Huge catch-up post on Crafty News!

It's been so long since I've blogged regularly!! February was NOT a good month for me, and I'm hoping March will be much better. I had such a nice bit there where I was feeling better and sleeping like a champ....and then BOOM! right back to square one again. It makes no sense, and I've given up trying to figure it out. I'm "lucky" to get 4-5 hours of sleep at night, and that's not straight through either. Even with a thermacare on my lower back and gobs of bengay on my legs, I can't keep the nerve pain at bay for long. It's much, much worse in the evening and night-time, although I've had several pretty bad days too. *shrugs* It sucks, but it is what it is I suppose.

So I have a ton of photos to share with you! This batch is from February 6th! I got Bella a sewing box kit (sewing for beginners basically) from Amazon, and there are quite a few projects included with it. Here she is with her first project, a stuffed cat. She finished it, and then completed a stuffed elephant. She did a great job and really loved making both!

She got the blue buttons from my crafting stash, as the ones that came with it were really small and she didn't like them. I have quite a few retired embellishments from SU that I probably will never use, so I was happy to let her dig through them and pick these out.

The next set of photos is from February 11th. I was using my then new set from Lawn Fawn Bugs & Kisses. As I've been doing lately, I stamped a ton of images out, colored them and then die cut them. Then I had quite a collection to make into cards.

My desk was invaded by bugs, lol!

Cards I made with them and sent out:

This last one I was revisiting the bokeh technique, and I was trying for a blended, night-time sky. It came out much lighter than I anticipated!! Still I'm pretty happy with it. I ordered new, better quality paint brushes and I'm going to use them the next time I water color. I'm thinking it might make a huge difference in how the backgrounds come out....we'll see!

The next group of photos is dated February 17th. I had made a few more cards, and took photos of some new crafting goodies that had come in.

This card was sent to the woman who had made my stuffed hedgehog! I colored him darker and added gold highlights to match my George! I think it came out pretty cute!

This was a simple card using a small set from Lawn Fawn called Hello Sunshine. I used the rounded journaling die that had just come in.

This was made using a background die that I had had for a longggg time, but had yet to be used yet. (Ooops!) And the Lawn Fawn set Life Is Good. A friend of mine is about to go on a cruise, so I sent this to her to set the mood. I'm hoping it gets to her BEFORE she leaves - stupid, slow mail!!!

I splurged a bit and ordered these amazing dies from Tattered Lace. They are crazy expensive for dies, but the detail can't be beat. (Click to enlarge images!)

A trio of animal print embossing border folders

Journaling die set from Lawn Fawn

Butterfly corner die set from Spellbinders

Swirly background die

Super cheap glittery water color set. I'm going to try them for backgrounds.

I didn't even know I bought these super nice Japanese water color markers!!! I had looked at them but didn't realize I bought them until they arrived. Told you I was tired!!! Nice surprise though. Much like Distress markers, you can paint with these. Very cool!

I'm rather disappointed in these stamps from Taylored Expressions. I thought they were MUCH larger!! Trying to color them has been a real bear, and won't work for me with my pencils, which is what I was aiming for. I'm going to try heat embossing them on water color paper and see if I can paint them with any success. If not, they will go in the sell/donate pile I've been creating!

I bought these WOW embossing powders because they contain glitter - very sparkly!! I used them on the ballerina die cut shown earlier, but I wasn't happy with how it turned out. I'm going to wait and try them on a different project. Stay tuned!

This photo is from February 19th. I was having one of my bad days, so Thomas agreed to bring home dinner that night. Along with the food, he stopped by the florist for this lovely bouquet too! LOVE THAT MAN!!!

Our 13th wedding anniversary was on March 2nd, and I made Thomas this card!

I wasn't feeling well, but I still made a nice dinner, baked a cake and made him a card! And it was all worth it, because the next day he came home in the middle of the day to bring me this...

Finally!!! My huge Lawn Fawn ordered had arrived!!!

These are from the winter CHA and I had been admiring them online for months!

Of course the first card I made was for Thomas!

So there you have it. Not a lot of crafting going on, but a little here and there. I have two sheets of card stock stamped up with some of the new sets, and I will be coloring those up next. It's hard to get the energy to drag myself upstairs to stamp when I'd rather be comatose on the couch!!! But these cards aren't going to make themselves, right??? If I'm going to spend all this money, I need to USE them!! :D