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

Gina's pretty crystal art card

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,   

Just a quickie, although I still like to check in to make sure you are all as well as can be.  

Bladder clinic today, fingers crossed it goes smoothly as I'm a little uncomfortable after yesterday's invasive scan!   I did explain to the chap that does it that my bladder was super inflamed at the moment,   he said he'd be as gentle as possible.  He said that there was nothing to worry about which would be reassuring if he hadn't said last two times and both of those scans did show 'something to worry about'🙄🥰

Lucy took me to garden centre afterwards, we had a light breakfast and then set to work replacing my dead bedding plants,  fortunately the bedding plants were all half price or less!!! 

A lovely reminder,  it's a good one to actually sit and remind yourself of,  Karen you showed great strength yesterday,  as you do most days.  I think all of us have something that we need to summon our inner strength to help deal with.  I think mine is both constant, exhausting pain and bloody uti's,  some people would have been totally wiped it all.  You are all incredible warriors ❤️ 

Today I  sharing a Crystal Art card that Gina sent for me to share with you.  

What a wonderful gift to open,  seeing all those pretty flowers and sparkles would make anyone's day. 

Thank you so much for sharing your card with us,  I hope that you are having a lovely time in Italy xxx 

I hope that you all have a great day  

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx 

A simple card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

Lucy and I had a lovely lunch date yesterday,  it's been ages since we have been out together. 

Today we are out again,   not a great start though as I have a pelvic scan,  that always ends up being internal,  which I don't need at the moment as my bladder is super inflamed and painful,  probably because I am 2 weeks overdue for bladder clinic which is tomorrow 🙄

Karen,  we are all thinking of you today ❤️ 

You are all so very 'Worthy ',  don't you forget it !! 

I made today's card yesterday afternoon while I was sat playing with some of the die cuts I created while testing out the dies I bought from Temu that arrived before I went away.  

This is a set of three dies,  quite quirky but I really like them.  I cut them in black and copper metallic card, embossing the metal with a dotty folder. 

A simple card,  the shapes are quite stylish though. 

What do you think?

I hope that you all have a good day , 

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx