A Smooshed Background C&S card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

We were treated to another glorious day yesterday,  a much cooler start to the day though but it soon warmed up.                             

I spent most of the day researching birthday ideas for Becca, she has suggested Opera, Ballet or Hot Air Ballon trip. I think it would have to be a ballet or opera story that you would recognise to get the best out of it.  The Hot Air Balloon trip would be ok but she doesn't want to do it on her own,  she asked me if I would go with her, but that's not an option,  I asked Paul, I think he would but wasn't sure!  So my research continues! 

Todays card is another Pinterest favourite that was by a Lady called Loll Thompson,   combined with me wanting to try Karen's Baking Paper smooshing technique. 

I used my En Francais stamp with Silver embossing powder to create the background,  I then used Twisted Citron & Broken China distress inks individually, I smooshed them onto baking paper, spritzed with water and then I gently touched it onto my embossed background,  I repeated with the other colour.  

The pros of Baking Paper smooshing:  

The ink transfers to your paper better, acetate to me gives same effect as smooshing on glass mat, the ink just spreads out.  Where using Baking Paper the ink transferred with all of the detail it had after spritzing. 

(You can see the dots and splodges more.)

You can scrunch paper to give more texture/interest.

You can manipulate the paper to add small areas of ink too. 

So in my opinion Baking Paper is a better method of Smooshing technique ink transfer. 

To finish the card I added two butterflies,  left uncoloured but embossed with silver.  I then finished with the Thank You sentiment.  

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

A C & S card with a smooshed background

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

That was a lovely relaxed weekend,  I did get a lot of plants potted up, we had to pop out and get a big planter, there wasn't that much choice to be honest, everywhere seemed to have the same pots, we ended up getting a Half Whisky Barrel and then a couple of terracota style plastic pots.  The prices in B & Q compared to B & M and Home Bargains was outrageous, just looking at 1 pot that looked pretty much identical,  in B & M it was £12 in B &Q it was £32!  I do wonder how many they sell.  We did buy a couple of plants from the clearance area, a lovely grass that was originally £12 and a perennial that spreads, giving great ground cover, that was originally £6, both reduced by 50%, we went to pay,  I was expecting it to come to £9, for some reason the lady at the till made to the total £5.30,  I didn't complain though 😀. 

 I do wonder how much money shops waste on not watering and taking care of their plants properly,  at Lidl yesterday there was a whole trolley of lavender plants that were dead, proper shrivelled up, now someone is pushing that trolley in and out every day, can they not see that the plants need water?!  the lavender plants were £2.99, there were easily around 80 to 100 plants on that trolley,  thats a huge waste of money!  Sue and I were discussing this on Thursday,  they could employ a retired perso n for an hour or two a day , who would be happy look after the plants, it must be worth the money!  

Today's card was the result of me playing with my new Tim Holtz Media Surface mat, after playing with smooshing I went on to Brusho's, I spritzed my card with water and added some yellow, red and orange Brushos until I was happy, I set them on the Aga to dry,  I used one as the background for my card, the front was die cut with a Tim Holtz background die.  The "Hello' was die cut from another one of the Brusho backgrounds that I made with same colours.  

I hope that you all have a lovely Monday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Our Clean & Simple challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you were all treated to the glorious weather that we had yesterday,  we had a list of things to do but after lunch we just sat in the garden watching the birds, there are so many different types, they were all making a heck of a racket, it sounded like baby birds waiting to be fed, others were fighting,  then it fell eerily silent, not even a single tweet,  Paul and I looked at each in surprise and then a huge Red Kite swooped over the garden, they must know its in the area, after about 5 minutes we saw one or two fly about to see if the coast was clear then just like that they all started chirping and tweeting like nothing had happened!  

Now let's look at your cards:

Your Challenge Cards 

Janet

Janet's Description:

My card was made using my Favourite LABLANCHE papers. This set has the title of 'THE SEA'. All the papers are so calming and easy to use.

Janet, you have no idea how much joy it gives me knowing that you managed to get into your craft room with enough energy left to make a beautiful card.  

The paper you have used is so calming,  I love all of the detail on the paper and those bits of seaweed that you have added bring some colour to your design. 

Thank you SO very much my lovely XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a CAS card.

An old SW die with a SW sentiment and some Hunky Dory paper I have had for years and years.

Karen, I love your design, that embossed flower looks so perfect, the colour of the background is beautiful too, it really makes the white card 'pop'. Thank you so much for taking part in the Challenge my lovely XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi here is my card for this week.

I saw one on Pinterest very similar.

Old stamp and punches

Ink is versa fine olive

Such a pretty card Lilian,  I have a card very similar pinned in my boards, the design is simple but I wouldn't want line all that stamping up with out a stamp platform!  

Thank you so much for taking part Lilian XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I’ve used the Pink Fresh Studio flower background die under Sue Wilson’s square dies, cut as a frame. The die cut sentiment is also from Pink Fresh.

You  can't beat a Kraft & White card can you???!  That Pink Fresh background is beautiful and I love the font of your Thank you too, everything looks so clean & crisp.  

Thank you so much for such a lovely card XXX 

Sue

Sue's Description:

Two Clean and simple cards. Both inspired from Pinterest cards. I haven’t stuck the sentiment down as I’m not keen on it but couldn’t find a stamp that worked xx

Two lovely Clean & Simple cards Sue, great to see that you got a start on Christmas cards too!  That birthday card would be a great Man card.  Thank you so much for taking part in the Challenge my lovely XXX 

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

What a lovely display of cards, all so beautifully Clean & Simple,  thank you so much for incredible crestivity 🥰😍❤

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

We had a very breezy,  cool day yesterday, very sunny though.  We didn't get out in it though, apart from getting to the car to go shopping and to take some photos to share with you today. I am hoping that the wind dies down and the sun stays all weekend.  

Sophie very kindly took me out for lunch yesterday, which was really lovely,  there is a pub about ten minutes away called the Cold Harbour,  I believe its part of a chain but we have had a few meals there that have all been lovely,  I am yet to go there with Paul though.  

No magazine review this week so I thought I would share some of the beautiful flowers that are blooming in our garden.....

Our roses smell so lovely this year but sadly every one of our rose bushes has Black Spots on the leaves, the lovely tall one by our front window has hardly any leaves, I need to research how to treat them, we have bought some rose fertiliser,  so hopefully that will help.

We have never planted Aquilegias but we are blessed with some beautiful varieties in our garden, the pink one is in the front garden, we have two or three double lemon & purple one is in the back garden.

A few more beautiful blooms, Sweet William,  Diantnus and pretty daisies. 

These gorgeous coloured Osteospermums are waiting to go into pots, I just couldn't resist them when we saw them last weekend,  I cannot wait to see how big they get.

Craft Shopping/ Research 

After watching Tim Holtz launch his Multi Surface Mat I couldn't wait to get my hands on one!  

The main feature that appealed to me was how it holds onto ink when you are 'Smooshing' compared to a glass mat, I have always struggled getting great results from the Smooshing technique as the inks just spread out when spritzed with water, so getting good colour saturation was tricky.  

I tried to take some photos to show you what I mean...

Ink 'smooshed onto glass mat and spritzed with water, see how the colours just spread out getting lighter as they spread. 

 This is the same inks smooshed into the new mat and second picture is the spritzed with same amount of water. 

This is how they looked when you tap your paper on to each surface 

Glass mat Smoosh 

New Mat Smoosh 

The Two side by side

The colour of the ink on the new mat is a lot stronger, you also get more of the little dots of colour  from the surface mat, which looks so much more interesting.  I think you would probably get similar effects with a decent craft mat (not the cheaper oven liner ones) 

The mat fits the large tonic glass mat (black one) you can use it on any surface though.

There were so many other benefits, you can watch the video of Tim Holtz demonstrating it on YouTube

I bought mine from Crafty Flair, which was the cheapest place by £4.99  it was £20.99 

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

I hope that you a have a lovely Saturday, 

Love & Hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxx

A little Rimantic card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

💙💙💙👶Huge Congratulations to Our Sonia, who became a Nanny to baby Teddy yesterday👶💙💙💙 That adorable little boy couldn't wish for a better Nanny & Grandpa xxx

Yay, its Friday!  Another week flown past in a flash, my nights have seemed longer than the days this week.  

Mr sunshine returned yesterday,  which makes the day feel so much better however rough the night was!  There is no better start to the day than opening the curtains to let the sunshine in and opening tbe windows to let the fresh air in.  The birds were really going for it from about 4am, I was trying to pick out the individual birds but there are so many!  We even tried matching them to bird song online, but that wasnt much help either.

Today's card was a fun little card to make using that adorable little Rabbit die and the trailing heart stamp, both from Temu.  I die cut the hearts into the front of my card and then placed a piece of red card behind it, I then added the die cut rabbit to look like he was sat on the hearts, I added the long stem ❤️ for a extra touch of cuteness and stamped a sentiment that worked for the card.  This would make a lovely Anniversary or Valentines card but every now and then I like to let Paul know how much I love him and appreciate everything that he does to make me life easier. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Friday, 

Love & Hugs to all,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

A Clean & Simple Romantic card

Good Morning Ladies, 

Welcome June !!! How are we almost half way through the year?        

Today is a very special day for our Sonia as she awaits the birth of her Grandson, my thoughts will be with you all day, James must be so excited. I hope you don't have to wait too long to meet  baby boy 💙

We had an overcast, windy day, great for drying washing though.  I lost about an hour in the morning looking on Temu, that place sells everything you can think of and many more that you would never think of !!  I never really got on with Ali Express, Temu is easier because of the free postage,  Ali Express used to advertise things for free but you had to pay postage,  which all seemed daft, then you would get to check out and the combined postage was huge, then you had almost forgot about your order before it eventually arrived.  My order from Temu was here within a week!  I watched a couple videos on YouTube of people showing you what they ordered and what they actually received,  one lady had ordered a ladies (pink) drill, also a Dremel type tool with loads of different attachments, I would never order electrical things from anywhere like that, I can't imagine for one minute that any of the components are responsibly sourced.  Maybe people should do videos of the items still in use 6 months on, to see if they still worked. 🤔   But for our crafty bits I think its worth a visit. I will say that I wouldn't knowingly buy something that was a direct copy of someone's work, be it Tim Holtz,  SU, or whoever.  Let's face it you can buy products that breach copyright from major tv shops too these days! 😉😲🙄! 

Today's card is one of those cards that I have seen loads of on Fb and Pinterest recently,  I love the simplicity of them, so I decided to have a go, I used a selection of foliage dies, the card base is a Linen effect card, I created a mat of the same card with seven lines scored down one side, I built my little focal point on those score lines, starting with silver thread, then the foliage and heart stem, finally I added the sentiment,  which was from SU 'Lasting Lily' stamp set, I embossed the sentiment with silver powder to tie in with the other silver elements, I offset the sentiment with an embossed piece of paper, cut on an angle for interest, I finished my design with 3 tiny silver gems. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love & Hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

A simple Flowering Fields card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We had sun yesterday but it was nowhere near as warm as it has been over weekend,  it was very windy too, it got two loads of washing dry in no time!  

Well hallelujah, I got some sleep, thank heavens, it was 8.25am when I woke as Soph came in to say goodbye as she left for work, Paul usually brings me a cup of tea when he gets up but he said he wanted to leave me to sleep!  He did ask if I heard the B1 Bombers taking off from Raf Fairford at 5am but unusually I didn't.  They have recently arrived back at Fairford, they are preparing to get the American Air Force base back up and runningfu time by next year, so there is a lot going around the camp, its literally across the river, at 5pm every day we are treated to a Bugler playing both our National Anthem and the Americans too.  

Todays card was one I saved on Pinterest from a blog called Crafty Place I believe.  I stamped the 3 flowers from the Flowering Fields stamp set in clear ink, added gold embossing powder and heat set. I then used Shaded Lilac, Picked Raspberry & Mowed Lawn Distress Inks to water colour the flowers and stems.  I die cut them and added them to my card made with linen effect card, I love that added bit of texture. A simple Happy Birthday stamped and embossed in gold finishes the card. 

I hope you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx