My First Challenge card this week & happy Birthday Janet

 

Happy Birthday Janet 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

Ladies please join me in wishing our Lovely Janet the very happiest of Birthdays, I hope that you have a lovely day.  I also hope that you had a lovely lunch out yesterday, something so simple feels like such a treat at the moment doesn't it.  I hope that you enjoy the rest of your day, will there be cake?? if not I hope that there is some chocolate.  

The heavens were shining for your Birthday weekend Janet, we had a beautiful day yesterday, the sun shone all day, Paul went out to sort what used to be our summer house, glass everywhere!  It looked so lovely that I decided to go out and 'supervise' lol !!  In reality I stacked a few pots and went around cutting back some dead stems,  it was so lovely to be out in the sunshine, the sun just makes everything better doesn't it.  

Today's card is a quick card, I made it yesterday afternoon, the stamp set is Tasteful Touches, I have had it for ages and used just the sentiment.  So I thought I would use the flower and leaf stem, I used one of the background stamps just to give a little bit of detail, I just used 2nd generation stamping as I didn't want anything to take over the flower stamp.  Sometimes it's nice to create a no frills stamped card, no layers, no embellishments, just single layer stamped card. The colours I used are Night of Navy and Old Olive, Gray Granite second generation in background.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                                                                                          xxxxxxx

Your Colour Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

What a gloriously sunny day we had yesterday, my goodness it helps lift the spirits, which I really needed, a culmination of events really got me down yesterday.   I do think we all have those days, we can only absorb so much sadness,  having a good old cry really does help.  I had a terrible morning,  firstly I couldn't (and still have not found the card I made for our Janet) I had put it somewhere safe and it turns out it was so safe that it's still secure!  I was upset that I had to send a card that I hadn't made specifically for Janet. Anyway as I was tidying up the mess I made turning my craft room upside down looking for said card, I leaned forward to pick up a box and full force cracked my head on the corner 'pointy' part of a wooden shelf, well Ladies that is all it took to open the floodgates,  I pretty much bawled for the rest of the day, my heart was so bad that my fingers were tingly/numb.  (I will add that a very upset daughter was part of my emotional day too, not just Janet's card) lol.

It doesn't seem possible that we only lost Paul's Dad last Saturday too, so much sadness 😢   

We just popped and did some food shopping and then went home to finally sort the devastation in the garden.  

Your Colour Combination Challenge Projects 

Lilian 

Lilian has shared this lovely Blue  & Green ( my favourite) card.  The background Lilian created using a stencil and oxides  painted over. That pretty flower Lilian has decoupaged,  giving the look of incredible dimension. Having that single flower allows that stunning background to share the limelight!!  

Such a lovely card Lilian,  thank you so much for sharing it with us XXX

Janet

Janet's Description:

Here are my offerings for this week.

Both pieces were created for my first 'Art Journal' I made a couple of years ago.

The size of the journal is 8x8.

For my first offering

I cannot remember where I bought the embellishments from but the lace etc was from my stash. This is the first page of the journal.

It fits the Challenge and colour is Brown and Cream.

My second offering

is from Clarity of course. and the colour is Green,Peach and Yellow

Janet thank you so much for sharing two beautiful pieces from your Journal. That vintage mixed media page is just incredible,  so much texture and detail.  Then you have the stunningly simple Groovi page, no frills yet equally as beautiful.  

Thanks again my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description: 

My cc colours for this week are Cerise/ Pink and Brown and the other one is

Turquoise/ Lilac.

Maria thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge x I really love the cerise & Brown,  it makes me think about Raspberry & Chocolate mousse.  How effective are those twisted squares on your second card !!? I love this layout, thank you so much for the inspiration my lovely XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

I did this black and white card over the weekend for a Salsa friend using a La Blanche Die.

Here’s another cc for this week - complimentary colours orange/blue

A pixie powder background a la SANDRA Burnt Orange and Lave Red and a SueW die cut in white and (cobalt) blue The stamp is one MARIA gave me.

Two fabulous cards for this weeks challenge Karen, thank you so much for taking part. I really love that Tango image, you can't beat a classic monochrome card fot style.  Now that 'Happy' die shouts American Varsity style, My Sophie would love it, great for Man cards too, I love your Pixie powder background too so colourful!  Thanks again Karen XXX 

Sonia

Sonia has shared two beautiful cards for our favourite colour combination challenge. Both are stunning,  you are 100% Queen of Kraft Card !! .The first DL shaped card is perfect with the die cut corners and the beautiful filigree butterflies as finishing touches. It's those extra details that make Sonia's catds special,  little things that you don't notice at first, like the perfect pierced edge down either side of the cream card and the perfectly placed sentiment.   

Look at that incredible embossing on the second card, wow! So detailed ( you must use Gordon's magic spray Sonia 🤣) ! 😉😜!!  Seriously though having such a beautiful embossed background you need nothing more than a simple embellishment. 

Sonia your Kraft Cards are an inspiration to us all.

Thank you so very much XXX 

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

Ladies thank you so much once again for so much amazing inspiration,  I really appreciate you all sharing your designs and ideas every week, inspiring me and each other ❤

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

I would like to send special hugs to our Brenda & Lynda, I hope you are both relaxing and recuperating,  love 😘 and hugs 🤗 xxx

Love and hugs to you all, 

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Mixed Up saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I hope you are all ok and preparing to have a lovely relaxing weekend.   We are going to have exactly that, maybe some time in the garden, definitely some time in the craft room.  I find the news so distressing right now,  I don't know why I am finding it so hard to watch, I feel so sorry for Ukraine,  I obviously wouldn't want it to turn into a world war but I just hate to see Ukraine fighting such an impossible battle on it's own.  The 'sanctions ' will have little effect. Seeing those poor families trying to flee their family homes, taking only what they can carry is just heartbreaking 😢 

Anyway let's change the subject...

Diecutting Essentials Issue 87

Issue 87 Features a Crafters Fairy Wishes Edger Die by Crafter’s Companion.  It's a nice die if Fairies are 'your thing'!  Some of the projects featuring the die are quite nice. 

This feature shows you how to get the best results from your free die set. She has designed some lovely cards that really show the die off nicely.  There is a little highlight showing you how to create a full set of wings for the fairy (rather than side view).

I love this technique, I did create a YouTube video on it a few years ago.  It's basically allowing your floral die cuts to flow out of the die cut frame, it looks really effective and it easier than you think to do. I really do like these techniques that allow us to get more out of the stash we already have. 

A bit of fun with Shrink Plastic in this featur, I haven't used it fot years, I guess it would make fun embellishments.  

I like this technique, I have seen dies that have the words integrated into the die itself. But you only have that one word, using this technique you can make whatever word you like for your cards, it looks quite straightforward too. 

Some more cards using the Fairy Edge Die, I love the shades of purple the designer has used. There are some free paper downloads to go with this die included in the magazine.  

This feature shows you how to stretch your Watercolour Skills, using watercolours combined with die cutting and embossing, you will die cur through 2 pieces of card, I cuts through the first layer and  has just embossed the flower into the second layer, the embossed piece is where you will add the watercolour, so the die cut layer will be an aperture. I might have a go at this. 

A lovely technique that will add dimension to your cards, simply by stacking stand alone dies to create dimension,  whether it's using different colours of individual flowers stacked up using foam pads etc or using a Sentiment die raised on foam pads over other die cuts. Quite clever and effective .

Thats all for this review,  there are other features in the magazine but I want to leaves some bits to surprise you if you buy it . xxx

Craft Shopping 

Karen

Karen was lucky enough to have an afternoon out to Country view Crafts this week with her lovely friend Kat, who also did some craft shopping,  in fact Kat bought the new Sizzix Switch Die Cutting machine, I watched Tim Holtz demonstrate his version of it and it looks a great, versatile machine, I would love to hear how Kat gets on with it. 

Karen,  I love all of your shopping, Tracy's new Stamps are beautiful, that large stamp includes focal images, background stamps and bits to create embellishments, who could want more?! I love that background die too, great for journalling!! I use my fan brush all the time to add little splatters to my cards. 

I look forward to seeing what you create, thank you for sharing your shopping with us XXX 

Michele 

Michele has done a bit of Craft Shopping this last week too.  The Hunkydory Sentiment Strip pad is Amazing,  you get so many words and sentiments for your cards making them more versatile than  the TH ones I have, I will definitely be adding these to my shopping basket, you can ink them to match your card colour too.  

How fantastic are those Sentiments stamps and matching dies?? These would be the perfect finishing touch to your projects, you could use the stamps to create backgrounds be repeat stamping, then maybe highlight one with a die cut !! 

Some brilliant purchases Michele,  I hope that they inspire you to get Crafting. 

Thank you so much for sharing your shopping XXX

That's all for today my lovelies, 

Have an amazing weekend,  

Love and hugs to all of you  

Sandra 

xxxxx 

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Another lovely sunny day here yesterday,  very cold though,  we had both hail and snow ❄️ flurries this afternoon, not enough to settle though 😔 (I'd love a couple of feet of snow).  

I had a lovely afternoon yesterday as Sue came over and we mostly talked, we did sit down and craft but spent more time talking, but I'm not complaining 🤣😊

Our Next Challenge 

I was (as always) undecided about this weeks challenge,  I try to think of all of you when I'm deciding which challenge to set, (will it be something you will all be able to take part in etc), will you have the products required to take part, I know that some of you don't enjoy 'messy' Crafting so I try not to include that as a challenge.  I mainly like to encourage you to use things that you already have to get more use out of it, I would also love to see you try new techniques that will allow you to get more for money from your craft stash.  I know that I have tried a new technique and loved it, not all of them though🙄😜!  

Sue was here while I was trying to decide, so she said 'Use number 2 on your list (not knowing what was on my list), it made the decision for me.....

So for this Challenge I would like you to dip into your 'New but haven't used yet basket' !  

Please tell me I'm not the only one that has a 'New craft stash' basket.  It could be anything,  even a magazine freebie that you haven’t used yet.  I photographed the bits in my basket, I do have a few other bits too, some Aall&Create stamps I have bought in collections etc. 

If any of you really don't have anything 'new and not used'  just used something you've only used once.  I have plenty of unused 'Magazine Freebies' I can send you if you're stuck, just let me know. 

Well that's all for today my lovelies,  I hope you all manage to have a good day, 

Sending love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

Lastly My Favourite Green & White

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

How are we all doing? No wind here yesterday,  we started day with a sharp frost but that was soon melted away with some warm sunshine!  Do you ever have those 'hmmm' days, not a bad day as such but not a good day either, if you know what I mean, my poor sleep pattern doesn't help, Paul is always sound as asleep within 5 minutes of closing his eyes,  I think I must have tried everything to get to sleep over the last 5 years and nothing seems to work.  I found myself almost daydreaming half the day, I had laptop on in my craft room, very quietly as Paul had 3 meetings on zoom!  They have said today that it could take up to 2 or 3 months to get his building safe enough to use, so they are organising parties of people to go in and collect necessary paperwork etc.  Luckiky a lot of them can work from home.

Today's card is a very simple design using my shades of my favourite colour and a beautiful stamp set called Calming Camellia. These photo real stamps give such a detailed image, I stamped the image onto 'Soft Succulent' card using Evening Evergreen Ink, I stamped randomly around 4 inch × 8 inch piece of card, I mounted that onto a mat of Evening Evergreen card and then onto a white DL card base. I wanted to keep the design of the card simple as the stamp is quite detailed.  I added a piece of frayed Evening Evergreen ribbon across the card ans stamped a simple sentiment onto white card and die cut with a label die and matted it onto Evening Evergreen label die cut for continuity.   

Hoping to see Sue today, looking forward to a catch up.

I hope that you all have a lovely day 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

Pink & Grey Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Hopefully the weather has calmed where you are, we still have fairly strong winds, it's much brighter today and out in the sun it feels pleasant.  

Janet hopefully the builders can get up on your roof and get it made weatherproof so that you can sleep peacefully.  

How do you all feel about the fact that all Covid precautions are being scrapped?  I understand that the country needs to get back to 'normal' but telling people that they don't need to isolate or inform their employer if they have the virus is ridiculous.

Today's card is a colour combination that I haven't used for ages,  but aren't they a petfect match?!  The colours are Basic Gray & Powder Pink. I have had this stampin up stamp set for ages, I got it from a fb group used, I really like it, my only gripe is that inking up is a faff if you want the stems a different colour to the flowers, I used a SU Blender pen to add the ink to the stamp, I then spritzed it with water to re-moisten the ink, then stamped it onto white card and then die cut, add a Basic Gray mat then adhere to a piece of Powder Pink card that I had adhered to a 5 x 5 card blank.  I finished the card by adding the 'Just a note ' sentiment die cut in Gray.  I quite like how it turned out. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Pixie Powder Red/Orange challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Oh Ladies I do hope you are all safe and well, I have to say the wind here here terrible all day,  it just didn't stop, we have a good amount of rain too.  Janet & Michele you were both in my thoughts all day as I know the gales were a lot worse your area, fingers crossed tou didn't suffer any damage/further damage.  Fingers crossed that this storm will be the last for a while.  We need it to calm down so that we can get out there and clean up the wood a shattered glass, so the cats can go out safely without getting cut paws. They don't usually go near the greenhouse but knowing our luck they will be inquisitive! 

Janet your Yorkshire puddings sound same as ours,  we eat ours with our roast beef though, I have to say that we never wash our Yorkshire Pudding tin or Roast Potatoe tin, we cook our Roast Potatoes in Beef Dripping,  Paul always removes any 'bits of potato ' that are left after we have served up when fat has cooled, my thinking is those tins get screaming hot so any germs will burn off !! 

Today's card started off with the Pixie Powder background,  I made it weeks ago and it has been looking at me on my desk saying "come on use me up" So I picked it up and had a rifle through my dies to see what would work with it, I decided to chop it in half and use it as an accent piece to place a single stem Wildflower die cut on. The pixie powder colours are Burnt Orange and Lava Red (I think)! I wanted to add a little accent colour so went for Cheery Cobbler as it picked up the red tones. I die cut a single stem from Tim Holtz Wildflower dies, in white and Cherry Cobbler to create a drop shadow.  I layered them together and placed onto my pixie powder background. Layered the Pixie Powder background onto a Cherry Cobbler mat and placed onto the left side of the card base.  I stamped the Sentiment in Cherry Cobbler ink to match the mat and drop shadow. I love red/orange combination. 

Let's hope today will be calmer weather wise! 

Sending love and hugs to you all, 

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx