Using up Background card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Well I bet you can imagine what I am going to say today, after yesterday's busy day,  I first felt the after effects when I got up to use the bathroom at 4am, I always try and go as quietly as I can,  so as not to wake the girls, I try not to wake Paul but sadly its inevitable,  as I frequently need his help, but yesterday morning I couldn't take a step without letting out a little 'ooh or aah' (I do think its part of getting old, as I have noticed even Paul makes a little noise when he gets up from the sofa etc ) 🤣😂  But let's just say my body decided it would protest,  maybe its time to give up any kind of housework 🤷‍♀️🤷, it would mean more time for crafting!!  

What household job would you give up first??   

Today I am sharing a card I made on Friday using up one of my many inky backgrounds, I adhered it to a piece of white card first as this piece is on Yupo paper which is a little bit see through, I then adhered it to a black card base, the other reason I wanted to make this card was to use one of my new sentiments, I die cut it 3 times and added to the background,  to add a little sparkle I added a few sequins!  

I hope that you all have a good Tuesday,  

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

The second of my Thrinchie pair

 

Good Monday morning Ladies,  

Where did that weekend disappear to?!! We were going to have a lazy, relaxing day yesterday,  I was going to do some crafting,  however when I went and sat in the lounge with my cup of tea and as I looked around the clutter really frustrated me, so I got bin bags, duster and spray cleaner and 2 hours later it looked much better, paul wasn't overly impressed to be hoovering etc,  we had loads of cardboard boxes everywhere so they all got flattened!   Soph asked me to make her a 'School Cake', basically a lovely sponge with icing & sprinkles on, so I did that, then made a Chicken & Asparagus Risotto,  I was absolutely exhausted after my busy day, so I had a lovely bath and got into freshly changed bed.

Today I am sharing the second Thrinchie that I made on Thursday,  again I didn't have the same stamps that Tracey Evans used so I used similar ones that I had in my stash.  I really like how bright and vibrant the colours of these are.  I am definitely going to make some more this week.

I hope that you all have a great start to the week, 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx.

This weeks craft round up

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all having a good,  relaxing weekend,   I am looking forward to a lazy relaxing day after such a very long and tiring day yesterday,  long car journeys are just so exhausting.  Nottingham have public transport sorted though, we turned off of the M42 and the Park & Ride was literally a couple hundred yards away, I downloaded the Tram App and bought our tram tickets,  by the time we were out of the car and wrapped up in big coats, hats and gloves the tram arrived and dropped us in Nottingham city centre,  we haven't been to Nottingham for 25 years, I had the girls at Nottingham Queens Medical centre!! In fact I was in hospital for 4 days after having the girls as they needed treatment for jaundice as they were almost 7 weeks early,  so we would have left the hospital on the 8/2/2000 exactly 25 years yesterday!!  

It was lovely seeing family that we hadn't seen since Paul's Dad's funeral, the hours soon flew by, the pub was ok, food was good but my goodness the 'facilities ' were a disgrace, the disabled toilet was just outside the main bar,  the lock didn't work, thankfully Paul came with me so could hold the door, the first visit was just ok as it was quiet, but later in the afternoon it was unusable,  the people at the bar obviously enjoyed its 'convenience', the floor was awash with...(well it wasn't water) the stench made your eyes water before you got in it, so we abandoned the idea and said our goodbyes to everyone, who were planning to leave anyway, thankfully Costa allowed us to use their bathrooms!   Annoyingly all it would have taken was a simple fix of the handle and teaching the staff to use a mop & bucket!   

Let's see what you have been creating 

Karen

Karen's Description:

My version of Snippet 25!

I didn’t have the right stencil or colours or clock stamp or butterfly!

I used cotton underneath the circle and placed the butterfly in a different place to cover an ugly portion of a butterfly underneath Didn’t have the right “B” or”Butterfly” and the cabouchon makes it look like “Bitterfly” but I quite like it! So

Stencil- snippet - butterfly

Your Snippet is perfect,  I love the changes you have made, the background is really interesting and draws your eye !   I love that you have given it your own personal flair!  

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hello, here is my card for this week.

I used , flowers, stamping, and stencil.

I have been searching through my old stamps and found this one.

It’s made by creative-stamping.co.uk.

I’ve had it for years, sorry if I’ve shown it before.

Stencil is Tim Holtz : crossed, it’s one of my favourites at the moment 

I used bundled sage for the stencil and the matching pencil.

I absolutely love the beautiful simplicity of this card Lilian, particularly how you kept the colouring and background as simple as the beautiful flower itself. 

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge my lovely XXX 

Sonia

I know we saw Sonia's card in the week but a) its still this weeks make b)  its certainly worthy of a second look !  

Sonia used her recent Temu haul to make this card, including the background stencil.  An absolutely gorgeous card !  

Thank  you so much for sharing your card Sonia XXX 

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

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

'Thrinchies'

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

As you are reading today's post we will be on our way to Nottingham,  we are going to meet up with Paul's Aunt and Cousins, Paul's Mum and Brother are going too, it will be nice ti catch up with everyone,  it's such a shame its so cold though.  

Now how would you all feel about having a go at a 'Thrinchie ' ?? 

A Thrinchie is literally a 3 inch X 3 inch piece of 'Art'.  Karen and I have made them a couple of years ago,  Karen has started again,  using different stamps etc to create them,  she has really inspired me to restart too.   They are a fun way to craft without making cards that you don't need. 

It's easier to treat it as a small card, I think that if we refer to it as 'Art' it immediately terrifies us as we don't see ourselves as 'Artists'

For me a thrinchie is a lot less daunting as a 5 x 7 inch card base.  

Here are some examples.....

You can make them as simple or detailed as you like, you could use a simple ink background with a die cut flower,  or like the one above,  an ink background with a silhouette stamp. 

Or you can create a scene, or go completely abstract, the choice is yours.   

You can also choose the size, it doesn't have to be a 'Thrinchie', it could be 4 x 4,   5 x 5, 6 x 6 etc. 

Here are a list of Subjects to help inspire your Thrinchies etc....

1 Spring

2 Wings

3 Circles 

4 Pattern

5 butterflies 

6 feathers

7 poppies

8 vintage 

9 happiness

10 hexagons

11 sewing

12 botanicals

13 woodland

14 heartfelt

15 squares

16 blooms

17 love

18 critters

19 colours

20 containers 

21 trees and leaves

22 bouquet

23 alphabets

24 daisy

25 quirky

26 clocks

27 numbers

28 gardens

29 animals

30 home

31 florals

You don't have to make them in order,  pick your favourites first (that's what I did) 

You can use any stamps,  papers, inks etc

Don't feel pressured,   I am just trying to inspire you, especially if you are struggling like me.  

I keep mine in a little album to use as inspiration.  You can do that or you can use them as a topper on a card, or part of a journal page. 

I hope that you all have a great Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

A new set of Thrinchies (Part 1)

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all manage to stay warm on what is forecast to be a very chilly day! 

My creativity took a big hit after the mammoth task of those invitations,  so I sat at my desk for a good hour or two yesterday morning, trying to summon sum enthusiasm to create,  the first thing I did was to get rid of every trace of wedding invitations!  So after a bit of googling I decided to get my Tracey Evans stamps out, both new and from the Aall&Create days. 

Now I had to get creative with the stamps I used as I don't have all of Tracey's new stamp line, I delved back into my Aall&Create stamps and found alternatives to those I didn't have.  They are in sets of two style wise,  I loved the colours of these ones so that was my starting point. 

I masked off a circle on my 3 x 3 card and took Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade,  Candied Apple and Seedless Preserve Distress Oxide inks and blended them into my circle,  I then took a selection of stamps and created the little scene.  I took a little sponge ink applicator and blotted an area around birds head, just using water, I added a few drops of water and blotted that away and finished with some white splats.  

I will share part 2 tomorrow!  

I hope that you all have a good Friday,

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Sonia's beautiful Birthday card

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

Fingers and toes crossed that by the time you are reading this those flipping wedding invitations will be done and sent off to Becca,  I will be glad to see the back of them, I spent most of yesterday deckle edging and inking, dipping in gold embossing powder and heat setting each of the 'finer details ' sheets to go into the pockets inside the invitations,  I sat, excited to be finishing them, all I had to do was pop said sheets in pockets and adhere main invitation piece to the wallet/envelope,  only to discover that when the information sheets were designed they were a centimetre or so wider than I had planned for, so none fitted in the pockets,  so I had to rejig them, re cut them, re emboss and heat set them,  I admit I had a litlle bit of a mini breakdown at that point, it was an easy mistake,  I should have double checked before i started,  I ended up working on them until after 9pm !  

I am so grateful that Sonia sent me this gorgeous card to share today, as you can imagine there was no way I was getting any crafting done yesterday!  In fact at one point I said I was giving up crafting altogether!  I don't think i actually could give it up, I was just having a moment!  

Sonia used some of her new Temu bits to create this card, including the stencil for the background,  it's simply stunning,  those two tiny flowers are the perfect finishing touch, I really love that sentiment too, it's that delicate that even cutting in black doesn't take over the card,  it works perfectly. 

Thank you so much Sonia ❤️ 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Soph's Birthday Card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

The girls have asked me to thank you all for your lovely birthday messages yesterday,  they had a lovely day thank you 😊 

Today I am sharing the card I made for Soph, thankfully she really liked it !  I did originally have it set out with a plain background but it just didn't look right, so I ran it through a wavy embossing folder and I think it added just enough detail without being too much.  

We had a lovely day celebrating their birthday,  I was exhausted by the time I got into bed !  

Karen, I have always wanted to try Canoli's maybe you could pick one up next time we have a meet up (i will give you the money).  My all time favourite is a Viennese Finger, the proper ones that literally melt in your mouth, they are so hard to find though, the little garden centre we go to has them, so I pick some up whenever we go.  I think they must be very high in calories though, I'm too scared to look, if you can't see them, they don't count right??? 😉 🤣😂

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx