Your makes this week

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

Did you all remember to turn your clocks forward?  Mind you most reset themselves these days don't they?, unless you live in an older house,  our boiler timer & cooker, need resetting,  I'm not sure what witch craft the Aga uses though, as it automatically does its recharge/heat up overnight,  which coincides with the Economy seven Electricity Meters,  we never need to change anything but it seems to automatically change to the new time,  (it charges from 12.01 to 7.30) so maybe the meter runs it,  I have no idea, it's something I've spent way too much time thinking about!  🤣😂

Today's reminder goes out to all of you,  You all show up here every Sunday with your incredible makes and you have been doing for SO many years, that alone is something to be proud of,  added to the fact that many of you support the challenges despite being unwell, in chronic pain, feeling low,  exhausted,  you push yourselves to sit and create something,  for that it's not pride I feel it's a heartfelt gratitude the depth of which I can't explain, you are all amazing 🥰😍😘

Let's look at your makes from this week...

Gina 

Gina's Description:

I made this card yesterday, its a tattered lace die, embossed butterflies tattered lace folder andvrub ons in the centre.

A lovely stepper card Gina the embossing is beautiful, I love the colour you have used too.  Great sentiment too. 

Thanks for sharing your card with us XXX 

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Page 1:   

I made this one Friday/yesterday The background is Serif - has fish bones on it

The image is from Pinterest and the frame is Serif I gutted/cut the frame again and used an old pot of gilding wax along the edges and heat embossed with gold parts of the frame eg buckle - my ancient Versamark pen still works Added acetate to back and mounted over image with 2mm foam

MEOW is from an A&C alphabet

Page 2:

My version on Countryside (12)

It’s OK but…

Created in Serif “cut” the green “material” with zigzag (scissors) Added shadows to the images Printed it twice and at last minute decided to decoupage the tree sun and fox

Sentiment is A&C

Two amazing pages Karen,  both represent their categories brilliantly.  That frame on page one is amazing,  so realistic looking.  

I love the details in your Countryside page, the little sheep on the hill, the shadow from the tree etc.  Your attention to detail is incredible!! 

Thank you so much for inspiring us for this challenge XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hello, this is a quick make for the challenge “tea lovers”

Brushed corduroy ink, pages from a secret diary (?)

Can’t remember the name of the leafy stencil, but it needed something behind the mug.

Hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Your page is lovely Lilian,  it represents the Tea Lovers category perfectly,  it has given me some ideas too, so thank you.  

Thank you so much for sharing your page with us XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description :

Journal page ‘Hobby’

Using background and elements from Stamperia ‘Daisy Art’ journal.

Absolutely love this collection. Thank you so much my lovely 😘❤️ xx

Your Journal page is amazing,  it perfectly represents the 'Hobby' category.  Your composition is perfect,   I'm glad you love this collection as much as I do,  I am wary of recommending things sometimes,  as its easy to rave about something that others might not be as impressed with 🤣 I may have to buy another Junk journal or maybe just more background papers as they are particularly lovely. 

Thank you so much Sonia for sharing your inspiring page with us. XXX 

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I hope that you all have a great Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

How can this be the last weekend of March, the clocks go forward tonight,  the bonus if that means lighter nights, it certainly doesn't seem possible that it's Easter next weekend.  

The girls hours get longer when the clocks change too they finish at 5pm instead of 4pm,  it barely seems a minute that they were excited about finishing earlier!  

I thought I'd share my craft achievements from the past couple of days 🤣😂, don't get excited, they don't amount to much! 

On Wednesday Sonia and I made flowers from different mediums,  mine was a bit long winded, I mixed some wood glue with water and coated some cotton fabric with it and set it to dry on the Aga,  once dry I die cut some flowers from it and the stamped some dots in the centres, I then used a heated shaping tool to give them some definition,  (which was very much trial and error)🤣😂

The other flowers are foamiran, I think Sonia had more success than I did,   all I will say is that we spent more time laughing at our disasters than smiling at our achievements! 🤣😅😂

Yesterday I was experimenting with Alcohol inks and Alcohol Lift Ink.

I blended 3 different inks and used a Tim Holtz stamp with Lift ink to take a print from the inked piece and stamped onto a piece of card,  the second piece on from the left, has the same 3 inks blended, I then placed a stencil over the background and used Alcohol Lift ink re-inker on a finger dauber to ink through the stencil,  you then gently press over the stencil to remove excess ink, the repeat without the stencil,  the pattern is revealed slowly,  its really wffective. I will make them into cards and share them with you. 

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend,  

Love & hugs to all of you 

Sandra xxx 

A Secret Diary journal page

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Today's reminder is my motto for the day,  after two days of excitement my body gave up last night, I  felt mentally and physically exhausted,   I do think its partly to do with hospital appointments,  they play on your mind before you go and overwhelm you during and after.  We got to the hospital with about 30 minutes to spare but the car parking was a nightmare, we drove round and round but we were following others looking to park too,  Paul ended up parking in a 'drop off' space and taking me in to the waiting area, he went off to park the car, he was hoping to be back before I went in,  I really struggle with getting my trousers over my feet to pull up and lacing my shoes,  but he left and within 5 minutes I was called in,  I asked the nurse to help me get into the room,  I have to say that the Consultant was so lovely,  he was confused as to why I was sent to that hospital,  which is in South Warwickshire University Trust and I am seen in Gloucestershire Hospitals, so he apologised and said he was going to need to go back through my history as they can't access other Trusts information,  so I explained about my hip surgery saga, bless him he just shook his head in disbelief and said , 'wow, you really have been through it'!!  We discussed meds and I explained about my Common Bile Duct not emptying and he straight away said 'thats a Sphincter of Oody issue', it took the Gastro Consultant at Gloucester 2 years to diagnose that!!  He then examined me and immediately found the problem,  I explained that I use my abdominal muscles to help lift my leg which has virtually no muscle from knee up and my 'good' leg isn't much better!  The other strain on my abdominals is the ongoing struggle with going to loo.  He didn't hesitate he said we can go in and repair that for you,  it will be day surgery, I asked if I could have the same anesthesia as I did for Endoscopy but he said no, we need your muscles totally relaxed so it will have to be general anesthesia!   He got up to hold the door, saw I was struggling so wheeled me out to the nurse area,  the nurse said she had been calling for Paul the whole time I was in with Consultant but he wasn't anywhere to be found,   I was then in a dilemma as I had to go straight to pre-op assessment,  paul would have no idea where I was, I made my way out to the Car park to see if he was still cruising round,  but there was no sign,  my anxiety was starting to increase, I then thought "hmmm he might have his phone,  unlikely but worth a try,  it rang a few times and he answered thank goodness, as I wasn't getting to point of panicking,   I said where are you,  he was sitting in the waiting area that I first went to,  so the nurse clearly wasn't calling him!   He came and rescued me and took me to pre-op assessment,   we were seen quite quickly, thankfully,  the nurse took my blood etc but kept looking at Paul and grinning,  we finished up and she stood up to get the door but stopped us,   she said I have one more question,  "have you ever watched 'Rivals' on tv,  we both said no,  she said to Paul 'From the second you walked into the waiting area you caught my eye as you look so much like an Actor called Alex Hassell, we had no clue, she said I have to show you a photo of him...

I don't really see it but the girls do. It made the nurses day bless her, she said she was realky looking forward to seeing us next time! 🤣😂

We got home mid afternoon and after a slow start I decided on a journal page, I got my Secret Diary folder out.....

I used rice paper, some background stamping and some texture paste through a stencil.  While it was drying I picked out my focal elements and inked around them..

I popped the ticket on first, then put the pile of cases on, then the girl,  the sentiment was from my Tim Holtz word stickers.  I finished with some highlights with my white pen and then some splatters.   

It was quick to make but I like how it turned out. 

I hope that you all have a good Friday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx.   

Its a throwback card day!

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

Well we had every kind of weather yesterday, from lovely sunshine, clear skies and strong wind to very dark and cloudy, then we have rain, sleet, snow and hail, then after another shower the skies cleared to blue with red sky as the sun went down.  It was so cold all day though.

Sonia came over and we had a lovely crafty afternoon,   we decided to make flowers, from different mediums, flower foam, paper and I tried cotton fabric that you stiffen with wood glue mixed with water.  We had mixed success!  🤣   We had lots of laughs at our mixed success too!  This is how my dining table looked  ...

As a result of our busy afternoon I didn't get anything made for today so I am sharing some cards from almost 10 years ago,  which is shocking,! 

The first one is the oldest and was just before I found my love of stamping,  the other two cards are a year apart but similar in design,  I have always loved a wreath style card.  

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Karen's Cat Lover's page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We had an early start yesterday,  as I had GP and blood test,  frustratingly GP wasn't happy with my Blood Pressure,  which really frustrates me as its usually ok first thing in the morning but not when I needed it to be,  so he has upped my medication and is going to call me in a couple of weeks to see how I'm getting on.  He agreed with what the Pharmacist said about taking the Ramipril in the morning and the Amlodipine in the evening,  he originally told me to take them together,  but when I did,  I felt terrible,  they both drop your BP quickly acfter taking and they both loose effectiveness as they day goes on,  so staggering them means that as ine us wearing off the other one kicks in.  Hopefully that will improve how I am feeling,   currently if I do anything that involves me bending over it spikes my heart rate and BP quite quickly.  So I am trying to avoid that.  Lucy and I then went for some breakfast and then I had to go for Blood test.  They want to check my liver because its temperamental when it comes to knew medication and my kidneys because these medicines are processed through your kidneys.  Fingers crossed all is ok otherwise that will complicate things.  

A better day today though as Sonia is coming over,  it was supposed to be last week but I wasn't feeling great and both girls had flu like symptoms, so we rescheduled!   I am so looking forward to seeing her 😁

Today's reminder is a little bit like yesterday's for me, as soon as I feel a little bit better I want to be up and ready to cease the day!!  But I have learnt that it is better to take time and slowly allow your body to heal.  

How amazing is Karen's page for the Aall&Create Memorydex Challenge 'Cat Lover's ' category!! 

Karen's Description:  

I made this one Friday/yesterday The background is Serif - has fish bones on it

The image is from Pinterest and the frame is Serif I gutted/cut the frame again and used an old pot of gilding wax along the edges and heat embossed with gold parts of the frame eg buckle - my ancient Versamark pen still works Added acetate to back and mounted over image with 2mm foam

MEOW is from an A&C alphabet. 

The cats look very similar in style to the Stamperia 'Pets' collection,   they are really quirky with fun expressions in their faces.   

That Belt frame looks so real I had to look twice, at the buckle especially, 

It looks like a real rusty buckle, absolutely incredible.  

You must be so pleased with this one my lovely.  I also love how your pages are all different styles.  Its so amazing being able to share your incredible pages and your enthusiasm for creating them.

Thank you so much allowing me to share your Aall&Create challenge page. XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely day,  

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Paul's Mum's Birthday Card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Early up and out for Lucy and I today as I have GP appointment,  just for them to check my blood pressure themselves and I have to have blood test too.  

I now have an added appointment this week as Warwick Hospital called yesterday morning to ask if I was free on Thursday morning as they had a cancellation,   I already turned one cancellation down as they rang me when I was at my Gastroenterology Appointment a few weeks back, they wanted me to come in the next day,  I was feeling awful that week so I declined the appointment,  this was the day before I was diagnosed with High Blood pressure, which was why I felt so unwell.  Anyway Paul is going to go in to work Tomorrow evening to do the work he had to do on Thursday morning,   so that he can take me,  Soph said she didn't mind but was a little nervous as it was a totally new place,   I would hate to make them feel uncomfortable especially when driving.  I also really appreciate Paul being with me especially when decisions have to be made about surgery etc   

Today's reminder is something I find SO difficult,  it really frustrates me that I can't do certain things because of physically being unable or feeling to unwell.  I have tried to be gentle with myself but my goodness I struggle!  🤣

Paul reminded me that it is his Mum's birthday on Wednesday and asked if had her card ready 😯 I explained that it had slipped my mind and got busy,   the hardest and most time consuming part is deciding what to use and then what colours to go with!  

I cut the card base to 4 1/4 X 5  1/2 inch,  then cut a Pear Pizazz mat 1/4 inch smaller,   then cut another piece of white card and embossed it,  for the detail layer I took a piece of card and cut it with a stitched rectangle and used a stencil with Pear Pizazz ink to add some colour and interest, I added a very narrow mat to this layer to make it stand out.   

I die cut a variety of  flowers with my  Spellbinders Bold Blooms die set, in subtle spring colours.  I used Pear Pizazz card for the foliage to tie everything together.   I then set about arranging the flowers around the edge of that stencilled piece,  I really struggled with the sentiment for this card,  I didn't want to cover the stencilled background with a large sentiment in a label,  so I die cut 'Mum,' using a variety of letter dies and settled with this one,  I then just stamped and die cut the Happy Birthday and adhered them above the 'Mum'.  It's not perfect but it looks ok I think. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Sonia's Beautiful Folio

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week,  fingers crossed it's going to be a good one!  I have a few appointments etc this week, Doctors, blood test to check that my liver isn't reacting to my new medications.  

Sadly I don't think the weather is forecast to be as nice this week,  which is a real shame. 

Today's reminder is an odd one,  I'm not really sure how it works as a positive affirmation,  but in case you were feeling it I want to reassure you that you are all so much more than a number 🤣🥰

I feel so lucky that I am able to share Sonia's first 'folio'.  It is so beautiful,  perfectly finished edges and elements, you would never believe that they were papers printed on a regular home printer, they look like they are from a fancy collection.

Sonia's Description:

I created this folio card for Mum for Mother’s Day. I have used Shaylee Morehouse’s designs, which I printed from her facebook page. 

I’ve used Craft Addiction Uk Wings of Elegance butterfly dies, a Spellbinders border die, and tags and flower dies from Temu.

I bet your Mum felt very special when she opened it up expecting a card and finding a beautiful gift.  

Buying that printer was the wisest decision you have made in a long time, it has opened up a whole new world of crafting for you and like I said about Karen's enthusiasm for her Aall&Create challenge giving her crafting a new excitement,  I feel that your printer and the gorgeous images you are discovering have given you back your love of crafting. 

Thank you so much for allowing me to share your beautiful folio.

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

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx