Our makes from this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

This feels like the worst weather we've had at a weekend for ages, so we didn't get outside.  I needed to sit and get some projects made anyway, so that was me most of the day.  Paul was busy getting all the bits together for holiday,  so today I will go through clothes to make sure they fit and put them to he ironed if they need it, I do try and iron them when I pack them away so that it saves time when it comes to packing,  I also put a couple of tumble dryer sheets in the box so that they smell fresh when I open them up.  

We are all capable of somethings,  its a bid of an odd reminder but I guess it's just to reassure you if you are doubting yourself!! 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my journal page for this week.

Must admit I was really stumped for this idea.

The theme is under water so this was the best I could do.

I found the idea on Utube using Lavinia Stamps and stencils. This one was by Jo Rice, a very talented lady. The fish are old dies from Sue Wilson.

Wow Lilian what a brilliant idea,  you have put so much detail into that fish tank, with all the little pebbles and plants,  even the cork looks so real.  

Thank you so much for an inspirational project for the Aall&Create challenge XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Challenge: Under the Water

I printed some images I found on Kelly Lou Who Junk Journals Facebook page. The collection is called Vintage Maritime Mermaid Junk Journal Kit.

I distressed the edges and inked with Walnut Stain and Stormy Sky distress inks. I dyed some gauze with shimmer sprays - although the shimmer doesn’t show up - and shaped them to add behind the images. I added some sequins and a bulb pin with tiny beads 😊

Oh Sonia what an incredible journal page,  I zoomed in on the bulb pin and that lovely gauze you have coloured.  It gives such great texture and looks brilliant.  The sequins give little pops of light and sparkle here and there too. 

You must be absolutely delighted how this page turned out, its perfect for the challenge topic 

Thank you so much for inspiring us with your stunning backgrounds and lovely layouts XXX

Karen

Karen's Description:

Card 1: This card uses Serif Craft Artist 

A rectangle in various transparencies and an embellishment

Card 2: All made with scraps, Grey off cut

Blue striped card and patterned paper for tie

Sentiment is a stamp from a magazine.

Two brilliant cards, you'd never guess that they were made from scraps of card.   I absolutely love that Embossing folder you have used on the shirt card.  

Thank you so much for supporting the challenges Karen,  I really do appreciate it XXX

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I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love & hugs to you all, 

Sandra xxx

Sonia's Chat GPT tutorial

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Welcome to the weekend,  what have you all got planned?  

Love this sentiment and the lovely artwork too ❤️

Sonia has very kindly put together a Chat GPT tutorial to help you all create your own papers and images.  

Here you go.....

ChatGPT Tutorial 

Firstly just a reminder of what I mentioned in our blog chat. There are lots of Facebook pages offering free Ai images that you can save and print. Most of them are for your personal use, so you can not sell or share them as your own images. (Shaylee Morehouse does allow you to share, but only through the share button on her page and you can sell your creations made using her images)

Copyright is such a complicated issue, so I would always credit the original designer if using any of their images when sharing to the blog or social media, or if in doubt I would ask them.

When I shared the birthday card I made for Scarlett on Instagram, I put on there that the images and backgrounds were designed by myself in ChatGPT, and again I will always mention that when sharing, but that’s my own personal preference.

To get started, download the ChatGPT App which you can find in your App Store, or you can go to chatgpt.com on your web browser. This is what you will see when you open up the page:

First picture is on website.

Second picture on the App.

I use the App and the free version. (The photos I will share here are all from the App on my iPad) 

It does limit you to 3-5 creations in a 24 hour period. (I think it may depend on what you ask, as sometimes I’ve done 5 creations/edits but a few times only 3) 

I have looked into this to find the actual limit, but there seems to be a multiple of answers, but it will tell you when you have used your free limit within the 24 hour period. 

You can get a paid subscription which is £19.99 per month which renews automatically. This is what you get with the paid subscription:

I do find the free version works for fine for me at the moment, but I can see why people would pay for the subscription.

You will find some basics of what you can do on the App: Task Suggestions and Examples:

So, let’s start creating!

To start creating your own backgrounds or images, type what you want in the Ask ChatGPT box:

Start with something basic, but add as much detail as you can (you can always add more to it or change things once ChatGPT has created your image)

Click on the created image and it will take you to the next page where you can save it to your photo gallery by pressing the downwards arrow in the top right corner. You can then save it to your files as well if you wish.

I wanted to add some more flowers and butterflies, so typed this in.

I then decided I’d like a page of elements/emphera to match. I typed in what I wanted. This was pretty basic, but you can add more detail and be more specific.

I love this, and am really pleased with how it turned out, just by using basic instructions. 

I hope this has helped you to get started in creating your own backgrounds and emphera.

Have a play around with it and have fun. 

Be warned - it can be very addictive! 😊

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Thank you so much Sonia this must have taken you ages to put together, the papers and ephemera you created are amazing !!  I am so grateful 🥰  If you need to get a better look at the photographed images maybe click on them.  If any of you struggle let me know and I will forward those bits on Messenger. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love and hugs to all of you  

Sandra xxx 

Inky Background Journal page

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Another wet & wild day for us yesterday,   luckily Soph & I managed to dodge the rain,   we were forecast thunder storms but we didn't see one, Sip was disappointed as she loves a thunderstorm!   Today will be spent at my desk trying to get some projects made to schedule for our holiday.  

This reminder is something I feel strongly about,  for most of us our crafting, whichever form it takes is a kind of therapy,  to quiet your anxious brain or to distract yourself from pain or loneliness,  so we shouldn't feel guilty for buying crafty bits.  I am fortunate (as most of us are ) that Paul never questions what I buy.  That doesn't stop me thinking twice though.    So in our case Self care definitely isn't selfish.  🥰

For today's journal page I used my Visible Image flower stamp as the main image,  I embossed it to give some shine and a different texture. I then used a little square of acetate to add distress ink around the page, with hindsight I could of just smooshed it,  I used Peacock Feathers & Twisted Citron for this.  I then used the little mixed media stamp to add some extra detail.   To finish I added the quote and matted on to black card.  

Maria I hope you are enjoying that lovely warm sunshine,  it feels so much more bearable when you are by the sea.  I hope that you are getting to get in the pool or sea too.  xxx

Karen I hope that it didn't take too long to recover from your pump breaking,  it must be so frustrating, it's a shame there isn't anything more reliable, especially for through the night.  I hope that you managed to get to go to Bowls xxx

Brenda I hope you and john are ok, sadly not the weather to be out in the garden.  Sending hugs xxx

Sonia Enjoy your last day at Centerparcs with your Grandbabies my lovely xxx

Sue i hope you enjoy shopping for new furniture,  it can get quite tiresome shopping for the 'right' sofa etc,  especially when you have to put your needs in with what works for everyone else.  I hope that having new carpets doesn't cause too much upheaval too, it can be a nightmare (from experience🤣)  I look forward to seeing some photos soon xxx

Lilian I'm sorry to read that your legs are so bad they are affecting your sleep,   there is nothing more frustrating than restless legs,  it literally drives you nuts, Paul doesn't complain but my constant fidgeting must frustrate him too.  Sending you hugs xxx

Gina  I hope that you are well, are you managing to get any crafting done?  I look forward to seeing what you create my lovely xxx 

I hope that you all have a good day  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Travel/Transport Journal page

 

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all as well as can be today and that the weather isn't too crazy!   We had a mix of weathers yesterday including gale force winds,  Lucy and I popped into the garden centre to get some plant pot bottoms (the little saucer things),  the wind really picked up while we were there,  the devastation that it caused was unbelievable, large pots if shrubs and plants were blown off their stands and were blowing about the walkways, some without their pots!   

Another lovely illustration and great sentiment. 

Today I am sharing a journal page that I started on Tuesday, finished yesterday.  

I used Arden Creative 'Been There' collection,  I took a piece of the paper from the collection and spritzed it with Vintage Photo & Faded Jeans Distress Oxide Spray to add some colour to the paper,  I then created a coloured Embossing paste by taking some Translucent Texture paste and adding some Mica powder to it and mixed well,  I used it through a stencil.  I added some water to the paste and used it to added splatters.  I then added some background stamping,  then came the fun part.....building the focal points,  all from the 'Been There' laser die cuts.  I inked around them and built up the two areas. 

I liked how this one turned out. 

Love and hugs,

Sandra xxx

I hope that you all have a lovely day ,

     

A Distress ink Journal Page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

We had a very stormy day yesterday,   I had a bad night (Monday night) so was awake when we had a big storm at around 3am with torrential rain that seemed endless,  Paul said it half filled one of our water butts,  it was sunny early morning but the very dark clouds, thunder & Lightning 🌩 soon returned!   Fingers crossed last night was more restful.🤞  

I kept telling myself this throughout Monday night, but no amount of manifesting sleep helped.  🤣😅  These frustrating days do pass eventually,  so try and stay positive xxx

Today's journal page is one I  made on Friday I think,  I picked a piece of inked card that I had in my Bit box and trimmed it down, I stamped the butterfly & text stamp onto the background, then stamped another onto a scrap of card and added clear embossing powder,  after heat setting I fussy cut the butterfly and placed it over the stamped one,  I used a stencil to add some extra detail and Texture and then added a couple of stickers from my Arden Creative PET tape. I picked out a sentiment strip and matted onto black card and popped into my journal.  

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

A simple Embossed card

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Well summer has gone,  we had rain for most of the day yesterday,  it felt chilly too but I wasn't complaining.  

We managed to get all our hotel booking confirmations printed and put into our 'traditional' (we laugh as all our children have a special folder for holiday documents same as ours 🤣).   I like having the documents in order,  we could use the confirmation on the app but some places don't have good wifi, also Paul doesn't use his phone,  he certainly wouldn't have 'wifi' on his phone,  so he'd have to take my phone in to each hotel etc,  then he'd have trouble accessing the actual files 🙄.  This man once the had highest up do date technology at his fingertips, when he programmed aircraft,  he was constantly on courses updating his knowledge.  Now he struggles with phone technology!   His knowledge has changed to a totally different area now, no less pressure mind.  So thats why we use the old fashioned paper confirmations, which he takes into every hotel to check us in.    

I think our biggest hurdle this year will be the new EU entry registration....

This is what the Eurotunnel set up looks like,  we have to scan our face and fingerprints,  which will stay on record for 3 years,  when it's done future entries should take maybe 2 minutes more.  We are planning to arrive early as the new system caused chaos at Half term.  

Today's very good reminder, love how colourful the are.  ❤️ 

I made this simple embossed card yesterday,   it's a 3D embossing folder I have had a while.   I ran it through my Big Shot and then used the back (wrong) side of a piece of cut & dry foam,  as it has no give,  so it glides over embossed areas,  I used Ranger Pigment Ink pad,  there were a couple of spots where I got it on the background.  I then adder pearls to the larger flower centres and added a die cut sentiment and matted the piece onto a white card base.  

I am interested to know if you all buy ready done card bases or do you create your own?   For the majority of my cards I cut my card bases as I go,  the only time I don't is if they are bigger sizes.  I prefer to do it as I can make sure the bases are the same shade of white as my topper. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Welcome June....

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

We have a new Month as well as a new Week to celebrate today,  let's Welcome June 🌞.  Funny that it's the start of Summer today and the weather isn't a patch on last week,  although this is our usual summer weather 🤣😂

I love today's reminder, both the sentiment and the artwork.  

Today's I am sharing a super quick and simple card that I made yesterday afternoon,  I have had this die in my stash for a couple if years, it was a gift from Sue.  I have sat and had a play with it a couple of times,  cutting vellum for the petals etc but I couldn't make it work,   the die fell out while I was looking for another die,  then I remembered that I'd seen a simple card made with it,  so I created my card base,  die cut a Navy mat then I die cut the flower and petals in white,  I offset each layer and finished it with a sparkle.  Then finished it with the 'For You' sentiment.  

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

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx