A Few Less Is More.....

Oh that was a nice play on words. :)



This is my submission for Week 17 of the Less Is More challenge: this weeks theme is Pick-a-Square. I went with the center square for few reasons. 1 - I threw my back out and can hardly move so I had to be able to make something fast and easy. 2 - I bought these adorable little felt stars awhile back and have yet to use them and thought this was a wonderful layout to highlight them. 3 - These were the only supplies I could reach.
Which pretty much means the last reason is the entire driving force behind this card. LOL!!!




LIM & SNIPPETS Challenge Card.


Also included here are the LIM challenge cards from weeks 15 and 16. I missed the deadlines for both weeks due to being away from home. My BBF Kim had surgery a couple weeks ago, and I took some vacation time to assist her until she could move about and drive on her own. Of course now she's over here taking care of me due to my back. What a crazy situation.

Anyway I really love each of these cards because they are so bright and cheerful IRL. The butterfly was sprayed with Gingersnap Smooch and has a lovely sparkle to it. It also has the added bonus of being all scraps so I can submit it for Jules' Snippet Sunday Challenge. The Embossed card has Cotton Candy Stickles on each of the little flower thingies giving it color and sparkle. I don't think the embossed card would have qualified anyway because the sentiment is in fact a layer, and the challenge called for an embossed OLC. Guess its ok I missed that deadline after all. :D

Thank you for stopping in. Hope you all have been enjoying the three day holiday.

Carole

Star card:
SU white texture CS; Unknown SU stamp; Pebbles Felt Star

Embossed Flower card:
Stamps: Penny Black Constellations; SU! Sweet Little Sentiments; SU Black Craft ink and SU Clear embossing powder; Very Vanilla CS; Memory Box Die (Pastry Labels); Cotton Candy Stickles.

Butterfly Card:
Stamp-Technique Tuesday Wingin' It; SU! White Textured Paper; Basic Grey Ambrosia; SU! Black Craft ink and clear embossing powder; Smooch Gingersnap spritz and Kaisercraft black pearls.

This Old Back of Mine ......

.... decided to get bent again this morning.

5 years ago I took a bad fall in the shower and herniated one of the lower disc's in my back (I think it's the L5). I've been living with it rather well for these years but must take special care not to do things that will cause it to become aggravated or worse, tear more.

This morning I "leaned" into the shower to turn on the water which is a HUGE no-no. Leaning is too much of a strain on my back and I know better than to do so; unless I already have my hands down and use the strength of my arms to lean. I was half awake and stupidly wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. My back instantly paid me back for my careless mistake. I am hoping I have just enflamed the old injury and not added to it; however at this point the odds do not look to be in my favor. I've made my back angry a few time over the last 5 years, but at no time since the initial injury has an incident dropped me to my knees like it did this morning. :(

I can barely move and there are no comfortable positions to ease the pain. My pain meds may as well be candy because they are not even taking the edge off of the incredible constant pain in my back. Though I've had the meds on hand at all times over the years, my back was to a point that I rarely had to use them. A 30 day prescription could last me 6 to 8 months. Now I'm popping a pill every 4 hours and nothing ..... no relief at all. I would whine and cry, but I'm to blasted angry at myself for making such a idiotic mistake.

I have two cards done, and was all readily to make todays Less Is More challenge card when this happened. I tried to stand at the counter to make it, but its just impossible. My friend Kim (whom I just spent the last two weeks at her house taking care of her post surgery) had to come over here a bit ago and help me with a few things. She will be back tomorrow with her Mom since now neither of us can lift anything. GRRRR...... So she brought me my laptop so I could play on line for a bit, but for the most part I'm just laying flat on my back reading books. It's a bit awkward typing with this MAC on my belly since I can't sit up, but I have to admit it is making me laugh. My typing is horrid to begin with, you all should see me trying to type this in such an improper working position. LOL

So there is my sorry story for the start of the three day holiday. I am praying that this is only an angry incident and not an additional tear to the disc .... if it is the latter, then I'm not going to be able to avoid surgery this time.

I've ordered up Bridget Jones Diary on my Kindle and will set this computer aside and read that ..... laughter, after all, can cure or heal just about anything. :)

Oh and please forgive any typos. My neck is getting tired so I will have to proof this later and make any corrections then.

Hugs to all ....

Snippets Get Well

This card it for my lovely blog friends weekly Snippet Challenge. Please drop by Jules' Always With A Heart blog and check out her beautiful creations. She makes some very wonderful cards with snippets.

My card is pretty simple. It's a Get Well card for my best friend Kim who had surgery on Monday. She came home Thursday and is doing very well.

The card was not my original idea. I had tried to make a really fancy card with Crystal Effects, beads, acetate (Yea .. .that right there should have told me to just forget it) and several mulberry flowers. Unfortunately, I have never used Crystal Effects before to the degree I was attempting, and the card fail. :(

So this card here is what I tossed together ..... super fast. Lavender is Kim's favorite color so I dug through my scraps and found BG's Wisteria to use for the back panels. The layout is not mine; I've seen many cards at SCS and Blogspot using this same layout so I think it may have been a challenge somewhere at some time.

I took these pictures just before I ran to the hospital to visit her and decided that it was too plain. So I worked the bow a bit more and then added two pearl stick-pins and a few more pearls to the DP panels before heading out.

Kim loves all things handmade so I wasn't too concerned that it wasn't good enough. I will try my idea again with the Crystal Effects someday; after I play with the CE a bit more and become comfortable with it.

Thanks for stopping in. Happy Sunday.
Carole

SUPPLIES:
Stamp: SU! Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Basic Grey Wisteria, SU Lavender Lace; White is unknown scrap
Ink: Dusty Concord Distressed Inks
Extras: Ribbon SU super old, Kaisercraft Pearls
Punches by SU!

White on White

This weeks challenge at Less Is More is to make a White on White card. Though I've never made one before I had a ton of ideas floating through my head today while at work.

The card above was my first idea, and the one I'll submit. Katina had the same idea to use punched hearts and her card is drop dead gorgeous. Mine pales in comparison, but I still like it. It will work well as a shower or a wedding card. Once I decide which one it will be used for, I'll add a sentiment to the inside. The "love" is from Verve's Text Objects set.

This second card came about on the drive home. I popped a button on my sweater as I got in the car and was sad that it was broken; it was mother of pearl and had a lovely shine to it. I have a box filled with buttons that I've been collecting for too many years to count and hoped I had a spare to replace it. It was then that the idea to make a heart out of the white buttons or even the pearl finished buttons popped into my head.




Although I have a lot of white buttons, it seemed that they were all a different color. Who knew there could be so many shades of white. I ended up using the buttons with pearl finishes because they matched SU!'s shimmery white paper the best; and they were more consistent in color. This card was really hard to photograph, more so than the first one. In real life, the buttons look as white or whiter than the card stock; however in the picture they look like all manner of different shades of cream. I'm guessing its the way the light reflects off the buttons that makes them look so dark, but this really is a pretty card; it has a lovely shimmer to it. I used glue dots to adhere the buttons, and added some Kaisercraft pearls in a few spots. The Mr. & Mrs. stamp has been loose on my desk top for ages and I have no clue which clear set it came from; it might be from one of my Close To My Heart sets, but no telling.

It's almost 4am here so I think I'll run off to bed for a few hours. Happy Mother's Day!!!

Less is More week 13

This card is for the Less Is More challenge from last week; but unfortunately I was too late this evening to submit it. Its my own fault; I actually made it earlier this week but when I finished it and stepped back to give it the once over, I realized that I had made the whole thing upside down. I really dislike blond moments. LOL

Anyway, I tossed it aside deciding to fix it the next night, but became side tracked with other things. Tonight when I arrived home, I cut the front off and popped it onto a new card base turning it into a layered card. Even though it's too late for LIM, I thought I'd post it anyway.

I can't believe I haven't posted since the17th!! Sure wish I had an interesting excuse however it was just normal life; work, time with friends and working on my bedroom (stripping it of furniture and art then painting it to get ready for the delivery of my new bed!!). I also worked on a few challenges, but really didn't finish anything until tonight. I must have a dozen half complete projects stacked up on my "craft table". Since everyone is gone for the weekend, I might finish some of them up, or they'll end up in the scrap bin like so many of my projects. LOL

Hope everyone is well and for our Mom's here in the US, hope you all have a Happy Mother's Day.