Sonia's Congrats Card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies 

It was like a lovely Spring day here yesterday,  Lucy wanted me to go to B&M Bargains with her which made for a fun couple of hours,  we had some lunch out to and got home around 4pm.  I was exhausted when we got back, I did sit and make some backgrounds for my Thrinchies using Pixie Powder and Brushos.   I then helped the girls make a stack of pancakes, which they enjoyed for that tea, they didn't save one for Paul and I though!  Lucy had chosen cooked apple with caramel sauce for her pancakes, we had what was left on a toasted sugar waffle with and Icecream😋! Sophie just likes lemon and sugar!  I'm the same, I like it traditional.  

Sonia has some Super Exciting News to share with everyone... Her Son Luke Passed his Driving Test yesterday !!! 🚗🎉🎊

Today's card is the card Sonia made for Luke for passing his test,  it's perfect!! Sonia used her Tracy Hey stamps (which she is using for our Challenge) to create the card.  I love that background Sonia and the border is amazing.  The words are perfect for the occasion and for the age group. 

Thank you so much Sonia for sharing Luke's card and pass our Congratulations on to Luke, to pass with no minors is an incredible achievement too! XXX 

I hope that you all have a great Wednesday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

My Valentine card for Paul

 

Good Tuesday Morning Ladies,

I hope that today finds you well, I was delighted yesterday as I got my first line of washing dry outside this year!!! Oh what a difference it makes, I could have sniffed those towels for a good hour, they just have the smell of freshness!  I did need to tumble dry them to finish them off, but it took 10 minutes rather than an hour!  The sun was shining all day too, it feels so nice having windows open too!  I am easily pleased !!

Todays card is the card I made for Paul for Valentines day, now it is a simple design but it took me ages as I had to reverse stamp one of the sheep and then reverse die cut it, what a palava that was, I ended up die cutting the sheep first, I then stamped the image onto a blank stamp block (which is like a big rectangle photopolymer stamp), which I managed to place onto my stamp platform, I needed to do this because after several attempts inking once just wasn't enough as you are stamping onto something to stamp again, after I had stamped the sheep clearly I carefully placed the reverse of the die cut sheep onto the reverse stamped image and the gently rubbed over the back of the die cut, I did say a little prayer as I lifted the die cut off, hoping that the image had stamped properly, this was about the 8th attempt, I was at that point where if it hadn't of worked this time I would have hurled the stamp across my craft room and asked girls to take a card shop!  I added some grass underneath and some hearts to symbolise love, the sentiment was a concoction of different dies.  I did write a nice verse inside, but decided to go for a fun card this year!  It made him smile, so had the desired effect! 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, I will be starting my challenge projects today,

Love and hugs to all of you

Sandra                                                                                                                                              xxxxxx

Happy Monday !

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome home Janet, I can't tell you how much we missed you, I think you should spend this week taking things easy though, to be on the safe side, I will be willing you to get straight through to your GP this morning so that you get your appointment,  remember to 'lay it on thick'  make sure they know how important it is that you are seen.  Our Surgery opends at 8.30am, if you get through by 9 its a miracle that's constantly redialling too!  Then you have the rask of getting through the 'Gestapo' on reception,  they are a rare breed, I think they are trained to squeeze information out of you, I beat them at their own game now and give them every detail no matter how graphic, it has definitely worked as they magic up an appointment to get uou off the phone!!! 🤣😂😆  In all seriousness I hope that get you seen and sorted soonest, sending gentle hugs my lovely XXX  

Ps. I have tried to make sure everything is where you left it behind the counter, the girls are looking forward to having your Sunday Roasts back on the menu 😘😉🤣

I didn't get to show my card yesterday so I am sharing it today,  I used my Zig Clean Colour Markers to colour my butterfly,  they worked 'ok' on Pink Frog card but did start to 'pil' as I tried to blend the colour to get a lighter edge, I love how it turned out though, I really love the bright colours on the white tag and the stark contrast between the white tag and the kraft card blank. 

The bottom photo is all of our cards together ❤️  I have to say that there is nothing better than crafting with friends,  we literally didn't stop talking from 11.30am until we left at around 5pm, such a lovely Saturday afternoon,  I can't wait to do it again soon  

Thank you so much Karen for all they work you put into preparing our project, you are a natural instructor 😍 xxx

I hope that you all have a marvellous Monday, 

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx

Your Challenge cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all having an enjoyable Sunday Morning.  

We had a lovely afternoon at Watford yesterday, Karen prepared a card for us to make, It was a lovely card, you will to see it below.   Thank you so much Karen for providing all of the bits for us to make the card. XXX 

Let's have a look at what you have made for this weeks challenge......

Your Challenge Cards 

Sonia

 

Sonia's Description:

Card 1 I’ve used Chloe’s flower border, matted onto pink glitter card. I used the outline of the Pink Fresh butterfly and added the Tim Holtz butterfly die cut in glitter. The sentiment from Inkylicious is stamped and heat embossed onto vellum. The little flowers are from a Tonic punch.

Card 2; I was playing around with hot foiling normal dies and liked how this background die from Crafter’s Companion turned out. The hot foiled wreath is Spellbinders. I hot foiled Tim Holtz butterfly too and added to the centre. The sentiment stamped on vellum is from Stamp Market. 

Sonia thank you so much for two gorgeous Challenge Cards, that background on second card is stunning, I thought it was die cut not foiled, you are so inspired. XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian what a beautiful card, made using the StampinUp'An Open Heart'  the bird is so detailed, it looks like it is eyeing up those red berries!  Now I have been looking for some of that 'eyelash trim' for ages,  I love how delicate it is and it looks very much like a birds nest on your card.

Thank you so much for sharing your card with us my lovely XXX 

Karen

Karen chose this design as the card for us to make at our little get together yesterday,  I love it, that crisp white tag on the Kraft card background looks so effective! 

We used Aall&Create #566 Winged Fragments & Aall&Create  #573 House of Butterflies  (for background).  We then marked of 2cm in from edge of card and drew the white gel pen border and stamped the little Butterfly definition inside to create background.  Karen stamped and embossed the tags for us to colour. 

The top card is Karen's original and the one beneath is the one she made yesterday as she crafted along with us.

Thank you so much Karen for choosing the project and providing all the bits to create it and for your amazing guidance, for me it was so lovely just sitting and crafting along. XXX

Sue

Sue used blues and greens to colour her butterfly at our crafting session yesterday,  an amazing card Sue, thank you for taking part XXX

Maria 

Marie used Blues for her butterfly,  it looks so striking against the white label.  A gorgeous card Maria,  thank you so much for sharing your card with us XXX

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

Another amazing display Ladies, thank you so much for designing some lovely cards for the last week of our 'Wings' Challenge ❤️ 

Have a lovely Sunday ladies,

Janet, make sure you get plenty of rest my lovely friend, you have been so missed ❤️ 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I am sending love and hugs to our Janet today, I hope you are ok my lovely XXX 😍 

I hope that the rest of my lovely Blog family are as well as can be expected at our age!! 😉🤣😂

I have been looking forward to today as Paul is taking Sue & I to Watford to meet up with Maria, I am so sorry that Brenda and Sonia aren't able to join us this time but fingers crossed for next time, Karen has designed a card for us to make today, which I am really looking forward too, as well as lots of chatting.

Now hopefully you saw the Masterpiece at the top of the blog post, Sophie has finished her oil painted scene for the restaurant at the Wildlife park, its absolutely incredible up close,  the detail on each animal is unbelievable you can even see the light in the tortoise's eye!  

As it was too big to get a close up of, Soph has photographed in in 3 parts too.

The 'brief' was to create something that featured some of the favourite animals in the Park, so Soph came up with design herself,  you can see that the Monkey has his fish and chips, the flamingo is enjoying a Milkshake and the Lion looks like he doesn't want to share those scones !  

The detail is unbelievable,  the markings on the Giraffe and tortoise,  the colour of the Peacock, you could just reach in a help yourself to one of those scones.  We are so proud if all of her work but this is her first Oil painting so to think she hasn't used the medium before this us kind of unbelievable. 

Well done Sophie,  I cant put into words how proud of you we are 😍🥰🤩😘

I hope that you all have a great Saturday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra

xxxxxx 

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Janet I hope you are ok, we have really missed you this week. This place is just not the same without your smiling face 😍.  I hope that you are on the mend my lovely,  sending love and warm, gentle hugs X❤X

I have decided to be a bit rebellious Ladies, I did some research on alternative effective treatment for recurring Uti's, I read two different studies where women were treated under clinical conditions, some given placebo others were given a regime of Cranberry Supplements   Garlic &Parsley seed oil capsules, L-argininne (amino acid), Magnesium, Evening Primrose and a probiotic tablet.  The exact measures and dosage were listed too. So I ordered the above after calling my sister who has many certificates for courses on homeopathic remedies,  I wanted to check with her that none of them would cause harm or exacerbate my heart conditions etc, she said that they were a naturally occurring plant extracts etc so should be fine.  The cranberry and Amino Acid smooth the lining of the bladder making it harder for Ecoli to adhere, while the Garlic and parsley work as an antiseptic to rid the body of any existing bad bacteria.  The probiotic will repair and replenish the good bacteria that 4 months of antibiotics have stripped away.  At this pointbI feel I have nothing to lose.  I am wondering if this is the alternative treatment that the Doctor was talking about on Wednesday?!.  

Our Next Challenge 

I wanted to suggest a challenge that would getting us using our stash, maybe a favourite product or technique or a stamp and die set that you have yet to use!  I wanted it to be a challenge that got you using your craft stash items more than once, we have all bought a stamp or die to make a card we saw and loved and never picked it up again.  

So I want you to choose something from your stash and use it more than once, try using it in different ways, so that you are getting good value from our stamps, inks, pens, dies etc.

You can pick  a 'Brand' or Company of products for example 'Aall&Create,  Pink Frog, Tracey Hey, Stamperia, Stampin Up etc, use their products throughout the two weeks of the challenge.   

Or

You could choose a certain stamp & die set and use it a couple different ways, for a card and a journal page or a bookmark,  or even different styles of cards.  Its up to you. 

For instance I might use my Aall&Create stamps to make some Thrinchies, inspired by our Karen. 

I hope you enjoy the challenge and the fact that you are using your stash rather than it being a one trick pony!! 

Have a fantastic Friday my lovelies,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

A Beautiful Wings Card

 

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope today finds you all as well as can be expected,  healing hugs for those that are feeling low.  

Guess who is back on antibiotics??  Yes that's right, me, I managed to hold off for 5 days to give me body a little break. We had a bit of 'tooing & Froing'  though as the Gp asked me which antibiotics I wanted, I said in my experience Nitrofurantoin had worked better than the others (still not cleared the infection though), I said I didn't mind but not Pivmicillinum as it made things worse!  So she prescribed Nitrofurantoin and Lucy took me over to collect them, I didn't take them straight away as we went out for lunch and they can upset my tummy. Anyway when Paul came home I was telling him about my call with GP and I opened my prescription bag and they had given me Pivmicillinum!  So I called them and receptionist could see that I had been prescribed Nitrofurantoin, pharmacy technician had gotten it wrong. I was expecting an apology when I went back but all the pharmacy tech said was "the Gp must have changed her mind", I said "she said she had prescribed Nitrofurantoin, so not sure what happened "  she replied with 'well you have right ones now!!! cheeky mare, I smiled and said 'no harm done,  luckily unlike my sister I don't have a severe Penicillin allergy!  She looked a little surprised,  trouble is if that had been my mum she would have just popped them into her daily pill dispenser and not even checked the name.  I thought they had someone to check what they had prescribed.  A lesson for us all, to double check what we are given.

Today's gorgeous card is a little Happy Mail that I receved from our Sonia, she made it with the Magazine free butterfly from Simply Card Making & Papercraft. The beautiful background is Chloe’s Floral Lace Border die, its so pretty,  Sonia has used the prettiest glitter card behind it, its a no shed delicate glitter card but my goodness does it catch the light.  Thank you so much Sonia, for such a gorgeous card XXX 

I am going to sort through my craft bag today and get it packed ready for our Watford meet up on Saturday,  I'm looking forward to catching up with Karen, Maria & Sue, I so wish it was all of us! 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                      xxxxxx