Rhine River Cruise

This is the sketch this month on My Creative Sketches

And this is my take on the sketch using Pebbles 'Family Ties'.

This will be the title page for the pages from this holiday taken in 2010.

One Photo and Twenty Words

It's the 9th of the month so time to hook up with Abi from Creating Paper Dreams and post one photo with 20 words.

Only 26 sleeps till we meet again.  Looking forward to the madness, mayhem, crafting and lovely time we will have.

Week 3 - 52 cards challenge - Christmas Crackers

Week 3 of the 52 cards challenge was to use this sketch -

I had enjoyed using it so much for the general cards that I made 5 cards for the Christmas Cracker challenge.

Papers - Craft Creations
Cardstock - Bazill embossed with Sizzix folders
Dies - SU framelits, Rectangle Sizzix framelits
Stamps - Penny Black Teddy Santa and Merry Wishes (Pig)
Sentiments - Kaisercraft and HOTP

Happy 75th Birthday Dad!!!!

Today it is my Dad's 75th Birthday!!!

This is the card that I have made for him using a lovely digi-stamp from DigiStamp Boutique

The papers are by Crate Paper but I have no idea of what range as they came from my kit leftovers bag.  The mats are cut with Stampin' Up frame dies.  The stars are from Poundland and number 75 is AC chipboard Thickers coloured with a Sky Blue Promarker.

January 2014 - My Month in Numbers

I fell by the wayside at the end of last year with Julie Kirk's My Month in Numbers but am back to start afresh in 2014.

Usually January is a pretty quiet month for us but we have had a lot going on this month.

My parents are up and down to London at the moment as my Dad is being considered for a cochlear implant.  For as long as I can remember my Dad has always had a hearing problem - he was in the army in the 50s when ear protection on firing ranges was unheard of and when he left the army he worked for the water company, then the railway and then back to the water company - working with heavy noisy machinery with no ear protection.  He wears bilateral hearing aids but has no hearing at all in one ear and only a tiny fraction in his better ear.  The good news is that the hearing loss is now so profound that it makes him an ideal candidate for an implant.  So in January I had 1 trip to London to St Thomas' Hospital to take part in a family session with the implant team.  It was a fascinating afternoon, I learnt so much about how hearing actually works and all I can say is that it is a miracle, an absolute miracle - that little hairs in our inner ear depending which way they bend is translated into the spoken word and music by our brain.  We met a man who had had the operation 5 months ago and heard about how it has transformed his life.  It will not restore his hearing as we understand it, and he will have to relearn how to hear and interpret sounds into words, he may still not be able to listen to music.  BUT he should be able to have one to one conversations again, watch TV that doesn't have background music and get some independence back.  So fingers crossed that his appointment in February to give him the yay or nay to the op will be good news!!

My Daddy xxx

It was a busy month for eating out with 5 meals out - not good for the waistline but very enjoyable.

1 trip to the local pantomime - a very enjoyable evening watching the Polegate Drama group do Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates, they are a very talented bunch of performers.

Not so good was 2 trips to the dentist.

And crafting wise I have been busy this month and seem to have my enthusiasm for crafting back - my crafty totals for January are -

7 layouts
14 cards
15 Christmas cards

I usually have some countdowns going - sadly no booked Marillion gigs yet for this year (but a hint that there will be a short Christmas tour to be announced soon).  So my big countdown for Month in Numbers will the number of days to my BIG birthday this year - Mr P is taking me on a Baltic cruise and we will be in Copenhagen for my birthday.  They spoil you rotten when you have a birthday onboard so I am really looking forward to it - only 204 days to go!!!!!!!!!

Jack on Tour

The December/January sketch set in our Sketchy Scrappers Facebook group was this one chosen by Julia -

And this is my version of it using another heffalump photograph from our day spent at the Trafford Centre elephant hunting last September.  Jack was another favourite of ours and I had the perfect paper for him.  They are Do Crafts papers that came out in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee - sorry I can't remember the name of the range as they were leftovers from a class page and I had just enough to do this layout. The title is done with a Sizzix 12" alphabet die - Wingo Zingo and the stars were cut with framelit dies.

Week 3 - 52 cards challenge

Week 3 of the 52 cards challenge was to use this sketch.

I got a little bit carried away and made five cards!!!

 

Both stamps are by Penny Black and the sentiment stamp is Hero Arts apart from the last one which is Penny Black.  I used square nestability dies apart from the last one which is a SU framelit.  All the papers used are magazine freebies.