Georgina 's Christmas Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

It barely seems a couple days that I was preparing myself to go to the village coffee morning wuthout Paul,  thanks to my lovely neighbour Diana, who very kindly offered to wheel me round, you ladies know that for me to go anywhere without Paul or the girls or Sue is a huge thing, I was a stressy mess, anxiety through the roof, but I did it, I felt at times like I wasn't 'in the room', it was like I was watching myself sitting there, very odd.  Diana has asked me to go again tomorrow,  Paul is home which is a bit more comforting, knowing he is just around the corner!  So I might just go, see how I feel at 9.45am. 

Today's card is one that the lovely Georgina has shared to inspire us for this weeks Christmas Challenge.  Georgina made it with John Lockwood's Christmas Tree die set, I have to say that I hadn't seen that Christmas tree die before and I really like it, I liked the one he launched last weekend too. Georgina has die cut on gold and teamed it with black which really makes the Gold pop!  

I love your design Georgina, thanks so much for sharing it with us. XXX 

Ladies I hope you all have a lovely Thursday,  mine will NOT be spent doing Housework, it's all done, I NEED to sit and do some crafting,  I don't remember when I last sat and just played with my craft stash!! 

Sending my love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxxxxx 

Brenda's card for Lilian's Colour Challenge

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

We had a very breezy day yesterday,  mostly sunny though thankfully!  I didn't get outside much though,  both girls were home so I am pleased to report that there was lots of vacumming and cleaning going on, I say that but they probably just switched the vacuum on to make it sound like they were busy! 🤣😂  i got a few more little jobs done but had to keep resting,  Paul had given me orders to rest when he left for work.  (Well i did for a  couple of hours( 😉

Today's beautiful card is the one that Brenda made for Lilian's Colour Challenge last weekend.

Brenda's Description:

I used Honey Doo stamps and dies for the flowers on this card and coloured them with my Copics. The sentiment is from Julie Hicks, another stamp and die set,  I cut the back section twice to give the sentiment a little more definition.

Thanks so much for taking time to make such a lovely card for Lilian's Challenge.  Your card is Beautiful,  I love the colours you have used, I have to say that the sentiment looks fantastic,  it really pops!  You wouldn't think backing with white would create such incredible difference . XXX

Ladies I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Sending my love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx

Maria's cards for Lilian's Challenge

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you had a more exciting day than I did yesterday, my focus was the utility room,  in our house the utility room is a 'dumping ground' for the rest of the house!  3 bin bags full of rubbish, I found a secret stash of old carrier bags (not the reusable ones) lord knows what Paul was keeping them for I have no idea what he was keeping them for, I carefully disposed of some of them in the bottom of a bin bag along with quite a few other things.  I did a sly fist pump as I saw Paul launch the bags over the barrier at the tip!  Three tip runs in three days!  WOOHOO!  It feels so liberatng!  (i'm not sure Paul felt quite as elated as I did)  The downstairs is almost done, just my craft room to tidy now!

Now after my very busy day on Saturday I thought that I had added all of the cards for Lilian's Challenges but after checking my emails yesterday I saw that both Maria and Brenda has made cards too.  In some ways it's a bonus with me having such a busy week, as I have two days covered already which is a huge help. 

Today's cards are Maria's Blue/green/yellow themed cards.....

Maria's Description:  Maria

I managed to get together two cards for Lilian's challenge, Blue,Yellow and Green. 

I went to search in my bit box and found a pierce of paper that 

worked for this week's cc. I used some of Christina G. dies,

sending hugs by SW and some crystals to finish the card off. 

My second card is also from my bit box where I found this already

stamped piece of paper, no name. Coloured it in with DO (must 

remember to use the right paper/card as this didn't like water).

Maria your cards are gorgeous, my favourite is that lovely Beach scene, it looks exactly like the little path we walk down to get to the beach when we are in Spain.  I have a feeling the stamp might be a magazine freebie but I could be wrong.  Both of your cards from your Bit box is fantastic!! I actually have quite a few half made bits in mine so I feel a 'Bit Box challenge coming on!

Thank you so much for supporting Lilian's Colour Challenge Maria XXX

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

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                                                                                          xxxxxx

Some more Christmas Inspiration

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

Here we are in the last week of June, I honestly can't believe how fast this year is going, it just doesn't seem possible that it will be July by Friday!!   We haven't had anything exciting happening either, so usually time drags, but at the moment it's Monday Morning one minute and Friday afternoon the next. Is it just me??

I am sharing some more Christmas cards to give you some inspiration today,  truth be told we have our annual inspection vthos week and its proper stressing me out, Paul has been busy in the garage all weekend and I have been doing jobs inside, you know how I stress over things like this, despite me saying to Paul, "this is our home, that we pay to live in so why am I worrying!! I think it's a woman thing!  For example I took all the bottles out of wine rack cleaned them and the rack and needed help putting the back, same with shoe rack in front porch, little jobs that have been bugging me for ages.

I hope that you all have a good day,  

Love and hugs  to all,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Your cards for Lilian's Challenge

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope you are all having a peaceful Sunday Morning.  The weather was much nicer than i anticipated yesterday, meaning the trip to the tip wasn't too dreadful mind you that place does stink!   How do the seagulls know where the tip is?? They are normally at the seaside right, Swindon is nowhere near the tip, these are the bizarre things that cross my mind while I am waiting for Paul to unload or rubbish!! Ooooh it feels so liberating!! 🤣🤣😂, 'm not sure Paul shared my excitement though! 

Now lets look at your cards for Lilian's Colour Challenge....

Your Challenge Cards 

Lilian

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week, I used Brushos for a change, Tim Holtz wild flower stamps, and black embossing powder. Hope you are enjoying your day. Very quiet here, so am watching the tennis. R home again this evening. Enjoy your week end.

Ooh Lilian I love your background, I forget to use my Brushos, this is just the inspiration I need to get them out.  This would be lovely as a journal page too. 

Thank you so much for inspiring us and for choosing this weeks challenge XXX 

Brenda

Brenda designed this card for a different Challenge but it just so happens to work perfectly for this Challenge.  The stamp is by HoneyDoo and Brenda coloured it with her Polychromo pencils and blended over with Copic pens.

Such a beautiful card Brenda, Thank you so much for inspiring us XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest. I used a Gummiapan stamp, stamped in Mustard Seed distress ink, and Nautical Blue and Olive Grove Memento Dew Drop inks. I inked the edges of the rectangles too and used my Lindy’s sprays to add some splotches. The sentiment is The Stamp Market.

Absolutely stunning Sonia, its beautiful in its simplicity,  I love the colours,  the design is just..Wow!  Thank you so much my lovely XXX 

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Here’s a blue/yellow card for Lillian’s challenge 

An inked piece of watercolour card using Salty Ocean and Fossilised Amber DO (Squeezed Lemonade was too pale) Over stamped with some Tracy Evans A7 stamps and used SueW Big Bold Words die and stamp with Lidl coloured card.

Love this card Karen it is so bright and cheerful,  the background is amazing,  I do love Salty Ocean though.  A great card to have in your standby box as it's great for any gender. 

Thanks so much for designing such a fantastic card for Lilian's Colour Challenge XXX 

Janet's Description:

I used LABLANCHE - travel and vintage theme. Colours  Gold and Yellow.

A lovely vintage themed card perfect for those pesky menfolk!! 

Thanks so much Janet for sharing a perfect card for Lilian's Colour Challenge XXX 

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

Ladies thank you as always for supporting Lilian's Challenge your cards are amazing X❤X

Lilian thank you so much for suggesting this weeks challenge XXX 

I hope that you all have an amazing Sunday,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

I hope today finds you well, it's much cooler here so easier to move around.  We (well Paul) has to taxkle the Garage, I have booked two Tip appointments one for today and one for tomorrow!!  Apart from than we have nothing much planned.  

What are you all up to??

Today I have done a magazine review, we have Maria's flowers to brighten our day and a lovely card from Georgina..  

Maria's Beautiful Flowers 

Maria has shared some of her Beautiful flowers with us, Maria your plants all look so healthy, especially your roses!  What an amazing display no wonder you love sitting out there so much. 

Thank you so much for sharing XXX

 Georgina

Georgina is one of our lovely blog followers, I received an email from her as she wasn't getting notification emails anymore, luckily she still manages to find the blog everyday.  I persuaded her to share one of her cards with us and thankfully she agreed, so here it is.  It looks like a Dolly Dimples shoe but I could be wrong!  I love that metal sentiment Georgina!!  Thank you so very much for following and for sharing your card with us.  Maybe you'd like to make a Christmas card for next weeks challenge?  We'd all love to see it. XXX

Creative Stamping issue 110

This month's issue comes with a lovely free gift set, you get a collection of scene stamps, some of which are Hunkydory, plus a set of three word dies (Best Birthday Wishes). There are some incredible inspiration pieces featured throughout the whole magazine  and some great techniques.

Sarah Jackman shows us her take on some great Masculine cards, the little 'How To' shows you how to create a 'Stamped over the Edge image and then using that to create a partial die cut card.  Ot looks so effective.  

I don't usually share the articles that are designed to encourage you to spend on particular brands, for example Chloe’s Creative Cards has a double page spread enticing you to buy the latest stamps!  But this Julie Hickey feature shows some amazing background designs that can be used with ANY  stamps, the little 'How To' shows how to create the Bleached effect.  Some lovely cards showcasing some amazing inspiration.  

Teresa has used different techniques to create some lovely inky backgrounds that show the Coastal scene stamps brilliantly  

Nicky Gilbert has some amazing ideas and techniques to get the most out of your Stencils/masks, whether its running them through embossing machine with Tan mat or using a glue pad and foiling down to different inking techniques.  I really love these features encouraging us to get more from our stash. 

Some lovely Home Decor ideas in this feature.

Katie  Skilton shares some lovely Clean & Simple card designs using free gifts 

Now this is something I'd like to start featuring more on the Blog, techniques that we haven't really tried before.  If I showcased a technique like this 'Retiform Stamping' and shared how to etc and then maybe we could have a challenge based on the new technique? What do you think?? 

Retiform technique is basically masking off a grid and randomly stamping in the masked off areas.  I really like these cards. 

Lastly some more lovely inspiration for those free stamps, I really like them all. 

I enjoyed reading this issue, very usefull free gifts too. 

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That's all for today my lovelies,

Have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Karen's "Anything for Christmas" challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

Well yesterday turned out to be a very busy day for me, my lovely neighbour knocked the door and asked if I would like to go to village coffee morning with her, as Paul was at work.  It was so kind and thoughtful I didn't want to day no, although my heart was in a meltdown, I excused myself got myself together and grabbed my bag !  I got back at lunchtime, after an hour Sue arrived, then Paul arrived ready to collect us and Milo and we all went to  Carterton to the vets for his vaccination.  Paul dropped us at shops and we had time to look in Charity shops, two are really good rhe other id very expensive for a charity shop, Sue managed to get a couple of bargains including a book to make into an Art Journal!  We got back late afternoon and had a cuppa and chatted, before we knew it it was after 6pm !!  So a day that I normally dread turned into a lovely day, thanks Sue xxx

Our Next Challenge 

Karen kindly suggested a brilliant Challenge for next week, with the big day only 26 weeks or 184 sleeps away we really need to make a dent in our Christmas card list. 

With that in mind Karen has suggested "Anything for Christmas " as our next challenge, so you can create  whatever you like as long as its Christmas!  I'd like to make atleast 4 cards (fingers crossed). 

I am looking forward to this on, thanks so much Karen for the suggestion. XXX

I hope that you all have a great day, mine will be a quiet one after yesterday!,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

A lovely Inspiration Card by Brenda

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

How are we all this lovely Thursday?   Are you all enjoying the weather?  I love the sunny days, but I wish the nights were a little cooler,  wd have the fan on for the whole night for past 3 nights, I'm not bothered by the noise as my Tinitus drowns it out but I do find it makes you dry, dry nose and mouth, you wake up slightly cooler but absolutely desperate for water!!  I find the same with air conditioning when we are on holiday, we can't use it overnight as we end up so congested.  We are obviously conditioned to be snuggled up under a duvet in the cold.  !! (Mind you I dont think the menopause is helping me at the moment)! 

Moving on to lighter things 🤣😂 Today I am sharing the other card that Brenda made for the TicTacToe Challenge a couple weeks ago, it just so happens to work PERFECTLY for this weeks Yellow,Blue & Green Challenge too!

The stamp is from HoneyDoo,  Brenda coloured the flowers beautifully with her Polychromos and blended over them lightly with a Copic pen. The effect is amazing Brenda, I love how bright and vibrant those flowers are, such a lovely card.  Thank you so much for sharing it with us XXX

I hope you all have a lovely Thursday,

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra

xxxxxx

Another floral challenge card

 

Good morning Ladies,

Phew what a scorcher!! 🤣😂 I just wanted to use the headline! It was a lovely day here yesterday,  very warm and sunny with the slightest breeze. My craft room was like a sweat box, with two windows in full sun its stifling, I had Paul set the fan up .........  BIG mistake,  I thought I had secured everything,  if I say I got lost in a tornado of die cuts, bit box contents, photocopy paper, the little fall out bits from dies, the reels of ribbon on my craft unit were slowly unwinding as they flapped in the breeze too, so I gave up and it took me about an hour to sort the chaos out.  So craft room is to be avoided around midday and early afternoon, I'll have to join Paul on the early shift!! 

Now today's card had me in a fix, I couldn't decide between the flowers, the first card I fussy cut the flower from the 'Hues of Happiness ' designer papers (StampinUp).  I picked it because the colours worked with this weeks challenge, I used a narrow piece behind two pieces of white card, the bottom piece I stamped the sentiment. Then cane choosing the flower,  I made the second flower using Chloe’s Christmas Rose Stamps and dies. The first one works better with the paper but the second looks neater!  I'm not usually this torn but never mind, I will put it in a box and forget about it!! 

Have you ladies managed any crafting this week?

Have a lovely day enjoying the sunshine while it lasts. 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

New Colour Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies,

A beautiful sunny day, with quite strong wind,! 

I  you all had a  nice day yesterday,  we sat outside for our lunch and then waited around to see if the forecast rain was going to include us but it didn't,  so the garden needing watering 😪, it takes so long, I have ordered a new 'Expanding ' hose to help watering the end of the garden out the front, and down the side.

After lunch Paul got back to work and crafting, I made today's card and started doing a base for another card too.  

For today's  card I took a really old piece of Designer series paper that had been out about 6 years!! I found a piece in my Bit Box that was perfect size for todays card, I adhered the pretty paper to the white csrd, then stamped the sentiment, I matted the stamped piece onto a piece of 'Tranquil card, then onto Crushed Curry card, finally the whole thing was added to a Pool Party card base, so those colours are the Yellow/Green/Blue for this weeks challenge!  

Paul is in the office today so it will be just Lucy and I, she mentioned something about going out somewhere nice, so I am looking to that.

I hope that all of you have a fab-u-lous Day,

Love and Hugs,

Sandra xxx

(Ps if this post reads like a load of nonsense I apologise but I deleted my original post trying to add an update, I noticed when I went to check it had updated at 1am, it was nowhere, so Ihad to start again!! I finished about 2.30am!! )

Another couple of Cards to inspire

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all had a relaxing weekend,  yesterday wasn't as bad weather as we thought, it was cloudy and still quite muggy,  we had a chilled day, I made Paul a cooked breakfast, I tried out our new Ninja Air Fryer and I have to day I was very impressed, it cooked 2 sausage/2 bacon to perfection (we like bacon fat to be crispy) in 6 minutes.  We bought the Air fryer to use when we switch the Aga off for the Summer, we did have an Actifry but because it rotates the food around the bowl and we have found that things like sweet potato chips/wedges end up like mush, same with some chips, the Ninja also works as a regular oven so you can bake and roast in it too, everything we have tried so far, Salmon, roast asparagus/green beans, crispy new potatoes have been a success and took less time.  

We finished the day strawberry picking and then the whole family came over to celebrate father's day.

So as seems to be the way on a weekend I didn't get around to making a card, so I found some more cards that fit the Blue/Green/yellow challenge. I hope the give you all some ideas. 

I hope you all have an enjoyable Monday, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx