DCM- Hand-cut & 4x4 Friday- Faux Postage

DCM challenge this Friday, Handcut something. Well most of my cards are as I have few dies for my Bigshot. This wss made last night but too dark for a photograph. I set myself a personal chalenge of using up some of this paper & trying to combine the patterns without it looking gaudy. I think it stayed subtle. Blogger was playing up today & I had two challenges to upload. They are both in the same post to save time. I stamped the trees in purple & pink to blend with the papers, handcut wavy sections of a different paper to act as hilly backgrounds then stamped the snowmen onto more patterned paper & cut around them. They are mounted on foam pads.

4x4 Friday challenge this week is Faux Postage. I stamped a 4x4in piece of white card randomly with various script & post related stamps from my travel collections. Then I blended several shades of blue inks all over the card. Adding a touch of silver to give some depth. Then, as I am still really not well, I dipped into my bit box for some stamped images to colour. I picked these two floral ones, both are Crafty Individual stamps, no.113 & no.115. They both have postal marks in the design so I thought they were fitting for this piece. I really do love palying with my inked backgrounds!!

I had a rotten day yesterday & was awake at 2am in the morning totally unable to breathe. How I got through to 4pm I just don't know. My immune system is low & this is about the 4th cold virus I have caught. I can't fight them but the blood tests are all okay, so its not that Im lacking in anything. I am told I just need to rest & if things are no better by mid week then I might have to go down the antibiotic route, which I hate!! I collapsed into bed at 8pm last night & for the first time in 4 weeks, I didn't wake up until 7am! A miracle! thanks for all the well wishes, it means a lot. I am getting there. I don't have to be back at work again until Wednesday, so I have lots of time & am doing jobs that can be done sat down!! The recylce paper bin doesn't know what has hit it after I have cleared out over 10 years of craft magazines, keeping only the pages of interest...very cleansing feeling. Right, I have a layout to complete for AAE.