A simple Flowering Fields card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

We had sun yesterday but it was nowhere near as warm as it has been over weekend,  it was very windy too, it got two loads of washing dry in no time!  

Well hallelujah, I got some sleep, thank heavens, it was 8.25am when I woke as Soph came in to say goodbye as she left for work, Paul usually brings me a cup of tea when he gets up but he said he wanted to leave me to sleep!  He did ask if I heard the B1 Bombers taking off from Raf Fairford at 5am but unusually I didn't.  They have recently arrived back at Fairford, they are preparing to get the American Air Force base back up and runningfu time by next year, so there is a lot going around the camp, its literally across the river, at 5pm every day we are treated to a Bugler playing both our National Anthem and the Americans too.  

Todays card was one I saved on Pinterest from a blog called Crafty Place I believe.  I stamped the 3 flowers from the Flowering Fields stamp set in clear ink, added gold embossing powder and heat set. I then used Shaded Lilac, Picked Raspberry & Mowed Lawn Distress Inks to water colour the flowers and stems.  I die cut them and added them to my card made with linen effect card, I love that added bit of texture. A simple Happy Birthday stamped and embossed in gold finishes the card. 

I hope you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

A pretty fun fold...

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Well thats the last of Bank Holiday weekends for a while, I do love Paul having that extra day off 😍.

We didn't end up going anywhere or doing anything exciting, we just had a relaxed weekend 'pottering' !  It's a struggle to get Paul to relax,  mind you I think he enjoys switching off and digging or mowing, it's the only time he gets peace 🤣😂

Today I sharing with you the pretty 'Fun Fold' that I made for Our Maria for her special birthday.  I really enjoyed making all the little elements that made up the card, the basic card was quite quick to make, it was the little flower sprays that took time, trying to get the foliage to curl around the aperture took some patience.  But once you see the finished card in front of you it makes it all worth while. Like any card for a special friend its the excitement of them opening it that you look forward to. Thankfully Maria loved it XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

Some more Clean & Simple Inspiration

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

We didn't have as Sunny a day yesterday,  definitely a little more breezy too, but still nice enough to eat outside, we did a bit of a move round yesterday afternoon and moved our patio table to the patil area by our back door, we don't use it where it is as it seems to far to carry everything and then taking it all back.  Its a small area too, whereas the patio outside the back door is a lot more spacious,  we moved all of the recycling boxes too which made even more room.  So hopefully the experiment works and we get to eat outside more.

I thought I would share some more inspiration for this weeks challenge to give you all some more ideas.  Sometimes it just takes seeing one particular think that gets your 'mojo' kicked into action.  The top ones are mine the last three Sonia shared when I was talking about this idea for a challenge last week.   I can't wait to see what you all decide to create.  I am hoping it won't be as challenging as 'Fun Folds'. 😄😘

We didn't end up going anywhere yesterday as I felt like a zombie, I had my 3rd night without sleep so wasn't feeling up to thinking about going anywhere.  We had an M&S Dine in for £12 meal as it was just the two of us, we had a paella style dish and Paul chose Sticky toffee pudding that we had last time as it was so delicious.  But my goodness did I get heartburn, so intense it was awful, the burning would not let up, so despite being fully propped up in bed I couldn't get comfortable,  I don't think the but of gardening helped either!  Let's just say i did a 600 piece puzzle on my tablet to try and distract my mind from heartburn and I treated the most incredible dawn chorus at around 4.15am!!  I think I may of nodded off around 6ish but woke to the sound and aroma of the girls morning coffee!  I am afraid my body is going to turn this into  habit or routine,  so I need to do a reset.  We don't have tv in our room,  if I go to bed earlier I will turn off any devices a good hour before I want to sleep too.  Which isn't helping to be honest.  So let's see what tonight brings.

I hope that you all have a lovely Holiday Monday,

Love & Hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Our Fun Fold Challenge cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying this absolutely glorious weather, we spent most of the day in the garden yesterday, I can't tell you how much we loved sitting enjoying our lunch watching all the different birds going about their daily lives, the pigeons appear to be nest building,  its funny to watch they try to fly with huge twigs in their beaks, the Robin was buzzing around Pauls recently emptied compost,  watching and waiting for Paul to turn the pile over to reveal more deliscious bugs for him to pick at.  There were so many different bird songs going on you want them to stop and take turns!  

Let's have a look at your amazing cards....

Your Challenge cards

Brenda

Brenda has created two amazing 'Twist & Pop' cards for her Geandsons Callum & Samuel.  The geeat thing about these cards is that you can personalise them and still have room to add images of things that interest them. 

I love the papers and colours that you have used for both cards Brenda, I bet they both loved the fun 'pop out' inside too.

Thank you so very much for taking part in the Challenge my lovely XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week

It’s call pop up fun fold, used Tim Holtz new stamps, and pink and purple pens.

Sorry to be late, it’s taken all day, I couldn’t make it work with the measurements given, so had to work it out. It is straight, but looks crooked in the pics. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Oh Lilian I love this card, that cour is so pretty and works so well with both that tiny background stamp and that gorgeous silhouette stamp,  I cannot wait to play with mine.

Thank you so much for inspiring me to get my TH stamps out and have a play. XXX

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here are my very unsuccessful efforts for this week After 4?attempts I ran out of time and lost the will

1st attempt - a zigzag card that went straight in the bin

2nd & 3rd attempt - a magic slider card

4th attempt - a ScanNCut usb project which I did do about 10 years ago I may have thrown the instructions away by mistake 

xx

Oh Karen I am so sorry thay you had such a frustrating week in your craft room, fortunately that is something that rarely happens for you normally.  Knowing you and your determination,  you will perfect the method at some point.  We cannot let these little things beat us.  Having said that after two attempts at that black background card the whole lot went in the bin and I have no desire to attempt it again!!  

Hopefully our ' Clean & Simple' Challenge should be a little less challenging! 😉

Thank you so much for taking part i  the challenge my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria has made a lovely Christmas 'Twist & Pop' card for our Fun Fold Challenge.

The papers you have used are so lovely and the four images you have used on the pop mechanism work perfectly!  

Thank you so much for making such a lovely,  inspirational card for this Challenge my lovely XXX 

Sonia

Sonia followed my 'Twist & Pop' tutorial the other day to create this absolutely adorable New Baby card, every thing about the card is perfect from the adorable 'Lilli of the Valley ' baby image through to the flowers and the lovely 'B A B Y' on the pop up!  Everything works together perfectly, what a special gift for little one. 

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

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Thank you all once again my lovelies for such an amazing display of fun fold cards.  I appreciate you all so very much.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

🎈🎉🎂🍾 Happy 60th Birthday 🍾🎂🎉🎈

Maria

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

Lets wish our lovely Maria a Wonderful 60th Birthday, I hope you have an absolutely amazing day celebrating your very Special birthday 🥰😘

What a glorious start to the weekend,  yesterday was beautiful,  lets hope it lasts!  Sophie and I went to do the food shopping yesterday as she had the day off,  the shops were so busy however,  there was still a good range of salad bits, however the BBQ type foods were all gone,  it wasn't a problem for us but does make us laugh as some people are ao predictable!  We aren't really BBQ people, I think they are a faff and create so much work,  we have a gas grill that we take to Spain, cooking outdoors on holiday is a totally different experience. Do you ladies like Barbecuing?  

How gorgeous are Lilian's poppies?? They are so beautiful,  do you have many Lilian, it would be lovely to have a border full of them,  sadly they don't last long though.  Thank you so much for sharing them with us XXX

Creative Stamping Issue 122

Issue 122 is all about tea and biscuits,  the free gifts are all tea & biscuit themed, the magazine stamps are all kinds of biscuits, cakes and hot drinks!  There is an extra free stamp set from Crafters Companion that is a stack of teacups.  

This first feature shares ideas for cards using masking. Some of those biscuits look so real.

Oh these cards are so pretty,  they all have a lovely Vintage tearoom style.  So grab your doilies, paper flowers and pretty papers and get creating beautiful cards.

Have you ever Heat Embossed your Dry Embossing??

You add Versamark or your chosen clear ink to the embossing folder then heat set, your embossed areas will now be enhanced with heat embossing.  Some of the featured backgrounds are lovely. 

Sarah uses layered stamping to create some pretty teacup cards, I really love the colours she has used for these cards .

Now it says 'bring your one layer stamping to life' with this blackout technique!  

Let me add a touch of reality here, I tried something very similar to this technique, you embossed a piece of card and added colour to the raised areas, you then 'simply' take a sharpie or your choice of black alcohol marker and colour everything apart from the embossed areas, in this case its heat embossed which may be easier,  you will need a black fine liner to get to the more detailed area.  My attempt was a complete and utter disaster,  my black alcohol pen looked a different colour to the fineliner, which stick out like a sore thumb, that was the least of the problems though, 2 different attempts went straight in the bin!  I might give this method a try just to see, but I doubt it.  The cards look very effective though!  

Man cards inspired by the themed stamps, some fun ideas.

Vanessa has created some incredible gifts and teatime treats with the free stamps, there are some lovely background papers created for these projects. 

Finally some 'Clean & Simple ' cards all created with the free stamps.  These would be perfect for this weeks challenge.

This issue has some lovely cards,  not sure if they are really my 'cup of tea' though.

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I hope that you all have a lovely weekend my lovelies,

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx