More Autumn-ness 🤣😂

Good Friday Morning My Lovelies,  

Well all yesterday morning I kept getting alerts ⚠️ saying that we were expecting Heavy Thunder storms, so I was expecting power cuts etc, but they didn't happen it was lovely and sunny all day.  So maybe we will get them today?  Have you had them forecast where you are?  I have to admit I do love a thunder storm at night.

You know we all take our work for granted, we make cards from scratch and send them, but when I was photographing thus background afterbI had finished it, I looked at it and thought "15 minutes ago this was a blank piece of white card"! 

I started by stamping the leaves and splatters in Versamark and add embossed with white powder. I then creased the card in all directions to create the 'faux batik' effect, I then inked the card with Crushed Curry, Pumpkin pie,  Garden Green & Cherry Cobbler around the outside of the card. I love the richness of the colours on this one.  After I finished inking I wiped over the card to reveal the white embossing and the subtle Batik lines. 

To finish the card I stamped the sentiment onto white card in Cherry Cobbler ink and matted it onto a strip if Kraft card and finished with a fussy cut leaf and 3 sparkle gems. 

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend,  

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Autumn Distress Oxide card (pt 2)

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

We had a very gloomy start to yesterday,  to the point I was going to wear a thick jumper, luckily I didn’t as Lucy and I went out for brunch and the sun was so warm, it was like a summers day ☀️.  We had a lovely day out, browsing round the shops.

Today I am sharing the second of my two Autumnal Distress cards, this one is Distress Oxides, so much more subtle in colour.  

I have to say that I am really surprised at the difference in colour between the two ...

They are both exactly the same shades of distress...

Fossilised Amber, Abandoned Coral & Spiced Marmalade.  

The Distress inks are so much richer in the depth of colour, which is why I have been tending to reach for them rather than oxides recently but I have to say that blending with Oxides is SO much easier as they have such a creamy texture it just glides on the card. 

I can't pick a favourite,  they are both lovely in their own way but I feel that Distress inks are more Autumnal.   

What do you all think? Do you have a preference?

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & huge hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Autumn Distress Ink card (pt 1)

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Another beautiful day here yesterday,  although it felt quite chilly in the house though. It's lovely to hear that you are all enjoying some time in your gardens. 

I had a play with Distress Inks and Distress Oxides yesterday,  I decided to make an Autumnal version of this card......

I used Distress inks Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade & Fossilised Amber to create the warm autumn background, I spritzed with water and then dried with heat tool before stamping the 'Leafy Swirls' stamp in Versamark ink and adding gold embossing powder and heat set. 

The sentiment is a Tim Holtz stamp that I stamped onto a off cut of the background and stampef and embossed in gold, I matted that onto a piece of kraft card to tie it into the background. 

I hope the sun shines on you all today, 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

She's back at it.....

 

Good Tuesday Morning Ladies, 

I finally got to sit at my desk and play ☺️, I can't tell you how good it felt!  I will say that it took me a good 2 or 3 hours to actually start making anything.  My mojo was definitely not ready to return from summer break 🙄🤣

I did a bit of pinterest browsing and watched some YouTube videos,  but still nothing clicked, so I browsed through my stamps and dug out anything Autumnal and then referred to the Autumnal inspiration colours I shared on Saturday and thats how this card came to be.  

I used SU French Foliage stamp and stamped the leaves in Cherry Cobbler, Bumblebee, Old Olive & Crumb Cake for the script in the background.  I stamped onto Very Vanilla card and mounted it onto Cherry Cobbler and thrn onto a Vanilla card base, I used a torn off cut of cheery cobbler card for a border with twine and a little stamped tag sentiment.  I am really pleased with my first "Autumnal " challenge card. 

I can't wait to see what you create ❤️

Love & Hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

A classic colour combination

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

We had a pleasant start to the day yesterday,   Paul got loads done in the garden, strimming weeds around veg beds, trimming hedges, it looked so much tidier.  By early evening I couldn't see the hills in the distance, then the heavens opened, it poured down.  It turned much cooler too, we popped to the shop mid afternoon to get a piece of beef as I was craving a Roast dinner,  we used veg from the garden....

As daft as it sounds, it was so exciting eating delicious veg that you have grown from seed 😋 

That savoy cabbage was amazing,  from picking to eating in less than an hour!! 

Today's card is in one of my all time favourite colour combinations, a super simple stamped image layered onto two pieces of Sun Prints dsp, I finished the look with 3 tiny pearls.  

I am looking forward to sitting at my desk and playing today ☺️

I hope that you all have a good day,

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Lets see what you have been creating

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies 

I hope that you are all enjoying the warmer weather.  We planned a few things to do for our anniversary yesterday but sadly didnt get to do anything as I had a major Interstitial Cystitis flare up, as a result of my poorly administistered instillation at bladder clinic on Thursday 😡

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

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Here is a DL card,  The background and  embellishment are from Serif. 

Oh Karen those flowers look stamped, I love that background so much.  Was the embellishment cut on the Scan & Cut ?  

Absolutely gorgeous card Karen thank you so much for sharing it with us XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

I colored the reindeer in with Promarkers and used some leftover crystals for his eyes and the berries.

Oh Maria I absolutely love your Christmas card that deer is so beautiful and your colouring is amazing, you have really bought him to life.  

Thank you for sharing your card with us.

I hope that you have a lovely holiday.  XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is my card for this week, couldn’t remember if there was a special theme or not.

I’m not sure why that bottom corner looks so dark, it isn’t in the hand.

I used mica powders, to colour the flowers so maybe they didn’t catch the light properly.

Stencil with oxide inks , I will try and do another one if I can.

That background is so lovely Lilian,  the combination of the inks and stencils is amazing,  the colours work so well, the Tim Holtz Floral Trim stamp looks like it was designed to do there, so inspirational.  

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

**********

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Firstly today I would like to wish my amazing Husband a very Happy 33rd Wedding Anniversary, I cannot put into words how incredibly blessed I feel to have my best friend as my Husband and I didn't think it was possible to love someone as much as I love Paul ❤️ XXX 

 Not our usual Saturday post but I feel like I am playing catch up at the moment, this week has been an exhausting whirlwind,  from getting home from a 1000 mile journey from Spain on Wednesday evening to up early Thursday morning for hospital,  then my brother arrived as we were driving back from hospital and we haven't stopped since he arrived.  I did manage to get a load of holiday washing in yesterday morning, the rest of the washing,  towels etc are in the roof box that Paul hasn't had chance to empty yet.  

We have had the loveliest time with my brother though, I feel sad that we haven't seen each other in so long but that's mostly due to the fact that we don't drive over to visit mum anymore.  More than anything I am so incredibly happy that he has found himself the most amazing partner, Caroline is so lovely, there was no awkwardness it felt like we had known her for years.  I can't wait until we see them again.  

I have to say that Paul and I are looking forward to having a slow weekend,  getting through the post holiday jobs slowly.  I do hope the weather warms up a little though.

Our Next Challenge 

You have probably guessed from the pictures above, I thought it would be lovely to create cards or Journal pages, Snippets etc in Autumnal colours,  I looked online for the 'on trend ' colours for this Autumn/Winter for this year.  I also added some photos of leaves/trees for a little bit more inspiration.  I have to say that Autumn is my favourite Season alongside Spring.  So I am really looking forward to seeing what you create.

I hope that the Sun warms your day and that you have a lovely one,

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

My Beautiful Birthday card from Sonia

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Why does it feel like we have been back from Holiday about a week!??   We hit the ground running,  we were home later than we expected,  it was good to be back on my lovely mattress though, it is so comfortable.  Thursday morning soon whizzed round though and it was up and showered ready to head off to be Bladder Clinic appointment,  the journey was a blooming nightmare though, they decided to close the main road about 8 miles from hospital so we took the diversion,  which was realky windy, the tiniest roads with lots of extra traffic was a recipe for disaster,  we ended up being 1/2 hour late for my appointment,  we did phone ahead and they said for us not too rush and that they would wait for us, which was so kind.  The only frustration was that I had the nurse that seems to stress and struggle to get the catheter in,  she did get it in eventually but I was almost climbing off the table,  its done now though, thats it for another 4 weeks!! 

As we left the hospital my brother called to say he had arrived,  so we got home and and he came to visit, then we went out for dinner at Becca's Highway, Adam has designed the most incredible Tapas menu,  Adam and Becca ordered a feast and we all enjoyed every bit of it.  It was so lovely spending time with my Brother and his girlfriend Caroline,  she is so lovely 😍 

Today I am sharing the gorgeous Birthday card I received from our Sonia, every element works perfectly,  the background paper has such a subtle design, which works so well with the overall design.

Thank you so much Sonia for creating a beautiful card for , I love it 😍😘

i hope that you have good day everyone ,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

My new Tim Holtz stamp

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

We arrived back in UK at around 6.20pm, then had the long drive home, I don't know how Paul does it,  driving for 12 hours in one day, he's amazing 😍.

We were both a bit shocked at how cold it was,  it was 8° in Folkestone,   I checked the forecast and tonight it is getting down to 2°, thats shocking for September,   the log burner will definitely be going on followed by the Aga.  

We have a busy day today,  I have bladder clinic this morning  then my brother is arriving this afternoon and staying for 2 days, I am so looking forward to seeing him and meeting his partner Caroline. 

Today I am sharing a card I made before we went on holiday, I was trying out both my new Tim Holtz Embroidery stamp (because the design is from an Embroidery pattern) and my Distress Spritzs. 

I stamped the flower onto Kraft card using Archival Vintage photo,  I then coloured the flowers with my Distress Watercolour Pencils,  to finish the look I spritzed some of Spritz onto my glass mat on matching colours and used a paint brush to colour over the Watercolour Pencils,  now initially I thought "hmmm it doesn't look any different " but then I picked it up and the light caught the flower and the shimmer looked so pretty.  I will attempt to pick it up on camera. 

Its so hard to capture shimmer in a photo, its definitely there though.  I look forward to experimenting with them some more.                         The sentiment is from another new stamp set that I look forward to showing you.  I love the simple font, I used the same colour of distress ink (yellow/orange) in an ombre effect. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Homeward Bound

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Well today is the final day of our holiday,  we get the Eurotunnel back to Folkestone later this afternoon,  then fingers crossed a 3 hour journey home.  

Our last night was a lovely one we stayed in the Chateau Rollin,  its a 15th century Renaissance Castle with an incredible history,  it has been occupied by Germans twice during wars.  The current owners have been restoring the castle and grounds to its former glory.  You can feel their enthusiasm and love for the place when they greet you.  

This has been the perfect ending to our holiday ❤

No rest for the wicked though, we are up bright and early tomorrow morning for my bladder clinic appointment!!  Then my brother is coming to visit for a couple of days,  he is staying at Becca's hotel, I can't wait to see him, its been atleast 3 years.  

I hope that you all have a good day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

The journey home began yesterday, we left our holiday home at around 11am,  had one last walk on the beach,  frustratingly it was a gloriously hot sunny day with calm sea, so  we could have had one last swim!  But hey ho! There is always next year,  we decided we will come back here but in early July as Becca said she couldn't bare me to be away so close to her wedding.  Apart from the one year for covid it will be the first time in many years that we have been home for my birthday!                        As sad as it was leaving the beach behind we were blessed with the awesome views of the Pyrenees as we drove to our first stop at Millau.  

It was hard to capture the scale and beauty,  I was clicking away like David Bailey,  mind you the dirty windscreen didn't help!  

We arrived at our Log cabin at around 5pm,  it was raining when we arrived, which was a shame as the views from our room and even our bed were stunning, we could have been in the Alps!   

From our bed . . .

From the patio outside our room....

Ten minutes later the rain had passed.  

We have a long drive today, we have a treat later though as we are staying at the 'Chateau' tonight ! 

Today I am sharing Karen's amazing card, Charlotte needed one last-minute for someone at dancing,  no problem for Karen though,  she created a perfect card in such a short time,  the background looks like a Clarity background paper, not sute if the dancers are from scan&cut or a die cut.  A perfrct personalised birthday card. 

Thank you so much Karen for sharing your card with us.  XXX 

I hope the sun is shining on you all,

Love & hugs 

Sandra 

xxxxxx 

Now, I know I said that last card was the last...

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope you all have a bright and sunny start to the week,  ours is a little miserable,  the girls said yesterday "its like the weather knows its our last day" !! It was torrential rain a day yesterday,  we had to totally change our plans,  we went out for a lovely lunch and were planning on browsing round the Old Town,  however the cobbled Streets would have been treacherous for me on my crutches,  Paul will push me in between the areas of cobblestones but trying to push wheelchair over them is uncomfortable for both of us, walking is bad enough when its dry but having slippery and uneven surface is a recipe for disaster!!  So we came back to mobile home for a couple of hours before setting off to the airport.  

Now I know I said I promised that the last of the Dainty Flowers Dsp was shown last week but I had this one sitting in a folder and I don't think I have shown it.  

I used three small rectangles of the pretty paper, 2 coloured pieces that were off cuts of the pretty floral side, I flipped them and used them to accent the beautiful centre floral piece.  I then matted and layered onto pink then left a large border on the card base, a great way to use up your off cut pieces,  when you have beautiful papers you want to get as much use out of it as possible. I stamped the sentiment in matching ink, die cut it and raised it up on foam pads.

That really was the last one 🤣😅😂

Right I must go and finish packing,  

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx