Lets look at this weeks makes

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you all enjoyed a little bit of sunshine yesterday,  it looked lovely out,  I didn't get chance to go out though,  I was trying to finish Christmas shopping, it's my own fault, I shouldn't have left things so late.  My head has just not been in right place this year.  It was mainly extended family I was shopping for,  my sister, her daughter and family etc,  we don't really see them so its hard to know what to get them,  I went for a box of Stickle Bricks for Hugo, my lot loved them when they were little, they are the precursor to lego, I think anything that gets they constructing and using their imagination is a win, they seem to have to grow up way to early these days.  

Paul was outside pottering for a couple of hours, raking leaves, weeding etc, I was quite envious, sadly I got a but carried away with my pre Christmas tidy and reorganise on Friday so I could barely move yesterday, I knew the minute I opened my eyes and went to move that it was going to be a 'slow' day!  Maybe it was a good thing, otherwise I may have put that last minute shopping off another day!  

I didn't get much in my craft room this week, I have missed it too!  

Let's look at what you have been making...

Gina

Gina has made a great start to her Christmas cards,  these 3 are all completely different, each magnificent in it's own way.  I am guessing you have someone in mind for the 'Pigtastic' card,  that pig has beautiful lashes 🤣. 

The scene you created on the first card is so pretty,  the highlight of the last card is definitely that gorgeous santa.  

Thank you for sharing your lovely Christmas cards with us Gina XXX 

Lilian

Lilian has shared her final Christmas card with us this week.  

OMG what a card to end on,  I am guessing this is for a Special family member because it must have taken you hours to do all that beautiful,  intricate needlework.  

You have placed the bauble beautifully to with the fern branches around the top to hang it from and the snowflakes behind it. 

Thank you so much for sharing this lovely card with us. XXX

Maria

Maria created this beautiful Crystal Art Santa for Glenn to take back to Spain.  

Look at the incredible detail in this piece,  all of those toys and gifts,  you can see the sparkle in this photo too,  I can only imagine how beautifully it catches the light in real life. 

Thank you so much for sharing this lovely piece with us.  XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I die cut the Chloe’s Creative Cards star background using the scalloped frame, I then die cut a circle and put it back through with the star background too. I matted some pink card behind it. I die cut Tim Holtz poinsettia and holly leaves. The star trail is part of a longer die from Memory Box. I added the sentiment from Taylored Expressions and some sparkle gems from Honey Bee Stamps. 

I made this for Mark’s mum and also made a similar one for my mum and dad x

Sonia shared the second card with us today too,  these are absolutely stunning,  I'm sure your Mum & Rosemary will feel very special when they open these cards.  

Thank you for sharing them with us XXX 

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

I hope that you all have a great Sunday, 

Love & Hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all organised so that you can relax and have a lovely weekend. 

We did a small shop to tide us over until Monday or Tuesday when we'll finish the Christmas food shop.  We were going to get some bits yesterday but everything had short dates,  for example Paul likes a good Pork Pie,  the only ones we saw yesterday had expiry date of 26th December,   you want it to last a few days past Christmas day.  Fingers crossed we are more successful after weekend.     Are you all done?  I know our Sonia has got a Grocery Delivery slot booked,  Lilian does that too,   I am a bit picky to have someone pick my meat and fruit,  we have done in past and got some really bizarre substitution items. 

Are you hosting or going to family for Christmas? 

They have changed the big post box topper for Christmas, the building behind used to be the post office,  sadly it closed and is now inside WH Smith, it doesn't say on it who makes it, which is a shame.  Its an absolute work of art, even the tree tinsel is knitted. I love seeing them,  something really cheerful in Witney. 

Karen

Karen found some 'spare/unused' Guinness beer mats while she was out last weekend,  what a brilliant idea to turn them into gift tags.  

Karen's Description:

Out dancing last night and they had some Guinness beer mats and a “couple” fell into my bag So I have made a couple of gift tags for the men in our family and I will make a couple of Christmas cards too

I just backed them with white card and used (for the first time) a die that came with my machine.

They are brilliant,  thank you so much for sharing them with us my lovely XXX 

Lilian's Shopping 

Lilian has treated herself to the new Stamperia Collection 'Herbarium Silvae',  she had it ready to show me last weekend and all it took was one flick through to get me hooked,  the papers are stunning with lots of greens.  The stamps are beautiful too and so detailed.  

Thank you for sharing the latest Collection with us my lovely,   mine is on its way!  😉😍

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Festive Friday from Gina

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Well what a wash out yesterday was, I have honestly never seen as much standing water on the roads,  it was flooded across both sides of the road in many places,  driving through those huge floods terrifies me,  that fear of losing control if your car aquaplanes.   I felt totally safe with Soph but that amount of rain and standing water would put any driver on alert.  The wipers were going full speed and were barely keeping up.  Bladder clinic went fine,  Suzanne the lovely nurse that gets it done first time with no pain is retiring and yesterday was her last day.   I am not going to think about who will take over until the New Year 😬

The chimney sweep came,  lovely chap,  sadly couldn't sweep the chimney though,  the pipe that connects the log burner to the flue has somehow become dislodged,  which is probably why it hasn't been working for us the last few times, the last time we did put it on it filled the lounge with smoke,  I thought it was Paul's bad fire management,   turns out it was out of his control.  Bill is coming to look at it today to see if it can be fixed.  

I am sharing a lovely card that Gina made for our Festive Friday treat. 

Gina's Description:

The stamped image is a Habico stamp on polymer, the original was on rubber, which I also have.  The letters are by sizzix.

How gorgeous is that Santa Claus image??!!  A proper vintage looking image.   I love how you have pared the vintage image with Modern looking letters for your HOHOHO   

An amazing Christmas card, thank you so much for sharing my lovely XXX 

I hope that you all have a lovely Friday, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

A beautiful Christmas card by Sonia

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

We had a long day yesterday,  the girls and I went out for brunch and then did a few bits of shopping,  it was so cold and raining which made it feel even colder.  It was dark when we got home too, which makes it feel like you have been out even longer.   We soon got warmed up when we got home. 

Today is a busy one I have bladder clinic, then a bit of shopping with Soph,  then we have Chimney sweep coming in the afternoon.  

I haven't had time to sit atbmy desk let alone make anything for the blog, so I was so grateful that Sonia sent me a photo of this stunning card to share today.

Sonia's Description:

I die cut the Chloe’s Creative Cards star background using the scalloped frame, I then die cut a circle and put it back through with the star background too. I matted some pink card behind it. I die cut Tim Holtz poinsettia and holly leaves. The star trail is part of a longer die from Memory Box. I added the sentiment from Taylored Expressions and some sparkle gems from Honey Bee Stamps. 

I made this for Mark’s mum and also made a similar one for my mum and dad 😊

Thank you so much my lovely XXX 

i hope that you all have a good day, 

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

My lovely Christmas card from Lilian

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all having a good week, hugs ready for any of you that need one. 

We finished our little break yesterday by driving to the local Harbour,  called Charlestown Harbour,  the harbour itself is under construction but we got to take in the lovely views and Paul found a little walkway that cut out most of the steps down to the beach,  so I was able to sit down on the beach and listen to the healing sound of the sea.   

Then we set off for home, the journey felt s lot longer than the journey there.  

Today I am sharing the lovely card that Lilian gave me on Sunday,  Lilian I love these papers that you have used 😍,  such a lovely scene!   The other question I have is... where are you still finding 'peel off' sentiments??  I love the delicate one you have used. 

Thank you so much for the lovely card 😘 xx

I hope that you all have a good Day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Another Christmas card from the Gina K kit

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

After having great weather on Sunday things took a bit of a turn,  well a lot of a turn, We woke yesterday to absolute torrential rain which didn't ease until lunchtime so we had a lazy morning,  then went to look in the local shopping centre,  then went back to the Eden Project for the Christmas light show,  wow,  wow, wow it was spectacular,  totally worth going back for,  they had a choir singing in the food court too which added to the Christmas spirit.  Weather permitting we will pop to Carlyon Bay in the morning before driving home. 

Today's card is the last one I made from the tree stamps in the Gina K kit,  I stamped the coloured part of the tree in Old Olive and Cherry cobbler ink and then added the 'branches & stem' stamp over the coloured background and gold embossed it.  I die cut the three trees and arranged them onto a white background that I had embossed, to finish I stamped and gold embossed the sentiment and die cut it and positioned it under the trees.

I like the clean and simple look of this card. 

I hope that you all have a good day

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

.  

Simple Kraft Christmas card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week, is it really Christmas next week????

We are having a lovely weekend away,  the Tropical/Rainforest Biome was fascinating, the highlight of yesterday was meeting Lilian & Roger, it was just like meeting a very dear friend,  the time we were there just flew by.  I am already looking forward to the next time x

Today's card I made following a Tracey Evans tutorial on YouTube.  I stamped the poinsettia onto kraft card and embossed it, then added postage stamp stencil and added a light blend of white pigment ink then traced around the stencil with white pen. I used Prismacolor pencils to colour the poinsettia.  I added some splatters,  stamped the sentiment and added the bird. 

We are off to walk along beach today ( weather permitting) and then we go to see Christmas lights at Eden. 

I hope you have a great start to your week,

Love and hugs, 

Sandra xxx

A look back at our makes this week..

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

As I am writing today's post we are on our way to Cornwall after spending the afternoon and having dinner with Paul's Mum, brother and Niece,  it was lovely spending quality time with them, Alice is a couple of years younger than the girls and she is such a lovely young lady,  really chatty too,  we went to a pub in the Harbour to eat,  food was deliscious, I wasn't brave enough to have the 'mystery catch of the day' fish as I'm not keen on flat fish,  I'm glad I didn't as it was Megrim Sole, although Mum in law and Alice said it was lovely.   Paul had Hunters Chicken, Darren had fish & chips and I had steak & ale pie, Mash and veg.  We took Mum in law home, said our goodbyes and set off for the 70 mile journey to St Austell.   

Now I'm sure it's not just me but the night before we go away I cannot sleep, I have a million things going through my mind,  things to pack, things to do before we leave, instructions for the girls etc,   as a result I have been yawning like crazy for the last hour, I am going to struggle to stay awake, so if the blog ends abruptly you know I feel asleep 😴 🤣

Karen 

Karen's Description:

3 tags for the challenge

Just playing Will probably keep them in my little snippets album

Tag - Christmas - Stencil

Three amazing mixed media tags,  using the Stencil Paste Karen made back on 9th September,  it's still aa good as the day she made it, no mould, no discolouration or odour!   It looks a lovely crisp white finish 

Thank so much Karen for coming up with something different, maybe we need that recipe posting again!  XXX 

  

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week’s challenge, a very old embossing folder and some die cuts from an old set from the works. Sorry it’s a simple card, but I have had backache for the last few days. 

Please don't apologise,  simple is often the most beautiful design!  Your card is lovely,  the combination of that deep, crisp embossing and those lovely snowflakes that fit together like they were designed to be together!  

Thank you so much my lovely, I hope your back is a little easier today XXX

PS... See you later 😘 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Card 1: 

Christmas/snowflake/stencil. 

I used the Sweet Poppy snowflake stencil with Spun Sugar and Tumbled Glass oxides. The snowflake in the middle is from Pink Fresh Studios (I think) and added a gem to the centre. Sentiment from Taylored Expressions.

Card 2: 

Snowflake/trees/Christmas.

I embossed the Spellbinders snowflake background. I die cut a circle and then die cut it with Chloe’s Creative Cards stars die, and added a frame, and matted on a Kraft circle. I die cut the house from Mama Elephant and the tree from The Stamp Market and added a couple of snowflakes. Haven’t decided on a sentiment yet.

Oh Sonia,  thank you so much for two absolutely stunning Christmas cards,   the stencilled snowflake is so pretty the colour combination just works!  The die cut stencil is the perfect finishing touch, it looks like its made to fit. 

Your second Christmas card is a real 'Sonia ' card with the touches of Kraft card, its beautiful.  

 Thank you so very much for supporting the challenge XXX 

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

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

My love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

We are off to Brixham today to visit Paul's Mum and then we will leave from there to go down to St Austell,  we will stay for 3 nights so that we have plenty of time to look around the Eden Project,  they have a Christmas Lights feature in the evening,  which we hope to do on Monday,  after speaking to the Eden centre direct,  they advise that Monday will be much quieter.  Of course the weather doesn’t look the best, thankfully there is plenty to do inside.  The good thing about your ticket is that it lasts a year, so we can come and see the different plants in Spring and summer too.   The most special part of the weekend is getting to meet Lilian, I am so  excited 😊.

Karen

Karen's Description: 

I know this card doesn’t fit in with the current challenge but I was pleased how it turned out I was inspired by a card on Pinterest

Took quite a bit of engineering- measuring etc All mats and symbols etc cut on ScanNCut 

Her surprise party on Sunday is casino themed

Karen it might have taken a lot of work but my goodness it was worth it, what an incredible card!  

Its perfect for a Casino themed party  obviously something that she has a keen interest in,  she will absolutely love it.  

Karen also included the card that inspired her.   It would make a great man card too.  

Are  you going to the party Karen?? 

Thank you so much for sharing your amazing card my lovely XXX 

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

Sizzix Wreath stencil card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

Busy day here today,  I think I have most of the Christmas cards I need, I just need to sit and get them ready to post.   Then I have to pack for our long weekend away,  we are going to visit Paul's Mum on Saturday and then we'll continue the journey down to Cornwall to visit the Eden Project and see our Lilian,  I am more excited about that more than the Eden centre.  

We have waited to make the final decision wether to go based on my Blood results etc,  the urine wasn't a 'certain ' clear, it keeps showing some Staph' cells,  but no blood which is unusual for me,  the blood showed that my liver was Ok too,  which was a sigh of relief.  The nurse said... 'because my liver is ok she has put a short course of Nitrofurantoin into the pharmacy for me to take away',  I'm hoping she is just being cautious and isn't expecting it to flare up !! 

I finally got around to using my Sizzix Wreath Stencil after so much inspiration from our Karen.    I decided to use it on Kraft card for a different look,  I used Distress inks Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness,  Gathered Twigs & Festive Berries,  I used the Festive Berries to colour the edges of a piece of card to create a mat, I stamped one of my Gina K sentiments and die cut it and popped it in the centre of the wreath.  A few red sparkles  finished the festive look.  

I hope that you all have a great Friday, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

My goodness the floods were quite bad around here,  after two days of persistent rain for the best part of two days. Lucy had to drive through a lot of standing water on the way to GP surgery, trouble is you can't see the pot holes under the water!  

I went and had my blood tests yesterday,   I took a sample to be checked too,  the nurse checked it and said it looked all clear apart from a tiny trace of blood.   The blood tests are for a whole host of different things,  mainly my liver and inflammatory markers, the nurse said I should have some results back today.  I asked about flu-jab but she said that they had run out and were waiting for more stock.  I explained that we were going away this weekend so would rather wait until after the weekend in case it makes me feel rough.  

Today's card is another Gina K 'Christmas in July  collection' card.

The Mistletoe branch is a 4 part stencil,  I used Pear Pizazz,  Old Olive inks for the Greens and Cherry Cobbler with a touch of Aged Mahogany for shade. 

I die cut the branch,  added it to a 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inch card base matted with cherry cobbler, I embossed the front panel for interest and some lovely texture.  I finished the card with a sentiment from the same stamp set. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs,  

Sandra xxx 

Gina K Christmas Kit Card

 Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

I think we have had more than our share of rain this past few days,  it didn't stop yesterday,  the wind was howling all night, so the rain was lashing at the window, it was so loud, poor Milo struggled to settle down too which makes for a fun night. 

I have Blood Test today, to check that my liver is ok after taking Nitrofurantoin, fingers crossed it is but I am a little concerned that I can feel something pushing up against the bottom of my rib cage on the right side. We'll find out in a few days hopefully. 

Today's card is the first card I made using the Gina K 'Christmas in July' kit I got at a bargain price on FB Destash group.  

I have to say that I am so impressed with the quality of every element in this kit, the stamps are great, the dies too.  The stencils are an amazing quality material, really sturdy not thin and flimsy.

I started by cutting 3 frames from 300gsm card, they measured 4×6 inch, the aperture was about an inch smaller.  I adhered these three frames together, then cut another piece of 6×4 inch card and covered it with gold splatters that  I created by using a little pea sized amount of Stamperia Gold paint with a little water added to loosen it so it would splatter evenly.  I set this to dry and moved onto created those String Lights. 

I stamped the wire part in Green ink and then stamped again with Versamark and added clear embossing powder and heat set,  this gave the wire a shine that made it look more realistic, to colour the light bulbs you have a stencil, its super easy to line up, I used Festive Berries,  Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron & Salty Ocean Distress ink to colour the bulbs.  After the bulbs were dry I die cut them, again the die lined up easily.  

I stamped the sentiment in Festive Berries and stamped again using Versamark and heat embossed, I have added a close up so you can see the shine. 

I created a top folding 5 × 7 inch card base, then adhered the stacked frame onto the gold splattered background then onto a gold mirror card mat and then the card base. I then added the string lights, I added glue to the pieces that sit in the frame and foam pads behind the bulbs that are inside the frame.  I also added foam pads behind the sentiment and added to the centre of the card. 

I hope that you all have a drier day,  

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Tim Holtz Ephemera card

 Good Morning Ladies, 

I had what felt like a busy crafting day yesterday but I only finished two cards,  I think I need to find some quick and simple designs!  

I made this card on Sunday,  it is actually a Vicky P' Journal page but I don't have this size Journal (8 ×4) inch.  So I decided to use a card that I have and actually rarely use.  

It started with a new technique, which is applying your paint to your background with a baby wipe. 

It gives a more subtle effect,  it wasn't that messy either. 

I stencilled some detail onto the background and dry brushed on some gold paint, it looks messy at first you have to trust the process. I added some splatters of gold paint for texture too  

Then we get to the fun part,  picking out and colouring,  edging and distressing the die cut ephemera. 

I added some gauze under the holly bough, its really light adds great texture.  

I really enjoy making these journal pages, however I must concentrate on Christmas cards for the next couple of weeks. 

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all,  

Sandra xxx

A second Stamperia Christmas card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week,   what have you all got planned?  

How are you all doing with your Christmas shopping?  I have done a few bits but I need to sit and concentrate to get the rest done!   I need to see how many Christmas cards I have made,  hopefully I will have enough, I have my doubts,  I am guilty of making too many Journal pages when I should have been making Christmas cards ☺️  I will try and rectify that this week.  I am only sending to my lovely Blog family and a couple more, the others  be bought.  

Today's Christmas card isn't traditional in colour etc,  however I love this style,  it does have Snowflakes, Christmas tree and snow though. All elements are Stamperia, mostly from the Owls House collection.  

I hope that you all have the best week, 

My love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

A look at our makes this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all enjoying a lovely relaxed Sunday.

I really love Blog Sundays,  because I get to share your makes...

It occured to me that I always forget to add the TicTacToe categories to my descriptions, so here are the ones for this week. 

Card 1:  Trees, Flowers/Christmas/ Glitter

Journal page 2:  flower/Glitter Sparkle/Journal page

Card 3:  Christmas/Glitter/animals 

Journal page 4:  Snowflake/Christmas/Journal page

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Card 1:  Here’s another very simple Christmas card that fits a few of the options

Tree-glitter-Christmas-embossing folder

Card 2:  Just had a go at finishing that layered stencil one with JL stamp

Stencil - Snowman- Christmas x

Card 3:  Another challenge card - Gina wanted me to repeat that tutorial you showed but couldn’t remember when you did it 🤦🏼‍♀️

So Snowman - Animals - Christmas 

A Serif image 

Sentiment from JL’s magazine heat embossed in Faded Jeans DO on vellum

Bit of gauze as an embellishment

3 amazing Christmas cards Karen, all completely different,  each one using different techniques.  I love the modern look of your first card,  perfect man card too.  Another brilliant version of this layered stencil,   love that centre image,  the colouring is great too, really makes the image 'pop'

Thank you so much Karen for supporting the challenge XXX 

Lilian

Lilian's Description:

Hi, hope you are ok.

This is my card for this week’s challenge.

I bought some background papers but didn’t realise they were sepia, so not much use for Christmas. I coloured the poinsettia and cut it out.

Stamped the little snowflakes in silver.

Stencilled the red edges.

Categories used, snowflakes. Flowers. Stencil.

Absolutely gorgeous card Lilian,  those Poinsettias are popping off the page,  beautiful colouring, that stencilled border brings the whole card together. 

Thank you so much for taking part my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

I'm sending this card for Sunday. Hope it's ok.

Embossing, Xmas, Poinsettia.   The stamp is from the same magazine that Karen used some week ago, sorry can't remember and I have put the magazine away somewhere 🤭😊

Your card is so lovely Maria,  that Embossing folder has given a really deep, crisp emboss, I love that shade of green too 😍  your bauble is coloured beautifully,  the Poinsettias are such a perfect embellishment as that pop of red stands out on that gorgeous dark green background.

Thank you so much my lovely XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

Both cards Snowman/snowflakes/Christmas

The first card I used Lawn Fawn snowmen dies and stamps. I gave this to James and Mollie last Christmas. The little pink heart on the snow lady representing her pregnancy with Scarlett ☺️

The second card I used some printed background snowflake paper, and a LOTV image. I think the Merry Christmas circle die was from My Favourite Things. It was made in 2021.

Absolutely gorgeous cards Sonia,   the snowmen are so adorable on both cards.  Adding the heart to the Snow lady's tummy was such a brilliant idea.  Their Christmas will be a whole lot busier this year!   

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful Christmas cards my lovely XXX 

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

I hope that you have a lovely Sunday, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx