Your TicTacToe Challenge cards

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and enjoying the weekend, it stayed dry here yesterday but was very dark and dreary and we had very strong gusty wind all day.

We didn't really need to go out anywhere so we stayed home and ended up doing a bit of Spring cleaning!  

Our sofa is an L shape corner suite made up of 5 large sections, Paul and I are the ones that

mostly sit in the lounge, mostly in the evening (if there is anything on TV), the girls will come and sit with us but are usually upstairs in either one of their rooms together, so (I will get to the point) as only two pieces of the sofa get sat on regularly I like to rotate the whole lot around so that it gets worn evenly, so that's what started our spring clean in the lounge, Paul moved furniture and I hoovered underneath and did skirting boards and hoovered ceiling/moulding to get rid of any cobwebs, I then spray a microfibre cloth with Febreeze and use that to wipe skirting boards and radiators down, it cleans and leaves a nice clean, fresh smell, I then add lenor Tumble Dryer sheets inside the larger cushions as that too gives a fresh smell, especially when you plump them up!

It was a really rewarding 45 mins to an hours work, as you really see and smell how much fresher the room was!

So from Spring Cleaning to Spring Cards, I really enjoyed this Challenge, it looks like you did too, your cards are amazing........

Brenda

Two Lovely cards for Brenda for this weeks TicTacToe Challenge, both completely different in style.

Card 1:  Yellow/Birthday/Die Cut

Card 2:  Flowers/Birthday/Die Cut

The first card was made using an EF from Hobbycraft (which I think will definitely be on my wish list) as I love the font of that embossed Happy Birthday. The Colours that Brenda has used are So Saffron and French Navy, the Tags are Poppy Stamps 'Pinpoint Main street' tags. Brenda has hand made the rose with the same ribbon as she used on the tag, its beautiful xxx

Brenda's second card was made using a pad called 'Neon' from Hobbycraft, SU Balloon Punch and a Wish Happy Birthday die. Bargain at £3!

That Neon pad is so lovely Brenda, initially I would have overlooked it because of the name but those colours are so pretty and very soft.

Love both of your designs Brenda.

Thank you so much for taking part XXX

Cheryl

Cheryl has used categories: Flowers/Ribbon/Die Cuts to create this absolutely gorgeous 'New Baby' card.

Thank you so much Cheryl for sharing your amazing design with us XXX

Janet

Janet has created 4 incredible cards for this weeks TicTacToe Challenge, I will add the categories used below:

Card 1: Flowers/Die Cut/Birthday

Card 2:  Birds/Circle/Masculine

Card 3:  Masculine/Twine/Die cuts

Card 4:  Birthday/Die cut/Masculine

Janet what an amazing collection of cards, the metal elements on card 3 are so realistic, the 'patina' on the metal is so clever, this would make an amazing journal cover too.

Thank you so much for 4 incredible designs XXX

Karen

Karen used her new 'Julie Hickey' 'Floral Fancies' Stamp set to create this stunning card, I love the design, the flowers are lovely, the doodle like detail really makes the design pop. I also love how you have added the sentiment.

Karen used Categories:  Floral/Birthday/Die Cut to create her card.

Thank you so much Karen for taking part and sharing your awesome card XXX

 Lilian

I believe that Lilian has used some Stamperia papers to create this amazing Birthday card, I love how there are so many different patterns but none clash, it all just works beautifully.

Lilian used Categories:  Floral/Die cut/Birthday

Thank you Lilian for taking part in this weeks TicTacToe Challenge XXX

Maria

Two beautiful Spring themed cards from Maria for this weeks Challenge.

Card 1: Floral/Birds/Yellow 

Card 2:  Yellow/Floral/ Birthday

Maria thank you so much for two stunning cards, your designs are beautiful, I love the embossed background on the first card and your beautifully coloured Bird.

Your second card is just WOW Maria, it's the perfect picture of Spring!  Thank you so much for taking part, despite being so busy preparing for your holiday XXX

 Michele

Michele has used her Swirly Scribbles die set to create both of her beautiful Spring themed Challenge cards this week.

Card 1:  Flowers/Yellow/Birthday

Card 2:  Yellow/Circles/Bird

Thank you so much Michele for two gorgeous designs, that Die set has to be one of the most versatile there is, I love how you have used them and the colours that you have used. XXX

******

I would like to thank you all once again for taking time out of your busy lives to support the Challenge, the cards you make are all so different, given that you all have the same guidelines to create from.  You have all made a fantastic start to your 2020 Card Collections.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

It's a proper Mixed Craft Saturday this week, just look at all of these gorgeous Knitted/Crocheted projects.

First up is of course Janet's 'Mrs Christmas' that we have heard so much about, I can understand why a replacement was a requested by your Granddaughter as she is so lovely, with such a kind face.

Janet used a Jean Greenhowe Pattern to create Mrs Christmas.

Janet's second project is this adorable Cat, I just love her little pick whiskers and lovely pink bow, Janet created her from the 'Cute Critters' book.

Thank you so much Janet for sharing your lovely knitted projects with us, they are amazing XXX

Karen

Karen picked this book up while on a trip away last year, thinking it would complete her collection, although she wasn't planning on using it, I always thought you would use it Karen as the patterns are fantastic.
Well guess what...Karen did use it, creating a Mini-me for a friend, I think it is awesome Karen, I bet your friend loved it, such a honor to have a personalised character made for you!

Thank you so much Karen for sharing your lovely Mini-me with us XXX

Michele's Magazine Review

Hi Ladies, 


Simply Cards & Papercraft has a fantastic set of Altenew Stamps & Dies this month. There’s free downloads that coordinates with these -great if you’re not too confident stamping.

Here’s the first feature using the free gifts.

More ideas for you to try.

Great article on Dry Embossing Vellum.

Card ideas for Men.

Diecutting Essentials has a brilliant free gift this month-dies to create a Waterfall Card plus some stamps.

First article showing some ideas using the free gift.

More ideas.

Interesting article on Debossed Die resist technique which creates a lovely look.

That’s all for this week...
Happy Crafting.

Love Michele


Thank you so much Michele for another Bumper Craft Magazine Review.
As always there are some fantastic articles featured,  that are interesting to read and have a go at.  
I love both of these magazines,  thanks again  Michele xxx


It was lovely having an 'old style' Mixed Craft Saturday today ladies, thank you all so much for taking part.

Have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxxx

Your Next Challenge.....A bit of a Throwback

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and looking forward to the weekend, the holidays feel like they were weeks ago, so we are back to embracing and making the most of the Weekend, those two days pass so quickly!
We don't have too much planned this weekend, Paul wants to re-organise things in the loft so that the Decorations are all kept together etc. (nothing too exciting)!! 😜

I know that some of you didn't really enjoy the Card Sketch Challenges but I thought that we would give one ago for 'old times sake' !
I think that they are as much of a challenge as a TicTacToe, they don't limit what you can use though and the card you make is your 'Interpretation' of the Sketch, so for instance instead of Stars you could have Hearts or Flowers or foliage, anything in fact, literally anything!
You can create the 'Striped' bottom section in any way that you like, you could:

Ink the stripes
Use Striped Paper
Use contrasting strips of paper
Use the Pleated card technique

I'm sure there are more ways to do it too, let your imagination run wild!

I hope that you enjoy having a go at this weeks sketch, I am so excited to see your cards.

That's all for today Ladies,

Have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Fresh Spring Coloured Card

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well, thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my Groovi Challenge card yesterday, I love the idea of mixing Groovi elements with everyday crafting techniques.

I can hardly believe that it's Thursday today, let alone the first Groovi Club of 2020, I am looking forward to seeing Sue for the first time in 2020 too!!  She has very kindly offered to pick me up in the morning to take me to Club and drop me back in Carterton for Paul to collect me after work, it takes so much anxiety out of the day for me too.

The card I am sharing today fits Categories:  Yellow/Die Cut/Flowers

The card is made using all old Stampin Up products, I have to say I love that Floral flourish, you can connect up to make a lovely frame or use just 1 or 2 of the flourishes, I of course used Old Olive and So Saffron ink and card to create my card.
I think the card has a lovely fresh 'Spring' look, which seems to be a theme I am in at the moment.
Perfect for the time of year though x

Our garden is showing the first promise of Spring, there are lots of bulbs bursting through the ground, some of the daffodils are a good 5 inches tall already, I can't wait for it all to burst into life.  I am wondering if we will get any snow though, hopefully there will be no 'Beast from the East' !!

I had a lovely day yesterday, Lucy had been wanting to go shopping for a few bits to finish her bedroom makeover that she had from us for Christmas, so we decided yesterday to have a trip out to the big B & M Bargains that we have in Swindon, it's in what used to be a Sainsbury's Homebase DIY store, so you can imagine the size, we went with a list of about ten things and came back with plenty more than that, mostly cleaning /home stuff.  Ours doesn't do craft stuff or anything which is a shame as I see people getting some amazing bargains from there (not that I need anymore)!

I am thinking of joining SU again, purely to re-stock my depleted card/ribbon stock, I really enjoy having everything matching but I have used most of all my favourite colours, they are running a good joining offer at the minute so I very tempted, I can get the equivalent of £170+ for £99 so there is nothing to lose.  I will add that I am doing purely as means to re-stock I a not wanting a team or anything like that, I am enjoying having the freedom to craft with whatever I please too much to be tied down again. They have no issue with you joining then stopping when you no longer want anything and re-joining when there is a good offer so why not make the most of it!!   I will of course be happy to order you ladies anything that you may want at the same cost that I get it for.

Well I must go pack my bags for Groovi Club,

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

A Groovi Challenge Card

Good Morning Ladies,

I can hardly believe it's Wednesday already, the week is going faster than I thought I would, I imagined that it was going to drag with Paul being back at work, it's helped having the Girls home, they go back to work tomorrow though.
I had forgotten that it was Groovi Class tomorrow though, so that worked out really well, Lucy will drop me off before she goes to work and Paul will collect me afterwards (all being well).

Pat came over yesterday, we had lots of catching up to do so there was no shortage of conversation, we had lovely fresh cream Meringue filled with lots of cream and fresh strawberries, they were delicious, (we did eat lunch first)!! We both got down to some Groovi work after lunch, there is nothing better than chatting and crafting at the same time.
My thumb continues to be an awkward thing to work around, you need it to apply pressure for so many different things!

Today's card is one that I started soon after I got my Groovi starter kit, I had popped it in my folder and never finished it, so while I was looking for all my plates I came across it, saw it was started in the Spring Colours so decided to finish it off with some yellow pencil and add some sparkles that I coloured with my Stampin Blends. I used for tiny white brads in the centres of the daisies to secure the vellum to its background, to finish them I coloured them yellow with a Stampin Blend marker too.  I then decided to mat and layer onto the Night of Navy as it shows both the white work and the yellow colouring, matting that onto yellow to tie it all together, I placed the finished piece onto a 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 inch card base.
I quite like how it turned out, it uses Categories:  Flowers/Die Cut/Birthday .

Lilian I do hope that your Water is back to normal, we have had water off for whole day a couple of times since we lived here and it's surprising how much we get through xxx

Lynda, I hope you are in less pain my lovely, can't wait to have you back to 'normal' (whatever that is teehee) xxx

Karen I hope that Podiatrist appointment went ok, it seems like forever ago that you went there. xxx

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Super Simple Daffodil Delight !

Good Morning Ladies,

Well I had a very eventful end to the weekend, hence the very simple card today!

We decided on homemade Lasagne on Sunday instead of Roast, I hadn't made one for a while so didn't mind at all, got it all made and in the oven and one of the girls had asked for homemade coleslaw to go with it, which prompted me to try the Vegetable Spiralizer that I bought back in the summer and was yet to try, I opened it all and cleaned it, Lucy came down and helped me do the 'spiralizing' (it's actually quite fun) the only issue is that your carrot is in one long spiral strand, so trying to serve it was like serving spaghetti, we made the coleslaw and put it in fridge to chill, Paul took the machine to wash and I warned him to be careful as the blade was like a razor, he washed it and set it to dry, I wanted to clear up though so I could sit down after dinner knowing it was all clean in the kitchen, so I started to dry the machine, the bloomin tea towel got caught in the blade and it slipped out of my hand, without a thought I went to grab it, my thumb catching it by the blade, it sliced a big horse shoe shaped chunk out of the pad of my thumb, all I can say is that the pain was like no other, agony, there was blood everywhere, I had to go and lie down as I felt like I was going to pass out, Paul tended to my finger, he looked a little pale and just put a big dressing on it as soon as he could, he always remains so incredibly calm somehow.  Needless to say that it had me up all night, every time my thumb touched anything I could feel the bit moving under the dressing and it was so sore.   The girls insisted on changing the dressing today and cleaning around the wound, i did manage a look and I think it is going to take a while to heal as it's quite deep.  I will add that you do not realise how many things you use your thumb for until you can't use it !  

If you could have seen me trying to ink up a stamp yesterday afternoon, you would have found it highly amusing, so I only managed a simple card today, I quite like how it turned out though.

For today's card I took a 5 1/2 inch square card and stamped the Honey Doo Daffodils Stamp on the front, slightly over to one side.  I wasn't sure how I was going to colour it but ended up with the least messy option of my Derwent Colorsoft Pencils, blending three shades of yellow for the daffodils and a fresh green colour for the foliage.  

You have no idea how hard it was not to 'mat and layer' the image etc but I decided to stick with simple, the sentiment came from the SU Golden Afternoon stamp set, I just love the font and the sentiment is just lovely.

So no ribbon, no gems, no mats and layers, just a simple one layer card !  

Pat is coming over today, it seems like ages since we last caught up, so I am looking forward to that.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Pretty Yellow Challenge Card

Good Morning Ladies,

All back to normal now, Paul has gone back to work, that 2 weeks went so fast, I made him promise not to leave such a big gap between taking leave this year, for his sake as much as mine.

Sophie doesn't go back to University until nearer the end of January, so both of the girls are around today which is lovely.

I need to start some reorganising and planning though, so I have my journal ready to sit and think about planning blog posts and videos for the next few months.  I have also asked Sophie to help me re-do my Cotswold Crafter Facebook page, I have neglected it over the past year or so but I want to start using regularly again. So lots to keep my mind busy for a few days.

My Challenge card uses Categories:  Die cut/Flowers/Twine

I used SU So Saffron Card and Ink to create this card, I used a flourish stamp for the background and the Petite Petals Stamp and Punch to create the flower and a foliage die with some Old Olive card for the leaves behind the flower.  I added some Old Olive Twine to the bottom of the card and some sparkles to the centre of the flowers as a finishing touch.

I think that this card makes me feel like Spring is in the air !!!

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxx