Karen's Biscuit Card

 

Good Morning Ladies,

We were treated to another beautiful day yesterday,  I even ate my breakfast outside in the sun, the decking seems to be a perfect sun trap, we decided to get ourselves a little 'Bistro' table and 2 chairs to go just outside the patio doors, so that we have somewhere to sit without uncovering the big patio furniture set.  We are still keeping an eye on the cats while they are out in the garden, mostly because Milo does like to adventure further than the garden,  next door have ducks as pets and I would hate for him to be stressing them out  although in reality he would be more scared of them!  I find standing very uncomfortable,  so having a chair to perch on would be a great help.  The hard part is which sort to choose.

Today I am sharing Karen's version of the Biscuit card that I shared yesterday,  like was the same as I was with this not being our 'style' of card, although I will say that Karen's lady had beautifully coloured hair, Karen made a great job with her pencils.  So Karen decided to cut her card down to a DL size card.

Karen's Description:

I cut all of the card we made at Daisy B and did this instead Not sure about it but it won’t go to waste I printed the sentiment 

So I still have the lady and biscuits that we cut separately.

I really like what you done with this card I was so unsure of the design or what sentiment to add, your sentiment is perfect.!!   Thank you for sharing your updated version,  I kind of wished that I had the foresight to chop mine up. XXX

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs

Sandra xxx

Another Daisy B Workshop Card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

We were forecast rain yesterday but we had a lovely sunny day, Paul managed to position a good amount of our garden pots, I was really looking forward to having my pots of Grasses on the deck, I love watching them move in the breeze!  We got some more boxes flat packed too which makes such a difference, seeing actual carpet!!! 

I even got time to finish this card, it's the last of the 3 cards we made at the DaisyB workshop,  again its not my usual style, I haven't made 8 x 8 cards since we were back in the Sue Wilson die era, when postage was a lot cheaper!   I kept basically to the design we were given with this one, I coloured everything with my Koi Watercolour paints,  the hair is by no means perfect but using a narrow brush to apply the paint in little flicks does give a more hair like texture, I allowed the different layers to dry too, I really enjoyed sitting and using the Watercolour paints, I found it very relaxing, not the best results but it was therapeutic!! I added some clear embossing powder to the 'Party Ring' biscuits as they do tend to have a glazed look, I added it to the cup to so that it looked like porcelain.  The other embellishment was the sparkles on her jewellery. 

I hope that you all have a lovely start to your week, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Your Autumn cards

 

Happy Birthday 

🍹💃🎂❤ Karen ❤🎂💃🍹

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

Please join me in wishing Our Amazing friend & Dancing Queen Karen, the very Happiest Of Birthdays, I hope you have a wonderful day with your family & friends XXX

I didn't get around to making any Autumnal cards this week,  so I have shared some from a couple months back, I must have been chanelling Autumn in August!!  Speaking of Autumn the journey to the hospital was absolutely breathtaking in places as the trees are all turning every shade of Red, Orange and Brown,  even gold too, had we not been on a tight schedule I would have stopped to take photos!! 

The MRI of my head was hands down the Scariest, most claustrophobic experience of my life, I had to put my head in a cradle thing so it can't move, the then secure a cage over your face, which was terrifying enough,  you then get slid inside the tunnel, I've had my hips, knees, back and pelvis MRI  scanned, which I found ok, this head one gave me a full on panic attack, I think on previous scans they talk to you between the different sessions of scanning,  this chap didn't,  the first bit was the normal loud banging noise, which latest about 7 minutes, it then went deadly quiet for what seemed like forever and then the machine started to make what sounded like a siren noise, like a car alarm, my thought went straight to 'somethings happened' its gone wrong " but it went on and on, it eventually stopped and silence fell again, about 5 minutes later his voice announced it was done, I think I screamed, 'please just get me out of here' !!  I couldn't stand up for a good ten minutes as my legs were like jelly where i had them so tensed up during the scan, my nails were fully dug into my palms as I had to physically stop myself pushing the emergency button, I counted, i tried thinking happy thoughts, you name it I tried it to calm my stupid anxious brain!!!  Paul must have looked at me and thought 'what the hell happened to you' when I came out !! 

Autumn Projects 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I used an Amazing Paper Grace die set and Tim Holtz butterfly. The sentiment is from JustRite stamps. The papers were free online ☺️

To me Kraft card is as Autumnal as it gets, I really love that die too.  Thank you so much for more Kraft Inspiration XXX

Karen 

Karen's Description:

I triple embossed the leaves with clear embossing powder and the letters/corners are triple embossed in copper.

Karen has shared the Autumn Plaque that we made at the Daisy B Workshop last weekend, we covered the base of the plaque in woodgrain paper and then painted the Pumpkins, some people used Alcohol markers, Karen and I used paint, although we both agreed that we would finish them at home as we wanted to add Gold or Bronze to the lettering to make it look more Autumnal,  I have to say that it definitely makes a difference.  

Thank you so much for sharing your plaque Karen I must get mine finished this week. XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week.

A total experimental piece made with various embossing powders and metal flakes. Then clear ultra thick over the top, only trouble was it cracked when I flattened it , hence the circle with the message. I think the colours are passable as autumn. It’s better in real life as you can see the shine of the flakes.

Oh Lilian to me that is a perfect Autumn background,  I bet those gilding flakes sparkle in your hand as the light cathches them, I really love the mix of green and copper coloured flakes, they work so perfectly together,  Imagine die cutting leaves or trees out of that background, you have given me a great 💡 idea !!  The other thing I really love is that you have left the background as the main focus of the card.  Thank you so much for such an inspiring card XXX

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I hope that you all have a relaxing Sunday,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

A a slightly later start than last Saturday, but not such a fun destination!!  Today I have an MRI of my head, its for ENT department, particularly Audiology,  hopefully they will get some answers regarding the frustrating time I'm having with my Hearing aids.  

I think that we are just going to do some shopping after that, nothing set in stone though as you can't guarantee how you are going to feel after an MRI. They can be a bit draining in my experience. 

I hope that you all have something more exciting planned !! 

Creative Stamping 

Issue 127

In this issue of Creative Stamping you get a collection of Traditional Christmas stanps by Christina Griffiths of Card Making Magic,  you also get a bonus stencil, perfect for stencilling the Rays of Light onto the lanterns etc  

The first feature has Sarah showing how useful the stencil can be for adding extra life to your lanterns,  using them to create backgrounds and adding glow around the candles too.

Vanessa has used the Emboss resist technique to create some amazing backgrounds, the pink one wih the candles is beautiful and would work for any card.  The last card has a more grungy look which is also really effective. 

Masterclass:  Stencilling onto your stamps!

Teresa has designed some really fun card simply by using stencils to add detail to stamps, it works best with Silhouette stamps and for best results use Dye inks for the base colour then dye or pigment ink for the stencilled detail.  Look how many variations there are, a really fun idea. 

Here we hear about Christina's take on the stamps, she shares a couple of her own designs using her stamps.

Maggie has used the free gifts to create so lovely cards that would work for Men as well as women. 

Mel has a fantastic tutorial,  showing you how to add battery operated lights to your cards, such a lovely idea for cards for someone special. 

Technique Focus:  Spotlight Stamping 

I know we have done this technique for a challenge before, how lovely are cards that Lisa has made?! 

Glenda has used all of the little border and corner stamps to create Frames and wreaths and fun borders to her cards, we always disregard the little bracket stamps or corner leaf cluster and just use main elements, a great feature highlighting the often forgotten stamps.

Some clean and simple designs from Jane, using the free gifts, sometimes less really is more !!

Some great techniques and features in this months Issue, the free stamps are really useful too, I can see myself using them, especially the candle one. 

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Craft Shopping 

Karen

Karen managed to get to the Stamperama in Bedford last Sunday, I think you are a Superwoman after doing the all day workshop on Saturday too.  To say that there wasn't as many stands at this show you still managed to get some lovely goodies.  I love the TH Snowman 'Mr Frosty'  he has a charming face, love the hat & scarf.  Those Julie Hickey Flower dies are gorgeous and I love the the little card you made using just one of them.  You'll have to let us know how you get on with the Glue Pen as those Quickie glue pens are a nightmare,  I have about six in my pot 3 of which were bought in the last 6 months and none of them work !! 

Thanks for sharing your shopping with us XXX 

My Shopping 

I was looking at Autumnal cards on Pinterest and saw this card....

Oh and this one....

I loved them so much I went straight in search of the dies!!  The words were a really good price and I couldn't resist them.  In my defense these arwmw the only things i have bought since August!! 

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 I  hope that you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra

xxxxxx

A pretty card from a lovely Friend

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

Another week has whizzed by,  the clocks go back this weekend too so it will really feel like Winter is on its way.  So far we have noticed a huge difference already with the heating of the house, even in the coldest evening we have had the heating on quite low for an hour to take the chill off and the room has stayed warm enough to just sit in a t-shirt,  so fingers crossed we will not be spending a fortune and still sitting huddled around an oil filled radiator like we were at Manor Lodge. 

Do you all have anything exciting planned for the weekend?  

I have an MRI of my head for my Ear Drum on Saturday morning at 10am, we will probably do some shopping while we are there, other than that nothing exciting for us. 

Today's beautiful card was made for me by our Lilian, the photo doesn't do it justice, it's a beautiful shade of yellow.  It really cheered me up to have some 'Happy Mail'  i really must get my Tim Holtz stamps out to play with them ! 

Thank you so much Lilian XXX 

I hope that you all have a fantastic Friday,

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Throwback Caught in Crystal card

 

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that today finds you well, gentle hugs to those of you on pain 🤗 

I am having serious regrets, having the Hysteroscopy & Polypectomy while on day 2 of a UTI was a huge mistake, the pain during and after the procedure was a lot worse than I anticipated, I think it was made worse because of the uti pain, the extra pressure on my bladder during the procedure was agony, they did offer gas & air but that makes me nauseous which is something I didn't need with full bladder.  I was surprised that we weren't shown to a recovery room straight after procedure,  I was handed a prescription and shown the door!  I imagine the recovery would be beneficial as the fluid etc that they inflated your bladder has to come out, which it did in the car on the way home! I don't think I have ever been as happy to see my own bed!! I spent the rest of the day laid on my bed due to pain, sadly I will be doing the same today as I woke at 1.15 am and again at 3am in a lot of pain.  

I will add description of today's card below

Today's card is my 'Sparkle and Shine' Challenge card, I have had the background hovering around my desk for quite some time, I love it but couldn't decide what to use it for/with, I tried some Christmas themed die cuts but it just didn't look right.  So I picked up my new Dragonfly Edger die and die cut that and layed it over the 'Caught in Crystal' background and loved it straight away.
As I had the background already made it was quite a quick and simple card to make, I think that is the great benefit of batch making backgrounds, have a proper 'messy crafting' day and make lots of different colours and styles of backgrounds ready to just pick up when you need a quick but effective card.
I couldn't decide which colour gemstones to add to the Dragonfly, as I was moving the background around the purple colours kept catching the light, so that is what I decided to go with.  The other thing I was undecided about was the sentiment, so I die cut a simple Thank you' just for the purpose of photographing for the blog, I can add a proper sentiment when I decide what to use the card for.
I used Creative Expressions Noble Double Stitched Rectangles (set B) for the frame around my card.
I hope you like it, I took a few different photos of various angles to try and capture the glitter in the background, it never looks as good in a photo though.  All I can say is, I definitely 'Sparkles and Shines'!

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra XXX

Another card from the Daisy B Workshop

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Just a quickie from me today, I ended up feeling so rough after tea,  I was so hot and my heart was racing that I couldn't relax at all, then i felt like i was going to be sick, Paul got me into bed thank goodness.

Today's card is another one that we made on Saturday at the DaisyB workshop. Something completely different to my usual style but it was fun to actually sit and craft and chat.

I hope that you all have a lovely day 

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx

A make from me!!

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

I hope today finds you all well, sending hugs to all that need one today 🤗 

Well ladies I actually sat at my desk and crafted yesterday,  I had to blank out the huge pile of boxes behind me though!  

I probably wouldn't have sat and made anything had I not got my projects from Saturdays Daisy B's Workshop to finish,  I obviously don't work fast enough as I didn't get any of the cards finished, mind you I prefer to go at my own pace, it's nice to sit and chat to people when you are with like minded people.  

I was sat between Karen and a lovely lady called Jo (i think), the lovely thing about sitting with like minded people is that nobody ever feels like a stranger,  within an hour we were crafting and chatting like we were old friends,  I will say that she was amazing at colouring and had her cards finished well within the allotted time!  

The Goats and Cupcakes ate both Daisy B stamps, I coloured them using my Distress Watercolour pencils. The lsyers are all torn, I decided to make my card smaller than the 8x8 inch we were given, I thought the goats looked a little lost in that big background, so to finish it off yesterday I inked atound the papers, I thought the ink showed the torn edges more, I added some stickles to the top of their hats and the candle flame to add some sparkle. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Some pretty Autumn Cards from Sonia

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all had a lovely relaxing weekend, we were blessed with a beautiful day yesterday,  we took our morning cup of tea out on the deck, it was so lovely sat in the 🌞 sun, I then cut my secateurs and trimmed one of the rose bushes back a bit, they are still flowering and some of them smell divine.  My craft room was calling though so I reluctantly dragged myself back in there and sorted through some more boxes. I can actually walk through the room now and see carpet so progress is slowly being made, I just struggle with knowing where I want things to go, I think I have most of the basics in place now though,  I was getting worried because I couldn't find my embossing powders box with anti-static bag etc, but I found it this afternoon in a random box  with a load of odds abd ends,  no idea how it ended up in there, anyway I use my embossing powders a lot so they need to be within arms reach, which narrows it down to my desk area.  Hopefully only a few more days and I'll be sorted 🤞 🤞 

Sonia shared these two gorgeous cards with me on Saturday evening so I could share them for the challenge,  I had already finished the blog on my journey home from Stevenage though, so I said I would share them today. 

Sonia's Description:

I found a couple of cards for tomorrow. I thought the colours were quite autumnal, although the Elisabeth Bell images not so much so with the sunflower. The sentiments are from KaiserCraft and LOTV. I made these cards back in 2014 😊

Oh Sonia both cards are gorgeous,  Elisabeth Bell's designs are so beautiful 😍  you have matched the images with the papers perfectly 🥰. Thank you so very much for sharing them with us XXX 

I hope that you all have a great start to the week,

Love & hugs,

Sandra XXX

Autumn Challenge cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope that today blesses you all with some sunshine today, even a little blue sky would be an improvement on the constant grey, dark & gloomy day we had yesterday! 

Mind you I am not complaining, I know people had it an awful lot worse than we did and my heart goes out to them, there can be anything worse than losing your whole home to floods, I always think about people that have precious photographs etc from before digital photography, for example our wedding photos are one offs, they aren't on a disk or a cloud etc, it must devastating to be stood with nothing.  I watched a news programme about a flooded area and I was shocked at how many people didn't have Home / Contents Insurance, imagine having to replace everything in your house!  I'd be too afraid to have to admit how much my craft stash would cost to replace!!! 

I had a lovely day out yesterday,  Karen invited me to the Daisy B Craft Workshop at Stevenage, I felt too guilty at the beginning of the week as we still have so much to do in the house etc, however with my mood being so low etc Paul said just go for it, I was also feeling bad that he would have to hang about all day waiting for me as Stevenage is 96 miles from home!  He said he absolutely didn't mind and that he would bring his book,  which made me rethink, it wouldn't do him any harm to have a day doing nothing either, so I booked it and ordered an extra packed lunch/ afternoon tea for Paul, which he was very happy with......

This is what you get !! Look at all of those cakes and a huge fruit scone!  We both have most of cakes to have as a treat today!! The lovely Daisy B girls kept him (and us) supplied with plenty of cups of tea too, so he certainly didn't complain!  We even treated ourselves to a takeaway after quite a long and frustrating journey home,  all in all I think it did us both good to get out of the house for the day 😊 

Your Autumn Cards New & old

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s an autumnal card which I am going to donate to the library

The leaves are a mix of DO colours Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin, Abandoned Coral and Vintage Photo They were stamped in a brown Versa Clair and die cut which were a magazine freebie from years ago An Aall & Create sentiment stamped in brown Versa Clair. 

I love this card Karen and as soon as I saw it I remembered how much I was blown away by your original version of this card.  I love everything about it.  It will look perfect on the Autumn Bookcase Display at Library.  Thank you for taking part in the Challenge Karen XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is my card for this weeks challenge:

Vintage leaves stamps from stamping up.

Lavinia stencil, laurel.

Inks, forest moss, spiced marmalade, and rusty hinge.

It’s a bit brighter for real.

Absolutely perfecf Autumn card Lilian,  that combination of inks work perfectly together too.  Beautiful card, thank you so much for making a card for this Challenge. XXX

Maria

Maria's Description:

Everything is dies by Sue W like the Celebration shadow Box, Life is a Garden and leaves from the Sycamore branches done with pixie powder. I made this card at a John Lockwood workshop. 

Gorgeous card Maria,  I do love this style of card from Sue Wilson,  your Autumn version is amazing,  love the colours too.  Thank you so much for sharing it with us XXX

The cards below are from the same Challenge back in 2020 

Brenda

Brenda's Description:

Have managed to make one challenge card, the stamp is one I’ve had for ages it’s from Joanna Sheen, From her House  Mouse range, It called ‘LOVE Sunflowers’  I’ve had this for years so not sure if it’s still available.
I stamped the image and coloured it in with my Copic pens. I also tried colouring it with coloured pencils but opted to use this image. We’ll save that one for another day.

Janet 

Janet's Description:

My first CC this week was made using LaBlanche papers and cut outs. These papers etc are from the same set I used a few weeks ago.I had been asked to make a 'Thank You' card by a lady who wished to say 'thank you' to a gentleman who had been and cut her lawn.

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I punched some leaves in brown, green and yellow card stock and arranged them on a thin circle die cut frame to arrange as a wreath. The flowers and the hessian embossing folder are from Crafter’s Companion. I’ve added some gold gilding wax to the embossed panel and leaves - although it’s not really showing up in the photo. The sentiment is LOTV.

Sue

Sue's Description:

A beautiful Autumnal card from Sue for this weeks challenge,  Sue used some beautiful Autumnal  papers, Sue stamped and die cut the leaves, and coloured them with Distress Oxides.  They look so realistic Sue.

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Ladies thank you so much for taking part in our Autumn challenge both this week and for those cards that were from the same Challenge back in 2020. ❤

I hope you all have an enjoyable Sunday, 

Love & huge hugs,

Sandra

xxxxxx