First of a new pair if Thrinchies 53 & 54

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Well the heating had to go on last night, it was just too cold,  I think partly because it's so wet too, we are forecast a lot of rain today too.  I ordered a heated throw yesterday,  the girls both have one and have had good use out them,  I really struggle with the cold it just seems to make your pains worse.  I got one big enough to share with Paul if he needs it.

Today I am sharing Thrinchie 53,  I followed Tracy Evans tutorial,  this pair are made using only Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink,  so the shading is done by drying between layers, even the bird and sentiment are stamped in Faded Jeans,  the only other thing used was white paint for splatters!  

I really like how it turned out,  which surprised me 

Bladder clinic today,  please cross your fingers for a positive outcome 🙏 x 

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

The last of my Autumn Cards

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Lucy and I had a lovely afternoon out at the local Garden centre yesterday,  we got some bargains, I wanted to get some cyclamens for the trough on the side of the house,  I found some pretty ones, they were £3.99 each, Lucy spotted a pot that had 4 different ones in (as a pre planted pot) it had been reduced from £18.98 down to £5 !!  So I put my 3 back and took that instead ! 

We then thought we'd get some lunch,  however they have had a revamp in the restaurant,   so we looked at the menu and they wanted £10.95 for a Cheese toasted Sandwich,   I said to Lucy that it would be the best part of £30 for two toasted Sandwiches and two drinks!!! So we decided to go get some nice ham from the Deli and use the fresh Sourdough loaf that I made on Monday and some of the 'Five Shires' cheese I had picked up for lucy when I went to a different Garden centre and farm shop a week or so ago,  she said that sounded delicious,  so thats what we did, I could only eat half a toasted Sandwich but it was yummy, I swear 5 'Shires' cheese used to be called 5 counties!  

Todays card is the second one that I made on Saturday,  I have to say I love how this turned out, I used the same French Foliage stamp set that I used for Monday's card, the sentiment is the second in the set from Inkylicious,  I have to say that I really love how this one flows!  

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Another little Stamperia Journal page

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

We had a very wet day here yesterday,  we had spells of torrential rain all day, Paul was up and down opening the back door for the cats then closing it when the rain got crazy,  the cats get a bit stir crazy if they don't get to go outside. 

I spent the afternoon crafting,  I made three projects using just one colour ink pad,  it was a challenge but I was surprised how well it turned out.  

Today I am sharing a little journal page that I made a couple weeks ago, it was my first 'Vicki' tutorial.

It started with the texture paste through a stencil that looked like Newspaper stories, I allowed the paste to dry and then added some Pixie type pigment powders, which were dark blue with  pinks in and a black one too, to give the night sky look.  

Here is a closer look at the details.   After tapping powders over the page I sprinkled the powders carefully,  but still used to much.  The colours just burst out from the water and filled the page! I love the little whispy bits on the top right of the page. 

When this was dry I added some gold glitter stars,  using a stencil was a disaster over the texture paste, they make it look so easy on line!  I fussy cut the different elements from the Stamperia Secret Diary Collection and layered them up in the centre of the page,, a few white splatters finish the page.  

Not my favourite,  but it was my first, so I have to love it!! 🤣😂

I hope that you all have a great day,

Sandra xxx

My last but 1 Autumn cards

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,  

Welcome to the start of a new week,  I hope that you all had a good weekend,  as predicted we had a whole day of rain, it felt cold and damp,  Paul lit the log burner in the afternoon which made it feel much cozier.  The girls came home early from work too which was an added bonus,  I guess even the hardest of Wildlife Park season ticket holders would have been put off by the amount of rain we had.  

It was nothing that a lovely roast dinner couldn't fix though. 

I had a lovely crafting day on Saturday and this card is one of the projects I made.   I have had some Autumn sentiments from Inkylicious that I have been wanting to use but they just didn't work with the journal pages I have made.  So picked out a really old stamp set from SU French Foliage and used it make a couple of cards. 

This one started out as my colour testing piece,  I love how it turned out so I decided to cut it down to 3 x 3 inch, ink around the edges and stamp over the leaves with the little french script stamp in the stamp set I used second generation Crumb Cake ink so that it didn't cover those lovely autumn leaves. 

I hope that today sets your week off to a great start, 

Love & huge hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Our Makes This week.....

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

Rain rain go away!!! We have it forecast all day today 97% chance too, so pretty much guaranteed,  luckily,   like Rick,  Paul got all the lawns mowed,  it takes a couple of hours but he got it finished and then quickly jet washed the red Berries that Soph had driven through they have stained the front doors of her car (which is white) it actually looks like she has hit something and its blood,  it came off quite easily thankfully.  So he has totally earned a lazy day today, although being lazy doesn't come easily to Paul!!   I didn't get out in the garden but I still had a productive day, I made two cards and a journal page,  I haven't made a card for a couple of weeks,   I had a slightly larger card base than usual (only by an 1/8 inch)  but I had to cut the flipping card base 3 times!!!  I got there in the end though! 🤣😂

I hope the weather doesn’t spoil your plans, Sonia have a safe journey to Dorset and Gina have a safe journey to Italy xx

Karen

Karen's Description:

Tag:  

Here’s a tag for the challenge 

So Stencil - homemade texture paste

Die cuts - Tim Holtz snowflakes

Tag - a left over luggage tag

Card 1: 

Another one for challenge

Embossing folder/ Autumn/Die cuts

Trying to stay on straight line but covers other choices too eg Inks Leaves Ephemera (metal disc)

Card 2:

Another challenge card

Stencil - Christmas - inks - Sizzix layered stencil

DO inks Fired Brick Peeled Paint Forest Moss and Frayed Burlap 

Daisy B stag stamp

Also a little sparkle - gold sand CS Glitterbitz

Wow Karen you have had a very busy week in your craft room,  your makes are all completely different too.

I love your Mixed Media Tag,  your home made texture paste works so well,  a definite success and a good £10 saved!   

That embossing folder on your second card is lovely,  I couldn't find it anywhere online!  The way you have highlighted the detail is brilliant. 

Your wreath card is amazing,  using the wreath as a frame is inspirational,  you certainly have given me some ideas.  That Daisy B stag is so beautiful,  so much detail which you have coloured perfectly. 

Thank you so much for 3 incredible projects my lovely XXX 

Lilian

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week, 

I used stencil, leaves, and die cuts.

It’s a new stencil but I can’t remember where I bought it from. 

I’ve had the edging die’s for years, no idea where it came from, I must remember to make a note of the name and where I bought it from.

Lilian I love your card, that piece of inked background is so beautiful,   I also adore that stencil, its so pretty, the two work so well together, I did think the border die was a Sue Wilson die,  but I'm not sure, its lovely, gives a really delicate finish.

Thank you so much for creating a beautiful card for this weeks challenge XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

I started this card yesterday and finished it this afternoon. It's an Idea from a crafting magazine. The Papers and embossing folder is from there, not sure about the bells. T. Holtz inks 

Categories: Stencil/ Die cuts/ Christmas 

I love all of your inking Maria,  that Embossing folder is gorgeous and you have highlighted those little details beautifully. 

Thank you so much for creating a card for the challenge my lovely,  I hope that you are starting to feel better XXX

Sue

Sue's Description:

Here is my card for this week,  I was inspired from a card on Pinterest. It took ages to position the leaves etc. but I’m quite pleased with it now. You can’t see the sheen on the blue background card and it is greyer in the photo. 

I used categories:  Sparkle/Shine / Die cut/ Christmas 

It's lovely to see it finished,   it really is a 'labour of love', You must have spent a good 2 hours + die cutting those little pieces while you were here.  It really was worth it though, it looks really lovely.  Only another card maker would know how much work went into it though!   

Thank you so much for supporting the challenge, it's lovely to be sharing your card in the line up XXX

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I hope that you all have a great Sunday,

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

The shopping is done, as are most of the chores, so as it's the weekend its time to relax. Although we are up and out early as its the village market day today,  the girls have us on a mission to look for house plants.   I swear that they have become 'horticulture ' crazy, their bedrooms are like jungles, their latest obsession is propagating new plants from cuttings etc,  there is a healthy competition between them to see who can successfully propagate the most new plants.  As a consequence every shopping trip involves plant shopping!  Why couldn’t they be craft mad ??? !!!

Sue

Sue has found some bargains that she wanted to share with all of you.....

Sue's Description:

Here are a couple of bargains I have found. The candy cane ribbon is from B and M bargains £1.99 for 2 metres. They have lots to choose from at the moment. The no shed glitter card is from Temu at £2.50 for 10 A4 sheets. The colours are gorgeous and it is a good thickness card, perfect for Christmas cards xx

Thanks Sue, I felt the glitter card and it felt no different to any other that I have bought,   the red is a lovely 'Christmas ' red too. 

Thanks Sue,  its great to know that we can buy with confidence,   I have to say that most things I have bought have been ok   XXX

Also Lilian let me know today that there are so bargains to be had on Aall&Create website,  a lot of stencils for £2.99  and a lot of stamps too, worth a visit.  Thanks Lilian letting us know XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Karen's Autumnal TicTacToe card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

The girls and I had a lovely afternoon in Cirencester,  we looked around a lovely park, had lunch and then had a lovely wander around the town,   I really love it, there are so many lovely independent shops, art galleries & gift shops.  The craft fair that was on when Soph & I went on my birthday,   there wasn't as many interesting vendors yesterday,  there must have been 4 stands selling cards, not hand made ones though, it looks like they have bought a card shops stock and were selling them on, bot cheaply though!  They have started targeting their sales towards Christmas now though, some of the handmade jewellery would make nice gifts.  We then went to the huge Charity shop,  it was fun looking around it, we didn't buy anything though, we popped into a smaller Charity shop where I found the 'WasJig' No 1 puzzle,  we have many others so thought No 1 might be a nice addition to the collection.  Soph managed to get a whole series of books for £3,  a set of 7, they were originally £40!  So she was happy!  That was all that we bought, apart from a few bits from Waitrose,  their Proper Greek Yoghurt is my favourite,  their Keffir is my favourite too, as there are no sweeteners or anything bad.  I take it every day.       I was so exhausted by this point (even though I wasn't walking) mostly due to absolutely no sleep through Wednesday night into Thursday,   I didn't think I was going to be able to go out with them but they looked so disappointed,  so I pulled my self together and got ready. 

Today I am sharing the lovely Autumnal card that Karen made for our TicTacToe Challenge 

Karen's Description:  

Here is a card  for the challenge 

Using Categories:

Embossing folder

Autumn

Die cuts

Trying to stay on straight line but covers other choices too eg Inks Leaves Ephemera (metal disc)

Karen your card is so perfectly 'Autumnal'  I absolutely love the Embossing folder that you have used,  it looks like you have framed a beautiful piece of art,  the colouring is amazing,  showing light and dark a like.  

That one perfectly placed flower is all that is needed, leaving the amazing background as the focal point.

Thank you so very much for allowing me to share your lovely card today. I am so grateful XXX

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxxx

Autumn leaves journal page

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

I had another lovely craft day yesterday,  Paul was working from home which made my day 😄 

It was drizzly and over cast all day and my goodness by the evening I was freezing cold, it was too late to bother with heating or log burner by then.  So today we will get the log burner laid up ready to ignite.

I am going out to lunch with my girls today,  well 2 of them!  We are off to the pretty town of Cirencester,  Soph and I have had a couple of nice lunches there,  there are lots of lovely boutique shops to oh and the girls are mostly looking forward to going to the biggest charity shop we have ever seen,  it's in an old superstore, like a huge Home Bargains in size.  

Today I am sharing a journal page that I started last Friday, I added the Washi sheets and background painting last week and set to dry,  so I could just get on and finish it today,  I used so many different techniques,  I lost count,  using washi sheets and painting over them was something I haven't done before, I then dry brushed some orange paint here and there, next came stencilling using Black texture paste,  then I added some orange and black splatters.  

I set this aside to dry and grabbed my Distress inks and spray stains to colour some watercolour card so that I could die cut my Autumn leaves,  

After die cutting I edged with Vintage Photo and added a little bit of stamping and some brown splatters. 

I needed some old book pages or Ephemera to position my leaves on,  I had a couple of pieces that I could use but nothing that worked for the second piece,   so I took my old Diary, tore out some pages then went into the kitchen, there was some coffee in the pot that the girls didn't finish before work so I poured it into a plastic box and set my diary pages in to soak up the colour,  after a few minutes I put some kitchen roll on the Aga and laid the pages on to dry  ..

 I will ink them a bit more when I use them.

After creating my leaves and waiting for my background to dry I was ready to assemble ny page. 

I inked around the edges of the bits of Ephemera that I dug out of a box full that I found in a cupboard! Layered my two pieces together and left to dry.  

Before for I popped all pieces into place I added a piece of medical gauze that I coloured with Vintage photo ink and water...

I adhered the gauze with my glue press and Tonic glue,  then placed my Ephemera pieces so that the gauze poked out of each side, I held all the bits in place to allow the glue to grab for a couple minutes then placed the leaves.

The final touches were some splatters in white and the title/sentiment which I printed out and inked around the edges of before adding to my page.  

This is of course inspired by Vicky P, I followed her tutorial on YouTube.   Although I went 'off piste' and created my own Vintage looking pages etc, I didn't have a lot of the stuff Vicki used so I enjoyed improvising!  

It took me a good few hours but I totally enjoyed playing with all the techniques,  its a good job that we don't go out for posh dinners though as my hands are stained with paint and ink.  🤣😂

Maria, I'm sorry I missed your question, I had a few bits of Stamperia books, with background and Ephemera in but I definitely added to my collection,   I got a big haul from Craftelier (which I believe is in Spain)  their delivery is £5.99 so you have to make it worthwhile 🤫😉 But their prices are cheaper than most shops here, it takes about a week to arrive,  Loobi Crafts, have Stamperia collections too, so do That's Crafty' who also have decent prices.   The Autumn pages I did and yesterday's were made using the Stamperia Golden Harvest Collection. 

I hope that helps my lovely xxx

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

A Golden Harmony Journal page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

All change today, it's usually the day that Lucy and I go out, she has swapped her day off to help someone out, which has a positive side in that Soph & Lucy both have the day off tomorrow so they have planned a lunch date for the three of us.

Lucy and I had a baking afternoon yesterday,  we made 'School Cake' (an iced vanilla sponge tray bake) and Jam slice, which is basically like shortbread with a layer if jam in the centre, it literally melts in your mouth,   you can make it with mincemeat too, which will be nice at for Christmas. 

I didn't have long to make something for today, so I followed a Vicky P tutorial and created this journal page. 

It uses Categories:

Die cut - Stencil- Ink Colouring 

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday,

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Autumn leaves

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

A miserable day weather wise yesterday,  it wasn't much better inside either, it took me until almost 11am to physically get downstairs,  my 'good' hip and knee are so incredibly painful right now, I think I may have to ask for a referral as it's just getting worse, I'm just worried as I depend on my left leg to compensate for my right leg, without it I'd be permanently in a wheelchair.  

On a brighter note, I did get to do some crafting,  which is always a good distraction from pain!  I spent the afternoon with Paul too, which always makes me happy. 

I bought these Leaf Fragment Tim Holtz dies a little while ago,  I have seen some lovely projects using them. 

I coloured the leaves with a combination of Barn Door, Rustic Wilderness & Spiced Marmalade distress ink, smooshed onto my craft sheet then spritzed with water,  I tapped watercolour card into the inkyness, then dried between layers, I did 3 different pieces of watercolour card so that I had a choice of coloured paper to use to die cut my leaves.  

I embossed a piece of mixed media card with a leaf folder, then added it to a card base with a mat of green card.  I arranged the leaves to the right hand side of the card, then finished with a simple sentiment. 

I hope that you all have a good day  

Love and hugs, 

Sandra xxx

Thrinchie 55

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week,  the weather is forecast to be fair this week,  which is a bonus, although it was lovely in the garden yesterday,  when the sun shone it was really warm, but as soon as the sun went downI was cold, it was the closest we have come to lightning the log burner,   we haven't gone as far putting the heating on.  

I tried to do a couple of little garden jobs yesterday but it wasn't going to go well after yesterday's effort,  I used secateurs to trim back lavender, I only managed 2 bushes and had to give up and have paul help me get back on the house,  I have learnt that if you can't breathe easily and talk its time to stop and sit down!   

After giving up in the garden I sat at my desk and created Thrinchie 55.  

Quite a simple Thrinchie,  I stamped the part circle stamp in Portabello Versafine Clair,  Tracey suggested distressing the ink with kitchen roll so that it wasn't  perfectly inked, I used a different floral to stamp over the top of the circle, I coloured the flowers with my pencils, I stamped the mushrooms in Sand Dune ink so that I could colour over them,  I added the Crow and sentiments in Black ink, shading and splatters finish the piece. 

I hope that you have a great Monday 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Our TicTacToe projects

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

We had a very busy day in the garden yesterday,  Paul emptied the baskets by front door and refreshed the soil and planted my Trailing Pansies, I will photograph them when the have settled in, the always look sad when they are newly planted,  we tidied the other beds at the front and then I wanted to go and check my sweet potatoes, well I guess we have to have some failures,  the ones we dug up are more like Sweet Potato fingers! 😔🤣,  I think it was due to two things, there were two tomato plants that self seeded in the same pot and they got really big,  they may have starved the sweet potatoes of nutrients and maybe water with us having such a hot summer.  We will learn and try again next year,  the Girls bought Paul an irrigation system for his birthday so that might help.  We harvested the last of the beans and almost two pounds of Yellow cherry tomatoes, I don't know what to do with them though, I usually make tomato sauce for pasta etc for the freezer and tomato soup but because they are Yellow I don't think they will look appetising,  I could mix in red peppers or something to give the red colour maybe.  They are a total bonus as they had just grown from seeds from tomatoes that we composted.   By about 4pm I literally couldn't put one foot in front of the other without extreme pain so I called it a day, I guess tomorrow will be fun ! 🙄 on the bright side I could sit at my craft desk and play. 😁

Let's have a look at what you have made this week:

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my page for this week,

 Tic tac toe categories:

Journal page, ephemera & Colouring 

The paper & die cuts & Ephemera are Stamperia Silent sea collection. 

Lilian what an incredible nautical themed page, I love that lighthouse,  it looks like its stood the test of time,   everything works so well together with those shells being a perfect embellishment.  That drywall lining tape makes great fishing net!! 

Thank you so much for creating this lovely journal page for our Challenge. XXX

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a couple of bits for the challenge My versions of Thrinchie 17 & 18

Autumn/inks/journal page

And a birthday card for my (male) cousin

Leaves (on the background paper)/autumn colours/sparkle & shine - gold card and splatters

I love your Thrinchies Karen,  the autumnal colours work so well, is this the one where you use the lid of Distress ink pad to create the coloured square?  Your version works so well, especially that stamp at the bottom (that looks like  protractor) 🤣

The background to your cousins card is amazing,  with the script, text and the leaves,  your colour combination is genius that blue really lifts it.   The splatters just work for everthing, perfect finishing touch! 

I really appreciate you creating for this challenge my lovely,  you have had a busy week.  Thank you so much XXX 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Here’s my card

Christmas/Die cuts/Sparkle

I stamped the Magnolia Stamps ‘Snowflake Circle’ in Lost Shadow distress oxide ink. The ‘Snow Crystal Flowers’ from John Next Door were cut in vellum and silver card. The Stampin Up sentiment inked in Lost Shadow. I added Honey Bee Stamps ‘Aurora Borealis’ gems to the flowers and snowflake circle.

Oh Sonia your Christmas card is Clean & Simple perfection!! I love that snowflake circle stamp, the SU sentiment fits perfectly in size & sentiment!  But oh those Snow Crystal flowers are the star of the show, layering silver over the vellum was a touch of genius, those little gems are the perfect finishing touch! 

Thank you so much my lovely for creating a card for the challenge XXX

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I just want to remind you all how incredibly grateful I am that you make time to create something for these challenges every week Ladies❣️ 🥰

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all relaxed and ready for a lovely weekend,   I am relieved it's here, I've had a real nightmare with sleep this past couple of weeks,  partly due to my bladder issues but mostly I think it's just an inability to relax and switch off.  My joint aches have seemed a lot worse too,  I did have a bit of an 'epiphany' moment on Thursday and realised that I had run out of my Magnesium supplements about 3 weeks ago and I kept forgetting to re-order them.  

I take these ones as they are a combination of the 3 different types of magnesium (Glycinate, Malate & Citrate).  

I think we don't realise that these things are working until we stop taking them,  I am hoping that now I have restocked it won't be long before I feel the benefits.   There is no other reason that my joints would be more painful so I am hoping that this the answer.  I am only sharing this in hope that maybe one if you might be helped.  Do sone research the reviews are really positive. 

We drive past these views everytime we go shopping and just take them for granted, today though I just wanted to capture a photo that is 'Autumn ' in a picture to me! 😍🥰 (they may be a bit blurry as the speed limit on this road is 50 mph, I just took the photo as we were whizzing by! 

Lucy and I were in Witney last week, they had a 'pink festival ' on that was raising money and awareness of Breast Cancer,  every shop had a pink window display,  they had a parade too!  This awesome knitted post box topper caught my eye, what a work of art,  we were limited to the angle we could photograph it from as there were people sat in front of it having lunch 🤣.  

There was so much detail, from beautiful flowers to boobs of all shapes,  sizes and colours!!   What an amazing thing to do for a community! 

Finally today I am sharing a couple of photos if last nights sunset,  it had so many colours that don't come across in photographs,  there were purples, pinks to orange and red, so beautiful!  

Oh I almost forgot that I wanted to let you know that 'That's Crafty'  have a really good sale on at the moment,  there are some absolute bargain stamps

These stamp sets, which are perfect for background stamping, were reduced to between £2 - £2 40,  I added a pencil to the first one for scale.  I have used them already on my journal pages , they are StudioLight.  

They have lots of other stamps, ink pads, Stamperia papers,  vellum, stencils etc.  Lots of different Texture paste mediums too.  If you like a bargain or need anything I have mentioned it's worth a look.  

I was sad to see that Country View Crafts are closing down too, they will be missed, they seemed to always have what you were looking for,  hopefully they might reopen once they get moved and settled. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday,  

Love & Hugs all round, 

Sandra xxx