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.

Helping a good cause

I have boxes of cards Ive made and Im slowly working through recipients but I have more cards than occasions. I've tried donating some to local Cancer Research shops to sell, but they have literally thousands and requested no more as they werent selling enough. Then I came across a really good cause that caught my eye.
Operation Write Home.
While its US based, they were more than happy for me to make and send cards for them to pass on.

While its a shame nothing like this exists in the UK for our forces, (if there is then please let me know, I'd love to pass them some cards!) I still think its a great way for me to do what I love doing and also know someone out there is grateful for me sending a card.

Handmade Teacher Thank You Gift

My 3 Boys love giving their teachers handmade gifts at the end of the year. They're also very different from the usual chocolates and bottles of wine they receive.
This year we came up with Fridge Magnets! After failing miserably with our original idea of using glass pebbles, we really struggled to find any clear glass ones that were big enough, I had the idea of using bottle tops.
Between the 3 boys they have 10 teachers!! So we had quite a task on our hands, but this is what we came up with...

The magents were made using  various co-ordinating papers and a 1" punch. VERY easy for my Boys to do themselves, being ages 4, 6 and 8, its important I dont do everything for them. All they did was punch out lots of circles, glue them to the squashed bottle top and add a clear epoxy circle bubble sticker over the top. I had the job of gluing magents onto the backs using my Glue Gun.

The mini Pizza boxes I custom made to measure 3" x 3" x 1/2" and hold 5 magnets.
Using Spellbinders butterfly die, I die cut an aperture into each box lid and glued attached acetate to the back to make a aindow.
Ribbon was glued to the base of the box so it could be tied into a bow on the front Then I die cut lots of mini Rolled Roses using an MFT die along with leaves using a Marianne D leaf die. Everything was carefully glued onto the lid using glossy accents.

Giving the present to the teachers like this just didnt feel quite "finished". So I put each box into a cellophane card bag and die cut some labels using Spellbinders label dies, folded them in half and stapled them to each bag. I wrote the Teachers name in a fancy font and each boy signed it from them.

And heres what 10 packaged Fridge Magnets in Mini pizza boxes look like...