Back in the saddle!

Hi everyone, here I am with my first post for a while, and yesterday afternoon was my first crafting session for almost a month as things went a bit off plan the past 3 weeks!

 Three and a half weeks ago I went on holiday to Dubrovnik in Croatia, which is a really wonderful place and well worth visiting (please see further down post for some photos). Everything was going well for the first 5 days, but on day 6 I woke up feeling rough and after breakfast I went back to bed, where I lay all day feeling really ropey and suspecting that having avoided it for over 4 years, Covid had finally found me! The following morning I thought I felt a bit better but then disaster struck … I fainted in the shower, hitting my head (I think on a blunt metal door handle!) and ended up with my husband taking me to hospital in a taxi where I had a CT scan (and a Covid test!). Mercifully the CT scan was clear (unlike the Covid test!) but I had a terrible bang on my head which I could hardly touch, a nasty bruise on my temple and felt incredibly shocked, fearful and wobbly! Ironically the standard Covid symptoms were very mild, and I was up and about after 2 days but I had to take it VERY easy due to the head injury, go back to hospital for a quick check the next day, and also wear a medical grade FPP mask everywhere indoors in the hotel and on the plane home which absolutely drained me! I continued to test positive for nearly 2 weeks, and even now there is a small tender area on my head! I’ve still hardly been out and  I’m still monitoring myself as I have still been feeling wobbly, but hopefully things have started to improve a lot the past couple of days. All in all, a holiday which in some ways I’d rather forget! 

So, back to cardmaking … I feel really out of practice and was struggling to feel inspired, but here’s my first share in a while.

I stamped my image and coloured with Zig pens, blended out with a water brush. I then added some stencilling to one side using Elements ink, and some background word stamping. I then added a stamped sentiment and matted the panel onto black and pale pink card stock and a 6” square card blank. To finish I added some small butterflies punched from glitter card to pick out the colours in the image, and added Glossy Accents to the perfume bottle and some washi tape fragments.

Unfortunately my last minute decision to add washi tape was a classic example of not knowing when to leave it alone, as I smudged my Glossy Accents so had to apply another layer! The end result is a bit thick and bumpy for my liking, but hey it’s done now! Here is an angled pic to show the shine.

Stamps: AALL & Create #841 Le Parfum, #457 Background Voices; Visible Image Birthday Wishes;

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Morning Mist); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Lavinia Elements ink (Blue Lagoon); Posca pen (white); Glossy Accents;

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - Diamonds; X-Cut mini butterfly punch;  washi tape from The Range.

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA Birthday #63 - Fabulous Flowers

Addicted to Stamps and More #471 - Make Your Mark

Allsorts #787 - Way to Grow (flowers)

C.R.A.F.T. #726 - Anything Goes

Cards 4 Galz #228 - Inspired By a Book

(The Perfume Collector)

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (July) - Use a Stencil

Creative Inspirations (July) - Anything Goes

Dream Valley #318 - Summer Colours

Everybody Art #561 - We Love Stamping

Inkspirational #319 - Use Stencils

Krafty Chicks #723 - Stamps

Shopping Our Stash #525 - NBUS

(my main image is new)

Sweet Stampin’ - Fabulous Flowers

Triple B (July) - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms

We Love 2 Create #6 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Word Art Wednesday #655/656 - Anything Goes

Going back to our disastrous holiday, on the upside we had already seen most of the sights of Dubrovnik before I fell ill and had my accident. The Old Town is really gorgeous … here are a few photos, including my husband sitting on the Iron Throne!!

So, back to reality, and hopefully back to productivity on the cardmaking front. Apologies but I’m sure you can understand I haven’t done as much commenting as usual over the past weeks, so I probably won’t catch up with everything now .. but onwards and upwards! 

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,