with Brocade Blue . I then  stamped large tree in Handsome Hunter, cut it out and adhered to row of trees as part of  pop up.
    One day I will learn to take photos outside ...
Till then , I can only apologize for poor quality of pictures .
Well I am off now to catch up on my blogging and commenting .
Hope you like the card tonight , catch you again soon , cheers for now Shirley-Anne .

dream time

Hello , my friends . Hope that you are all enjoying your day/ evening. Thank you for calling in .
I happened to visit one of my favourite shops today . Vintage Decor on Magill Road in Adelaide .
"Vintage Decor" To Di for ...is on the business card . Di and Hubby are the most delightful people and they have some beautifully  awesome  and  amazing vintage  furnture , soft furnishings and a huge range of gift ideas . I am always inspired to make vintage style cards after I visit because of the nature of the place .
And so to todays card .

I began with a White Gloss card . I brayered over front with Peach Parfait ink . I then  randomly sponged green ink over that . Using Soft Suede I sponged the edges and dabbed some on front . All this to hopefully achieve a 'vintage'  background . Then in Soft Suede again I stamped En Francais on the front . And stamped 'dream '  from  an Inkadinkado  set , at top . The image stamped on DSP , Patterns Stack , Subtles Collection   from set , Every Moment SU , is coloured with  pencils . I cut around image roughly then  sponged edges with Soft Suede. I only added a flower with Rhinestone centre as embellishment .
Off now to search through my stamps  , vintage papers and embellishments to create more .
Thanks again for stopping by , catch you again soon , cheers for now Shirley-anne