Mixed Up Saturday/Michele Mag Review

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and enjoying your weekend.

Our first craft Project this week is the amazing Mixed Media Panel above that has been beautifully made by our Janet, I love that Stencil you have used Janet, which is a Clarity Stencil designed by Leonie Pujil, its such a beautiful image, I love how you have used different mediums to add depth and texture to your panel Janet, the flowers, butterfly and pearl embellishments really add a touch of luxury and bring the piece to life.

Thank you so much for sharing it with us all my lovely. xxx

Danielle was sent a Table Place card die to make so samples with last weekend and this fantastic gift bag is just one of the projects that she came up with, she never ceases to amaze me, I would have never thought of that in a million years.  I think that the colour and luxury card that you have used make it look proper classy Danielle, thank you for allowing me to share it today. xxx

Next up we have Michele's fantastic magazine review...…..

Michele's Magazine Review

Hi Ladies,

Papercrafter magazine has a cute set of Dies this month-you might recognise the foliage Dies as I used them on last weeks challenge card!

Just look at the different cards you can make using the free gift.

Diecutting Essentials has a great free gift this month-Paris in the springtime.

The first feature using the free gift show is quite a variety of cards.

The second feature shows us how to use this free gift on paper craft projects other than cards. Perfect for weddings.


There’s a great feature on Partial Diecutting which is explained very well.  Also there’s a brilliant feature on Easter cards-making the most of your stash to create some lovely cards. 

That’s all until next week. 
Happy Crafting


Thank you so much Michele for another fantastic review, I do love those Paris dies, I am very tempted!! xxx

Well ladies I am hopefully now on the road to recovery, my Liver readings are on their way back down to normal and my body is starting to fight back and recover, I think that the evidence points to the Bisoprolol as the reason for the bad reaction, although they did say that it was not a 'normal' common side effect, we have to decide now whether to try it again with bloods either side or just try something different, I think I will opt for the latter as I don't ever remember feeling that unwell, so not willing to chance it returning.  

I have had to make a speedy recovery as we have three orphaned lambs warming by the aga, having feeds every two hours, which by the time you have worked your way around all three and washed bottles doesn't leave you a lot of time.  They were super poorly to start with so fingers crossed they will start to gain strength.  It has reminded me of when Sophie and Lucy were babies, non stop feeds and nappy changes!

You can guess what my weekend will involve, I hope you have a good one.

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra
xxxxxxx

Your Challenge Theme for Next week Commencing Monday 25th march

Good Morning Ladies,

Thank goodness it's Friday, I hope that you are all ready for the weekend!

Cheryl's Child Card Challenge

Our lovely Cheryl came up with the theme or this weeks challenge while she was sat catching up with her card making for friends and family.

The theme that Cheryl has picked is, I believe something Brand New for us to try, which is very exciting, so here we go...….

Your theme for next weeks Challenge is …..Make a Card for a Child

You can choose any style, size and colour for your card, you can use whatever you materials you like, there are no restrictions at all.

I can't wait to see all of your designs, I hope you enjoy the challenge as the most important rule is that you have fun making your cards.

Thank you so much Cheryl for choosing a fantastic theme for our challenge xxx

Well Ladies, I hope that you all have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Pat's fantastic Floral Groovi card

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well, we are on the run down to the weekend now so that's a reason to smile😁

Today I want to share with you this beautiful card from Pat, it features some very intricate Groovi work, Pat has created a gorgeous pattern that involves using your piercing tool to cut out those tiny crosses, it's just so intricate Pat I don't know how you do it, I would be far too heavy handed for anything as delicate as that.  Pat has placed her piece of Groovi work over a coloured Background and then added that beautiful frame that she gets from her friend at the Groovi class she goes to in Abingdon, the lovely lady designs the frames and then creates the patterns to fit perfectly inside the frames and then feature room in the centre for you to add your own embellishment.
Pat has added a pretty flower, now I am not sure if that pink flower is made of pink card that has been embossed to highlight its details or If it is one of those embellishments that has the same texture as those pink shrimp sweets, I think that those ones are made from paper clay, Sue and I made some embellishments a year or so ago using Paper Clay and the results were similar looking.
Pat has popped a simple button into the centre of the flower and that button really gives the flower 'life', I love the colour contrast Pat.
Thank you so much for sending your card in for me to share with our friends Pat xxx

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs

Sandra
xxxxxx

a Bright and cheerful card

Good Morning Ladies,

Well I did eventually manage to get into my craft room yesterday afternoon, I needed to make my Notelets for the swaps over on the fb group, so I made myself go and sit in there until they were done.

I then made this card too which was on the same theme as some of the Notelets.

I embossed a piece of Melon Mambo card with the Lace Dynamic Embossing folder, then to highlight some of the detail I used a dauber and added a little Spun Sugar Distress Oxide across the raised areas.  To create a base for my Butterflies to sit I stamped the largest Doily from the Dear Doily Stamp set, I used Perfect Medium to stamp with and added an Opal Mica powder to give a subtle pattern in the background.  Before I adhered the doily I added a piece of the White Dotted Tulle ribbon across my card and then put the die cut vellum piece on top.

I stamped one large and 2 small butterflies from the Beauty Abounds stamp set, I stamped first onto white card that I had blended some Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink onto, using Melon Mambo ink and the repeated but stamping onto Vellum, to create an extra layer of wings for my butterflies.

I arranged the butterflies onto my card and added some sparkles to them all.

The sentiment is one of Sue Wilsons and I die cut it twice out of white card inked with Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink.

I hope you like my card.

Believe me, when I had finished the card and notelets I was ready for a lie down, I am getting so frustrated at both the pain and feeling so unwell, but never mind.

Paul came home with a lovely gift from a lady that he works with, it was a jigsaw puzzle, she said that it would hopefully help keep my mind off of Google!!  So thoughtful, I must make a thank you card for her today.

That's all from me today my lovelies, Thank you all so much for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers, I really appreciate it.

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Gorgeous Swap Notelets from the lovely Steph Stoker

Good Morning ladies,

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and wishes yesterday, I am not going to lie, the blood test was horrible (not that they are ever nice)!  I have asked both times for her to use the Butterfly needle as it always works first time, but they never listen, she got in eventually and had prepared me by saying 'i'm really sorry I am going to have to take rather a lot of blood from you today''  it was 6 bottles in all.  But I guess that they are checking for everything. 

Then I get the phone call for my Urgent Scan, its a week on Wednesday!! How on earth is that urgent?! I will be a gibbering wreck by then!

Anyway on to pretty things....

Today I am sharing some perfectly timed 'Happy Mail' with you, over on our FB channel Danielle and I run a monthly swap, this month the swap is  'A set of Notelets'' and these gorgeous Vintage designs are from the lovely Steph Stoker, this is her first venture into Vintage style cards but you would never guess that.  She made a beautiful card that matched the Notelets beautifully, it features the cutest little girl and boy on a lovely vintage background.

The Notelets have the same theme, all lovely vintage/shabby chic designs with lots of detail.  Steph even went to the trouble of making matching Vintage envelopes too.

Thank you so much for a gorgeous swap Steph, it was perfectly timed to bring a much needed smile to my face xxx

I have a couple of craft projects I would like to try today, all being well, so please keep your fingers crossed for me.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs,

Sandra

xxxxxx

One Colour card

Good Morning Ladies,

We had every kind of weather in one day yesterday, we woke up to beautiful Sunshine streaming through the windows, which was lovely, although it was still quite windy and very cold, the ski's greyed over after lunch though and we then had sleet, snow and hale stones all in the space of an hour or so!  We wanted to get out of the house so we went to the Outlet Centre where they have a Farmers Market, there weren't many stalls though, the only thing we bought was some Lemon Meringue Fudge!  (not the healthy shopping I had planned).

Today's card was the result of me having a 'play' with Distress Oxide inks, trying to see how it embosses etc and as you would expect it works however you try and use it.
The whole card was made with Whisper White card and distress ink.

I started off by stamping the background using the 'Dear Doily' stampin'up Stamp set, I love that pretty doily stamp, the Distress Oxide that I used is Picked Raspberry.
Next I used my Blending Tool to cover a piece of card that I used to die cut the back of the Doily die, I then stamped those grasses onto the coloured piece in versamark and added white embossing powder and heat set and then I used the matching die to cut them out.
I stamped the sentiment and embossed that at die cut with a scalloped circle and layered on top of the Doily.  The final part was to ink around of a piece of card to create and matching coloured matt for layering up the card.
I put it all together using a Whisper White card base, the layer with the inked edges, my doily background, I then added foam pads to the back of the doily die cut and placed it in the bottom corner and popped the three grasses under the doily to one side.
I hope you like my card, it's amazing what you can achieve with nothing but white card and I ink pad!!

Nothing much happening here today, I am exhausted both mentally and physically, I have another blood test at 11am, I think that the rest of the day will be me resting.  So please feel free to flood my inbox with your cards incase I don't feel up to making any for a few days, although I am wanting to go and sit in my craft room and play.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Your cards for Karen's ''Things With Wings'' challenge

Good Morning Ladies,

Welcome to another Sunday Blog Post jam packed with your amazing card designs that use Karen's "Things with Wings'' Challenge.....

Michele

Michele has designed three fantastic cards that feature ''Things with Wings'' …..

My 3 challenge cards. Picture of Plane is a Hunkydory topper & I’ve Embossed the background. Owls are a Cottage Cutz die that I’ve had for years & probably never used, background is a leftover scribble one from weeks ago. 3rd Card is made using various magazine freebies.

Thanks Michele for 3 fantastic challenge cards. xxx

Lynda

Lynda has also designed 3 gorgeous cards for this weeks challenge,  all completely different I particularly love the one that has one of your amazing backgrounds Lynda.....

No1.This one  paper pad from Works,  middle pink Embossing past onto a mask the stomp is a Clarity stamp the frames are SW
Noble collection Lavish accented octagon
Flowers cut from same backing papers

No.2  paper pad  from the Work I stamped a bird onto a mdf tag added some oxide ink pad

 No.3 Pretty papers from a works pad with JL dragonflies added

That third card had me convinced it was made with one of your backgrounds, all three of your cards are amazing Lynda, as always xxx

Karen

Karen had designed three completely different challenge cards, if I didn't know better you would think that they were for different challenges, so clever.  I love all three of your designs Karen.

Here’s three cc for you
I’m in to using old with new at the mo

Number 1 is an old style of card that we did at a Julia Watts workshop (Maria will remember that one!)
The robin die cut is placed onto a double sided sticky sheet with a black background The exposed areas covered with red sparkle gilding flakes and then parts are painted with CS Iridescent Shimmering paints I like the way these paints do not block out the gilding flakes underneath

Number 2 is a style of card I made years ago using a Sue Wilson inspiration she did with Les Papillon dies The squares are Marvellous Squares die cuts and the new are JL’s butterflies

Number 3 When clearing MIL’s flat we came across a Candi (remember Candi?) kit I bought her from C&C So I decided to have a play The base has some glossy accents and the Candi is added with Pinflair The new is the added JL butterflies.

I love that you are using 'Old With New' at the moment Karen, such a great way of using up some of the vast quantity of old stash that we all have.

Thanks for 3 fab cards. xxx

Maria

Maria, such a beautiful card, so pretty, I love that background its such a delicate colour...

Maria has used that gorgeous background and then very cleverly Fussy cut the beautifully coloured bird and branch and added them to the card along with the sentiment.

Thank you so much Maria for making your card, I really appreciate the trouble you went to my lovely,xxx

Janet

Janet had created three incredible cards, like Karen's these cards are completely different in style, how funny Janet that these cards would work so well for this weeks upcoming challenge too!!

The third card is a stamp by 'Dolly Dimples - Toadstool Girl

The second and third cards are stamps from 'Crafter's Companion Sheena Douglas'

Thank you so much Janet for 3 completely different cards, I love how you have stayed away from the obvious choices. xxx

Lilian

Lilian has designed a beautiful background for her card, I love the shimmer and shine, the Spellbinder butterflies are cut from that same background, I love how shimmery they are Lilian.

The background die is one of Tim Holtz's , the butterflies are Spellbinders that gorgeous shimmer comes from Starlight Paint and embossing powder, such an amazing combination Lilian.

Thank you so much for your inspiration. xxx

Brenda

Two fantastic cards from Brenda featuring 'Things With Wings' for this weeks challenge...

Brenda's first card is one that she made with her sister Anne when staying in Loughborough, I quite like the simplicity of the card, Brenda did say that they didn't have any embellishments on hand but I like it as it is (guess what you will be shopping for at Ally Pally)!!

Brenda's second card is made with a Crafters Companion die cut front, featuring butterflies, this has been laid over an gorgeous coloured Background that Brenda had made herself. I love the colours you have used Brenda.

Thank you so much for taking part my lovely xxx

Val

Oh Val, I love your card, both the background and that stunning Fairy image, beautifully embellished with those pretty butterflies and bows and gorgeous stick pins too.

Now I will put my hands up and say that I normally 'don't do' fairies because like angels they kind of remind me of graves, but this gorgeous Fairy is so delighful.

Thank you so much Val for such a lovely card, I am thrilled you have your 'mojo' back xxx

Margaret

Margaret has gone for a 'Clean & simple', monochrome card for this weeks challenge, she has used the Stampin' Up! 'By The Bay' stamp for the main focus of the card, the sentiment is a simple 'Thank you'  that Margaret has punched and edged with black ink.

I love the look of your challenge card Margaret, thank you so much for taking part xxx

That's all for this week my lovely friends, I would like to thank you all for you lovely comforting messages yesterday, it means so much that you are all thinking of me, I really do love and appreciate all of you. 

Have a lovely Sunday,

Love and hugs

Sandra

xxxxxx