Beautiful Butterfly Birthday card from Lilian

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Welcome September,  August was over in the blink of an eye!  Autumn is a close second to Spring for me,  I just love the Autumnal colours, watching the trees and hedgerows turn onto beautiful shades of golden tones, oranges and browns.  

Mini Challenge:  

I love Autumn so I want to use that as our next 'mini' challenge.  You can use the same Season OR you can choose Winter , Spring or Summer.   The bonus of choosing Winter for instance would be being able to make Christmas cards.   That's just one example.  You can also make different cards for different Seasons.   All I ask is that you have fun creating 😘

Today feels oddly like a Monday,  Paul has gone into work, Lucy is home though, which is lovely.   I have to say that yesterday just disappeared, I started day off cleaning the inside of our Ninja combi oven,  we use it a lot when the Aga is switched off....

 Its basically an Air Fryer, better as its a normal oven style.   The 'combi' part mixes air frying with other ways of cooking.                                                     Yesterday we had a roast, so I cooked the chicken on Combi-Crisp,  you pop seasoned chicken in that bottom tray, adding a cup of chicken stock,  then set timer for 35 minutes, which seemed crazy for a large 5lb chicken,   it starts out by steaming the chicken and finishes by roasting,   it gives the juiciest roast chicken with crispy skin, in just over half an hour!!!!  This was a bonus we didn't know the cooker had,  we literally got it as we were used to having the Aga on constantly,  which we really missed when it was switched off,  this cooks pizza, jacket potatoes etc, really quickly, it was another great ninja buy.                                                                 Anyway the point of this story was that after cooking the chicken yesterday, the oven was a mess, the steaming / roasting had splattered everywhere in the oven,  the steaming had loosened any baked on food,   I applied Bicarbonate of Soda mixed to a paste with washing up liquid and left overnight,  Ladies if you need to clean your oven just apply that mixture and leave a few hours, i just wiped with a hot dishcloth and the grime and burnt on build up just wiped away, it did same to oven door too,  it was like a miracle,   no harsh chemicals either,  the oven was like brand new,  I then went and did our microwave, which is about 12 years old, it too doubles as an oven so had burnt on food bits,   I added the paste and a bowl of kettle hot water with lemons in to help steam the worst bits.  It worked so well, I was buzzing,  even the girls noticed.  I was worn out after such an exciting morning 🤣😂,  the only other thing I acheived was packing the holiday clothes away,  ready for Paul to put back in the loft for next year,   I was going to wait for thus next heatwave but I was fed up of seeing the boxes in the spare room.  So I packed all of those away,  Paul packed all holiday stuff away,  bless him he was hot and sweaty going up and down that loft ladder so many times.  So when we had finished we had a cup of tea and a cake 🎂 😋 

I love, love, love this piece of Artwork,   the reminder is a very important one but as I have explained before it's not always easy.  ❤️

Today I am sharing the lovely  birthday card that I received from Our Lilian,  it is hard to pick up on camera but the background is so lovely,  it has a stencilled design...

It gives a lovely textured look,  also look at those tiny, perfectly placed paint dots that Lilian has added to create antennae.   The butterflies are so pretty and I really love those clear little bubbles.  

Thank you so much my lovely for such a beautiful card. ❤️

I hope that you all have a lovely day  

Sandra xxx 

My Birthday card from Lucy

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all ready for the start of a new week,  although this is a nice relaxed start with it being Bank Holiday.

We were planning to go to a local carboot sale today but the weather has other plans,  I would struggle too much on a muddy field and to be honest I don't need any more clutter!  

Today I am sharing this lovely shadow box style card that Lucy made for me for my birthday,   I was blown away when I saw it,  she is so clever and I love that she is interested in crafting. ❤️

I hope the Bank Holiday weather is kind to you,

Love and hugs, 

 Sandra xxx

Looking back at our makes this week..

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

I keep forgetting that its a Bank Holiday weekend,  mind you the weather should be the biggest reminder, in typical Bank Holiday tradition the rain hasn't stopped,   we had the most incredible downpours yesterday,  it virtually didn't stop all day, the water was running down the roads like a river.  I really felt for the people at Reading and Creamfields Festivals this weekend,  the videos of them dragging their belongings through ankle deep mud just looked so miserable,  I'm afraid I'd have turned round and gone home, the thought of a whole weekend being wet and miserable is a no from me.   Annoyingly we were planning on going to a carboot salevon Monday for a look around,   I have been inspired by a lovely crafty lady that I follow on Facebook Lindsey Dickson,  I originally followed her for her craft content,  every Sunday she goes to Carboot sales and finds the most incredible bargains, whether its old books , bits of fabric, so many different bits and pieces and she never seems to spend more than 50p or £1,  she makes me laugh because if it's something handmade she can't leave it to be discarded.  I haven't been to a carboot sale in years, i remember them being mostly absolute rubbish.   If they rain continues the field its on will be just mud so we'll wait and see. 

I have definitely felt the love this past few days,  it's an indescribable feeling.  You are all loved beyond measure too ❤️ 

Let's look at what you have been making....

Karen

Karen's Description:

This card was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest by Ashley Fifes

I cut the card first - mistake number one and because I used DO for the background stamp first as they dull Versafine I didn’t get the angle quite right - mistake number two! 

I love how it is matted on very pale yellow “milk” card

Thank you Karen for reminding about this stamp set,  I had totally forgotten about it.  I love the stacked/overlapping placement of the individual pieces,  it looks amazing those three black gems finish the layout perfectly.   

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge my lovely XXX 

Maria 

Maria's Description:

Something that's flying cards that I put together this morning is coming here.

 Two crystal ones and one made with inks sprayed as the background and then I used a free stamp set from a magazine. 

I made it for my dad's, father's day in November. 

3 amazing cards Maria,  thank you so much ❤️  Your Dad will love his handmade card, the mixed media paper you have used has given love texture to the background.  Your two crystal cards are so beautiful,  the colours are so bright and vibrant,  I keep thinking I must try one but there are thousands to choose from!!  

I really appreciate you going out of your way to support the challenge my lovely XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description: 

1:  My First piece - a journal page. 

I’ve used Lou Collins Dragonfly Dreams collection. (Inspired by you using it the other day 😊) and sentiment strips. I’ve inked the edges with Dusty Concord distress ink. I added some 49 and Market white rub-ons 😊

2:  Here’s a tag I made for the mini challenge.

I’ve used Stamperia All Around collection, including the die cut flower. The gem is from Spellbinders 😊

Oh Sonia your Dragonfly Dreams journal page is beautiful,  so much detail, perfectly arranged, so that your eye is drawn from element to element, finishing at the sentiments at the bottom.  

Your Stamperia 'All Around ' tag is lovely,  the bird looks so realistic,  I love the quality of their artwork.   The little flower and sentiment tag finish the tag beautifully. 

Thank you so much my lovely for supporting the challenge XXX 

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Happy Saturday..

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Thank you all for my lovely birthday wishes and cards my lovelies,  they really made my day ❤️ 

We had a fun day out together,  we started out at a lovely garden centre that had lots of little shops too, then we went to Reading to Ikea for some storage bits and we finished off at Costco,  getting some yummy bits and pieces.  They surprised me with cake when we got home.  A lovely day 🥰

This is so true,  some times if feels like the 'cloudy' days can seem never ending but those clouds do part and the sunlight feels very healing ❤️ 

How fun is this AI card that Soph made for me, I so wish my body did look like that 🤣😂  I laughed so hard at 'Paul' wearing his 'scuba Steve ' snorkel mask!!! These annual cards of Soph's never fail to bring a smile 🥰😍

I can't wait to show you the other awesome cards that I received. 

I had some money from Paul's mum for my birthday so I treated myself to some dies from  'Craft Addiction '...

They have some lovely dies and stamps and their prices are really reasonable.  

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love and hugs to all of you  

Sandra xxx 

A quick & simple vintage card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all as well as can be expected,  I am sending gentle hugs to anyone that needs one. 

My day started off a bit gloomy and quiet, the weather was miserable,  Paul was in the office  Soph was off work but she was busy painting,  I woke after a really rough night,  I think that the heat/humidity combined with an insane thirst/dry mouth from the Turkish food had me unable to drink enough to quench my thirst and help with my dry mouth (my medications side effect is dry mouth too, without the added garlic and spices).  So after very little sleep I started the day with a miserable headache.  I reset my alarm and tried to get a couple of extra hours sleep.  I pushed myself to get up going,  Soph kindly bought my a cup of tea to get my day started off which helped.   My lonely day got brighter when Sue came over for a cuppa and catch up,  she also bought me some beautiful flowers and chocolate biscuits 😋.   Now if any of you ladies like a Tunnocks Caramel biscuit bar, then now have a version that is coated in toasted coconut,  I didn't think caramel and coconut went together but my goodness I was wrong, they are delicious,   they girls set their eyes on them and both loved them,  we will be looking out for them when we go shopping.  

Thank you Sue for coming to visit and for the lovely flowers.  

I literally don't know what I would do without the constant support that I get from you, my wonderful Blog Family ❤️

After chatting through the afternoon with Sue, I didn't prepare anything for today's post.   With my headache returning,  I couldn't think of what to create,  Lucy was in the middle of making my birthday card,  she came down asking if I had any patterned paper that looked like 'planks of wood ', I knew that I had some,  so pulled out a couple of boxes to look through,  thankfully I found a selection quickly,   whilst sorting through I found a couple of little 'Die Cut' books that I bought years ago from 'The Works ', I noticed that one of them had butterflies on,  so that was perfect.   I cut a 5 1/4 inch square card base and popped on the background piece from the book,  I edged the pieces with ink,  placed the vintage style photograph onto the background,  I only added glue down the centre to allow me to tuck things underneath it.  I tucked in the little bits and pieces that was included for this card.  Inking the edges of each piece.  I finished with the butterflies to tie in with our mini challenge.  

Not sure what our plans are for today,  we'll see what the weather is like.   

I am crossing everything that the headache and nausea have disappeared overnight as I felt quite unwell when I went to bed last night.  🤞🤞🤞

I hope that you all have a good day

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Dragonfly Dreams card 2

 

Good morning ladies, 

We had an unexpectedly warm day yesterday,  Lucy and I popped to shops and it was showing as 29.5 ° in her car.  It just feels like we need a huge thunderstorm to clear the air.  We are forecast rain all day today,  it did forecast it yesterday but it didn't appear! 

Such a lovely reminder today,  even the hardest things in life are so much easier to experience when you have someone special that helps you through it ❤️

For today's card I used a piece of the patterned paper from the Dragonfly Dreams paper pad, I picked the paper that best matched the colour of the dragonfly that I fussy cut from the same paper pad.  I created a top folding card base (4 1/4  X 5 1/2 inch ) I then cut the front panel 1/4 inch smaller and used an old magazine freebie from years ago, I believe its by Paula Pascal, although that could be wrong 🤣😂  I die cut the chevrons out of the centre (ish) of the panel added foam pads to the back and adhered to the card base with the patterned paper behind it.  I added some sparkle to the dragonfly wings .....

If you look closely you can see the sparkle!  I put foam pads underneath dragonfly to lift it off of the panel.  I added a sentiment and some gems that look oddly yellow on these photos in reality they are aurora borealis.  

We had a late night last night as we had a Turkish Meal to celebrate both Matt & my birthdays.  

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Stamperia Butterfly Journal page

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday disappeared in a blur,  I realised at about 9am that I was home alone,  I had been busy chatting to Lucy and wondered why she wasn't answering,  so I went from bathroom to her room to ask why she wasn't answering me only to find her room empty and so I looked out to see her car had gone!  I messaged her to see where she was and she replied saying that she swapped her day off so that she was home with Soph and Paul for my birthday, bless her ❤️.   I absolutely hate getting down the stairs when I am here on my own,  so I put it off for an hour or so doing a few jobs upstairs,  then I went to sit on the bed to get my breath back before attempting those stairs and must have fallen asleep,  I woke up at about 11.20am.  I had a bit of a rough night so I guess I needed it,  although I never sleep in the day time usually.   I did consider waiting upstairs until Paul came home at 2.30 ish, but I had finished my water bottle and was a bit hungry,  so I just had to go for it,  my method is to hold on bannister with both hands, go down about 3 steps then lean back put my bum on the stair and go down like that.               I got down had some 'brunch' and sat at my desk, before I knew it Paul was home,  he was later than usual so good job I didn't wait upstairs!  I felt tired all day, which was so different to Monday morning when I woke up with a 'spring in my step'!!  

Look at that lovely artwork,  the sentiment goes without saying, especially as Mum's when we usually put ourselves last.  😘

I made this little journal page yesterday afternoon,  I used Stamperia Secret Diary collection for this page,  I used rice paper in the background with some stamping, I did use some Arden Creative Rub-ons in the background too.  The main focal point was made using the junk journal.  I finished with some white splatters and the very true sentiment 'Nature never goes out of style'.

I hope that you all have a good day and that the change in the weather doesn’t affect you too much. 

Love and hugs,  

Sandra xxx