Thrinchie 44

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend.  

As I am writing this Sophie and I are off to Oxford, we have left a bit earlier so that we have plenty of time to park and find somewhere to eat.  Oxford is always super busy because of Tourists, crazy amount of tourists, big groups too, i think there are links to Harry Potter in some of the University grounds.  

Today's thrinchie (44) is the partner to yesterday's (43). I used the same stamp set and coloured Distress Oxides as yesterday.  I quite like the colour combinations of these two.  I am looking forward to putting them in a little book.  

Have a lovely Friday, 

Love and hugs to all,  

Sandra xxx

First of a New pair of Thrinchies

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

Today is a day of two halves,   this morning Becca has her post op check at the Eye Hospital,  I have everything crossed that its a positive appointment,   she did exactly as she was supposed too, until Saturday where she refused to let her eye surgery play even the tiniest part of her day, she did put sunglasses on to rest it while out in the sun and in the lights of the disco.  She did quite a bit of dancing, but we can forgive that in the circumstances.  The sad part was that she couldn't see out of it.  The whole day has been photographed and video'd.  So anything she did miss she can look back on. 

The second part of the day is more upbeat.... Soph and I are going to the Theatre to see Riverdance,  she is so excited bless her.  

Today I am sharing Thrinchie 43, I made this one two weeks ago, I believe the colours are Villainous Potion,  the flower was coloured with Seedless Preserves & Salty Ocean (I think,  it could have been Blueprint Sketch)🤣  The thrinchie started by inking a mini distress ink lid with Villainous Potion,  the rest of the piece was planned around that square.  

I will share its partner, Thrinchie 44 tomorrow.

Have a lovely Thursday,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Christmas Challenge card 2

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Life is slowly getting back to normal, (whatever normal is) although I received a message from Becca today and seeing her name change just catches me, tears in my eyes etc, I do remember sitting in that tiny Chapel listening to her vows,  thinking that it barely seemed a couple of years that we chose your name, I remembered holding her for the first time and look at you now, a beautiful young lady becoming a beautiful Wife, it felt surreal and still does.  The funny part is that she has lived with Adam for the past 6 years or more, so it's not like she is leaving an empty 'nest'.  I think it's just that feeling that they are moving on, they don't necessarily 'need' you anymore.  After all it was barely 2 weeks ago that she was scared and sobbing in my arms while waiting for eye surgery.  I don't think that will change though 🤣

The girls have asked me to go to Ikea with them today.  Turning down  trip to Ikea is too hard,  they have wheelchairs so should be ok

Today I am sharing another card from my IndigoBlu Magazine, it was a bit tricky as as the blue snowflakes in the background are heat embossed,  you then add the Versamark to the corner stamps, stamp over the blue stamping that is already embossed, add gold embossing powder and heat set.  The first one i made just didn't work, the double embossing just looked messy.  

I left much longer for the first layer of embossing to fully dry.  It wasn't perfect but it did work the 2nd /3rd time. I die cut the sentiment 3 times and stacked them, it makes the sentiment stand out better.  I used the same gold card as a mat for the background. Finished the card by adding some gold gems. 

I hope that you all have a happy 'hump' day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

A Christmas Challenge card

Good Morning Ladies, 

We had all the weather's yesterday,  glorious sunshine, bit of a breeze, rain, thunder and back to 🌞 sun!  

The girls and I all felt worse yesterday than we did on Sunday,  generally achy, feeling drained and general exhaustion,  Lucy said that she felt like she had a virus,   but I'm pretty sure its just the mental and physical 'come down'  from what has been constant daily wedding preparations, followed be a 16 hours of mostly standing & chatting, meeting and greeting people add in the high emotions, it's really not a surprise.  

I saw that Becca shared an Instagram post yesterday and she has changed her name to Harris, that made me tear up too.😭  Although I am so incredibly happy for her 🥰

Today I am sharing my first Christmas card for our new Challenge, it is also the first card I have make from my IndigoBlu Christmas magazine box kit.       I used one of the stencils and spread texture paste through the stencil, after I removed the stencil I added gold embossing powder to the wet texture paste, I then heated the embossing powder until it turned shiny, it actually made the texture bubble in the heat, which gave an extra element of interest.

I mounted the gold embossed piece onto a gold mat and onto a piece of pink patterned paper then onto a 5 x 7 card base.  I used the same patterned paper for the sentiment which I stamped in Versafine Clair Charming Pink. 

Its a simple design but that textured panel is lovely to look at and feel. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Lilian's Lovely journal page

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week,  I was going tl say that this week will be lot quieter,  I do have a quiet 'start' to the week,  but Wednesday the girls want me to go to Ikea with them and on Thursday Soph and I are off to Oxford in the afternoon, having dinner and then we are going to the Theatre see Riverdance,  something that Soph has been fascinated with for years!  Then it's our wedding anniversary next weekend.  

Yesterday we spent the morning with family, we all congregated at The Highway (where most of us stayed) for breakfast and stayed there chatting for most of the morning, it was lovely because the staff serving breakfast were wedding guests too so they were joining in the storytelling and laughter too.  We all went our separate ways early afternoon, we took Pauls mum back to Cheltenham to get her coach,  by this time I was fighting my body to stay awake.  My body hurt from standing for most of the day,  talking and greeting people.  It was definitely an early night for me 😴

Today I am sharing Lilian's latest journal page.

Lilian's Description:

Another journal page using some old papers I found. Light stencil background.

Here is a close up of the beautiful stencilling,  it gives such lovely depth and the look of texture to what is essentially a flat piece of patterned paper.

The green you have used compliments the paper perfectly. 

Thank you so much for allowing me to share your lovely journal page my lovely  XXX

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

Love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra xxx 

Not our usual Sunday Post

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.  I wasn't near my phone all day yesterday as I wanted to be fully present at the wedding. 

Becca looked absolutely stunning as did my girls,  Matthew did is all proud with the most amazing fireworks display, he also was the lighting and sound guy for the wedding and DJ too.  Becca was overwhelmed at what an incredible job he did. As was I 

We had the loveliest day celebrating with Becca (Now Mrs Harris), it was amazing and emotional at the same time, I went through quite a few tissues. Especially when Becca gave a speech and gave me her bouquet as she wanted to give it to her best friend 😭😭

So I hope you don't mind enjoying Becca's Bouquet instead of our usual Sunday post. 

Sending my love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

A little message from me x

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Just a quick one today,  as I get to watch my eldest daughter get married 🥺😭  I already cried when I saw her yesterday, she's so amazingly brave, she's been to hell and back this week and she's still smiling,  the venue looks incredible, everyone worked together and got everything done.

Hopefully today goes without any more frustrations!  I am so excited to see her all dressed and ready , its going to be long one but worth it. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all as well as can be expected, gentle hugs to those of you that are in pain struggling xxx

We have a very long and busy day today, we are going over to the tipi to help set up, I have to cut 100 sprigs of lavender leaves to add to he name place cards.  Matt will be setting up all the audio and lighting equipment,  Paul is on manual Labour and helping Matt. The girls are on art duty, creating all of the signs.  

Paul finished his speech last night and I finished a card for Becca, I was going to buy a card for Daughter on the eve of your wedding ' kind of thing but they don't exist, so I had to quickly made one.  (Well not really that quick)! 

Our Next Challenge 

Well my lovelies we have to start at some point, so lets make some 'Christmas' projects,  cards, journal pages, tags, thrinchies etc. 

I hope you enjoy the challenge,   

My love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra  xxx

Some older Autumnal cards Throwback Thursday

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies, 

Well I'm not sure what's more stressful, being 2 days out from the wedding or the fact that all of our families will be arriving in town in the next 24 hours.  It's going to be hard because obviously we want to spend time with them but my priotity is Becca.  I think we will take Paul's mum and my brother and possibly my sister into Bourton for Fish & Chips, then I need to go spend an hour with Becca,  then home to bed because I have to be up in time to shower and wash my hair and be at the priory for 6am !!! 😲🤣

So today I am sharing a couple of Autumnal cards from 2019.  I had a walk down the garden with Paul yesterday afternoon and it really felt like Autumn,  the leaves on the trees all seem to have turned early this year, maybe because if the drought. I do love the changing colours of Autumn though. 

I hope that you all have a good day,

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

My Birthday card from Maria

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

This week is going WAY to fast,  yesterday started out in a dramatic manor, I had ordered a medical grade gel eye mask, that you put in the fridge/freezer. Its to help with inflammation, bruising etc, I thought I had sent it to the right address, however my brain wasn't functioning normally while Becca was in surgery,  I had sent it to the wrong address, so we drove to where it had been delivered, I walked up to the door, knocked and rang the bell but nobody was home, the package was on the step in front of me addressed to me,  I had the photo on my phone from delivery to prove it was mine,  so I just picked it up and we drove the few houses up to Becca's, I did say to Becca that she may see a description of me in their local neighbourhood watch group saying I was robbing parcels off doorsteps!🤣😂

The rest of the day was spent at the nail salon and beauty Salon for nails and lashes.   Now having your lashes 'lvl'd was an experience, they basically 'perm' your eyelashes, then tint them, they look great,  like you have the best mascara on, Sophie & Lucy's look stunning!!  I had my Eyebrows tidied too   hopefully that's all the torture over for now!  

Today I am sharing the gorgeous card that Maria created for my birthday,  adding all of those tiny crystals must have taken ages.  I can tell you that it really sparkles in the sunlight. So it's truly worth your hard work. 

Thank you so much Maria for such a lovely card XXX 

I hope that you all have a great day,

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

My Birthday card from Lilian

 

Good Tuesday Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday took a bit of a turn, Becca's post-op check up didn't go to plan,  the operation wasn't successful, so she had to spend the whole day waiting to have the surgery re-done,  she went down at around 6pm  after waiting since 8.45am!  I can only imagine the stress, she had Adam with her thankfully.  The surgery took almost 2 hours this time,  apparently they went a lot deeper this time, I hope they have done it thoroughly.  They said it was a lot more traumatic for Becca too.  She has to have complete bed rest for the rest of this week, they have prescribed extra eye drops to help clear the inflammation quicker.  

Today we were all having our pre-wedding pamper, manicure, pedicure & eyelash tint etc, it's going to be so sad doing it without her 😢 

On a much brighter note I am sharing the amazing card that Lilian made for my birthday. 🥰

It has a lovely ombre stencilled background, edged beautifully with black card.  Embellished with a gorgeous blue poppy, as always Lilian's colouring is incredible.  

Knowing that you ladies took time to make these beautiful cards for me makes them the most special gift.  Thank you so very Lilian xxx

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx

My Birthday card from Sonia

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

How is it September already,  Becca & Adam's wedding has always seemed months away, its now 5 days!  

I love Autumn, the colours are so beautiful ! 

Today I am sharing the beautiful card that Sonia made for my birthday, that film strip die cut frames the die cut sentiment perfectly. I love the delicate stencilling too, such a beautiful shade of pink. 

Thank you so much my lovely for making this card for me xxx

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

Love and hugs 

Sandra xxx 

 

Our crafts this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying the weekend,  we had a relatively 'normal' Saturday, thankfully.  We did have to go food shopping,  which we will forever do our best to avoid,  my goodness was it busy!  We had to pick a few things up for Becca, who apparently 'needed' snacks,  so we called in on our way home to check on her and drop off her 'essentials ',  she is panicking about getting everything done for Saturday, we sat and talked through everything and she was much calmer by the time we left.  That was pretty much Saturday over, I feel like this whole week is going to be the same! 

Let's look at what we had on our desks this week.....

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, finished at last, it’s the background that takes so long and the finding the bits for the topper.

Stamperia papers, “Mr Magic”.

Once I’d got all the pieces and inked the edges it was just a case of deciding how to arrange them and the sticking them down.

The new glue gun is very useful, money well spent.

Lilian I absolutely love your journal page, what a great way to use up all of those papers and ephemera that we hoard.  The background is stunning, the colours are gorgeous and those Dahlias look so realistic 😍 

Thank you so much for sharing your page with us XXX

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a card for the challenge All with Aall&Create- stencil and stamps However the “paint” was inspired by Vicky Papaicannou She used DO sprays or was it reinkers A few drops on the page and then tap it with your finger and it creates these amazing splats I had to use Ali Reeves brand of spray.

I can vouch that this card is even better in real life as this was my birthday card from Karen. There is so much detail, its amazing Karen, I really love it.  

Thank you so much XXX

Maria 

Maria's Description 

I used a piece I made some time ago with some shiny paint through a stencil. It looked too much with a whole piece so I just used a bit in the corner. I then used some circle stamps and splatter in dark purple. New die from an old crafting magazine that I like a lot.

We are still on backgrounds and yours is perfect.  I love your stencilled corner piece too, great colour and texture too. 

Thank you so much for making time to create a card, I know you are waiting for news and have your family on your mind my lovely XXX 

***************

I hope that you all have a great Sunday,  

Love and hugs to you all,

Sandra xxx

Mixed Up Saturday.....

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday was very long and just mentally draining, we left here just after seven am and got to hospital for 8am, she was seen straight away, she was still hopeful at this point that it was something temporary,  but I knew something was up when they put her ahead of everyone else for scans etc, then we went straight to Surgeon, he explained that it was detatched retina, at which point she broke down,  she explained that she was getting married next Saturday, so he went off to discuss best options,  the surgery that Paul had wouldn't work as the recovery is very strict and takes 4 -6 weeks, it also  carries a huge risk of causing cataracts, which is exactly what happened to Paul, virtually straight away.  So they did Laser Retinopexy combined with Cryotherapy, the combination of which create scars that hold the retina in place, they then put gas in to put pressure on the retina while scars form and heal.   It looks like she is going to have a lovely black eye, but I reassured her that makeup is miraculous these days.  

We were semt straight to a Day Surgery ward, where she was instructed to lay on her left  hand side immediately to prevent any further damage.  Her surgery ended up being way longer than expected as the found muliple tears.  She has follow up appointment on  Monday.   She said she was terrified the whole way through as you have to be awake while they operate on you, Becca asked them to tape her other eye closed so that she couldn't see the needles and scalpel, she said that there quite a few people in  the operating theatre, making it harder to relax, she ended up having a full anxiety attack towards the end of her surgery, I could hear her crying as she came down the corridor, which just broke my heart.  We got her home safe, made sure she was in bed and relaxing 

I haven't felt this helpless befor.

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

The matching pair to yesterday's Ticketed Snippet

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Well, today was meant to be a more relaxed start to the day but sadly we will be leaving here at 7am to take Becca to an Emergency appointment at the Eye Hospital has she has lost vision in her left eye,  the eye specialist she spoke to yesterday seems to think it could be a Detached Retina,  the symptoms do fit, she has an increased risk due to Paul having had Detached Retina,  I am hoping and praying that it isn't that as I cannot see how she could go ahead with the wedding in 8 days.  Paul's aftercare required him to keep his head down, face to floor for atleast 45 minutes in every hour.  This was for 14-21 days to make sure that the gas bubble that put in to hold the newly attached retina in place. Please cross everything that its something easy to fix. 🤞🤞🤞

Soph and I had a lovely day out in Cirencester after my nightmare Bladder Clinic appointment! We browsed the shops had a lovely lunch and found a craft market, where Soph treated me to a lovely pair of earrings.  We finished the day with lovely family dinner. 

Today I am sharing the matching Ticketed Snippets to yesterday's.  This one was made in exactly the same way as yesterday's, the difference is that this one has a flower added, coloured with the same pencil shavings as yesterdays project.  

I will add that you could use any watercolour pencil shavings, pigment powders,  pixie powders will be nice with the added shimmer too. 

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and beautiful cards. 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra 

My next 'Ticketed Snippet '

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Busy day today,  bladder clinic this morning,  fingers crossed that today of all days it goes smoothly,  I'm not convinced that this uti has cleared up, they check that today, so fingers crossed I'll know way one way or another.  Then Soph is taking me out for lunch, we are going to Becca's restaurant for dinner so that she can spend time with me too.  

We went and collected Becca's wedding dress and the Bridesmaids dresses from the seamstress, seeing their dresses fitting perfectly makes such a difference they looked beautiful.  

This is first of a new pair of Ticketed Snippets, this one used a different technique to colour the background,  I took some blue & green Tim Holtz watercolour pencils and used a pencil sharpener to get some 'shavings' from each colour, I took the Ticket stencil and used a permanent pen to trace round the inside, giving me the ticket outline, I placed the chevron stencil over the ticket and did one version with translucent texture paste and one with crackle texture paste.  With the stencil in place I sprinkled some of the shavings over the wet texture paste, I then set these to dry.  Once they were dry I spritzed them with water to get the colours to run onto the background. I dried them both, I did add some more of the pencil to the background and used a waterbrush to blend them in.  I cut around the outline and added some splatters, then added them to my little journal,  I added shading then added some extra chevrons, these were coloured by cleaning the stencil of residue paste with colour, I created three more backgrounds.  I stamped the little bird and added shading. All of the stencils and stamps are Tracey Evans. 

I will share its partner tomorrow.

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx  

Another Workshop Card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,

Lucy treated me to brunch out yesterday, we went to our favourite spot  in Witney.  We then had a browse at make-up in Boots & Superdrug, my Lipstick is older than I dare admit, I wear it that rarely that it was lasted forever,  I was looking for a match but it has been discontinued,  how many different things do they have to replace plain old Lipstick these days,  there are lip scrubs for getting rid of dead skin, then primer,  then liner ooh and don't forget your lip oil!! Long gone are the days of a bit of Lipstick and a swipe of gloss!   I bought a couple of bits and kissed goodbye to £40 +

Today I am sharing another of the projects I did from a Tracey Evan Worksop.  No 'Masterboard background on this one, I just stamped the centre piece and used some of the little Ephemera stamps to build the image up.  While I waited for the ink to dry, I got out my 'Ticketed Snippet and positioned it where I wanted it on my project, added some low tack tape and then used three Inktense pencils to add add colour, after laying down some colour I used a paintbrush a bring the colours to life!  I did fussy cut the butterfly and coloured it using the same colours as the background.  The finishing touches are a leaf branch that I stamped after adding some of the inktense onto the stamp,  then adding spritz of water and stamped the flower a couple of times, dried it then fussy cut the branch and adhered over the stamped branch.  A few ink splatters finished the piece. 

Another project that I really enjoyed creating! 

I hope that you have a great Wednesday, 

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Ps.  I hope this makes sense as its currently 4:02am as I am trying to get this finished! 

Karen's amazing Mix Media Card

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Now I feel like I can say 'welcome to the start of a new week ' 🤣😂

We didn't do anything exciting yesterday,  we did consider going to one of the two big car boot sales that were advertised locally,  but when I thought about trying to get round a huge uneven field it just didn't seem worth it.  We did pop to a garden centre and then nipped to Waitrose as ky body needs kefirs with these antibiotics, I find waitrose own brand the best ones, the don't taste overly sweet or have any kind of saccharines in and more importantly have a goid range of healthy bacteria.  The traffic both there and back was crazy, mostly around Jeremy Clarksons pub, there must have been 500 cars in their overflow car park !!  It's been open over a year now and the novelty doesn't seem to have worn off, the reviews are quite good but nothing is surely worth queuing hours for!? 

Today I am sharing Karen's latest mixed media card....

Karen's Description:  

Here’s a card for the challenge All with Aall&Create- stencil and stamps However the “paint” was inspired by Vicky Papaicannou She used DO sprays or was it reinkers A few drops on the page and then tap it with your finger and it creates these amazing splats I had to use Ali Reeves brand of spray. 

Karen this card is so amazing,  I love all of the details that you have added, so many layers of interest and texture. I really love your colour combination too. 

Thank you so much for allowing me to share your card. XXX

I hope that you all have a great day,  

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx.

My 2nd Workshop project

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Bank Holidays never feel like the start of a new week, do they, they just feel like an extension to yhe past week!  (Maybe thats just my crazy mind) 🤣😂

We spent the afternoon with Matt yesterday, he picked a place called the 'Anatolean Palace' which was a Turkish Restaurant,  I was really excited as I follow a couple of Turkish cooks on TikTok,  my mouth waters as I watch them.   I had Halloumi cheese as a starter,  Paul & Alex had Creamy Garlic mushrooms,  Matt had prawns with garlic butter, the also bought a basket of the most deliscious bread.  Matt, Paul & I had Mixed Shish kebab that came with rice and unlimited salad, Alex had a wrapped meat dish.  Our lamb literally melted in our mouths,  the chicken was lovely too.  Needless to say we were all to full for dessert.  I will return in a heartbeat,  I'm not sure if they are a chain but if you are ever near one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend you try it.  Paul and I  couldn't eat anything else apart from a cup of tea and biscuit before bed! 

Today I am sharing the second project from my Tracey Evans workshop.  

This project (and the last one) started out as stamping a mixed media stamp over an A4 sheet to look like a newspaper sheet 

You then tear up the sheet and lay it randomly over an A3 piece of card, adhering it with collage medium.  

Next we brayered different colour acrylic paint, then we smooshed some on with a finger,  circles dipped in white acrylic paint in varying sizes gave more texture, next came texture paste through stencils, with they layers you can still see the print on the paper beneath.  I then cut the background up into 6 x  6×4 inch backgrounds and 2 x 5 1/2 × 4 inch backgrounds. 

On today's project you can only really see the background on the inside of the Acorns, I added paint in several layers around the acorns, so that the acorns themselves were the highlight.  I added white stamping over the background and then stamped the birds in black, I added the tag and 'Acorn' and finished with some splatters. 

I have to say I really 'lost ' myself while doing these projects, I really enjoyed making them. 

I hope that you all have a great Monday, 

Love & hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Our makes this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

We had a lovely relaxing day yesterday,  which is exactly what I needed.  Well apart from popping out to return all of the dresses, jackets & shoes that I had ordered to try on for the wedding.  It felt good getting them all out of the way.  

The rest of the day we spent sitting on the deck, I finished another workshop piece.  I still somehow felt exhausted at the end of the day.  I think it's the antibiotics.  Maybe the wedding stress isn't helping either.  Only 2 more weeks.!!! 

Today is Matt's birthday,  its unusual for us to be in the UK for his birthday so we are going over to have a meal out with him this afternoon, we are going to Gloucester Quays, which is a shopping Outlet, they have a lovely Turkish Restaurant so that's where we are eating.  

Let's have a look at what you have been making this week....

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Card 1:  I made this simple Sympathy card too for this challenge using Sizzix layer stencils

Card 2:  Just finished an eclipse card for the challenge using a Serif image The technique I adopted worked very well But the photo looks better than in real life I don’t think there is enough contrast It all looks a bit blurry but that could be my eyesight 

An old Sue W die set and I turned it into a tent fold card (Pink Frog)

Card 3:  This is better Same SueW dies Julie Hickey sentiment. 

What a creative week you have had Karen,   another incredible stencilled card, every colour combination is a winner!  

I love both of your Eclipse cards, I do agree that the darker image looks crisper.  I really love that butterfly image 😍 

Thank you so much for supporting this challenge XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:  

Thought I’d do Christmas card today, the new Indigo Blu Magazine today so used the stamps and stencil from the kit.

Oh you are one of the lucky ones,  I didn't pre-order and it sold out straight away, so I'm guessing it must be a good one!  

Your card is amazing,  love the papers and those stamps,  I also love the technique of edging the layers with peel-offs, they give a lovely neat finish.  

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge,  I do hope that you are feeling better after your dentist visit.  XXX

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I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

A quick hello

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Just a quickie post today as I started with a dreaded Uti yesterday,  it came on mid morning,  quite out of the blue,  I had felt under the weather on Tuesday and Wednesday, sore throat, shivers etc but put that down to having same virus as Lucy.  I didn't feel too bad on Thursday though,  so was quite surprised with the Uti symptoms yesterday,  when we got home I knew for sure that it was Uti (I have become an expert this past few years, especially when it comes down to the difference between a bout of Interstitial Cystitis and full blown Uti)  Fortunately my Gp made sure I was covered for antibiotics for our holiday, so I started the lighter option of the two.  I have had Pivmecillinam before, so didn't really think twice about taking it, checked the dose, took them and some paracetamol for the miserable pain,  within 45 minutes to an hour I started itching, then came nausea,  I ended up having to go to bed, I felt so unwell, as you all know very well, when you have ongoing medical issues, something as simple as a Uti can feel so much worse, it's added pain, making the pain that your body is 'used to' worse, my AF seems to go into one long episode, which is so physically exhausting.  The itching makes me feel like a 'stroppy toddler", to the point that I want to lay in my back, kicking my arms and legs and scream "its not fair " 😫 🤣😂😆

I have got some photos of the patio pots from last Sunday to share with you...

This is the latest flower on my 'Mango Stripe" Dahlia, this one looks like its three different blooms in one, the bold red, the plain yellow and then the beautiful variegated stripes, it is so beautiful.  

This was the first bloom, the stripes are more even, there is less of the vibrant yellow in this one too. 

This Dahlia is '' Hootenanny Swann Island" this flower isn't as 'perfect' as its first either, however,  the colour is stunning that yellow centre is so vibrant, enhanced by the gorgeous deep pink. 😍 

I very nearly didn't bother with these Begonias as they are usually more trouble than they are worth,  but my goodness, I would have kicked myself,  these beautifully delicate flowers are just breathtaking,  I believe they were called 'Petticoat'.

I apologise that I haven't shared and paper craft inspiration today.   I do find that nature can be an incredible source of inspiration though,  for example the colours of these flowers would be perfect for one of those layered stencils or to use for any background etc. 

I hope that you all have a great Saturday,  

Sending my love and hugs, 

Sandra xxx

Ps.  Its not such a quick blog after all, it did take me three separate attempts though 😉😂