Your Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well and enjoying the weekend, hugs to those of you that are working or under the weather 😘 

Apart from making Soup and doing a bit of baking we had s very relaxing day,  I even managed to get two lines of washing out and almost dry, it gets damp so early in the afternoon now though (even worse after clocks go back tonight), there is nothing better than line dried bedding!!  Have you seen that you can buy Softener that is supposed to make your washing smell 'line /outdoor dried' ??  I have seen it but wouldn't bother buying it. !! 

No Sunday Roast today as Janet is relaxing, although I quite fancy some proper french baguette and some good cheese !! 

Let's get to the reason you all popped in today.....

Your Something Old,/Something New Challenge cards....

Karen 

Karen's Descriptions:

Card 1: "New image given to me by Sonia and a new A7 AALL AND CREATE stamp #382 in the background I used glossy accents on the centre of the flower"

Card 2:  Your Thank You card inspired by my new Tracy Evans using her Fragmented Hearts #538 Smooshed background with Tumbled Glass Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet DO decoupaged with triple embossed embellishments and Honey Doo cabouchons

Card 3:  Old items I haven’t used this Serif digikit in over 2 years The birds are on bought wobblers/boingers I haven’t used in over a year

So is the Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen on their scarves

Card 4:  Something old agai the butterfly from a magazine with smooshed Vintage Photo and Wilted Violet DO inspired by Tracy Evans

Card 5:  The culprit! 

I used your gift and heat embossed with gold and coloured with Shaded Lilac Cracked Pistachio and Speckled Egg (must agree with you Sonia and Lilian I love it)

Card 6:  6th and final card this week!

Old Serif digikit with new Tim Holtz quirky snowflakes cut from glittered card which I made using double sided adhesive sheet (old) on bright white card and MCS glitter (ancient)

WOW WOW WOW,  Karen  SIX incredible Challenge cards!!!! I will definitely be doing this challenge again.

Your cards are incredible Karen, I absolutely love the Aall&Create  cards, the first one, the colour sets it off, its lovely,  there is do much detail in the design,  so much to look at.  Card 2, I am holding in my hand, it really us a WOW card, so much incredible detail, the colours work so well together  too, those little cabouchons really do make a difference, they draw your eye to different parts of the card.  Card 3 & 6, these cards make me wish I was better on the computer, those little birds are both cute and quirky  (similar to Tim Holtz Crazy Birds, but much cheaper)! The card you made for Oscar & Charlie is brilliant, even down to the font, I so wish I was more technically minded.  I need a weekend retreat with you and a laptop!  Your new Snowflakes work great as an addition to the Digikit too.  Card 4:  I love that Butterfly and it works so well on your Tracy Evans inspired design,  this card would be great for next weeks challenge too (circle,)!  Card 5:  Now I haven't used this stamp set yet but your card has me really inspired,  those DO's work so well together, a great design, that sentiment works great with it too.                                Karen thank you so, so much for 6 incredible challenge cards, I am in awe of your inspiration, thanks again my lovely XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Here’s my card for this weeks challenge….

The background die is from Penny Black. The Hugs die is from Memory Box, inked and heat embossed with Kitsch Flamingo distress oxide and embossing glaze. The Christmas Roses are inked and embossed with Kitsch Flamingo too. The sentiment from The Stamp Market.

Oh Sonia, such a pretty little card, it highlights perfectly that those Christmas Rose stamps are not just for Christmas, they make the most beautiful flowers for any occasion,  You have also made me get out my Kitsch Flamingo DO again, as I just wasn't sure of the colour to start with.  That Hugs die is lovely,  a lovely font. The white on white background looks very classy too.  Another inspirational Challenge card.  Thank you so very much XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is my card, I Used acrylic paint, oh dear must remember in future to emboss my stamping. Spent ages with heat gun drying my stamping! 

The stamps are an old set by Kay Carley, I’ve had them a few years, but forgot all about them, EKC03. I have found three other sets, so will have a go at them next week maybe

Thank you so much Lilian your card is so beautiful,  when I zoomed in because I love looking at the detail of your cards the flower looks like beautifully coloured fabric, I so wish I had sn ounce of your colouring skills. The attention to detail on your cards is incredible from the glittered edges to the little dots on the flower stem.  I can totally see why your cards take longer than mine.  Thank you so much my lovely XXX 

Brenda 

Brenda's Description: 

I used Summer Shadows die set, as it was in my tray of not yet used dies and stamps.
Must try the stamps out next after seeing all the inspiration on Pinterest I’m champin at the bit as they say!

Brenda thank you much for such a pretty Challenge card, I love the deckle edging on the white layer, it really draws your eye in to those beautiful flowers, the colours you have chosen are so pretty,  I have overlooked this stamp and die set a few times but now I quite fancy popping them in my basket!! 

Thank you so much for such a beautiful card XXX 

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Ladies thank you so much once again,  as you can see we have some stunning cards on display, so many different styles znd techniques too. You are all amazing and I really do appreciate the time you put in to supporting the challenge X❤X

I hope that you all have a relaxing Sunday, those of you that have to work firstly thank you for the work you do caring for others and I hope your shift isn't too stressful ,

Love and huge hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all relaxed and ready to enjoy the weekend,  it's quite chilly here so I think we will be staying inside this weekend, I am looking forward to Crafting on my newly reorganised desk, I now have twice asuch room to create a mess on!!  Why oh why doesn't it stay tidy ??!!  I store all of my craft tools in jars on my desk, they had ended up a mixed up jumble of allsorts in each Jar, so as the final stage of me reorganisation I emptied them all out and put all paintbrushes in one pot, waterbrushes in another, pokey tools together, scissors,  embossing tools all in their own jars! It looks so much tidier. (For now).

Today's crafts:  

The stunning card that opened the blog today was designed by Our Sonia, it is the Baby Shower card she mentioned last week. It is absolutely amazing, its so hard to believe that you have used so many elements from different companies because the whole card ties together perfectly,  the embellishments compliment that gorgeous digi image from Polkadoodles so well, it looks like it was one complete kit.  You are so amazingly talented when it comes to card design Sonia, thank you do much for allowing to share your amazing   inspirational Card. XXX 

Sonia's Description:

I bought and  printed the digi image from Polkadoodles. The backing paper is from my stash and the hearts paper from The lovely Studio. Our lovely Karen kindly sent me the baby die cut embellishments, which I inked in Speckled Egg and Milled Lavender. I stuck the ‘It’s a Boy’ die cut inside the card. The sentiments are from The Stamp Market.

Karen 

Can you all guess who Karen is dressing up as for Halloween???? 

These have to be THE cutest Dalmatians ever! I love the one with just one spotted ear, have you named them Karen, or should I say Cr____a !!!! 😉 

Thank you so much for sharing your latest little darlings with us XXX 

IndigoBlu Magazine 5 Review

I saw this new Boxed Magazine collection while shopping in Asda last weekend and loved the look of the stamps so it just happened to end up in my trolley 😉

How lovely are those stamps, they seem to br great quality too, the sentiments stamp beautifully straight out of the box (no priming).  The stencil is lovely too and there are some nice projects that feature it too, lastly the dies, I instantly loved the font of the Merry Christmas dies and those quirky stars too.  I did buy the bonus Wreath die too,  you know I love a wreath, this wreath is designed to be used year round too.  

This feature has been designed by Carolyn Lakin to encourage everyone to have a go a Mixed Media, whether you are a complete novice or advanced. There are some lovely projects, I love Bauble and the 3D Bottles card, I really, really like those bottles! 

These projects are all designed using 'The Rule of Three',  there are handy little tips for beginners like the side feature on the first page where she explains step by step how to build up flat layers on your card front, the card she creates with it us really lovely .  I will be recreating that card and the green card with the Christmas Roses too. 

Sarah Jackman Read shares some different ways of using the Three Christmas Tree stamps in thr collection,  I'm not sure they are my cup of tea but I can take parts of the designs and incorporate them into something that is more 'me'! 

On these three pages Kay shows you some great designs and ideas using Flitterglu and Mega (gilding) flake. They are all real mixed media pieces, I bet the gilding looks great when you have the card in your hand  it doesn't show very well in the magazine,  I have their Megaflakes and they are really big pieces unlike the 'dust ' that you can get in cheaper brands.  The black tags look great with the Luscious powders on, so colourful.

Free Decorative Papers

The free papers in this kit are amazing, lots of detail in each page, Lovely colours too, they have pages with printed sentiments on and elements that you can fussy cut and use as the focal point on your card. 

These three pages focuses on the different Sentiments in thr Collection, using them as key features on the cards.  You may spot a familiar one on these pages!!

Sarah Gray has focused on the stencils for her feature,  using them to create backgrounds and as the main focus of the card too.  My favourite is that last card, she has used the stencils for the background and then stamped the bottled onto vellum and added them to the design, I will definitely be recreating this card. 

These three designs all use thd dies in the Bonus kit, the wreath die is quite a good size and as I mentioned earlier doesn't necessarily have to be for Christmas, I have made the first card and I love the one with the flowers on too.  Luckily the Wreath is a Circle, so works for next weeks challenge too !!!

These cards are designed to be Super fast to make  luckily the papers already have lots of layers of detail so you can get away with adding just a sentiment and a couple of embellishments. Personally I would add a little more, especially as these are all 7 inch cards, but they are a great starting point. The papers are such lovely colours though they do steal the show  

Some great cards for men in Jenn Mckean's  feature, highlighting the versatility of the kit  the second card would work perfectly for anyone in my opinion.  

Lastly some ideas highlighting that you case use some of the pieces in the Kit all year round, some lovely designs here I love the second card.

All in all I am really pleased with the magazine,  as I was with the other IndigoBlu kit box sets. I definitely think its worth the money (in my opinion) of course.

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That's all for today ladies  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend,  those of you that are feeling under the weather,  wrap up warm and relax,  a big hug is winging its way to you...

Love and warm hugs to all of you my dear friends, 

Sandra

xxx❤xxx

Your Next Challenge

 

Happy Birthday To Our Very Special Friend 

Karen

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

You know this time last week we were just getting back from London, in fact I wrote last Friday's blog post on the bus on the way home, but it seems like it was weeks ago!  This week has certainly flown by, the days will seem to be over even faster after the clocks go back tomorrow night/Sunday Morning.    I had to phone a freephone number about a parcel that hadnt arrived,   the chap I was talking too was in South Africa (don't ask) he was quite chatty and he asked me what the time was here, I told him and he was talking about the time difference between us and them,(they are 1 hour ahead) he went on to ask why we change the clocks back and forward,  he said it's really confusing,  I explained that it was started to make the most of the Daylight, I still don't think he understood though. 

Janet enjoy your first trip to the cafe (don't forget your covid passport)! I am looking forward to reading what you chose. 

Your Next Challenge 

For our next Challenge I would like you to include either "Square or Circles" on your card, the card itself doesn't have to be round or circle, there just needs to be either a Square or a Circle featured on your card, it could be a circular wreath or a square tag with your sentiment on, it's up to you.  Or this could be a chance to get your SW New York square out, blow the dust off and have a play!  

Whatever you choose to go for I can't wait to see it 🤩😍

I hope that you all have a lovely day  especially you Karen !!

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx