Thursday, February 27, 2014

GDT for Little Miss Muffet, and never a dull moment

A couple of weeks ago the lovely Faye from the Little Miss Muffet Challenge offered me the opportunity to be Guest Designer for the challenge starting today... of course I jumped at the chance :-) It's an Anything Goes theme... Here's my offering
 I took the opportunity to make a birthday card for my niece's little boy... he turns 3 the same day as my darling twinnies turn 1, so I know I'll probably run out of time if I leave it until closer - 28th March will creep up on me, I'm sure :-) 
I used the adorable William With Blocks image, one of the Polka Dot Pals available here; the great thing is (apart from the obvious cuteness!) that it is actually a set of images; there's William with blocks, without blocks and the blocks without William :-)  I made my own little scene up by adding some of the blocks to the picture of William, easily done in Microsoft Word with a little cropping.  I coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, adding some Stickles to the star on his shirt.
The red glittery cardstock I used for the mats is from my stash, I added some Red Stickles to a wooden "3" also from my stash... I can't believe how well they match!  Clear It Out has a Birthday theme and want to see Bling from our Stash... I'm in! and Divas by Design has Make It Sparkle, so I'm  in there too.
The stripy paper is from Kaisercraft and the one with balloons is from a Merci pad.  My Mums Craft Shop has a Spots and/or Stripes challenge, so I'm entering there.  The blocks spelling Nic's name are from a discount store pack designed for necklace making.
I used the sketch from Sketch and Stash this time around, I do like a nice straightforward sketch :-) I just realised I took the horizontal element right across my card - hope it's close enough!  I used the sketch for the inside too - nothin' new in that!  
Crafty Creations and Delightful Challenges want us to Keep It Simple; you don't get much more simple than this little card so I'm entering there.  Colour Me CopicThrough the Craftroom Door and Tuesday Throwdown all have Anything Goes challenges so I'm entering there too.
Well that's it for my card today, thanks again to Faye for having me as your guest :-) Pop over to the Challenge Blog and check out the fab makes - you won't be disappointed.
It was just as well I got my card done early as I had a little mishap with our new under-construction swimming pool - or as my son Chris now calls it "the Crime Scene"; it is half finished (as in the sand is halfway up the outside and the water is half way up the inside) so on Monday evening I thought I would step from the solid ground over the excavation onto the edge of the pool to shine a torch in so we could get a preview of what it's going to look like when the underwater light is fitted - shouldn't have been a problem, we've been in the industry for over 20 years and in my younger days I helped my hubby install literally hundreds of pools requiring stepping onto edge beams from solid ground thousands of times..... of course the primary thing to note here is "in my YOUNGER days"! 
Hubby and Rocky at "The Crime Scene"
I have arthritis now, and it does restrict some of my movement, particularly my hips. I didn't allow for it, failed to bridge the gap, one leg went into the excavation and my momentum carried me over the edge beam into the pool - I was so glad it had water in as I landed head first and would have done some serious damage falling six feet and landing on my head!  As it was I did do some damage.  I was in serious pain in my hip, and ended up in hospital for a couple of days after an X-ray showed a fracture to the neck of my femur.  I thought it unlikely that it was a fracture as I could put some weight on it the next day but had to have a CT scan to check, which failed to confirm either way but showed something else so I had an MRI.  The conclusion is that my arthritis has progressed much more quickly than I thought, knees and spine are Severe and the hip has End Stage OA meaning the only thing left is a hip replacement.  I am technically too young to have one, they are designed for the activity level of a seventy to eighty year old and the concern is that the pain-free me will wear it out too quickly, but the Orthopedic Surgeon says we should start planning for it now and try everything to delay it - including, ironically I think you'll agree, Hydrotherapy!!!  Actually, it was one of the reasons we put a pool in again (after removing our last one 13 years ago!) I find the treadmill and other weight bearing exercises very uncomfortable but swimming is much less so, so good exercise.
So as the title of my post says, there's never a dull moment here - sometimes I long for "boring" lol
I came home from hospital last night, good pain meds, physio and crutches for a few weeks - that's going to slow me down in the help-to-landscape-the-pool-area department!!  We were trying to get it all finished for my hubby's 60th in April, mmmm, we'll see.
I'm trying desperately to get to my DT card for Di's Digis, so hopefully I'll be back with that on Saturday (if not I'll drag one of my drafts out)  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

11 comments:

Shell Shearer Swinscoe said...

Great card hun, love the papers & the colours you have used are perfect!
Sending you huge hugs
Shell xx

Carla S. said...

Sorry to hear about your pool mishap, Donna. Hope your recovery goes well. Your LMM card is adorable! Fantastic coloring of the darling image and great design!

Janine said...

What a wonderful card for a three year old, with lots of bling and bold colours. Thanks for joining us at Divas by Design.
Sorry to hear about your hip and arthritis. Hope you're on the road to recovery soon.
Hugs, Janine xx

Janet - aka stacky said...

Such a fantastic card I love everything about it, the vibrant colours, the fabulous image and the way you have decorated the inside too. Thank you for joining in the fun with us at sketch n stash xxx

Pat K said...

Fabulous card for a little Tyke Donna and Congrats on your GDT spot..so well deserved. I am sorry to hear about your accident though. Wishing you a speedy recovery and sending big hugs, Pat k xx

As.I.Do.Rodos. said...

Fabulous card gorgeous colours. Sorry to hear about your hip and hope they can sort it for you I had my left hip replaced last Wednesday I also was too young but lets hope it last longer that the 15 years.Ginny x

Sue said...

Oh my goodness Donna, I am so sorry to hear about your 'accident'. I hope the pain is easing off and I wish you a speedy recovery.
Your card is adorable. I love the cute image and fun bright colours.
Take care
Sue xx

Jac’s Playground said...

Wonderful card your colouring is awesome and love the bright colours, thanks for joining us at Divas By Design this week. Jac x

Mom2Two (Jenni) said...

Love this card!! So sweet!! Thanks for joining us at Clear It Out Challenge and good luck!!

Mary said...

Beautiful. I love the faint smile on his face. Thanks for joining us at Crafty Creations for our "Keep it Simple" challenge. I hope you get to join us again for your next challenge.

Faye Wynn-Jones said...

Be careful!!

Thanks so much for being such a fab Guest at LMMS. This is a wonderful card. I live the soft detail to William's face and the glittery star is cute! X