Neon staplers. With bonus formulae!

OK this card kind of put me in a crafting block for a couple of days. I started off with the neon staplers and then got very, very stuck. So in the end I just toned it down with some Sahara Sand maths formulae & geometry figures. It's quite insane but I like it!

This is the perfect card for me to send myself. Not sure who else it would appeal to! I absolutely love Sahara Sand, and neon, and staplers, and maths formulae...

CAS Christmas

Well, last week I found out I was a CAS-ual Friday Favourite! I was very excited as it was the first time I'd ever entered that challenge. I've had another go this week, though I am not quite as pleased with my card...

The challenge was to use lime, aqua and navy. So I chose Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Midnight Muse DSP from the In-color 2011-2013 and 2012-2014 stacks. Although these stacks are quite a big investment, I can't tell you how handy it is to be able to pick out DSP in just the colour you need.

My original idea was to tessellate vellum snowflakes to give the illusion of hexagons but it was too tricky for me this evening - I am super tired. I think the day of "crying it out" might need to be on the horizon. Poor baba Leo.

Silly Olympics

Well, my crafting & posting has taken a back seat this weekend as I've been plotting & staging a Silly Olympic surprise party for my husband Stew's 31st Birthday! It was quite tough doing it all whilst feeling blue but I can relax and get myself right again now.

Here are a few pics!

The Union Jack!

Stew blowing out his candles

Jacob and baby Leo

Stew being pushed over in the Sack Race

Ready for the Egg and Spoon race

 We also enjoyed a Lego challenge, Welly Wanging and a cookout. Yum. A brilliant time was had by all, I think! I certainly enjoyed myself.

Seriously. More Christmas cards?

It seems like in Blogland at the moment, everyone is making Christmas cards in an effort to keep cool! It's genius. Or insane. One or the other!

When I saw this palette on Apron Strings Pinterest challenge #19 -

I immediately thought of traffic lights! Not helpful. But then I thought of street signs, street furniture etc. I'm not sure this was what Lori was thinking but hey, if we all thought the same, we'd live in a very boring world!

I second-generation stamped the background with my new "Sanded" background stamp (got it from the PIF threads on Splitcoast Stampers - check them out if you haven't already) in Basic Grey on Sahara Sand to get an asphalt-y look. Then I sponged the edges to make it look a bit more distressed. Then I grabbed some bits of ribbon (didn't have grey - no probs! Used cardstock) and scraps of paper in roughly the correct colour palette and voila. The sentiment was stamped onto vellum and embossed in silver. I am so pleased with this card.

If you receive this card from me at Christmas you must be very special indeed because I'm going to have a hard time parting with it!

Black dog

Winston Churchill was prone to bouts of depression, which he called his "black dog". Well, about 6 months after having Jacob (my eldest son) I was diagnosed with post-natal depression (for some reason it's referred to as post-partum depression here). I spent a long time battling it and was off work for quite some time. So the decision to increase the size of our family wasn't taken lightly, particularly with us being so far from our families & support networks.

Well, to cut a long story short, I've been slowing feeling worse and worse for the last three or four weeks. Because I know the warning signs and I am DETERMINED not to go back into the dreadful state I got in during 2008, I called the doctor on Wednesday. She has increased my dose of meds and is seeing me very soon for a review.

Anyway - serendipitously, look what Unity's Stamp of the Week club sent me this week:

How funny! Just when I'm going to need it...

So this goes out to all the people who are helping me to keep my chin up! Anything which gets me out of dwelling on stuff is a winner. So I have been stalking lots of blogs and calling lots of friends just to hear about the minutiae of their day. Cheers me up no end!

No more moaning in my next post, I promise!

Another one layer card!

I am getting quite into One Layer Cards. It is a total change in direction for me. But something about the more streamlined look appeals to me occasionally. This one is for Cas-ual Friday CFC62 - use a black card base.

A busy day today for us today. Jacob has been coughing quite a bit in the night, a very dry cough. He is absolutely fine in himself though, I blame being out in the rain all evening on Saturday watching a horse show! I took both boys shopping this morning which tired us all out. We needed to do various other jobs too for a secret project I have on the go... more details on Sunday/Monday. It is NOT FUN lugging Leo in his car seat anymore. He is TOO BIG. :D

Forgot to mention the HUMILIATION I suffered yesterday. Mad Bexx decided that Step class was a good idea. Blinking heck, it was bad. I have no spatial awareness, no coordination, cannot process instructions aurally and occasionally have to really think about which is my left and my right. So you can imagine how well I got on at Step. I eventually decided that "Just Keep Moving" would be my motto. I didn't fall off the step which I think is the only good thing that can be said about it. Not sure I will be returning to that one. I would imagine the instructor's heart would sink if I darkened her door again!

Big News!

Well, I just reworked my Stampin' Up online shop.... I have actually put some stuff on my calendar! Wow! There MIGHT just be a super duper event coming up throughout August... but you'd have to check on the site to find out what!

Here's a project I made for my elder son yesterday...

It's SUM - Stampin' Up Mostly!

Supplies - Old Olive and Early Espresso inks, Old Olive, Whisper White and Sahara Sand cardstock, retired Old Olive stripy ribbon, retired Star brad, car is from the set "Need for Speed", other stamps are from "Extreme Elements". Oh, and the dots on the letters are done with silver Dazzling Details.

Can you guess what his favourite colour is? :D