12/12/12

As its 12/12/12 and I'll never see such a date again in my lifetime, I thought it necessary to make a totally pointless post! Apart from on my trip to the postoffice to post all my chrsitmas cards (pics will be added over the next few days), I overheard a lady telling the Postoffice staff that today is also her daughters 12th Birthday! How amazing is that?

Last Week I went along on a School trip (I volunteer at the school) to a local Farm where the children got to meet Santa. Even I got a sit on his knee! Although it was remarked how alike this guy was to Jim Royale from the Royale Family! And yes, his beard was real too!

Craft Robo Silhouette cut files

I'm BACK!!!

My Thumb is alot better now, although there are still some things I cant do, like hold a pen properly, but I have a brace to wear to use pens and keep using stress balls to strengthen it. I'll get there eventually.

So while I've been gone, Ive got out my Craft Robo Lite again. I get it out, try making something then give up. Ive had it 2 years now and used it about 5 times. I can tell by the number of cut marks on the cutting mat!
I've been having a good play with Silhouette studio and think ive finally figured it out! YAY. So I'm on a whirl at the moment thrashing out lots of cut files while I practise and figure everything out.
So far Ive made a Hot Air Balloon, Word frames, Welded words, A truck shaped card, a princess shaped card, clouds and I know a few others that I cant remember right now.

All these files that I've been making while learning, I will add on here for free. They will be studio files and for personal use only and not for sharing elsewhere. But more about that at the time.

Watch this space for some free silhouette studio cut files!

Strapped up for another 2 weeks

Yesterday I had my appointment with my Physio and I have to stay splinted up for another 2 weeks.
Im going insane not being able to craft! BUT I did go to a local Craft show at the weekend with my mum and stocked up on some amazing dies, which I have been playing with (you dont need a thumb to use a Big Shot thankfully!) I'll get some pics of what I created and post them up.

I was honest and told the Physio I had tried sewing by hand, but couldnt as I couldnt hold the needle and didnt have the strength to push it through the fabric. I think the Physio nearly had a heart attack at that! Im not ready to do that sort of movement with my thumb yet. But I have been excercising it really well and fingers crossed it wont be long before I have full function back. YAY! But my Tendons still have alot of work to do.

I also sent off for a copy of my X-rays. Only because my Boys were gutted I didnt get a photo of it initially when I went to hospital. My X-ray arrived on a  lovely CD and the boys spent hours fascinating over my bones and how they could see the piece of bone hanging off the corner! Boys....

So heres my X-ray:

Had a bit of an accident!

Im afraid I wont be around for a few more weeks, I have some posts still to write up from a few weeks ago, but last week I broke my thumb. I was walking around with it for a week totally unaware. I even handmade a Victorian costume totally unaware!!
On the Tuesday I noticed my thumb was feeling a little sore and itchy and looked a bit swollen. Thought maybe I'd been bitten by some bug and left it alone. I made a Victorian costume, went about day to day life and even went on a School trip with my local school!
On Friday my thumb was still quite swollen and feeling more sore. I poked it about a little to get a better understanding and decided I'd go to A&E. My thumb let out an allmighty crack sound and hurt like nothing before. Ouch. But then the swelling went down a little, but I could no longer bend it. So on the Sunday I decided I'd better get it checked and went to A&E.
I came out looking like this:

I had X-rays taken and it appears I had torn the tendons in my Thumb (at the joint just below the base of the nail) and in tearing those tendons, they had taken a nice chunk of bone off too :-(. So A&E patched it up and sent me on my way, to come back today to Trauma Clinic to have the specialists check it out.
Off I went to clinic, and came out like this:

I now have a moulded splint which allows my thumb to move in a certain way so the tendons dont shrink and tighten and cause more problems in the future, but it also keeps my thumb straight so the bone can heal.

The only thing im really really kicking myself about is not getting a copy of my x-ray. The first thing my boys ask me? "did you get a picture of your x-ray?". Totally gutted now.
I have to see the physio in 2-3 weeks so im praying they have a copy of it I can photograph. Otherwise I'll have to try to contact the hospital.

And of course...its my right thumb...and I'm right handed....so no work for me for about 4 weeks, and no/very little card making and crafting. Im already bored and its only 24hours with my thumb totally out of action!

The final question? How did I do it? Well I did it by picking my 4 year old Son up to put him in the naughty corner! It took a while to work back and figure out that I remember my thumb feeling a little irritated after I'd put him there..

Wire worked Earrings

 I havnt made any decent jewellery for some time. Ive just been making quick "fixes" by taking apart sale jewellery and putting tham back together to make something totally different. I feel its a little bit cheating, but fills the craving.
So, Ive been looking into new ideas and got out my huge box of jewellery "stuff" and made some lovely silver wire and bead earrings!

These are made using Silver Plated 20gauge wire, but I will be investing in some sterling silver wire soon though! They took about 30minutes to make and are addictive, im already itching to make more...

Male Lighthouse Card

This card was actually quite quick to make, and usually I struggle with masculine cards, but this just seemed to "flow" really easily. Its also a stamped image, which I havnt done for quite some time.

The stamped image is from a Kanban Stamp set, and I coloured it using water based pens and my water brush pen.
I cut a frame in white card using Spellbinders labels dies and another in blue card using Spellbinders ovals dies. Foam tape was added to the back of the blue frame to give some depth.

I was going to add some more embellishments or sentiment, but it didnt seem to work well so I'm leaving this card blank just as it is.

Mums Birthday card

This year I was a bit stumped on what to make for my Mums birthday card. She has begun card making too so I wanted something simple, but also fab looking so she could easily copy the design. This is what I came up with, using the Marianne D Anja corner die. I absolutly LOVE this die!

The card measures 5"x5" and the paper was from a free stack from a magazine (I dont know what its called, it was quite an old pack! (3-4yrs old!!) And my Making Memories slice was used to cut "MUM" while gold Liquid Pearls were dotted along the edge.