Part 2 of Light Bulb moment

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

I hope today finds you well,  gentle hugs from thos4 of you that are feeling under the weather 🫂

We had another sunny but chilly day yesterday,  Soph said that the Wildlife park was super busy, it's school holidays here and a nice sunny day so that's why it was busy I guess.  

Ooh I must update you on the Sourdough cookies,  they are so delicious,  they come out of the oven soft but as they start to cool down they go crispy on the outside and stay soft in the centre, there is no greater pleasure than a cookie warm from the oven.  

Today I am sharing the second of the lightbulb Thrinchies. 

This one used the same colours as yesterday's but these  lightbulbs were coloured with Ecoline pens, in orange l, pink and red.  Some were stamped straight on the Thrinchie  some were stamped and fussy cut.  I used a background stamp then added the lightbulbs around it   I added the strings with a fine tip pen.  I stamped the sentiment onto an off cut of white card and cut around it adhered to the Thrinchie then added a little shading.  

I hope that you have a good Thursday, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Light bulb moment Thrinchie

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We were blessed with a gloriously sunny day yesterday, still very chilly but my goodness that sunshine makes such a difference to your mood, we went round opening windows to let the fresh crisp air in, mind you by around 3pm I had to get Paul go round and close them all as it got quite chilly when that sun went down,  isn't it lovely to have it light until around 5.30pm, you feel like you get an extra hour added on to your day.

I was home alone 😔 yesterday so I just sat and kept busy crafting,  I made another 3 Thrinchies, If you could see my desk you'd think I'd made 50, the amount of stuff I had out,  mostly stamp sets, where I am trying different things to substitute stamps I haven't got .  On this Thrinchie I substituted a leaf sprig that Tracey used for the little leaf stamp above the light bulb,  it worked perfectly in my opinion, it was purely to give something for the light bulb to 'hang' from.  

The colour theme for this Thrinchie is Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade & Candied Apple Distress Oxide inks, with a little Lumberjack Plaid to add some depth of colour on the left side.  

I inked the bulb stamp with the three inks above, using only a light touch of the Candied Apple as its quite strong, I gave it a light spritz with water and stamped it straight onto my Thrinchie,  then gave another quick spritz to get those colours oxidised. I took some of the inks and a paintbrush and added a bit more colour,  adding a little Lumberjack Plaid to the very edge of the lightbulb to define it a little.  I took the Pheasant stamp and inked in black and popped him in the bottom corner, next came a bit of background stamping in grey ink (so that it stays in the background)  I added the 'Original' sentiment because it actually is an Original! 🤣  a few ink splatters and a black mat to finish the piece. 

It's partner will follow tomorrow  

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Kitty Thrinchie part 2

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I had a very messy craft day yesterday, my fingers are still a bit blue from the inking!  It was fun though, I wont say that my results were perfect but I enjoyed the process.  The thing is when you are following a tutorial you aim to get similar results but when it comes inking and watercolour you will never replicate the original exactly,  which can seem frustrating but you have to get your head around the fact that its 'your interpretation ' of the original.  Like these two Thrinchies for example,  they are my version of Tracey Evans examples,  I had to improvise with some of the stamps.  It's fun going through all of stamps that Tracey has designed for Aall&Create trying to find something that would work, it also highlights how many sets you haven't used 🙄😌

Karen, I definitely had that same feeling with my last glasses, it took me a while to get used to them, I'm ok with them now though, I think you have to be happy with them for the money you pay.  I did end up going back 3 times for them opticians to adjust them though. XXX 

Today's Thrinchie is the partner to yesterday's, for this one I used the outer part of the tag stencil (the bit the tag pops out of).  I dragged the ink pads lightly over the stencil, only very lightly with the Salty Ocean as its quite dark,  I then spritzed it with water so the inks blend together.  I dried it and then made a paper mask so that I could stamp the ferns around the edges of tag like yesterdays Thrinchie,  I used some little beaded stems to add more interest and stamped the little kitty 😺 in the middle of the ferns.  I didn't have the flower stem that Tracey used in her version so I substituted the leaf, stamping and colouring  in the same colours as the background.  Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio & Salty Ocean. I added some tiny dots of yellow, white & blue posca pen, but they don't really show up on camera.  Some white splatters and a black mat finish the Thrinchie.  

I hope that you all have a great Tuesday,  

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

My latest Thrinchies part 1

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that today can be the start of the weather getting warmer,  yesterday afternoon we popped to the garden centre and it was only 2°, I know its February but my body is ready for some warmer weather, even if it's only just in double digits!! 🤣  

Sourdough 'Do-Lene' update:  we now have a daily jar of 'Discard' which is the bit that you take out of the main Sourdough starter to make room for the flour you feed it with each day.  So Siph decided yesterday that she wanted to make Sourdough Cookies with some of the discard, we added browned butter, sugar, eggs and chocolate chips, my girls are not tidy bakers, my kitchen looked like a bomb site,  anyway I was excited to try one of these cookies,  but oh no, with all things Sourdough there is a wait involved,  the cookie dough had to go in the fridge for 24hrs 😌🙄!!  

While I was chatting to Sonia later yesterday I said it reminded me of Friendship Cake, did any of you take part in them years ago, you share a part of your cake batter with a friend then feed it and use some to make a cake and pass some on etc it made a lovely fruit cake. 

Today I am sharing the first of my latest pair of Thrinchies,  the colour theme of this pair is Cracked Pistachio,  Twisted Citron & Salty Ocean.  The background started with me adding bits of each of the inks to a tag stencil, spritzed with water and then smooshed down onto my Thrinchie, I dried the ink the spritzed with water to add some interest and dried again.  I then cut a paper mask to go around the tag outline, so that I could stamp without the thickness of a stencil making it impossible to ink up to the edge. I then took a fern stamp and used all three inks to add interest to the sides of the tag, I then added some background stamping in Salty Ocean.  The main reason for this Thrinchie is that darling little cat stamp, I added him and then stamped the tag and added the 'C' for Cat.  I tried to add shading to make the tag look 3D but I'm rubbish at getting that right ! But I try 🤣     I   coloured and fussy cut a flower to add to the tag,  then came the obligatory white splatters.  I added a black mat, ready to add to a journal.  Now onto it's pair, which I will share with you tomorrow.   Hopefully while eating one of those Chocolate chip cookies 🍪 😋 😉

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

Love & hugs 

Sandra xxx 

This week's Crafts

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

I have my fingers crossed that today is not going to be another rainy, cold day ! 🤞  We had to do the dreaded food shopping yesterday and popped into Witney,  it was so cold and wet and after we got home it took me hours to get warm, I am ready for some Spring sunshine now.  

Today will be really relaxing as there will be no roast dinner this evening as the girls are going out to have a belated birthday meal with a friend,  so Paul and I are going to have the other half of the Indian takeaway we had on Friday night, I can never eat a full portion of curry, so we order an extra rice (as we share 1 portion between us) then we get two meals for the price of one,  well I say price of one,  have your takeaways all gone up a lot,  we didn't have loads of sides an extras but it came to £52 !!! Just for Paul and I, it was nice though. 

Let's see what you have been making this week...

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

These are my thrinchies for this week.

I used my Lavinia stamps, that I’ve had but not used.

Oxide inks ,faded jeans, speckled egg, and a pink, whose name escapes me. Not sure where the stencil came from, maybe a bundle from amazon.

Wow Lilian your Thrinchies are amazing,  your backgrounds are so detailed, the colours of your vases really pop against the background.  I love the little numbers too.  You have a clever way of displaying them across one page, thats a great idea. 

Thank you so much for taking part my lovely XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

A very quick and simple card created on Serif So 

Patterned paper - Floral - Bold sentiment

Oh Karen that background is so pretty, the colours are so pretty against the blue background.  I love the font of the sentiment too. 

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

I've been playing with this little 3 x 3 and these are the two that didn't go in the bin.

They are just made with TH ink pads and some new stamps bought from Amazon but came orig. from China. I don't have any words for them but probably would be " howling at the full moon and Spring".   Hope they are ok.....    

Wow Maria your Thrinchies are amazing, your backgrounds are so lovely,  I want to point out a few things...firstly the shading that grounds your wolf,  BRILLIANT, it's perfectly positioned and seemlessly blended in, so amazing!!  Secondly the way that you have inked the top Thrinchie makes it look like there is actually light shining through the canvas highlighting the silhouettes!!  Again its absolutely BRILLIANT!! 

I am so blown away,  thank you so much for pushing yourself to have a go, PLEASE keep going, you are a natural Thrinchie'ist !!!! XXX

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I hope that you all have a lovely relaxing Sunday,  

Love and big, warm hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Saturday Crafts

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

It didn't get above 2° here all day yesterday,  I was feeling really tired so not sure if that contributed to me feeling cold.  I was up in the night checking on 'Do-Lene' (Sophie's Sourdough bread), she had done the 1/2 hourly stretch and turns,  it had to do a 'Bulk Prove' next,  she was going to Lewis's so asked if I would do the all important 'lamination fold' when the dough looked like it had doubled in size and had the beginnings of bubbles on the surface, well I checked it at 10pm, before I went up to bed, nothing had changed, so up I went, I got Paul to bring it up for me to check a couple of times but it wasn't until I got up to use bathroom at 5.45am and thought I had better check it, that it was ready, so at 6am I was stretching and folding 'Do-Lene ' to create the laminations,  then I had to put it in the proofing basket and pop it in the fridge for its cold proving,  this takes up to 12 hours,  the longer you leave it the more developed the sourdough taste is.  

We left it until around 1pm, Soph couldn't wait any longer, we took my huge lecreuset dish or dutch oven and popped it in the hot Aga to heat up and then we popped bread in, lid on, in oven for 20 mins, then lid off for another, it was torture waiting for it to cool down enough to cut. It was deliscious, not sure if I could be bothered doing it (well supporting Soph doing it 🙄) multiple times a week. 

Meet ..Do (Dough) Lene !!! 

Now I sat and made some backgrounds yesterday,  to cut up and  use for my Thrinchies.....

I needed to create some ready made backgrounds so I had them ready for thrinchies, so I put together 3 groups of inks.  I took out my craft sheet as the ink just doesn't bead up on glass mat and i love those little beads of ink that create so much detail and texture on your backgrounds.    I smooshed the strips of card in the inks and dried the piece after each dip/smoosh, it really does make a difference,  even if it is a faff !! 

The first piece I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade & Candied Apple

The second I used Salty Ocean,  Twisted Citron & Cracked Pistachio 

The third I used Faded Jeans, Cracked Pistachio & Peeled Paint  

To add more interest I spritzed a stencil with water, wiped around the edges of the stencil so you don't get lines on your background, lay stencil on, wet side down and leave it a minute or two, you can use a piece of kitchen towel to press lightly,  the longer you leave it the more the water bleaches out the ink. I dried it off after and next I will add some more detail, stamping,  texture paste etc. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

A Card for My Valentine...

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

Woohoo!  It's the weekend and we don't have to go anywhere!!  I love a lazy weekend,  although they are rarely 'lazy' !  Paul will busy himself in the gatden, depending on the weather,  bless him he probably prays for dry weather so that I don't find him things to do in the house! 🤣😂

Today I am sharing the card I made for Paul for Valentines day, I used a new stamp and die set that I have had for a weeks, I earnt it as a free gift when I bought all the card for Becca's wedding invitations. The set is called 'Heart Shaped'   

I stamped the heart wreath on the front panel twice, 1 a little higher than the other and overlapped them slightly, I added white embossing powder and heat set.  I then took Balmy Blue ink and blended around the white stamped heart and after allowing it to dry and wiped over the embossed area where it had resisted the ink. This gave a soft haze of blue making those hearts pop. 

I die cut two of the heart Wreaths in darker blue and layered them up, I glued it over one of the hearts.  I layered the front panel onto a mat of the darker blue and then onto a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch card base. 

To finish I added the sentiment, stamped and embossed in white on Soft grey card and die cut.  To finish I added a little bow. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,  

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx