Lets look at our makes this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

Well I thought yesterday was supposed to be cooler!!  It certainly didn't feel any cooler while we were out freeing the roses of the bind weed that has grown up around the stems and branches while were away, I was shocked at how fast it had grown we literally cleared it a week or so before we went away.  Shame the drought and intense heat didn't kill that too. 

We had a lovely day just pottering round ticking jobs off the ever growing list.  

Beautiful artwork,  now this one I dedicate to our lovely Lilian,  who is having surgery tomorrow.   I want you to know that we will all be with you virtually, I think it would be too noisy if we were actually there with you.🤣😂  

Wishing you the speediest of recoveries my lovely friend ❤️

Let's look at your makes....

Karen

Karen's Description:

This took me a few days to finish 

Took inspiration from the magazine I bought recently and used the stencil with JL Christmas stamps also from a magazine 

I used Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch DO for the background

Karen your blended is amazing,  especially in such small areas,  I love those little stamps, I might be tempted to buy the magazine just for those stamps!  

Your layout is lovely,  I love the little strip of card that you have used as a ribbon,   is that the old Sue Wilson die you have used for emboss the detail onto it? 

Thank you so much for sharing your card with us, it's lovely to see you back in your craft room XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:  

Here is my piece for this weekends challenge. I know it’s not Christmas, It’s for our granddaughter for her birthday on the 19th of this month. Thought I’d better get it done as I’m not sure if I will be able to feel much like crafting when I come home.

 

I used chat GPT, asked it to design background and then some ephemera. It also showed me how to put it together, I changed it a bit. She is quite grown up now.

Lilian your Granddaughters Birthday card is so lovely,   13 is a tricky age to make cards for,  I think you have absolutely got it right though.  

Thank you so much for sharing your card with us XXX 

Maria 

Maria's Description:

I was playing this afternoon but I just stared at it all and in the end I managed to make this very simple card. It's a good one to have on stand by if you forgot someone 😊🤭. I will try with other colours too as this was made by bits from my bitbox.

The Poinsettia is by Poppystamps I believe , couldn't find any other name on the envelope they are in.

Maria you may think it's simple, sometimes simple is perfect!  The poinsettia is so detailed with all of that embossed detail that a simple background is exactly what is needed. 

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely Christmas card with us XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

Something a bit different from me for the blog, my lovely.

I haven’t felt up to making a card or journal page this week, but I have been creating a Winter Countryside Collection on ChatGPT. Here are some of the pages I have created 😊

Oh my goodness Sonia,   the Winter Collection you have created is so beautiful,   the scenery is stunning,  the baubles are gorgeous and that Snowman is adorable 😍 

You are as good as any designer my lovely,  you should definitely look into creating Collections to sell.  

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful Collection with us.  XXX 

(Sonia has protected her designs with watermarks)

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I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love & Hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Happy Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Welcome August !  How we are 8 months through the year is crazy 🤪  

I am going into the weekend and new month trying my best to be positive after a 'trying ' few weeks.  I was beginning to feel sad that we don't have our holiday to look forward to, as we have had our holiday at the end of August for years,  so last year after changing our dates to June we felt a bit blue as August started as our holiday had been and gone!   This year I have changed my thinking to 'we have the whole of August and September to relax and enjoy the garden.  

We have all overcome some fairly major hurdles and managed to survive, in different ways of course.   I often sit and think about how bloody incredible you amazing friends are.  So today's reminder is very true 🥰😍😘

Now I didn't take any photos of my poor completely dead and totally brown and crispy wall baskets when we got back from holiday as it was too heart breaking.   So I was determined to try and get some colour back in them to cheer me up as we drive up to the front door....

I adore the petunias in this basket,   it was hard to capture how deep the purple was on the one on the left, it just makes me smile.    

The purple petunia is called " Cosmic Violet"   the pink one is called "Circus sky" 

This basket hasn't quite caught up as fast as the other one,  however this gorgeous petunia makes up for it.  It is called "Cherry Sky" the white speckles make it look like it is sparkling. 😍

Last but not least...

All of the beautiful flowers in this barrel were free this year.   The beautiful Petunia "Tidal Wave" has survived 3 winters in this barrel, we don't put it in greenhouse or anything, it must be sheltered in this corner by the front door,  the silver vent behind it is from the Aga which is on from September onwards which maybe could keep the barrel frost free!   I am just delighted to see it's green shoots i  Spring, giving me hope that it has survived another year!  The gorgeous sweet peas were all grown from seeds from last years sweet peas,  sadly these are the only survive survivors,   the 3 other pot fulls on the deck died in the heat and lack of water.  Thankfully these ones will give me seeds to keep them going another year. 

Maybe you could share some photos of your garden my lovelies. xxx

Gina

How brilliant is this card that Gina made for her Son's birthday.   The caption reads " Mum Saying Happy Birthday Son" !!  

The funny thing is the lovely lady here looks similar (in the face) to our Gina, especially with her new hair do !!  They added pearls and gems make it more than just a birthday card,  he won't forget his 39th birthday that's for sure 🤣😂 

Thank you so much for sharing this card with us my lovely XXX 

Thats all for today my lovelies,   I hope that you enjoy this first day of August, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Something Festive for Friday

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Fingers crossed this post published as normal,  I have no idea why yesterday's didn't,  I apologise if any if you missed it.  

Love this artwork,  it gives an Autumn feel though.  

I like the reminder too,   we all need time, for many different reasons.  Do he gentle with yourselves ❤️

I made this Christmas card yesterday afternoon,  the background is made with Distress Sprays,  Oxide Peacock Feathers and Wilted violet spray stain,  I added some splatters of the Distress Mica Sprays in the same colours.  The shimmer looks amazing...

I

 I tried to capture the shimmer in these photos 

I spritzed a piece of white card with a mica pearl spray,  I then used my Bibi Cameron Snowflake die to cut a snowflake from the shimmery card. 

I placed it over the background,  trimmed off the overhanging bits of snowflake and then adhered the piece to a white card base.  

I struggled to get a sentiment to stand out with the busy card front, so die cut 'Wishes ' in black and then pressed into clear ink pad, added clear embossing powder and heat set,  I added the 'Warm Wishes '  from an old Anne Marie designs Christmas sentiments sheet. 

A few black stones finish the card. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Day, 

Love and hugs to all,  

Sandra xxx

A TEXTures Dragonfly Dreams Journal page

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Well yesterday was the 'straw that broke the camels back'  (as they say)!  The heat made the symptoms of uti and theses bloomin antibiotics even worse.  I popped to shops with Lucy in the morning and felt awful in the supermarket,  we came home,  I tried laying on the bed with fan and my cool towel to try and relax but I couldn't relax at all.  So I got up and tried to distract myself by crafting 😂                         Sorry for moaning,  I just believe in being real with you all, I could just say "I'm ok" I guess 🤣

I'm glad it's okay as I do it often 🤣

I bought some of Lou Collins (TEXTures) Dragonfly Dreams collection.  I was drawn to it by the geometrical design if the stamps. 

I used the background stamp from this collection with Kitsch Flamingo & Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide for the background, I spritzed it with water and then dried it before stamping the floral kite shaped stamp from above.  

 

To embellish the card I used a jar of flowers from the paper pad collection,  I wrapped some twine around the jar and added a now.  I fussy cut some of the same flowers from another jar and added some foam pads to the back to raise it up,  I popped another one at the base of the jar.  I added some splatters of both the oxides and blake ink.  To finish I stamped and fussy cut the 'Beautiful ' and added the 'Just the way you are' at the bottom.  

I am looking forward to playing with these stamps more.  

I hope that you all have a lovely day,  especially as its forecast to be cooler,  

My love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Winter Journal page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

Lucy and I had a lovely afternoon yesterday,   Mammogram was a straight forward as usual,  we did have a laugh with a couple of the Ladies in the waiting room though,  we had a wander around Cheltenham afterwards followed by a lovely lunch.

A question we often ask 'are you ok', we often answer "yes I'm ok" because its easier than explaining how we really feel,  partly because we don't want to burden our friends with the truth!       I think that most of us are ok about speaking frankly about how we feel, whether its mentally or physically.  

We shouldn't have to hold back on our true feelings, it really is ok not to be ok!   😘

Today I am sharing a journal page I made on Monday using Stamperia Dewdrops collection.  

I used a piece of background paper and used a lovely snowflake stencil that Sonia bought me to add some texture and interest to the background.  I created the focal piece by using an adhesive frame adding the girl in the frame and using other bits of ephemera to build the scene.

I hope that you all have a great Wednesday 

Love and hugs to all of the, 

Sandra xxx

Stamperia Classic Christmas collection Card

Good Morning Ladies,  

We had a calmer day yesterday,  the wind has dropped,  I felt that the temperature was higher again though,  unless it's my uti symptoms,  Its so frustrating that I have the Uromune here to take but I can't take it until I have this current infection cleared up,  as per usual the surgery are a let down,  because my liver wasn't right the nurse only gave me three days if Nitrofurantoin,   she asked me to go straight in for bloods to recheck my liver,  she was going to call me Friday with blood results to let me know whether to carry on taking them,  she never called (shock 🙄), so I took them,  they feel like they were working but 3 days were never going to work, she said herself that it was a nasty infection,   so I have checked my app and called and heard nothing back,  the last thing on the tast results tab was urine sample from before our holiday.  I will call again this morning,   although we will be out as I have Mammogram this morning,  it seems like it was only last year that I had one,  Lucy is taking me so we will probably go for lunch afterwards,   there are lots of good places in Cheltenham.  

You ALL know what I'm going to say!  So just in case you forgot here is a reminder 🤣

I sat and crafted all afternoon yesterday,  well part crafting part Pinterest browsing 🙄, today's card is one of the things I made.  

I used my new Stamperia Classic Christmas collection,  I took a 6 x 6 inch Kraft card and added a piece of patterned paper from the Junk journal and cut it 1/4 smaller than the base card, I lightly inked the edges and adhered to the card base.  Then I picked out some of the die cut elements from the journal and inked round each one and arranged them on the card front.  I placed the sentiments on bits of hessian and adhered them in opposite corners.   I finished with some white splatters.  

I hope that you all have a good day,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

An art inspired journal page

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

We had another really windy day yesterday,  slightly cloudy, it was cooler though so better for being out in the garden.  It was a perfect day for getting washing dry though,   got all of our bedding washed, even the super thick quilted mattress topper.   I love lined dried bedding,  I was excited to go to bed 🤣😂

How lovely is this artwork 😍, great sentiment too,  you are so incredibly worthy ❤️ 

I had almost forgotten about this journal page, I made it a couple weeks before holiday,   I hadn't made anything for today so quickly checked my 'Holiday ' folder.  

I used the Stamperia All Around collection for this page, I added both lilac and white paint on the background and then  stamped and used embossing paste for texture and interest. 

I picked out a collection of die cuts from the junk journal and the Focus journal too.  After creating the composition I added some sketchy lines on the die cuts and added some splatters.  I frayed a piece of hessian to put the sentiment on. 

I hope that you all have a great start to your week, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx