Your 'Anything But Christmas' Challenge cards

Good Morning Ladies,

It was lovely to see your 'Anything But Christmas' cards this week, I makes a refreshing change to see something other than Christmas projects.

Having said that I am loving all of the 'Happy Christmas Mail' that is arriving through the letter box, you are all such incredible crafters, all of the cards that I have received so far are completely unique, you have all used different products and different layouts. I have been 'wowed' by them all. 

Not so many cards this week but that is totally understandable given the time of year, but just look how amazingly inspirational the following projects are.....

Janet

Janet has been super busy in her craft room as usual, creating 3 stunning projects, the first is a gorgeous 50th Birthday card, Janet has used a gorgeous colour mirror/foil card to die cut, that die is stunning Janet you need nothing else on the card, you could use it in so many different ways to give different looks. 

Janets second project is one of her Tonic Triangle gift boxes, I did put mine together while Sue was here on Wednesday Janet and we were both blown away but the stunning foil card that you have used for the decorative elements.  I see you have another stunning colour for this project too, it really transforms it to a 'wow' gift.  

OMG that third card is just out of this world, so intricate and opulent and just WOW, I love the card shape you have used, it really shows that die cut off perfectly.

Thank you so very much for 3 amazing projects.

XXX

Karen 

Karen's project is for her Brother In Law, who is a Formula One enthusiast, the image is from Serif and Karen cut the letters for the 'Eclipse' effect on her 'Scan and cut' . 

The eclipse works perfectly on this image Karen, I bet your Brother in Law loves it, particularly as its personalised and his favourite subject.  

Thank you so much for another fantastic Karen Inspiration card!!

XXX

 Margaret

Margaret managed two gorgeous birthday cards this week, the first one uses the Stampin Up Springtime Thinlits, die cut in white and placed on a Night of Navy Background, as we all know that is a colour match made in heaven.

Margaret's second card is made from the Papermania 'Capsule' collection papers, I love this shade very much, Margaret has finished her card with a sentiment stamped and punched with the 'Lovely Label' punch.

Thank you so much Margaret for two fantastic cards.

XXX

 Lynda

Oh Lynda this is such a beautiful card, the colour is simply gorgeous and that embossing folder is absolutely gorgeous, it has so much lace detail, enough in fact to be the main focus of the card rather than just a background.  Your simple choice of the die cut flower is perfect.

Absolutely gorgeous, thank you so much my lovely.

XXX

 Michele

Michele, I just love the abstract flower print on the paper that you have used for this card, it has so many pastel shades that you could pick out and make the card look different every time.  That simple pierced flag sentiment works perfectly, as it lets the paper shine as the main feature.

Stunning card, thank you so much for taking part my lovely.

XXX

We are home at last, we had rather a 'damp' end to our little break, we started the day by taking a slow stroll through the centre of London and then Hyde Park and then on to Harrods, where we browsed for a couple of hours, the food halls didn't have that same 'WOW' as they used to have, it's mostly a load of bar style eating places that have queue's that block the hole walk way.  But we saw a few nice things.  We left there and decided to walk through the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park as a way to get back to Marble Arch and Oxford street, not long after we set out the rain started and just got heavier and heavier, the wonderland was a lovely, lively place, a lot of people weren't allowing the rain to dampen their spirits, the smells coming from some of the food vendors were making my tummy rumble.  We decided to go for a quite bite to eat and a look in Selfridges, where we got to dry off a little in the disabled toilet, thank heavens for hand fans!!  

With the rain not letting up we decided to just get the bus home, so me made the short journey back to Marble Arch and discovered that everyone had had the same idea!  There bus shelter was over flowing, I had no hood and no umbrella, it was raining that heavy that it hurt your head as it landed, we knew that there was a bus every 15 mins so didn't have too long to wait, but oh no, because of heavy traffic around Westfield shopping centre they cancelled two buses, by the time another bus had arrived the rain had penetrated by wool coat and my jumper, my leather gloves were as wet on the inside as they were on the out and the scarf that I was using to try and shelter under could by wrung out!  The ends of my fingers and toes were hurting so bad it was all I could do not to cry, I think that my AF and the other issue with my heart have affected my circulation as I have noticed that I am really struggling to keep both fingers and toes from turning blue.  

We did have an amazing time in London, despite the damp ending and I can't wait to return.

I hope that you all manage to stay warm and dry today,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

Good Morning Ladies,

Just a few lovely things to share with you today, mostly because I forgot to photograph the giftboxes I made before I left home on Thursday morning.

First up is the Stunning Christmas card we received from Lynda for the whole family, I cannot get across to you how stunning that background is, its the 'caught in crystal technique' but this one is just breath taking, Lynda has mixed Pixie Powders with Glitter and Mica or Brusho's I think, the colours are just so vibrant.  Its an unusual Christmas card but also a stunning one.  Thank you so much Lynda xxx 

Michele

Michele has shared some of her Christmas crafts with us, the first two items are Advent Calendars,

Michele had the Frames made by a friend and then made the boxes and decorated them, I know that Christine Emberson sells the boxes that her Dad makes on her Hope & Chances website (in case you want to have a go).  

Michele has decorated the two boxes differently, both are amazing and so much fun too, you can fill the boxes with whatever you choose. I love them both Michele, such an amazing idea, especially as the beauty calendars are so expensive these days, you could make your own version of a beauty calendar.  I watched a review online for one of those calendars and it cost £50, the contents were supposed to be worth £80 but actually were worth no more than £10 it was shocking waste of money.

Michele's third project is a boxed set of cards, such a fantastic gift for someone that can't get out or to sell and Craft fairs, I would never thought of using an acetate lid Michele, so thanks for the inspiration.  It's also a good way of using up packs of toppers.  Such a clever idea. 

Thank you so much Michele for sharing your ideas. xxx

Margaret

 Margaret has shared these very special family photographs, the two photographs are of Sue & Margaret with all of the Grand/Great Grandchildren on 'Stir Up Sunday' making the Christmas Puddings and Christmas cakes, what an amazing family tradition, all of the children look like they are totally enjoying themselves including little Penny.  

Thank you so much for sharing such special memories with us all Margaret. xxx

We had another lovely day yesterday, we started off by having a walk around Borough Market, wow what an amazing experience, there was so much going on, so many people, I think that they must sell every different kind of food in the world there.  There was live cooking, lots to see, smell and sample, had we not have been restricted by what we could carry we would have had very full bags!!  How amazing must it be to have that as your local food market, I will add that not all smells were pleasant, we went past one particular area that had me gagging!  An amazing experience though.

We went from there to the Tate Modern, which is a fantastic experience, we did have a few 'scratch your head' moments where we just couldn't 'get the point' of the piece, there were also some mind blowing exhibits, we were in there for a good few hours too.

We then walked back the hotel for a cuppa and a break before getting ready for going out to dinner and to see the Lion King, the show was absolutely Bloomin Brilliant, we had front row seats next to a aisle so we got to see the characters very close up, the two + hours simply flew by, I am so pleased we popped in to see if they had tickets, we were concerned that we would have been to close  but we saw everything and could also see the orchestra. The singing was outstanding and the choreography was mind blowing.  That was truly money well spent. 

We will do a little shopping and head home today, I have loved every minute of our little break and can't wait for the next one. 

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend,

Love and hugs

Sandra

xxxxxx

Something Festive for Friday

Good Friday Morning Ladies,

Today's gorgeous 'Something Festive' Card was designed and created by our Maria, I love both the colours you and used and the layout Maria.  I so wish I had bought some of that soft blue glitter card, its such a stunning colour and works perfectly as part of a snowy scene.
Maria has used a pretty snowflake Embossing Folder to create her background, the sentiment in the circle frame almost gives the effect of looking through an aperture which is a clever idea. The 'Merry Christmas that Maria has used is one of those dies that you can use two ways, firstly you can use that delicate Merry Christmas on its own or you can make it stand out from the background  by using its matching background, this is a great idea when you are using a particular colour scheme as you can choose the background colour that goes with your card.
Maria has finished the card with what looks like Stampin'Up! Silver edged white ribbon and a pretty little snowflake.
Maria, thank you so much for such a stunning card, I will treasure it always xxx

We took the Oxford Tube to London so that Paul could relax and enjoy the break too, they have changed their pricing now so its cheaper, a return to London is £15 each and that is valid for three months, so it doesn't matter how long you stay for, before you had to buy a 'period return' which gave you a couple of days, not often something gets cheaper!
It was absolutely bitter cold as we walked through London and I mean bone chilling cold, I was so pleased to get into the warm hotel and have a hot drink and a warm up.  We had a delightful surprise when we got to our room, I had asked if we could possibly have the same room as we had last time and that we were returning to London to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary, then had indeed allocated us the exact same room and they had put a lovely bottle of wine in our room and a welcome back card. Such a lovely surprise! xx
We warmed up and had a rest and then headed out to decide on a show to see, we decided on The Lion King as it was one of the first theatres we came upon, so decided that that was fate, we have front row seats, I hope we can see everything ok, we are both looking forward to it.  (I don't think that Paul was that keen on seeing Chicago).

We had a walk around Covent Garden, it was dark by this time and all the lights were on, it looked amazing, we actually walked around a craft market that sold just about anything, one stall I did notice was selling cards, they had 3D items on the front of them, one of which was a Red front door, complete with wreath, it looked lovely and you could purchase a box to put it in too, it was only £60, which was a bargain as it was reduced from £70!! So come on girls lets raise our game!!
The lights were gorgeous, we then took a slow walk back to the hotel for a warm up and to get ready for dinner.  We had a complimentary 3 course dinner booked, which we were both looking forward to.  I will let you know tomorrow what it was like.

I hope you all have a lovely day, however you are spending it, please wrap up warm if you are venturing out as that wind is wickedly cold.

Sending love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxx

I'm not sure what we are planning to do today,

Another Amazing Christmas Card

Good Morning Ladies,

Todays beautiful Christmas card has been designed and created by Our Margaret, I couldn't capture it's magic with the camera but tried my best. It's so subtle by design but yet has so much detail to look at, the embossing folder is a Crafters Companion 3D folder, the Gemini brings out every tiny little bit of detail of the image, like the window frames for instance, or the branches on the trees.

Margaret has used her Watercolour pencils to highlight the buildings, the little touch of colour here and there really brings the scene to life.

Oh how I would like to be there, with snow up to the window sills and more tumbling down, just for a few days!  Be so lovely to through the curtains open on Christmas morning and see a lovely blanket of snow.

Preparations were all finished for leaving the house prepared while we are away, I wonder how much of it will like as clean and tidy on our return?  You can usually see what meals they have had by the pans and plates beside the sink, maybe this time they will make that extra effort to clean as they go.....

The above image says it all !!! But they may surprise me!!

Now I have something super cute to share with all of you...…..

Lynda's adorable Grandson Harry is playing a Mouse in the School Nativity Play, Sam (Lynda's Daughter in law) made the costume herself over last weekend.  I personally love to see proper home made costumes, not ones that everyone has bought, there is something so cute and charming seeing three wise men with Tea towels on their heads etc, or tinsel wings on the Angels.  I have spent many an hour over the years making various costumes, a few of which had you scratching your head, wondering how the costume you were making for a Brussel sprout etc features in the Nativity!!  Teachers must have great fun coming up with new ideas. 

I think Harry makes a Cheeky and Very Adorable little mouse Lynda, Thank you so much for sharing the photos with us. You can't help but smile. xxx

We are hopefully enjoying the sights of London today, I will tell you all about it over next couple of days.

I hope that you all have a lovely day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

My First Christmas card

Good Morning Ladies,

Today's card is the very first Christmas card that I received, it's from Our Lynda, it is gorgeous, I love that snowflake thats on the front, is it the Sara Davies one Lynda? I just love the detail in it.
Lynda's background was made using one of the Grand Octagon Die sets by Sue Wilson, I think that Lynda picked this one up from Ally Pally as they were such a good price from the ''A Crafty Place'' stand, in fact they were cheaper there than anywhere else.
I love the colours you have used too Lynda, I love the soft blue shades almost as much as green.
Thank you my lovely for a lovely card and the heart warming words inside. xxx

I spent pretty much the whole day sizing my cards and making envelopes for them, then stamping a sentiment on an insert sheet to go inside, which were all different sizes so I couldn't position the stamp in my Stamperatus and mass produce inserts, as some where landscape some portrait, some a lot bigger than others. Quite a few of the cards needed to have their envelopes cut from a sheet of 12X12 as A4 wasn't wide enough.
I was stamping and then embossing my inserts with Glitter Embossing Powder, as I was flicking off the excess all of the glitter was floating down and unbeknown to me was landing on my feet, I hadn't noticed until Paul came home and said 'Have you seen your feet' have you spilt something?''
I looked down and it looked like I was wearing sparkly slippers, I left a trail of glitter everywhere I went, you could see everywhere I had stood in the Kitchen, Harley ended up rolling on the floor so he looks very 'festive' now with his Sparkly coat.
All I need to do is write in the cards now and they can be sent off. .YAY!!

Last night I cooked Pork chops in the AGA and then made a Creamy Garlic Mushroom sauce to smother them with, I then made an Apple Crumble which was the nicest one I have ever made.  I can see us all gaining a few pounds at this rate.
Brenda sent me her recipe for Bread Pudding so I am going to try that soon, probably not until the weekend though, as Paul is treating me to a couple of nights in London, where we hope to see a show and do some sightseeing and maybe a bit of Christmas shopping too.  I can't wait, I am a firm believer in making time for yourselves as a couple, I think it's easy to neglect your own relationship when you have a family.
We never left them as children because Paul was often away with work and it felt wrong for us to go and leave them again when he was home, so I think we look forward to making up for it now they are older.  Mind you I still have to prepare meals to leave for them to cook etc, otherwise they will just be calling to ask what they can eat.  That is what I shall be doing today.

 I hope that you all have a lovely day and that those of you that are poorly start to feel better very soon. xxx

Michele, what did you think of the film, the reviews have been quite mixed, I think it raised a lot of questions personally! xxx

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra
xxxxxx

Another Challenge Card,

Good Morning Ladies,

Today's Bright and Cheerful card was made using the new 'Happiness Blooms Suite' from Stampin'Up!  

I won this set at Onstage, otherwise I don't think that I would have bought it but as I was playing with it yesterday I really started to like it, its just as much about all the little elements in a stamp set not just the main images. This set has some larger blooms as well as tiny ones that have matching little punches, I have clustered 3 of them together on the right hand side of my card, the little bits of foliage are on another punch so its super easy to build up a background.  The main colours in this set are Calypso Coral and Call me Clover. 

I stamped the main flower onto my card and then added a few little clusters of dots here and there to build the background.  I inked around the card with Calypso Coral to soften the edges and mounted this piece on to a piece of Call me Clover card.  I then stamped a random pattern over a piece of whisper white card to create a background and layered that upon my Calypso Coral base card.

Dimensions are 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inches.

AGA cooking update....I managed a perfect lasagne for tea last night, it cooked it perfectly, I may try one of the recipes in the Original Mary Berry AGA cookbook that came with the AGA when it was installed, its quite dated but the recipes look just lovely.

If any of you has a recipe for Bread Pudding I would be very grateful. I asked my Mum but she couldn't remember, which is sad as I remember it being delicious as a child.

I am going to get all of my Christmas cards sorted today, ready to be posted on Wednesday, its a job that I keep moving forward but want to just get it out of the way.

I hope that you all have a fantastic day today,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Your Monday Challenge

Good Monday Ladies,

I hope that you have all had a lovely weekend, cold, wet and miserable outside where we are, I hope that some of you had some brighter weather.  On a positive note there was a huge, really bright Rainbow in the sky as we drove the girls to work, it piddled it down with rain on the way back though.😏

One thing I did conquer this weekend is baking in the AGA, it gives so much better results than the Oven that we have, I made the most amazing Almond topped mince pies, the pastry was crisp and the almond sponge was moist and delicious too.  It has encouraged me to get back into baking. 

Now onto this weeks Challenge..….

I would like you to make a project (card or anything you like) that is 'Anything BUT Christmas', I think that we have had a good two months of Christmas cards now and we have seen all we need to, I doubt that any of you need any more inspiration for them either, so it will be nice to have a Sunday full of Butterflies, Flowers, hearts, Birds, bees or anything you please!!!

I hope you enjoy the challenge and I can't wait to see your projects.

How many of you have put your Tree and Decorations up this weekend?? 

We got ours down but didn't manage to get it put up, we will do it when tonight probably, Lucy didn't want to do it without Sophie so we will do it all together tonight. 

Now I have noticed that some of you have been having logging in to the Blog, I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I changed the Email address a few weeks ago.  I will have a look into it, it may help if you try hitting the follow or subscribe button again.  I will let you know if I find out anything.  I really appreciate the trouble you all go to to get logged in and comment.

Have a lovely day however you are spending it,

Love and Hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxx