It's Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Firstly I'd like to bless you all with all of the above 🤣😂😘

I hope that you are all well and relaxed and ready for the weekend.   Our plans changed,  no Anniversary weekend away this week,   sometimes things just aren't meant to be.   We did still go to Farnborough,  Paul offered for us to stay somewhere nearby but A) there wasn't anywhere that was interesting enough to make a weekend of and B)  After a somewhat painful Bladder Clinic visit my bladder was sensitive overnight and throughout the day but after a trip to toilet in the afternoon I had the most agonising bladder spasm,  iit bought me to tears,  I am keeping everything crossed that its just a flare up caused by yesterday's treatment,  I asked her to dip my sample and she said it was ok,  which makes me hopeful,  either way it would have been miserable to be struggling with that pain after spending money on hotels etc.  

Now onto Farnborough show,  in all honesty it was a let down,  luckily we got concessionary tickets so paid £12 for both Paul and I,  I would have been furious if I'd spent £12 each,  there were way more sewing stands than craft,  there may have been 10 proper craft stands, you know its bad when even Honeydoo aren't there as they attend every show,   apart from Card io and Sweet Poppy stencils most other stands had those big bins of naff bits that you have to rummage through,   there wasn't any card selling companies,  in fact it's quite sad when you think back to some of the company's that used to be at the shows,  Clarity, Lilli of the Valley,  Pin Flair, Pink Frog, Anna Marie Designs plus her husband's paper stand, limetree,  Crafters Companion,  indigo Blu,  Stamps Away,  creative expressions, Gummiapan to name a few,  there was always a real buzz of excitement around the exhibition halls, I overheard a conversation at the Dies to Die for stand about the problem they had with theft,  at the last show they lost £400 of stock to theft, which on top of the cost of exhibiting at the shows meant they barely make a profit,  which explains why companies don't bother I guess.   Which is such a shame as there is nothing like seeing the craft demos and holding the actual craft products in your hand.  

My Shopping 

That's it,  crazy compared to what I used to get !! 

I did go onto Charmed Craft and order the Poem and Flowers Stamperia collection to compensate! 🥰😍

Sonia's Shopping 

Sonia had a much more successful Shopping spree than I did,  I think you must have bought most of that before I arrived Sonia!!   I can't wait to see what you create with your lovely haul.   

This reminder needs NO explanation 🥰😍😘

Not sure what our plans for the weekend are now 🤔,  it will depend on my bladder I guess.   Our village has a festival on today,  so all being well we may visit that,  Lucy and Soph are both suffering with flu symptoms, so they won't want to go,  I'm hoping they keep it to themselves.  

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Autumnal Colour Butterfly card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

I can't tell you how relieved I am to get the Blog back to 'normal '  it must have been a blogger glitch.  I know I don't have a 'big' or far reaching blog, but it's my baby and means a lot to me as I have explained before,  I truly believe that if it wasn't for this blog I wouldn't be here, it came along at a low point of my life where I was isolated and lonely.   I wanted to give other people that might feel like I did a place to come to talk to other like minded people.  I made myself make a commitment to posting every day, which gave me a purpose,  the 'purpose' I had lost when I lost the ability to leave the house on my own.  

The blog gave me the excitement to get up and read comments every day,  it also encouraged me to craft, which I find therapeutic,  it occupies my mind on a lonely day and sharing what I create gives me pleasure.  I hope that what I do will encourage you to get the craft stash that you have spent good money on and use it.  I also want to create a space for anyone that feels lonely.  

The hugest benefit I have had from my blog is the most incredible family I have gained ❤️ 

So when I couldn't get the blog to work on Wednesday I will admit I did panic,  I sat from about 6pm until way after midnight trying and retrying to get it to work,  I forgot to take my BP meds in the turmoil 🤣 which I hadn’t realised until about 3am when I could feel and hear how fast my heart was racing!  I felt fairly ropey when I woke at 6.30,  no time to catch up on sleep though as I had bladder clinic!!  

I think we are all definitely stronger mentally than we give ourselves credit for 🥰

Todays card is made using Arden Wicked Woods paper pad for the background,  I created a kind of spotlight over the centre butterfly by adding a frame cut with my new 'Craftaddiction' square dies,  I then fussy cut more butterflies to add to the frame to make the frame part of the background.  I added a little sentiment button to finish. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Friday,  Paul is finishing work early so that we can go to Farnborough today,  we aren't sure whether we are going to Paul's mums at the moment,  Paul is calling in the morning to see if his Mum back from his Sisters. 

Sue, I hope dentist goes well,  you are much braver than I am,  I hope it doesn't cost too much xxx 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Autumnal Butterfly card

Good Morning Ladies  

I seem to have an issue with my blog, its not allowing me to upload any photos, either on here or on my laptop.  

I have Bladdet clinic today,  which isn't the most exciting way to spend a Thursday but I do get to spend the day with Soph so thats a huge Bonus.  

I will continue to try and solve this issue,  it's really frustrating me as you know how much my blog means to me.  

Thank you for you patience,  

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx 

Fun messy craft project

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

A much cooler day yesterday,  a bit wet and gloomy too.  I did a bit more in the pantry,   Lucy was feeling like helping so I only did a bit,  everything takes so much time,  I have bought new storage boxes for the different pasta shapes,  different rice varieties,  flours, different sugars etc.  I was really frustrated to find that a new bag of flour that I bought had those bloomin' weevils in,  I had it stored with two other flour bags (luckily different to all other powder like ingredients) as the weevils had moved into the seeded flour and Canadian bread flour and into a bag of rice flour!!  So I obviously threw all of those bags away, washed out and dried all storage boxes ready to restock,  the problem is how can you check the flower before you buy it,  from now on I will be opening it as soon as we get home to check it and if it has an infestation it can be put to one side and returned,  however I wouldn't buy from the same place as uf it was in one bag it will most likely be in other bags on the same shelf.   Things like that make my skin crawl. 

You are all loved beyond measure ❤️   such a pretty page today 🥰

After an hour washing out flour storage boxes I needed a change of scenery,  so I decided to sit and craft,  as I sat down I noticed a Tim Holtz leaf on the floor by my feet, I must have die cut it and coloured it last year and put it with my Autumn things.  

So I die cut the full set from watercolour card,  I used Tim Holtz watercolour pencils to add colour to the leaves,  I then took a wet paint brush and moved the colour around the leaves,  adding a bit more colour,  to add so lovely sparkle I spritzed the leaves with Distress Spritz spray...

You can see the lovely sparkle/ shine here. 

For the background I spritzed some of those Distress Spritz sprays onto my ink mat and dipped my card background into the ink and heat dried. 

I added some random stamping around the background,  mounted it onto a Kraft card base and added some splatters of brown ink. 

I added my coloured leaves that i edged in Ground Espresso Archival ink and arranged them across the card front.   

I was unsure about adding a sentiment,  so I have taken photos with and without I love the phrase that I used .....

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn Tree.   Emily Bronte. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,  not much planned here,   Paul has suggested going to visit his mum this weekend,   he did say that we could go to Farnborough for a couple of hours on the way 😀   We will have to see, it depends on his work commitments etc.  

Sending love to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I am pleased to say,  it's back !!! 😀 🤣😂 I got up and had breakfast,  did a few jobs ( I was meant to be finishing the pantry reorganisation) but I wanted to sit and create,  I ended up crafting for a while then doing about 15 minutes re-organising then back to crafting.  The problem is when it comes to tea time I have to rummage through all the different boxes and bags to find ingredients,  (i bagged/boxed things in groups like 'tins', baking, spices) Lucy is home today so she will help me finish it off.  

A lovely colourful reminder today, a good reminder too,  it doesn't matter what it is that we need to change, it's always okay,  nothing is ever really set in stone, you just need to what makes you happy 😊 😘

I really enjoyed sitting and making this journal page yesterday,   I used my Stamperia Golden Harmony collection,  it features some lovely Autumnal artwork,  not all 'obvious' Autumn,  although there are pumpkins etc,  there are elements like the suitcase I have used today that are all in Autumnal colours and tones.  

I used a piece of patterned paper to create the background,   I added some stamping and a few splatters for some extra detail,  it also makes the background your own.   I fussy cut the suitcase and the long tag to create something to 'ground' the suitcase on,  next I fussy cut the pile of books and and the teacup,  then came fussy cutting the little postage stamps!! What a frustrating faff that was,  they aren't perfect by a long stretch but I inked them and placed them behind the edge of the case,  some fussy cut flowers finish the page.   I popped the sentiment on top of some more fussy cut flowers!!  (Fussy cut is the word of the day 🤣😂)

I really like the Autumn colours of this page. 

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Autumn Mondays...

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Where did that weekend go???!   He we are at the start of a new week,   I hope that you all have a good one.  

Karen I hope you enjoyed your last match of the season, I have to say that it barely seems a month ago that you were going in to get everything opened up for the season,   it's crazy how fast time goes.  

Lilian I hope that both your printer and mine turn up today 🤞🤞

A lovely drawing highlighting a very important reminder,  I had a break last week, not by choice but I do think a break from crafting can renew your excitement to craft.  I have my Autumn craft bits all piled up and I am excited to get creating.  

I did have a play yesterday afternoon, to create something for today.  I just followed a tutorial for simplicity and to try and give my mojo a boost.  

I coloured the background with Crushed Olive, Forest Moss & Ground Espresso (around the edge) then I added splatters of  Carved Pumpkin.  I used some Arden stamps around the edges.  

To add some brightness and a bit of shimmer I used Altenew Gold embossing paste through a stencil.

I picked out some die cuts, edged them with ground espresso and built the cluster,  I frayed some ribbon and placed it as a base for the sentiment,  I took the leaf sprig die cut and added some ink to brighten the colours. 

This was before I inked the leaves..

This was after,  I used Fired Brick & carved pumpkin on the top leaves and Crushed Olive and Forest Moss on the lower leaves.    This also helps to tie the leaf sprig to the background.  

I put the leaf on the page and added some tiny dots of gold to the leaves.  I then added the sentiments and then finished with some white splatters. 

I hope that you all have a good day

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

A look back at our craft makes..

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

Well I should re-title today's post to "a look back at what you have made this week "  because I have made nothing !!  I am struggling with loss of mojo maybe,  I have sat at my desk most days intending to create but I just end up sitting there scrolling pinterest for inspiration,   I have organised and reorganised but not creating a thing!  I could say that its probably due to lack of sleep but I have never been a great sleeper so that's not it.   I sat and pulled out a lot of Autumn craft bits yesterday so I am hoping that I will get enthusiasm from that.  

When I was reading your comments yesterday ( I usually go through them before I write the blog post for the next day.   I was surprised to see a couple of real coincidence comments.  

I was just messaging Sonia before starting post and had said about being rubbish with technology,   I said that i have a virtually brand new Scan and cut sitting in its box in spare room,  because I just can't get my head around the technology,   then the first comment i read was Karen's mentioning her Scan & Cut.   

Then Lilian was talking about her new printer arranging,   I ordered a new one in the week and it was supposed to arrive yesterday but didn't,  we have been talking about getting a new one for a while,  our older one is only about 6 years old but every time we go to use it we have to go through all the maintenance procedures,  cleaning heads, rollers,  ink flush and it still prints out with lines everywhere they shouldn't be.   I think its because we don't use it often enough, so maybe the ink dries where it shouldn't.  Anyway the new one is now coming Monday,  the thing that pushed me to buy it was Emilia Sieradzan new Autumn collection,  you have to download and print yourself.   

So I think I need to stop making excuses and learn how to use the Scan and cut,  I originally bought it to create and cut out my own sentiments etc and to cut out things that don't have dies.  I am hoping Lucy can help me.  

Funny reminder today after me talking about not being able to get the Scan & Cut !  I'm not sure I am 'capable ' of mastering that!!  🤣😂

Let's look at what you have been making this week....

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a photo of the leaves I have created with Glossy Accents and scraps of Clarity card I rubbed over a little Pebio gold wax 

May keep them as leaves or use them for dragonfly/butterfly wings

Karen they look so effective,  they have retained all of the texture detail,  I love the colour you have created,  they actually look like Autumn leaves.   We have a great selection of leaves in our garden so I must give this a try.  

Thank you for sharing your leaves Karen XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, I’m back doing a little bit of crafting.

Here is my journal page for this week.

I used an old book that I have had for many years, I think it was called botanic garden.

The background is a Stamperia forest collection.

It was meant to be for the wings challenge but will try an autumn one this week.

Oh Lilian,  I was so happy to read that you felt up to doing a bit of crafting.   

What an incredible first project,  your journal page is amazing,  look at all that lovely detail 😍,   I love all of the butterflies too,  this week is a crossover between the two challenges so we have a mix of both projects this week.  

Thank you so much for pushing yourself to create a journal page for today's blog post.   I really do appreciate you XXX 

Maria 

Maria's Description:

I like all seasons but did autumn this week.

I used a stamp and die set from temu that I stamped, coloured in with pencils and cut out. Made a disastrous background to put it all on with a few leaves flying around the scarecrow with its pumpkin stand.

I also this week have made this crystal work and I feel it has a bit of autumn feel over it so sending that too. 

Maria your card is adorable,  I love your scarecrow,  you are way too harsh on yourself,  although we are always our own worse critics.  

Your crystal art piece is gorgeous, I really love it,  perfect for Autumn home decor.  

Thank you so much for sharing your crafts with us my lovely XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:  

I designed an Autumnal collection in ChatGPT

I made a journal page with one of the background designs and ephemera that I fussy cut out.

I inked the edges with Gathered Twigs distress ink.

Sonia, my goodness I think this my favourite collection that you have created so far, the colours are beautiful,  I love the green you have included too.  Everything from the vintage lace to the wax seals, the torn scorched edges, it all works so beautifully.  

Thank you for sharing your lovely journal page with us,  I'm excited to see your next collection XXX 

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx