Paper clay play

Thanks for visiting. Sorry I've been AWOL for such a long time.

I just popped in to post a wee update and wanted to say thank you again to all you kind ladies for your well wishes and prayers for our daughter. She has had diabetes since she was a wee girl. We were lead to believe (by her) she was doing okay, and she reassured us if we asked about her health, that all was good. We were always proud of her. She's always been so clever, talented and seemed sensible and mature for her 18 years. She was so busy with everything in her life, before this happened, with her college & photography work, social life with friends, singing in a band etc, a typical teenager I suppose you'd say. Having no idea she wasn't giving herself the due care and attention she needed for her diabetes, which resulted in her going into a severe diabetic coma. She suffered a brain injury when this happened. This came as a huge shock.

She wakened from her coma after about 2 weeks, she was still on lots of monitors, lines and tubes etc for a good few weeks after this. She had no voice after ventilator was removed. I don't think we think of these things when we haven't experienced this before. It was a very scary time, one I wouldn't like to re-live.

If you know anyone with diabetes, especially young people, let them know how important it is to keep regular checks on their diabetes control. When we're young we think were bullet proof, but this is a potentially life threatening condition without regularly "keeping your eye on the ball".

My daughter got home, after 4 months in hospital. She still needs help getting about and she's getting help with physio' to help her mobility, and she had speech therapy to help with her talking.
She is so brave and is getting stronger, her walking is improving slowly. Her voice though quieter, it's stronger, though she's not the chatterbox she used to be. She's not singing again yet, and I miss her constant chatter too.

On to a bit of me time, which I love when I can get it.

I've been dabbling in odd crafty projects on and off when I've had the time. I had a go at making air dry paper clay too. Inspired by Darcy from PaperArtsy, last year when she created her huge paper mache giraffe, Colin. You can check it out here.

I made quite a large amount of the paperclay, so had some fun.
I made these roses from it the same way as I would fondant ones for cake decorating, and then tried stamping into it. These other shapes are made from stamp impressions from Sheena Douglass flower stamps.

I found this Inkylicious "Always Remember" stamp. I couldn't resist buying it, as it made me think of my brave girl.
I made this fridge magnet for her by stamping this into the paperclay, I trimmed it, and left it on my craft mat to dry.
After letting it dry for 24 hours, I painted  it with black acrylic paint, then used gilding wax to highlight, finished it off by adding a dangling, cameo metal charm.
 

I had purchased a few silicone moulds 

and made these too. 

Great fun! 

I'll be back to show you what I've created with some of these soon!

Thanks for stopping by.

Alexandra x