Tim Holtz Trims stamp

 

Good Morning Ladies,

Just a quickie today as I had a terrible night through Tuesday night into Wednesday,  I was up all night going to the loo, shivering I was in pain too, we got up and drove to next town to see a Doctor,  they dipped my sample and it was totally clear, no blood etc, she said it wasn't worth sending it off as we would be home before results were back, they said my kidneys could be inflammed and prescribed ibuprofen. (Not that i can take it)!  Hoping for a better night tonight, please cross your  fingers for me ! 

Today's card was made using Tim Holtz floral trims stamp, stamped onto watercolour card and coloured with Distress Watercolour Pencils. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

Lilian's pretty poppies

 

Good Morning Ladies,

Yesterday turned out to be very pleasant,  we laid by the pool for the whole afternoon,  it was way too windy for the beach sadly.  The pool area is walled off so its protected from the wind,  it was so lovely we stayed until after 6pm!  The weather is supposed to turn windy and rainy after today!  

Annoyingly my antibiotics seem to have stopped worming and uti symptoms have returned,  not sure what to do next, i  do have abother course of antibiotics,  'Ciproflaxacin' do I start the them and just hope they work?  I have a sore throat and headache that started yesterday too! 

Today's card is another of Lilian's pretty inspiration cards, this one uses the StampinUp Poppy stamps, Lilian has created a beautiful scene card, I love the addition of the ivy stamps trailing from the top of the card,  they really do add interest.

Lilian's Description:

This card is a piece of stamping up patterned paper. Stamped with a stamp from the painted poppy set, the trees are from Lavinia stamps.

Thanks again Lilian,  your cards have been so inspirational ❤️ 

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday, 

Love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra xxxxxx

Simple Daisy card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Thank you all so very much for all of your lovely birthday messages yesterday, it really made my day, it makes me realise how truly blessed I am having you ladies in my daily life ❤️ 

Thankfully the sun did show up yesterday afternoon, we spent a few hours at the pool as its more sheltered than the beach, the wind was much calmer but there was a big gust every now and then that would make it impossible to have any kind of beach shelter/umbrella up.  We got ready to go out late afternoon and went to Pals old town, we love browsing around the shops there, Paul treated me to a lovely basket that was finished with leather, it will be perfeft for the beach, i look at them every year but never get one, Sophie bought me a cap too, as I got sunburn in my hair parten the other day. We finished off the day with a meal at our favourite restaurant.  

Today's card is one I made a couple weeks ago,  using the SU Delighted Daisy die set, I kept the background super simple by just adding a strip of embossed white card and then added the stamped sentiment in pear pizzazz ink.  I die cut daisy,  stamped and die cut the centre,  I die cut some of the foliage in white and some in green.  I finished with 3 yellow resin dots. 

I hope you all have a lovely day,

We are hoping to get on the beach today,

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Sue & Penny's floral challenge

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

From a wet & windy Pals !  We had one heck of a storm yesterday,  the thunder & lightning woke us at 4.30am and it pretty much continued until 5pm, when we had a break from the rain we walked down to see what effect the storm had on the sea, it did not disappoint, the waves were incredible and despite, us being wrapped in throws and blankets as it was cold people were actually in the Sea, it was incredible watching the windsurfers leaping up in the air and taking advantage of the stormy 🌊 sea!

We spent most of the day inside, apart from that one walk to clear our heads.   Fingers crossed for better weather today! 

Today's card is Sue & Penny's floral challenge card...

Sue's Description:  

I made the poppies then Penny wanted to make a card with them. She said she didnt want any letters on it meaning a sentiment when we talked about what we put on cards!

Sue the poppies look so realistic with all the texture in the petals.  I love Penny's design, the kraft card works so well with the green and red,  using vellum for the vase was a brilliant idea too. 

Thank you so much Sue & Penny, for am amazing Challenge card XXX

Karen the Christmas Sentiment was from Anne Marie Designs last year,  although I believe they still have them.

Janet, I hope all is well with you and Jim as I haven’t seen a comment for a few days, sending hugs your way xxx

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxxxxx 

Your Challenge Projects

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

From a stormy Spain!  The miserable weather is forecast to last all day today, fingers crossed the sun shows up tomorrow!  

We did manage a lovely day on the beach, we feltva few spots of rain later in the afternoon so we decided to return home for a cup of tea and an icecream.  We all got lost in our books waiting for the storm to start.

Lets have a look at your Challenge projects:

Your Challenge Projects 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

1:  The first card is a memory box die and an old E/B folder that I’ve had quite some time.

2:  Second card is an old spellbinder die set, and the stamp is a set called Birthday Blooms. Used for the back ground in vanilla instead of white that I usually go for.

3: I Thought I’d do a an art journal page this week for a change.  It’s made with Stamperia  papers, and soft pastels for the coloured background.

Lilian your cards have been so inspirational this week, thank you so much for designing them.

Your journal page is so lovely,  the colours you blended in the background work perfectly with the scene you have created, those Stamperia papers are beautiful.

Thanks again for hosting this challenge my lovely XXX 

Karen 

Karen has shared two of incredibly inspirational Thrinchies, all made using Tracy Evans stamps.  Your colouring is so bright and vibrant Karen,  they are both outstandingly beautiful 😍  Those number labels finish them off perfectly.

Thank you so much for sharing them with us XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I’ve used the Gummiapan flowers, inked in Milled Lavender and Lost Shadow distress oxides. The sentiment is from My Favourite Things.

Such a lovely card Sonia, a simple design that just works beautifully, the colours complement each other perfectly,  love that sentiment too.

Thank you so much for taking part my lovely XXX 

Maria 

Maria's Description:

My card for Sunday.

I used a 3D Embossing folder with flowers on it. Little bit of gilding wax and some inks and a few crystals. 

Wow Maria, the gorgeous detail on that embossing shows up so well on your card, the gilding wax does a great job of highlighting the details.  Live your colour combinations too.

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge my lovely XXX 

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Thank you ladies for another incredible display of cards ❤️ 

I hope that you all have a relaxing Sunday, 

My love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Happy Saturday 😊

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I hope you are all relaxed and ready for the weekend! 

We had a lovely day at the beach yesterday,  it was so lovely to all be in the sea together, we spent about an hour in the sea, we had a good 6 + hours on the ⛱️ beach.  We had to stop off on the way to the airport to buy a new beach umbrella,  our original one has finally broken beyond repair,  Paul spent about 40 minutes looking to see if he could fix it, sadly not, the girls weren't a bit sad however,  the always refer to it as the ,'ugly' umbrella,  we bought it when Becca was a baby, we moved into a brand new married quarter, newly built as so modern, back then Terracotta was 'The' Colour,  so we had a piece of paper (the name evades me) it went where a dedo rail would go half way up the wall. Anyway we bought patio door curtains that matched this paper strip, tablecloth and napkins too and you could buy patio tablecloth and umbrellas to match, so thats what we did.  We never got much use out of the umbrella at home so started bringing it on holiday as its larger than a standard beach parasol so worked perfectly,  wheb i worked out that it was 29 years old, we agreed to 'let it go' !! So we popped to a huge supermarket on route to the airport and bought ine the same size in bright red !!! 🤣😂 mostly because its easy to spot when you are in the sea.  

Lilian very kindly shared her beautiful Clematis with us,  it is so gorgeous,  I love the coliur and those amazing detailed centres, such an interesting feature.  I believe its called Clematis Jackmanii or Clematis Viticella (Botanical name).  

Lilian's Description

The second picture is of a clematis that I have had for years but never flowered before, I don’t suppose by any chance you know which one it is.

You must have been so thrilled to see it flower and for those flowers to be so beautiful.  Sorry the picture is smaller, I zoomed in to look closer and it cropped the photo!  

Thanks again for sharing it my lovely XXX 

Karen & Brenda I am so sorry to hear your sad news,  it doesn't matter how distant the relative etc,  its still always such sad news to hear.  Sending hugs to you both. XXX 

Janet, how are things going with the house,? I fo hope the two of you are getting some relaxation time in between the chaotic days,  sending hugs XXX 

Sending love and hugs to all of you dear friends,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx

Something Festive for Friday

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

It barely feels like we have been here for 48 hours let alone 5 days !  The girls flight kept getting delayed last night so we ended up having to cancel our dinner reservation at their favourite restaurant, we will rebook it for my birthday on Monday.  We ended spending the day 'in limbo' as the arrival time kept changing,  as it turned out we could have spent the whole day at the ⛱️ beach.  Although this morning there was a strange sea mist, it just blows in, shrouding the beach and sea in what looks like dense mist/fog, after an hour or so the whole thing dissappears!  Its very eary !! 

Today's card is one a made a few weeks ago, I had made some backgrounds with different shades of green and gold alcohol inks,  I used part of the background to die cut the Tim Holtz tree and the sentiment, I embossed the background with a snowfall embossing folder,  I wanted to keep the card clean ans simple in style, I added the sentiment with a gold drop shadow to make it stand out more. It is so hard to capture the gold in the tree and sentiment in a photograph but it's definitely there.

I hope that you all have an amazing weekend,  what are your plans ?? 

Sending my love to all of you,  

Sandra

xxxxxx

Impression in Ink card

 Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

Double fun day today as 1: its Matt's Birthday 🎂 🥳,  and 2: we are picking up the girls from Girona airport early evening,  they are with us for just over a week,  which will be fun!  Paul was instructed to have the paddleboard ready as Soph is wanting to make the most of her week away!  

We had another very warm day yesterday,  it got to 33°, oddly Paul said the sea had reverted back to its original chilliness, so no more warm sea, such a shame as it was so much easier to get into.  We had a good 5 hours at the beach and then came back to mobile and relaxed and read our books etc.  Makibg the most of the peace 🤣😂

Today's card I made using my Impression in Ink stamp set, I emboseed the background piece and stamped the large flower, masked it off then stamped the smaller flower and the leaves.  I used a background stamp to add some interest and then matted the focal piece onto pear pizzazz card and then mounted on the base card with a piece of matching ribbon underneath.  I stamped the sentiment in Pear Pizzazz and added it to the bottom of the card. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx

Another of Lilian's beautiful challenge cards

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Just a quick post today as we had a relatively quiet day yesterday,  we had to go and shopping in the morning and then we went to the beach ⛱️ in the afternoon,  we actually both went into the sea, for about an hour,  it was sheer bliss, feeling so weightless for a little while.  There was no warmer feeling!  

Today's card is one of our Lilian's gorgeous Challenge inspiration cards...

Lilian's Description:

Second card is an old spellbinder die set, and the stamp is a set called Birthday Blooms. Used for the back ground in vanilla instead of white that I usually go to.

Such a beautiful card Lilian,  that beautiful flower in the centre, is exquisite,  once again the colouring is incredible, the combination of that pretty paper and old Spellbinder Label die, createcthe perfect back drop to that gorgeous flower. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

Delightful Daisy

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

We made it to Spain in good time yesterday,  the traffic is quite good most of the time,  the is always tail backs at the border (non visible border now) luckily the tail backs were on the opposite side of the road. 

It was so lovely to see loads of green trees and shrubs as we crossed into Spain, wild fires had swept through huge swathes of countryside and woodland,  you can see the stones that where once a farm houses, which is so sad to see, hopefully they manage to build new farms and continue to make a living.  There are so many fires all over the world, when you see how tinder dry everywhere is its easy to understand how quickly they Spread,  all it takes is one carelessly disguarded cigarette, you see motorists throwing them out of the window all the time over here.  

It's quite shocking to see how many Europeans smoke, our resort is made up of mostly Dutch, followed by German,  French and Spanish and less than ten British families,  while we were at dinner in the restaurant on site last night, we were sat on an outside patio, there was a childrens mini disco on the stage, so loads of young children too, if I said there were 3 hundred people (just a guess)  I would say that 90% were smoking, every table around us had someone smoking at it, so many women smokers too, which really shocked me, from the being a mother aspect as well as the beauty side of things too, I do wonder what the levels of smoking related diseases are compared to uk. 

Today's card is one of my favourites of my recent makes, I really love those Daisy Dies and placing them against that watercolour washed background really made them pop, the twine is a mix of white and silver thread and I cut the foliage in matt silver metallic card too, added a touch of yellow ink to the daisy centres as a finishing touch.  

I hope you like my 1st Flower themed Challenge card.

Sending my love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Lilian's 1st Flower Challenge card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

From a VERY hot Millau, France, it was 38 degrees as we arrived yesterday afternoon and by 11pm it had dropped to 28 degrees, thank heavens for air conditioning,  both in the car and in our cabin.  It was too hot for us to sit out on our balcony, there were lots of Paragliders making the most of the thermals that the extreme heat had caused.  You have to praise the French Motorway services as every gantry had the warning ⚠️' Cancule ' (Heatwave) Stay Hydrated, in many different language!  We must have gotten through 3 1/2 litres in 6 hours, it was necessity for me as I had woken with terrible uti symptoms, making the journey very difficult, we ended up stopping a lot more than usual.  

I had a horrendous experience on one toilet stop, I went into the 'regular' toilets that everyone was using, waited and when my turn came I opened the door to see a Hole in the floor with a metal plate to stand on!  I was wearing a maxi dress, I stood for a minute and then just walked out, how was I supposed to manage, do you take your knickers off first? The floor was a disgrace,  i can't renove my drawers without sitting down, i certainly wasn't going to let anything touch the floor!  So I left, as I walked out I noticed a couple of separate toilets, one was disabled access,  as I approached a lady came out and held the door for me, so I took the handle and went in......it immediately went dark, an alarm sounded and water was spraying from every direction, I quickly tucked my dress into my bra,  after a couple of seconds a tidal wave appeared from one wall, the light then came back on, so i went and used the toilet, just as I stood up to finish somebody opened the bloody door,  5 minutes ago I tried everything to open that door but couldn't!! She apologised and closed it again, as I put my self back together the toilet flushed automatically,  i quickly washed my hands and made my escape!  Paul was trying not to laugh, he said my face was a picture!  Thank goodness I had crocs on and not my leather sandals !! I swished my feet, ankles and crocs with clean water.  In hindsight I should not have taken the door from the lady, as it is meant to close after someone exits and it does a full clean. Then opens for the next person, all fresh and clean! 😳 🥺😞

Today's card is the first of Lilian's Flower Challenge inspiration cards.  

Lilian's Description:

"The first card is a memory box die and an old E/B folder that I’ve had quite some time."

Such a pretty embossing folder Lilian,  I love the subtle colouring over the embossed areas, that gorgeous spray of flowers makes the perfect centre piece for that embossed panel. 

Thank you so much for your pretty card and for Inspiring us all XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

My love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                    xxxxxx 

Your New/ hardly used Challenge cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying your Sunday,  I hope you are managing a relaxing day too.  We had a pleasant start to our journey yesterday, we actually caught an earlier train than the one we were booked on which was a bonus, the roads were oddly quiet up until we got to Paris, then queues of traffic just appeared out of nowhere!  It didn't take long to get through though.  Music and a great driving companion make for a pleasant journey,  I also had the bonus company of you lovely ladies on our chat group, it made the journey a lot more enjoyable 🥰😍

Let's have a look at your Challenge projects...

Your Challenge Projects 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:  

Card 1:  A pretty simple card, and I do think this one needs a sentiment. I used Stamp Addicts Holiday Trees stamp, heat embossed with Wow Teal Lustre powder. I matted it on to a piece of Chloe’s mirror card.

Card 2:  I’ve sprayed through a Lavinia stencil with Lavinia mystical mica spray, and a Tattered Angels glimmer mist spray. I stamped an AALL and Create background stamp, and the sentiments. I added the Gummiapan dragonfly. Matted on Kraft card.

2 amazing cards Sonia, firstly thank you for taking part and inspiring us all. I like those Stamp Addicts Trees, however I think I'd have a nightmare trying to stamp them in a straight line, I love their simple design, they lend themselves to many different card styles.  I have loved both ways you have them,  this card is a true clean & simple design, I love the colour too. 

Your mixed media style card is incredible,  so many layers of design, with the stencil and stamping,  one think that works brilliantly is the balance created between the number banner at the top and the sentiment at the bottom.  A little detail that makes such a difference.

Thank you once again my lovely XXX 

Karen 

Karen's Description:

I have added some page numbers to my Thrinchies using Tracy Evans number tags which is the first time I have used them.

Oh Karen I really love your Thrinchies, so much detail and interest in each one, I love the colours too, perfect little pieces of art.  Adding the little Number Tags is like adding the finishing touch 👌 they just look complete.  

Maybe we could share a few more sometime??

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

Here is my card for Sunday.

The stamp is by Woodware . I just stamped it and coloured it in with my Promarkers. Hope you like it 

Maria, I love it !!!,  such an adorable Stamp,  I absolutely love how you have coloured him too, such a bright and cheerful design, your colouring is amazing, look at the amazing shading you have acheived on that cotton reel !!! The blue mat and layers work perfectly too. 

Thank you so much my lovely XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi this my card for this weeks challenge.

I used detailed floral die’s from stamping up, the flowers are more from my Indigo Blue box kit. Background is bundled sage oxide ink.

  

Such a beautiful Lacy card Lilian, once again you have inspired me to get this die out,  I had forgotten about it.

I love your design,  the flowers add such a lovely pop of colour too. 

Thank you so much for taking part XXX 

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What a beautiful display Ladies, thank you so much for all of your support and inspiration ❤️ 

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Well we did set off yesterday afternoon a little later than planned due to situations beyond our control (Paul's work, car needing unexpected work etc). It's typical for us, we should be used to it by now! 😉

I have shared some photos of our 'Gemma's' Rose, we had our dog cremated in 2004 and bought a memorial rose to but her ashes under in a huge pot, this is the first year we've had a Rose tinged with pink.  It has so many buds on at the moment, we will miss most of them sadly. 

 Creative Stamping Magazine 

Issue 125

This issue of Creative Stamping has some really lovely Free gifts, you get both a lovely stamp set, most of which are really usable and a great Embossing folder.

Sarah has designed some beautiful cards with the free stamps and embossing folder,  all designed with a lady in mind, something for all ages too.

Teresa has using 'Colour Blocking' as a technique for her cards, the results are incredible,  some lovely bright and cheerful designs.

Masterclass:  Vanessa shows us how to create some amazing cards using the Faux-Batik technique.        Faux-Batik is an old Asian technique that was created by making designs in wax on fabric.  

To create the effect you put lots of folds into a piece of card and then ink over the card making sure you get plenty of ink on those cracked areas.  You can also add ink to a piece of card, then clear emboss all over and then crack the embossing by folding and creasing and then ink into those cracks.  Or spray ink into the cracks to get more definition.  

In Depth Make :  Extra Special Musical Make

I love the pretty mixed media style of this beautiful card, there is so much to look at, I love the colours too. 

Embossing Folder Focus:  

Sarah has used different inky techniques with the embossing folder,  to give some incredible effects.

Ashley has made some amazing cards for men using the magazine free stamps.  The star card is amazing,  I love how she has used the embossed circle (from the embossing folder) as the focal point.   

Marta has used lots of bits and pieces from her stash to create some beautiful projects with the free gifts.  Some absolutely stunning designs.  

Lastly the Stamps by Me Design Team share some of their clean and simple designs using the free gifts  from this magazine.  I love how different they all are!!! 

All in all a fantastic issue with some amazing stamps by 'Stamps by Me' and some incredible inspiration too, this one I will definitely keep and use.  

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I hope you ladies have a lovely Saturday,

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                      xxxxxx