Light at the end of the Tunnel!

This is a long post so be prepared!

I can see the light - still need to get there. My craft space is filthy, full of bits and dust and glue and glitter, and everything has been pulled out and just put where-ever for the moment while I work in this tiny space I have left for myself! Interspersed with cups of coffee and chats with my family, I have made nearly all the cards for Christmas, created a few other things and dealt with the various interruptions that occur in life.

My lovely sister-in-law survived her 8 hour operation with three surgeons, and is making steady progress.  Spoke to her this morning and she is optimistic and determined to beat this bloody thing. She has lost most of her intestines, her bladder and some other bits but is soldiering on.  She has her faith and strong family support so I can see her making a full recovery!

Our next-door neighbour lost her brother suddenly last week, and is understandable upset and shocked. Vale Ted....what a lovely man. Such as loss as a father, husband, teacher and friend.

At the other end of the spectrum, my Great Nephew (that makes me feel so old!) Harry was christened last Sunday in his Grandmother's family christening robe - 110 years old and hanging below his feet.  So cute but he was not that impressed with the proceedings really! It was great seeing his Mum again; as well as being my niece she is my God Daughter, and as they live in Brisbane we don't get to see them often.

Congratulations Harry, Michael and Rachel

I decorated a gift for Harry's room - 

I found this letter H while Christmas Shopping and immediately purchased it as it was already painted and sanded back! I stamped it with StayzOn and coloured it with SU pens, which took a while to dry but did eventually.The image is from LOTV and is called Ooops.  The rest are RubOns. It can be stood or hung on a wall as a decoration. The little card is a copy on one I was given some time ago, that used a heart punch to create the flower. 

Scraps of paper and card were used to create this - cute eh!

In addition to the family stuff I made this deco using an SU set of stamps and dies - Ornament Keepsakes. A bit time consuming but easy enough to make.

The die cut snowflake makes a good centre.

Now for some Christmas cards. I have a selection here of some that I have made. The first card is a straight case from an SU Conference I went to last month - looks good and makes up quite quickly - once you have cut out all the mounts and white card! Again, it uses the Snowflake die.

Just a  few others I have made. I tend to make singles and if I like them and they are reasonably quick to make, I will make a few more the same or very similar. They are mostly SU card and mostly CASED from other's work - I blog-crawled and found ones I liked and just copied.  Sometimes I added something new but most are just as they were! I have made some original ones but I will show those another time

If you are still reading - thanks! Sorry for the poor photography  - taken inside and quickly!

The last two are examples of ones done for Unstampabelles mid-way DT: our challenge this month is Monochrome, so I went blue here. I used an SU embossing folder and cut the image into thirds.  I think I used one with a blue ribbon as well for my card at Unstampabelles. After embossing I sanded the image and then mounted it onto various other blues. Some bling and ribbon embellishments and a simple sentiment finished them off - they were quick to make but you can see that I was not that particular with my spacing!