Michele's Magazine Review and Mixed Crafts

Good Morning Ladies,

Wow this week has passed so fast, it seriously doesn't seem 5 minutes since I was writing last Saturday's post!

Thank you all so much for your lovely,  encouraging comments on my first ever 'Groovi' card yesterday, I was nervous about sharing it to be honest.  I was so lucky as Paul treated me to a day out to the Clarity Open Day last saturday, we didn't arrive until after lunch, all of the 'snip Clinic' classes had been filled by 10.30am, which I was disappointed about, the lovely lady running the 'Clinic' told me to come back at the end and she would help me, I just wanted to try the different tools and learn different techniques, she said that I got best results with the 'Exclusive' scissors, which was lucky as they were the oned that I had already bought and they are the cheapest!! She said that she was very impressed with my 'snipping" and would never have guessed that I was a beginner! 

We were browsing around the different Groovi demonstrations and managed to get a seat with Paul Church who I ended up having a 1 hour 1 to 1 tutorial with, he was so helpful and couldn't have been more helpful, sharing tips on colouring,  shading, pricking etc, showing me what happens if you did it wrong, he was so patient and had a great sense of humour. Barbara was hilarious too, she gave out these most amazing prizes,  every hour, (you were given a raffle ticket when you arrived).

I was a great event, organised brilliantly aa you would expect with Barbara.  She hugged Paul at the end of the event and said "ooh i think you and I are going to become great friends" haha (i guessed she was meaning the money i would be investing in Groovi). 

They have another open day in September in Yorkshire, so if you get chance Janet, I would definitely recommend going. 

Anyway lets get on with the crafts....

First photos are of my 'Stuffed Pocket" that is winging it's way to Canada, along with its matching card that I shared with you on Monday . 

Karen

Karen has created another Crocheted cutie from her 'Edward's Imaginarium " book by Kerry Lord, I absolutely love this fantastic creation,  he still needs a name though, so come on Ladies get your thinking caps on!! 

Karen I love these adorable toys that you design and create. 

Thank you so much for sharing him with us xxx

Danielle 

Danielle has found a new love for card making this week,  she has been making some incredible inked backgrounds and then adding different fancy die cut panels to finish the card. I have to say for someone that doesn't 'do cards ' you have designed some amazing examples.

Keep them coming my lovely,  i think you can confidently call yourself a card maker now!! 

Thank you so much for sharing them Danielle xxx

Michele's Magazine Review 

Hi Ladies,


Simply Cards & Papercraft has a great set of Dies free this month plus some coordinating papers you can download.

Some ideas using the Dies plus a quick look
At the papers

More ideas.

Lots of different style cards using the free gift.

You could use the pop up die that came with Diecutting Essentials last month to make this card.

More inspiration.

Fancy fold card here. 

Christina Smith (Craftipotential) has made some unusual Easel cards which would really stand out. 

Christina Smith has written a Master Class on using Distress Oxide sprays-just look at the different backgrounds you can create. 

That’s all for now-Happy Crafting.

Love Michele 

Michele,  thanks for such a fantastic, in depth review, there is literally something  for everyone in this edition, great popular techniques today,  different card folds and distress oxide techniques too.
Thanks again my lovely XXX 

That's all for today ladies, 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra
xxxxxx

My First 'Groovi' and next weeks Challenge

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

Yesterday turned out to be a lovely day, it started out a little grey and overcast but the sun soon shone through and the afternoon was glorious, the girls put two loads of washing out and it was dry in no time.  

The telephone Engineer turned up about an hour and a half early, ten minutes before he came I had tried the phone again (just in case it had sorted itself out) but there was still no dial tone, he came in and I handed him the phone, he had asked what the problem was, so I tried to describe but it was easier for him to hear for himself, he looked at me and said ''Well there's a dial tone, so what is the problem'', you could have knocked me down with a feather!! I explained that not ten minutes before neither phone that we tried in the socket would work, he then said 'aaaahhh, my colleague is attending a fault at a house two doors down, he had the junction box open and it looks like it has recently flooded as all the connections were wet, he explained that it is a regular occurrence, as it is so close to the Thames, if often floods meaning a lot of the connections are floating in water, he went on to explain that he had stopped to check what he was doing and at the same time re-sent a signal to our number and he thinks thats what had cleared the fault!!  I was relieved but at the same time 'p***ed Off, as the night before Paul had had to clear half of my craft unit and move it away from the wall so that he could access the phone socket, my whole craft room is upside down with stuff stacked everywhere, what annoyed me is that the Engineer that I had spoken to to report the fault had said that there were no other reported faults in our area and that he had checked everything externally and there were no problems, therefore he was 80% sure it was our equipment failure!! Both of those statements weren't true as the engineer was clearly booked to attend a fault two doors down!!  Anyway apart from having a bomb site for a craft room at least it didn't cost us any money and I have the reassurance that the phone is working.

Today's card is my VERY First Groovi Card, now I know that it isn't perfect, not even close to perfect, but I am quite pleased with my first attempt, Becca loved it too as it was something completely different to anything that I have ever made her before, I used ''Linda's Roses and Lace'' Groovi plate and my Derwent Colour Soft Pencils, I die cut the outer edge of the parchment with one of the Grand Decorative Circle dies and mounted it onto Cherry Cobbler Card and then onto a die cut circle card base.

Next Weeks Challenge

I thought I would add familiar Challenges in between the  'different challenges' that I suggested last week, I happen to think that this is quite a nice TicTacToe with lots of choice, that would work for most occasions.

I look forward to seeing your cards.

I received an email confirming that there will be NO Ally Pally in September, sadly, I think that we will take this opportunity to try and organise something for all of us to do instead, so watch this space....

Have a lovely weekend Ladies,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxx 

Michele's 5th Centre Stepper

Good Morning Ladies,

Today's card is the 5th version of Michele's Centre Stepper cards.
Michele made this card for a Colleagues wedding,  it is beautiful, the silver mirror card heart and side panel die cuts really give that touch of luxury to the whole card. the other thing that makes a difference to the overall look of this card that you don't notice at first is that Michele has used a 'Deckle Edge die to cut the pink card, this makes a much softer look so the two colours blend together seamlessly.
I really want to go make a centre stepper card now, in fact I think that will be on my desk today, thank you so much Michele for allowing me to share your amazing cards.

Now, I said that I would make a  Stepper card today but I have to wait until the telephone (BT) man has been, as we still have no home phone, I got the girls to go up the attic and get the old plug in phone out, hoping that would work but we got nothing, not a sound, the only thing that is worrying me is the man on the 'Internet chat' said that if the issue is caused by trees or damp or wear and tear, we have to pay £85 for the call out plus the cost of the repair!!! I literally can't understand how it could possibly be anything we have caused, it was fine on Sunday evening when Paul call his Dad but I went to answer the phone on Monday morning and I could only hear a ringing sound in the distance, we have had several power cuts so that my be the cause of the fault, I guess we will have to just wait and see, hopefully if I chat and make the engineer a cup of tea he might be generous??!!

Is there any sign of the sun returning any day soon?? Yesterday seemed to be a really dark and overcast day, I need the sun to come out so that I can get some laundry done, I just hate having it hanging around the house wet, we still don't have any heating  so no radiators to put the airer in front of and the Aga isn't on either, which is a shame as that used to dry washing super fast.  I can't remember the last time that we went three days without doing a load of washing, you can guarantee that it was on most days, especially with Paul's laundry load colour sorting, every colour had it's own wash load, so if you were painting for a yellow t shirt, you had to be patient!!! I am not complaining though, he's such a support and stands no chance of having a colour run incident.  I did smile to myself a few weeks back as I had told the girls to go and pick themselves out a new set of towels, the point was that they were to have their own colours so that the would know who's was who's, I think Sophie chose a bright orange set and a purple set for Lewis, Lucy went for a bright blue.  As they put them in the shopping bags I thought that they would be waiting a while for those colours to go through the laundry process, they do look colourful on the line though, AND it has stopped them picking a clean bath sheet out of the airing cupboard every night in case they didn't pick there own one up from the night before. At one point we were washing 15 to 20 towels on a weekend, now its just their new ones and 1 other, so was definitely worth it.

Well I will hopefully get some crafting done today, BT man permitting, I hope that you have a great day too.

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Michele's 1 Fold 4 ways

Good Morning Ladies, 

Well what a day yesterday turned out to be, apart from more flippin rain!  First of all there was a knock at the door, which I answered and it was a lady calling to say that two of Matts lambs had managed to get under the fence of the new field that they are in and were in the paddock of the huge house that is next to the field, apparently they have some expensive roses and she was worried that the lambs would eat them, I reassured her that they would just be after the grass and said I will see if I can get it sorted, then the smoke alarm kept beeping, I went to get the phone to call Matt and tell him about the lambs but the house phone wasn't working, it was playing up the night before too, it would ring but when you answer all you can hear is a ringing in the distance.  Then the electricity went off, so I couldn't message Matt on messenger either, I also couldn't have a shower, wash my hair, have a cup of tea or anything! The electricity continued to be on and off sporadically all day. Then someone else came to say that the sheep were out, so all in all it was somewhat of a stressful day.

Today we are taking Sophie to collect her car and hopefully we will get chance to pop in to Ikea while we are there, well it would be rude not too!

Today Michele kindly sent me four Centre Stepper cards to share with you, all basically the same layout, just decorated completely differently, the first one has been made with the most beautiful Lilac foiled paper, Michele has added some die cut flowers that are cut out in a deeper shade of purple along with the sentiment, the whole thing ties together beautifully.

The second card would have been perfect for my girls when they were younger as they were very keen footballers but you could rarely find a Football themed card for girls, so a great idea Michele.

Card number three is a great Man card, it would be great for teens and men with an interest in music, that card that you have used shows up that embossing brilliantly Michele.

Card number four is a lovely girly pretty card, that sentiment die cut fits that centre panel perfectly, the pretty flowers add that perfect finishing touch.

Thank you so much Michele for allowing me to share your amazing Stepper card ideas, these will sell like 'hot cakes' on your stall at the weekend. xxx

Ladies come back tomorrow to see the fifth and best stepper card of them all!!!!

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Another Favourite Challenge Card

Good Morning Ladies,

I used the Paper Boutique 'Springtime Blooms' Paper kit as the base of today's card, I used a sheet of the 8 x 8 pad as the base, I took a piece of paper lace border and threaded the seam binding ribbon through, finishing with a triple bow at the top that is nested into a Spotted Tulle bow, I thought that the spotty tulle went well with the polka dot paper.

I then chose two toppers for a change and mounted them on a piece of lilac card and then onto the Sue Wilson die cut.  The flowers and embellishments I have used have a hints of the same colour blues in the flowers on the toppers in an attempt to tie everything together. I made the little flowers using some white petals that I had in my stash, I also had the blue silk flower with beaded stamens, I just fiddled about and made little flowers with the silk flowers as the centres, I then added some leaves and little white die cut sprigs that I inked with shaded lilac distress ink, which is what a used around the edges of the paper and the toppers.

I ended up making my card in the evening as I got so carried away practising colouring and 'Picot Cutting' my Groovi flowers, as soon as I have finished a card I will share it with you, I am quite excited about it, it's such a relaxing thing to do, I think I lost a good 2 hours colouring and blending yesterday afternoon, the 'Picot cutting' has highlighted how poor my close up eyesight had become, I am struggling to see where to put the darn scissors in, I have a pair of those cheap 'Ready Readers' that I bought some time ago so I might try those, otherwise it will be a magnifying glass I think.

We have a busy couple of days a head, tomorrow we are all travelling down to London, we are taking Sophie to pick up her first car, luckily the man she has bought it from has kindly agreed to meet us at Ikea (near Wembley) as Sophie was terrified about driving through central London on her first solo drive, which I can totally understand, she has been so sensible about finding the right car, paying for full RAC checks etc, the engineer goes out and does a full inspection and road test, which really put our minds at rest, it is so lovely knowing that they are now all fully independent (well, with driving anyway)!

Margaret I was so happy to read that you felt up to making two cards yesterday, that is a huge step forward my lovely, I can't wait to see them, I think about you every day and have everything crossed that they can rebuild you back to the 'Superwoman'' you were before! (only kidding) I think just having some answers and therapy will be a huge step in the right direction, I am always here if you ever want to come and play, if Alan drops you off Paul will happily take you back home, you can reassure 'Pops' that I will take care of you 😜😉XXX

Lilian It was so lovely to hear from you yesterday, I was also pleased to hear that the Paramedic managed to talk to someone to get you off of those useless tablets, fingers crossed you will feel the benefit in the coming days, they do need to get that GP onto your case sharpish though as you can't be left without any medication for your Heart condition, I wonder if it might be worth giving your Consultants secretary a call.  Either way lets hope that you can now get the correct medication, so that you can start feeling like your old self again.

Please don't ever feel the need to apologise for updating us on your condition etc, first and foremost your are dearly loved by all of us and we all WANT to hear from you, just so that we know that you are ok.  I can't wait to see your Watercoloured cards my lovely, I had pretty much guessed that was the medium that you would choose, either that or your stunning Stamperia papers, so maybe you should do 2 challenge cards this week😉😉.  I really miss not having your cards to add to the list on a Sunday, I end up going back to my emails to check about 10 times just to make sure I haven't missed it. 

Thank you so much for keeping us up to date my lovely XXX

Brenda & John I hope that you both had a lovely weekend celebrating your Anniversary with your family XXX

Thats all for today ladies,

Have a lovely day,

Love and HUGE Hugs

Sandra

xxxxxxx

My Challenge card

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you all had a lovely relaxing weekend, we had a busy Saturday and quiet Sunday, I was kind of hoping that Paul would choose to go out for Dinner last night, or maybe have a Take-Away, but no he fancied Steak & Ribs and all the trimmings, Onion Rings, Chips, Garlic mushrooms and Tenderstem Broccoli (instead of peas, this has become the new favourite vegetable in our house as the stems are similar to asparagus and the broccoli type top is yummy too),  I wasn't sure that he would have room for dessert but he managed some Lemon Marscapone Cheesecake.

You probably all guessed what my 'Favourite' style of card would be, I made this one on Friday afternoon to go with a 'Stuffed Pocket' swap that I am taking part in over on Our Facebook group.
I kind of get carried away when I start designing these style of cards, this is partly why my desk ends up like mount Everest, as I lay out the flowers, lace and ribbon that I think goes well with the paper I am using, decide on the dies I might use and get them all laid out on my desk, then I get started and decide the lace was too wide, the ribbon wasn't quite the shade I was looking for and the flowers don't match the card after all, so I get another lot out,etc etc, Surely I'm not the only one that crafts like that?!
Anyway the paper I used for this card and the matching pocket (which I will share on Saturday) is called ''In My Garden'', I bought a whole collection for a really good price on Hochanda from a company called ''The Craftbox'', everything comes beautifully packaged too.  The papers themselves are really pretty with layers and layers of detail, including lace detail and script.
I laid the 6x6 piece onto a card base and began to build up my design, starting with a punched border strip that had ribbon threaded through it, I then halved a doily and tucked that underneath the border, I cut the sentiment tag and layered onto white card, placed it on foam pads and then arranged those flowers around the end of the tag, I tied a triple bow with the same Seam Binding Ribbon  as I threaded through the border and backed it with a spotted tulle bow and finished it with a tiny pearl heart.
I needed an embellishment to place on the doily, above the sentiment tag, I tried several things but couldn't decide, in the end I found a Bezel and took out the decoration that was inside it, drew around it over a butterfly on the same paper as I used for the card, fussy cut the circle 'ish', popped it in the Bezel and filled with Glossy Accents, I left it overnight and was really pleased with how it turned out, so I had a matching embellishment to finish the card, I cut a tiny bow with the same seam binding to finish the bezel.
My finishing touches were the pearls, a little bit of lace beneath the sentiment that I finished with a string of pearls too.
I was happy with how it turned out, I hope my swap partner likes it and that it makes it way to Canada in one piece!!

Thats all from me for today ladies,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Your Challenge cards

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and enjoying your weekend, the good thing about being a crafter is that we still have something fun to do on a rainy day (mojo permitting of course)!

Some absolutely stunning cards for this week's Tictactoe challenge, we have a couple of new ladies in our line up this week, they have made some stunning card's,  so let's welcome Melanie, Toni and Karin xxx

Here are your stunning cards......

Janet

WOW Janet,  3 absolutely stunning cards, so much colour, texture and beautiful florals.

I will add Janet's description below....

My THIRD card is made using 12x12 Stamperia card called 'Spring Botanic Pearls'.

    I used Design Card/flowers/pearls from the tic tac toe.

. My SECOND card is made using A3 block of 'Floral Treats' from Crafter's Companion.

I used Design Paper/Pink/Flowers/pearls from the tic tac toe.

 My FIRST card for this week was made with a 6x6 blank card.

   I used Eboss folder wall)/flowers/glitter/twine and images from a A4 block of 3D die cut images bought last year from £land.

Thank you so much Janet for your stunning cards xxx

Lynda

Lynda I absolutely love your challenge card,  that detail in the  centre is stunning. Lynda's description. .

SW die in middle I cut die  out.from same card. Then embossed one in soft pink from stash. I then glued them together.

I used designer paper Northern lights

Glude onto base card

Then SW squared squared die set. Placed it over paper

Then placed that onto  the middle of the my. Card. Added JL flowers & butterfly.

Karen 

Karen used one of her new EBay dies for her challenge card this week, I love the gorgeous colour of your background. 

Karen's Description. .

"Tic-tac-toe is pink-designer paper/pearls

The die is from China and the designer paper is from The Works"

Card 2: Here’s the cc I made yesterday - very simple but perfect for posting 

Dry Embossing-Ribbon-Glitter 

EF = SW Contemporary Poinsettia 

Sentiment = SW mini expressions

Two fantastic cards Karen, I see what you mean about the cutting edge on the 'it's a girl". I wonder if you could add a piece of white card and cover join with either a borxer die or piece of ribbon.

Thank you so much for your fantastic cards XXX 

Michele 

 Michele this card is stunning, so delicate and that die is do pretty. Michele has used the categories  Glitter/Dry Embossing/Pink

Thanks so much Michele for taking part XXX 

Maria 

Maria made two cards for our TicTacToe challenge this week.

Maria's Description 

Tried to make Adam as a shadow card but it got lost in all the

glitter so just made it in black in the end.

1/ Embossed card, Pink and Glitter

Liked to make another one and found this cheeky fox so

2/ Paper,Flowers and Glitter

Maria I love how Adam's  card turned out, that fox image is so cute.  Thank you so much for taking part in the challenge my lovely XXX 

Karin Vervoot

Karin has made a gorgeous floral themed card for our Challenge this week.

I love your design Karin and those flowers are so pretty.

Categories used:  flowers/Dry Embossing/Pink

Thank you so much Karin for taking part in our Challenge this week and welcome to my blog XXX

Toni Watson

Toni jas also made a gorgeous card for the TicTacToe challenge,  just look at that stunning card. A combination of pretty papers, intricate die cuts and pretty flowers, that vintage topper is lovely too.

Toni has used Categories: Pink/Patterned Paper/flowers.

Thank you so much Karin for taking part. xxx

Melanie Kilborn

Well what can i say about this stunning  collection of cards, I was absolutely blown away when I watched these gorgeous works of art appear on our FB group this week. 

Melanie you make outstanding cards, 

I think Melanie mostly used Categories:  Pink/Flowers/Ribbon some have /die cut. 

Thank you so much Melanie for taking part in our Challenge, welcome to our Blog. XXX

Sue

Sue chose Christmas as the theme for her challenge card for this week's Tictactoe challenge. 

Using categories: Dry Embossing/Pink card/pearls

Thank you so much Sue for such a cute Christmas card, that snowman is adorable. Xxx

Wow ladies what an incredible display of gorgeousness!! 

I can stop scrolling through them all, the cafe walls will look amazing today. 

Thank you to all of you that took part, especially our new ladies, welcome ladies, please come back and take part each week. 

Have a lovely Sunday ladies,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx