A pretty Wings Challenge card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

How are you all this fine Morning?  We had a glorious day yesterday,  beautiful blue skies and sunshine 🌞 

We spent the majority of the day at the hospital,  it was a little frustrating,  they did nothing to help her hugely swollen knee and elbow!   The man we saw was a Research Doctor not a Rheumatologist, he said he was sorry she was struggling,  I asked him to go and find a Rheumatology Dr but he couldn't.. her appointment was supposed to be in November but hospital keep changing it, she is panicking because she is off backpacking in Bali next month, I have told her to keep messaging them for an earlier appointment.

Today's card is something a little different,  I used my Hero Arts Leafy Swirls die create a background,  in Old olive ink, next I stamped the butterfly onto white card, add clear embossing powder and heat set.  I added a tiny sentiment too, inks and card are Old oil ink, i added 3 tiny diamantes on the swirls.  I hope you like the card.

Have a lovely day Ladies, 

Sending love and hugs, 

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx

Karen's AMAZING 40th Birthday card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Another lovely day here yesterday weather wise,  Paul had a good couple hours out in the garden, I spent that time in my craft room, I made quite a bit of space by moving things around.  There are so many little things that need going through, for instance I had 4 pots of fine clear embossing powder, 3 had a tiny amount in the bottom, too much to throw away but I should have used them instead of starting the new one, anyway, I emptied all three into the one pot but then my thought was "oh I'll keep those pots as they might come in handy"  NO!!! So I am proud to report that I recylced them! 

Today's card is the card that Karen needed the Apron die for,  thankfully Michele came to the rescue, I was pretty sure she had the die set, no idea how I remembered that! 🤷‍♀️!!

Karen's Description:

Here’s a photo of the card that MICHELE helped me with by cutting the card I sent her

I printed BBQ KING on a black background in Serif - this new printer doesn’t print black very well and I might need a new black cartridge anyway 

I coloured the tools with silver and black pens 

I had to colour the ribbon with an alcohol marker which stiffened it a bit and I fiddled around trying to get it to stick to the card and wished I’d tried to glue both “tails” downwards! 

Absolutely brilliant,  personalised card Karen,  it would be hard to find a card so personalised.  You're Sister-in-law will love it.  Thank you for sharing it with us XXX 

Ladies I hope you all have a great Monday,  I am going with Becca to see her Rheumatology appointment,  she was good enough to allow them to take more biopsies from her knee last week and a day after it ballooned on size and is too painful to walk on, so she wants Mum to come to get some answers,  that hospital is the reason I have to rely on a wheelchair,  I wasnt mentally well enough to Sue them in time, I will make sure they don't cause her any harm! 

Sending Love and hugs to you all,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Your Challenge Cards

 Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

The girls asked me to thank you for your lovely birthday wishes yesterday, we had a lovely day baking cakes and relaxing watching those 2 characters enjoying their day.  We went out to a Brazilian Barbecue restaurant for dinner, which the girls loved.  We then came home to try the cakes they made, Lucy made a cake that consisted of baked cheesecake between to sponge layers with caramel and vanilla buttercream in-between, Sophie made a Kinder Beuno Cookie pie, which was a thick chocolate chip cookie pie base and top, filled with Nutella and Kinder chocolate bar pieces, both very rich, you only need a very small slice. 

Let's get to best part of the day........

Your Challenge Cards 

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

I used a piece of watercolour card and stamped and heat embossed a Swirl background stamp from Hobbycraft. I then spritzed with water and added some Cosmic Shimmer powders. I blended and added more until I was happy with the result. I wiped off any excess from the embossing. I stamped, heat embossed and die cut the freebie Pink Fresh Studio butterfly from Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine, onto vellum. I coloured it on the back with my ProMarkers. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market. I think this butterfly is my new favourite and will certainly be using it a lot 😊

Sonia's Description:

Two cards with simple embossing using the Spellbinders snowflake folder.

On the first I’ve used the Kaleidoscope Christmas Tree die set. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market.

On the second card I’ve used the Stylish Merry Christmas die. The little snowflakes are from a Tonic punch.

3 Amazing cards Sonia, that first card is gorgeous,  I love that background  

The second card is stunning,  I love, love, love that sentiment ❤️,  embossing folder is lovely too, I love the tiny bits blue snowflakes, little details like that are what make your cards stand out.  

Thank you so much for 3 incredible cards XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Here’s a blended offering for this week and coincidentally it has heat embossing in the background too!

Inspired by Tracy Evans - she used her crow and slightly different Oxides

Heat embossed script from a freebie with a blend of different DO My most used (favourite) TE Aall and Create stamp #449 and “butterfly” words from #573

Karen I love the bright colours that you have used for this card, the work perfectly with the butterfly, the colours you have used for the butterfly are quite realistic,  it's beautifully coloured too.

Thank you Karen for such a gorgeous Challenge card XXX

Maria

Maria's Description:

Here is my CC for this week. 

Embossing folder by Lisa Horton, coloured in with Distress Inks ,made it sit in some Sand and a Die cut LOVE.

Oh Maria I love your embossed Hyacinth, you have coloured it beautifully too, such a lovely, any occasion card.  Thank you for taking part XXX 

Janet

Janet's Description:

My card for this week is made using a CRAFTER'S COMPANION EFOLDER. This folder is my favourite of the set they released.

The backing paper and resin motif are from my stash of course.

Janet, Wow, what an absolutely gorgeous card, I absolutely love everything about it, the colour scheme obviously is a winner for me, that background is gorgeous, enhanced by those lovely embossed pieces, finished with that pretty die cut heart and resin centrepiece. 

Thank you so much for such a gorgeous Challenge card XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is a page from my art journal.  Old elusive images stamp, tied together E/F. Don’t worry if it’s too late. Lilian

Oh Lilian this journal page is stunning, I love the vibrant blue colour, which is enhanced by those beautiful yellow flowers, those harlequin style pieces give the page a real modern twist. All in all its a fantastic page, thank you for inspiring me.

Thank you for taking part, my lovely XXX 

Sue

Sue's Description:

Hi my lovely. I was inspired to use the embossing folder and two of the stamps that came with the latest Simply cards and papercraft issue 240 for my challenge card this week.

Sue what a gorgeous card, beautiful spring colours , I love that daffodil too.  Thank you so much for taking part Sue XXX

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

Some absolutely gorgeous cards this week ladies, it looks like you really enjoyed this challenge,  thank you so very much for supporting the challenge each week.  ❤

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

❤ Happy 23rd Birthday Sophie ❤

❤ Happy 23rd Birthday Lucy ❤

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

I have no idea were the past 23 years have gone but my goodness these two have filled our lives with fun & laughter!  Happy 23rd Birthday to both of our beautiful Girls Lucy & Sophie 🎂🍹🥤🎉🎁🎈

I hope the weather is being kind to you all today, It's supposed to be warmer here today but its a bit cloudy. 

                     Diecutting Essentials Issue 99                        Review 

This months issue definitely has a 'Spring' feel to it

The free gift is a pretty 2 layer tulip stamp with matching die and some bonus sentiment dies.

This first feature shares some lovely ideas for the free stamps, there are some pretty cards.

This technique using different forms of adding metallic finishes to your projects.  There are different methods used on the different projects.

Sandra was asked to use the free die set to create cards for different occasions, the cards are lovely. 

This tutorial shows you how to create Hinges using cardstock to create fun and interesting cards.

This month's Focus is sharing ideas for using some of your smaller stamps to create background designs.

Another way to get more use out of your dies, especially ones with intricate designs.  You ink the back of the dies and then run them through your Diecutting machine, you can zoom in on the 'how too' above for all details.

These are just a few of the features in this months issue, there are lots more features inside. 

Shopping 

Sonia 

Sonia's shoppjng from last week.....

Foil plates and foils for the glimmer machine.

Spellbinders dies and embossing folder……thanks to you for ordering and sending them on to me 😘

Chloe’s flower border die from her latest release.

Thanks for sharing your shopping with us Sonia,  I love that background die, its so pretty!  Can't wait to see what you make with them! XXX

Me

This first stamp set is an old one that I bought from Facebook craft destash site, I love that vintage floral spray. 

My wonderful husband went out to look for this magazine that Sue featured last week, to cheer me up while I was poorly. 

I treated myself to these bits when I placed an order for Brenda last week. I can't wait to play.

These stamp and die set is another one I found on fb craft selling page, you can stamp the newspaper and die cut it to wrap around the bouquet!! Something different I thought! 

***********

Crafty Re-purposing

This craft storage was for inks, I had all of my Distress inks in it before my reorganisation, It seemed a shame to not use it, so I laid it on its back under my desk and used it to store my cards and envelopes and at the top ( left side) is my Pink Frog card that I use for everything, I thought it was a genius 💡 idea ! 🤣😂

I hope that you all have a Super Saturday, 

Gentle hugs to our Dear Brenda, we are thinking of you my lovely XXX 😘

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

Its finally the weekend!!  I am ready for it too, the weather is supposed to be milder too so O am looking forward to getting out of this house. I am craving fresh air!  The antibiotics have started to work on my kidney which is a huge relief, hopefully it will last past the end of the antibiotics!  

Our Next Challenge 

I think that you might have guessed that our next Challenge is going to be 'Things with Wings' modtly inspired by all the magazines that I've read this week, everything has butterflies,  the new Creative Stamping has two full A4 sheets of things with wings too. 

There are so many different things you could choose, 2 many to name!  It's one of our favourites! 

I hope you enjoy the challenge,  

I hope that you all have an enjoyable Friday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

A stunning Mixed Media card from Karen

 

Good Morning Ladies,

Another lovely mild and sunny day here yesterday,  I think its going to be into double figures at the weekend!! Woohoo!!  

I feel like I really need a trip out, to get some fresh air, I went into garden yesterday to look at the Snowdrops,  it's the little things that make a difference to the day that make a life better.  The daffodils and tulips are pushing their way up now the frost and ice have gone too. 

I received this absolutely amazing card in the post from Karen yesterday...

Karen's Description:

I tried  a Tracy inspired snippet video which could also be another for this week’s challenge 

Dragged Vintage Photo and Wilted Violet down Kraft card Stamped and white heat embossed on right hand side #542 and the crocus #624 layered up on top of messy white cotton.

Karen, it's amazing how simply dragging an ink pad down a card could create such a fantastic background!! The stamped and embossed detail is balanced perfectly with the cotton behind the Crocus.  You must have been so pleased with how it turned out. 

Thank you so much,  it really did make my day when I opened it my lovely XXX 

I hope that you all have an amazing Thursday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Sonia's gorgeous Embossed card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

We had a lovely sunny day yesterday,  quite mild too which is a welcome bonus, mostly because Milo and Bello like to go in and out all day so we have to keep getting up to let them out and closing the door all the time, so just leaving the door open was so much easier, particularly as Paul was at work all day and I wasn't up for getting up and down all day, Milo is the master of pestering!   

I was pretty much wiped out most of the day after another rough night, I had no idea that a Kidney infection was so painful, I was up either going to loo or checking if I could take more painkillers yet! So fingers crossed the antibiotics will kick in later today  

Today's beautiful card is Sonia's Embossing Challenge card, Oh my goodness I love that background and that Butterfly is stunning.

Sonia's Description:

I used a piece of watercolour card and stamped and heat embossed a Swirl background stamp from Hobbycraft. I then spritzed with water and added some Cosmic Shimmer powders. I blended and added more until I was happy with the result. I wiped off any excess from the embossing. I stamped, heat embossed and die cut the freebie Pink Fresh Studio butterfly from Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine, onto vellum. I coloured it on the back with my ProMarkers. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market. I think this butterfly is my new favourite and will certainly be using it a lot 😊

Those Cosmic shimmer powders give such a lovely effect.  Colouring that butterfly has bought it to life, the simple sentiment lets the butterfly take the limelight. 

Thank you so much for such an inspirational card Sonia, Paul picked the magazine up for me yesterday and I can’t wait to play with it. XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely Wednesday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra                                                                              xxxxxx