Its Saturday ....

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all had a great week, thankfully it's the weekend so we can relax, it's a good job gardening is something we class as 'fun' otherwise we definitely wouldn't be relaxing 🤣😂    

I bought some little plant packs in the garden centre that the girls and I visited on Thursday, they were all reduced to £1 for about 10 plants,  so we will use them to fill in the gaps in the veg plots. 

What have you all got planned  ??

I have shared a few photos of our garden,  the first photo is the Climbing Petunias, there is not one new plant in there, that corner must be sheltered as those Petunias are what survived the winter, we have had so many more flowers than last year,  I hope we get to save some for nex year. 

The other 3 are baskets out the front, I love the colours 😍 

Now the first of my Dahlias...

Aren't they beautiful,  the colours are stunning, I will have to check the names of the first two, this bottom one is 'Striped Mango ' 

I have about another 10 still to flower, I can't wait, I think these may become an obsession! 

***********

Right! how many points did you score on the quiz above???

You score 1 point for Every thing you have NEVER done.  

I scored 2, which means I have done every one of those things except.... I have never spilt paint on the floor, I have never 'forgotten to cook dinner because I was crafting '  only because Paul and the girls wouldn't let me forget about dinner,  it's the first thing they ask when they get in from work! 🤣

Let me know your score below..

Gina's Bargains 

Gina you got an incredible bargain, so many dies etc for £16 !!!  

I have never found any craft Bargains in a charity shop, I know Sue has had some great finds too. 

Thank you so much for sharing your haul with us,  I can't wait to see what you create with it all XXX

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

I hope that you all have a great Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

It's Friday, New Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning My Lovely Friends, 

Welcome August,  where did you appear from so soon! 🤣  Fingers crossed you bring us a month full of sunshine & happiness 🌞

I am so relieved it's Friday, this week has been a really tough one, both (mostly) mentally but physically too.  My hernia has been 'stuck' out for a couple of days now and is quite painful, it makes my whole tummy area really painful, I may ca surgery and ask for a phone consultation I think.   The whole wedding outfit thing is really stressful,  it had me had breaking point yesterday,  it has dominated my head this week, I have sat at my desk everyday this week, getting out different new/unused things but it feels like I have a mental block when it comes to being creative!  I even ended up crying because I couldn't think of anything to cook for dinner!                                           I gave myself a bit of mental lift yesterday when I tried on the dress I wore to the second day of Emily's wedding last year, thinking it wouldn't fit me, despite my appetite being half of what it was and not being able to finish my meals I feel huge because of my abdominal area.  I tried the dress on and it definitely fit, in fact the top half was too big, which made me feel a bit better.  

New Challenge 

Now I know that I usually leave any new challenge to run for a couple of weeks, I just couldn't muster any enthusiasm for the last challenge,  so I thought a new Challenge might help. 

So starting from Monday our new challenge will be......

" CASE CHALLENGE "

CASE stands for :  Copy And Selectively Edit

Which literally means:  Pick a card from anywhere that inspires you and add your own twist to it !  

Basically what we do regularly when we see a card on Pinterest or something.  You can 'CASE ' a card, journal page, tag or anything you like.  

I hope you don't mind the switch after a week,  we have done this challenge before but not for a long time.  I hope you enjoy it my lovelies 😘

Have a great Friday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

A shades of one colour card by Gina

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Well Wednesday was a bit frustrating as all of the dresses I ordered were no good, they looked awful,  so I'm back to square one, I am going have to go for a completely different style to last years dresses as my Hernia and inflammation from the Bile Duct have made my stomach more prominent.  So I think I will need a style that flares out from under my bust.  

Becca popped round to see the dresses I'd bought and get some more wedding admin done,  we have all the names now so we can create the Name Place cards. Lucy is also creating all of the signs for the wedding so she is going to be busy.

Today's card is one of Gina's that she created for our last challenge,  she forgot to send it before going to Weston-super-Mare for a few days.  

Gina's Description:

Thank you Gina for sharing your card, its so pretty, I love the style and that amazing fun fold   XXX

I hope that you a have a great day,  

Iove and hugs to all of you 

Sandra xxx

Throwback to this day 2019

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,

Yesterday started it out dreary and wet, I went with Lucy to the town we used to live in as she needed to have her Aircon checked and re-gassed, we dropped the car off,  luckily we put the wheelchair in as they couldn't do it 'while you wait', although he said he'd call us in about an hour, so we set off to walk the 10 mins into town and had a browse around the shops and charity shops,  for some reason shops/businesses just don't last long in that town, it's sad to see so many new shops that were closing down, we went to look in a bridal shop that's only been there around a year or maybe 18 months at the most,  it closes down in two weeks, she said they just don't get the business they need, now I think they may have missed a big opportunity,  its probably one of the largest military towns in the country (second maybe to Colchester), the Camp has atleast 6 Balls a year, Summer and Christmas for the different ranks,  so along side Bridal they could have had Ball Gowns and Prom dresses for the 2 local secondary schools, they didn't do Mother of the Bride either,  the shop is huge so they could have managed those extra categories no problem.  I remember having to drive miles to find Ball gowns.  Maybe it's down to people buying on-line that they haven't survived,  having said that you wouldn't buy a wedding gown on line without trying it on.                                                          We stopped for coffee and then hung around until 1pm when Paul picked us up,  we drove to the Aircon place where Lucy's car was and it had been ready for over an our,  he was supposed to call me, so that was wasted time! 🙄   Sadly for Lucy they couldn't re-gas her car, it has a leak somewhere and fixing it would be 'uneconomical' as it would take around 8 hours to fix and cost in excess of £2000.  She was disappointed but I said you can buy these fans that have an 'aircon' feature, I've seen people raving about them online,  plus we don't generally get that many days that are unbearably hot.  We never had it years ago,  her car is mostly used for commuting to work and that's only 15 minutes.    

 By the time we got home I was exhausted,  I sat and looked at more dress shops and gave up.  I got a few bits out that I've never used but I'm sorry to say that my 'mojo' has buggered off !!  I do hope it gets bored and returns quickly. 😬😔

So today's card is a throwback to this day 2019, 6 years ago! 

Here is the card description.....

Now onto my 'Spotlight' card, I used my 'Woodware Single Layered Collage' stamp, I stamped it out twice, I added embossing powder and heat set, which I think makes it easier to colour. I mounted one onto a piece of Gorgeous Grape card and onto my card base. I took the second stamped piece and fussy cut the section with the safety pin and flowers, I coloured the background with 'Soft Sky' Stampin Blends and the flowers with Gorgeous Grape and Granny Apple Green Blends, I made sure to include the bit above that sentiment strip to finish the look. I added foam pads to the back of both pieces and replaced it onto the stamped image.

So the 'Spotlighted area is the coloured area, I love this stamp and like how this card has turned out.

It was so sad looking back to a time when Margaret, Lynda & Janet were still commenting daily.  I do miss them x 

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday,  

Love & Hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Hollyhock die card 2 !

Good Morning My Lovelies, 

Well I couldn't tell you anything about the weather yesterday as I was sat in front of my laptop all day looking at dresses for the wedding.  What a nightmare I am having,  it just seems like you are looking at the same dresses on different websites.  I did eventually order a few, well over £600 worth,  I'm hoping one of them might work,  they aren't what I would have gone for but sometimes its surprising that something you wouldn't pick is the one you end up loving 🤞🤞

Today's card was a quick one that I made yesterday,  I had been on my laptop all day and my mojo and any enthusiasm had taken a hike!!  So I picked up the Hollyhock die that I used yesterday and an old background offcut from my bit box.  I made my card base and a mat that was 1/4 inch smaller,  I die cut a rectangle from it,  to make sure I got the piece of background and placed it over the aperture,  i used a bit of low tack tape to hold the piece in place,  I added adhesive to the background piece and lined the mat up on the base card a pressed the blue background into place,  I then lifted the top layer off added foam tape around that aperture and secured it in place,  I then took my die cut Hollyhock and arranged the pieces inside the aperture.                                                                             I stamped the sentiment and it smudged 🙄, so I had to stamp it onto a piece of card and die cut it.

A simple card with lovely coloured background. 

I hope that you all have a great Tuesday,  

Love and hugs to all,  

Sandra xxx 

My first card for new Challenge

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend, you all sounded like you had a busy one!  We had a more relaxing day yesterday,  we did a bit of weeding,  I dead headed all of my petunias,  geranium etc, it took forever.  The fun part of the day was tipping out the grow back we had new potatoes growing in, its so exciting, we got a good crop and had them with some of our own grown, fresh picked Sprouting Broccoli and some steak,  it was deliscious,  it felt like a celebration meal after watching the England ladies win the Euros against Spain, it was a tense match!  Great to see them win though. 

I made today's card yesterday afternoon,  using the Hollyhock die that I got from Amazon last week.  I created a white card base, added a white mat that I scored around the edge of....

This close up shows the embossing and the layers that I added under the embossed panel I used for the focal point.  I die cut a grass stalk in white and the Hollyhock in Garden Green,  then adhered them over the embossed panel.  I finished the diecuts with a twine bow.

Simple but effective I think. 

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

Love a huge hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Our makes this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

I'm not sure if it was just me yesterday but it felt muggy/ humid and horrible all day, it felt like we needed a good thunderstorm to clear the air.  I am hoping that you were all more comfortable.  I had a slight reprieve when we drove to Costco as I could have air conditioning on in car!   I spoke to Matt yesterday,  he is on a Nile cruise, he sounded like his chest was really congested, he said Friday was a right off as he was sick all day,  apart from that they have had a lovely time,  seen some amazing sights too, he said the 45° heat zaps your energy thou and he found himself needing a 'Nana Nap'🤣😂   They started off in a hotel, that had its own private beach, he was hoping it meant that they wouldn't get dogged by people trying to sell you junk,  that wasn't the case, he told me that one day he was offered by 15 different people to get a massage!  We joked and said, you won't get that on the ship,  haha how wrong we were,  these tiny boats with people on selling everything from the robes they wear to carpets,   he showed me them, they attach themselves to the ship with ropes and literally throw bags of their 'wares'up on to the decks,  if you want what they are selling, he said they stay tied on for miles!  I'm surprised the Captain allows it to be honest.  

Let's look at what you have been making ....

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a challenge card played again in Serif aligning the 4 squares and taking the transparency down on 3 of them Printed sentiment Trimmed down to be a square Matted onto black and added 3 SueW butterflies

So pretty Karen, I can't believe that we both made the same style card at the same time.  Why didn't I do shades of one colour though??!   The shades of yellow you have used are soft and pretty. 

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge Karen XXX

Maria 

Maria's Description:

A little card this week for Sunday or any day as it's not completely one colour, sorry but mojo have gone on holiday for card making at the mo.  

Oh Maria it's perfect for the challenge as its shades of one colour!   I love your card, it looks like a complicated fancy fold, is it die cut?  I love the soft sheen from the card too. 

Thank you so much for creating a card for the challenge Maria XXX

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

I hope that you all enjoy the rest of the weekend,  

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx