Former Festive Friday cards

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

By the time you are all seeing todays post we should be on our way back from Heathrow with Adam & Becca,  I have been so excited to see them both 😊 

We then have a quick turnaround,  as we have about an hour (depending on traffic) to have a cup of tea and get ready to leave for Watford.  I am so looking forward to seeing you lovely ladies. 

So as it was an early night after a sleepless night I am sharing a couple of 'Festive Oldies' with you. 

The first is a Stencilled Christmas card :

 Today's card was made using Sweet Poppy's Bauble Stencil, I inked through it with Iced Spruce & Wild Honey Distress Ink (not oxides). I tapped the blending brush quite heavily on scrap paper so that the ink went on lightly and gradually built up the colour and blend. I added the Wild Honey to the centre of Bauble and added touches down the ribbon.  After the ink was dry I stamped the cottage which is also a Sweet Poppy stamp, after I stamped it I used water to renove the yellow ink from the snowy rooves, I used a Quickie Glue pen and added some fine glitter.  I quite like the subtle colours. 

Card 2: 

Today's card is the card I made on Saturday following Tracy Evans Workshop, I thoroughly enjoyed making it, especially as I had someone special in mind. I think they are fun because there is no decision making involved, I did change a couple of details though. It involved inking, blending, stencilling, stamping, fussy cutting and layering! I took my time, after spending time creating a multi layered background you don't want to mess up the stamping! I would thoroughly recommend Tracy Evans Workshops, she puts so much thought into every element. 

I hope you don't mind another look at these cards. 

Have a lovely Friday my lovelies, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

2nd Half Christmas Journal Page

 

Good Morning Ladies,

Today I am excited to share the other side of my Christmas journal page. 

I actually loved creating this journal spread.   I was surprised at how much I loved the finished thing too.  The products are the same as yesterday's, the techniques are the same too. 

Arden Creative products are great quality,  the die cuts are 'double faced'  which means that you can have them facing either way, which is really helpful when you are creating layouts.  Their Rub ons are the same great quality,  they take very little pressure and come away perfectly.  

My fingers are itching to create another one!! 

I hope that you all have a good day. 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

First half of double page Christmas journal page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

A chilly but sunny day yesterday,  I wasn't up to a day out with Lucy sadly,  we are hoping to go do a bit of Christmas idea shopping today, at the time of writing this I am crossing my fingers 🤞                    Our midweek date night has been highjacked by the girls this last couple of weeks 🤣,   we were planning a cinema trip to see Nuremberg, however the " Four" of us went to see Wicked !!! 👀 🙄🤣, I am just kidding I don't actually mind that they wanted to come out with us.  The film is really long though, so it's finish time was 11.30pm 😲😬 Thats way past my bedtime 🌙 😴 

I was planning to get a couple of projects finished yesterday but with spending time with Lucy and looking at her shopping ideas,  I only got 1 finished,   it's a Christmas double Journal page, I followed a Vicky Papaicannou Workshop on YouTube.  I really enjoyed it,  it's fun, well explained and easy to follow. 

I am sharing one half today and then I'll share the whole piece tomorrow!  

The page started with two pieces of torn Rice paper, then I painted the rest of the pages with Ivory Stamperia Allegro Acrylic paint,  it dried quite fast,  I then did some random stamping ( I do find partial/random stamping hard)  I think it's because of those early days of trying to stamp perfectly with inferior stamps and getting frustrated at failing.  I give it a good go though! 🤣  The good thimg with these pages is that if something bothers you too much you can use something to cover it.   At this point (above) I had added some green splatters too, then edged the pages with Vintage Photo distress ink, It adds warmth and draws your eye in.  After this step I stencilled over the pages in Vintage Photo to tie everything together and add interest and texture.  

You can see both the Vintage Photo stencilling and the next step which was embossing paste through the same stencil.   That is the background complete, now I set this aside to dry while I picked out some die cuts.  

I arranged the largest piece on the left hand page which I am sharing today, I added some doodling and white splatters too finish the page.  

I will share the full double page spread tomorrow. 

I hope you all have a great Wednesday, 

Love & Hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

A festive journal page

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

The weather was back to dark, wet & gloomy yesterday,  we couldn’t even see the hills that we love to look at while doing the dishes 🤣.   So different to Sunday when we got a load of washing virtually dry.  Even with my desk lights and my daylight lights it was still almost too dark to do any crafting!  But I give it my best effort. 😅😂

Just as I suspected my body wasn't wanting to 'play' yesterday after an afternoon in the garden with Paul,  I dream of a day with no miserable pain!  I do my best to not let it rule my life but there are days that I don't win the fight!  

This is where I have been enjoying making journal pages,  they are for me,  to experiment,  play and more importantly allow mistakes to be part of the learning process.  I don't dislike the pages I create but I wouldn't necessarily be happy to send them as a card to anyone.  

We are all our own worst critic, which isn't healthy,  sometimes the 'perfect  Pinterest pieces we see and love are digitally perfected,  all slight imperfections erased.  As long as you have enjoyed creating a card or journal page and it looks like something you'd be delighted to open yourself,  that's all that matters  

So with that in mind I am sharing yesterday's craft session. 🤣

I started by  creating a 'messy' background using Wisteria Lindys pigment shaker, sprinkled over a 6 x 4 inch piece of card,  spritzed with water and put to one side to 'do its thing' .  I then stamped an older Tracy Evan’s stamp 'Poinsettia' using 'Hawthorn Rose ' Versafine Clair ink, which pairs nicely with the Wisteria Lindys Shaker,  I used  watercolours to colour the larger sepals of poinsettia,  adding some of the Lindys mixed with water to add shimmer to the poinsettia too.  I left the top layer how they were stamped, although I did fussy cut them and added a swoosh of the lindys shimmer!   

When the background was dry I added some stamping in the Hawthorn ink,  Its hard to pick up on camera but I added lots of dots of glue and sprinkled Tim Holtz Rock Candy  which gives an amazing sparkle!  

I hand cut a tag by tracing around Tracys Tag and adding a light blend of Lost Shadow Oxide ink, I placed it on the background using Glue Gel, I added some scrumpled cotton underneath for texture.  I stamped and fussy cut so leaf sprigs and tucked them under the poinsettia.  A few ink splatters (some a little bigger than intended) finish the page. 

I will say that I love the shimmer of the Lindys combined with the sparkle of the Rock candy!   You can't have too much pizazz at Christmas!! 

I hope that you all have a good day,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

New Challenge Day

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Well yesterday turned out to be a lovely gardening day,  we managed to get another 70 bulbs in the Woodland like border at the side of our house, its the border that runs along under the huge trees,  its overgrown with ivy and other weeds.  Paul did a great job weeding, I bought bags that have a variety of bulbs that are perfect for 'woodland ' borders (when they were half price of course) 😉  they have Bluebells,  Fritillaria, crocus to name but a few!  We took a break for lunch and sadly I couldn't get my legs moving again after sitting down,  so the last 3 bags will go in this coming week.   I really can't wait to see that colourless area come to life in Spring.       Luckily I put a beef stew in the slow cooker, so dinner was easy for Paul to sort out.  

Now it's time for a new Challenge,  I wanted to do another TicTacToe as it gives us more choice.  It has plenty of choices for creating Christmas cards but there are enough choices for creating general cards and projects too. 

I hope that you enjoy it and it inspires you to get crafting. I can't wait to see what you all create. 

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

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

A look back at this weeks makes...

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

A bit wet and miserable here but it's perfect weather for sitting at your desk and creating pretty things.  

What do you all have planned today?   We had a super busy day yesterday so today is going to be a slow,  quiet day! 

Let's have a look at some of your craft makes from this week.....

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Cards 1 & 2:  Two simple Christmas cards using Serif images and ScanNCut to cut image and a backing out

Card 3:  Here’s one for the challenge (just!)

I used that lovely stencil you gifted me but masked off some of the rectangles and use Shaded Lilac DO

An old Aall & Create stamp

And black Dymo tape for sentiment Matted on a Shaded Lilac background Wish I’d matted it on black first then the lilac and again on black

Stencil-inking-ephemera…

Karen I absolutely love those vintage looking Christmas cards, you can't beat those old traditional images, they work great for anyone,   such a great idea to use the Scan & Cut to create a perfect shaped mat for the images.  You are so brilliant with your Scan & cut, I am in awe !  

Such a great way to use that stencil, sometimes the simplest ideas are the best, I love the colour and the simple stamped image. 

Thank you so much for creating 3 amazing challenge projects. XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, a quick Christmas card. The stamps of holly are Lavinia, the little bauble I have had for years. I’m sorry it’s a bit last minute, but family didn’t leave until this afternoon.

Oh Lilian I wasn't expecting a card from you this weekend with you having family visiting.  It was a lovely surprise though.

There is nothing about your card that says that it was a 'quick' card!  

I love the combination of the holly and the baubles,  you can't beat those traditional Christmas colours either.   I have to say that I really love that Merry Christmas die cut sentiment,  the font is so lovely. 

Thank you so much for such a beautiful Christmas card XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

I have made these two cards, not sure if I'm happy but I send them anyway 😄. I feel bad not sending you any for the Sunday previous but now I really need to get some Xmas ones made so we'll see.

I bought the hills, they are made of a special sticky plastic so you can move them around but you still have to be careful because I did rip a bit of the card.

The other one I just played with colours that I thought would go together. The cards are already stamped but I put a few bits in to make them mine.

Firstly please don't feel bad for not feeling up to making a card for a challenge,   I totally understand,   there are days I really have to push myself to create something for the Blog, other days I love sitting and creating!  

You have created 2 amazing cards Maria,  that first card with the telegraph pole is incredible, I love the design and the colours that you have used. 

Your second card you made with the mountains stencil is lovely,  I love the deer grazing in the grass and it looks like you are looking up through the trees on a lovely sunny day. 

Thank you so very much for supporting the blog & challenges my lovely XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Here’s a couple of old cards.

Journal page/Stencil/Die Cuts

I used a Tim Holtz stencil for the background. I’ve used Tracey Hey stamps and papers for the background too. Tim Holtz butterfly and film strip die from my stash.

Christmas/Embossing Folder/Inks Colouring (and Die)

I embossed the Spellbinders snowflake folder and inked (sorry I can’t remember what I used) I die cut The Stamp Markets snowflake, added the sentiment and matted onto Kraft card.

I hope you are feeling better today my lovely,   thank you so much for picking out two amazing cards for today's blog post. 

Your journal page is beautiful,  the colour palette is pretty and the different textures, die cuts, vellum stamping & embossing all combine to create plenty of interest, there is so much to look at.  

You have a natural affinity with Kraft Card, if ever I see a lovely Kraft card I always think of you.  Tje colours you have used work perfectly with the kraft card base,  it looks like you have used your spray inks,  as you can see the little splatters.  The die cut snowflake is the perfect embellishment as it doesn't detract from that lovely background. 

Thanks again Sonia, stay wrapped up warm & cosy XXX

***********

I hope that you all have a good Sunday,

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

We had another chilly day yesterday,  the sun was beautiful though, part of the garden in the shade stayed frost covered all day.   We are forecast a wet and cold weekend,   Soph is off today and wants to go to Costco (Experience has shown that Saturday is not the best idea)!  The things we do for our children!  🤣

I picked up two Poinsettias the last time Lucy and I popped to garden centre,  these ones were reduced to £4, I couldn't resist them because of their colour,  I haven’t seen a Pink Poinsettia before and the variegated leaves really appealed to me, I don't think I've ever had a Poinsettia,  it does sound like they are tricky keep though. 

My Bargain

I love the sentiments and that string of lights, 

All with matching dies!

These lovely Tree stamps & sentiments plus 

Matching dies

The sentiments are really useful too.

The String lights have a matching stencil

Mistletoe sprig stencil with matching die.

Some body was selling the whole collection for £33 posted on a Facebook Destash group,  I really like Gina K stamps as they are great quality,  it's harder to find them here, so I wanted to snap it up!  I'm pretty sure one stamp and die set would be more than that price,  even if I used only the sentiments I'd be happy!  

Karen

Karen has shared her crafty Birthday gifts with us,  WOW Karen that lovely set of Pencils is an amazing gift,  its lovely to know you have every colour you'll ever need !  I have read really good reviews on these pencils too,  I can't wait to see how you get on with them and see what you create.  

That Crackle stencil is great,  a good size too,  I totally recommend that Winsor & Newton Calligraphy ink, its perfect for splatters, less messy the flicking those posca pens.  

Thank you for sharing your birthday gifts with us XXX

Sonia 

Sonia ordered these lovely stamps from Inkylicious,   I really love how the sentiments are worded in all of them.  These are perfect for journal pages too. 

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely stamps with us. XXX

I hope that you all have a great Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

A new journal page...

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you have all had a good week.  Lilian I'd like to congratulate you and Roger on your Diamond Wedding Anniversary,  what a huge achievement,  I hope that you have a lovely weekend celebrating with your family.  

Bladder Clinic was ok yesterday, she agreed with me that the uti is still there despite 16 days of Antibiotics!  So I contacted nurse and she has prescribed different antibiotics for me to pick up this morning,  fingers crossed they work. 🤞🤞🤞

I am sharing a new journal page today, made using Stamperia products.  

I painted the journal page with gold paint, then added a few patches of vaseline (after it was dry) next came a layer of 'Ivory' acrylic paint,  

As it dries you can see the little cracks appearing...

So after it had dried completely I took a piece of kitchen roll to rub gently over those little cracks to discover the gold underneath....

After all of that was dry I added some background stamping.  

Then I used a variety of paper die cuts to build the focal point,  for a change I used my wax stamp to add a different texture and to give a perfect a

sentiment. 

 Thanks to Vicki P for inspiration! 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Christmas Bells!

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Oh my its a chilly one today, we have to be up and out as I have Bladder Clinic and there is a road closure, which makes things fun!!  

Today I am sharing a Christmas card that was part of Tracy Evan’s Workshop (121), let's just say it was a long make!   The poinsettia took me a good two hours to colour and I didn't do aa many layers of colour as I should have,  but I think it looks ok.  Making a mask for the bells was a pain, you have to trace and cut the bell  centre out  using copier paper so its thin enough to stamp over,  I ruined two lots of blended bells by not having the mask exact.  The last labour of love was colouring and fussy cutting those holly sprigs!  I will only be making one of these! 🤣😂

I hope that you all stay warm and cosy today, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

One Colour Thrinchie part 2

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We had another sunny but very cold day yesterday,  I let Milo & Bella out and even the decking had a layer of frost on, I thought the cats would take a step out on the frost and run back in,  they both ran off to explore,   Bella came in and Milo followed a few minutes later, I could hear him in the lounge getting all excited,   I thought he was fighting with Bella so shouted for them to quit it,  but Lucy shouted down that Bella was upstairs with her,  So I looked round to see what he was up to to find he was 'playing' with mouse!  I squealed to get Lucy's attention, which spooked Milo who picked up his mouse and ran out of the back door,  where he continued to play with his mouse, despite Lucy trying to enticing him in with treats,  the mouse was already expired but it he wasn't done playing,  he did eventually give in to the lure of treats, left his mouse and came in,   Lucy quickly shut the door, we decided to not let them back out until Paul was home.  🐈🐀

I started a Christmas card that is part of Tracy Evans Workshop 121 yesterday,  with all of the steps and colouring each element it took me hours,  I got to the point of wanting to give it up,   by 6pm I downed tools, my fingers sore from fussy cutting!!  Hopefully I will finish it today 🤞

Today I sm sharing the 2nd Thrinchie of the pair, again made using Blueprint Sketch,  stamping flowers in white acrylic and then using pencils to add colour over the acrylic paint, just like yesterday's I used an indigo and denim coloured pencils,  the background was done by spritzing water on a diamond stencil, laying it over the background and leaving it to react with the Oxide ink,  always use a piece of kitchen towel on top of the stencil to absorb any excess water.  I left the stencilled area wet and let it air dry as it becomes more intense the longer you leave it.  A little background stamping and some shading followed be white splatters finish the look.  

They always look better when you see them as a pair! 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Another One Colour Thrinchie

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday was a beautiful looking day,  the sun was beautiful,  my goodness it was cold though!  After Paul finished work (from home)  he managed to get all my pots in the greenhouse,  just in time as between the girls getting home from work and 6.30pm (about 2 hours )  Lucy's screen was frozen and had to be scraped.  

I sat at my desk from about 11am,   but didn't start crafting until about 2pm,  I was looking at River cruises,  we watched someone doing a review of one and it looked lovely,  so I started looking into it, picked one that we liked the look of,  so went to look at finer details,  dates etc,  only to discover that they don't cater for people with 'Poor Mobility ', they have no lift, no accessible rooms,  even if it weren't for stairs (which would have been a no no anyway) they wouldn't accept me on crutches either as you have to be independently fit to evacuate if necessary, which I do understand but its still disappointing.  I will try other companies to see if they have different options.   I've definitely seen people on mobility scooters on cruises. 

When I did start crafting I decided to create Thrinchies,  so I went to YouTube and crafted along with Tracy Evans. 

I covered the Thrinchie in Blueprint Sketch, then stamp the flowers onto the background using White acrylic paint.  It gives you a light outline of the image, I then painted over the flowers with Acrylic paint and a paint brush.  After drying them I took a diamond stencil, spritzed with water and then laid it over the thrinchie,  I took a piece of kitchen roll to blot it, lifted the stencil and allowed the water to air dry. I took a script stamp and added little bits of stamping in Versafine Clair Twilight ink, the next step was to add some colour to the flowers, I used Indigo & Washed Denim pencils to add some colour and shade.  A few white splatters finish the Thrinchie.

Part 2 tomorrow! 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Arden Rub on card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Here we are at the start of a new week, this one is set to be a chilly one!  We even have snow in our forecast for later in the week 😲  I don't really mind, I love the snow, I do have bladder clinic thst day though,  I very much doubt we will get anything more than a hard frost. 

What have you all got planned this week??   Nothing much happening for me other than clinic on Thursday.  

We got a good few garden jobs done yesterday,  I put some more bulbs in the pots out the front,  that's all I could manage, I'm not sure if its the infection or the antibiotics that's making me feel so weak & exhausted.   Paul was a trooper he got loads done, we now have a massive leaf pile waiting to be bagged up, it got dark so fast he had to give in before he finished. 

While Paul was finishing in the garden I thought I'd make a little something for today's blog post,  I picked out the floral 'rub on' I wanted to use and set out to find an ink that would match the purple in the rub on,  I decided on Villainous Potion Oxide, I smooshed it onto the background with a stamp block, adding the ink to the block and spritzing with water and smooshing it onto the card, I dried it off and repeated twice more.  I dried with my heat tool and then added some background stamping.  I added a lace sticker on the top and bottom of the card and then added the rub on flower in the centre, the rub ons go on so easily, they are really detailed too. 

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

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

A look back at this weeks makes. .

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

From a very wet & soggy Gloucestershire,   Paul is wanting to rake the last of the leaves that Storm Claudia stripped from the trees,  he's welcome to that job with everything being so wet and slippery out there,  I will support him from inside in the warm and dry and make sure he is fed & hydrated!  🤣😂

I may just sit at my desk and create between making pots of tea of course,  I got buttermilk to make some Scones too.  

Lilian & Sonia have both made incredible Journal pages this week.......

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is my journal page for this week 

Started with wall stencil and some grit paste it’s good but takes quite a while to dry.

Then added some colour, blue and a bit of green kept it very pale 

Next used my Stamperia vintage library and cut out all of the pieces to cover the page, all the fussy cutting took ages.

If it’s still the tic tac toe I used : stencil, journal page, and a medium (grit paste).

Have a lovely weekend.

Forgot to say first time I used white splashes, not really my thing but thought I’d give it a go. No won’t do it again.  

I immediately thought it looked like a Harry Potter themed page, Lilian it's amazing,   your background inking works so perfectly with the brick work in your fussy cut pieces,   this would make a perfect card for anyone that's mad on Harry Potter too.         I love your white splatters but I will say that it would look just as good without them 🤣

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Journal page/ Inks and colouring/ Die cuts

I started by adding distress inks in Tumbled Glass and Walnut Stain with a brayer. I added some stamping using a Woodware text stamp, and some stencilling using a Lavinia Stamps stencil. I stamped the Inkylicious sentiment on the blue card and inked around the edges, doing the same with the words which are part of another Inkylicious sentiment stamp. I die cut the photo negative strip and the Tim Holtz butterfly which I inked over. The strips of words are from a paper pad. I finished off with some ink splats from a Tattered Angels shimmer spray. 

My first page in my new journal and I’m happy how it turned out 😊

Oh Sonia I was so happy to see that you felt like getting in your craft room and creating something,   Oh Boy did you creats something!!!  

What an amazing journal page,  there is always something special about the first project in a new journal,  it's like a fresh start.   I really hope you get the journal bug,  I find it so quick and easy to do a journal page knowing that really its just for me, so if it's not perfect I'm not as worried. 

Every technique you have done is perfect, I love that Script stamping,  its there but doesn't dominate, so that its not obscuring your pretty stencilling.   I recently bought a Negative photo strip die,  they are a great background element to display things on.  The sentiment is perfect and it wouldn't be a Sonia page without a butterfly! 🤣

Thank you so very much for creating a lovely page for the challenge. XXX

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I hope that you all have the best day, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx