Spots & Stripes today

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that today finds you well,  or as well as can be expected,  sending gentle hugs to anyone that needs one, I say that as I could do with one this week, Gp are so frustrating, especially when you genuinely suffer with Anxiety, I did ask yesterday if we were ok to go on holiday, to which he replied yes everyone needs a holiday!  That wasn't what I wanted to hear!  

Anyway on to cheery things, I decided to use the Spots/Stripes elements of the TicTacToe Challenge for todays card, I used my SU Bright & Beautiful dsp for this card, the striped paper is the reverse of those spots. I adhered both pieces to a piece of Black card stock leaving a narrow border around both pieces.  I die cut the heart in white and 'friend' in white background with narrow black piece on top.  I stamped the 'Thank you' in black and added above the friend die cut, 3 small diamanté finish the card. 

I hope that you all have a lovely end to your week, 

Love and hugs, 

Sandra xxx 

A silhouette Tag

 

Good Thursday Morning Ladies,  

Ooh why are GP's so frustrating,  I had to go yesterday as the discomfort from my latest issue had had me up all night,  the receptionist were lovely, I like to point that out as its unusual 🤣, I got an appointment for 12.30, she got the giggles because she asked me which side the lump was, I said 'hmmm, its kinda in the middle,  she chuckled and said thats not an option,  I said well if I lay on my right its more on the right,  she got the proper giggles and said what about if you lay on your left side , I said my hip dislocates!  She said OMG do you need help, I said no, I don't lay on that side, I truly believe she was in tears with laughter by the end of the call 🤣😂                                                         The GP is one I've not seen before, had an air of arrogance about him, he listened, then examined me and said what he thought it was, then spent 5 minutes talking to himself,  he said we'll get an ultrasound to check, then said no need,  we know what it is !!  I was trying to explain the symptoms but he just cut me off saying, I'll make some enquiries and get back to you,  i also took a sample as I'm not convinced my uti has cleared up, any other Gp just dips it and tells you there and then, not him, he threw it on the desk and said 'the nurse can deal with that'!  So I am still non the wiser as to whether its cleared up!   

Now I'm not sure about todays tag, it started out as a bit of background that I had made using a mixture of oxides and the distress spritz,  you can't tell from the photo but it has a nice shimmer,  I used a stencil to add some more details, then I stamped a selection of TH Wildflower stamps in Black.  I stamped the sentiment and then added some inking around the edges and then added some black splats (I should have covered sentiment really) but I forgot until it was too late! 🙄                 To finish I added some ribbon and a bit of black lace  

I hope that you have a good day, 

Love to all, 

Sandra xxx 

Watercoloured Floral card

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Lucy and I had a lovely afternoon out yesterday,  we tried a new place called 'Cotswold Barn' for lunch, it was literally in the middle of nowhere, only about 18 miles from us,  they had a good choice on the menu, we went for toasted ham.& cheese on granary bread, it had Mustard and pickles in too, it was lovely,  really good ham makes such a difference.  It wasn't cheap, but we have come to expect that anything in the Cotswolds or calling themselves 'Cotswold' Barn, cafe, farm etc, seems to add a premium to their prices. 

We got home at around 4pm so I went straight to ky desk to create something for today's post. 

I was looking through my stamps and found the beautiful 'Floristry ' stamp that I bought last year,  I have used the sentiments on different cards but I hadn't used the floral stamp, it's that big that it comes with its own grid stamp block, I used my stamp platform though, I was inspired by one of Tim Holtz 'makers', I stamped a piece of the stamp in the bottom corner and a little bit for balance on the opposite corner, I stamped in Black Soot Archival ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, as I find this really helps keep the black ink a nice crisp black.                                                      I was undecided what to use to colour the stamped image, after 20 minutes of deliberation I decided to use Distress inks to watercolour the image, I smooshed the inks onto my craft mat and just relaxed and sat and coloured for about 25 minutes, I bled some of the colours out and around the image to give the background some colour and interest, it doesn't show up on the photo above but its clearer on this one.......

After the ink had dried I added some stitching,  I stitched it onto a white mat with 1/8 border, then I added a black mat to tie in the black ink and cotton, then onto a 5.5 inch square Kraft card base.  I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of card and clear embossed,  I added the same colours to the background as I used to colour the flowers.  I added a black mat to the sentiment and added some black cotton behind the sentiment strip.  I have to say I really enjoyed creating this card, colouring with the Distress inks was simple and effective. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Simple Monochrome card

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Well that long weekend flew by, I do sometimes wish the girls were able to have time off at weekends,  Lucy got a bad deal with her contract when they asked her to become permanent, she is contracted to work Thursday,  Friday, Saturday,  Sunday & Monday every week,  so she never has weekends and works every Bank Holiday,   I think its wrong, Soph has Thursday & Friday off but she doesn't have actual contracted days, he does mess her about at times!  The girls are not the type to complain though, they just get on with it, Matt & Becca would have had it changed, in fact when Becca did work at the Wildlife Park she got paid time & half for Sundays and Double time on a Monday, they had no shortage of offers to work Bank Holidays then!! 

I had a slowish day yesterday,  I pulled the duvet up in the night and it flared up this hernia think in my abdomen and my goodness was it uncomfortable,  I took some pain killers but I could feel it move if I turned over,  I dod manage to sew some Spinach and plant out some runner beans that had well out grown their pots, fingers crossed they will be ok. I also planted out some Sweet Potato plants, oh and Baked my Sourdough that I made on Sunday. 

Karen I hope you recovered from your awful night my lovely XXX 

Today's card was a 'quickie' inspired by pinterest, I stamped the 'Floral Outline ' in Chipped Sapphire Distress ink and added Clear Embossing powder and heat set,  I then smooshed a little of the same ink on my glass mat with a spritz of water and used it to add a bit of colour to the image,  just here and there, I didn't want the perfectly coloured look, I flicked a little of the same ink onto the background for interest and added a sentiment in the same ink, I popped on a few clear crystals for added sparkle and added the piece to a Navy card base on a slight angle ....just for fun 😂

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all,  

Sandra xxx 

A walk down Memory Lane...

 

2017

2016

2015

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

I have had no time to sit at my desk and craft so today I thought we'd take a walk back down Blog Memory Lane 🤣

I had a busy day yesterday,  firstly I made the sourdough loaf ready to bake today, while I was waiting between the 'stretch & fold process' (1/2 hourly intervals)  I made a Victoria sponge and buttercream to fill it with, with so lovely jam too.  Paul came in for lunch and asked me if I'd mind putting some branches through the 'shredder', its a simple job so thats what was next on the todo list.  I was exhausted by the time the girls got in at 5.30pm. Luckily dinner was something that Paul could manage!  

I started the walk back in time at 2017 those 4 cards were my first ever stamped cards, these cards I still like today, unlike some of my older cards 🤣

2016 next I was asked to make a 'Thank you for my Granddaughter' card for a lady at Becca's work, when she worked at Lloyds Bank.  I used to love making cards with bits of lace and flowers.  I still have a large box of lace and flowers, but apart from the Baby card for Sonia I just don't use them these days.  Card styles change.  Back then Tim Holtz was only just becoming 'the big cheese '  in crafting, the first time I saw him was on QVC with Dawn Bibby!  I remember staying up most of the night for the 'Today's Special Value' item, which was his first Book. I think I paid about £30 for it back then, the volume 2 I got online for £5 !  

Lastly we stop in at 2015, 10 years ago !!! Hmmmm what can I say, these were the days that we only used dies, including the sentiment,  the only stamps most of us had and tried to use were magazine freebies or Do Crafts (thanks Lilian & Karen☺️) (I couldn't remember the name, I even tried to Google it, with no success,  so I asked you lovely ladies and Lilian and Karen gave me the name within a second of each other!  

Anyway the stamps were very cheaply made, really soft and almost jelly like texture,  stamping with them was SO hard,  there were no stamp platforms back then, you had a big clumsy block to put your stamps on, even the slightest amount of pressure left you with a naff image or word, as the stamps had no stability .  

So most of us relied on Die cut sentiments and there weren't many to choose from. 

I don't know what I think about the last card,  10 years ago it was a popular style of card, the dies are Tonic.  The flowers are pretty but the bow is  clumsy.  

Would you like me to share some older cards that you have made??

I hope that you all enjoy the Bank Holiday, 

Love and hugs, 

Sandra xxx 

Our Crafts this week....

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

We didn't have very much cloud at all, the sun blessed us pretty much all day.

First job of the day was dealing with the wasps that decided that we were the perfect hosts,  so started moving in,  there is no nest so far, so we took the 'preventative ' approach,  we put a mixture of Eucalyptus and peppermint essential oil into our plant sprayer, Paul leant out of Lucy's bedroom window and sprayed all around their chosen entry point.  It seemed to be effective as there have been no wasps for most of the day, fingers crossed that it's worked! 

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

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:  

Here is my journal page for this week.

The stamps are from an old magazine.

Flowers, colouring and spring.

Hope you have a good day.

Lilian this is such a gorgeous journal page,  the scalloped circle die look like Lace and gives a striking backdrop to that beautiful floral stamped piece, your colouring is so soft and perfect as always.  

Thank you so much for such a beautiful, inspirational journal page, I hope that you have a lovely weekend with your Daughter XXX 

Karen 

Karen's Description:

An old card done in new colours and using a JL butterfly 

I would never have put these two colours together but I think they work (SW was always white butterflies on a patterned background 

Flower - Things with Wings - Embossing folder

Once again your Colour Cube has got it spot on, or you have got it spot on! Love that colour combination, JL's butterfly is so delicate and works perfectly for this updated card.  

Thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description:

My card for this Sunday. Embossing paste, Flowers and inks .

Oh Maria I love the 'Ombre' effect you acheived on the embossing paste stencilling,  its amazing and the perfect  background for those beautiful tulips.

Thank you so much for taking part in this weeks challenge XXX 

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

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

We were treated to another beautiful day yesterday,  not so sure about today, it's forecast cloudy and much cooler temperatures,  as long as we can get out in the garden I don't mind. 

I had a lovely surprise when Paul told me its a Bank Holiday weekend!!! I thought it was a couple of weeks away, that bought a huge smile to my face.  

Colour Inspiration journal 

I added some more colour combinations to my journal,  it's fun to see how the pinks on the top page doesn't have too much difference between Inks and Oxides but the blues and greens are much richer colour in inks.  That top line particularly,  look how much darker the Pine Needles and Evergreen Bough are, they look a different colour almost.  I want to do more same colour blends as I have tried a couple of times to create a rose from a stencil and I just can't get a blend I'm happy with. 

Maria

Two more of Maria's Crystal Art masterpieces,  these two are so adorable,  the little girl pouting while taking a selfie really made me smile ☺️

The Sloth looks so relaxed, I love the colours in this one too, all of that white/cream must have taken ages my lovely.

How do you choose them?  Do you pick because you like the picture or pick with someone in mind??

I love seeing your creations Maria, thank you so much for sharing them with us XXX 

Gina

How fabulous is this 'WOW ' card that Gina made for her friend.

Gina's Description: 

The recipient of this incredible card must have had the hugest smile oh her face,  your layers are perfectly cut, pretty papers too. 

Thank you so much for sending your card in for me to share my lovely XXX 

That's all for today, I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx