Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well and ready to enjoy the Bank Holiday Weekend,  what do you all have planned?  We haven't planned anything as yet as I have a  really sore throat,  no voice and flu symptoms,  had I not just had it I would be convinced I had Covid !!   Hopefully I will feel better and we can get out somewhere.  

I have shared Karen's amazing Chalkboard effect card today,  Karen coloured it using Dovecraft Chalk ink pads. The font is a downloaded Chalkboard font. It all works so well together.  Thank you for sharing your card Karen XXX

Creative Stamping Magazine 

Issue 108

This issue's free gifts are themed around the upcoming Royal Jubilee.  I really like the Mask, although I'm not sure how many of the stamps I would use. 

A great selection of cards for different occasions made with free stamps and mask.

This selection of cards are lovely, they are all designed using Gilding Flakes, the designer has either used them on the background or to create the embellishments. Below is a description of how to use Gilding Flakes to create a background....

These are the last two cards with Gilding flakes creating little touches of luxury.

This feature shows different examples of cards made with Brightly Coloured Ink Pads.

This Masterclass shows you how to do the "Glow" Technique,  which is something I haven't heard of.  It looks you need a good quality White Pigment Ink before you start adding colour. 

The brightly coloured inks are mostly Distress Oxides. The cards all look really effective though.  Karen's card above looks very much like the Chalkboard effect.

Some great cards for men using the Free Gifts. 

This feature shares ideas using your Nesting dies with the free stamps. 

I like some of these designs, although I wouldn't call them 'Clean & Simple ' as described in the description. It showcases how effective that mask is too. 

These cards have touches of luxury added using different methods,  using mountboard to add to add texture ot torn edges to create texture.  Also embossing the mask to add extra interest.

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Some fun ideas and techniques to have a go at in this issue. 

I hope that you all have a fun weekend, hopefully you will be spending time with family or friends.

Sending my love and hugs to you all,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you ladies are all as well as can be expected and aren't too exhausted after doing your swearing (Housework) ready for the weekend.  I always wonder on a Monday morning why I bothered on Friday, as the house looks just like it did Friday morning, not the whole house, our worst areas are the large hall downstairs,  the girls come in the door,  dump whatever they are carrying on the side table, keys, cards, water bottle,mask, they will then kick their trainers off, ( 5 pairs at one point last week) the frustrating thing about that is they walk past the shoe rack as they come in!  Then there is the trail of things on the stairs, I have a basket at the bottom where i put all the things I gather up belonging to them for them to take up with them,  we put their folded washing there etc but they just walk past it.  If you say anything about it to them, you are nagging!!  The one bonus is if they have their partners coming over, they will be flying round like something possessed,  vacuuming,  polishing, cleaning mirrors, windows etc, so we are thankful for that.   

Our Next Challenge 

For this weeks challenge I thought it would be fun to have another play with creating Backgrounds, you can use whichever technique or medium you fancy, you can use Stamps, Embossing folders,  Stencils/masks, alcohol inks, sprays,  patterned papers, anything you like, just have fun creating! 

I can't wait to see what you all create x

I hope that you all have a Fabulous Friday, 

Love and squishy hugs to all,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

One More Monochrome card

 

Good Morning Ladies,

Janet I am so pleased that the sun is shining for you and that you managed to post a comment yesterday.  We had a very overcast day yesterday,  it was much cooler too, I do hope the predicted cold May isn't right, warm sunshine makes everything feel better including your mood.  

As predicted it was a quiet day here, Lucy was home but Flynn came back from Plymouth so she went off to fetch him late morning, I sat and had a little play in my craftroom. 

Today's card is the result of my little play session, I stamped the flower in Versamark over a piece of Pool Party card, added white embossing powder and heat set,  I took thr pool party ink pad and a dauber and added a little ink to each flower blending outwards, I then added a little touch of Tranquil Tide to the very centre. I matted the pool party layer onto a narrow mat of Tranquil Tide card ans stamped the sentiment i  that colour too to tie everything together.  I finished by adding the piece to a white base card and adding a few Resin dots to the flower centres.  I hope you like it.

Now to set my brain into challenge mode, what shall we have as next weeks challenge????

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Monochrome with a hint of PINK!!

 Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all well,  we had a mostly s7nny day yesterday,  it got cloudy and cooler later in the day, it looks like that is going to be the weather for the rest of the week.  I did read a news piece yesterday saying that May is to be really cold.  It reminds me of something my Nan used to say "Cast not a clout till May is out" !  I believe it means don't be putting your Winter woollies away till May is out.  I love these old 'Wives Tales'  It is easy to get carried away when the sun shines, we have been caught out once planting out our French Beans too early.  Do you have any old tales or sayings that you stick to???

Today's card is another simple card, some monochrome papers matted onto a piece of white card with a little scalloped bright pink border die cut, I stamped the sentiment in the same colour matted it onto black background and adding a little piece of that scalloped pink border underneath. I finished off the card with 3 pink gems. 

Paul is off into the office today so a quiet day for me, sadly with the demise of Craft store (since its take over of C&C) I don't have that to listen to in the background anymore,  I know you ladies think the same, such a shame, it's like nothing of Craft Store has survived. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs 

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

Another Monochrome with a Splash

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Just to let you all know I had a message from Janet yesterday to let me know that they arrived safely, she is having trouble commenting on the blog so I thought I would let you all know that they arrived safely.  

We had a beautiful sunny day, not as warm as yesterday and there were a few clouds hanging about but they never caused any problems.  I spent most of the day at my desk though  got a couple cards made, which is quite good for me S O usually only manage 1, the designs are simple though.

Today's card is made up of a Stampin Up Butterfly folder embossing folder embossed background,  I stamped and punched out the two butterflies and then added some colour, you can't really see but I covered both butterflies with a glitter pen, for a hint of Sparkle. I layered the butterflies onto a white square die cut a slightly larger black mat, I die cut a banner die and added that on top of butterfly background,  then placed the butterflies on top of that.  I finished off with the 'Hello' die cut sentiment. See I told you it was simple!

Have a lovely day Ladies, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

Monochrome with a Splash of Colour

 Good Monday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you have all had a lovely weekend, we were blessed with good weather, the only problem with that is that it is too easy to get carried away with 'a few simple jobs'!  We got Paul's penstemon's all repotted and the new ones I had ordered potted up too, I had ordered some Petunia's in some gorgeous mixed colours a few weeks ago and they arrived on Friday so they got potted up too.  I forgot to put my geraniums in the greenhouse last autumn so I lost most of them but 3 survived, so they got treated to some new soil with some fertiliser in, we have the most invasive Antirrhinums (Snap Dragons) I have ever known, they seem to end up in pots they have no business being in, so I managed to get them pulled out. I was hoping to pot on my Basil and Coriander plants but my body said No!  Paul managed to finally get the last of the summer house taken down so we both felt like we had a productive day, I felt sorry for him though as I was calling him for help every half hour or so, we had a lovely lunch in the garden, I think lunch in the sun makes Ham/cheese salad sandwiches taste so much nicer, the bread was the star of the show a local gentleman makes bread and gives any profit to the church roof, it started out as a hobby but now his weekly bread delivery is very popular, I wasn't expecting one this week but he popped by yesterday to see how we were all doing and left us a large granary loaf, still warm!  It just tastes so much more than shop bought bread. 

Janet I hope that you have arrived safely my lovely, no doubt your lovely friends had it all ready for your arrival, now put your feet up and relax my lovely. XXX

Today's card is a perfect example of this weeks challenge, I made this one in July 2019, I will leave the description below: 

I took a piece of Botanical Butterfly Dsp, this particular sheet is completely black and white, therefore to 'Spotlight' a piece of it I just coloured it in with pencils, leaving the rest of the background black and white. So the Butterfly is the spotlight area of my card. 

I know we aren't doing 'spotlight'  but Monochrome with a splash of colour is kind of the same thing, so I thought this was a great example, I was fully intending to make a card after gardening, however after 'supervising' Paul making lasagne for dinner I was totally spent, so a throwback card it is.  I know already that there will be no garden adventures for this body tomorrow so I will be sat in my craft room.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                                                                                          xxxxxx

Your Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

Woohoo I'm Free, I tested Negative yesterday, Sophie did too so we can remove the approach with caution sign at the front door!! 😉  

I felt apprehensive about going out after 2 weeks self isolating but knowing how badly I suffered with anxiety about leaving home in the past Paul was very persuasive, we did need to get a pot for my anniversary rose quite urgently,  so we set out for the garden centre, I think we were there a couple of hours, as it is a right Aladdins cave, I was asking a lady who had a huge trolley full of vegetable plants if she had used this nursery before and she was happy to tell me that she buys from there every year and they are very successful,  she went on to tell me that the old fella that runs it has so much knowledge,  she said "We thought we had Wild boar digging up our lawn, so we asked his advice, she said "he went out the back and came back with a bag of Lion 💩 poo!!"  We never had any more problems!! 😂🤣😂                                    We came home afterwards and I needed to lie down as I has was so exhausted,  I think recovery ftom this is going to take a few weeks.  Soph went back to work yesterday too, she was ready for bed when she got home. 

Today will be mostly relaxing I think, a few garden job to do if the weather is good. 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s another cc

I used Sue W Decorative Flags, a bargain bucket snowflake EF and a mixture of Britannia dies double stacked for sentiment

I love the clean and simple look of this card Karen, 

Another Christmas card to add to the box!  This would also look lovely with a big red poinsettia in top corner too.  Thank you so much for this lovely card and for the others last week XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

The first one I embossed a piece of Anna Marie designs patterned card with a cuttlebug (I think) folder. I inked over it with Speckled Egg. I used Tim Holtz butterfly and a LOTV sentiment.

The second card I used an EF in my stash, matting it on black card. I inked the extra Happy Birthday in Kitsch Flamingo.

Two gorgeous cards Sonia, love the paper on the first card, the embossing folder with that added colour work so beautifully with it. Your signature butterfly is the perfect finishing touch !  

A lovely clean and simple card , I really like those word embossing folders they make 'quick' card creating so easy, as you have everything including the sentiment included. 

Two lovely cards, thank you so much XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

 Here is a journal page for this weeks challenge. Very old embossing folder called”Vintage Dressmaker” by couture creations. Paper is from Stamperia house of roses.   

Oh Lilian I absolutely 😍  love your journal page,  it would make  stunning card too!  That embossing folder is gorgeous,  everything including the sentiment works so well, thank you so much for such an inspirational piece XXX

Maria

Maria's Description:

Love, I used a flower EF and coloured in with my colouring in pencils.

X-Mas, I used a EF with Pine needles. Used TH Oxide in greens and 

then tried to use some Gilding wax but never again. I'm too heavy handed Lol

The little bear is a sticker I put on glitter card and just cut  out around.

Happy Birthday, I used a paper and EF and when it went through the machine

the paper cracked slightly and the middle split apart so I thought I keep it that

way. Don't remember what it's called, oopsy.

3 Amazing cards Maria, you have coloured the flowers on the love card so beautifully, it looks like a luxury background paper,  so pretty! 

I love the effect of the gilding wax Maria, it is easier to use the back (hard) side of cut & dry foam to add Gilding wax,  dab it in wax the dab some off on your glass mat, then lightly swipe over raised areas, you will always get some where you don't want it though, I hope that helps 😘

Now the colours on your third card are lovely,  love the design too.  A great card for men too.  Thank you sp much for 3 amazing Challenge cards XXX 

Sue

Sue's Description:

I used an old Sue Wilson A4 Embossing folder.

What a lovely Easter /Spring card Sue, I love the pretty colours, the Butterflies on the vellum strip make such a lovely border. I have this folder and always forget to use it.  Thank you so much for taking part my lovely,  I hope you had a lovely day out XXX

*****❤*****

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx