Happy Sunday...

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

We have had very hot & humid days this weekend,  almost unbearable in the evenings when the wind drops.    We went up to the old town last night,  it's always so picturesque,  we got a couple of lovely sun sets but you can see the smoke haze hanging in the air, sad but it added to the drama of the sun set.

Lets look at what you have made this week....

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:  

Hello, here is my challenge piece for this week.

I was working to “vintage” not very successfully.

I got the cut outs from Ciaobella Secret Garden, one of the first junk journals l bought. Haven’t bought any recently. I realise it’s not much like vintage, but the best I could .

Your 'Vintage' journal page is perfect Lilian,   I can picture myself sitting on that seat in a cool part of the garden!  It's your interpretation of Vintage my lovely 

Here is a close up of the actual image,  its beautiful,  you can see the background stamping and embossing. 

Thank you so much for creating a page for today, despite worrying about Roger and coping in the heat.  XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:  

Hi lovely 

Here’s my card for tomorrow, sorry it’s not challenge related but had to get this special card made 🩵

I used ChatGPT to design the image and background.

I used a piece of blue card to make my base, and the W fold for inside. The BABY die cut letters are from Pretty Pink Posh, the little stamped sentiments from My Favourite Things, and the flowers from a punch 🙂

Absolutely gorgeous card ready for the arrival if your new Grandson!   Not long now my lovely.  

The animals on the front of the just adorable,  every thing works so perfectly together, the paper you designed is beautiful too.

Thank you so much for sharing my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

Wanted to join you this Sunday for a card but didn't really know what to make. I found this Creative Stamping magazine and used a stamp and stencil set that came with it.

This is card number 3 because the other two went in the bin 😂

I used the stencil set to make the border then used Distress inks to make the background. Used a stamp about, Time in the garden, and then coloured in with Promarkers and TH inks. Stamped a few butterflies and coloured them out before cutting them out.

Such a bright and cheerful card,  I love the stamp you have used,  it works perfectly with that 'postage stamp' die,  the butterflies are the perfect finishing touch.  

I really am grateful that you braved your warm craft room to create a card for today my lovely XXX 

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Have a lovely Sunday my lovelies,  

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Happy Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Not sure where this week has disappeared to but its Saturday once again!  

We had another Pool day yesterday due to the wind,  it did calm down at around 5pm so we decided to pop down to the beach,  I was so excited to get in the 🌊 sea,  however the wind had whipped the waves up and it was way to rough, Paul and the girls went in and said the  current was really pulling you out,  which is rare for this beach,  it's usually always a green flag for safety but not yesterday.   Sadly it looks like tomorrow could be the same.   

While we were at the pool we noticed these odd looking clouds....

Lucy googled it and it said it was due to there being wildfire in the area,  a little more research and we discovered that just down the coast from here fire fighters were battling a huge wildfire,   by bedtime last night it had destroyed 1500 hectares of land,  evacuated a lot of tourists,  on that part of the coast its mostly hotels but there are a few mobile home/camping sites like ours,  it must be terrifying having that getting closer,  we have it the other side too,  the very south of France to the border of Spain there has also been wildfires, I hope they manage to stop them before we leave, Firstly to take girls to airport on Monday and secondly for our journey back to Millau on Tuesday,   we will be driving towards it.  

I love the artwork of this reminder, it's an actual working Wordsearch. 

Both Gina and Maria have shared some pretty Diamond Paintings.....

Gina 

Gina said it was too hot to make cards so she created these lovely Diamond Art Coasters I love how colourful they are. 🥰

Thank you so much for sharing them with us XXX 

Maria

Maria has shared two of her latest Diamond Paintings with us,  wow Maria those parrots are so colourful,   that must have taken hours with all that blue!  

The Alsations are just perfect,  it looks like a photo,  so realistic,   look at those sad eyes, it makes you want to give him a huge hug. 

You have definitely mastered the art of these my lovely.

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

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Stamperia Journal page

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Well we have had a couple of really windy days,  we can't really complain because Costa Brava translates to 'Wild Coast ' for that reason,  the wind is called 'Tramuntana' which translates to 'Beyond the Mountains' it happens in cycles of 3,  so we are hoping it will be just the 3 days (not 6 or 9). So yesterday for us was a pool day.

I'm not sure what we are 'feeling ' but whatever it is it's OK,  at the time of writing this I feel 'Windswept ' 🤣😂

Today I am sharing a journal page that I made before we left for holiday,  I used my Stamperia 'All Around ' Collection (i think).  

I added some paint to the background using a dry brush,  then added a little white paint to make the background paper less busy.  I took a stencil and used embossing paste to give more texture and detail to the page.  For a bit more texture I added the plasterboard tape behind where the focal point would be.  

Next came the fun part,  picking out the die cuts abd ephemera to build the scene (inspired by Vicki P),  I love the idea of using the paint brush as the body of the butterfly!  I added rub on leaves to opposite corners and some crocheted lace stapled in place to put the sentiment on.  A few splatters finish the page. 

Now I was going to add this piece straight to my journal but look how different the colours look on the black mat,  they really pop,  so I will add a black mat to the page before sticking it in. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Friday,

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

49 & Market Card

 

🥳🎂 Happy Birthday Lynda 🎂 🥳 

Good Morning my lovely friends,  

Firstly I'd like to wish our lovely Lynda a very Happy 79th  Birthday,   I hope that you have the best day with Terry and your family ❤️

This one feels very 'apt' today,  on Lynda's birthday,  you are all so incredibly important ❤️ 

We had a day by the pool yesterday as we had gale force winds, which caused some havoc, luckily it didn't impact our peaceful day by the pool. 

Karen your cruise sounds incredible,   I hope that you enjoyed visiting Etna yesterday 😘

Today's card is similar to the one I shared last week, using 49 & Market papers, which are beautiful,   to this one I added rub-ons,  tickets and heart shaped button ephemera cluster to add my sentiment to....

I then added a butterfly in similar colours to finish the card. 

These papers have so much detail that they don't really need much adding to them. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

A ink smooshed card in pretty pinks

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

Welcome July,  it hardly seems possible that we are over half way through the year!  

We had another lovely beach day ⛱️ yesterday,  we came back got showered and went out for a lovely meal.  Such a treat not having to cook, although we are having fairly simple dinners.  Lot's of salads etc.  It's too warm to eat even in the evenings,  I am sat here at almost eleven pm and its so warm with not a breath of wind.  

I feel like I have spent the last ten plus years healing, so I'm in no hurry 🤣😍

Today's card is ink smooshed, using Oxides,  Kitch Flamingo,  Picked Raspberry and Festive Berries (I think) I smooshed them individually onto my craft mat, spritzed with water then dipped my card in and heat set between layers so that I kept all of those littke dots of colour.  After smoothing the last time I added a spritz of Pearl Spray,   I used it to spray on my die cut flower too.  

I love those colours together.  I zoomed in so you could see the sparkle. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday,  

Love and hugs,  

Sandra xxx

49 & Market Faded Memory Lane Journal page

Good Morning Ladies,  

Another hot day here,  we were on the beach by 10am,  at about 3pm the darkest cloud appeared behind us accompanied by very loud thunder,  so we did the sensible thing and packed up and came back to mobile home,   we just relaxed and read our books, did puzzle books and played games,  the thunder continued for most of the afternoon, it said we were due 3.6 mm of rain, in reality it wasn't even enough to cover my wheelchair cushion 🤣

I did dinner a bit earlier and we decided to take a walk to the beach further down the promenade,  it has proper pathway made out of what looks like old tires, although it isn't black its a similar colour to sand, it's a perfect solution for wheelchairs and pushchairs,  we had a paddle in the sea, well the girls and I did,  it was so calm,  Paul believes that after the sun has set you become food for sharks in the sea!!! 😂🤣  We collected some shells and sea glass, which is the girls 'treasured find' this year,  we have found quite a bit.  

This reminder is for anyone that is struggling with health or other stress,  it often feels like you are under a constant cloud of pain and unhappiness,   it will pass my lovelies, I promise 😘

I created this 49 & Market 'Faded Memory Lane ' journal page a fews before our holiday....

I used a page from the Faded Memory Lane paper pad,  i added some background stamping in brown ink,  I inked around the edges and added rub ons.

I used Versamark ink through Tim Holtz dotty stencil and added gold embossing powder for texture and sparkle. 

Then I started to build my 'cluster' of die cut ephemera to lay the flower focal point on.

Here you can see where I added the flower,  i can't tell you how incredible their die cut pieces are, that cone flower looks 3D ! I tore up a little piece of hessian to create a background for the sentiment.  A few white splatters finish the page. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all

Sandra xxx

Clean and Simple Bit box card

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Welcome to the start of a new week, crazy to think that tomorrow is the last day of June! 

We had a really lovely day on the beach yesterday,  we stayed until around 8pm,  we thought it was going to be windy but it wasn't at all,  I had a good hour or more in the sea which was heavenly, Paul and I were in for a while then all of us went in together,  the sand got so hot though, I thought I had given myself  actual burns on my feet,   it hurt so much,  luckily an hour in the med was the cure! 

This is so true,  there are days that I definitely don't have my life together!  On such days you just have to cross your fingers and hope you make it to bed time unscathed! 🤣😂

Today I am sharing a clean and simple card that I made using bits of Alcohol lift ink that I did weeks ago. 

For this I used the second from the right!

I cut the hexagons 'tuck in' die into the left corner of my card top layer,  I then added a piece of that inky background behind the die cut area.  I raised the top layer off of the background using foam tape for a bit of dimension.  

I took my Gummiapan Dragonfly die and wanted to get a bit of that darker colour at the top, I managed to get it on one wing, as you can see in the close up!  

I stamped my sentiment and embossed in Silver to match the body of the dragonfly. 

I hope that you have the best start to your week, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx