Best Wishes Mike

During the Hero Arts blog hop last week it was mentioned that “This blog hop is in honor of our friend Mike, who is battling cancer. The world is simply brighter with Mike in it, and words can’t express our appreciation to Mike as a business partner and friend. The Hero Hostesses will be sending Mike and his family some of the cards shown during this week’s blog hop”.

Deborah gave details here for those who would like to send a card to Mike. This is a card I made for Mike who really sounds like a very special man indeed.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Designer Woodgrain, Birthday Messages & You're the Best.

I find masculine cards really hard to make and usually end up keeping them fairly simple and plain. To start with I applied shabby shutters and broken china distress inks to a piece of white card and spritzed with water. I stamped the dragonflies on this card and also used it for the bottom part of the background. For the top part of the background light brown card was clear embossed with the woodgrain stamp. To finish I white embossed words from two sentiments and added some machine stitching.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Strawberries

I knitted this hat for Tanya who I think likes strawberries, well I know she likes strawberry hats anyway! It’s from a pattern which can be found here.


When I’m using different balls of wool on the same row, I prefer to weave the wool that I’m carrying across into each and every stitch at the back. It’s a bit more time consuming but I think it reduces the chances of puckering and gives a tidier finish on the inside.


This is the card I made to send with the hat. As I don’t have any strawberry paper or stamps, I used some strawberry fabric for the background. The sky was made by lightly applying broken china distress ink to white card and spritzing with water. I coloured the girl with markers and made her a little pair of knitting needles using pieces of cocktail sticks with beads attached to the tops. Then I rolled some darning yarn into a ball and knitted a couple of rows on the cocktail sticks.

Stamps (Hero Arts):- You’re the Best & Write Your Message

I'm submitting the card into the Card Style Fun and Cute Challenge at Moxie Fab World.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

WELCOME LILLY! - Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop for Paula and Lilly!

Little Lilly aka “Bug” was very excited about meeting her mum, dad and big sis. So she decided to arrive a little bit early and was born on Friday 4th June weighing 7 lbs and 13 1/2 oz. I’d like to send big congratulations and best wishes again to mum Paula, dad Doug and big sis Em! There’s nothing like having a new baby in the house, exhausting at times I know, but just wonderful too!



Back in April, Deborah and Hannah hatched and organised a plan for us to send cards to Paula once “Bug” had arrived. Paula’s friend Helen was also involved in the planning and we all sent cards to her to pass on to Paula. Deborah also put a lot of work into organising today's hop. Oh Paula, the things that have been going on behind your back!


Stamps (Hero Arts):- Adorable Baby Girl & Precious Baby Boy

As Paula is a moderator at the Die Cut Divas group on Flickr, I decided to go a little bit Cuttlebug crazy on both cards and of course being me I just had to put a bit of gingham fabric on the first card!


Stamps (Hero Arts):- You’re the Best, Clouds & Birthday Messages (used back of balloon stamp)

Well Paula as you already have your little cutie Em, I probably don’t have any tips to pass on to you that you don’t know already. But here’s something we used to do when our kids were babies. At the weekend my hubby and I would have a morning each. So whoever was “on duty” would get up when our baby woke (usually very early!) and let the other do what they wanted until 11am/12 noon. It could be sleep (often!), breakfast in bed, go for a walk, read a book, meet a friend etc. Having those few hours was just brilliant for recharging the batteries.

Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland

Just to finish here are some words of wisdom I’ve come across:-

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behaviour, and I'm not talking about the kids. Bill Cosby

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out. Erma Bombeck

Be nice to your children, for they will choose your retirement home. Phyllis Diller

Hopefully you will have arrived here from Hannah’s blog in the US and now it's time to hop from Ireland over to Indonesia and Fika’s blog. If you think you have missed any stops on your travels or if there have been broken links in any of the blogs you can go back to Deborah’s blog where you will find the full list of links.

Again, welcome Lilly and congrats to Paula, Doug and Em! Thanks everyone for visiting and hope you all have a wonderful weekend!