A throwback card & technique

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

As you are reading this we will be on our way to Brixham to see Paul's Mum,  I wonder if we will pass Sonia as she is driving back up with her parents 🤔   

I like this reminder, particularly as we all progress in many different ways, in our own time, whether it's recovery or learning something new for example The 😄

Now today's card is a throwback but I thought I would include the whole technique,  as you could create this background and use it in many different ways,  however I thought if you used it and added a new stamp or die cut over it it would work for our New/old challenge,  as if you are anything like me you have had your distress oxides for years (so they are old) ! 

Here is the technique using scrunched up tissue paper.....

 I had a play with some ink pads and tissue paper to create backgrounds, I saw Marion Emberson try this technique with different products.  I used SU ink pads for this first one.  With the addition of some Gold Watercolour paint for added sparkle. 

Its so simple.....

Take some Tissue paper and scrunch it up, the more creases the better,  you then tap your scrunched tissue into your ink pad and randomly tap it onto your card, I masked off a square for a neater look, it dries quickly, I wanted a touch of shine, so I scrunched another piece of tissue and dipped it in my gold watercolour paint and did the same as with ink pads, I wasn't sure at first but as soon as I peeled the low tack tape off I loved it !! 

I hope that you all have a great Friday, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Lilian's Birthday card

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

Ooh it was much cooler yesterday,  Autumn was definitely in the air.  

I had a bit of a troublesome day,  for some reason my blood pressure has dropped very low (for me). First thing it was 93/62,  I felt a bit rubbish too,  so much so that I took myself to bed after lunch,  which I never do.  It did rise later in the afternoon but only to 97/63.  So I did a bit of research online as I didn't know whether to take my BP medication,  my BP is usually in the low 120 /90,  but the surgery just told me to fill in a 4 day form and told me to ring the local pharmacy,  which I did,  he said that he wasn't qualified to tell me whether to take the Amlodipine or not and to call the surgery back,   I did but got told to fill in form! It rose a bit in the evening but was still low so I didn't take my Amlodipine.  I will call GP this morning if its still low today,  especially as we are going away tomorrow.  

A lovely reminder today, we all definitely are stronger than we think we are 🥰

Today I am sharing the card I made for Lilian's birthday in ChatGPT,   I will explain the design as it looks a bit busy. 

I know Lilian liked the artist Klimpt so the main part of the card is a nod to 'The Tree of Life' I also wanted to include things that are important to Lilian,  so there are sewing elements,  scissors,  spools of thread etc,  the Bees are to represent Lilians work (making beekeeper hoods). After seeing the absolutely stunning quilt Lilian created I wanted to include that too. 

I will say that this was another example of card making a huge difference to how your artwork comes out of the printer....

This was on Highlight crafts smooth printer card

This was Canon Matte photo paper!  I was gobsmacked. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all of you  

Sandra xxx 

Stamperia Flowers & Poems journal page

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

We had a busy day yesterday,  Lucy was on a mission to get some storage boxes for her kiosk at work,  we had to pop into the Wildlife park first for Lucy to measure up..

As we walked up to the kiosk I noticed one of the Rhinos having a wallow in the mud,  the noises were incredible, he was really enjoying it,  I wish I'd videod it.  We carried on to the kiosk and on the way back ...

He was out and playing with this little one,  it was lovely to watch,  the baby had its ambitions mixed up with its capabilities I think as it was proper charging at the big one,  who luckily was chilled out after his mud therapy!!  I could sit and watch Rhinos all day,  the park are opening another habitat for the younger rhinos as they are at capacity.   I hope they have the same set up though, having the 'Haha' that keeps visitors safe enables full view of the animals and it looks like you are really close up to them 

Such an amazing idea!!!

Now I like the graphic but I am unsure of the sentiment.  xx

Today I am sharing a journal page that I made using my Stamperia’s Flowers and Poems collection. 

I used the metallic paints from the collection to add some colour to the background 

I then add some stamping and stencilling with gold glitter embossing paste..

I then pick out the die cuts from the Flowers & Poems Focus Journal and edge everything with ink.

The arranged them onto that background.

I added the crocheted ribbon to the bottom of the frame and then added the 'Bloom'. 

The finishing touches are some white (metallic) splatters and some gold dots.  

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs, 

Sandra xxx 

A ChatGPT card for a friend of Girls

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

A busy week this week,  today Lucy and I are off on a mission to get storage boxes for work, I also want to look at sofas as ours is becoming too much of a challenge for me to get up from.  I also need to have somewhere to sit comfortably after my surgery. 

My Urology Consultant has kindly allowed me to revert back to monthly Ialuril instillations as the 6 weekly top ups just wouldn't work for me, this week is a real challenge as its the last week if the 4 and effectiveness has worn off.  Ao I called Bladder clinic o  Friday and they called yesterday to say that they can book me in on Thursday, for which I am incredibly grateful.  The only downside is that I will need to go a week after my surgery which might be a struggle but I will ask what they think on Thursday.   Friday morning we are going down to Paul's Mum's in Brixham,  then we'll travel on to Cornwall on Friday evening, have a visit to the Eden project, to get another visit on our Annual pass,  then we will pop in to see our Lilian,  then Sunday I think we are visiting a large National Trust house on the way home.  

How cut is this artwork?? I love then reminder too! 

Today I am sharing the card I made yesterday for a friend of Soph & Lucy to give his girlfriend.  I went into ChatGPT to create it.  I then created an insert and a box to match.  

I hope he liked it or more importantly,  I hope his girlfriend liked it. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Clean & Simple Old / New card

Good Monday Morning Ladies 

Ooh yesterday was a busy one, I felt like I was on the go all day!

You know when you get the urge to clean something and next thing you know you have rearranged half kitchen or craft room,  well that was my day.  I went to iron something,  remembered that iron needed descaling, so waited for Paul to carry it to sink,  took the descaling parts out and thought 'ooh that needs to sit in citric acid,  so boiled kettle, saw that needed doing then the water filter, etc I never got around to ironing anything!  Then I made omelettes for lunch (we are trying to eat healthy on run up to my surgery) I bought an 'Omelette Maker'  oh my its brilliant and makes a lovely thick Omelette,  much more appetising than I made in Frying pan!  

By this time it was after 3pm and I needed to make cards for Blog and I for girls friend to give his girlfriend.  I made today's card relatively quickly,  the inky piece I had in my stash, so die cut the leaves out of that with my 'Old ' Tim Holtz leaf die,  I then used 2 'new' items:  the stictched square die and the leaf embossing folder.  The sentiment is an old Tim holtz stamp,  which I embossed in gold and added some gold gems to finish. 

The other card I made in ChatGPT while also helping Paul make Roast Beef dinner, Lucy decided it needed a box, by this point it was 8.30pm, could I get my brain into 'box making' mode 😌, no, I had convinced myself I needed A3 card,  of course I didn't,  thankfully ChatGPT came to rescue, made the box, then it needed a pretty label or something so got that designed and finished and by then it was 10 45pm!  I had to face the devastation in my craft room this morning 😲!  I was too tired to do it last night !!  I think I had every square and rectangle die out that I own. 

I had a thought this morning....maybe ChatGPT can help me learn to use my Scan&Cut ! It's worth an ask. 

I hope you all have a great start to your week, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

A look back at our makes

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

Firstly please join me in wishing our lovely Lilian a very Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 

I hope that you have a lovely day celebrating with your family my lovely 😘

We had a busy day yesterday,  food shopping and shopping for a new Tv, my goodness the technology has changed an awful lot since we last bought a tv,  it must have been atleast ten years ago!  Most of the jargon sounds like nonsense,  luckily Paul had done is research.  

So today will be a quiet one, I have a card to make for a friend of the girls to give his girlfriend, I may have a play with some other bits too.  

Lets look back at what we made this week....

Karen

Karen's Description:  

I have had a go at crafting but swapping to and from glasses was a real pain I wanted to paper piece the leaves but proved too much I wish I’d placed the Kraft card leaf closer to the gold mirri and with hindsight left off the Nuvo gold glitter drops 🤷‍♀️

So old is the Gummipian leaf die cut in Kraft, gold mirri and brown card Never used it before - thanks for the prompt on today’s blog

Old - Nuvo drops I stopped using them because I always messed up 

New is my latest Happy Birthday die from Memory Box

Karen I love your clean and simple design,  I really like those Gummiapan stylised leaf/tree die cuts.  Your placement is perfect,  the Nuvo dots are a lovely finishing touch.  That sentiment die is amazing,  I love the delicate font, it looks almost handwritten.  

Thank you so much my lovely,  it warms my heart to see you crafting again, you are over the half way point of your recovery,  I can understand how frustrating it must be for you XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my challenge page for this week

I used an old Sue Wilson set of dies and the daisy papers.

The stencil is one I have used many times.

What a beautiful combination Lilian,   I love that stencil too, I can see why its a favourite.  The Sue Wilson die works so well with both the background and those Daisy Art pieces. 

Thank you so much, I do appreciate you pushing yourself to create something for todays challenge my lovely XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description: 

This is a card for my Mum using  a die bought from Temu. It's not a two - partner which would have been better but I can always use the fallout pieces for something else later.

I took out bits that my mum likes like dogs and cats, flowers and she used to knit and crochet a lot when she could still see.

Maria your card for your Mum is perfect, I know she will love it, especially as you have included some of her favourite things.  Thank you so much for sharing your lovely card my lovely XXX 

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

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx

It's Saturday!!

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

Our first October weekend, it's crazy to think that we turn clocks back in a couple of weeks !! 😳 

What have you all got planned this weekend??  Other than our Lilian,  I'm sure she will be partying with family 🥳🤣

Sonia I am so pleased you had such lovely weather for your week away,  I know what you mean about holidays flying by,  it's crazy,  I hope that you have had the best time,  you have visited some beautiful places. xxx

Maria I hope that you arrived safely and are having as good a time as possible.  I bet your mum was over the moon to see you my lovely xxx

Gina

Gina got an absolute bargain haul from charity shops.  

Gina's Description:

Before I went away I visited charity shops, I spent £10 in One and £8 in the other. This is what I got, now I just have to find somewhere to put it all.

You got some great bits, I'm sure you will put them to good use xxx

This hasn't photographed well,  but I love the sentiment and the cute birds 🥰

I am going to be boring and show you this weeks Dahlias

Oh and these roses haven't stopped flowering all summer ...

I hope that you all have a lovely Saturday 

Love & hugs to all  

Sandra xxx 

Another 'very ' old paper, new die card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you have all had a good week,  my thoughts are with our lovely Maria today,  I hooe that you arrived in Sweden safely my lovely,   your Mum is going to be so surprised to see you my lovely,  its such a lovely thing to do.   I hope it ends up being easier than you were worried about.  I am always at the end of the phone if you need a chat, I have to say that you are far braver than I am, flying all that way on your own 😘

I like this reminder and the artwork 😊 

Onto today's card,  now...I had a proper rummage about in my boxes of paper for today's card,  do you remember back in the day when we all liked the 'Ann Marie Designs' Dotty card, it had matching stripe and floral too I believe,   it used to work really well with Sue Wilson dies,  I must be going back ten years here,  I had it at bungalow for sure. 

I picked out this pale grey one for this card,  now....I have a confession the topper is actually back to front 🤣😂, the large flower was meant to be pointing to the left originally but because the 'linen' embossing folder which is also quite old has a really good emboss and deboss I clearly couldn't tell the difference and stuck the foam pads on the wrong side!!!  I was going to start again but I was done by this point, so I adhered it the wrong way around and added the yellow dots as a contrast to the grey.  I die cut the 'smile' 3 times and stacked it for bigger impact and added it above the small flower.  

Quite clean & simple I think 🤔 

I hope that you all have a lovely Friday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Very Old papers New die card

Good Morning Ladies,  

Welcome October,  a month I love,  the colours,  looking at the changing trees, warm cosy evenings, it's like a big cosy hug. 🍂

(I asked ChatGPT to help me design the Welcome October sign above 😊) 

I think this is an odd 'reminder'  because I'm not sure who would feel the need to 'apologise for being who they are' unless it's means when someone feels they need to apologise for being an untidy crafter etc 😉🤣

Today's card features a VERY OLD set of 'Mixed Media Papers' from Bee Crafty, I have had them atleast 10 years,  they were a bit of an 'oops' purchase,  I bought them and just couldn't think of anything to do with them.

Until yesterday,  I took a piece of one of the sheets 

and used it to create a mat on my cream card base, I used the same cream linen card and cut a slatted circle using my NEW Craftaddiction Dies                     I then fussy cut a butterfly that perfectly matches the background I used for the mat.  I placed a foam pad behind the butterfly and placed on to the circle.  Then I used my NEW Gummiapan 'Happy Birthday die to finish the card. 

I hope the cards I have made this week have showed how easy this challenge can be.  

I hope that you all have a good day,

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

A Quick card for today..

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,

Just a quick one today,  I had a good day yesterday,  Lucy and I popped out for a few bits to make some different soups,  I saw the Ninja soup maker on offer a week or so ago and so i ordered one,  we have wanted one for a couple of years but talked ourselves out of getting one.  

I also asked ChatGPT to help me devise a healthier eating plan for Oxtober so that I can go into this surgery as healthy as possible,   he asked me some background information, I explained that GP had suggested a 800 calorie diet,  which it thought was ridiculous.  It said I need to concentrate on having good protein intake as its essential for building muscle etc,   so it is devising a healthy eating plan as we speak.  

Another very true reminder, although they can easily get overlooked.  😘

Today's card is another using that same lovely paper collection 'Beautiful Gallery' that I used for yesterdays card,  this time I paired with 'Mossy Meadow' a lovely dark green that I used for Becca's wedding invitations. The card is 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inch I cut a panel of card 1/4 inch smaller and covered it with a piece of the paper and a piece of embossed Mossy Meadow card as a contrast,  I covered the join with a lovely linen ribbon. 

Now,  I wasn't sure where to put the sentiment so I showed both options , I think I prefer the first option!  

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday,  

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx