Your Next Challenge

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and looking forward to the weekend, at least the weather looks lovely for this one. what have you all got planned?

Milo and Bello treated us to a brand new gift on Tuesday night, it was about 2am and I could hear the two of them scuffling about, they then came into our bedroom together which never happens unless they are fighting, so I knew something was up, I woke Paul and told him that they had got something, he got up and followed them into the lounge, he could see something on the floor and thought it was either a mouse or a small bird, so he went to fetch the dustpan and brush to dispose of it, when he returned 'it' had moved and turned over, he put the light on and leant in to see if it was still alive and if flew across the lounge ( I would love to have seen the look on his face), so it turns out that they had somehow caught a Bat, we have a colony living in the trees outside the lounge window for the first time this year. Paul managed to get it into a box and take it out to the trees that they seem to live in, but it wouldn't come out of the box so he left it with the box on its side so it could get out safely, by the time Sue came it had gone so hopefully it was back with its family.  I think I may well have had a heart attack if that thing had started flying around the bedroom! 

Sue came over on Wednesday and we finally got round to some sewing, well it's only taken about 5 years!! But it meant that I blew the dust off of my machine and started using it, I also want to use it with my paper crafting.

Sue needed to make masks, she had bought a pattern with her that she had sketched but she wasn't too sure what to use as the support part around the nose, we looked at pipecleaners and Sue had bought some other things to try.  I suggested trying the style that Lilian had made for me, as it is shaped to fit around the bridge of your nose and stays in place perfectly .  So I turned my mask inside out and we traced around it, Sue then explained all the steps that we needed to take and we were off, there were little hiccups along the way but I couldn't have been prouder of my finished mask at the end of the day, Sue's look great too. Thank you Sue for your tuition and patience XXX

Your Next Challenge

For our next challenge the theme will be "Flowers Through The Seasons" 

So we can make cards featuring Spring Flowers, Summer Flowers, Autumn Flowers and finally Winter flowers. 

We will start with :                           

Spring

We will split this challenge over 4 weeks, so this week will start with 'Spring'  flowers, I love Spring, it is a Season full of hope and sees your garden start to come to life, we start to see the beautiful Snowdrops, Violets, Bluebells, Daffodils and Tulips, Lilac, Crocus, Pansy and Iris all come under 'Spring flowers'  So we have plenty to play with, so you can make it look like and everyday birthday card for anytime using any of the flowers above. There are lots of other idea online too.

I hope you enjoy the Challenge, I think most of us have flowers for most Seasons in some form in our stash.

You can used the flowers just as a background or as the Focus of your card.

I am looking forward to making cards for this Challenge, even more excited to see your cards.

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I hope that you all have an enjoyable weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you, especially those of you that are under the weather,

Love and huge hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

An old card for 'Throwback Thursday'

Good Morning Ladies,
I hope that you all have a lovely day yesterday, it was another bright sunshine day!!!!
I was luckily!

Todays card is one of those cards that makes you smile when you open them.

I used a white piece of card and stamped the 'Have a Lovely Day' sentiment in the bottom right corner, I then added a piece of blacks satin ribbon to the top of the card and finished with a little red resin flower.  I die cut a large pile of leaves and a load of die cut flowers, I then sat and arranged them down my card, popping a black pearl into the centres of each flower. I wanted to tie the black ribbon and black stamping into the card. I stacked the red flowers onto of one another and offset them to make the flowers fuller.
I quite like the boldness of the colours, the matting and layering really make the colours pop too.
I hope that you like my card,

I have a quiet day planed, what are you all up to?  Whatever you are doing I hope that its ends up a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Another TicTacToe Challenge card

Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well, we had a lovely sunny day yesterday,  although there was a cool wind that made we wish I had put a cardigan on when i left the house. 

We all managed to get a haircut, at last!  Paul had his done Monday,  he was laughing when he came home as the girls in the hairdressers didn't recognise him at first, they were shocked at how thick his hair had got, to the point that they had to work down through the clipper blades!  As lovely and thick and curly can be, my heart did a little flip when I saw him with his short neat hair! 

The girls and I had to go our hairdressers little home salon for this cut, she usually comes to us but with Covid  she is only working from salon.  We talked through the options for my hair and she thought it would be better to leave it longer as a trial, she cut some layers back in and angled my fringe, she said if I hate it she will redo it anytime. 

She said it might look nicer with a bit of colour through it, so we will try that next time.  The girls both had a trim.

Today's card is another TicTacToe challenge card that I made while chatting to Pat. I used Categories: Birds/Twine/Leaves 

I used the SU 'Best Birds' stamp set and matching dies to create my card,  I stamped the Bird and Branch and coloured them,  I then die cut them, I took my background piece and stamped that mesh looking background in Crumb Cake ink, I added this piece to a base card made using Pear Pizzaz card, befote attaching the card front I added some twine around the card and added a little flower.

I stamped the sentiment in the bottom corner then went on to place l the Branch and Bird onto the card with foam pads.

Hoping to see Sue today for some Crafting and chatting xx

I hope you all have a lovely day too,

Love & Hugs,

Sandra

xxxxxxx

Karen's Amazing 'Tracy ' style card

Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well, does anyone remember what the sun looks like?  with only 3 days left to then end of this month I think we can officially July a 'Wash Out'  Janet ,I think that your St Swithen's day prediction wasn't far off!! I think it is supposed to brighten up by the end of the week.  That beautiful weather we had in April and May seem a distant memory.

We had the Gas Engineer come yesterday to Service the Aga and Boiler, he kept apologising for having to wear a mask and normally he would have had a cuppa and a biscuit but none of that was allowed, you can no longer sign their report either, I did offer to use my own pen but he said no they have changed their protocols, I wonder if this is the new 'Normal'! 

Today's card is one of Our Karen's, a beautiful 'Thank You' card made using Tracy Evan's stamps, 

Karen used Glossy  Photo Card, which she coloured with 'Pixie Powders, she then used the Lots of Dots Aall & Create Stencil with White Gesso which gives lovely texture as well as interest, the main image is Tracy Evan's Fritilleria stamp, the extra detail around the edges in a lovely blue shade is the 'Heartfelt' stamp, Karen has stamped the sentiment on white card and then done a great little trick which is to draw around your sentiment piece with a water soluble pencil and then blend it out a bit, it gives the look of an added mat. Karen used the same colour to colour the flower.  A traditional Tracy finish is to flick a white Posca/chalk pen over the piece to add some white splats. The final textural touch was stamping the word 'Art' onto a piece of Muslin' and frayed it around the edges. 

I absolutely love this card Karen, it's a completely new style to both of us but you have done an amazing job, I absolutely love this card XXX

Well it's Haircut day today, I told the girls that we should all do a 'before and after', mind you the girls both have really long hair so they won't see much difference.  I on the other hand must have an extra 4 inches at least, although my is really falling out a lot lately, I mean like my pillow is covered in hair in the morning and loads in the towel when I wash it too, it concerned me with all my other issues combined, the last time I mentioned it to our Hairdresser she wasn't too concerned.

I hope that you all have a lovely day my lovelies,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

My first TicTacToe Challenge card

Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you have had a lovely weekend  ourd was a mixed bag but I'm grateful for the time spent with Paul (you gotta find the positives). 

We went food shopping yesterday, it felt more comfortable seeing everyone wearing a mask rather than feeling like you had two heads as everyone looked at you because you were the only one wearing one, the girls have both insisted on wearing from the outset regardless of what others thought, Paul came home on Friday with a pack of two masks that everyone in the office received so they are wondering if they are going to insist on them being worn at work, that would be a nightmare all day, the other thought was that they might be ending the split shifts and having the office full to capacity again, I really hope thats not the case as it more make the whole situation so much more of a risk.  We'll see I guess.

Today's card is my first one for this weeks TicTacToe challenge, I used categories:  Die cut or Punch/Green/Stripes.

I used the Concorde & Ninth Stamp set that I bought a few weeks ago, taking the Stiped one and stamping it multiple times in different shades of Green Distress Oxide inks. I matted this background piece onto a black mat, then onto a white card base. 

I have an old Spellbinders Die set with matching stamps, I used the 'Friend' die to cut two layers, I then adhered them together and pushed the front piece into a Versamark ink pad and them covered with clear embossing powder, I repeated this twice which gives a lovely glossy finish to the die cuts. I then stamped one of the matching stamps to finish the sentiment.

I wanted to keep this card fairly clean and simple so I used my Chinese Rose flower dies to create a simple rolled rose, I coloured the card with matching Distress Oxide before cutting, I rolled three roses and added two leaves in slightly darker shade.

I arranged these in the bottom left hand corner.

I really like how if turned out, it has quite a modern look I think.  I hope that you like it too!

I hope that the weather is kind to you all today,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Your Challenge Cards

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and are enjoying the weekend, although if you had the rain that we did yesterday you would have spent most of the day inside.  I think we had a few days rain in one afternoon, does anybody else love the smell of the air after a good rain storm??  I honestly thought that we were going to have a thunderstorm but at the time of writing this (18.40) we had had only one very quiet clap of thunder, I had 'that' feeling in my head that a storm was coming, but no, it would have been nice to clear the air a little as Friday night was hot and uncomfortable, I didn't even get to sleep until after 5.30am, once I had nodded off Milo was really fussing about something so was waking me about every 15mins !  I felt like a zombie all day yesterday, I did manage a little crafting though which was a bonus !

You have all been buying some lovely things if this AMAZING DISPLAY is anything to go by........

Brenda

Brenda has created two absolutely stunning cards using her brand new Stampin Up! Painted Poppy stamp set.

Brenda your cards are so incredibly beautiful, I now have added these stamps to my 'Wishlist'

Brenda's Description :

Card One

Stamped In Ranger ‘ Watering Can’ (grey) and coloured in with my Copics

I managed to get a smudge of ink in the base of the stems fortunately the stamp set has a shadow stamp which fitted perfectly so my poppies are grounded ha ha.

Card number two

Again had an error in as much I got a smudge on the right hand side, pondered how to cover it up ended stamping two more poppies and cut them out freehand - mess covered up!!!

I used the same ink pad from Ranger and my Copics. When I had coloured the large flowers in they didn’t stand out enough so I over stamped them in black .

Thank you so much Brenda for two beautiful cards, so inspirational ! XXX

Janet

Janet has designed two amazing cards for this weeks challenge, the first card is so very pretty, such a beautiful image, the decoupaged flowers add so much extra detail.

Your second card is fantastic, I love a 'Beach scene' card, this one is brilliant, I love those little beach huts are so iconic at so many British seasides, I believe that they are hot property in some places.

Janet's Description:

My first card I made using my latest purchase from STAMPERIA titled HORTENSIA.

My second card I made using an A4 stamp sheet I found while searching through a drawer. I cannot remember where I purchased it from or when but I haven't used any of the stamps on it until this week.

Thank you so much Janet for finding time to make Challenge cards despite having a very busy week. 

I am so pleased that you have your Stairlift installed, it's a simple thing but can be so life changing. XXX

Karen

Karen experimented with new 'Salad Spinner' for her challenge card this week, I love how these backgrounds turn out, each one is unique. The colours you have used really pop Karen and that sentiment works really well with background.

Karen's Description :

Here’s my spinner card I used CS Crystal Tints in the end Does give it a nice glossy finish Not keen I need to buy some paints I think and SW Happy Birthday

Thanks so much Karen for taking part in this weeks challenge, I hope you enjoyed this technique as much as i did! XXX

Maria

Oh Maria I love the beautiful scene on your challenge card this week, I love the style of card that you used too, having that sentiment topper set to one side on top of that lovely ribbon strip, everything works so perfectly together.

Maria received a Magazine that had a Hunkydory kit as the free gift, this gorgeous card features one of the toppers from the kit, Maria has used it to create her lovely challenge card.

Thanks so much Maria for pushing yourself to make a challenge card despite struggling with your 'Mojo', I think your card shows that your mojo was still in there XXX

Michele

Michele has designed 3 amazing Challenge cards, using the New Ella's Design kit and the amazing Corner dies from The Works.  Michele I think that these are some of your best cards, I love all three designs.

Michele's Description:

My 3 challenge cards made using my recent purchases-a digital download from Ella’s Design & the corner Dies from The Works.

Thanks so much Michele, I love your cards XXX

Lilian

Lilian your challenge card is so beautiful, I love both the colour theme and the design you have created, I see your new Stampin Up! Punch popping out too.

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week

Made with new Stamperia papers, new rubber stamp from stamping up set delicate details, found I hadn’t used this one. My new tag punch.

Ink is wisteria wonder, which I haven’t used either.

Did me good to have a search through my “stuff”.

Thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge, your card is amazing XXX

Sonia

Sonia I absolutely love your Challenge card this week, both completely different but gorgeous!

Sonia's Description:

For my first card I used my new products from Clearly Besotted. I used the triangle fade stencil as my background. I coloured the flowers from the ‘Thanks a Bouquet’ stamp set using Pro Markers and added the sentiment from the ‘Feeling Sentimental’ stamp set.

My second card is using stamps from Tracey Hey - Alpaca Pals. I’ve used Anna Marie Designs papers as the backing and I stamped the scalloped circle and the hearts from the ‘Doing Great’ set and coloured with Pro Markers. I stamped and cut the elephant from the ‘Mwah’ set, adding him to the centre. The sentiment is from a paper selection pack also by Tracey Hey. I’ve fallen in love with these stamps, so much so that I’ve already placed another order ☺️

Thank you so much Sonia for two totally amazing challenge cards, I love everything about them, if you ladies would like to see more of Sonia's incredible cards I will leave the link to her lovely Blog below......

Just click this link......

Sonia's Blog  

Thanks again Sonia XXX

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Ladies what an absolutely stunning display of cards this week, I am so grateful that you all fought against your busy schedules and lack of mojo to create some amaing challenge cards, Thanks so much XXX

I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Love and hugs to every one of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday featuring Michele's Magazine Review

Good Morning Ladies,

Well, another 7 days have whizzed bye and its the weekend again, YAY!!

Not sure whats planned,  depends on thd weather, Paul has to fix the lawn mower so we can tackle the jungle that was once a lawn, although we are forecast rain and thunderstorms today, we could have done with one last night as it was so humid it was awful.  

We discovered that must have a colony of Bats living in the huge trees on our driveway,  we have been sitting in the lounge in the dark watching them swooping and diving to catch any flying insect, totally fascinating and lets face it we aren't missing much on TV! 

I have been learning Spanish this past three weeks so that is my entertainment in the evening,  Paul wants to learn too but hasn't really started yet! 

Anyway lets see what you have all been up to this past week.......

Karen

Karen has finished this amazing blanket, I reallyove the colours you have used Karen,  they work perfectly together,  that pop of yellow really lifts it.

Karen's Description:

"Finished the blanket It measures approx 68”x 45”

It’s made from 4ply machine knitting yarn I thought I’d have enough red but seemed too narrow (plus I made the strips a bit too long) and found this mustard colour that matches the fleck in the red I’d already done all of the red and so just crocheted the mustard and joined it all together with the black"

You must be thrilled with how it turned out Karen   where are you putting it?

Thank you so much for sharing it with us xxx 

Michele

Michele popped to her local Range store last weekend and bagged these amazing bargains!!

Can you believe that they were £1.99 Each!!!

Michele admitted that she hadn't any projects in mind for them but at that price it would be daft to leave them there!! 

I love the 1st, second third and fourth ones very much, might have a detour when we go shopping on Sunday!

Thanks so much for sharing Michele XXX

My Spinning Backgrounds

I had an afternoon experimenting witb my Sala Spinner, I got mixed results I have to say, I wouldn't try Alcohol Inks, they evaporated even with the blending solution added, the last photo (pink ) was Distress Oxide sprays, the kind of worked but were very muted. 

The best results by far were achieved using Acrylic Paint, the ones I have are PaperArtsy Fresco paint,  they moved of the card well, even better if you added a light spritz of water.  

Tip: I stuck a blob of blue tac on the little raised bit on the bottom of the spinner, when you pop your card in press it into the blu tac slightly. 

I will say that there was quite a lot of paint in the bottom of the spinner, I did tip some onto a piece of card and it left a patterb similar to the shaving foam technique.  

The very last piece on the photo above is of a piece of card I placed between the spinner basket and the outside wall, to catch some of the spray off, it kind of works but was a bit hit and miss,  great if you have some off cuts of card to use up. 

I would definitely say give it a go,  it's great fun! 

Michele's Magazine Review 

Hi Ladies, 

Sentimentally Yours Stamping special magazine being featured today.

Look at what comes with the magazine-stamps,stencil & coordinating Die.

First of many features using the free gift. These are minimalist cards that are flat making them great for posting.

Cards made using a limited colour palette.

Part two.

This feature uses the free papers included in the magazine.

Part two of the nautical cards plus the first of 3 cards made using the boat stamp as the main feature.

Two more cards below using the boat stamp. Terrific techniques is all about Stamping techniques.

More stamped cards.

Great inspiration for male themed cards.

More inspiration.

Special occasion cards showing that this set of stamps & paps are quite versatile.

2 more ideas.

This article uses the stencil to create some cards.

Great article on aperture cards.

Cards with dimension.

More ideas for dimensional cards,

There’s more ideas in the magazine, I just ran out of time to feature them all.

Happy Crafting
Love Michele

Michele thank you so much for a fantastic in Depth review into Phil Martin's Box Kit, I was really keen to get mine, the papers are really lovely quality, thick and would take most techniques too.

There are some great features, I personally didn't find them particularly inspiring but there are lots of freebies to play with including a nice sentiment stamp set. 

I am really grateful to you Michele, as always XXX

That's all for today Ladies, I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Love and huge hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx 

Your Next Challenge

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

How can it be Friday again already?! It's been a frustrating and draining week for me but it has still flown by so quickly.  Janet it must feel like the dust has barely settled since last Friday this week has gone so fast!!

We paid the balance of our holiday yesterday as it got to the point of 'pay by 24th July or lose all money you have paid including deposit and holiday will be cancelled'' !  I was really annoyed as I had been messaging them to enquire whether everything was still safe to go as there has been quite a spike in Covid cases in Catalonia, their only response was 'The government have declared it safe to travel, so we see no concerns that would affect the safety of your holiday'', luckily I had also emailed the actual place that we stay at and asked them the same question, their reply was much more informative, they explained that Catalonia was a vast region, which is true, they had spikes in Barcelona which us understandable as its a big city and a couple of small towns our towards the Pyrenees, so they said that Covid-19 had has no effect locally and that all of their facilities were up and running including pool, restaurant, Bar, supermarket and childrens entertainment.  They said that they have provided many hand sanitisation stations around the site and that they would have 24 hr a day cleaning in bathrooms, I have to say that all of their wash facilities have always been immaculate so I am reassured, although we will have our own private bathroom in our mobile home, it's nice to know that they are putting in the extra measures in case you get 'caught short' on the way back from the beach.  The restaurant has now got an 'App' that you can download a Menu, so you aren't handling anything anyone else has touched. It is also compulsory to wear a mask in the supermarket and reception, I believe you also have to wear them out on the street too in Spain, not that we will be going far.

So I am relieved that I emailed them direct, Paul said that we will not use our usual holiday company again as they have clearly shown that money is far more important than care of customers.

Your Next Challenge 

It's been a few weeks since we have done a TicTacToe Challenge so I thought that's what we would go with for this week.  

I was searching through the different options on Pinterest and found some new ones that have some fun categories, the one above is one of them.

I think it has some great categories for 'Man' cards but there are plenty of choices for most other occasions too.

I am so looking forward to getting some cards made for this to inspire you all next week.

I hope that you enjoy it too.

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I hope that you all have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Michele's latest commission

 

 Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all enjoyed that glorious day yesterday,  it was so lovely and warm and we had beautiful sunshine 🌞 all day.

The girls went for a picnic in the evening to White Horse Hill which is a local (well not too far) beauty spot,  I think that they are hoping to get a glimpse of the 'Neowise Comet ' that has been on the news   we were trying to see it from our garden on Tuesday night, we didn't see anything though, we are usually quite lucky as our village only has one street light so there isn't much light pollution, it was a bit cloudy though, we may try again tonight, have any of you seen it?

Today's gorgeous card is Michele's latest commission, I love everything about your design Michele and as always your card is finished to perfection, every detail is precise from the placement of those tiny butterflies to your perfectly spaced sentiments.

Michele's Description:

"This us what I made for my Sister in Laws Mums 80th Birthday. Wasn’t given much information-likes pastel colours, flowers , birds & wildlife. Hates cats!! The panels are all at different heights to add interest and not make it too expensive to post (to Scotland). The frame was a Sue Wilson Shadow Box Die I flipped over to extend to fit a larger card."

Thanks so much for allowing me to share your card Michele XXX 

I had somewhat of a emotional day yesterday so my 'Mojo' was hiding under the desk I think! 

Fingers crossed I czn manage more than a couple of hours sleep 💤 😴 tonight.!

Sending love and the hugest hugs to all of my dearest friends, 

Sandra

xxxxxx

Another Challenge card

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well and have been enjoying the fairer weather, I managed to get two loads of washing done and dried which is a bonus, although it's getting frustrating looking out at the lawn as the grass has gotten so long, Paul tried to mow it last week but apparently as fast as he put petrol in it leaked out, so I have ordered a new part, in the mean time, the bees are enjoying the clover that has taken over the lawn! 

Yesterday I got to spend the afternoon with Lucy, we went shopping and bought and ice cream and enjoyed the sunshine, we were surprised at how many people still didn't wear masks, like they are only effective after friday when they become compulsory! We have worn them since we received them because despite making it harder to breathe I would prefer to take every possible precaution to stay safe and keep others safe, rant over, Soap Box returned to its cupboard.

Now on today's card, I know it's completely different to anything I have made recently but quite like the style of the cards in the 'Die Cut Book' that I bought in The Works' for £3, there are enough die cuts to make around 12 to 14 cards, which isn't bad for the money.

I took the basic pieces for the card from the sheet and after using a sanding block to remove the 'pips' that hold the pieces into the sheet, I then inked around the edges of all of the pieces I built the 'decoupaged' areas up and then placed the card front onto a mat of black card (to pick out the black in the card front) and then onto a piece of 'Crumb cake' lastly I used a piece of Petal Pink to pick up the peach tones in the card, I used this as the base card.

I added some sparkle by way of  a glitter pen, which gave a lovely highlight to the berries on the card, I traced the letters with the pen too, although it doesn't really show up on the camera.

I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the paper in this book and I'm looking forward to making the rest of the cards up.

I am waiting for an appointment with the GP today as my anxiety is really getting the better of me and I am in a fair amount of discomfort, they were supposed to get back to me yesterday but didn't, so hopefully I will hear from them this morning.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you, especially our Margaret and Lynda,

Sandra

xxxxxx