Saturday 18 September 2021

Mixed Up Saturday

 


Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope the weekend finds you well, what are you all up to? We will be mostly catching up with garden jobs, the lawns are so long, well the clover is so long so both front and back need cutting, I did dead head all of my pots yesterday afternoon,  if I am lucky I may get another show of flowers from some of my Geraniums. The 'Bird & Butterfly ' seed mix came into full bloom will we were away, I will share some of the pretty flower heads below..



This 'Pheasant Berry' or 'Himalayan Honeysuckle' is by far the biggest and has more berries and flowers than ever before, it looks incredible,  the common name 'Pheasant Berry' comes from the fact that pheasants really enjoy the berries, so it looks like we will have some happy pheasants this Autumn.  

These tiny Cyclamen are just so pretty, we only have a few and they are definitely more evident since we cleared the densely congested border on front of a hedge of fir trees earlier this year, the most prolific weed was clover, it took us (mostly Paul) over a week, the problem is you can't dig it because of all the tree roots, so its a case of using a weeding tool to individually pull weeds out.  We have planted a ground cover plant 'Creeping Thyme' randomly to try and kerp the clover roots in check, the variety we have used gives a carpet of bright pink flowers,  so fingers crossed it will look better.  Seeing these tiny cyclamen made the hard work so worth it. 




A selection of Marigolds that are dotted all through a side border,  I was by the colouring and gentle patterning in the petals. I also thought thst these photos would give me a lovely colouring reference to follow. 

Now I don't profess to be as professional as Michele at Magazine Reviews but I had the latest copy of 'Creative Stamper' Magazine waiting for me when I got home so I thought I would share it with you because it has some lovely Christmas cards inside (to inspire you). The free gifts are actually really nice stamps, four different collections!  So here we go...

Creative Stamping Magazine Review 





As you can see there is a Stamp set for every kind of Christmas card,  Traditional,  Religious,  Modern (silhouette trees, stag etc) and  Cute Christmas too, those penguins are adorable.  


In this first feature Vanessa Hodgson uses the Cute stamps with a variety of stamping techniques to give some lovely cards.  



I love this cute first card she made just using the Masking Technique and Distress Oxides, so simple but so effective!


This feature is all about Crafters Companion 'New Releases ' This particular issue is very 'Crafter’s Companion '!! I love that first card with the vintagw postmark background,  I'm pretty confident that most of us have, 'alternative ' stamps that would work perfectly.  😉


In this feature Nicky Gilburt encourages you to get your Distress Oxides out and play with them, I have picked a couple if cards to highlight.. .



I'm not keen on the T shirt,  but I love the background so I have shared with you the little tutorial that Nicky used to colour Texture paste with Distress Oxides, I am happy to do a little video for you if you can't see the instructions very well. 


I really love this card, its a gold embossed outline and the Distress Oxide have been blended over the background with finger  dauber, then she has take  a clean water brush over the petals to 'faux bleach ' the petals, using kitchen roll to lift the excess water/ink, she has then flicked water over the background and blot again to lift the water and colour, this technique gives texture and extra interest the flowers were finished with a gold glitter pen. 


These cards have all been made with the Downloadable Free papers that you can access (I never think to do it).  One of the cards features the 'Arrow Fold' we did earlier this year. 


This card features the Free NOEL die and downloads included in the next Issue of 'Simply Cards & Papercraft ' Magazine due out on 29th September. !! 


This Lady is the 2021 Cardmaker of the year and she has used the 'Nativity ' themed collection of the Free stamps to create some lovely Christmas cards,  the first card uses DO's the second uses Pixie Powders,  the third is a lovely pop up box card.



Theresa Morgan shows you different ways to take your Heat Embossing to the next level,  the little tutorial shows you how to Create a Glazed Tile Effect, basically you score the tile lines in and then add layers of clear embossing powder.  It does look really effective.   The other two cards use a Distress Resist Spray, which is something new to me  I am tempted to have a play, the third card uses Glitter Emboss Resist technique. You basically die cut a circle and randomly stamp the snowflakes,  add Hologram Sparkle Embossing powder and heat set, then blend two different DO's over the circle, the Hologram powder gives the Resist and Sparkles at the same time. 


These two cards use different techniques again, the tree card has you very carefully adding your embossing powder in stripes (sounds like a lot of work)! The final card uses Tone on Tone embossing,  I really like this effect! 


Oh my goodness,  I absolutely love the Pearlywinks Be Bold stamp set, that Dragonfly is just so beautiful! 


It's wings are like lace, so delicate!  Oh I just might have to buy it ! 

I love these cards they all have fairly simple backgrounds allowing the stamps to take centre stage! 



Now I love the idea of a Box card that has tiny lights inside, how amazing would it look on the Mantelpiece!? You stamp your focal piece on Vellum and cover the edges with a mirror card frame, which allows the light to shine through,  it would look lovely with a Star as focal point or the Santa on his Sleigh flying in front of an illuminated moon!! 


John Lockwood demonstrates how to build scenes with with Winter Themed 'Two Jay's ' Finger Stamps. I'm guessing they are similar to the 'Cardio' stamps?! Some nice cards to inspire us. 



Ruth Hamilton has created some lovely 'Clean & Simple ' cards that can be made in minutes!  The first card uses two stamps from the free gifts, the background is made by flicking a Nuvo Aqua Marker over the background! Infact the first 4 cards are same technique,  I love the one with the baubles! 


Final feature is shows some lovely cards made with Lisa Horton's new Festive products, I love that Sketch Poinsettia and some of her new Embossing Folders are amazing!! 

That's all for this review, if you have any questions about anything I have shared please don't hesitate to ask. 

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Ladies that is all for today,  this has turned out to be a very long post,  hopefully you will enjoy it.

See you back here tomorrow for your favourite day of the week....

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

6 comments:

  1. Morning Everyone
    Thank you for the Mag Review SANDRA.Some good ideas in this one.

    We're off to Mhall M&S food hall/meeting Jim's Niece for a cup of Coffe (at last having tried numerous times and not making it for various reasons) and I'm going into the Opticians to have my new frames changed (at last).
    So a very busy morning and fingers crossed a relaxing afternoon.

    The CAFE is of course OPEN for all Friends old and new.
    HUGS are ontheir way to you all.HAVE A GOOD WEEK-END.TAKE CARE AND STAY SAFE.xxxx

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  2. Hi everyone
    Oh that quote is so true ☺️
    Your plants and flowers look beautiful, all the hard work is worth it in the end. Sadly we still haven’t got around to sourcing any new plants or flowers for our garden yet. We are in the middle of clearing up the endless leaves and pulling up the odd weeds that still seem to appear even though we have a membrane in the borders.
    Thank you for a great magazine review, lots of lovely articles in there, and the 4 free stamp sets look fabulous.
    Janet, enjoy your coffe and meet up with Jim’s niece xx
    Busy day here as got family/friends round tonight to celebrate our anniversary. Picking up cake/cupcakes this morning and then a quick flick over with the duster and hoover again, and then setting everything up. Tomorrow will be spent packing before we go to Wales on Monday.
    Have a lovely day everyone. Sending hugs to you all xxx

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  3. Happy Anniversary SONIA
    Great saying Your flowers look amazing I have never grown any until this summer and must admit a few people walking past have commented on how lovely they look
    Thank you for the magazine review It looks like it has a really bumper stamping kit and some great ideas I really must make more use of my DO pads
    I’m not keen on sprays I can never get it lo look right I have 2 that are donkeys years old
    Enjoy the meet up with JIM’s niece and hope your celebrations go well SONIA
    I am going to a friend’s memorial service today It looks like it’s going to be outside as we’ve been asked to bring a chair It’s my mad New Yorker friend so don’t know what the format will be
    Take care all xx

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Karen, it’s our anniversary on Tuesday but celebrating this evening as we’re going away on Monday 😊
      Hope the memorial service goes well xxx

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  4. Morning everyone
    You made me giggle with the girls saying they need a Hi wiz and hard hat going into the craft room. Something similar here, it's the kitchen so someone always in and out for something.
    Had a look at this magazine the other day but didn't buy it, might do it now after seeing all the nice things shown.
    Beautiful flowers in your garden Sandra, fabulous colours.
    Going out for a walk, have not done many lately and then hoping to get some crafting done. Yesterday didn't turned out liked I had wanted it to.
    Have a lovely day everyone whatever you are up to. Hugs xx

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  5. Hello Sandra and ladies,

    Beautiful photos of flowers in your garden. Nature’s a wonderful thing bringing such beauty into our gardens. I love all of the summer colours, but have to say the autumnal palette is my favourite, especially the trees, the downside is it’s a sign winter is on its way.
    Great magazine review Sandra, so many interesting articles in it. Must try to get to WH Smith’s and see if they have any copies left.

    Sonia have a lovely evening and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY for Tuesday. xx

    JANET hope you enjoyed you shopping trip and the meet up with Jim’s niece. xx

    MARIA enjoy your walk. Don’t go overdoing it or you won’t have any energy left for crafting. xx

    KAREN hope the weather was kind to you and the memorial service went well, xx

    Ladies enjoy the rest of your day, Sandra and Paul don’t go pushing yourself to hard theres always another day.
    Love and hugs, Brenda xxx

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