Saturday 3 June 2023

Mixed Up Saturday



Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

We had a very breezy,  cool day yesterday, very sunny though.  We didn't get out in it though, apart from getting to the car to go shopping and to take some photos to share with you today. I am hoping that the wind dies down and the sun stays all weekend.  
Sophie very kindly took me out for lunch yesterday, which was really lovely,  there is a pub about ten minutes away called the Cold Harbour,  I believe its part of a chain but we have had a few meals there that have all been lovely,  I am yet to go there with Paul though.  

No magazine review this week so I thought I would share some of the beautiful flowers that are blooming in our garden.....






Our roses smell so lovely this year but sadly every one of our rose bushes has Black Spots on the leaves, the lovely tall one by our front window has hardly any leaves, I need to research how to treat them, we have bought some rose fertiliser,  so hopefully that will help.


We have never planted Aquilegias but we are blessed with some beautiful varieties in our garden, the pink one is in the front garden, we have two or three double lemon & purple one is in the back garden.




A few more beautiful blooms, Sweet William,  Diantnus and pretty daisies. 



These gorgeous coloured Osteospermums are waiting to go into pots, I just couldn't resist them when we saw them last weekend,  I cannot wait to see how big they get.

Craft Shopping/ Research 


After watching Tim Holtz launch his Multi Surface Mat I couldn't wait to get my hands on one!  

The main feature that appealed to me was how it holds onto ink when you are 'Smooshing' compared to a glass mat, I have always struggled getting great results from the Smooshing technique as the inks just spread out when spritzed with water, so getting good colour saturation was tricky.  

I tried to take some photos to show you what I mean...




Ink 'smooshed onto glass mat and spritzed with water, see how the colours just spread out getting lighter as they spread. 


 This is the same inks smooshed into the new mat and second picture is the spritzed with same amount of water. 
This is how they looked when you tap your paper on to each surface 

Glass mat Smoos

New Mat Smoosh 




The Two side by side


The colour of the ink on the new mat is a lot stronger, you also get more of the little dots of colour  from the surface mat, which looks so much more interesting.  I think you would probably get similar effects with a decent craft mat (not the cheaper oven liner ones) 

The mat fits the large tonic glass mat (black one) you can use it on any surface though.

There were so many other benefits, you can watch the video of Tim Holtz demonstrating it on YouTube

I bought mine from Crafty Flair, which was the cheapest place by £4.99  it was £20.99 

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I hope that you a have a lovely Saturday, 

Love & Hugs to all,

Sandra
xxxxxx

5 comments:

  1. Hi everyone
    I like the ‘why craft is good for you’ list, it’s so true 😊
    Your flowers are beautiful, and such lovely colours. Sadly our rose has black spot on the leaves too and really doesn’t look very well!
    I love the effect from the new craft mat, the colours are certainly more vibrant and look more interesting. Thank you for sharing the results with us.
    Not doing much today so will be relaxing and hoping to some more crafting.
    Have a lovely day everyone
    Sending hugs to you all xxx

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  2. Hello, another lovely sunny day, can hardly believe it when I wake to lovely blue skies.
    We have been for our covid booster jab this morning. Very well organised, only had to wait a few minutes.

    Sandra your roses are beautiful, we can’t grow roses very well, our soil is too sandy. My rambling rector is doing well this year, if you want a rose to cover a fence, it’s very prolific.

    I’m watching the tennis , while it’s very hot outside, will go out latter on. Want to plant some lupins for next year.
    Hoping you are all enjoying your weekend, Lilian

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  3. H Sandra and all looking in today.
    It’s good to see how good crafting is for you, and scientifically approved at that 😁 I love your roses. The one on the corner of your house smells absolutely wonderful as does the deep pink one too. One of my favourite scents. You get the scent on the breeze. It reminds me of the roses that Pop grew along the garden wall when we were children. There is always something lovely to see on your garden. The work Paul and you put in is so worthwhile xx
    I’m just about to sit and finish my cards now. Chris had to go out this morning so I was busy playing with Chris jnr who was here over night. I hope you are having a good day. Sending hugs to you all. Take care xx

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  4. Hello Sandra and everyone,
    What a beautiful display of roses in your garden Sandra. They really are a reward for all the efforts you both put in to making your garden, a beautiful place to be. Love the quotes all so fitting and correct.
    Thank you for demonstrating The new Tim Holtz craft mat. It really is a great piece of kit to have will have to look into it.
    What a treat you had yesterday going out for lunch with Sophie. It’s lovely to spend one to one time with our children now and again. Usually when they are all together it lovely but there are so many conversations going on it’s difficult to keep up with them. 🤔
    BIG Thank you for all your work and effort you put into making this blog such a lovely place to visit. 😘
    Take care everyone, big hugs, Brenda xxx

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  5. What a great saying and your garden flowers are beautiful
    Interesting to see how cheap that sight is for the Tim Holtz mat
    I have been out all day at a Daisy B workshop It was brilliant I will post the cards and mdf projects we made to SANDRA
    Coincidentally we did a bit of “smooshing” using baking paper NOT grease proof paper with very good results - we used water colour pens/pencils which worked OK and I will try with DO’s at some point to see if that’s as good
    Take care everyone xx

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