Less is More #56

Phew! I thought I`d never get here. I`ve spent a lot of time with the grand kids and away from the PC so this is the first time I`ve had much chance to post anything.
It`s recipe week at Less is More and we are asked " DON`T SCRAP IT" which means we are to make a card using all those little snippets and scraps that we hoard away. I have loads and do use them regularly (although the pile never seems to go down) so this challenge is right up my street.
I also have some serious fundraising to do soon so I took advantage and got carried away.

The card bases are made from A4 sheets cut to size but everything else is from my scrap boxes.
I`ve used Martha Stewart  and Fiskars punches along the bottom of the card and the sentiments are Flourishes Tag Lines and Papertrey Inc.

My gorgeous little Ruby is coming home today!
She had her chemo on friday and the doctor wanted to keep her in over the weekend to see how she reacted to it and apart from not eating much and sleeping alot on saturday and sunday she was fine. Yesterday her mum ( Cheryl) said that she was back to her cheeky self, eating crumpets like they were going out of fashion and was playing in the play room. Ruby has to go back to LGI every monday for the next 5 weeks for more chemo and then, if all goes well, they will operate to remove the tumour and the kidney.
I know there`s a long way to go but I`m feeling really positive now. Her op is scheduled for Easter week and there`s something in my head about new beginnings and all that.
Cheryl has asked me to say a massive thank you to you all for your well wishes, I`m sure it says alot about the power of positive thought. We both got quite emotional reading all the comments and both agree that you lot are the best.
Both Cheryl and Ruby`s dad Darren can`t praise the staff at Leeds General Infirmary highly enough, from the consultants to the cleaners they are fantastic but the biggest accolade has to go to the charity Candlelighters.
Candlelighters is a Yorkshire based charity that provides accomodation and food for the parents of seriously ill children which enables them to stay close to their children while in hospital among many other things. They rely solely on donations which is why I have some serious fundraising to do. Cheryl is a Teaching assistant at the school that the two eldest grand children attended and where Ruby goes to nursery. There is also a little boy from Cheryls class in LGI with Leukemia so we are hoping that the school will become involved with any fundraising but we are bouncing ideas about now and when everything settles down abit we`ll do something. Naturally I`ll be making cards to sell but Cheryl has been thinking about doing something quite big and daring...more about that later.
In the meantime my son Alan has set up a page on the Just Giving site Ruby`s Appeal.
I understand that this won`t mean much to many of you but if you are living in Yorkshire and would like to make a donation it would be gratefully recieved, or just take a look at the site and see what other charities are doing to raise funds.
Once again I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your kind thoughts.

Ruby update.

Just a quick update to let you know how it`s going.

Ruby had her biopsy today. We wont get the results until thursday but the doctors are fairly certain that  she has a Wilms Tumour. This is a common kidney cancer in children and is relatively easy to treat. Unfortunately the cancer has spread to her stomach and lungs but the doctors are still confident that with Chemotherapy she will be ok.
The Chemo should start on friday and they will keep her in hospital for another week to see how she fairs with it, then hopefully she can go home and just go up to Leeds once a week for her chemo. Leeds General have been amazing. They have sorted out an apartment so the whole family can stay together for a while which will be wonderful.
I`ll post any more news as I get it

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Less is More #55

Good Afternoon All!
First I`d like to apologise for being MiA for most of last week. I`m really sorry if I didn`t get around you all to comment but I`ll explain why later.
This week is theme week at Less is More and we are asked to use Punches or Dies
 A nice easy one after last weeks struggle with stripes. Although for the life of me I can`t understand why I found it so difficult. I suppose that`s why it`s called a challenge.

I`ve used punches and dies on my card.
I used a MS punch along the bottom of the card.
The leaf is a Marianne Designs Die and the flowers are made from a Spellbinders scalloped circle die ( a joint effort between me and Grandaughter Charlotte). The butterfly is another MS punch.
The sentiment is by Flourishes Tag Lines.

We had some devastating news on Tuesday. My beautiful 3 yr old Grandaughter, Ruby was taken into hospital after her Mum found blood in her urine. After tests and scans it was discovered that she has a tumour on her kidney. She was transfered to Leeds General on wednesday which makes it more difficult to cope with as it`s so far away but my daughter is staying there with her and this week end we have the other two to stay so dad can stay too.
Ruby is having a biopsy on monday or tuesday and then hopefully we`ll know a little bit more about what treatment she`ll need. As you can imagine my head is all over the place at the moment but I did find making my card today quite therapeutic especially as it involved Charlotte and helped to keep her mind occupied.
Please forgive me if I don`t get around you all again but I`ll do my best.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Less is More #54

Good afternoon all!
I couldn`t wait to check what the girls had in store for us this week over at Less is More on saturday morning.Then I found it was STRIPES. Well yeah...ok...stripes. I use stripes all the time on cards, usually not my CAS ones and difinitely not on one layer ones which is the theme this week.I wracked my brains all day saturday, I searched through my stamp stash...one stripey stamp. Honestly, this weeks challenge is almost as bad as acetate but how hard can it be to come up with a stripey card?
Very, if you`re me.
My first effort using my one and only stripey stamp is insipid and bland and I don`t like it at all. Maybe if I`d used a stronger colour but I don`t think so.

The stamp is from Artemio Circles set stamped in Versacolor Marigold. The sentiment is Papertrey stamped in Versafine Onyx black.
After faffing about for what seemed like hours I cheated with the second one,

and made it on the computer using 4 different shades of blue.
I did have a brilliant idea and made a card using the Candy Cane EF but when I tried to colour some of the thicker striped with a promarker, the ink bled into the card and looked pants.
I swear I`m keeping our recycling industry going single handed the amount of card I throw in the blue bin lately lol.

Before I go I`d like to say a very warm welcome to my two new followers. Thank you for looking at my little blog.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Spring Colours

Hello All!
We are having snowfall again as I type this. Hopefully it won`t last because I`m sick of it already lol.The forecast isn`t very good though so it looks like another slip slide to work tomorrow. Roll on spring.
With the nasty weather we`re all having my thoughts are turning to warmer times and I felt in the need for some spring like colours.Luckily it`s a work colleagues birthday on Sunday so I made her a card.

A nice simple but pretty one this time. My first thought was to bring out what`s left of my Papermania Blueberry Hill pad but on the off chance I checked in my snippet box and found just what I wanted.
I haven`t used an image as I wanted the DP to do the talking, it`s so gorgeous. A piece of white trim to cover the join in DP`s, a ribbon and bow and a computer generated sentiment on a tag and thats it. I`ve used a piece of silver cord that I got with some shop bought christmas tags to tie the tag onto the bow to finish.
I`m going to enter this into Pixie`s crafty snippets challenge #6. It`s the first time I`ve joined in with the snippet challenge since Di took over from Jules but hopefully I`ll be able to join in a bit more in the future. Still got lots of pesky snippets to use up.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Less is More wk 53

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday Simply Less is More
Happy birthday to you

Just incase you haven`t guessed by now it is Less is More 1st birthday. A year ago Chrissie and Mandi started the ball rolling with a colour challenge and here we are with another colour challenge, this time we have,
                                                              Aqua

Although I love the colour Aqua,it isn`t one that I`d choose as a stand alone colour. It`s a bit wishy washy for me. I like bright, in your face colours on their own. I also don`t own any aqua card, in fact the only thing I have that is aqua is ribbon. I really need to do some serious craft shopping lol.
So, onto my cards. The first one I`ve used a Heidi Swapp stamp called Swirl stamped in Mint green Versacolor.
The sentiment is by Layers of Color Happy Wishes set, stamped in Versafine Black. I`ve added a ribbon and bow and a clear heart gem ( to cover a smudge).
For my second card I`ve used Papertrey fancy Flourishes stamped in Mint.
I made a flower using Pink Petticoat Daisy DP and a brad.
I`ve added some clear gems to the flourishes to give them a bit of va va voom `cos I think it looks a bit washed out. The sentiment is by Flourishes Tag Lines.

Well the snow started at tea time last night and just kept coming. I woke this morning to 4" of the horrible white stuff. Looked really pretty first thing but now I just want it gone. I`m sure I should have been born in warmer climes lol. I hope you are all coping with the weather and keeping warm.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Less is More # 52

Hello All!
I hope I find you well. I`d like to say a big welcome to my new followers, thank you for choosing my little blog to follow. I`m extemely grateful.
I`m very late again with my entry to Less is More and as I`ve joined in  every week since week 1, I certainly wasn`t going to miss the last week of the first year with Mandi and Chrissie. It`s strange how this challenge seems to have taken over so many of our lives but I know I speak for many of us when I say how much we have learned and grown in the last year.
Here`s to many more to come...

This week we have a sketch to follow.

We would like the card to be

• rectangular
• in landscape orientation
• with the band remaining in a vertical position 

As it's a very simple sketch,  we would like it to remain as is without any rotation of either the card or the vertical band.

So, without further ado, here is my card,

A really simple card as I just haven`t had the time to get inky.

A6 white card. Kraft card (looks a bit ginger in the pic) punched with MS Trellis punch and raised on tiny foam pads cut in half.

Red roses from local haberdashery store. 

Sentiment by Crafty Individuals stamped in Versa fine Onyx Black

Well all the decorating is finally finished. Every stick of furniture has been scrubbed, wiped or polished to within an inch of it`s life and I`m pleased as punch with the end result.
Thank you all for your comments regarding my families failure to notice all my hard work. I have a theory.
I thought my living room was disgustingly awful...maybe it wasn`t quite as bad as I`d thought.
On the other hand it could be that my decorating skills are not as good as I thought and it still looks disgustingly awful. I`m sure they`re all far too polite to tell me anyway lol.


Don`t forget to check this months challenge at St Lukes Charity Card Challenge 
it`s a fabulous one this month that I`m sure you will all love.


Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Amour

Good Morning All!
I hope I find you well and not suffering too much in this miserable february weather.
It`s the 1st of the month and that can only mean one thing. A brand new challenge at St Lukes Charity Card Challenge.
This month we want                 Love and Lace
 Amour is the word this month- make a romantic card for a wedding, anniversary or birthday to the one you love. Add some lace for a romantic finish.

Here is my card to give you some inspiration,

For my card I used a pale peachy pearlescent card cut to make a 6x6 square.
The image and the DP are both from Joanna Sheen Victorian Romance cd.
I cut the image out and matted it onto some peach card cut with my fancy scissors (not used those for years).
I added some cream lace and a border (in peach) punched with a Martha Stewart doily punch, then overlaid that with some peach ribbon.
I made a double loop bow, threaded some gold cord through a button, tied it in a bow and added that to the ribbon bow.
I made some stick pins with some silver beading wire and added some pearl beads from my stash and finished the whole thing off with some tiny clear gems on the border and in the solitaire ring

I hope you like it and it inspires you to join in the fun. Don`t forget that you can donate your card (or any other spare cards you may have) to raise funds for this worthy cause. The postal address in on the main blog.
And don`t forget to visit the rest of the design team and check out their fabulous makes.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx