Some sad news about our Ruby

 

Hi everyone,

I have some very sad news about our Ruby.  Ruby had been doing so much better under the care of her new Vet and putting on weight and eating well and so much happier - but then suddenly she became very unwell.  She had vomited and her breathing the next day became very noisy and she had stopped eating and was very listless and unhappy.   We took her to the Vet and she stayed overnight with them.   They did an X-ray which (unexpectedly) showed a large inoperable tumour around her heart as well as pneumonia caused by aspirating ie: breathing into her lungs what she had vomited.  There was also cancer in her lungs.   

Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done and the kindest thing was to put her to sleep.   The Vet rang me to tell the bad news whilst my daughter was at school so after the school pick-up, we went to the Vet to take Ruby home for a couple of hours for lots of pats and cuddles before we took her back that evening to put her to rest.  The Vet was so kind and gentle and explained the X-rays so that our daughter could understand the situation and that we were out of options.  We nearly lost Ruby back in January because she was misdiagnosed so after seeing a new Vet with the right diagnosis, we were at least able to spend another 5 months with her and I am very grateful and thankful for the new Vet giving us that time.   

Ruby was so loved and such a big part of our family and was always wanting pats and cuddles.  The house seems so quiet and empty and we are heartbroken.  It is too soon to talk about getting another cat or kitten.  We need to heal and not feel like we are just replacing her.

Here is one of the last photos I took of Ruby just a week before she passed.  She was sitting in her favourite spot - the loungeroom window in the sun.  This is how I want to remember her - warm and happy and smiling.  

We miss you Ruby and will never forget you.  

Jocelyn 

Painted teddy bear ornament and a video of Ruby

Hi blogging friends

Please excuse my absence of blogging.  I became sick again during November (just when I thought I was almost back to being reasonably OK) so my cardmaking has been non-existent until just before Christmas.  I only made a couple of cards this year and will share them over the next week or so.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a teddy bear ornament that I painted for my brother and his family a while ago:

The original design is by Debbie Mitchell from one of her Cozy Cubby decorative painting books.  The craftwood cutout was sealed using Jo Sonja Clear Sealer then painted using Jo Sonja acrylic gouache.  I used a deer's foot brush to make the teddy bear's fur look fluffy and remainder of the design was painted using round, flat and liner brushes in various sizes.  The ornament is all one layer so I had to be careful to adding plenty of shading and highlighting to make the various elements look 3-dimensional.  The gold on the right foot is actually reflection from a candle which was lit close by.  The heart was splattered with gold paint which you can just see a little of on the RHS.  Once the painting had cured (around 2 weeks), the item was sealed using Jo Sonja waterbased varnish.  All I had to do then was add some gold cord for hanging up the ornament.

And just because I love my cat, I thought I would share a couple of pictures of Ruby enjoying the morning sun coming through our Dining Room window next to her scratching post:

And lastly, I wanted to share a video that I made of Ruby playing with her Catnip sausage which Santa gave to her last Christmas and that she still (surprisingly!) playing with.  If you want to see a larger picture, click through to the You-Tube link on the bottom RHS of the video.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope that this Christmas season will be everything that you would wish it to be - and may all your dreams come true in 2016.  Thank you for supporting my blog during 2015.

Jocelyn 

The More the Merrier Shaker card

Hi blogging friends

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.  We had Christmas Day at home for the first time in the 25 years that we have been married - which was absolutely wonderful!  We had my Mum, my brother plus his wife and their daughter over for lunch and it was such a lovely and relaxing day.  Boxing Day we always stay at home and just relax and play with our new toys.  You won't find me at the Boxing Day Sales - the last thing I want to do is drive to somewhere crowded, fight for a parking spot and go shopping - I just don't understand all the hype about it as the shops have sales throughout the year anyway!  Each to his own I suppose.......

Today I am sharing the Christmas card that I made for my 11 yo DD which I couldn't share here on my blog until it had been opened on Christmas Day:

I haven't made a Shaker card for ages but as I have seen alot of them around Blog-land recently, I thought I would make one as they are really fun.  I used a Large Round Shaker Card Pouch which comes in a pack of 10 by Impression Obsession.  You can get many different sizes and shapes of pouches but I only have the circles.  They are really cool because you just peel off the adhesive and stick it down - although I did actually add some Stampin' Up Fuse Fast adhesive which is super-strong as I was a little afraid the adhesive on the pouch wasn't really strong enough. The shadow at the top part of the pouch from taking the photo out in the sun looks a little odd but if you look at the IO website, you will get a better idea of what the pouch looks like.

The main image is from the Stampin' Up set - The More the Merrier - which I bought second-hand on EBay a few months ago as it is retired.  I fell in love with this image when I saw a card on Splitcoastampers made with these snowmen.  If you are a regular reader of my blog you will already know that I am crazy for any stamps that have a snowman on it!  It must be genetic because my DD is nuts for snowmen too!

I stamped the image onto Ranger Watercolour cardstock and coloured it with a variety of mediums:  Tombow pens plus Lyra and Faber-Castell watercolour pencils using a paintbrush.   I stamped a couple of snowflakes from the Stampendous set - Winter Warm above the snowmen using Soft Sky ink then chalked around the image with blue chalk for the sky.  I had meant to add glitter to the snowmen's hats and scarves but only remembered about 5 seconds after I attached the pouch to the image.....oops.....sigh...... :-( 

I added Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter to the ground for the snow and to the cuffs and pom-poms on the Snowmen's hats using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.  You can see a bit more detail in this close-up:

I added sequins, stars, glitter and gemstones from my stash in various colours for the Shaker contents and then diecut the burgundy and blue cardstock circles and attached them over the top of the Shaker pouch using Tombow Mono Multi glue.

The designer paper, twine, tag and large brad are from My Mind's Eye - Winter Wonderland which has been a favourite of mine this Christmas season.  The blue and burgundy cardstock layers on the card base were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.  I then popped this up on thick doublesided tape on my white cardstock base. 

The next card I am sharing is the amazing Christmas card that my 11 yo daughter made for me:

My daughter and I had a good laugh when we opened our cards because we both used the same image AND made a Shaker card!  This was my DD's first-ever Shaker card too.  Such a funny coincidence!  And this is the handmade felt snowman that my daughter gave me:

SQUEE!  Isn't my snowman just soooo adorable??!!  My DD didn't use a pattern and designed it all herself and it stands about 15cm - 6 inches high.  Oh my gosh, I ♥love♥ it so much!

And now here are some gorgeous handmade cards that we have received this Christmas season:

From my Stampin' Up Demonstrator

From my beautiful friend Y who first introduced me to cardmaking

From my SCS friend Sabrina in Ireland

From my blogging friend Shaz

An Easel card from our dearest friend C

In an era where alot of people use Social Media to send their Christmas greetings, we feel very blessed to receive such beautiful handmade cards in the mail.  

Lastly, as I haven't shared photos of Ruby for a while, I thought I would post some photos of her playing around her little carpeted scratching post and tunnel:

Of course, having the sun come through the window makes you sleepy so once Ruby had a bit of play, it was time to catch up on some zzzzzzzzzs!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!  Hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampin' Up The More the Merrier (retired), Stampendous Winter Warm SSC262 clear set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black, Stampin' Up Soft Sky dye

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles and Nesting Scalloped Circles

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Accessories:  Big Shot, twine + tag + brad - MME Winter Wonderland set, Fray Stop, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, Tombow Mono Multi + Mono Aqua glue, SU Fuse Fast adhesive, X-Press it thick doublesided tape, Impression Obsession Large Round Shaker Pouch SHP02, Kaisercraft blue chalk, #2 round paintbrush, Faber-Castell + Lyra watercolour pencils, Tombow Pens, Perfect Layers Tools, assorted sequins + gems, Ranger Distress Watercolour cardstock, other cardstock - burgundy, blue, white

Docrafts Tatty Teddy easel birthday card

Hi blogging friends

It's been beautifully sunny and mild today where I live and even though it is still technically winter, I can sense that spring is just around the corner.  I had about 15 minutes of "me time" at lunchtime and sat in the sun reading a cardmaking magazine - oh, it was BLISS and so good for my soul!

The card I am sharing today was for my daughter's 10th birthday earlier in July.  She loves Tatty Teddy (as do I) so I was especially pleased when Docrafts brought out their Tatty Teddy range of designer papers, decoupage, pre-coloured toppers and sentiment panels, ribbons etc. etc. - everything that you need to make your own Tatty Teddy cards.   Because it is a little while since they brought out this particular range, I was lucky enough to pick up a few packs on special at the Picture to Page Scrapbook show in May - yay me!

I really went to town with the Easel Card as you can see and tried to make it as pretty and as sparkly as I could.  The main image, designer papers and sentiment panel are all from the 'Especially for you' A4 decoupage pack.

Just as an aside, if you are feeling confused as to what is decoupage and what is paper tole:  paper tole is also known as 3D decoupage so technically, both names are correct. Where I live, we call the layering of cut images together paper tole (well, that is what my teacher called it when I did a course at a local community centre) and when I  did decoupage at the same centre, we cut out intricate images, glued them onto a painted wooden item, then added about 50 layers of lacquer over the top so you ended up with this beautiful, glossy surface and you couldn't feel the edges of the images because of all the lacquer on top (and it took forever to do - all that waiting for the lacquer to dry and the sanding inbetween layers - but it looked amazing in the end).  I find it a little confusing but I guess it is really just semantics when it is all boiled down!

The main image came diecut so it was super-easy to just pop the pieces together with dimensionals.  The pink lace doily was diecut using a Cheery Lynn French Pastry Doily die and my Big Shot.  The pink diecut heart is a Memory Box Sofia Heart die and I added some tiny pink Molossi gemstones to all the flower centres on the heart.  

If you have a close peek, you might see that I tied on a silver charm underneath the ribbon bow on the back card panel.  On the back of the charm, it says 'Made with love'.  The ribbons were attached in 2 separate elements and both bows were made using my Bow Easy.  I added some Fray Stop to the cut ends of the ribbon to stop them from fraying.  The pink paper roses are from Enthaily Wholesale (Australian company).  Because the roses had a yellowy-green calyx underneath them, I removed that part because it didn't match my colour scheme and looked pretty awful.  Instead, I diecut a star from the Light Awesome Aqua cardstock and glued that underneath the flower - which looked much nicer.

The sentiment panel is up on dimensionals and I used 3 pink Sparklets (an EBay purchase) to hold the back panel in place.  The Sparklets were glued on using Crafter' Pick Incredibly Tacky glue.  The pink diecut corners on the bottom panel are a Cuttlebug Vintage corner die (I used my Cuttlebug for diecutting them as I don't know the correct sandwich for my Big Shot).  I added 3 tiny pink Molossi gem stones to each corner of the Vintage diecuts.

I went crazy with the Kindyglitz Crystlina glitter glue all over the card which I know is a little hard to see in the photo but believe me when I say that most parts of the card are glittered LOL!

On my next post, I will share the knitted Cat Bookmark and a felt Owl Egg Cosy that I made for my daughter.  I have a great passion for knitting and making small projects with felt but just run out of time to share it all here on my blog, but I hope to be able to share more of these and other crafts with you.  I have my finger in so many crafty pies and my hands are always busy with something - I just can't seem to keep them still!

Before I go, I thought I would share a photo of my cat Ruby.  I was trying to take a close-up of her pretty face and her beautiful green eyes but she didn't like the camera being so close - and this is the result.........

Should I be scared.................LOL!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn 


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  None

Ink:  None

Designer paper, Main Image and Sentiment Panel:  Docrafts 'Me to You' (Tatty Teddy) - Especially for you A4 decoupage pack

Accessories:  Memory Box Sofia Heart die, Cheery Lynn French Pastry Doily DL102 die, Cuttlebug Vintage corner die, My Favorite Things Die-namics star die, Cuttlebug and Big Shot machines, silver charm, pink paper roses (Enthaily Wholesale - Australia), light teal organza ribbon, Fray Stop, Bow Easy, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, dimensionals, tiny pink gemstones - Molossi Australia, pink Sparklets - EBay, Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue, Perfect Layers Tools, cardstock - pink, Colormates light awesome aqua

I left my laptop open and now I can't find my mouse......

 Hi blogging friends,

Sorry I haven't been around for almost 2 weeks.  My loved one has been unwell so I haven't had time for crafting - and then on Sunday night, after having a lovely Mother's Day, something I ate didn't agree with me and I was sick all night and only just started eating properly again today.  Not quite what I needed when I was caring for my loved one at the same time!

Anyway, I thought I would share a little photo of Ruby I took a couple of weeks ago.  I had put my laptop down to do something and when I returned, this is what I saw:

I had a great deal of difficulty getting her off too because she didn't want to move - it was warm and that's where she wanted to be!  I am very careful now what website I leave open in case Ruby buys something on EBay LOL!

I am taking my loved one to hospital tomorrow (Friday) for some tests which are just routine and on Saturday, I will be going to the Picture to Page Scrapbook Show at East Burwood.  It will be wonderful to have some "me time" - a whole day to myself - which hasn't happened for ages:  I can't wait!!  Hopefully I will get some time in my craft room soon

Have a great weekend!

Jocelyn

Wellington Bear - a Get Well card

Hi blogging friends

I made this Get Well card to give to my brother-in-law who has been unwell and thought one of the Docrafts Wellington Bear images would suit him to a T.  I really love this range by Docrafts and I bought quite a little stash to have on hand for those oh-so-hard masculine cards.  I have really been enjoying getting back into paper tole (or decoupage as you call it in the UK) after not having done it for quite a while but was so inspired by my blogging friend Merry's (from MerryMade Cards and Crafts) paper tole cards, that I bought a few diecut sheets last year and fell in love all over again.  You can see my other paper-tole Wellington Bear cards HERE and HERE.  I might add that Merry not only makes cards, but sews and does other craft - I am in awe of her crafting abilities! 

Wellington Bear image by Docrafts - copyright Hallmark

All I had to do was pop the pieces out of the diecut sheet, trim off any daggy edges and put them together with dimensionals.  The sentiment was also from the sheet.  I am sure you could use the card for a number of different occasions such as Father's Day or a birthday just by changing the sentiment and the diecut sheet comes with a range of sentiments which is great and makes it very versatile.  Note that the main image panel corners already had rounded edges but I corner-punched the blue designer paper backing.

The designer papers are from my Wellington Bear 6" x 6" pad.  I corner-punched the sentiment panel too, added some brads and popped the panel up on dimensionals.  All the layers were trimmed using my Perfect Layers Tools.

I found a beige heart button in my stash which seemed to be the perfect-not-over-the-top-for-a-man embellishment to the card.  I tied some string through the button holes then glued the button on with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue.  Here is a wee close-up:

Wellington Bear image by Docrafts - copyright Hallmark

Lastly, I tied some Cappuccino twine around the card a couple of times then tied a bow.   The hardest thing about the card was taking a photograph because the multiple layers create big shadows which can look a bit weird and can detract from the picture.  Trying to angle the card in the sun to minimise the shadows usually ends up over-exposing the image and makes the colours look all washed out and no amount of fiddling with my photo editing software seemed to make much improvement.  Finished size is just under 5-1/2" square or if you are metric, 13.8 centimetres/138 millimetres.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

The Squirrel and the Fox Challenge #35 - Anything Goes.  This is my 2nd card for this challenge as I entered my card from my last blog post in the challenge as well.  You can enter a maximum of 2 times for this challenge.

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Before I go, I thought I would share a few photos my cat Ruby.  Ruby has an orange mouse shaped tent which came FREE with a pack of IAMS cat pellets that I bought a while ago - and for once, she actually USES it to sleep in.  Of course, the other bedding that I paid MONEY for, she doesn't use.....typical cat!  There was some lovely morning sun shining through the window and she got a bit hot inside the tent, so stretched out on the floor in front of the tent.  Cats sure know how to relax and soak up the warmth, don't they?!  The 2nd photo, Ruby is back in her tent snoozing; I am sure she is dreaming something nice because she looks like she is smiling to me.

Aahhhh - it is so good to be a cat!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  None

Designer paper:  Docrafts Wellington Bear 6" x 6" pad

Ink:  None

Accessories:  Docrafts Wellington Bear diecut sheet, Raw umber brads from stash, The Twinery Cappuccino twine, Heart button by Jesse James 'Dress it up' Country Hearts, button twine, dimensionals, Perfect Layers Tools, cardstock - raw umber, Crafter's Pick Incredibly tacky glue

Punches:  Stampin' Up! corner

Aaahh, how good it is to be a cat!

Hi blogging friends,

Just had to stop by and share this photo of our cat Ruby lazing in front of the open fire yesterday afternoon.  Doesn't she just look soooooo relaxed? 

Aaah, how good it is to be a cat!!

Thanks so much for stopping by

Jocelyn

La La Land: Marci Ballerina girl's birthday card + some photos of my cat

Hi and welcome to my Blog :-)  

Before I forget to mention it, if you have emailed me in the past 2 weeks and I haven't got back to you, it's because I have been having some email issues - hopefully, I can figure out what the problem is and get back to you soon.  In the meantime, if you have any queries, you could always just leave a comment on my Blog and I will get back to you that way.  Uggh - I have had my fill of computer issues this year - great time-wasters!! :-(

I made another girl's birthday card using my sweet La La Land - Marci Ballerina stamp and used one of my favourite "go to" layouts.  I have a little folder of my favorite layouts which is great when I am really busy and can't think of what to do.  And it's amazing how different a card can look just by changing the border punching or adding an oval sentiment panel instead of a circle.   I'd love to know what your favourite "go to" layouts are - drop me a comment below with a link so I can have a peek :-)

Anyway, onto the card deets....... I coloured Marci with pencils and OMS, lightly chalked around her with blue chalk.  I added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the hem and roses on the dress plus the rose in Marci's hair, then added some Bliss pearls to the hair as well.

The roses designer paper is digital by Bearly Mine Designs (UK) from the set BM Floral Fantasy.  And the plaid is my own design which I made on Gimp (free photo editing program) as I didn't have any other dp's that matched the roses dp, so had a good old play in Gimp and tried adding different effects/styles till I was happy.  It was such a buzz to make something myself and gradually, I am getting to know how to use Gimp - it is a very steep learning curve though!!  Most of my photo editing is done with Google Picasa which is very simple and user-friendly.

I chose the satin ribbon specifically to match the ribbons on Marci's ballet shoes and added it in 2 separate elements.  Did you notice that the ribbon has been tied in a double-bow?  I made the double-bow with my Bow Easy which I have never done before, but I saw it on someone's blog and thought it looked really cool!  Super-easy!  I glued a paper rose to the bow centre with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue.

The sentiment circle was diecut using my Cuttlebug and Spellbinder Lacey Circle Nestabilities which is the first time I have used these Nesties - I love how lacey they are.  Both the image and sentiment panel are up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).

The tiny gems on the two flower centres on the sentiment panel started life as pale pink gems - but I coloured them with a Bic Mark-It Peach Parfait marker to match the peach cardstock.  I have been following a thread on a Splitcoaststampers Forum about "Ways to make do instead of buying new" and someone posted that you can colour gems/pearls with Bic Mark-Its to change their colour (some people use Copics but I don't have any) so I tried it and was really pleased with the results.  On another card which I will post next week, I changed the white pearls that I had to blue - so I didn't need to go out and buy blue pearls!   The best thing was that I bought the Bic Mark-Its at my local supermarket (Woolworths/Safeway) and they weren't expensive!  Yay!  Here is a little close-up of them:-

The bottom borders were punched with a Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch and I added a Scor-Pal line just about the medium teal cardstock just to "finish" the edge.

Challenges:

I am popping this card into the Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge IC274 of Cath Kidston.  I am a big fan of Cath Kidston as I LOVE her designs and love all the fabrics that she uses.  I chose this bag as the inspiration behind my colour combo.

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  La La Land 'Marci Ballerina', Sentiment from Lili of the Valley 'For you' circular sentiments set S213

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Designer paper:  Bearly Mine Designs - Digital - BM Floral Fantasy 18, plaid - my own digital design

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Lacey Circle Nestabilities, Scor-Pal, satin ribbon, Bow Easy, Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS), paper stumps, 15mm paper rose - Enthaily Wholesale - scroll down for the 15mm roses, Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue, pink gems, Peach Parfait Bic Mark-It texta, 1mm mounts, Kaiser pearls SB718 Bliss, Cardstock:  peach, medium teal, KW Doggett "Knight" white

Punches:  Martha Stewart Doily Lace edge

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Before I go, I thought I would share some photos of our cat Ruby playing with a new toy/plaything that I bought her.  It was nice to see her actually play with something I bought specifically for her instead of batting my DD's hair scrunchies around the house.  Ruby is a very affectionate and extremely playful cat - more like a dog I think - and fetches and retrieves just like a dog - and she loves to chew things - especially pom-poms and pipe cleaners!!  If she wants you to play with her, she will pick up something with her mouth and jump on your knee, drop the object, then hop down onto the floor and miaow at you to get you to throw it.  So, without further, adieu, here are the photos:  

 

And, of course, once you are finished playing, there is only one thing to do.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Thanks again for stopping by!  Have a fantastic weekend!

Jocelyn