Mixed Up Saturday

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are having a relaxed start to the weekend, the weather isn't forecast to be that great so I think we will be relaxing inside, I am hoping to do one of my Tracy Evan's workshops.  

What have you all got planned?  I know that some of you could do with putting your feet up and having a totally relaxed weekend.  I want to send warm, gentle hugs to those of you feeling under the weather.

The amazing cards above have been designed and created by our lovely Michele, using an old Cuttlebug Snowflake die that has a matching mini embossing folder. I love all the combinations that you have designed I really love the Kraft/Cream ones that is a lovely combination. All of these designs would work for next weeks challenge. 

Thank you so much Michele for giving us some great inspiration for our next Challenge and for allowing me to share your amazing designs. XXX

Here is this weeks Review: 

Creative Stamping Magazine Review 

(Issue 102)

If you are into Gnomes you will love the free gifts in the latest edition of Creative Stamper, there are other really useful stamps too, those modern style trees are really nice, the pretty star garland, that chubby little robin is adorable. The Gnomes are actually hand drawn by Nicky Hall from Polkadoodles, she is amazing at cute images. 

The little stamps included with the free gift make excellent backgrounds when stamped randomly, you can even use them to create the Scandinavian' style background when stamped repeatedly to create borders. This magazine is one of the best for showing you so many different ways to use your free gifts.

You also got some free papers with this issue and this feature shares some great ideas for using them, combined with the stamps. there are some really lovely ideas that would work with any paper ranges.

Ooh this is a great feature, I really want to use my Gel Plate more, which is one reason I signed up to some Tracy Evans workshops.  This feature shows us how to use stamps with our Gel Plates which is something that I just haven't tried.  The cards show what an effective technique this is to try so I will definitely be having a play.

Nicky Hall is the main feature on this page, she is talking about designing the cute gnome stamps that make up part of the give away, they do look very much like her other cute designs, she does all sorts from lovely animals, in fact I have some CDRoms of hers from years ago featuring Digistamps of characters wearing uniforms for every job imaginable. She is a very talented designer, check out Polkadoodles website for more of her work.

Some Quick Clean & Simple' cards made using the stamps and free papers on this page.

It looks like all magazines have a Julie Hickey feature in this past month, some lovely designs here, I think that they are all using the 'Emboss Resist' technique. I love that colour combination:  Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac, Faded Jeans & Salvaged Patina Distress Oxides 

Some Fun ideas for 3D decorations and gift boxes using the magazine Freebies.

This feature shares some ideas using the free stamps can be used for more than just Christmas cards.

Lastly we have a feature showing one layer stencilling, using a combination of stencils to give both a modern and traditional look.  She gives hints like creating a hinge so that you can go back and add more shading etc.  I love the one of the World map combined with the Grid stencil and that pretty floral one is really lovely. 

That's all for this review, I haven't included everything thats in the magazine so that you still have some surprises if you buy it. 😊

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My Craft Shopping (Newbury Stamperama)

I saw some inspiration cards for this Stencil and I was hooked and wanted to buy it there and then. Sue and I browsed the Sweet Poppy stand multiple times,  so much choice and inspiration.  I also loved a Fern design but decided that one stencil was enough, which was a goid decision as I found it in my 'to be used' basket on my desk on Monday while looking for something else .

A few bits and bobs I picked up while I was shopping,  some tiny red berries to add to wreath stamps, some good old Pinflaur glue, I stopped using it a few years back after opening a card U had made for Paul a few years back and the awful smell from the glue made me rethink using it,  hopefully they have addressed the issue in the ladt few years, as I think it would be handy to ne able to use it to hold up butterfly wings and attach heavier items, I have seen a few demonstrators using it recently. 

Sue and decided to have a go with Masking Fluid after chatting to Jenny Mayes on the Hobby Art stand. Some Sweet Poppy Glitter 'Crystallina' and a replacement for my Tim Holtz water sprayer.

A girl can never have enough flower stamps,  can she??!!  I saw some incredible cards made with the Hobby Art Poppy stamp set and in fact the same went for the Honey Doo stamp (even though I have 2 others I haven't used yet)  

I saw a card that showcased the tiny Poinsettia in the John Lockwood small Poinsettia dies.  See below..

Then there is a Quickie Glue pen and some peel off sparkles that I thought I might try on cards for posting,  the lady that ran our Groovi class used them and they looked amazing on her projects  I wil let you know what I think. 

I haven't come across tbis company before, I loved the Fonts of yhe sentiments and the little scene stamp really appealed to me, I love the simplicity of the art work.

These items came in the post, I love the Christmas trees to use with the Bauble stencil after seeing Our Lilian's challenge card a couple weeks back. I loved the stencil and the brushes I saw being used to add ink through the metal stencils, so I thought I would give them a try,  again I will let you know! 

That's it for my shopping,  I honestly thought I had bought more at the show with it being the first one in 2 years!! 

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That's all for today Ladies, I hope that you enjoy the rest of your Saturday,

Sending my love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Your Next Challenge

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Woo hoo !!! Its the end of the week, I feel exhausted this week so I am looking forward to Paul's alarm NOT going off at 5am.   Our plans changed so we have a lovely quiet weekend,  which I am glad about as I have bought a couple of Tracy Evans Workshops and I am looking forward to playing with my new stamps, so hopefully that will happen tomorrow.  What do you all have planned? 

Yesterday turned out to be  really lovely as Sue came over to Craft for the afternoon, it was so lovely to sit and craft with a friend 😊  It was lovely to see Sue crafting too. 

Your Next Challenge 

I was sat playing with a really simple stamp and ended up making 2 cards in about 10 minutes, so I thought that it would be good to have as a challenge for this week so that we can all get a good few cards made ready to post out in a couple of weeks (yes I did say a couple of weeks) its 12 days to beginning of December!! 

I have shared a few cards that I think all work for the Clean & Simple style of crafting.  They are all very different but I am happy to go along with your idea of Clean &Simple.   As always I am excited to see what you create for this challenge. 

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

November TicTacToe Challenge card 3

Good morning Ladies, 

I hope that today finds you all well, the weather certainly brings a bit of sunshine in, it was a beautiful day here yesterday,  bright beautiful sunshine all day, it was warm for mid November too.  We were supposed to be going down to Devon this weekend to see Paul's parents but Paul's siblings are going down too and it seems daft everyone going at the same time, I am also trying to be extra cautious regarding Covid, so the fewer we mix with the better. We can only visit Paul's Dad 2 at a time anyway so no point us all waiting for our hour time slot, he would be exhausted.  So we have changed our visit to next weekend,  it would have been lovely to be there in the warm sunshine, you can guarantee it will be -5 and rainy next weekend!! 🤣😂

Janet it was good to read you got home safe but sorry to read the last leg of the journey was a nightmare,  that happened to Paul and I from just outside Dover one year, all traffic was diverted round these tiny roads through villages that consisted of 2 or 3 houses, no way the roads were designed to take heavy traffic that included huge lorries fully laden with containers!! It added added over 2 hours to our journey, at the end of your holiday you just want to get home don't you.  Enjoy the rest of the week,  try and relax for a couple of days xxxx

Todays card is my 3rd Challenge card for the TicTacToe Challenge .  For this card I have chosen Categories: Embossing/Die Cut/Red

I started with a Evening  Evergreen Card base, onto which I stamped some Ferns in white ink, I then used my Merriest Moments Hybrid Embossing Folder that die cuts too, I used the outline die and cut and embossed a piece of Just Jade card, I took a white ink pad and the black (back side) of a piece of Cut & Dry foam and added a little white to highlight the embossing. To add the decorative elements to the card I stamped and die cut the Poinsettias and leaves and arranged them in opposite corners of my card, the sentiment is from the same stamp set as the Poinsettia stamps, its called Merriest Moments. I popped some Cherry Cobbler gems to centre of the Poinsettias to finish the card, oh a a swish of glitter pen! 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

November TicTacToe card 2

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

How are we all doing mid week my lovelies?  I know a few of you are struggling so I want to send a extra hug your way. 😘

I spent a lovely day just chilling out with my girls, they came and laid on my bed while I was resting, it was lovely, they are fun to be around (most of the time). 😉

We got some great news later in the day when Paul came home, he found out that he got the job!! So is now on a permanent contract with all the benefits that go with it.  He is very relieved as he no longer has the worry of contracts. Now onto today's card, I made this card yesterday afternoon, I have been wanting to use these beautiful papers for ages (not that i used much of it). The paper is called 'Christmastime is Here', I used the Green patterned paper as the base and added a piece of white card on an angle and an Ornate edge die to add a decorative edging,  I didn't like how raw the edge looked so I added some pearls to finish the edge off.  To decorate the card I fussy cut a floral spray from those beautiful papers, it was a bit fiddly but worth the time it took. Although I'm not great at it. The sentiment I used was a magazine freebie, I quite like the font. 

So the Categories are: Patterned Paper/Green/Embellishments 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and Hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

November TicTacToe card 1

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope you ladies are all well, I had a 'run the house from bed day' yesterday,  as I couldn't bare the pain of putting any weight on either leg, what a frustrating situation to be in, I called GP, guess what no appointments, I sm waiting for a 'Call' , to ne honest I think the only way to get seen is to go to Urgent Care or A&E, something feels very wrong in my right knee, it hasn't been right since the Orthopaedic Surgeon that put the full length titanium stem in my femur pushed it too far and tore the cartilage in my knee, I couldn't bend my knee at all for over two years, anyway it feels like something has moved.                                                      Now when I say that my knee pain is unbearable, I want to remind you that it is that painful despite the fact that I take Highest pain relief out there, I was explaining this to Paul yesterday,  just imagine what state I would be in if I didn't take opiates,  it's actually quite frightening as it masks things that you would probably seek medical attention for if you weren't on pain relief. !  But having said that there are people that are in a lot more pain than I am, so we have to be grateful for what we have.   

 At the end of the day I have an amazing Husband and family and the very best friends that anyone could wish for. 😍🥰😘

 Now as I wasn't feeling on top of the world I ended up surfing Pinterest for an idea for a card for today, I have used this stamp on white card and it looked lovely

but I saw that a lovely Lady called Rachel Macleod had stamped it onto Dark Green (Evening Evergreen) card and boy did I love it ! So I used my Festive Foliage Stamp and stamped onto the green card, embossing with Gold embossing powder, now I didn't have red gems so I used my Diamantés and coloured them with Cherry Cobbler Stampin Blend. 

The sentiment is an old Spellbinders one that  worked well for this design.  I think when you have an image as lovely as that, let it shine !! 

Categories:  Green/Embossing/ Embellishment 

I hope that you all have  lovely day 

Love and hugs to all 

Sandra

xxxxxx 

Challenge card Ideas

 

Patterned paper/Die Cut/Colouring tool

Embossing/Colouring tool/Red

Ribbon/Die Cut/ Green

Ribbon/Red/Die cut

Good Monday Morning Ladies ,

Did you all have a good weekend?  I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with Sue at the Newbury Stamperama, it was a lovely little craft show, credit to the organisers there was so much room and sanitisation stations all over (although we always have our own). Apart from one occasion at the start of the day were one woman put her face so close to mine (over my shoulder) I thought she was going to kiss me!!! But no she was just too impatient to wait to see what was in front of me. I did comment quite loudly about the fact that the organisers had done their bit to remind everyone to respect other people's space etc.  

We will just put it down to 'Craft Show Fever' were the excitement of getting your hands on those craft goodies makes you lose your common sense! 😉

Now onto today's cards, I was in no fit state to sit and make a card as I had originally planned, frustratingly my right leg is very swollen and painful, getting up and down looking at stands at the show made this so much worse, to the point of tears, I have no idea whats causing the pain and swelling but I think I may have to get it checked out.

So I decided to share some inspiration for this weeks Challenge,  all of the above cards work for the TICTACTOE.

I hope that all of you have a good day, 

Special hugs to those of you that are struggling, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Your Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well, we didn't do anything too exciting yesterday,  just food shopping!  What did you all get up to? 

I phoned Sue on Friday to see how she was feeling and tentatively asked if she fancied coming to Newbury Stamperama with us today, to my delight she said yes!! 😊 I think the change of scenery will do her good and might even spark her craftiness up again. So that's what we are up to, the good thing is its only 35 miles from us so no long drive either. If any of you need anything just message me, I am happy to post it out to you. 

 Your Challenge Cards 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Thank you so much Karen for two fantastic Challenge cards,  that baby footprint embossing folder is so adorable, it work's so well with the Baby die cut. 

Your Christmas card has a lovely Clean and simple style, you can tell you have a new machine as the depth of that snow embossing folder is incredible.  That lovely curve die finishes it off perfectly too, you just can't beat Navy & White. 

Thanks again Karen XXX

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

I’ve used a Tim Holtz stencil, inked with Speckled Egg distress oxide. One of Chloe’s Christmas Roses, and the sentiment from my stash stamped and embossed on a Spellbinders tag 😊

Such a pretty card Sonia,  I really love the soft green, such a pretty colour, that Tim Holtz stencil is beautiful too.

Thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

The first one I made was used with the poppy metal stencil that both you and Lilian have, such a pretty stencil. I used DI/O to colouring it in.

unfortunately I have mislaid my  small stamps so wasn't sure what to 

put inside but hope you like it.

My second card I used the plastic stencil and a stamp inside that says

winter for me. Might do some more on them as snow or snowflakes

and glitter, not sure.

Oh Maria,  your cards are stunning,  you did an amazing job blending the ink through the stencil,  I think they are difficult to blend through because they are metal. I love the little scene that you have created through it too. 

Your second Bauble is beautiful too, I absolutely love the ice skating scene too.

Thank you so much for taking part my lovely XXX 

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Ladies thank you so much for another fantastic display of cards. I love how you have all used different styles and techniques too. As always I am  so grateful XXX 

I hope you all have a lovely day, I get to spend today with my lovely friend Sue, plus we are craft shopping,  what could be better?!

Sending love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx