My Birthday card from Lilian

 

Good Tuesday Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday took a bit of a turn, Becca's post-op check up didn't go to plan,  the operation wasn't successful, so she had to spend the whole day waiting to have the surgery re-done,  she went down at around 6pm  after waiting since 8.45am!  I can only imagine the stress, she had Adam with her thankfully.  The surgery took almost 2 hours this time,  apparently they went a lot deeper this time, I hope they have done it thoroughly.  They said it was a lot more traumatic for Becca too.  She has to have complete bed rest for the rest of this week, they have prescribed extra eye drops to help clear the inflammation quicker.  

Today we were all having our pre-wedding pamper, manicure, pedicure & eyelash tint etc, it's going to be so sad doing it without her 😢 

On a much brighter note I am sharing the amazing card that Lilian made for my birthday. 🥰

It has a lovely ombre stencilled background, edged beautifully with black card.  Embellished with a gorgeous blue poppy, as always Lilian's colouring is incredible.  

Knowing that you ladies took time to make these beautiful cards for me makes them the most special gift.  Thank you so very Lilian xxx

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx

My Birthday card from Sonia

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

How is it September already,  Becca & Adam's wedding has always seemed months away, its now 5 days!  

I love Autumn, the colours are so beautiful ! 

Today I am sharing the beautiful card that Sonia made for my birthday, that film strip die cut frames the die cut sentiment perfectly. I love the delicate stencilling too, such a beautiful shade of pink. 

Thank you so much my lovely for making this card for me xxx

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

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx 

 

Our crafts this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying the weekend,  we had a relatively 'normal' Saturday, thankfully.  We did have to go food shopping,  which we will forever do our best to avoid,  my goodness was it busy!  We had to pick a few things up for Becca, who apparently 'needed' snacks,  so we called in on our way home to check on her and drop off her 'essentials ',  she is panicking about getting everything done for Saturday, we sat and talked through everything and she was much calmer by the time we left.  That was pretty much Saturday over, I feel like this whole week is going to be the same! 

Let's look at what we had on our desks this week.....

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, finished at last, it’s the background that takes so long and the finding the bits for the topper.

Stamperia papers, “Mr Magic”.

Once I’d got all the pieces and inked the edges it was just a case of deciding how to arrange them and the sticking them down.

The new glue gun is very useful, money well spent.

Lilian I absolutely love your journal page, what a great way to use up all of those papers and ephemera that we hoard.  The background is stunning, the colours are gorgeous and those Dahlias look so realistic 😍 

Thank you so much for sharing your page with us XXX

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a card for the challenge All with Aall&Create- stencil and stamps However the “paint” was inspired by Vicky Papaicannou She used DO sprays or was it reinkers A few drops on the page and then tap it with your finger and it creates these amazing splats I had to use Ali Reeves brand of spray.

I can vouch that this card is even better in real life as this was my birthday card from Karen. There is so much detail, its amazing Karen, I really love it.  

Thank you so much XXX

Maria 

Maria's Description 

I used a piece I made some time ago with some shiny paint through a stencil. It looked too much with a whole piece so I just used a bit in the corner. I then used some circle stamps and splatter in dark purple. New die from an old crafting magazine that I like a lot.

We are still on backgrounds and yours is perfect.  I love your stencilled corner piece too, great colour and texture too. 

Thank you so much for making time to create a card, I know you are waiting for news and have your family on your mind my lovely XXX 

***************

I hope that you all have a great Sunday,  

Love and hugs to you all,

Sandra xxx

Mixed Up Saturday.....

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday was very long and just mentally draining, we left here just after seven am and got to hospital for 8am, she was seen straight away, she was still hopeful at this point that it was something temporary,  but I knew something was up when they put her ahead of everyone else for scans etc, then we went straight to Surgeon, he explained that it was detatched retina, at which point she broke down,  she explained that she was getting married next Saturday, so he went off to discuss best options,  the surgery that Paul had wouldn't work as the recovery is very strict and takes 4 -6 weeks, it also  carries a huge risk of causing cataracts, which is exactly what happened to Paul, virtually straight away.  So they did Laser Retinopexy combined with Cryotherapy, the combination of which create scars that hold the retina in place, they then put gas in to put pressure on the retina while scars form and heal.   It looks like she is going to have a lovely black eye, but I reassured her that makeup is miraculous these days.  

We were semt straight to a Day Surgery ward, where she was instructed to lay on her left  hand side immediately to prevent any further damage.  Her surgery ended up being way longer than expected as the found muliple tears.  She has follow up appointment on  Monday.   She said she was terrified the whole way through as you have to be awake while they operate on you, Becca asked them to tape her other eye closed so that she couldn't see the needles and scalpel, she said that there quite a few people in  the operating theatre, making it harder to relax, she ended up having a full anxiety attack towards the end of her surgery, I could hear her crying as she came down the corridor, which just broke my heart.  We got her home safe, made sure she was in bed and relaxing 

I haven't felt this helpless befor.

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

The matching pair to yesterday's Ticketed Snippet

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Well, today was meant to be a more relaxed start to the day but sadly we will be leaving here at 7am to take Becca to an Emergency appointment at the Eye Hospital has she has lost vision in her left eye,  the eye specialist she spoke to yesterday seems to think it could be a Detached Retina,  the symptoms do fit, she has an increased risk due to Paul having had Detached Retina,  I am hoping and praying that it isn't that as I cannot see how she could go ahead with the wedding in 8 days.  Paul's aftercare required him to keep his head down, face to floor for atleast 45 minutes in every hour.  This was for 14-21 days to make sure that the gas bubble that put in to hold the newly attached retina in place. Please cross everything that its something easy to fix. 🤞🤞🤞

Soph and I had a lovely day out in Cirencester after my nightmare Bladder Clinic appointment! We browsed the shops had a lovely lunch and found a craft market, where Soph treated me to a lovely pair of earrings.  We finished the day with lovely family dinner. 

Today I am sharing the matching Ticketed Snippets to yesterday's.  This one was made in exactly the same way as yesterday's, the difference is that this one has a flower added, coloured with the same pencil shavings as yesterdays project.  

I will add that you could use any watercolour pencil shavings, pigment powders,  pixie powders will be nice with the added shimmer too. 

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and beautiful cards. 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra 

My next 'Ticketed Snippet '

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Busy day today,  bladder clinic this morning,  fingers crossed that today of all days it goes smoothly,  I'm not convinced that this uti has cleared up, they check that today, so fingers crossed I'll know way one way or another.  Then Soph is taking me out for lunch, we are going to Becca's restaurant for dinner so that she can spend time with me too.  

We went and collected Becca's wedding dress and the Bridesmaids dresses from the seamstress, seeing their dresses fitting perfectly makes such a difference they looked beautiful.  

This is first of a new pair of Ticketed Snippets, this one used a different technique to colour the background,  I took some blue & green Tim Holtz watercolour pencils and used a pencil sharpener to get some 'shavings' from each colour, I took the Ticket stencil and used a permanent pen to trace round the inside, giving me the ticket outline, I placed the chevron stencil over the ticket and did one version with translucent texture paste and one with crackle texture paste.  With the stencil in place I sprinkled some of the shavings over the wet texture paste, I then set these to dry.  Once they were dry I spritzed them with water to get the colours to run onto the background. I dried them both, I did add some more of the pencil to the background and used a waterbrush to blend them in.  I cut around the outline and added some splatters, then added them to my little journal,  I added shading then added some extra chevrons, these were coloured by cleaning the stencil of residue paste with colour, I created three more backgrounds.  I stamped the little bird and added shading. All of the stencils and stamps are Tracey Evans. 

I will share its partner tomorrow.

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx  

Another Workshop Card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,

Lucy treated me to brunch out yesterday, we went to our favourite spot  in Witney.  We then had a browse at make-up in Boots & Superdrug, my Lipstick is older than I dare admit, I wear it that rarely that it was lasted forever,  I was looking for a match but it has been discontinued,  how many different things do they have to replace plain old Lipstick these days,  there are lip scrubs for getting rid of dead skin, then primer,  then liner ooh and don't forget your lip oil!! Long gone are the days of a bit of Lipstick and a swipe of gloss!   I bought a couple of bits and kissed goodbye to £40 +

Today I am sharing another of the projects I did from a Tracey Evan Worksop.  No 'Masterboard background on this one, I just stamped the centre piece and used some of the little Ephemera stamps to build the image up.  While I waited for the ink to dry, I got out my 'Ticketed Snippet and positioned it where I wanted it on my project, added some low tack tape and then used three Inktense pencils to add add colour, after laying down some colour I used a paintbrush a bring the colours to life!  I did fussy cut the butterfly and coloured it using the same colours as the background.  The finishing touches are a leaf branch that I stamped after adding some of the inktense onto the stamp,  then adding spritz of water and stamped the flower a couple of times, dried it then fussy cut the branch and adhered over the stamped branch.  A few ink splatters finished the piece. 

Another project that I really enjoyed creating! 

I hope that you have a great Wednesday, 

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Ps.  I hope this makes sense as its currently 4:02am as I am trying to get this finished!