Busy, busy, busy!

Hello at last! I can't believe how long it is since my last  post! I've had a busy few weeks that's for sure! My grandson, Joshua,  obviously takes up a lot of my time but at least he does have a sleep (generally) in the morning so I get between an hour and an hour and a half to catch up on various jobs etc. I tend not to go to my craft cabin because it's just not long enough to be able to get stuck into a project! He is a little darling though so I don't mind! Here he is with his lovely big sister, Isabelle. How can anyone resist that cute little face!

Soooo onto the kittens! We've had rather a torrid time over the last 3 weeks as they've all had a reaction to the vaccinations. I've been back and forth  to the vets with poorly kittens for more times than I care to remember. This is the first litter to have had these problems and it's not nice! I've since done a lot of reading and research regarding these vaccinations and I have learned a great deal. The main thing is that there is a different vaccine which is non-live, therefore not as likely to cause problems in small kittens. I've already asked the vet about having that for the next litter. I'm waiting for them to decide if they can order it in! Well, if they can't, they won't have my custom anymore! This weekend, they go to their forever homes, so it'll be very strange without them! It's always a bit sad seeing them go as they have become part of my cat family!

Right, now onto crafting! Despite being busy, I have managed to get a good deal of time holed up in my cabin! I've made a few cards and gifts for family and friends - here they are! I'm pretty pleased with them!

I've also played around with a couple of things just for pleasure!

The last thing I've made is the entry for the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge:

I decided to use the Spring Fairy (March) stamp set as I had just received it! I set about creating a background piece of card which had all four colours in it. I sponged on 4 colours of Pebeo Deco Crème acrylic paint randomly but decide to mute them by dry brushing white gesso over it. Then I stamped the March fairy on another piece of white card using Versafine smokey grey. I masked the image and used Gansai Tambi watercolours to create a pale landscape background. I used mica watercolours to paint the fairy as I wanted her to shimmer against the matt background. Next, I stamped two castle images and clouds from the CB magical landscapes set and painted them in GT. I used Lesley's technique to combine the two images but as I had stamped in grey I had to use a pencil for the additional lines. At the bottom of the picture I stamped some CB foliage silhouettes in Versfine Onyx black. (I wish I had done them in the grey as I think they are a little heavy but hey-ho, hindsight is a wonderful thing!) I mounted the card onto black after first edging it in a fine gold pen. I decided to offset it on the background mat as I wanted to use the lovely swirl in the March Fairy stamp set. I stamped this down the side in Versafine Sepia and used a Dreamees bronze glitter embossing powder to make it sparkle. The tag (white card sponged with one of the acrylic colours) is from a Spellbinders Celtic die set and stamped with the word Spring from the same stamp set as the fairy. Next, I used a Tattered lace floral die set to cut flower shapes from coloured parchment. I layered the die cuts and shaped them to form dimensional flowers which I arranged round the bottom of the card and on the tag. To finish them off I added centres of Ranger Stickles in gold. I like the way they add an ethereal and spring like element to the whole piece. Finally I mounted it onto some teal mirror card. All in all I'm very pleased with the result, I enjoyed creating it so I hope you like it too!
Phew..... I think that's about it for now! I'm off to watch EastEnders!!