Our Crafts from this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying the warmer weather,  we had a busy day yesterday, after collecting girls and doing the shopping we had some lunch and the relaxed by the pool for the afternoon,  the girls were wiped out and so was Paul,  it's so good seeing him relax.  

As I am writing this preparations are under way for a huge Spanish festival of St John throughout Spain but here in Catalonia it's St Joan,  they are having a huge party on the beach with fireworks and a DJ that starts at 01.30am,  so it could be a long night !

This is a great reminder, something we all definitely deserve ❤️ 

Let's look at what you have made this week....

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Number 25 in the A&C challenge- Countries Looking at FB people were concentrating on one country So I created this on  ChatGPT and was so pleased with the results I kept it quite simple BUT I moved top sentiment so the Che’evete wasn’t covered.

 on the FB page they seem to have focused on one country So I chose Cuba Same as above on ChatGPT but moved sentiment across so as to not obliterate Che’ face 🤣.

I wanted the page to take centre stage So no stamping, texture paste etc

Wow Karen that's absolutely incredible,  you have included everything that Cuba is known for from the Cigars to the incredible dancing!  There is so much to look at and something new catches your eye each time you look at it. 

This ChatGPT thing has given you all a real creativity boost.  I really want to join in, I can have a play out here and create some bits to use when I get home. 

Thanks my lovely for a truly inspirational piece XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description :  

Hello here is my challenge piece for this week.the theme is camping. All papers made on the iPad using chatGP.

Took ages to get the images the correct size.

Longest bit was cutting all the ephemera out.

Lilian I absolutely love your Camping Challenge piece,  the scene you created is lovely, I love all the little camping itinerary items at the top too, what a brilliant idea 💡 I also love a of the little details like the sign, the camp fire etc. 

Thank you so much for an amazing challenge piece my lovely XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

Here’s my journal page for tomorrow my lovely ☺️ 

Birds/Butterflies.

I’ve used Stamperia Dew Drops collection. The large tag is from the 12x12 collection and the rest from 8x8 and elements from the press out die cuts. 

Inked edges with Gathered Twigs and Stormy Sky distress inks.

Absolutely stunning page my lovely,  All of the little elements you have used work together to create a gorgeous journal page.  Those Dewdrops papers have some beautiful details.  All of your little clusters work so perfectly, they help the sentiment to stand out. 

Thank you so much for another amazing journal page my lovely XXX 

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

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

A super early start for us as we are driving to Girona to collect Lucy and Soph,  their flight lands around 8am,  they have to do the new passport thing, uploading their finger prints and retina scan,  poor Lucy is stressing about it already,  her anxiety can really hold her back sometimes which makes me sad,  I've struggled with anxiety for years and it isn't fun, luckily Soph is with her and she has soph, who can turn any situation into a joke,  so she's in safe hands!

Great reminder,  we all grow in different ways at different times, nobody has a set schedule,   you stay relaxed and go at your own pace 😘

A Quick look at our home for next 18 days....

This is as you walk in the door, kitchen area to the right, dining area straight ahead,  although that is full of stuff still to be unpacked  

To the left as you walk in is our bedroom, there are wardrobes at the bottom of the bed. 

A compact and Bijou bathroom,  shower is great though,  very powerful!  

Closer look at kitchen area

The smallest room ! 🤣

These two are the girls rooms, we just put their stuff in  their rooms, they unpack themselves,  as I would have no idea which bed they want, or where the want their bits and bibs, I will give them their bedding tomorrow when they arrive. 

Our dining area outside,  which we use all the time!

I love that they built the decking around the tree, a lot of other places would have cut it down   2

This end has an outfside sofa area, which is really comfortable! 

Then I filmed our walk to the beach for you....

These two videos show walking onto the beach,   I did film getting to beach from our Home but it was too long so I need to cut it down a bit. 

Just look at these beautiful Bougainvillia bushes, growing in a Service station off of the motorway in France,  it is so beautiful and has a lovely scent. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx 

Simple Card

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Well we had an eventful last day of driving  to say the least....  We had a lovely leisurely breakfast at the hotel,  we noticed that they had put a note on our return journey booking saying that they no longer have the disabled access room that we had booked, so when Paul went to check out he asked about it,  the lady could see we had booked the accessible room and had it confirmed,  so apologised and said that she would upgrade us to a 'Chalet ' that have been double the price we paid!  So that was a win.  

We packed and left hotel and headed to get lunch for journey, parked up, Paul got my crutches out and we did a qukck shop,  got back to the car, handed my crutches to Paul, he popped them against side of car and loaded our lunch in the cool box etc,  he faffs about for ages,  anyway we left, got petrol and set off on the journey to spain,  after about half hour Paul said to me "Can you see your crutches in back? " I turned to look and said "No I can't ", so he stopped in next layby and went to look and they weren't there!! 😮  I felt sick,  as the only way I could get on the beach is with my crutches and the big ferules that work in sand.  He said " We'll have to go back,  so we raced back to supermarket, a good 40 minutes away,  he looked around where we parked and couldn't see them, so he went in supermarket to see if someone handed them in,  thankfully they had,  I was so pleased to seem, then spotted that one was very mishaped, paul must have pulled away to get petrol,  not noticing the crutches clatter to the floor, the he drove over one of them, I confess I didn't hear anything either which shocked me,  as they would have clattered to the ground.  

Luckily he managed to mostly straighten out the bent part, so fingers crossed they aren't weakened!  You have to laugh at these things! 🤣😂😅

Another great reminder,  we certainly will be doing exactly that today!! 

Today's card is a super simple card, I masked off a section of the card and then blended the Carved Pumpkin ink down the stripe I had masked,  I blasted it to dry it and then stamped the simple silhouette wildflower in the coloured strip and finished with the sentiment on the left hand side.

Simple yet effective! 

I hope that you all have a great Friday,  

My love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

A pretty daisy Journal page

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

Last leg of the journey today,  it takes about 3 hours usually,  depending on traffic.  We are going with a totally different company this time and I am so worried about what to expect,  we booked a higher spec mobile home with a few luxury extras, however I found an email in Paul's junk folder from them saying that they had made an error and the home we have booked doesn't have a dishwasher after all,  we booked in January but they didn't realise this until now,  fingers crossed that that was the only thing that isn't as described!    The heat seemed to totally zap our energy yesterday,  we arrived in Millau around 6pm I think,  it's still classed as low season here so its very quiet,  a lot of restaurants aren't even open yet.  We had our usual chalet,  which suits our needs perfectly.   

I was glad to read this one today,  I surely needed rest after those mad few days before we left!  Hoping to get plenty of rest this next week or so.  

Karen , don't panic about not being organised,  Lucy kept nagging that I wasn't as organised as usual but it all came together in the end xxx

Today I am sharing a Journal page I made using Stamperia Daisy Art collection,   I smooshed Dried Marigold and Carved Pumpkin ink onto my.mat and used that to create the background,  inking around the edges to give more depth of colour.  Then I did some stamping and added some embossing paste through a stencil.  

I picked a few bits out of the junk journal, inked around them and arranged them into a cluster.  I love that daisy, it has so much detail, the drop of water in the centre looks 3D.  

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Another ChatGPT treat from Sonia

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We had what felt like a very long day yesterday,  the traffic in Paris was the worst it's been,  it took us what seemed like hours, its 4 lanes of motorway that filters down to 3 then back to 4,  the delay was down to a broken down lorry!  So we drove from getting of Le Shuttle at 1pm ish, stopped for lunch at 2 30pm, planned to have a couple more stops but we were 2hours through Paris and our arrival time at the Chateau went from 5.30 to almost 8pm,  by the time we cleared Paris we had 80 miles to do and both just wanted to get there, the sensible thing would have been to stop after an hour but we didn't.   

Today will ve a different story as the journey is much longer and the temperature warning ⚠️ is mid to high 30°s which seems crazy,  so stops will be frequent to refill our water etc. 

I have another amazing tutorial from Sonia,  this time she is explaining how to create a Card with ChatGPT.....

Card made from ChatGPT Tutorial

I love how the images I created for the tutorial turned out and couldn’t wait to make a card 🙂

Firstly though, I wanted some plain backgrounds to use for matting and layering.

I went back into the ChatGPT app, and carried on from where I left off.

Along the left side of the screen you can see all of your recent designs/creations, you can click on any one of them to add more - this one is Vintage Shabby Chic Design.

*(I did find that after creating a load of images ready for some memory albums, on the same thread, ChatGPT did show a message explaining that this creation set was nearly full and I would soon need to start a new Chat. It wasn’t a problem though, because you can just carry on, by typing in from the Ask ChatGPT box. You can also add one of your saved images to use as a prompt, by pressing the + key on the left side of the box so you can carry on with the same theme)

Two options came up, you can save them both. 

I then wanted the background in the blue as well.

I printed off my designs on A4 200gsm card.

*Depending on your printer you can change the size of what is actually printed. On my Epson I use the Epson Smart Panel App. I go into the ‘other features’ and print from the collage section. This offers lots of options on how many images you can print on one page - ranging from one large to multiple small images. You can also enlarge or make the images smaller. 

I cut my pieces to fit my card base. I distressed and inked the edges. I fussy cut the butterfly and one of the word panels. Added some Spellbinders gems to finish. A simple first card to display the beautiful papers 😊

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

Oh WOW that card is so beautiful, I love the little details like the postmark and the script style writing.  It literally looks like you have created the card with many layers of papers and ephemera.  I also love the two offset panels rather than having them matted on top of each other.  

Thank you so much Sonia for another inspirational tutorial,   I felt so sad that I haven’t had time to play with your tutorials, my fingers are itching to have a go!  

I can't wait to see what you ladies create with this new tutorial,  I might even have a play if the Wifi is good enough! 

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

And we're off ! 😂

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Thankfully the GP at the surgery called at around 12.30pm,  Soph was just about to leave to come get me and take me to Minors.  He sent a prescription for amoxcicillin as that was an antibiotic I hadn't had for a while and the bacteria was reactive to it,  fingers crossed it works. 🤞🤞🤞

We set off bright and early this morning,  we want to be there in plenty of time to do the new passport scan thing.  Let's hope its straight forward.  The girls will do there's when they land in Girona next Saturday.  

Today I am sharing a card that I made last week,  it is a different method of blending your inks.  I started with a circle of Saltwater Taffy, blended into Picked Raspberry and lastly Seedless Preserves, (all oxides) I kept going over the colours until I was happy with the blend.  

After drying the background I stamped a Tim Holtz Floral Trims stamp in versamark and added white embossing powder and heat set.  I spritzed some pearl shimmer spray over for a little extra twinkle, then added a small sentiment. 

This blend almost gives the effect of a glow in the centre. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Welcome to the start of a new week

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Not my usual kind of photo but I am in a bit of a pickle! 

I am absolutely exhausted from a very long and busy day yesterday,  I literally could not lift my legs to walk by the evening.  I had a long soak in the bath and finished a few last minute lists, set alarm reminders for last few bits to pack,  as I have lost count of how many times we have forgotten to pack our pillows!! 

I hoped to get a decent night sleep as the previous two were very disturbed,   however that wasn't the case, I finished a course of Antibiotics on Friday for a uti,  maybe it wasn't wise to have bladder clinic 3 days before leaving for a 1000 mile journey,  yes you guessed it, 2 days after finishing Antibiotics the Uti is back in full force,  I was up to go to bathroom 5 times between 1am and 6am!  

Called GP, they can't guarantee that I will get a call before we leave at 3pm , they suggest going to minor injuries at Moreton in Marsh if I don't hear from them.  Despite me literally begged them for help!  Please cross your fingers and toes for me. 

This seems very apt today!  It's very true though and a good reminder! 

That's all for today my lovelies,  

I look forward to sharing our journey with you all,

Love and hugs

Sandra xxx 

A look back at our crafts this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all enjoying a relaxed weekend,  we are making good progress with our lists!  Still plenty to do though,  Paul wants the car packed by tonight.  

Love this reminder,  great artwork too x

Let's look at your makes....

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hello, here is my challenge piece for this week. Hot chocolate is the theme.

These are the papers I made with help from chat GPT

Only used some of them need some more practice at getting the scale correct, still quite pleased for first time.

Lilian I can't tell you how happy I am that you had such amazing results using Sonia's tutorial.  

Your page is perfect, I love all the details that you have added, I could just drink that right now,  it looks delicious 😋 

Thank you so much for sharing your amazing page with us XXX 

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Number 22 and 23 in the challenge 

22 Winter My piece of bubble art with Tim Holtz snowflake die cuts - I didn’t want anything Christmassy 

23 Cocktails 

My ChatGPT that I edged with Black Soot DO Wish I hadn’t done white splats (but it’s my art🤣) A Sizzix die cut to finish

Karen your bubble art piece is brilliant and works so well with the snowy theme.  I can't believe how much detail you got from the bubbles, the colours are lovely too. 

Your background is fantastic,  I love how you have included all of the 'botanicals & fruit in the background with the cocktails.   Your finished piece is perfect.  Those olives at the bottom look like u

You could pick them off the page and eat them. 

Thank you so much for 2 very inspirational pieces, this challenge has encouraged you to try so many different techniques,  which is amazing XXX

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

Hi lovely 

Here is my journal page. Theme is Nature from the AALL&Create challenge.

I used background card, and all elements from Stamperia ‘All Around’ collection, from the Maxi Pad and Junk Journal Focus Points. I inked all edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. 

I’m really pleased how it turned out 😊

You should 100% be pleased with your 'All-round ' journal page,  its stunning,  look at all that incredible detail, I love the bird perching on the tag and the little ladybirds.  

Thank you so much for such a lovely journal page XXX 

Thank you ladies, I really appreciate your     support ❤️

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

What are you all up to this weekend?  We are busy doing holiday prep,  making lists, packing what bits we can.  

I have to do:

Medical bag, which has all of my medication,  plus the usual bits you take on holiday,  I have always taken Anthisan for insect bites and a pen that is pure ammonia I think, it works great for getting relief from mosquito bites etc.  Both of these things are purely because my Mum used to take the same when we were children,(not that they ever went abroad).  Then I always take Imodium, paracetamol, Ibuprofen and a medical kit that has all plasters, dressings etc. Oh and a tiny pot of Sudocrem. 

Overnight Bag, which has everything we need for three days on the road.  I have a bag that I put toiletries etc in and enough medication for those 3 days. 

Then we have clothes,  Paul and I share a big holdall, Paul would be happy with a carrier bag though 🤣😂.  

We take some food basics, cereal etc as the supermarkets in Spain (where we go) have mostly naff cereals like Coco pops,  all very sweet!   We also take a couple of decent knives, jug, good frying pan (as theirs are rubbish), chopping board as they only have wood ones and it freaks me out that people could have chopped raw meat on it as it's the only one,  since lockdown/covid we have taken our own cutlery etc too. 

The rest is down to Paul to remember! 

As I have said before,  I do leave it until last resort to ask someone else for help,  we all have our weaknesses,  mine is 100% feeling like I'm a burden, now I know my family would say I am being silly,  however that doesn't stop me from feeling that way.  An example : Soph was really struggling to get the wheelchair into her car because Lucy was coming with us to Bladder Clinic because we were going straight to hairdressers after,  I just wanted to tell her to leave the wheelchair,  I'd manage somehow,  but with Lucy's assistance she got it on.  I just felt terrible 😪.   10 minutes down the road it was all forgotten about. 

Witney Pride Post Box Topper

I'm not sure who creates these incredible creations,  they must be constantly knitting or crocheting,  the details are amazing,  those darling hedgehogs are my favourite,  they even include bunting, pride flags and lots of rainbows. 🤩

Then Soph and I went somewhere different for brunch last week and they had different knitted ir crocheted flowers on each table....

Our table had lavender and a tulip, there were so many different ones on different tables,  I couldn't photograph them as people were sitting at them. 

Then there was a table with pastries for sale and they had these lovely Sunflowers and Daffodils. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx