Saturday Selection of Super inspiration!

 Good morning Ladies,

Today I have a few treats for you, first up is this gorgeous card made by our very talented stamper

Sam, this is I believe a Lily Of the Valley Stamp, I just love all of their cute designs.  Sam you really do have some serious talent in the colouring and stamping department. I also love the way you have built the card up with the lace and ribbon and the flowers, it is a truly stunning card.

Thank you so much for sending it for me to share with everyone. 

 

Now these two gorgeous little mice were knitted by our very own Theresa, for a friend of hers wedding, they had a country theme so these perfectly dressed little mice were given as gifts, the detail is absolutely unbelievable.
Theresa there is clearly no end to your crafting genius, you have so far showed us a stunning bird house, a totally beautiful card and now these incredibly detailed little mice!
When you look at the fine details of the flowers in the brides hair and bouquet to the frilly neckline of her wedding dress its just amazing, the little groom has a spotty bow tie and a button fastened waistcoat. I just can't believe the details, I bet they will be treasured forever, thank you so much for sharing these beautiful little mice today. xxxx

 Now this next stunning piece of crafting genius is made by Brenda (littlelambs)

Granddaughter!

Can you believe how clever she is, just look at the skill in that colouring,

you can see the sparkle in the Owl's eyes !

The flowers look so real I can almost smell them and that is with my blocked up nose!

Some young lady is clearly following in her Grandma's footsteps

thank you so much for sharing this beautiful card with us xxxx

 Well I am going to keep the other gorgeous projects I have been sent for tomorrow, there are some gorgeous children's cards to show and another of Pats wonderful cards. But I need to keep some back
to show tomorrow as I am sure I am going to be fairly whacked tomorrow night!
Littlelamb I hope your Granddaughter gets to see her card published on my blog, it will give her a huge confidence boost.
Thanks too to Theresa and Sam, you really have saved the day with your lovely creations, I think that Saturdays will from now on be Mixed Craft Days, so please send in any photos of anything handmade, from Needlecraft to Jewellery to home décor. I think it will make for an interesting change. 
Well I am off to Farnborough, tissues in my pocket, antiseptic hand gel so as not to spread germs, I cannot wait to meet any of you that are going along.
Love and hugs to all,
Sandra xxxxxx

Guest Desiger Debut!!!!! Cheryl !!!!!

 Good Friday Morning Ladies,
Well what a day, I haven't had a cold/shivers etc for such a long time, I literally can't remember!
So anyway I didn't get a card finished because I would have run out of space for embellishments as I used them all to cover the drips when I ran out of another box of tissues!
So I asked for help and your didn't disappoint, I got some lovely cards from Cheryl, all pesky man cards too and another lovely card from Pat and the most gorgeous little crafted cuties from Theresa, that I have decided to show on Saturday and maybe have Saturdays for mixed crafts from all of you as a regular feature, what do you think?
I am hoping that Cheryl will call in and tell us how she achieved this amazing card.
Did anyone see the programme that covered 4 different ladies as they gave birth, they were everything from the bizarre to the ridiculous! there was the really wealthy couple that wanted their birth to fit into their international travel plans, so she booked in to the Portland hospital and scheduled their birth for convenience, another lady lived on a barge and wanted to experience a 'free birth' where there are no medical staff there at all, just her and her partner, bit risky, not for me, but I am one of life's pessimists! Another lady had a 'lotus birth' where they keep the baby attached to the cord AND placenta for up to a week of so afterwards, or when I dried up and drops off, so the baby had the cord protruding from its clothes the whole time and the carried the placenta in a thermal lunch box!  The last lady had a hypno birth and she eats her raw placenta afterwards, made into a fruit smoothie!
Did any of you have any of the above? any funny related stories?
Would love to hear from you. it kept me going through a long and lonely day!
Love and hugs to you all.
Sandra xxxxx

Lovely Lyra

Good Morning Ladies,

Todays card I made for my Son to give to a friend that's having  a pretty tough time at the moment

I used a beautiful blue card from American Crafts and Vanilla also from American Crafts. I took an 8 x8 white card base and matted and layered with the cream and blue card the top layer of cream has been embossed with the Eternity Embossing Folder that is Designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions, it has rapidly become my favourite folder! I them cut the third die from Spellbinders Grand Squares and then embossed a border using the largest outside die from the Ornate Pierced

Squares die also designed by Sue Wilson for CE. I then Cut a piece of the Vanilla card using the New York Collection Union Square die set, the largest for the cream outside square then the next layer was cut in the blue card and then the centre square was cut from the second smallest of the Union Square set, I stamped the Justrite Sentiment on the centre piece. I then die cut the lyra die both the outside pieces together in cream and then the whole thing (inner and outer) cut in Blue, I placed this at the bottom of the card for a little understated decoration, given the sentiment. A few pearls finish the design. I know this card is a little bit different so may not appeal to everyone.

Please leave your comments below.

I need your help my lovely ladies, Paul has, once again been called away and I have no photographer

for tomorrows card, so maybe somebody would like to take up the offer of being Guest Designer, I will need your photograph before tonight so that I can load it on to the blog, I don't mind what you have used.  I love to show all of your work as well as mine, I think its a real confidence boost for everyone to hear the lovely comments from our blog members., So please let me know.
Saba, I hope you are feeling a bit less stressed today my lovely, I want to wish Val a speedy recovery, I think you touched all of our hearts yesterday, I really do hope you took strength from the love and support from this lovely bunch of ladies.  sending you huge hugs  xxxxx

Thank you all for the Congratulations for Becca, she is over the moon!

Littlelamb, Brenda I hope you didn't do any lasting damage during your smooch with the stairs, you were just trying to trump my meeting with the rug in the lounge weren't you! I hope you are ok xxx

Norah, Well Fancy 'Harry' Tangoing around is mummy's tummy! I hope they got all the measurements they needed, a friend of mine had her scan today too but has to go back tomorrow as the baby was laid with its back and bum in the way! Those sonographers certainly earn their wages!

now about those fleecy pj's, I will confess that my mother decided to buy me a 'onesie' for Christmas last year, if I just say that the poor local Camel was missing a 'toe' ! you may get the idea of how hideous it looked! haha Sending you the biggest hug, for always making me smile! xx

Brenda, I too watched Anna Marie, aren't those new colours of card stunning, they soon sold out, they aren't on their website yet either, I did email to ask if she will have them at the show at the weekend.

But haven't heard anything back yet, she had a really successful show, but I now wonder if as they have to give 60% of their sales to Create and Craft, they don't take that much stock with them, you just have enough to whet peoples appetite, but leaving them wanting (like me) so they go to their website!

I have come to the conclusion that this tiredness is turning me into an emotional wreck because I tuned in to Dawn B's last show on C&C and I almost shed a tear, I proper welled up! I think it is more to do with the other sadness and worries that are surrounding us at the moment, I still don't know what she is going to do, Leonie did keep saying 'I know you will enjoy it' but I have no idea what she meant.....answers on a postcard.......

Love and Hugs to each and every one of you amazing friends,

Sandra xxxxx

 

 



Spring Colours for Mothers Day

 

 Good Morning Ladies,
Well I am afraid you have to put up with one of my cards today! This card was inspired by my husband, who on a brief visit to my craft room suggested that I use some yellow as it would be good to think about Spring! Et Voila!!! As requested by his lordship a card with yellow, and lilac, now these colours I wouldn't have thought of putting them together, but on my colour wheel they are complimentary!  I do think they work together too, I used my new Noble Dies designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions, I love these dies.  I have used both the Ornate Pierced Rectangles and the Classic Adorned Rectangles, layered up and topped a Happy Mothers day stamp from a Justrite set. The flowers were made using the Camellia Complete Petals dies designed again by Sue Wilson and the same lilac and lemon card that I used to make the card.  I added some pearls to the corners and put a strip of lemon Seam Binding ribbon across the card base and tying a double bow and placing on top of a piece of white tulle and topped with one of the Camellia dies.

Well what do you think? Let me know by leaving your comments as usual below.
Sam - we are all thinking about you today, I hope all goes well with this hospital visit, be sure to pop in and let us know if you feel up to it when you get home.
Norah, I hope you are back up to full speed again today, your special cup is behind the counter, just help yourself.  How did Kirsten's Scan go,  are they finding out which 'flavour' they are having?
Steph, are you feeling back to normal? I hope so sweetie, spend the day in your den catching up with your orders, hugs xx
Theresa thanks for allowing me to show your gorgeous card, I am please hubby is getting involved,

watch out, he may get the bug and you will find your craft seat filled, mind you just think of the benefit of him treating himself to dies!!!! xx
I hope all of you are warm and safe from this blustery weather, today is going to be about purely craft today! I looked around at the chaos left by my darling off spring and thought for a moment about swooping the whole lot into a black bin bag! but I have shrugged my shoulders and I have left it, I am going to ignore it and when they can't find things that's their fault not, ''mum where have you put my...''.
Well I am off for a shower and a cup of tea.
look forward to reading all of your comments today, I did reply to most of you yesterday although it was late after coming in from Pat's, helping Paul with tea and being Mum for a while!
Love and hugs
Sandra xxxx



Theresa's Treat for Tuesday!

Good Morning Ladies,
I was going to save this card for later in the week, but I was too excited, I still cant believe how Theresa has managed to design this amazing card given the pain she is in, it is just beautiful.
My cards can wait this has to be shared to Inspire others that are like Theresa and myself and many more of you in an awful amount of pain, yet can still concentrate enough to create this.
I saw Sue get some amazingly different shapes with this background die, from squares to smaller rectangles!
Theresa you did and amazing job here, Tony too for his die cutting and your gorgeous daughter of course for her help in putting this card together!
 I hope you feel up to popping in to tell us how you all achieved this lovely card.
Well Sue is certainly a lot happier at the start of this week than she was at the start of last, she did say she was really uplifted by all of the lovely comments.  The Bloglovin numbers are rising daily, Sue said today that it helps if you press the '3' button on the side bar of her blog! It takes you to the blog ratings page.
I had trouble trying to leave a comment on Bloglovin on Sue's blog today, I had to go through the normal route. But I am still following on there so I am sure that counts, as long as we keep going on and sharing the posts. I think someone mentioned pressing the X on the bar that is going across the top of the page after you have signed in. so will try that tomorrow.
I want to thank you personally for rallying round to boost Sue's numbers, she really does appreciate it.
How many of you are off to buy coffee filters today, I am tempted, I don't have the Stampin Up Punch but I have a die that is similar.
Hands up who went to JGD Crafts and ordered their beads? Thank you Margaret x
Well I have a lovely day of crafting with my other two 'Graces' !!!
I want to thank you each and everyone for popping in, for commenting, for contributing, for caring and for supporting, You really are amazing ladies and a very important life line! I feel I know you all as very dear friends and my life is all the richer for it x
Love and hugs everyone,
Sandra
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A Stunning start to the week from Saba!

Good Monday Ladies,

How can it be the last week of February already?

I have an exciting week this week, as I am going to Farnborough to the Craft Show on Saturday,

I haven't done this craft show before so not sure what to expect, but one of my favourite crafters will be there (Christine Emberson), I am looking forward to meeting her. Plus I think Anna Marie Designs will be there too so I hope to stock up on some of her goodies too!

Right todays card......Isn't it so amazing?!!!!!  Saba has created this masterpiece and it has special connection to our 'coffee shop' as the flower is made from......wait for it...........Coffee filters!!!You would never guess it would you? Saba will stop by later and tell us how she has created this beautiful card, here is a photo of the stages leading up to achieving this gorgeous flower. I can't believe that a coffee filter can transform into such a beautiful flower. I am desperate to have a go, although I am  not sure if coffee filters are as cheap here as they are in Germany.  I am guessing there will be a surge of sails after todays post.  Do you think that Aldi sells them?                                                                       Did any of you buy anything from the shows at the weekend? there were some gorgeous card samples weren't there. I missed the 'paper grouting' technique on Saturday morning so I need to catch

up with that one.  I was pleased to see they got the message in the end and Sue managed to get two demonstrations in on most shows.  Gosh those cups were overflowing though weren't they, Sue does have a huge following, I hope that a few more will jump on board on Sue's blog this week, so we must remember to push the Bloglovin thing again tomorrow, to hit those newcomers!

Sorry to keep on about it, I just want Sue's blog to go through the roof, as she deserves!

Well what topics are we going to cover this week? I can't wait to find out.

Love and Hugs to all of You!

Sandra xxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Sam Card for Sunday





Good Sunday Morning Ladies,
Well at least we have a time for a leisurely breakfast before Sue's shows today.
Just look at Sam's stunning card today, it is so apt for our coffee shop isn't it? The Sentiment
reads Coffee with a Friend is like capturing Happiness and pouring it in a cup!
That just about sums up our little blog!  Sam, your card is so special, from the gorgeous little teapot charm in the corner to the 'oh so perfect' stamping, your matting and layering skills are perfect too, you obviously don't have a 'wonky guillotine' like me, mine is driving me scatty!
Please Sam I would love you to tell us how you achieved this masterpiece, what is your chosen method of colouring?
Please let Sam know below how much you love her card.
How are you all getting on with Bloglovin? I actually quite like it, its the instant access to all the cards on peoples blogs that I like, its also quite easy to share the blog posts on to the other popular platforms, so lets all get spreading the word for Sue.
How many of you bought something from the show today? Maureen did you remember to press the
flexi-pay button, please make sure of that everyone as Maureen found out to her cost they won't rush to help you out!
Its a frustrating thing with Sue being on Create and Craft as I desperately want to support everything that she does, its the prices that are the off putting thing, I would so love all of her shows to be sell outs, to be honest I did think that the Stick Pins would sell out, they are beautiful quality beads, maybe if they could have squeezed another couple of flexi-pays in, but its only a fortnight after the last shows where people used flexi for items over a hundred pounds and more and to squeeze more money out this month is just pushing it a little too far, maybe if it had been next weekend (payday)!
So I do feel a little sorry for Sue! She is just so inspirational to watch, when she isn't being spoken over.....Dean!!!! Boy was I shouting at the tv, Sue was disagreeing with him quite a bit!
What has Sunday got in store for you all today? I hope its nice and peaceful.
Steph my love, I wish you every success today I hope you have a sell out show! Then you can be like whopper-whatsaname and buy the whole bloomin Sue Wilson Die Collection!!!!! We can call you WhopperSteph!
Love and Hugs
Sandra
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Selection of Crafts Saturday !

Good Morning Ladies,

I have an assortment of crafts today....

A Marvel from Myra

Brilliance from Barbie &

Joy from Janet!

First Up Myra's Marvellous card, so pretty using Spring Meadow Striplet Die

that was kindly sent to Myra from Lynda, Scandinavian Background Die and

the Cornflower Die all from Sue Wilsons Die range.

I think you will all agree with me when I say that this is a truly stunning

card that anyone would be so blown away with, thank you Myra for allowing

me to share your masterpiece today!

 

Next is Barbie's Brilliant Roald Dahl decorated Shelves, its absolutely fantastic

All of the jars have Roald Dahl labels too, what a work of art Barbie,

what little girl or boy wouldn't love that for all of their bits and pieces!

Thank you Barbie for allowing me to share this amazing piece of Home Décor!

 

Joy from Janet, Look at these amazing

Beauties, Oh Janet the amount of detail that you have put

into these from the trim on their hats to the flowers around the hem

of one of the dresses, the weather vane on one of the hats to the

lollipops on another, Janet these must just sell like hotcakes!

I love each and every one of them

thank you so very much for sharing these

gorgeous little ladies with us!



I hope you have enjoyed todays selection of crafts from the most talented

group of ladies I know.

I hope you are all set and ready to sit and watch Sue today and don't forget

for anyone that missed it yesterday to start following Sue by going to

Bloglovin.com, just sign up, type Particraft in search box and then press 'follow'

this way Sue will get further towards being No 1 blog once again,

to spread the word even further, once you have got onto Particraft on Bloglovin

hit the share button at the bottom of the picture and and share on facebook,

Twitter or Pinterest, instead of 'pinning the picture you can share the whole

post, allowing more people to sign up and follow Sue!

I hope that's clear, let me know if not,

Love and Hugs

to you all

Sandra

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Butterfly from Barbie !

Good Morning Ladies,
I can't believe its Friday already, this week has gone so fast, I can't believe that its the last day of the girls week off!
Todays card is one of Barbie's works of art, I am hoping that she will call in later on today to give us a brief run down of how she achieved this amazing card. Another fabulous dose of inspiration for Sue's new die range.
Barbie's gorgeous gift doesn't end at the card, she wraps the card beautifully in tissue paper

and secures with a beautiful bow and then places in a beautiful matching box.
I am sure you will agree that Bev must have been really touched when she opened this card.
Thank you very much Barbie for allowing me to share this gorgeous card with everyone on the blog today.
I hope you all have a lovely day, ready for a lovely weekend.
Love and hugs
Sandra xxxxx

Cute Baby Boy Card

 Good Morning Ladies,
I finished this card yesterday, it is a commission from the same lady that had a similar one a few years back!  She wanted something similar in design, so I change the dies I used and the baby bear image is from a Kanban kit I bought years ago.
I used some Blue Dotty card from Anna Marie Designs and I embossed some coconut white card with the Rows Of Bows Die designed by Sue Wilson. I matted the white embossed card over the dotty card and made a little border strip with some Lace and blue satin ribbon, I glued this across the join of the two pieces of card. I think printed out the Baby details and die cut it and the blue teddy with Spellbinders Detailed Scallop Die set. I mounted them both on to foam tape, I recently bought 5 A4 sheets of double sided 3mm thick double sided foam tape, its fabulous quality, although it was £9.99. it was from Affixit.co.uk .
I tore the back of the foam tape and stuck them both at an angle on the card.I added an Itty Bitty Bow cut from the same Dotty Card as the base, and placed it at the top of the matt with the birth details on, I then cut the Classic Bow (both from Sue Wilson Die Range) in the same card and I Popped it on the bottom of the card, I added a button to the centre of the bow, with a bit of matching ribbon tied through it.
To finish the card I added some baby blue pearl embellishments to the corners of the card and at the bottom of the birth details, with a blue beaded heart in the centre!
I hope you like the card, I am hoping my friend will, I just need to finish the insert tomorrow!
Let me know your thoughts.
Cheryl kindly offered yesterday afternoon to put a Cygnus die up for grabs for the sweepstake on how many posts on S
ue's blog yesterday (with it being a give away)! So we will count how many blogs there were up to 6am this morning when the new post was added!
check back later for results. Thank you for your kindness Cheryl.
Love and Hugs
Sandra
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The Best Valentine Card I have Ever received !

 Good Morning Ladies,
Well Here it is, you have wanted to see this all week!!!!!
Didn't he do a fab job, he has declined doing a description, I can tell you he used a Spellbinder Heart Die Set from the Media Mixage range and Sue's Camellia Dies for the flowers, the patterned paper on the big heart is from a My Minds Eye pad! To me it was perfect, I have never anticipated opening a

card so much in my whole life,
Here is a close up of the flowers that he made, all in all he was in the craft room for 2 hours.
One good thing that came from his experience (apart from this amazing card) was he confirmed that my Tonic A3 guillotine is cutting 'on the wonk'!  As you can see he was trying to get the two pieces of card to meet perfectly, which he said was a pain as everytime he cut the paper it was wonky.  I had bought this up the week before with Sue (mrs B) because I couldn't believe that it would go wonky all of a sudden!
But it has so recommendations for a new one would be gratefully accepted.

I am considering the large Crafters Companion one as you can butt the paper to the bottom as well as the top, so you could trim your paper sitting down. If anyone has any 'fors' and 'against' please let me know.
The other topic I thought we could cover today is Pancakes and Lent, do you prefer British pancakes or American,  do you go for traditional lemon & sugar, or golden syrup, Lucy tonight made a Belgian chocolate sauce for hers!
Are you giving anything up for Lent? have you in the past?
We didn't have so many pancakes this time, although I did make two lots of Delia's batter up
I think I had 4, Paul had 6 or 7 and the girls had about 8 each, Matt had 6 or 7 as he was rushing to go out.  But they all seemed to enjoy them, Luckily Lucy and I had a pan each so we got through the batches fairly fast, I would have still been there now if not!
Well I must go and sort out the Kittens as they are prowling round for their food.
Love and Hugs
Sandra xxxxx

 

A trio of delights and Janet's French Paradise x

0

Good Morning Ladies
Today is all about Janet, firstly a trio of stunning white on white cards, the one with the yellow ribbon is stunning, all white with a hint of spring, you could do the same wedding cards with the bow the colour of the bridesmaids!
It looks like Janet has laced around the card with the white ribbon, there is something about a white on white cards isn't there?!
Now for those pictures you have all been waiting for
Janet's French Country home.........

There are several views, to be honest I had a bit of an
issue getting them all in,
This first one with beautiful blue sky right through the
seasons to the lovely snowy scenes below.
It looks so peaceful here, just look at the view out of the
front gate in the very last picture below.
I think that there is plenty of room in your gardens Janet for us to camp in the garden or in our caravan, we could just make that craft retreat happen!
I am sorry the pictures are so randomly placed and I hope you can get to see them all properly.
Just sit back in your chair and imagine you have just come back from the local market with the finest cheese, wine and not forgetting the Pastries!
Enjoy this moment my lovely friends!
Love and huge hugs
to you all,
Sandra
xxxxxxx

 

 

 

Myra's masterpiece using Sue's new dies!

Good Morning Ladies,
I have been so looking forward to showing you this card from Myra, she has used some of Sue's
new dies!  I have copied Myra's description and added it below...

 I used the Greek Island Lattice background die. It's beautiful , the centre piece is separate so it can be left out. I used blue behind it to make it look like a window with the sky behind!  I used two of the border dies one in black and one in cream . I cut both into two pieces. Ouch! It doesn't show up very

well but I used soft gold gilding wax on the leaves. It shows up better in the close up photo! I then just added my little flowers to sort of frame the card. The sentiment die also comes from the corner ,border and tag set. I didn't use the little corner but it is lovely too. The embossing in the background die is just lovely - that's the die not me! Hope that's clear enough as the rest is just matting and layering. Finished card is 7x7 inches.
I think you will join me in congratulating Myra,
this card is stunning and showcases Sue's new dies beautifully, you have got the balance just right. Doesn't it make a difference seeing the dies used in different ways, I wasn't keen on this background die to start with, but seeing it used here make me think that it can be used in so many different ways.
I have got all the photos to show you of Janet's French Paradise, so tomorrow I will showcase her lovely home, so that next time she has us all dreaming of log burners and nice wine, delicious Pastries & fresh bread daily, we can picture her there.
I have been asked to make a new baby card this week so I made a start on that yesterday and should hopefully finish that today!
I tried to get Paul to let me show his Valentine card that he made for me but he keeps saying 'why would they be interested in seeing that'! Baa humbug!
I truly hope that Sue won her awards across the board last night, I know she is a small fish in a big bowl as far as dies are concerned but I think her designs and the quality of the dies puts her up there with the top contenders! I would like to see her beat 'shattered face' & the one that goes 'with gin'!
As her dies aren't just elements, you can build whole cards from them and you get a complete collection with Sue's dies which I think is Unique!
Not that I need to sell Sue to you lovely lot!
I would like to thank you for welcoming Teresa to our 'coffee shop' yesterday, it is so lovely to see the numbers increasing.
Thank you once again Myra, for letting me share your lovely card.
Right I must get on, cards to make, daughters to entertain!
I will check in later, to top up the cakes etc.
Love and hugs to all of you
Sandra xxxxxx

Such a Pretty Janet Card



Good Sunday Morning Ladies,
I just couldn't sit on this card any longer, It is so petty, perfect for many occasions, but Mothers Day
comes to my mind, with the beautiful pink card or the pretty flowers! This card alone has changed my mind about that Gemini Die. I have wondered though if I have the picture the right way round, the bow would work equally well at the bottom.
Janet will hopefully stop by and give us a run down on her gorgeous card.
Please leave your comments for Janet! I may try and persuade her to let me share the photos of her French home!
Well I hope you all had a nice Valentines day, Matt (my son) decided to take the girls to the West Midland Safari Park for their birthday treat, so that meant Paul and I had the whole day to our selves, which was just perfect, I persuaded him to take me to see Fifty Shades Of Grey, the film itself was good, not much like the book, but I expected that, the most frustrating thing for me was "Madge & Maurice" sitting next to us! They had bought themselves a fair picnic to be honest, ( I don't have a problem with that, we took our own Wine Gums), I think I have never heard such a bag that rustled so loudly with every single piece of popcorn (yes she ate every one individually) she seemed to put it in her mouth, there was the initial crunch, but then I was confused as she gnawed and sucked on the popcorn like she was not wearing her dentures, all with her mouth fully open, ever now and then breaking for an ear splitting 'slurp' of her drink, I honestly expected her to Burp and fart to complete the frustration! oh no that's not it, every time on of the cast spoke they had a little chat about how it compared to the book and then an annoying giggle! Some of the scenes were a little 'racy' as I expected, which felt a little uncomfortable with these two so close, Maurice made some 'bizarre' sounds, at one point I felt that I may need to call a paramedic! So my cinema experience was a little 'marred' by our 'seat neighbours'! But the film was good, do any of you ever get bothered by the fact that it is ok for a woman to be full front naked but the nice hot, fit men don't, the best you get to see is their peachy bum?!
Pat, I will lend you the book, you will love it! xx
Sorry if this has been a little naughty for your Sunday Morning Cornflakes!
Love and Hugs
Sandra
xxxxxxx

I want to share my prize with you all!

Good Morning Ladies
Happy Valentines day to all, especially the ones that didn't get a card today!
Well todays card as you can all see is my prize from Sue, from the show last Sunday!
I think I can even give you a brief run down of how Sue has done this, I could pretend like its one of
mine (although I am pretty sure you can all tell the difference between and Sue card and a Sandra card)!!!!
Firstly take a piece of Coconut White card and place the Floral Meadow Striplet Die (without the cutting edge) onto one end of the card, run through the Grand Calibur then Emboss, before removing the die, remove any tape covering the cut image and ink through the die with Tattered Rose Distress Ink,  repeat on the opposite side of the card but leave the part that you have already cut and embossed off of the cutting plate (so you don't flatten your embossing)! Now emboss and repeat inking through the die. I have already prepared a base card with a Coconut white matt to which I have added pearls made using Cosmic Shimmer Pearl Pva glue.

I placed foam tape on the reverse of my die cut and embossed card and added it to a very slightly larger matt of white card, I stuck this to the base using Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear glue.
For my focal element I die cut the Copenhagen from the Scandinavian Collection twice using Coconut White card, I put mounting foam on the back of the first one and mounted it horizontally down the middle of the two striplet dies on my base card, I then cut the second Copenhagen Die in half trimmed it so that if covered the centre section of the first Copenhagen Die cut.
I then Stamped Trailing Ivy Stamp from the Floral Flourish Oval Duo Stamp set from the Stamps to Die for range and embossed with Perfectly Clear Cosmic Shimmer Embossing powder and die cut with the centre die from the Scandinavian Background, before removing from the die I inked around the edges using Tattered Rose Distress Ink and cut and dry foam. I Stamped my sentiment on to this,
added foam tape and mounted it to cover the join in the die cut below.
To finish the card I added Pearls to the centres of the flowers on the striplet dies and some tiny pearls onto my stamped sentiment and the Copenhagen die cuts too.
Oh by the way you can buy all of these products from Joanna Sheen (if you like)!

Well it probably doesn't flow as well as Sue's description but you get the picture, I hope she won't be offended by my attempt!
I love the card and will treasure it forever!
Mrs B, hurry up and share your news, the ladies are all bursting with excitement! Congratulations!
Pat sit and put your feet up today, hope you are in less pain, hugs xx
Steph, I hope you have recovered fully from your experience, any more cards off that list? hugs
Sam, how are you feeling my lovely, I was hoping you would feel well enough to call back in, but as long as you are feeling better today, have a nice relaxing day my lovely, everyone was wishing you well yesterday, huge hugs, xxxxx
Hazel,  I think you dealt with your situation amazingly, (I am not sure if you saw my post back to you last night) but I just wanted to say what an amazingly hard thing you had to do to make the mum realise that she needed to find a little more time for her girls, you couldn't carry on like that any longer, you have done more for those girls than you will ever realise, especially if it does work, although they will probably be sad not to be spending as much time with you! I feel so (I don't know what the word is, I want to say proud), but I am just amazed by your strength, hopefully now you won't have as much pressure dumped on you! sending you huge hugs xxxxxx
Maria, have you finished happy dancing around the house?? not only a win but a Noble die too! congratulations, |I am so pleased for you!
Theresa, I hope you got my email yesterday, big hugs coming your way! xx
Myra, please send me your photos, I will gladly show them, it gives me the  night off!

I just want to share with you that Paul was busy in my craft room all evening making a card, I am so excited to open it! it feels like Christmas!  New Guest Designer maybe??????
Right I must go and have a shower, I am aching as I managed another meeting with the carpet in the lounge, whilst trying to get to the phone! imagine my mood to find it was a bloody call centre that hung up as the answerphone started up, I am surprised they didn't hear me in whatever country they were in, the air was blue! Poor Paul wondered what he had walked into when he came in at lunchtime!  So steady day for me today, what a dingbat!
Love and Hugs to all of you,
Sandra xxxxxxx

Stunning Stockholm

Good Morning Ladies,
Todays card is inspired by Sue's shows at the weekend, despite some frustrating presenters Sue battled through and made a lot of people very happy with her amazingly inspiring demonstrations to her stunning sample cards, I often think that if it takes me virtually a whole day to make one card how long does it take Sue to get all the samples ready for a show? I wonder how many cards she can make in day?
For this card I covered an 8 x 8 white card base with a matt slightly smaller than the base card of teal green coloured card, covering the bottom third of the card with a double sided sticky sheet and added some Cosmic Shimmer Iced Snow.
I then cut a slightly smaller matt of white card that I ran this through the Eternity (my favourite) embossing folder from Creative Expressions, then added one of the older Spellbinder edge dies to cut a nice scalloped edge to this layer,  I popped some foam tape on the back of this for a little dimension and stuck it to the card base, before adhering completely I stuck my teal coloured seam binding

across the front of the card and glued at the back. For the focal element I first cut the outside edge die of the Stockholm Die Set Designed by our Sue at Creative Expressions out of the teal card and then cut another die cut this time with both the outside and the decorative cutting die this time using white card, I then cut the two smaller dies one of each colour. The smallest white layer has the sentiment stamped on it and edged with Tumbled glass distress ink.  I out foam tape and cosmic shimmer glue on each layer and piled them one on top of each other.
I tied a bow out of the same seam binding as used on the base and stuck it directly under the focal element. I then cut several flowers using CE Full Petal Camellia Dies out of teal card and shaped them and added a pearl to the centre of each one, I placed them around the focal element and

to the top left and bottom right corners of the card. to finish the bow I added a pearl brad to the centre of it.
There you are the finished card, I know some of you aren't keen on the colour, its kind of one of my favourites.
Please let me know what you think below, as you know the kettle and coffee machine will be on so stop by, sit down and relax!
Steph, I hope you are feeling better today after being prodded and poked about yesterday!
Sam we will all be thinking of you today as you go to your appointment and procedure, lets hope it leads them to helping you get more comfortable! Hugs xxxx
I hope you can all pop in and today tell us about your best/worst valentine experience, is your partner
romantic? Or you can continue the running topic or start a totally new one!
Love and hugs to all of you,
Sandra xxxxx

Theresa's Beautiful Birdhouse

Good Morning Ladies,
Today I am so delighted to share with you this beautiful bird house created by the very talented
Theresa.  I can see a few different Sue dies on there and some pretty papers, I know Steph (who is the very lucky owner of this beautiful piece of art). absolutely loves it and was absolutely blown away by its beauty when she received it.

I hope Theresa feels up to giving us a brief description of how she achieved this amazing creation!
Did any of you manage have a look at the Craft Network Channel?
The recent activities of Create and Craft make you want to vote with your feet and go elsewhere, although there are still demonstrations that we would not like to miss (like Sue's) for example.
But I think that it will hit them badly enough that people are choosing to shop more sensibly.
Some of the stories we have shared and read today do make you stop and think before you buy.
I would very much like to who amongst you voted for that Dean on Create and Craft, he publically struts around preening his feathers enough as it is, without getting an award to make him more cocky!
I would love you all to let Theresa know how much you love her Birdhouse.
I am hoping to make sometime (pain allowing) to bake some biscuits today as Margaret sent me some
lovely recipes yesterday, Shortbread, Butter Biscuits, Ginger Biscuits, Mars Bar Cake to name but a few. I can't wait! Paul said he was looking forward to it too!
Well the brownies I made today, have gone, Pat, Sue and I had 1 each, my eldest daughter just happened to pop home at lunch time, she went after an hour, next time I looked in the tin as I was sorting tea out there was 4 left, yes 4! So they all had one for pudding and that's that, all gone! No chance of them making me any fatter!
Well I am off to get a cup of tea.
Love and Hugs
Sandra
xxxxxxxxx



Ps Good Luck to Steph today, hope all goes well with your appointment xxx
Pps.   Please tell me that somebody else saw that programme about 'Behind the Doctors Surgery Door' so many  of the people in there had me laughing so much, there was a man who's gentleman's
bits apparently made a clunk noise when he turned over in bed, I was crying with laughter!
PPPS I saw on C & C that Tonic have bought out what looks very much like 'striplet' dies! I am sure the same happened last year with the bow dies!

Another Janet Masterpiece!

Good Morning Ladies
Another Janet masterpiece today, such a pretty card, its a good job Janet has sent me some cards to share with you too as Paul has gone away again, which would have no impact on my blog other than
the fact that he takes the photographs of my cards.  I have no idea how to use his twiddly lens camera thing, if it was a bog standard point and shoot thing I could have managed, (apart from the loading it up thingy)! So I would have had no card to show you and would have my broken my resolution of blogging everyday!
Mind you I love the Guest Designer concept, I think its healthy to see a broad range of cards rather than just mine! Boy have we seen some gorgeous cards, there are some very talented crafters among us, better than some people I have seen demonstrating on TV that's for sure!
I mentioned the other day about a different craft channel that's online, its called
Britishcraftnetwork.tv  its a 24hr channel of craft demonstrations, no selling, there are links to the various companies websites for you to purchase the products that they are demonstrating, so constant whinging presenter! 
Its worth a look, there are a few well known names on there, I think the Kraftyhand chaps have organised the channel, Kay Rutter is on there with her Hougie Board demonstrations. Indigo Blu are also on there, amongst many other names, all that have disappeared from Create and Craft.
I came across it when I read an argument on FB the argument was about the fact that Stephanie Weightman used to run the Summer Crafting Event at Doncaster in August each year I believe, but as far as I am aware she sold her company (or part of it) to the C & C family, so they then ran the Summer Crafting Event and they had said that anyone that had any part of this new British Craft Network Channel was not allowed to have a stand at this show! I feel that this is very petty personally, what ever happened to having healthy competition, there is room out there for more than one craft channel, maybe then the prices would be a more reasonably priced!
It shows C &C in their true light I guess, to try and kill off any competition, so any of the companies that are part of this new channel are not welcome to be part of Create and Craft as far as I am aware!
Isn't it ridiculous?
Anyway its worth you going to have a look I believe.
Let me know what you think anyway.
Hopefully Janet will pop in and tell us all about her card at some point.
I have got Pat & Sue coming over today, I am so looking forward to it.
Well I must go and feed these kitty's as they are getting restless!
Love and Hugs
Sandra xxxxxx