A Faux Embossed Card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

How can we be on the last day of January? I can't believe its only 4 days to Sophie & Lucy's Birthday,  they are quite excited mind.  I had no idea what to get them this year, with their Birthday being so close to Christmas it makes it even harder.  So I had a brain wave (I still get them occasionally)🤣

I thought I would sort all three girls Birthdays at once, so I booked for the 4 of us to go and see Moulin Rouge in London,  its next week too so they don't have to wait long, all three of them love musicals so it should be a lovely day, it only opened in January so I was surprised that I got seats, Becca is going to organise something nice for dinner too. 

Janet I hope you get your insurance quote sorted today, so that you can get on with the repairs before anymore bad weather xxx

Today's card is one I started a week or so ago, I created a 'Faux Embossed ' background buy laying down die cuts of the same colour card as the base card, in this case Petal Pink.  I used the Artistically inked stamps and matching dies.  I die cut a narrow gold circle to arrange my focal element around,  O

I atamped and die cut the flowers and leaves and arranged them around the left hand side of the circle, I kept the card simple and added the sentiment on a banner tucked under the flowers on one side. It is one of my favourite colours so its no surprise that I like this card. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Your Floral Challenge Projects

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

Well we ended up having a very long and exhausting day yesterday,  we ended up driving down to Brixham last minute yesterday as Paul's dad took a turn for the worse.  😪 

We just felt mentally and physically exhausted by the end of the day. 

Janet,  I do hope that your roof tiles all behaved themselves and stayed in place.  I hope you managed a power nap to catch up on the sleep you missed through the night.  I know what you mean about Jim not hearing,  Paul could sleep through an earthquake I think ! x

Your Flower Projects

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

I used an old Hobbycraft stamp with distress inks and the watercolour stamping technique. The flower is from an AALL and Create stamp set 😊 xx

Oh Sonia, the textured look you have created is SO incredible,  I was blown away when I opened your message.   I love this journal page 😍 xxx

Janet 

Janet's Description:

My first card was made using 'HOUSE OF ROSES' by STAMPERIA.

This 8x8 pad is just beautiful to use and the embellishments which match the papers are so detailed and just as beautiful as the papers.

My second card this week was made using 'LILAC' papers by 'LABLANCHE'. The embellishment is also 'LABLANCHE'.  These are removable from any surface so can be used again on another project if wanted.

Janet cards are both so beautiful,  you just can't go wrong with either Stamperia or LABLANCHE papers, both have such high quality papers and embellishments,  you have designed two stunning cards my lovely,  thank you so much for taking part XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Card 1:  Here’s a page that I copied from a TE video I don’t have the Hibiscus set so substituted the Worded Petals #567

Card 2: Here’s a page using the piece I was experimenting with I like it BUT I think I have spoiled it by adding the drawn border

Karen all three if your projects are stunning, card 3 is even better up close, so bright and beautiful 😍 

The Iris card is lovely,  I love the background and I don't think your edging spoilt it at all.

Card 1 is a wow with those amazing colours, you must be so happy with all of these Karen,  who knew even 18 months ago that your card making style would evolve into making layered inky backgrounds and exclusively stamped cards ?!  Thank you so much Karen for 3 stunning projects XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my Journal page , an idea from Pinterest, again, Tim Holtz flowers and one of their stencils. Not very good with sprays, did several that went in the bin, so had to use this one.

Lilian your journal page is so beautiful,  did you stamp and stencil onto a book page as I love the delicate script in the background the mask you have used is pretty too. Your arrangement of flowers is beautiful Lilian finished with that pretty perfectly matched bow.

Thank you so much for such an inspirational piece xxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ladies thank you so much for supporting the challenge,  seeing your cards and journal pages has been truly inspirational. 

I hope that you all have a lovely sunday,

Love and Hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I love this craft quote, it's so true and I would also like to add that they make the most Amazing Friends too.  I feel so incredibly blessed to have you Amazing Ladies as my Blog Family ❤😘😍

Karen

Karen was asked to make these amazing cards by her Daughter Charlotte, I think Charlotte is like my girls and loves the fact that she can give her friends the most amazing personalised cards, with the added benefit of them being Free!!   

Both cards are fantastic,  the dress on Barbie with its sparkling sequins is so pretty and I can just see the delight in the little girls eyes when she opens this card.   

Dexter's card is awesome too, such a bright and cheerful card. 

Thank you for sharing these cards with us Karen XXX

Karen's Shopping 

Karen's Description:

Ecoline Pens: 

A bargain (I think) 20 pens for £25 from eBay

I have tried out the Ecoline pens too OMG They are so vibrant which I love and you need the tiniest tiniest amount to blend out I used far too much! Lesson learned!

Dymo Machine:

Alan got this from Aldi 

It seems like a bargain at £15 (Amazon £31ish) 

Doesn’t do white writing on black tape or embossed but I I will be able to label things and maybe a bit of text on a card

Karen those Ecoline pens look so juicy and vobrant, they blend out smoothly too, some beautiful colours too, I can't wait to see you start creating with them, I think Our Lilian may have these and said that they work well on specific card, hopefully she will see this and confirm which card works best.

Your Dymo Machine will be so useful both for organising your craft room and more importantly for your craft projects.  

Thanl you so much for sharing your shopping with us. It's so lovely seeing what everyone buys XXX

Sue's Magazine Review 

Simply cards and papercraft

       Issue 226

This months magazine has some beautiful floral stamps and sentiments. They are some of the prettiest freebie stamps I think I have ever had and I think they will become my “go to” flowers.

The first article shows several clean and simple slimline cards which are so popular at the moment.

The stamps are used to make gifts in the next article. Isn’t that a gorgeous stamp.

There is a good watercolour article which shows some more lovely cards using the free  stamps that a non painter like me will actually have a go at.

This is something that we could all do and wouldn’t they make great cards for the men?

Have you put your festive dies away? You may want to get them back out once you see these bright and cheerful cards after looking at them in a different way. Again I think these cards will be good for the teenage boys and the men

A simple photo frame becomes a calendar that you can update any time you want, maybe a change of colour or background for each season?

Making your own stencils will be really useful for your art journals so this article may be just what you want to see

There’s also several other articles and the usual prize drawers with chances to win various crafty bits.

I hope this gives you an idea of what’s on offer this month. Enjoy yourselves

Thank you so much Sue for a fantastic review, the free stamps are amazing and there are some really inspirational projects.  I really appreciate you taking the time to write the review XXX

Lilian made this really special Christmas card for me this year,  the stitching must have taken ages, I didn't want to put it in my treasure box, so I bought a picture frame and popped it in, now I can get it out each year as a Christmas Decoration.  Love it ❤

I hope that you ladies all have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

YAY, It's Friday!!  What do you ladies have planned for the weekend?  Nowt much happening here!  So hopefully I will get some crafting time.  Paul has started preparing the garden for the 'busy ' season, there are always loads of jobs to do in the garden, I look forward to being able to get out in the garden, it's too cold at the moment though and to slippy too.  So I will have a hot drink waiting for him when he comes in, that's as near to gardening I will be getting for now. 

Sue and I had a lovely day yesterday, I left all the bits out for Sue to have a go with the Alcohol inks in water technique,  she made some lovely backgrounds, lots of different colours, I can't wait to see what they get turned into Sue, thank you for coming over xxx

Our Next Challenge 

I thought that we could have some fun with Texture this week, you can choose how you create texture on your project, you can use an Embossing Folder, Embossing Powder, you could use Washi Tape, or any kind of Paste through masks and stencils.   Or Even Faux Embossing where you use die cuts to create texture. 

You can make Cards, Tags, Journal pages,  book marks or a canvas,  whatever you like.

The only rule as always is that you enjoy creating it. 

I can't wait to see what you create. ❤

Have a lovely day Ladies, 

Sending my love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra

xxxxxx

A Pixie Powder Background Card

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you managed to stay warm and cosy yesterday, I was tucked up in many layers and virtually sitting on my oil radiator in my craft room.  I have started putting my clothes on the Aga at night so that they are super warm and cosy when it comes to putting them on. 

Did any of you watch the BBC 'Around the World in 80 days' featuring David Tennant over Christmas, we recorded it and finished watching it last night, it was a really good version of the story, David Tennant played Phileas Fogg, it was a real mix of thriller, feel good factor and a little bit of Romance, by the last episode we were really on the edge of the sofa willing him on!! It is so rare to find something decent to watch these days. I would love to know if any of you watched and what you thought.

Todays card is the result of an experiment, I used a piece of 'Mixed Media' card and stamp a flower from SU Flower Shop stamp set down one side of the card and across the bottom and a little across the top, I stamped in Versamark and added white embossing powder and heat set, I was going to do the Emboss resist technique using Pixie Powders. 

I placed the stamped piece of card on my messy mat and sprinkled a little Golden Mint and Peacock Green Pixie Powders over the embossed areas, I spritzed it with water and watched the magic happen, I was surprised as both Sue and I have always had such rubbish results before.  I popped it onto the Aga to dry and when I looked at it I just wasn't sure about it but I thought if I punched a flower the same as the one I used on the background in matching coloured card and added a tiny dusting of the Golden Mint Pixie Powder to tie it into the background, I spritzed it with water and dried it and then did the same with the leaves.  I arranged them onto the background and stamped a sentiment on the top left corner in Black ink. 

I looked at it after I had matted it onto matching Green matt and then onto a white base card and all of a sudden it just looked OK, I really love the amount of shimmer and the colour mix, so I went from being 'hhhmmm I think I will just bin it' to 'Ooh I love it' in the space of 45 mins.  So before you bin a background just give it a second chance. lol 😂😁

I am hoping to see Sue today, which is lovely because Paul has to go into the office, I am looking forward to some crafting with a friend, which is a perfect combination.

I hope that you all have a lovely day too,

Love and Hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

A pretty blue watercoloured card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well and staying warm in this chilly weather, we did have a little sunshine yesterday but it didn't last long, we had to have all the lights on from lunchtime.  We were sat in the craft room and with the heater on and thick jumpers on all day.  I do worry about leaving the heating on all day every day, our Gas bill will be ridiculously high next time.  Sophie has a big oil filled radiator in her room to keep her warm while she works too.  Looking forward to the warmer weather but looking at a weather report yesterday it was forecasting snow and bitterly cold weather in early February, although that's not unusual.

Janet I hope that you enjoyed Knit & Natter yesterday, it is unnerving going back after a break, but I'm sure that you where all Nattering in no time, are you all still doing crafting projects?  xxx

Karen I hope you enjoyed your afternoon with Oscar, I was so pleased to read that you got to go dancing too, I think it's great that they will keep Lateral Flow Tests up as it just gives you peace of mind. xxx

Brenda it was lovely to see you and chat to you and John briefly yesterday afternoon, you looked really well.  I hope you are feeling a little less nauseous today my lovely xxx

Lynda I hope that you are battling on with your physio my lovely, try not to worry too much about your test results, maybe have another try at some crafting to keep your mind busy, maybe start an art journal, it's less pressure as it's just for you! xxx

Sonia I loved your different Alcohol ink backgrounds, they all look subtle on camera than they do in your hand, they work great for cards and Art journal pages, I look forward to seeing what you create with them. xxx

Lilian I hope your appointment goes well today my lovely, you will be in my thoughts all day, now I really liked your Alcohol ink backgrounds, it shouldn't matter what card you use, the water just has to be room temperature, the ink sticks to the card from the surface of the water as you pass it through.  I look forward to seeing you make something with them. xxx

Maria  welcome home my lovely, have you got the holiday blues, it always seems to hit a couple days after you get home, when you are wishing that you were back in Austria eating delicious cake.  Maybe we can organise a meet up for February hopefully that will cheer you up xxx

Sue so lovely to see you over messenger yesterday afternoon too, but even better that I will be seeing you over the table later this week !!!! I am looking forward to some crafty fun my lovely xxx

Michele if you peek in I hope that you got your extra shelf unit up and got those final bits of your craft room organised my lovely xxx

Today's card was the end product of a little colouring tutorial for my Zig Clean Colour pens, although I was missing a couple of shades of green and blue so I improvised, I'm quite happy with the results, I was going to make it into a journal page but then decided to use it as a card, I can always change my mind again and stick it in my journal.  The stamp is from 'That's Crafty' its called 'Boho Vibes 2''.

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday, stay warm and safe,

Love and Hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                                                                                          xxxxxx

Floral Journal page

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I had a fun crafty day yesterday,  I spent a good hour or so making backgrounds. I only noticed that our Sonia said she was going to play with Alcohol inks yesterday when I came to write the blog, I got up with the idea of playing with them for a change.

I got a bowl of water and dripped Alcohol inks into the water and then passed pieces of card through the water, the alcohol inks sit on top of the water and cling through the dry card as it passes through.

Here are some of the backgrounds I created:

The colours look less vibrant in these photos, the first 3 have a shimmer to them as I used Pearl Alcohol inks, the last one has lots of bits of shimmer as it was one of the last ones I did and there bits of the previous inks floating around.  I really enjoyed this technique,  it's kind of fool proof and I got better results than I have using Alcohol inks other ways,  I will say that I have blue stained hands though! 

I used Aall&Create #266 Daisy Elegance stamp set, I fussy cut the flower that I stamped on Watercolour card and coloured it with Chromatek pens and a waterbrush, they do seem to blend quite well. I used the same colours on the vase, the background was one of my Alcohol ink backgrounds with a little stamping and stencilling to carry the orange/yellow from the flower to the background. The Tim Holtz Tape in black I used to tie in the black stamping. I popped it into my black journal as the black background made the colours in the card pop! 

I used a tag cut from same background to write my notes on too.

I hope that you are all well and have  lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx