Don't Ever Want To Let Go

Have you ever held someone's hand while they were being told that they are dying? This is me earlier tonight holding my Daddy's hand so tight, wishing I could take away the pain, wishing I never had to let go. Thismorning, after 6 months of intensive chemotherapy and testing, Daddy was scheduled for 7am for major surgery to have 2 ribs broken and his lung punctured in order to get to the cancer that is in his stomach and esophagus. After being cut open the surgeon disovered that the cancer had spread to other organs of his body and therefore made the decision not to operate. We don't know how long Daddy has left and so every waking moment will be spent trying to make him as comfortable as possible and hopefully get him to at least one final round of golf, even if it is in a buggy.

The hand you see in the photo is the hand of a man who in 50 years, has never enjoyed even one single holiday not to mention one single sick day from work and only retired on the 14th October last year in order to give his all to the chemo in order to recover and begin enjoying a well deserved life of retirement. I know life is unfair, but there are just no words to describe this. And to think that he has gone thru all the pain of the chemo for what seems like nothing.

My mother told me that he had mentioned to her that now he won't get to see his grandkids grow up. The tears and sorrow in my heart are indescribable. Tomorrow Daddy will be waking up in the Intensive Care Unit, wondering if it was all a bad dream. Not sure when I'll be back bloggers, please pray for my daddy that he has peace in his final days.

I love you forever daddy, you are not alone, I'll always be your little girl.

My Masters Projects

Mystery Project - Merry Memoirs Of Us

My Single - Just Breathe

My double I am submitting for publication, so cannot show at this time.

And last, My Shaped project - I Hope You Soar

for which I received an ..............

*** HONOURABLE MENTION ***

 woohoooooooooooo :):):):):):):):):):):)

I used one of Leeann's yummy bubble trees.

Thanks Leeann xx.

A massive congratulations to

Kim Arnold

Hetty Hall

&

 Sarah Gladman

You all rock, and of course congratulations to Bernie Dodd, Christine Rumley, Ebony van der Starre, Karen Watson, Kellie Lusted, Leanne Stamatellos & Georgia Keays. What an awesome feeling it would have been to receive that call :):):):):)

And to my friends who also received honourable mentions, Agnus, Wendy, Manon, Tanya, Julie, Melanie, Krissy, Beth, Nicole, Leeann, Skye, Fran and Kathleen, I have enjoyed your friendships so much this year and congrats for your accolades and fabulous entries :):):):):)

And so for me, I will enter again next year and the year after that, because whilst it is fabulous to be acknowldeged or actually be a Master (now that would be out of this world) I actually love the process (although it could have been less of a wait LOL).

Until next time, happy creating, Tiff :):):):):)

My Textured & Inked Tissue Paper Background Tutorial

Good day girls :D Hope you enjoy my tutorial. I bought a heap of decorations this year at Bed Bath & Table and they overdid it a tad with the tissue paper, about 5 sheets per decoration and I bought about 50 decorations!!! It was so thick and beautiful, I didn't want to just throw it all out, nor fill up my recycling bin either LOL, so being the avid scrapbooker that I am, went to work developing a new technique for us all to share :D

Here's what I used; small canvas (you can use any size provided you have enough tissue paper to cover), Tattered Angels Antique Brass spray mist (you can use any brand or colour), scrunched up white tissue paper, PVA glue and sharp scissors.



Step 1 - cover your canvas with a decent coating of PVA glue.







Step 2 - making sure your tissue paper is well scrunched, cover the entire canvas with it, allowing for about a 1 inch overlap to cover the sides (you can measure the sides for an exact measurement).



Step 3 - use your fingers to even out the texture and create more bumps in the places that you require.



Step 4 - next trim your tissue paper leaving enough to cover the sides, don't worry about being absolutely precise here as it's easy to add a little more paper where needed for a lovely finish.





Step 5 - apply PVA glue to the sides and fold down the overlap of the tissue paper, applying glue to the top as well to keep down any stray ends and give a nice even finish.





Step 6 - turn the canvas so the wrong side is facing up. You can either apply more glue to the ends and/or some sticky tape to finish off.



Step 7 - apply small amounts of tissue paper to any gaps and finish with glue, you can be generous with the glue, it's ok :D





Step 8 - turn the canvas over and admire your work of art.



At this point you can either set aside to dry or start on the fun part straight away and let the whole lot dry after, up to you :D For me, I am impatient and like to play straight away :D

Step 9 - take your spray mist and, slowly apply the spray until you reach your desired effect, following the directions on your bottle for best apllication results :D





Step 10 - set aside to dry.

You can use different coloured tissue papers for different effects too. Have fun and experiement :D

Step 11 - now you are ready to start designing your masterpeice with a totally cool textured and inked background - enjoy :D :D :D

So until next time, happy creating, Tiff :):):):):)

36 hmmmm.......

Holy cow!!!!!!!!! Surely this cannot be my age already??????? I seriously woke up this morning thinking I was 35 today, no fibs, promise, I swear on the bible, truly. It was my good friend Ang who politely brought it to my attention that "ummmm, no Tiff, I think you are 36 today" that made me feel like I had been hit by a Mac truck, been robbed of a whole year of my life...... and yes a year closer to 40 than I thought, holy crap, I'm on the downwards slide now LOL. Just goes to show how much of a blurr the last year of my life has been that I don't even know how old I am!!!!!!!! A tad worrying to say the least. So, here are a few of my fav pics from today, mostly of the adorable Miss A's, Amity and Alana (didn't actually get many of me, but the crows feet are that bad I'm not complaining one bit LOL).

Gosh this is a dud pic of me, slouching, messy hair and squinting..... what more could a 36yo gal ask for? But hey, it's the only one I've got and they are likely to get worse from here on in so I should probably just accept it, build a bridge, move on, etc, etc LOL. And before you go, you've got to check this out for some awesome inspiration and cool prizes My Scrapbook Nook Blog Hop. So until next time when I'm 36 plus a bit older (dear God 50 here we come LOL), take good care, Tiff :):):):):):)

HIP HIP HOORAY

And a very happy 2010 to you all. Hope you saw the new year in doing something you enjoyed. For us it was a seafood feast at home watching the fireworks on telly. At least we didn't have to worry about getting home or lining up for the loo and it was nice just to relax after a crazy Christmas party season.

Here are some projects I have been working on during the past couple weeks.

Rusty Pickle

Twiddleybitz

Enchanted Scrapbooking

Just Because

This year, I will be keeping a tally of how many projects I complete, so far, I've completed 3 cards. It will be interesting to see how many by years end - pheeeeew!!!!
And without further ado, the winner of my handful of Twiddleybitz goodness as drawn by the delighful Miss Alana is Ann of Ragedy Ann's Playground - woohoo, congrats to you Ann, please forward me your addy so I may get your Twiddleybitz goodies out to you :):):):):)
Well that's about it for now folks, have a fabulous week and I'll see you on the flip side with some of my favourite pics from the silly season, Tiff :):):):)