A monochrome card for this weeks challenge

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Well its the last day of August today, In my mind once we get into September it feels like the run down to Christmas, mostly because as we get back from holiday the Christmas decorations,  advent calendars and tins of chocolates are starting to appear in the shops, along with the Halloween costumes!  

It seems so quiet here without the girls, don't get me wrong I love spending quality time with Paul but I do miss them messing about, winding Paul up and the constant giggling.  

Todays card is one I made a couple weeks before our holiday,  I used Purple Posy as my colour, I embossed the background, then die cut a frame from the Ornate Rectangles die set, I stamped the detail in the same colour and stamped a matching flower and foliage to embellish the card. A few matching pearls to add some luxury to the card.

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

My second Colour Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I am happy to report that I am feeling better that I did on Sunday, after going through what we had eaten etc we came to the conclusion that it must have been heat stroke, although the only time we were in the sun was when we were in the sea, Paul and I stay in the shade 97% of the time,  whether its under the trees by the pool or under the umbrella or in beach tent on the beach, everything I ate somebody else had eaten too, I woke up not feeling great as a near by site has a summer festival and Saturday night they had loud music playing until 4.30am, so I started the day with a headache from tiredness, I took a couple of paracetamols and felt a bit better so we went to beach,  the sea was super calm so we went in, you lose track of time in the sea though, watching the girls and Paul on the paddle board etc.  When we got out of sea I couldn't get warm, I just laid there shivering despite it being 32°, in the end we packed up and went back to mobile home, to get ready for going to Old Town shopping and then out to dinner,  sadly nausea hit me as soon as I was out of the shower and then upset tummy and vomiting started and went on until around 11.30pm.  So all plans were cancelled. 

We rebooked everything for yesterday and had birthday 2.0 mixed with celebrating girls last night.

Today we are leaving at 10am to take them to Airport. 

Today's card I made using the Wonderful World stamp set, I die cut a circle in a piece of scrap paper,  using Old Olive ink I blended over the circle to form a focul point to stamp my flower on to.  I stamped the flower stem in the same colour and the sentiment too.  A real quick and simple card but I think it works. 

I hope that you aĺl have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

My First Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Just a super quick post today, thank you for all of your lovely birthday wishes. 

Sadly all plans were cancelled as I became really sick in the afternoon,  started with not being able to get warm, headache,  ended the day vomiting, so all plans went out of the window.   Fingers crossed I feel well enough to go out today as girls leave tomorrow.  

Todays card was made with freebie stamps from Creative Stamping magazine,  I masked a strip of card off and blended Distress Ink Spun Sugar, I then stamped and coloured flowers in same colour. 

Quick and simple but effective. 

My love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Your Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope today finds you all well, are you all having a lovely weekend? I do hope so, I also hope that those of you that are struggling with pain and health issues are having as good a day as can be expected ❤️

Today is a day tinged with sadness for me, it doesn't serm possible that it has been a year since my beautiful Danielle lost her battle with cancer, there isn't a day goes by that I don't think about her, I miss her so much 💔 ❤️

We are forecast a lovely sunny day today,  so hopefully we can spend the day on the beach before going out for dinner and a wander around the old town. 

Your Patterned paper 

Challenge Cards 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is my card for this week, I used my new Stamperia papers, Desire, they have some lovely papers.

Lilian I absolutely love this card, you have once again enticed me into wanting this new Desire paper collection from Stamperia, it will go perfectly with another set I have, in fact I had started making an Album with the papers, I was doing it day by day with Danielle to keep her busy to take her mind off of her health,  I haven't been able to bring myself to finish it but I feel determined to do it for her now!   She nagged me to start making one but it was more her thing than mine but as she became more unwell I did everything I could to uplift her.            Thank you so much Lilian for a truly inspirational card XXX 

Maria 

Maria's Description: 

1/ I used some scraps in grey, black and pink.Cut them into strips 

and then put them together with a topper from my stash.

2/ Butterfly is stamped onto a swirly patterned paper and some OD

is used to colour it in lightly.

Two amazing cards Maria, what a great way to use up your scraps of card, it looks like a fancy paper design!  Such  brilliant idea!

The colours and patterns are so lovely on your second card,  I love that sentiment too.

Thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge my lovely XXX 

Janet 

Janet's Description:

My first card is a LABLANCHE KIT -CHRISTMAS.

My second card is made using STAMPERIA - PROVENCE

Two beautiful cards Janet, I love that pretty Christmas image, the gold really stands out too. 

Your second card features my most favourite colours, such beautiful papers too.  Thank you so much for supporting the challenge XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I’ve used the Anna Maria papers. The sentiment papers are perfect 😊

I’ve added Spellbinders flowers and a Tim Holtz butterfly.

Oh wow Sonia your card is so beautiful,  I love those papers so much, you have made them look even more stunning! Thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Patterned poinsettia paper on a free CD-ROM matted onto white card  Mixture of Britannia dies in red

2 fantastic cards Karen, I love the clean and simple look of your first card, that paper is lovely, so clean and crisp. 

Your second card is a brilliant Eclipse card, what an amazing 1st Birthday card, they are special cards and yours will be a lovely one to look back on.  Thank you so much for taking part XXX

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Ladies thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge I am so grateful for your support. 

Love and huge hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Mixed up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

What do you all have planned this Bank Holiday weekend?  We will be doing pretty much the same aa most days, chilling out on the beach or by the pool.  My legs were pretty bad yesterday so we had a pool day, It's a combination of having to walk across the sand and sitting on the sand all day, I will say that the extra pain is definitely outweighed by being able to get in the sea.  The pool will get better as more people leave, there were days last year that Paul and I had the pool to ourselves, which was lovely.   We will go out to eat tomorrow and go and have a wander around Pals old town, the girls have some shopping to do for their friends too. 

The photo above is one I took on the evening we went for a wander around the camp site, there is a big lake that they use for rice growing and it is part of a Nature Reserve,  I just happened to snap this photo quickly as we were being attacked by Mosquitos,  we were laughing so hard as we were all panicked and how many there were,  it reminded the girls of a time years ago when Paul took them on an adventure,  he was in our little boat with them they were recording on a little flip camera we had back then,  all you could hear at one point was the manic sound of flip flops wacking mosquitos and laughter!  They still giggle about it today.  We have some lovely memories of our holidays here. The girls have made it quite clear that they don't want this to be our last one, in fact they talk of bringing their families here! 🙄

Maria 

Maria has been busy creating some more of her Beautiful Crystal Art paintings. These two  pieces are absolutely stunning, I love how both of the pieces are designed to give off a glow which is highlighted even more by the sparkle from the crystals.  My opinions of these Crystal paintings has really changed since you started them Maria, I had seen a few with really big crystals and they didn't come anywhere near the standard of yours.  Our Lovely blue tit Christmas card was noticed by everyone last Christmas and we now have it in a frame to bring out every year.  Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful paintings with us XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here are my latest crochet makes They’re supposed to be a lady and man wearing our bowls club attire I purposely tried not to make them look like anyone in particular.

Karen's Crochet talents show no limits, these two lovelies are kitted out in Karen's Bowls Team kit, your attention to detail is incredible Karen, the perfect stripe down the shirt and around the sleeves finishes the pieces perfectly, I think that you will end up making a lot more of these once everyone sees them!!  Thank you so much for sharing them with us Karen XXX 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra                                                                      xxxxxx 

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

I can hardly believe its Friday already, it literally feels like a couple days ago that I was setting last challenge!  But here we are again, are you areasy for the weekend, are you doing anything nice over the Bank Holiday?  I hope the weather is going to be nice, it makes such a difference.  The weather here is set to be a bit changeable here over the weekend,  we have some thunderstorms forecast but the girls and I all have different weather apps and they all say something different so we will just have to wait and see. 

Our Next Challenge 

Now when I was making cards to cover the blog posts while I was away I didn't think about particular challenges,  so I am making them up around cards that I have made. 

So for this weeks challenge we are going to work with Colour, either shades of one colour or monochrome (one colour plus black, white, green or metallics).   I have added cards to show what I mean.  I really don't mind which way you chose, just do what you enjoy. 🙂🤣😍

I hope that you all have a lovely long weekend, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra x❤️x

Pretty Dsp Challenge card

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

How are you all today?  I do hope that those if you feeling unwell are having a better day, love and hugs on route to you all.  

We had another lovely beach day yesterday,  I actually managed to get in the sea for the first time this holiday, it was heavenly,  we stayed in for a good hour and a half!  I remembered to bring beach shoes this time,  they aren't pretty but they make getting in and out so much easier as your toes aren't hurting on rocks and shells!  We spent the rest of the day on the beach, luckily we packed enough fruit and snacks to last all day. 

Today's card is made using a piece of paper from a free 'sale a bration' collection that goes with the Wonderful World stamp set.  I paired it with some matching card (Rich Razzleberry) and and I used one of the tags from 'Ornate Tags' die set to hold my stamped focal piece. I love how the die has little pieces that hold that centre piece on place.  I added some matching ribbon to give the effect of holding the tag in place and to create the decorative bow at the bottom.  I hope that you like it, I think it looks quite pretty.

I hope that you all have a great Thursday,

Love and hugs to ALL of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

An Autumnal card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

It doesn't seem possible that we have been here a week already, the girls only have 6 days left!   

Monday was a pool day as it was a bit breezy, Tuesday started off as a beach day as the weather was glorious, although my feet haven't even gotten wet yet!! 

Today has to a good day as it's Matt's 30th Birthday, gosh that makes me feel old, It felt bad enough when I had no children at primary school,  then none at school at all, but this hits different!! We are hoping he has an amazing day in a field somewhere at Dorset Steam Fair !! 

Todays card is one I made using the free papers in the last IndigoBlu Magazine Box kit,  I think thst this card looks quite Autumnal with the oranges and dark reds. I used one of the cards in the magazine as inspiration.  The sentiment is very true! 

I hope that you all have a wonderful Wednesday,

Love and hugs to you all, 

Sandra xxxxxxx 

My First Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies,

I believe it's Tuesday, although I will admit that I have lost track of days,  we tend not to look at time and dates while we are away, to the point that I totally missed Paul's birthday one year, I thought it was the day after, he knew and didn't say anything bless him, we did full on celebrate the following day, I felt so bad though.  I have to remember the date for tomorrow though as it's Matt's 30th Birthday!! 

We have woken to a beautiful sunny day, the Tramuntana wind is whipping around us this morning, it should die down by lunchtime though, so we are having a lazy morning,  rather than getting up and getting ready to go to beach.  So we are on our second cup of tea and there is no sign of a beach bag to pack.  It's actually very relaxing sat here watching the leaves dance in the wind listening to the rustling leaves and the birds chirping away. 

Today's card is made from a Christmas Dsp from SU from a couple of years ago, I absolutely love the colours in this collection,  Cherry Cobbler, Gold,  Crumb cake and green shades.  The base of the card I actually made with a piece of Anna Marie Designs wood effect paper, I ran it through the Subtke embossing folder to give some real texture to it, I adhered it to base card and added a piece of Cherry Cobbler card that has a lovely Gold lattice effect, To blend the two piece together I cut a narrow piece of Gold Mirror card, the focal point is a beautiful spray of Christmas roses that I fussy cut from a large piece of Dsp. I added some Red and gold foliage 

I hope that you all have a lovely Tuesday, 

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxxxxx

 Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that today finds you well and that you all had a lovely weekend. 

Today we are restricted to the pool (thanks to mother nature)!! It's currently 11am and we are all laid out by the pool, the sky is blue and there is a lovely cooling breeze.  

Now I have to apologise to our lovely Janet because I missed her Beautiful card yesterday, Paul and I are taking turns on the WiFi,  so I'm guessing Janet's card arrived after I logged out!  It makes you realise how much you take things for granted! Another thing is microwave, Lucy loves a hot chocolate but heating the milk in a pan puts her off making it, I have done it for her, although the pans they provide are really cheap and the milk sticks to them, I even tried using the net that the lemons came in as a scourer, it was ok but not great, so pan scourer is on the list!! Paul and girls are missing the coffee machine too, apparently the Cafetiere is just not the same!  

Janet's gatefold card is stunning, I love the design with those lovely hearts, the papers are really pretty too.  

Your Fun Fold Challenge cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I am writing today's post from the beach ⛱️,  thesea is relatively calm this morning so hopefully we might manage a swim!  It might bring some relief to the 6 mosquito bites I have on my leg, I can't complain as it was my idea to have a walk around the site and see if the river was as high.  The sun was just going down,  so I was concentrating on taking a photo, when I had finished amd looked down my leg was like an 'All you can eat Buffet' for mosquitos!  The sound of flip flops batting mosquito's was reminiscent of a Spanish senorita with her castanets !!  We all got a few bites, lesson learnt although we were wearing repellent!  

It was by no means as traumatic as Sonia's Spider bites though!  I think the terror would have caused me more problems than the bites, I hope the have calmed down for today my lovely XXX 

Your Challenge Cards 

 Lilian

Lilian's Description:

This is my card for this week, it’s a book fold as you showed us earlier. Made with my new Stamperia papers, and a stencilled background, with speckled egg and broken China oxide inks. The little metal bits I have for ages. Hope it’s ok.Lilian

Lilian I love love love your card, those fans are so pretty,  your stencilled background is the perfect backdrop for those beautiful papers, what is this collection called please?  Thank you so much for taking part XXX

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Here’s a fun fold card A piece of A4 made 2 cards

Wasn’t easy to photograph- sorry

The card is navy The paper is a patterned Crafters Companion.

The measurements for the fun fold card are piece card 11x8 1/2 

Score 11in side at 5 1/2 and 

4in along 8in side 

Cut diagonally to create two cards Cut 2 pieces of paper/card 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 and diagonally cut for mats

Two lovely Fun Fold cards Karen, thank you so much, I love the folds and those lovely papers work perfectly with the design. Thanks so much for inspiring us my lovely XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I know it’s not a ‘fun fold’ but I ran out of time. It is different to your normal card with the die cut edge, so I hope it fits the challenge 😉

The image and sentiment are from LOTV. I’ve used Anna Maria Design papers. The little flowers and the card edge are die cut with Spellbinders dies.

Oh Sonia such a gorgeous Wedding card, nobody does cute like Lilli of the Valley, the image works great with the Anna Marie papers too. I have those bracket edger dies and always forget to use them.  Thank you so much for a lovely card.  I hope you all have a lovely day XXX

Sue

Sue's Description:

Here are a couple of challenge cards. 

I have used an old freebie embossing folder and I think the sentiment is an older Sue Wilson die cut. I used DO Stormy Sky on the first card and a thin layer of white glitter card. I have deliberately kept both cards as flat as possible to keep postage costs down this Christmas. 

Thank you so much Sue for two lovely sparkly Christmas cards, such a great idea to keep them flat to keep postage costs down.  Sue's original dies were all lovely designs weren't they?!   Thanks again my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria has designed a lovely tower card,  I love the colours you have used it’s a lovely simple fun fold that looks so effective, thank you so much for taking part my lovely,  I do hope you feel better soon XXX

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Some absolutely stunning cards today Ladies, thank you all so much for making time to support yhe challenge XXX

Enjoy your weekend my lovely friends,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are well and relaxed for the weekend, our days seem to be all blending into one at the moment   I have to keep physically checking the actual day!  I can say that from Wednesday to today has flown. 

Janet I can't wait to hear about your Friday cakes,  we saw some pretty violent weather as we travelled through France, I am glad to hear that you finally got some rain, you could see how parched the farmland was and the sunflowers 🌻  are usually still bobbing about in the breeze but this year they were mostly brown with their heads bowed, which is how they usually look on our way home in September. I hope the heat is more bearable for you XXX

My Beautiful Bag 

From Lilian 

Lilian very very kindly made me this absolutely stunning bag for my holidays,  its so detailed I have no idea how something this detailed takes to finish but I'm blown away by the intricate embroidery around all the detailed features.  So far I have taken it to beach, used it also for my chargers, phone, etc, It's  so thoughtful to you Lilian,  I really love it, thank you so much. XXX

This Month's Edition of

Diecutting Essentials 

This months (September) issue of Diecutting Essentials has a good selection of tutorials and some decent dies. 

This first feature shares some lovely designs made using the free dies. I really like the wreath style ones.  

This feature shares different ways of using shaped dies to create Shaker cards, some of the ideas are genius.  The triangle tree is amazing!  

Some lovely Christmas designs here that Milk carton box looks amazing,  such a great gift package idea.

I really want to have a go at this technique, I think it would work in journalling too.  

Some lovely Autumnal ideas and inspiration on these pages, I do love the oranges, Kraft mixed with red and gold and brown. 

Finally a feature sharing some samples of cards made with Embossing Folders, Distress Oxide ink and foiled card.  Just look how effective it is.  Another one on my 'must try' list ! 

That's all for this one, there are a few more pages I haven't shared, mainly ones that advertise various new ideas from big companies.  I like to leave somethings a surprise if you buy the magazine .

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra 

xxxxxx