Update

Hi My Friends,
I have an apology to you all for not being able to blog lately due to my health. I also wanted to let you know that I am going into hospital on Monday 13th September for an operation and will be out of commission for a while after.
If you believe in prayer, please remember me if you get a chance- I would really appreciate it- Thank you.
Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back amongst my cyber friends and back to my blogging which I was enjoying.

May I share with you all a happier thought. My son and his wife are expecting their first child. It is due around St Valentine's Day (Feb 2010) We are all very excited about this- especially as David has had a really tough time with testicular cancer approx 3 years ago. I'll keep you informed on the progress when I return.

Thank you all for your support and I hope to see you all real soon.

Hugs,
Trish xx

The ALOHA DT Blog Hop

This is my 1st ever Blog Hop and I'm actually very nervous about it all, especially as everything that could possibly go wrong at the last moment... HAS LOL!!!
The main theme for this Blog Hop is to use one of Michelle's lovely images she made especially for this, and also to thank the now finishing design team for all their hard work over the past 6 months.
Michelle created LEILANI and freely gave it to us all to use today, she is sooo generous and talented and the image is beautiful and so very easy to work with. If you are interested in getting this image, it is free to download as a follower of her PCP blog.
ALOHA is the sentiment that comes with the image and it means hello, goodbye and thank you- so appropriate for each of the DT members.
Personally I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to everyone on the design team for all your hard work and inspiration. Each week I have really enjoyed seeing your gorgeous creations. Thank you also for all your generous compliments when I started my own blog and entered into the weekly challenges.
This is the blog hop list of all those taking part....



Start with;

www.michelleperkett.blogspot.com


Helen:

http://h2designs.blogspot.com


Marilyn:

http://marilynscardsandmore.blogspot.com

Sandi:

http://oneofakindcreations-bysandi.blogspot.com

Tammy:

http://tmaynard.blogspot.com


Maria:

http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com


Jean:

http://jeano9.blogspot.com


Claire:

http://clairescraftycreations.blogspot.com


Lynne:

http://doodlebuglynne.blogspot.com


Randi:

http://hobby-for-sjelen.blogspot.com


Mari:

http://trailsofpaper.blogspot.com


Linda:

http://cardchallengesandmore.blogspot.com


Shelley:

http://shelleyscreations.blogspot.com


Pattie:

http://pattiescreations.blogspot.com


Lee:

http://stampingwithgrandmalee.blogspot.com


Amanda:

http://colouringourworld.blogspot.com


Pauline:

http://paulineguttrey.blogspot.com


Jan:

http://jans-gonestampin.blogspot.com


Ileana:

http://allthingsthatmakemehappy.blogspot.com


Jana:

http://stampingeek.blogspot.com


Tammy:

http://mycraftcentral.blogspot.com


Trish (Me!):

http://wwwhillsidecraftscouk-trish.blogspot.com (You are here)


Denise:

http://myinkimprint.blogspot.com


Jasmine:

http://oysterflowers.blogspot.com


Kerri:

http://fotf-constellations.blogspot.com


Bev:

http://beeceecreativity.blogspot.com


Laralee:

http://racinggrandmacrafts.blogspot.com


Ann:

http://annfran9093.blogspot.com


Margie:

http://creativityplace24.blogspot.com


Rhonda:

http://bluepoohbear753.blogspot.com


Margaret:

http://deniquecrafts.blogspot.com



Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge Blog:

http://michelleperkettstudio.blogspot.com

Now on to my card.
I wanted to try something special for today and I decided to make a stepper card, but with the addition of acetate. This is something new for me and I enjoyed every minute of it. The only problem is getting photographs of the card to show it properly!

Items used;
Michelle Perkett 'Leilani' digi image, outside coloured using Tumbled glass distress inks. The rest of the image is coloured using promarkers. It is cut using Nellie Snellen multi frame rectangles. Green pearlidoodles added to skirt and tiny pink gems added to center of flowers.
White stepper card with A4 sheet of acetate
Fish, waves and octopus are "In the depths" buttons- Dress it up by Jesse James Co.
Sky, water and sand DP's are from DCWV- "The photo stack"
The sky was cut using Martha Stewart doily punch
Shells and stickers from own stash

Thank you for having a look at my blog, I hope you have enjoyed what you see. Best wishes for the remaining part of your hop.

Hugs,
Trish x

Kindness

I would like to share with you some photos of a gift that a very dear friend sent me. I was so touched by her kindness and by the time and love that must have went into making it. My very talented friend's name is Margaret, and here is a link to her blog to see more of her work.
It is a prayer pillow, or another name for it she says is a 'biscornu', which apparently is French for 'quirky'! The cross on the front is beautiful, but the back is where I overlooked the amount of detailed work put into it. I honestly thought she had bought the material mottled like that and then added the wording, but I was sooo wrong.. Margaret actually stitched every single stitch to make that mottled background- how neat is looks.
Thank you once again Margaret, for your very welcome gift, and of course the lovely card also.

I am so very blessed to have made a couple of really lovely friends on the internet, through crafting. I have never met them, and probably never will, yet these friends have been so very supportive and we have fun sharing our highs and our lows also. You know who you are and I thank God for each one of you.xx

I am looking forward to this evening, when my daughter and her boyfriend arrive from Scotland to spend a week with us. I know things will be upside down and I'll be even more sore and tired, but I can't wait to see them.

Hugs,
Trish

Late again!!

Hi,
I am really struggling to get my act together with this blogging... I wanted to enter this weeks challenge over at Phindy's. It was to have embossing somewhere on your card. I found this week's card patterns layout and proceeded to make my card, only to find the challenge finished yesterday... Doh!! LOL
Anyway, I love the finished result and have decided to enter it into a couple of other challenges..
!) Card patterns- Sketch 72
2)Stamp something- Go digital
3)Stampavie- Anything goes
4) 2 Sisters- Anything goes
5) Papertake weekly- In the garden

A brief list of items used:-
6" x 6" White card
BP's My Mind's Eye- Quite contrary (These were a free gift with 'Cardmaking & Papercraft' magazine)
Image: Petticoat Patty by the talented Phindy
Image cut and embossed using Labels1 nestability and coloured using Promarkers
White card embossed using Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder
'Squares' cut using a Creative Memories punch which my good friend Alice brought me from USA. (Hope you like seeing what I make with it, Alice!!)

Tomorrow is going to be a long day here, as my hubby is away from very early in the morning, to a craft fair at Dunluce castle, Portrush. It is one of his favourite craft fairs of the year, I only pray that the weather will be favourable as it's been very windy with heavy rain all this past week. They depend a lot on passing tourists, it really is so scenic and beautiful on a good day! Hopefully I will get a couple of card orders finished- it will help to keep me busy.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend- however you are planning to spend it.

Hugs,
Trish x

Treats for All

Hi Everyone,
Many apologies yet again for being such a terrible blogger. Health and holidays have hindered me a little which gets me down a lot. I've not been on holiday(unfortunately not able to!) but it is the holiday season here in Northern Ireland and my niece, hubby and little Stephanie were over visiting from Scotland. It was fabulous seeing them and I enjoyed my time watching and playing with Stephie- she's now 9 months old and looking so well after having a tough beginning to her wee life.

There has been lots happening on many blogs and I have added a couple that I love and think you might also enjoy....

Michelle Perkett is having a blog hop which I have now signed up for. This will be my first ever experience of being part of a blog hop, so do come and join in the fun as it sounds exciting.

Simon Says stamp is having an incredible Christmas in July giveaway (see image at side of my blog) The more people that leave them a comment- the more they will give away... it's a win win situation. They have already started the giving, so do have a look and leave a comment while you're there.

The next giveaway I want to mention is from Crafter's Companion. They have a new CD and a range of the most incredibly cute stamps being released this week. The range is called SWALK and to promote it, they are giving away a complete set to one lucky person. Do have a peek- the stamps look really good and there are some lovely cards made by their talented DT's.

Todays card was a commission for a friend's 70th birthday. I used a pyramage set called McDooli clan. I chose this particularly as the recipient was from Scotland and I thought it would be appropriate.

Thank you all for your patience with me and I hope things will improve and my blogging become more regular.

Many hugs,
Trish x

Emerald Anniversary (3)

Hi Everyone,
This is the 3rd in my series of 3 emerald anniversary cards which were made for friends Anita & Mickey, This one is from myself, so I wanted to try something different, and this is very different from anything I've previously made.
The background embossing was made using another 1 of the Glitter Girl's embossing boards, then the segments were trimmed using gold fine line border peel offs to enhance it.
This card was particularly good for using up lots of little bits of scraps etc.
Please let me know what you feel about the card- hubby doesn't like it and says it 'too busy/fussy'
All I know, is it took me ages to make, but the jury's out on this one!!
I welcome all comments.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
1) Allsorts challenge 58- use any form of embossing

Later this afternoon, I have a dental appointment to remove a wobbly tooth which was recommended by the hospital before I have my surgery. I am not looking forward to it at all!! One good thing though, the receptionist has asked me to bring in any cards I have ready, for the prospect of buying- so something good might come out of this appointment after all!!

Hope you all have a good day.
Hugs,
Trish x

Emerald Anniversary (2)

Hi,
Today's post will be quite short as I feel I waffle on too long sometimes!! Please feel free to tell me if you agree with this.


As mentioned on yesterday's post, this is the 2nd emerald anniversary card. It is from Anita to her husband.
I wanted to make a very special card, so I used a white scalloped edge card, 8"x8"
The embossed background is from using the Glitter Girls embossing board- I love using all their different boards.
Using my knife, I cut away areas to reveal green hologram card.
Finished off by using gold fine line border and text peel offs.
Yet again, I will enter this card into Michelle Perkett's challenge on fancy cutting.
I was pleased how this card turned out and so was the recipient.

If you have a minute, please have a look at my friend Elaine's blog- here,. She is giving away some gorgeous stamps, but her cards are a joy to look at.

Have a lovely Sunday.
Hugs,
Trish x