My second Christmas journal page

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

Another warm but bearable day yesterday,   I did some crafting in the morning while Lucy went to get her wrist looked at,  she was gone about an hour or so, so not too bad,  they bandaged her wrist up, told her that she needs a dual support brace to prevent her wrist bending up or down,   they apparently had run out, which is why they bandaged her up,  they showed her which one to buy, gave her a referral for physio and told her to go to GP if problem persists,  our surgery currently has NO bookable appointments that aren't the daily urgent ones, that's up to end of August.  Its ridiculous.  All 4 of our children have Hypermobility in pretty much all joints, I have it too, I don't think Paul does though.  Hypermobility can cause problems in joints because of the over flexibility meaning extra strain on wrists,  knees etc,  they kept asking Lucy what she thought it was that was causing the pain,  lucy replied if I knew I wouldn't have taken up your time,   they seem to think its like RSI,  from scooping the hard icecream every day.   I have said that she should maybe delegate that job for the next week or so to allow her wrist to rest.  We have ordered the Wrist Brace, fingers crossed it arrives today.  

We had a lovely lunch out,  which lifted her mood a little x 

Another brilliant reminder,  you are all incredibly important ❤️

I used Stamperia’s Classic Christmas collection for my journal page today,   I took a piece of background from the Art Journal,  then dry brushed some white paint onto the paper added some splatters and did some stamping,  then I used Brown ink through the Classic Christmas stencil.. 

I added some Coffee ink on opposite corners and then got on with choosing the ephemera to create  my focul cluster.

I took a label and added some stamping and an eyelet and popped some twine through it.  I used this as my starting point,  next came that little recipe card, then the pile of gifts.  The gifts were floating so i added a border strip along the bottom, I roughed the edges of all the ephemera and added brown ink too. A few flowers added some prettinesz, the candy canes added some height.  The final flourish was the 'joy' sentiment and white splatters. 

Karen:  I can't believe it's been a week since your surgery,  hopefully you are back in your craft room now,  Paul was back doing light work a week after his,  I think its sensible to do short sessions to start with.  Paul hated the eye drops but continued them past the necessary time 'just to be sure'.  I bet your fingers are itching to create. 

Lilian:  I am so pleased that you are getting that knee sorted,  although it might get uncomfortable in a heatwave.  I do remember having to shower in the 'Hibiscrub' wash,  it felt horrible,  I didn't have to do it for than 2 days though.   The clean bedsheets every day seems a bit excessive, especially as you are antibacterial washing every night.    They have some crazy ideas these days!   I hope you aren't suffering too much after the dentist my lovely XXX 

I hope that you all have a great Thursday,  

My love and hugs to all  

Sandra xxx 

A Christmas journal page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

I had a lovely crafty day yesterday,  playing with some new Christmas themed goodies that I treated myself too 😊 

Lucy had a lovely chilled day off, Paul was at work, so I just sat and played with my new bits and bobs, it does seem quite odd having to have a fan on while created Christmas projects 🤣😂

I am guilty of saying 'sorry for being a nuisance '  or 'sorry for being a pain"  when someone has to accommodate my wheelchair or something,  I'm not sure if that's what today's reminder means,   It all comes down to feeling like you are putting people out or being a burden!   

I agree with the reminder though,  I just need to work harder on my feelings !  

For today's journal page I used my small Stamperia journal,   I used Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness Oxide inks to blend down the right side of the page and along the bottom.   I then used the Arden Creative stencil with the same inks to add more interest 

I added some water droplets to the background and then added some green and brown splatters.  I used Ground Espresso to add a darker vignette around the page.  

I moved on to add some Rub Ons from the Arden Creative  Christmas Cheer collection, I absolutely love them...

Both the little bits of text and the musical scores are rub ons.  

Onto the fun part, picking out the die cut ephemera,   I collected a few bits, added some hessian ribbon , created a cluster to pop Santa on then added some little bits to finish off the page.  Last finishing touch as always is the white splatters! 

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

My First Christmas card for our Challenge

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Well what do you think of the new PM ??  🤔  I'm yet to be convinced,   after all he hasn't been elected either by party or the nation.                    They never go through with their promises anyway! 

Maybe today's reminder is more apt than we think??🙄🤣

Today's card is a simple design,  I took a piece of white card and blended Salvaged Patina,  Mermaid Lagoon & uncharted Mariner Distress Oxides across it.  Next I added some pearl spray using the pipe inside the tube to flick it over the page.  It didn't give the effect I wanted,  so I watered down some white paint and flicked that over the page and the die cut snowflakes (die cut from card inked with the same colours).  I added in a snowflake die cut from Mirri card too.  I lined up the snowflakes and pierced a hole through the centre and added a Brad,  which I used to secure to the card too.   I diecut the sentiment and added that below the snowflake.  

I hope you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

 

A lovely butterfly journal page

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

Welcome to the start of a new week,  what have you all got planned?? I have my Respiratory appointment on Friday for sleep apnoea,  I think they have already decided that I need have it 😔

We had a lovely afternoon in the garden,  I popped in some French Bean plants,  after which I was done,  so just observed Paul working 🤣

This reminder is a good one, it can be a frustrating wait but you need to allow plenty of time to make sure you are fully recovered.  😘

I absolutely love how this page turned out,  Vicki P gave me the idea,  using the magnifying glass from the Stamperia 'All Around ' Focus journal,  there is also a large butterfly in there, which is an exact copy of the small one in the Junk journal,  which means that you can pop the large one under the Magnifying glass and trim the small trimmed to match up with the large on to create the illusion that the Magnifying glass is working!  I did add Acetate to the Magnifying glass to make it look a bit more realistic.   The background was created with a piece of decorative paper, I added some paint,  then cut some squares from another background paper, inked the edges,  I added some gold embossing paste through a stencil for texture and a bit of sparkle.  I then placed the fussy cut squares around the page.  I finished with some flowers and splatters! 

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

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandrs xxx

Let's look back at our makes this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

We had a lovely day in the garden yesterday,  catching up on the little jobs,  the cooler weather made it much nicer being out side. 

Ooh I'd love to have a go on that swing!! 😂.  It's a great reminder , sadly it's something I struggle with, I always have.  I hope that you all believe on yourself though 😘

Let's look at what Sonia & Maria made this week....

Sonia

Sonia's Description: 

Here’s my journal page for Sunday my lovely 

Snail Mail

I used ChatGPT to create the main image, and the little stamps, envelope and postmark. I have used a background from Stamperia ‘Quiet Days’ collection as well as the typewriter and couple of sentiments. I cut two slits into the typewriter so I could feed the little quote in, which was from Pinterest. The larger text piece is also from Pinterest, I used ChatGPT to change the original text and added the background colour, as well as the top pieces of text. I inked edges with vintage photo distress ink 😊

Sonia what an absolutely stunning Journal page,  it fits that the Snail Mail perfectly.  The verses on the page work so well too,  I love all of the little extra bits of ephemera too.  

Thank you so much for creating such a lovely journal page and sharing it with us XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

I had a chance to sit down for an afternoon of crafting and this is the card I made.

First I spritzed a piece of card in Green and Yellow/ Gold.

Next I used some bits by Stamperama, secret diaries. I think it was called. Bulldog clip and Keys from my stash.

Maria your journal page is amazing,  I love your little clusters, everything works together to create such a lovely page. 

Thank you so much for creating this lovely page for today's post my lovely, I really appreciate it XXX 

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I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Happy Saturday...

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I'm hoping that the slighter cooler temperatures forecast are going to be right, especially at night !  

I love that quote above,  what a brilliant idea 🤣😂

You lovely ladies need to remind yourselves of this one 🥰😍😘

Our Lovely Gina is holiday in Italy, she is on a  cruise to Naples so that she can visit Pompeii.

She has shared some photos of her trip so far...

**I did research some of the images to explain to you what they are of *** 

This is Gina at a smaller Amphitheatre called the 'Odeon' I believe.   I wonder if you thats where the cinema chain got their name from?

These are they excavated remains of Herculaneum, it was buried under massive pyroclastic flow from Mount Vesuvius in 79 ad. 

This feature is called a 'Compluvium' a square opening in a tiled roof,  allowing sunlight and fresh air into the courtyard of homes.  It also let rainwater in....

The rainwater was caught in the 'Impluvium' which is directly below the Compluvium,  its a sunken basin that collects the rainwater from the roof and flows into the homes water storage cystern.  

This mosaic floor is in the womens baths of the 'Terme Centrali' (central baths) of Herculaneum.  

The pattern is called 'Meandering Maze or 'Labyrinth'. 

This photo is the view that Gina had at breakfast,  it looks out over Harbour and Marina of Ajaccio, the capital city of Corsica.  It is famously the birthplace of 'Napleon Boneparte' !! 

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Thank you so much for sharing your photos with Gina,  I really enjoyed researching your photos, (I hope I got them right )  I hope that you enjoy the rest of your cruise especially Pompeii xxx

Ladies I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Happy Friday ...

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

I can't believe it's Friday again,  it doesn't seem possible we have been home over a week.   

New Challenge 

Now Ladies its 23 Weeks and 3 days until Christmas or 161 days,  so we should maybe make a start on some Christmas cards,   so I am going to set this as a Challenge for the next week or maybe two.  

Karen gave me the idea the other day,  there is also a Christmas category on the Aa&C Challenge if you want to continue that.  

I am looking forward to this one...

We have had this one a few times,  the artwork is so pretty too.   You are all amazingly strong my lovely friends 😘

I have shared a few old Christmas cards today, just to give a little inspiration . It's fun to look back at what we have made over the years x 

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

My love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx