Trivia Tuesday

 

Good Tuesday Morning Ladies,  

I have always been curious about the Churches and crosses that we see on the highest mountain peaks as we are driving through the Pyrenees and other mountains through France.  So I thought I would look it up and share the reason with you.

Crosses on mountain peaks—often called summit crosses—are primarily expressions of Christian faith, especially in regions like the European Alps. They mark the highest point of elevation and also serve as borders, memorials and historical symbols of gratitude for safe return from dangerous climbs. 

The reasons for placing Crosses on top of mountains spans centuries....

Religious Significance: They act as declarations of Christian faith. Because mountains are high up, people historically felt they were physically closer to heaven.

Safe Returns & Thanksgiving: After major conflicts like the World Wars, or following daring mountaineering expeditions, many communities erected crosses as symbols of gratitude for surviving the mountains and making it home safely. 

Boundary & Property Markers: By the 16th century, simple crosses were erected to mark the borders of mountain pastures or local municipalities.

"Weather Crosses": Dating back to the Middle Ages, people placed "weather crosses" on peaks to ward off violent thunderstorms, hail, and storms that threatened alpine farming.

Scientific Utility: In the late 18th and 19th centuries, early explorers and scientists erected crosses that doubled as lightning conductors and anchor points for meteorological instruments like barometers.

Today, while the meaning varies from a deeply spiritual emblem to a simple marker signaling that a hiker has conquered the summit, they remain a prominent part of alpine culture. You will also often find logbooks locked in small metal boxes near these crosses, allowing climbers to record their achievement. 

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Quite interesting answers,  I pretty much guessed correctly when Paul and I were discussing it in the car.  

I hope you found it interesting 😊 

Very, very important reminder my lovely friends ❤️

Now I got the date of the 'St Joan' Festival wrong (or I was wrongly informed by our reps)!  It is today,  so the big fireworks party on the beach is tonight,  we have heard a few going off this past couple of nights as people have their own celebrations.  We are pretty sure that Wednesday will be a Spanish holiday as the celebrations go on into the wee small hours, the DJ doesn't start until 1.30am!!!   I think we will go and have a look at the fireworks on the beach.   

Have a lovely Tuesday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Another reverse eclipse card

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Welcome to the start of a new week my lovelies,  I hope that you all had a lovely,  relaxing weekend. 

We had a lovely morning/early afternoon on the beach, we then went back to the pool as the wind picked up, finished the day there and went for dinner at our favourite restaurant for Paul's father's day treat x 

I absolutely love the artwork to this reminder, such a beautifully coloured flower.  The sentiment is spot on too.

I am sharing another 'reverse eclipse' card with you today.  

I did this one a bit different I cut my SU scenery dsp down to 4 x 5 1/4 inch,  I then cut the dsp into 1/4 inch strips and added foam tape to the back of every other strip, so one adhered straight to card then next had foam tape etc all the way across. 

This method saved paper too as I didn't start with a piece adhered to the card base and attempted to match the raised pieces up. 

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

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx

Our Crafts from this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying the warmer weather,  we had a busy day yesterday, after collecting girls and doing the shopping we had some lunch and the relaxed by the pool for the afternoon,  the girls were wiped out and so was Paul,  it's so good seeing him relax.  

As I am writing this preparations are under way for a huge Spanish festival of St John throughout Spain but here in Catalonia it's St Joan,  they are having a huge party on the beach with fireworks and a DJ that starts at 01.30am,  so it could be a long night !

This is a great reminder, something we all definitely deserve ❤️ 

Let's look at what you have made this week....

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Number 25 in the A&C challenge- Countries Looking at FB people were concentrating on one country So I created this on  ChatGPT and was so pleased with the results I kept it quite simple BUT I moved top sentiment so the Che’evete wasn’t covered.

 on the FB page they seem to have focused on one country So I chose Cuba Same as above on ChatGPT but moved sentiment across so as to not obliterate Che’ face 🤣.

I wanted the page to take centre stage So no stamping, texture paste etc

Wow Karen that's absolutely incredible,  you have included everything that Cuba is known for from the Cigars to the incredible dancing!  There is so much to look at and something new catches your eye each time you look at it. 

This ChatGPT thing has given you all a real creativity boost.  I really want to join in, I can have a play out here and create some bits to use when I get home. 

Thanks my lovely for a truly inspirational piece XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description :  

Hello here is my challenge piece for this week.the theme is camping. All papers made on the iPad using chatGP.

Took ages to get the images the correct size.

Longest bit was cutting all the ephemera out.

Lilian I absolutely love your Camping Challenge piece,  the scene you created is lovely, I love all the little camping itinerary items at the top too, what a brilliant idea 💡 I also love a of the little details like the sign, the camp fire etc. 

Thank you so much for an amazing challenge piece my lovely XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

Here’s my journal page for tomorrow my lovely ☺️ 

Birds/Butterflies.

I’ve used Stamperia Dew Drops collection. The large tag is from the 12x12 collection and the rest from 8x8 and elements from the press out die cuts. 

Inked edges with Gathered Twigs and Stormy Sky distress inks.

Absolutely stunning page my lovely,  All of the little elements you have used work together to create a gorgeous journal page.  Those Dewdrops papers have some beautiful details.  All of your little clusters work so perfectly, they help the sentiment to stand out. 

Thank you so much for another amazing journal page my lovely XXX 

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I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

A super early start for us as we are driving to Girona to collect Lucy and Soph,  their flight lands around 8am,  they have to do the new passport thing, uploading their finger prints and retina scan,  poor Lucy is stressing about it already,  her anxiety can really hold her back sometimes which makes me sad,  I've struggled with anxiety for years and it isn't fun, luckily Soph is with her and she has soph, who can turn any situation into a joke,  so she's in safe hands!

Great reminder,  we all grow in different ways at different times, nobody has a set schedule,   you stay relaxed and go at your own pace 😘

A Quick look at our home for next 18 days....

This is as you walk in the door, kitchen area to the right, dining area straight ahead,  although that is full of stuff still to be unpacked  

To the left as you walk in is our bedroom, there are wardrobes at the bottom of the bed. 

A compact and Bijou bathroom,  shower is great though,  very powerful!  

Closer look at kitchen area

The smallest room ! 🤣

These two are the girls rooms, we just put their stuff in  their rooms, they unpack themselves,  as I would have no idea which bed they want, or where the want their bits and bibs, I will give them their bedding tomorrow when they arrive. 

Our dining area outside,  which we use all the time!

I love that they built the decking around the tree, a lot of other places would have cut it down   2

This end has an outfside sofa area, which is really comfortable! 

Then I filmed our walk to the beach for you....

These two videos show walking onto the beach,   I did film getting to beach from our Home but it was too long so I need to cut it down a bit. 

Just look at these beautiful Bougainvillia bushes, growing in a Service station off of the motorway in France,  it is so beautiful and has a lovely scent. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx 

Simple Card

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Well we had an eventful last day of driving  to say the least....  We had a lovely leisurely breakfast at the hotel,  we noticed that they had put a note on our return journey booking saying that they no longer have the disabled access room that we had booked, so when Paul went to check out he asked about it,  the lady could see we had booked the accessible room and had it confirmed,  so apologised and said that she would upgrade us to a 'Chalet ' that have been double the price we paid!  So that was a win.  

We packed and left hotel and headed to get lunch for journey, parked up, Paul got my crutches out and we did a qukck shop,  got back to the car, handed my crutches to Paul, he popped them against side of car and loaded our lunch in the cool box etc,  he faffs about for ages,  anyway we left, got petrol and set off on the journey to spain,  after about half hour Paul said to me "Can you see your crutches in back? " I turned to look and said "No I can't ", so he stopped in next layby and went to look and they weren't there!! 😮  I felt sick,  as the only way I could get on the beach is with my crutches and the big ferules that work in sand.  He said " We'll have to go back,  so we raced back to supermarket, a good 40 minutes away,  he looked around where we parked and couldn't see them, so he went in supermarket to see if someone handed them in,  thankfully they had,  I was so pleased to seem, then spotted that one was very mishaped, paul must have pulled away to get petrol,  not noticing the crutches clatter to the floor, the he drove over one of them, I confess I didn't hear anything either which shocked me,  as they would have clattered to the ground.  

Luckily he managed to mostly straighten out the bent part, so fingers crossed they aren't weakened!  You have to laugh at these things! 🤣😂😅

Another great reminder,  we certainly will be doing exactly that today!! 

Today's card is a super simple card, I masked off a section of the card and then blended the Carved Pumpkin ink down the stripe I had masked,  I blasted it to dry it and then stamped the simple silhouette wildflower in the coloured strip and finished with the sentiment on the left hand side.

Simple yet effective! 

I hope that you all have a great Friday,  

My love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

A pretty daisy Journal page

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

Last leg of the journey today,  it takes about 3 hours usually,  depending on traffic.  We are going with a totally different company this time and I am so worried about what to expect,  we booked a higher spec mobile home with a few luxury extras, however I found an email in Paul's junk folder from them saying that they had made an error and the home we have booked doesn't have a dishwasher after all,  we booked in January but they didn't realise this until now,  fingers crossed that that was the only thing that isn't as described!    The heat seemed to totally zap our energy yesterday,  we arrived in Millau around 6pm I think,  it's still classed as low season here so its very quiet,  a lot of restaurants aren't even open yet.  We had our usual chalet,  which suits our needs perfectly.   

I was glad to read this one today,  I surely needed rest after those mad few days before we left!  Hoping to get plenty of rest this next week or so.  

Karen , don't panic about not being organised,  Lucy kept nagging that I wasn't as organised as usual but it all came together in the end xxx

Today I am sharing a Journal page I made using Stamperia Daisy Art collection,   I smooshed Dried Marigold and Carved Pumpkin ink onto my.mat and used that to create the background,  inking around the edges to give more depth of colour.  Then I did some stamping and added some embossing paste through a stencil.  

I picked a few bits out of the junk journal, inked around them and arranged them into a cluster.  I love that daisy, it has so much detail, the drop of water in the centre looks 3D.  

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Another ChatGPT treat from Sonia

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We had what felt like a very long day yesterday,  the traffic in Paris was the worst it's been,  it took us what seemed like hours, its 4 lanes of motorway that filters down to 3 then back to 4,  the delay was down to a broken down lorry!  So we drove from getting of Le Shuttle at 1pm ish, stopped for lunch at 2 30pm, planned to have a couple more stops but we were 2hours through Paris and our arrival time at the Chateau went from 5.30 to almost 8pm,  by the time we cleared Paris we had 80 miles to do and both just wanted to get there, the sensible thing would have been to stop after an hour but we didn't.   

Today will ve a different story as the journey is much longer and the temperature warning ⚠️ is mid to high 30°s which seems crazy,  so stops will be frequent to refill our water etc. 

I have another amazing tutorial from Sonia,  this time she is explaining how to create a Card with ChatGPT.....

Card made from ChatGPT Tutorial

I love how the images I created for the tutorial turned out and couldn’t wait to make a card 🙂

Firstly though, I wanted some plain backgrounds to use for matting and layering.

I went back into the ChatGPT app, and carried on from where I left off.

Along the left side of the screen you can see all of your recent designs/creations, you can click on any one of them to add more - this one is Vintage Shabby Chic Design.

*(I did find that after creating a load of images ready for some memory albums, on the same thread, ChatGPT did show a message explaining that this creation set was nearly full and I would soon need to start a new Chat. It wasn’t a problem though, because you can just carry on, by typing in from the Ask ChatGPT box. You can also add one of your saved images to use as a prompt, by pressing the + key on the left side of the box so you can carry on with the same theme)

Two options came up, you can save them both. 

I then wanted the background in the blue as well.

I printed off my designs on A4 200gsm card.

*Depending on your printer you can change the size of what is actually printed. On my Epson I use the Epson Smart Panel App. I go into the ‘other features’ and print from the collage section. This offers lots of options on how many images you can print on one page - ranging from one large to multiple small images. You can also enlarge or make the images smaller. 

I cut my pieces to fit my card base. I distressed and inked the edges. I fussy cut the butterfly and one of the word panels. Added some Spellbinders gems to finish. A simple first card to display the beautiful papers 😊

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Oh WOW that card is so beautiful, I love the little details like the postmark and the script style writing.  It literally looks like you have created the card with many layers of papers and ephemera.  I also love the two offset panels rather than having them matted on top of each other.  

Thank you so much Sonia for another inspirational tutorial,   I felt so sad that I haven’t had time to play with your tutorials, my fingers are itching to have a go!  

I can't wait to see what you ladies create with this new tutorial,  I might even have a play if the Wifi is good enough! 

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx