Build a Flower Magnolia for Paper Players #448

Hi everyone

Happy Sunday.  I managed to get into my craft room yesterday to make a card.  I won't tell you how long it took me to make this card but it felt good to be able to craft again. 

It's the fabulous Joanne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and it's a tic- tac- toe challenge.  I also have to say a huge thank you to Joanne for hosting my challenge at the Paper Players last week.  Let's see what Joanne has in store for us this week:

I needed to sketch to get my creative juices flowing and so visited freshlymadesketches to see what they had for us.  I I loved the sketch and decided to use it for my card.

For the paper players challenge I decided to go for floral, yellow and die-cut.  I began by creating the horizontal panel using my blending brushes and some yellow and gray ink from Altenew.  I didn't want a very smooth background as I want to to try to give the impression of the blurred background that you get when photographing something close up.  It wasn't as successful as I hoped it would be, it did give me the base that I needed for my flower.

 

I stamped my flower with fade out ink and colored it first with pastels.  I applied a very light layer of yellow and green and then die cut the flower.  The next thing was coloring the details.  That's what took the longest.  You wouldn't believe how many layers of color are actually on the magnolias.  Whilst I was on my enforced creative break I have been watching coloring videos that are part of the class that I am taking.  One of the things that is emphasized over and over in the class is shading and how shading isn't it generally a pretty color in fact it can be quite muddy.  It's something that I really have to practice at that one thing that I did learn was adding multiple colors to create a much more interesting branch for the Magnolia.  I looked up some photographs on my iPhone and used those as my starting point.

 

Here's a close-up of the coloring:

 

I am hoping that the classes will help me take my coloring to the next level and overcome some of the reticence that I have around coloring.  I really find it immensely relaxing.

 

Here's my full card:

 

Instead of my usual white base, I went with a soft grey from Simon Says Stamp and I thnk it allows the flower to stand out more than it would have on my traditional white base.

 

I hope you will join us and play along this week we can't wait to see what you create with Joanne's challenge.  As usual the design team have some fabulous inspiration for you:

• Ann
• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Anne Marie
• Su
• Wanda
• Windy

On a personal note:

Before I get to an update and some photos, I wanted to thank all of you who have sent me cards, emails and left messages wishing me well for my recovery after my silly accident!  I really did appreciate them all and I appreciate all your patience and sticking by me whilst I took this unexpected break (no pun intended!!!!) :-)

My pins came out a week ago and the permanent cast came off my arm.  I went into  temporary cast for about 10 days and then went for my first physio appointment this past Thursday.  I was surprised just how stiff and swollen my fingers, hand and wrist were.  It's going to take about 9 -12 months for the fingers to get totally back to normal and about 8-10 weeks to get function back in the ring finger.  The other fingers and my wrist should take about 2 weeks less time.  I'm doing exercises 5x a day and am down to a splint that covers just the outer two fingers.  It's ridiculous, but the exercises do make me sweat! 

Charlie was not put off by my cast and still insisted on a cuddle break whilst I was working.  He comes for a cuddle and flops down and puts his head on my chest and goes to sleep:

Part of my cast was pretty sharp, so i needed to add some cotton wool padding.  I needed to adhere it and Lou offered up some duct tape.  Only an Italian would have duct tape with macaroni on it!

Once they had removed my permanent cast, I went to the removable.  I decided to go with the brightest colors possible.  I mean... you can't miss that there's a splint on my arm!

Taking out the pins was interesting.  I was told by the Physician's Assistant that it wouldn't hurt.  Uhm... not sure about that.  I did OK with the first three as they extended so far from the finger, the fourth one was much harder as it had slipped and was right up against the skin.. so he struggled to get that one out.  I was holding my breath so hard that I burst a blood vessel in my eye!!! :-)  I took a photo (that Lou wouldn't look at :-)  and you can see how close the 4th pin is to the skin.

Ugh... my fingers look more like sausages than fingers!  Apparently it's going to almost 12 months before the swelling goes down.  The ortho did have to remind me that my bone had shattered into 5 pieces and that it was major surgery to build it back up and that I had torn ligaments in the hand- and that it would be inconvenient for a while! :-) 

Here's my new little cast.  Thankfully I only have to wear this when I am out and about and doing things around the house.  Other than the fact that it is purple, it reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera mask!

At least my foot only has 3 more weeks to go and that will be very simple recovery!  Card making will still be hard for a while, but at least I have proved that I can do it :-)

I'll be back in a couple of days with some nature photos for you.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• Stamps:  Build a Flower Magnolia, Hertfelt Sentiments - Altenew
• Inks:  Fade Out - Ink on 3
• Pencils:  Prismacolors