Di Hickman - February Sketch #4

This is my final week as Guest Sketch Team Member for Di Hickman. I've really enjoyed producing these cards for Di, so a huge THANK YOU goes out to her for giving me the chance to be part of her card sketch team this month. Thanks Di!!! xxx



The word background paper is from SEI Hippie Chick and the green was a Christmas paper from Rhonna Farrer but I though the green went pretty well with some of the lettering. I die cut two flowers using a Sizzix die and doodled round the edges. The 'fun' chipboard word came from Bubbly Funk. The ribbon was from Ribbon Mad.

Birthday Book

I was asked to make a book for a friend's mum's 80th birthday and a folder of old photographs duly arrived along with a few notes on personal details and colour preferences etc.

Very reluctant to use the original photos dating back to 1948, I scanned them all in and had a quick play using PSE6. I didn't want to make them perfect so that they retained their aged character. I added text over the top of some of the photos before I printed them out.












The album cover papers were from DCWV with all internal patterned papers coming from Paper Mania. Embellishments were from Prima, Dunelm, We Are Memory Keepers, Ribbon Mad, Autumn Leaves (Rhonna Farrer) and Stamps Away.

I've been to the dentist......

This isn't craft related but I'll share it with you anyway.

I recently broke a filling away from one of my teeth while eating some very lovely Praline Almonds from Holland and Barrett. So after a few days of denial and a couple of toothache, I had an emergency appointment last Friday morning.

The news from my dentist....? I need a crown but not only do I need the tooth crowned as it has now become uber sensitive I need root canal treatment to get rid of the nerve before it's crowned or I will continue to suffer from toothache. GREAT!

My appointment was at 11.30 this morning and I'd be in the chair for about 30 minutes. To say I was bricking it was rather an understatement! In anticipation of the pain (and the gory stories some people had told me about root canal treatment) I took 3 ibuprofen at 10am so that they'd be completely in my system and aid the pain relief.

I had 3 injections in my gum (now suitably bruised!) and the impression was taken of my top teeth (a doddle) while the injections took proper effect. (Still bricking it at this stage!)

The temporary dressing was taken off the offending tooth. Yep, that bit was ok too.

Then..... the worst bit - removal of the nerve from the tooth..... I NEVER FELT A BLOODY THING!!!!!!! All that hype was a load of old baloney!!!!

The re build up of the tooth never went quite as planned though and had to be done 3 times until my fab dentist was satisfied with his work (such a perfectionist!) X-rays were taken to check that the pin thingy was in right to the bottom of my tooth and the temporary crown was cemented into place.

I go back on 11th March to get the proper crown fitted - this is a piece of cake - they pop the old one off, dry fit the actual crown for size then cement it into place! No aneasthetic injections needed - in and out in 10 mins.

For anyone having to go through root canal treatment, please don't worry, it is not as bad as some peeps make out.

Try the ibuprofen approach before you get to the dentist. It worked for me. Tell you dentist that you are nervous and (in my case) ask him to explain exactly what he was doing at every stage, there were no surprises.

Good luck!

x

Cupcakes!

I bought these this weekend...



There are some yummy recipes in this book that I can't wait to have a go at. To make the book even better it was only £2.99 in The Works! Fab eh?

On the subject of cupcakes, I also bought these...



I always craft on a smooth glass 'worktop saver' board - fairly small one that's clear/etched and boring UNTIL I saw this in Morrisons this afternoon. It is 11 1/2" deep by 15 1/2" wide, so is just about big enough to take a scrapbook page. These boards are great to use as a work surface as it saves the table you're working on from getting damaged by the knife or stained by glue or inks as you just need to give it a quick baby wipe and it's as good as new again.

It was meant to be £2.99 but as it was on offer at 2 for £5.00 I treated myself to the matching mug/coaster/little tray set too. The tray is great for pouring my brads, buttons and blooms out of their jars into so that I can find what I'm looking for much easier.

Daring Card Makers - Oh sooo juicy

This weeks little extra (just to keep you on your toes!) :) This week we have an idea from Mel called "Oh sooo juicy" - she'd like you to make a card using lemon or orange toned colours.



Patterned paper is from DCWV. RicRac is from Ribbon Mad. Bloom from Bubbly Funk, smaller flowers from Prima. Brad and inks from stash.

Raising money for Ellie

Us Bubbly Funk girls are having an auction to raise money for the Ellie Wiseman Trust.

This is what I'm auctioning for the Ellie Wiseman trust. You can bid for it over at Bubbly Funk. Just send Caroline an email via the 'Contact Us' page saying what you want to bid.



It is a brand new (purchased for the auction) pallette of 12 H2O lookie likies. I have a set of these that I use for myself. Go on, you know you want to bid on these and Ellie's Trust needs the money more than you do!

There are lots of goodies to bid on for this marvellous little lady. To have a look at what else is on offer, then look {here}