Mixed Up Saturday

 Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

Goodness me I have a lot to share with you today, from shopping to birthday 

gifts, including a yummy cake and to finish off a lovely walk through

Our Tracy's beautiful Garden!

So grab a coffee, get comfy and I will start.....

  Margaret's Shopping

Margaret has taken advantage of her 20% Demonstrator Discount and treated herself to some of the New Stamps and punch from the New Catalogue, it's launching on

1st June, there are some amazing new goodies in it, The first stamp set is 

Colourful Seasons, it features stamps that can be used to make cards or

Background papers for every season, a very useful stamp set.

Daisy Delight is a fantastic stamp set, if works with the Daisy Punch 

(In second photo), the stamp adds detail and texture to the punched out

Daisies, I made mistake of thinking I could just have punch, but you really do

Need the stamp to get the best looking Daises!

Well Wishes is the third stamp set, now if you enjoy colouring you will love

This stamp set, just look at the detail in the flowers around the Wishing Well, 

Just imagine it coloured in with a few of the flowers decoupaged, I think this is going

to be a very popular set, such amazing choices Margaret, I can't wait to see the

Projects you make with these stamp sets.

Thank you for sharing 

XXX

Cheryl's Shopping

Cheryl has been stocking up her craft supplies this week too, 

The first photo is of the Memory Album and all the papers and embellishments 

Cheryl bought to create a Memory Album for Milly-May,  I am excited to see each new page as you create it Cheryl, Janet's Memory Album for Gracie-Leigh was stunning, it would be a great source of inspiration too.

Now you can't go wrong if you buy your flowers from Wild Orchid crafts, 

I know they aren't cheap but boy do you get what you pay for, you have bought an

Amazing array of Blooms and Stamens, leaves and embellishments too.

Now I don't think I have seen this Did cutting machine, Cheryl bought it from the Range during their Easter promotions, it came with 6 Dies and 2 Embossing Folders,

Cheryl says "it's a sturdy little machine, perfect for cutting just one die and for taking to Craft Club", I checked last night and it costs £45. 

Thank you for sharing your shopping Cheryl 

XXX

 Michele's Birthday gifts

Michele's birthday has lasted for a whole week, with being away for the actual

day of her birthday she missed celebrating with friends and Colleagues.

On return to work on Monday Michele received the lovely Kipling Handbag and matching Purse from all of her Colleagues, what a thoughtful and Amazing gift, 

As the week went on Michele caught up with friends who gave her the rest of 

The lovely gifts above, A Needle Felting Kit to make cute Woodland Animals, 

not something I have tried but it looks fun !  Another friend made her that AMAZING 

Lemon Meringue Cake, OMG, it looks like heaven!

(MARGARET, SOMETHING NEW TO TRY???), I will be your Guinea Pig!

The last gift is a Beautiful 'Best' Wishes' Rose, what a thoughtful gift, it looks like

it will be a real pop of colour in your garden, I love roses, to me they shout

'English Country Garden' along with Snapdragons and Sweet Williams.

I hope your celebrating continues throughout the weekend Michele,

Thank you for sharing your gifts 

XXX

Lyndas's shopping

Our Lynda has joined the Exclusive "Gemini" Club, she saved up her PayPal money

from selling her craft stash on eBay and treated herself, by the way Lynda has some fantastic stamps etc for sale on eBay, Honey Doo, Chloe's stamps etc, 

'8090Lynda' if you want to have a look.

Lynda I love both of the Tim Holtz Thinlit sets you have bought, so useful for 

Backgrounds and perfect to use in your canvases too.

The next photo is of Lynda's shopping from the Craft show last weekend, 

some lovely MDF goodies to alter, a pen storage unit, a stock up on glue too, those MDF lamps will be amazing on Christmas cards Lynda.

The Window and Teacup dies are from China, live them both!

Now the last picture Lynda shared for a laugh really, it was the 'Goody Bag'

From the show last weekend, you can see what a load of rubbish it is at first glance,

Lynda was quite rightly disappointed with it, those kind of craft items are from about 10 years ago, what utter rubbish, if doesn't give a very good representation of Hochanda in my opinion, it would have been better with some plain card stock or something that could be a little bit useful!

Thank you for sharing your amazing Shopping Lynda,

XXX

Tracy's Garden

Now we can all have a relaxing stroll down Tracy's beautiful garden, it looks like there has been an awful lot of work gone into it Tracy. 

I love the decked area, with that beautiful feature made from Pallets, what a genius idea, you have decorated it beautifully with the planters and 'Flower pot men'

Your borders look fab too, great idea to lay stones down and have pots, as you get 

Beautiful flowers, shrubs etc and no weeds! 

Your patio looks lovely too, I love the little guys on the tricycles, do cute.

It's clear to see a lot of time and effort has gone into your garden, 

Now you can sit on your beautiful Swing and admire all of your hard work.

I love your swing, it's strong and sturdy and you could grow some fragrant 

Climbers through it, you can't beat Honeysuckle!

It looks like you have had the best of the weather this week too!

Thank you so much for sharing your garden with us Tracy

XXX

Well, I hope that you enjoyed all of that, I bet you are all ready for

another cup of tea, do you think Margaret's made that Lemon Meringue

Cake yet??? 

Janet, I hope you aren't feeling to bruised and sore today, I think it takes a couple

Of days for the full effect to kick in, sit down and take it easy today please 

Gentle hugs on their way XXX

Have a lovely weekend ladies,

Love and hugs

Sandra 

XXX

Another Challenge Card

Good Morning Ladies,

Well that's another week almost over, what a miserable one it's been, the weather has been like it should be in November!  I noticed that a lady on the News the other day was wearing a thick wooly dress, thick tights and Knee high boots.  Not the usual style of clothing for mid May. I haven't even looked in my summer clothes box, I am still reaching for the warm and cosy clothes, I am so tempted to get the heating back on the timer, particularly for when the girls come in from school, as they have been so cold every day this week.

Now onto today's card, this one is the same style as the last Challenge card in that I have used the "Gorgeous Grunge" stamp to create the background with 'Night of Navy' and 'Crumb Cake ' ink pads.  I then die cut the New "Happy Birthday" Die out of 'Night Of Navy' Card' twice and stuck them together to give dimension, I mounted this on a topper made using 'Crumb Cake' and 'Night of Navy' card. 

A fitting card for any Chap don't you think??

Paul has a 'Change over' day today, he is starting nights tonight, so an easy day on the cards here I think.

I hope you have a lovely day whatever you are up to.

Love and hugs

Sandra 

XXXXXX

Pretty Powder Pink card

Good Morning Ladies,. 

I hope that you are all feeling more hydrated after that day of rain, goodness​ me it's all or nothing isn't it, the poor lamb didn't want to stay in his nice warm straw lined shed he wanted to stand in the rain eating my lilac bush, ooh yes and Paul's Blueberry bush!!  So he was soaked poor thing, I was panicking that he was going to get Ill but Matt reminded me that they are meant to be outdoors all the time!! Silly me, I think all the bottles etc, had me thinking it was more vulnerable than that!!

I will be glad when She goes back to the farm though as she is very noisy and persistent! We have to wait until she has gotten a bit bigger as she keeps escaping under the gate, as she is used to being with humans not sheep, Matt would put her in the field with the other lambs and 20 minutes later she'd be poking her head in the Caravan door!

Now onto today's card, I thought I would go for something pretty today, so I started playing with my 'Detailed Floral Thinlit' dies, I cut a strip of Powder Pink card 4 1/4 inches wide and 10 1/4 inch long and placed one thinlit at each end with the cutting die in place, after cutting each end I scored about 1/8 inch away from inside edge of the die cut panel, when folded this gave me my card shape.  I then took a piece of the 

New 'Fresh Florals ' paper in Powder Pink and cut it to fold in half to make an inner card, inside that I stamped my Sentiment, which is from the 'Happy Birthday Gorgeous' stamp set (I Love the font) ! A few pearls and then I tied a piece of white ribbon through both sides of the card to close with a bow! 

I hope you like it xx

Detailed Floral Thinlits and Floral Phrases Stamp set

Paul is working again today so I will be in my craft room playing I think, what are you all up to ??

Maria, I hope you are feeling brighter my lovely XXX

Sue, I hope Chris is in less pain today XXx

I hope everyone else is 'Tickety Boo' !! 

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra

XXXXXX

My Challenge card

Good Morning My lovelies,

I hope that you are all well and not letting this shocking weather get you down! I just can't believe how blooming cold it is, both of my Girls were walking round hugging hot water bottles last night as they got wet on the way home from School and just couldn't warm up, they always make me laugh as there is always one of them wearing my big fluffy pyjama top, I never get the chance to wear it, it's usually been put away by this time of year, but I guess the old wives tale is true "Cast not a clout til May is out"!! I can hear my Nan saying it now!  A lot of those old wives tales are pretty accurate, do you ladies remember things that your parents or grandparents used to say?

Today's card is my version of the Challenge card, the day just seemed to disappear yesterday so I didn't think that I would get one done, I finally set at my craft desk at 9.10 pm (after spending some time with the girls), I wanted to make a 'Stampin' Up! Card but I don't have anything 'Masculine' really, so I reached for one of my favourite SU stamp sets 'Gorgeous Grunge' and two ink pads 'Dapper Denim' and the new 'Lemon Lime Twist', cut my self a piece of white card and just randomly stamped around the card to create a messy background, I love the effect that you get. I did add in the lattice type stamp from 'Timeless Textures' too.  I then stamped the Happy Birthday from ' Big on Birthdays' set on a piece of white card, added a couple splatters and mounted onto 'Lemon Lime Twist' and 'Dapper Denim' card and popped into my card, I hope you like it !! 

Big On Birthdays Stamp set

Paul is back at work today for the start of another shift, hoping to see Sue if Chris is up to being on his own and Sue isn't too exhausted from playing Nurse! 

I will be playing with some new goodies that arrived yesterday, along with the New Stampin Up Catalogues, if you would like one just let me know....

Lilian and Brenda yours got posted today, Lynda and Michele yours are parcelled up ready to go!! 

Have a lovely day ladies, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra 

xxxxxxxx

Michele's Front Door Card

Xx Happy Birthday Sonia & Angela xx

Good Morning Ladies,

Firstly I would like to wish our lovely Sonia and Angela a very Happy Birthday!!!!
I hope you both have an amazing​ xxxx

Michele shared this fantastic card with me before she went away last week and I have waited for her to return before I shared it so that she could see your lovely comments.
It is a 50th Birthday card for a 'Cat Lover' friend.
I love how you have created depth and dimension to the card by using a 'Stepper card', it works brilliantly Michele.
The die set that Michele used for her card is......

Xcut Georgian Door

Michele used Cats from a set from China and a Freebie magazine die. Being the GENIUS that she is Michele used an 'Icicle' die for the grass! Bloomin Brilliant thinking there !!
Thank you so much for sharing you card with us Michele XXX

Now any of you struggling for sketch card idea, you can research
'Freshly Made Sketches 90' in Pinterest or Google it comes up with some ideas for you !

Pat, have a lovely few days in London, you deserve a break XXX

Sue, I hope that Chris is doing OK XXX

Lynda, I hope you have recovered from being treated to meeting Queen DB herself, were you allowed to touch her?? We saw her years ago at NEC and she was in a roped off area, while her fans all queued around her!!! Haha

I hope that you all have a fun and creative day,

Love and hugs

Sandra
Xxxxx

Monday Sketch Challenge

Good Morning Ladies,

I have decided to put the Christmas themed sketch back for another week, so that I can make some samples to show the kind of thing I meant. 

So for this weeks Challenge I would like you to make a 'MAN' card, we haven't had a 'MAN' themed Challenge for a while and it's Father's Day next month! It doesn't really matter if you don't stick exactly to the sketch, it also doesn't have to be a Father's Day card, as long as it is a card designed for a Man.  I know you will embrace the challenge and I look forward to seeing your cards.  Those emails are the highlight of my week! 

We had a quiet weekend, Saturday we were asked by Rebecca to go with her to help her choose a new car, I think it's kind of nice that she still likes her Dad to test drive the car for her, she really values his opinion, although she had pretty much made up her mind before we went out looking, she ended up buying a lovely new Volkswagen Polo, her Dad is taking her to collect it on Tuesday evening. It is lovely to see her so excited, she works really hard and this is her reward.  Her last car just seemed to bring her bad luck, first of all a huge Stag ran into the side of her car, luckily she wasnt hurt.  Then in two occasions while parked in her works car park somebody reversed into her car and drove off without leaving any note!  So she will be glad to see the back of it. 

Now our Lynda had a lovely day yesterday, she went to the Create It show at Deitling, it was a Hochanda Live show too, so here is Lynda with Leonie......

Such a lovely photo Lynda, thank you for sharing XXX

Sending​ love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Your Challenge Cards

Good Morning Ladies, 

This weeks Challenge was to design and make a DL card, above are the two cards that I made, now more importantly here are the amazing cards that you made:

Janet created 4 absolutely stunning DL cards this week, I love the first one Janet,

So pretty, the spray of flowers you have made works so well.

The lady on your second and fourth cards are so elegant, great standby cards for

Many different occasions I think.

The third card is one of your Vintage stamped images I believe, perfectly fussy cut,

I love how you are stamping more and more Janet, like me a few months back you wouldn't have thought about making a stamped card, I love it now!

Thank you so much for your amazing cards Janet 

XXX

Margaret, 3 fabulous cards from you too this week, the first card you have made features your own stamped background paper, which is beautiful.

Your other two cards are fabulous too, perfect use of Die cuts, I think that the Striplet 

dies are perfect for DL cards.

Thank you Margaret 

XXX

Brenda, two gorgeous cards from you, wow, I love the delicate little blossoms

On your first card,are they die cut?

Your second card is so lovely, that fern paper is so lovely, I love ferns on anything!

the Embossing folder you have used works perfectly with it too.

Thank you so much Brenda

XXX

Maria, wow 3 cards from you this week, green is my favourite colour so I love your 

First card, such pretty papers, the silouhette butterfly works so well with the delicate 

Please, your second card has that lovely Art Deco feel, the feather is just the perfect embellishment for this card.  Your third card is amazing, I love how you have blended the colours together in the background, it really softens the look, the 'Happy Birthday' die cut is all that is needed, thank you for inspiring me.

Thank you so much for taking part Maria 

XXX

Karen, was busy preparing for holiday so I included this card on her behalf,

Karen stamped the main focal piece of the card, the little squares top and bottom are the centres of one of the New York Dies I believe,

Lovely card Karen. 

Thank you, enjoy the sunshine

XXX

Lilian, this card is so pretty, its just perfect, I love the colours you have used, the flowers are just so pretty and I love the oval lattice aperture.

Thank you so much 

XXX

Michele, a perfect little boy card, so bright, cheerful and everything works

together perfectly, thanks so much for making time to take part!

XXX

Lynda, two fantastic cards from you this week, your first card features a

Striplet die and the centre of another Striplet, such a fantastic layout, 

could be a great 'Man' card too.

Your second card is such a soft blue colour, your stamped image is lovely,

I think it's one of my favourite stamps from Inkyliscious!

Two Amazing cards,

Thank you so much

XXX

Cheryl, oh such a beautiful image! 

This lady is 'Anastasia', Cheryl bought two sheets of Decoupage 

featuring the beautiful Anastasia, you have 'decoupaged'  her beautifully

Cheryl, a stunning card, thank you so much for taking part 

XXX

Well, ladies what can I say?? 

You are all amazing, thank you so much for your

Ongoing support.

Have a lovely Sunday,

Love and hugs

Sandra 

XXX