Mixed Up Saturday featuring Magazine Review

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

What are you all up to this weekend?  We have booked a tip run this morning (I know exciting right)! We will then do our shopping and I want to find a pot for my Anniversary Rose, we found nothing last weekend, so I think we will go to a Garden centre this weekend, fingers crossed.  Ooh I must tell you that Paul and I both found coats we like in Mountain warehouse in the Outlet centre last Sunday, they didn't have our size in stock so we ordered them and paid for them, we were told that they would arrive in 5 working days, well to our astonishment they turned up next day!  That's incredible service, we were really happy with them too, great quality.

Only 3 more sleeps until our meet up, I am determined to organise something so that more of us could meet up and have an overnight stay, maybe mix in some crafting with our chatting!!

Janet, I would definitely call about your passport, it does sound like you should have had it by now, I don't think we have ever waited that long, there is always the worry that it was gotten lost on route to you, mind you ours came by a courier, I hope and pray you receive in time for your trip to Marigny xxx

Karen's Trip to 

Country view Crafts

Karen & Kat at Country View crafts

Karen's Shopping

Karen has shared a few photos of her trip to Country View Crafts last weekend with her friend Kat. It is an amazing shop and it looks as though it has a bit of everything, it looks like a mini craft show, you bought some lovely things Karen, I'm not sure how you didn't end up with a trolley, I think I could spend hours in there, it looks like its work the 100 + miles journey!  Thank you so much for sharing photos of your lovely day out Karen, I really want to go now too !! XXX

Meet 'King Julian'

Karen shared her latest Amigurami Toft Animal with me yesterday, as I was admiring it Sophie came in and said ''Oh wow thats so cool it's King Julian from Madagascar (the movie). He is adorable and as always Karen manages to capture a funny expression on the faces of her creations!  Thank you so much for sharing him with us Karen, you have a major fan in our house (other than me of course) XXX

Die Cutting Essentials (issue 81)

This issue of Die cutting Essentials features a lot of Autumn Projects, there are some awesome samples and inspiration in this issue too.  The free gift is a really useful die collection, featuring two lovely Autumnal corners, a pumpkin, acorn and some foliage. there are some bonus words included too.

In this first feature Nicky Gilbert has designed some lovely projects using the free dies, showing different ways of using the stamps including creating stamps with them! 

I love the Hexagonal Wreath that she has created, I think it is my favourite card in this collection.

Lisa Horton is showcasing her latest dies in this feature, she has made some incredible designs, I really like the lattice die for DL cards.

This 'Skill Booster' feature has Kim Dellow explaining how to create 'Partial Die cuts', basically you leave an uncut edge to your die cuts giving you a 'hinge'.  You achieve this by leaving the side you want uncut hanging our of your machine.  It does give a fun look to the cards as the letter stand proud and having a different colour card underneath really highlights the letters. I guess its another way to get use our of our dies.

Gorgeous Seasonal Sparkle from Glynis in this feature on Chloe's Creative Cards products, these cards all have that 'Chloe WOW factor', they will certainly twinkle on your Mantlepiece!

Versatile Vellum is the title of this feature, I have to say that the cards are all really lovely, there is something luxurious about having Vellum or parchment on your cards, (i swear there was a feature on it in last weeks review too)!

Ingrid has used the Free die set with her Distress Oxides to create some lovely Autumnal cards, I don't think I have used my 'Crackling Campfire' DO yet, so I may have a go at one of these cards. She has created some lovely simple designs.

I have loved Julie Hickey's work from way back when she was with Craftwork Cards, I think that after being 'Let go' from Craftwork Cards in 2018 Julie has gone from strength to strength, I really love her own brand products and I own a quite a few, The 'Julie Hickey Design Glossies' are my go to for little finishing touch dots to finish a project, the really shine but are flat enough to allow your project to go through standard postage.  You will always find a good stock of her products at Dragons Paper Crafts, Hazel has made some incredible projects with Julie's stamps and dies. As this feature shows Julies cards are always really bright and cheerful.

This feature how to change up your boring basic card blanks using dies that you already own! A brilliant idea!!  Some of the folds are super simple...the 'Twisted Easel' for instance, is just a case of adding a diagonal score line across your card front, but by adding a couple of fun circle dies you have given a boring square card a luxury upgrade!  Oh I love those papers too!

I am really loving the 'Faux Embossed' technique, these cards are all lovely, I think that some would work great for our 'Shades of one colour' challenge this week too. This is something I will definitely will be having a go at. 

This feature basically shows you how to get different looks from one embossing folder, again there are some lovely examples of what you can achieve using an embossing folder from your stash.

Lastly some great ideas for cards for those 'Masculine Makes' that we all dread thinking up ideas for!  The products used in this feature are all Kaisercraft but I am pretty sure that you could substitute them with items in your stash.  I wanted to include this feature as I think that there are some lovely design ideas.  I do love that Texture Netting die they have used in the backgrounds of the cards. 

Thats all from this issue ladies, I hope that you have picked up some inspiration if nothing else from this review. 

************************

That's all for this week's 'Mixed Up' blog post, I hope that you have enjoyed looking through Karen's Craft shopping photos, I could certainly do with a trip to that shop!   I wanted to continue the Magazine reviews that our Michele used to do for us because I fine them a great source of inspiration if nothing else, we don't all necessarily want to go out and buy every issue but there are some great ideas in some of the features. 

One thing I love is the encouragement to get the most out of all of the craft stuff that we all have an abundance of, like the different ways to use an embossing folder or simple ways to transform a card blank using dies that we have our stash.  

Whatever you have planned for the weekend I hope that you have an enjoyable one,

Love and the biggest hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx