Our Next Challenge

 

Good Morning Ladies ,

Well I spent 60% of yesterday thinking it was Friday so I am all lost at sea today!  I am glad the weekend is around the corner though,  just for the more relaxed feel to the day.  

I had a real confused call from GP, the surgery staff lost my sample so she couldn't dip it, but she said that she knew me well enough to know that if I said I had a UTI then she was confident I was right (maybe as I have 16 week experience), she put a prescription in pharmacy for me to pick up Thursday morning.  She then listened while I went over the symptoms,  I said that some are symptoms of diabetes, she agreed,  looked through my notes and said "well we haven't checked you for sugar, so I'll book you an urgent blood test for Thursday morning '  I said oh, I thought you checked for that last time'.  She said not, she said that she would call me Monday, apologised for having lost sample too.  Later on (9.30pm to be exact) I got another message from Surgery,  it was GP, she said that she had "nust received some more blood test result and said that my sugar was 'borderline high'  so wouldn't have caused my symptoms "  she said she had cancelled blood test and will call me Monday with a plan of action!!  I picked up my new prescription- Pivmicillinum. Course is 7days, lets hope it works better than it did in November!!! 

Our Next Challenge 

For our next Challenge I looked at our Maria's list of challenge ideas and chose Embossing

So get those Embossing Folders out and Embossing Powders!  We will use any kind of Embossing you like, I have left some samples above to give you some ideas.  You can just type Embossed cards into Pinterest for some inspiration too. 

I hope you enjoy this challenge my lovelies, 

Have a Fantastic Friday,  however you are spending it Ladies, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Shades of Brown....

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Well as I am writing today's post I still haven't heard from GP,  so I will have to update you later, annoyingly I won't be getting any antibiotics tonight if I need them!  

It was another chilly day here yesterday,  temperature didn't get into the + numbers!  It looked like there was a white layer on the ice too so not sure if we had a tiny dusting of snow, it was -5 when I went to loo at 4am!  As it got later in afternoon it became very foggy,  so maybe that will make a difference to temperature.  I tell you one thing this house is an absolute nightmare to keep warm!  

Today's card was inspired by a card on Pinterest, the name was Lollipop crafts.  I loved the colours as soon as I saw it and had the papers but like a lot of things I hadn't used them yet.  I must admit I don't generally go for browns, although I adore Kraft card, hessian , twine etc.  My base card is 4 1/4 X 5 1/2, I then added a Brown mat and then added two pieces of Abigail Rose Dsp to the brown mat, adding a piece of 1 inch hessian and topped that with a piece of Crocheted Lace, instead of stamping a sentiment on a piece of card,  I used a piece of that wide hessian and placed it in my stamp tool, as I knew it was going to need more than one inking, as the ink would be absorbed by the ribbon.  I ended up inking about 4 times to get even coverage.  I like how it looks though.  I didn't have any brown gems so I got creative with some cream ones, I pushed them into the brown ink pad and then added clear embossing powder and heat set,  trapping the colour that would otherwise wipe off under the embossing!  

I hope that you all have a fun Thursday, 

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

A Monochrome Card today

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,

Wednesday already, still sitting in a muddle as I have lost the enthusiasm for tidying my craft space, I'm pretty sure that the dreaded UTI is fully back so it's affecting my mood and energy!  Fingers crossed I can get a Phone consultation today!  

Today's card was a Pinterest inspiration card, I have had the 'Painted Posies' embossing folder a while but hasn't used it, so I took a piece of white card and spritzed it with water (for a deeper emboss) and ran it through the embossing folder and cut it down to fit the inside of that die cut frame. The frame die set 'Fabulous Frames' has some lovely pieces that are just the right size. 

So I used the rectangle frame in white and added black layers.  I finished the piece with black thread with the small label die from the set too.   I think its quite a nice note card for any situation or even a Sympathy card. 

Brenda I hope that you weren't too exhausted yesterday after your marathon day of testing at the hospital on Monday, I find hospitals really draining mentally, the lights don't help either.  Sending hugs xxx

Janet how did you find the Needle Felting demonstration?? I have seen it done a few times and looks like it could be quite savagae on your hands!  I guess you could do the motion slowly but that would take ages,  I have to say I have seen some absolutely stunning scenery pieces and 3D animals too. It looks great but I don't think its for me.  xxx

Karen I hope you have recovered from your weekend my lovely xxx

I hope that you all have a Happy Humpday,

Love and hugs to all  of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxx

Tuesday blues or is it greens?

 

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope today finds you well, you were all quiet yesterday, so I hope you are all ok. 

One of my blood test results showed that my my cholesterol was borderline,  so the surgery called to say that GP wants me to speak to nurse about taking Statins, I'm really not keen on taking more meds, so I am hoping that as it's borderline I can control it with diet.  No more beef dripping roast potatoes and real butter ! 😪

Today's card is another 'shades of one colour' Challenge card, for this card I chose Blues, well I think it's blue, the colour is Pool Party, the flowers are from Hues Of Happiness Dsp, the pretty die cut piece in the back was created using the dies in the matching set.  This is one of the reasons I love StampinUp, everything coordinates. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love & Hugs to  all,

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx 

Shades of Burgundy

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all had a good weekend,  it certainly flew by, I felt like I spent the whole weekend in the middle of chaos but that's what comes with reorganising your cluttered craft space,  I got stuck under my desk at one point, I managed to get down there to search for a spare shelf for my craft unit door for ink pads! I was half on my side but kind of on my bum as I can't kneel, I started to panic but Paul came to my rescue!! I found a few lost articles while I was down there, including 3 more flipping ink pads!!  I got a shelf and put it in place, I then moved all my ink pads to the shelf. I step forward atleast!  Now I have to find places for everything that I had moved to rearrange the ink pad storage.  I ended perched on the edge of my chair with my Platinum behind me (as there was no room on my desk) just so I could get a card finished for today's blog post ! 🤣😂

So today's card started out with the foiled piece of card, I was trying out my Spellbinders Glimmer machine, as with all things it's a sharp learning curve and never perfect first attempt. 

I was playing around with the free die that came with the Glimmer system,  it's a half of this frame above,  I attempted to line to two halves up to create a full frame.  If you look closely you can see the 'over foiling ' around the  area where the two sides meet.  So I used a die cut border and topped ot with ribbon to hide the flaws!  I then looked at the frame  saw that the aperture was almost a Hexagon,  so that would be the shape I used to create  topper for my sentiment to sit on.  I layered the main colour with cream and gold so even tied together.  I finished the sentiment label with a tiny gold flower.  It's not perfect but its ok for a first project. Makes a good one colour card for the challenge too. 

I am going to continue with my reorganising today, wish me luck!! 🤣😂

I hope that you all have a fun & productive day,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra                                                                                xxxxxx 

Your Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

We had a misty/foggy say yesterday,  seeing the mist hovering over all the flooded fields looked very surreal, a little bit eery too, like a scene from a horror film!  Not that we watch any horror films,  Paul and I are much too scared to watch anything remotely scary!  I have tried, I watched the 'conjuring ' with the girls once and another one that was supposed to be based on a true story about a house in Essex.  I couldn't think of anything else when I went to bed at night.  They seem to go really over the top with the 'horror' elements of the films, I remember my Mum and Dad going to see 'The Exorcist '  when we were kids, it really shocked me that she would go to see anything like that, I remember her telling us many times that they had St Johns Ambulance  in the actual theatre to treat people for shock !! Films today are far worse but they would never go to those lengths!!  Are any of you brave enough to watch them?? 

Yesterday I ended up making more mess and  muddle than I intended too, I started to rearrange my craft space to make room to get my Platinum machine out, to use with the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil Machine,  however I never even got around to finding the flipping Platinum,  I decided to sort a few areas out,  the pull out trays in my craft unit haven't been fully pushed in in ages as they have too much stuff on them, so i took all of the drawers out and decluttered them, emptied a drawer in another unit to move all my watercolour pencils too, just doing those drawers took me an hour!  Then I moved onto my ink storage, I have a unit that Danielle's Dad made that I bought for inks but its too deep for Distress and not deep enough for other ink pads, i ended up stacking them on top, so i took thay out, sorted out a couple trays that where in front of the inks, turns out I have 6 Versamark ink pads, all at different stages of usage,  then 4 other 'sticky 'ink pads, I went through them and managed to fit them into my ink drawer after giving that a tidy too. By this time it was 5pm and I had had enough,  which means that I have to face all that mess and muddle today ! 😔😪

It did give me an idea though....I think its time we all shared some photos of our craft storage, Its great to see how we all store different bits and pieces, are you up for it ?? 

Your Challenge Cards 

Janet

Janet's Description: 

My cc for this week was made EVERYTHING SUE WILSON (white on white with a touch of lemon). The flower and stick pin are from my stash.

Oh Janet, such an incredibly beautiful card, I have to say when I go back and look at this style of card that we all used to love I do think to myself that we should go back to making cards with Stick pins,  flowers and pretty ribbons and bows every now and then, they are delight to look at and a real pleasure to receive ❤️,  Thank you so much for such a gorgeous card XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Card 1:

I inked my background with Spun Sugar distress ink, then used Gina K stencil over the top. I used a Memento ink in ‘Peony’. The snowflakes are from the Stamp Market as is the sentiment which I heat embossed onto vellum.

Card 2:

I used Seedless Preserves and Iced Spruce distress oxides for my background. I then stamped and heat embossed Sugar Pea’s Mandala stamp on to it. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market and the glitter dots from Your Next Stamp.

Card 3:

Again I used the Gina K stencil for the background, inked in Speckled Egg. I stamped and heat embossed the Mandala stamp in white. I blended Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves over the stamp and buffed it off. I did add a little Speckled Egg in the middle, but it’s kind of lost! The sentiment is cut from a piece of patterned paper from Tracey Hey.

😍🤩 Sonia, OMG the combination of the Gina K stencil and that Stunning Sugar Pea Mandala stamp is sheer perfection!   The first card is a beautiful Christmas card, but with flowers instead of snowflakes it could be any occasion,  the vellum gives such a softness to the design its absolutely delightful.  

Them we have the SugarPea stamp, I just know that anyone seeing these next two cards will be going to look for this stamp!  Your blended background is a gorgeous shade and it highlights the stamped detail perfectly!  

The final and my favourite ( i know i shouldn't) is breathtaking,  I am definitely going to be playing with that distress ink combination,  they really work together!  An absolutely stunning card.

Thank you so much for 3 absolutely incredible cards XXX 

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Here is my card for this week. Used one of Lavinia stencils ( laurel ) and faded jeans, broken China and peeled paint oxide inks. Butterflies were coloured with luscious mica powders. Best I can do as my mojo is still on holiday. Lilian

Lilian that stencilled panel is beautiful,  I love the colours you have chosen too, how do you keep your stencilling so clean and crisp???  Mine would be a right mess around the edges!  The colours you have achieved on those butterflies is gorgeous, I love the green hues with the purple, the gold embossing gives them the look of expensive jewels!  Imagine what a beautiful brooch that would make.  I think your mojo may have popped home to recharge it's batteries! 😘🤣😂

Thank you so much for sitting at your desk and making a card despite not feeling like it my lovely   I really do appreciate it XXX

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Here’s my offering for this week’s challenge 

It’s another Thrinchie I am thoroughly enjoying doing these It’s like doing an art journal and seeing what works and what doesn’t

For instance the blending of some colours worked better than others - don’t like the purple 

Anyway a blend of Villainous Potion, Blueprint Sketch, Lucky Clover, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick DO over an Aall and Create die cut 

Stamped border #490 and pencil #165 coloured with ancient Caran D’ache pencils - what a bargain they turned out ti be Charlotte had these for school about 20-25 years ago

Karen you have truly inspired me, I have most things I need to start these but don't know where to start, it's onevof those things I keep promising myself I am going to do but then I have to make a quick card for the blog and that usually drains my crafting battery!   So what size do I cut my card too, or do you use a die?  As you know I have more than enough Aall&Create stamps to work with, this is one of those times that I want to sit with you and craft along with you!   

I love the bright vibrant colours Karen, what an absolute treasure finding those Pencils of Charlottes, is she interested in Art/crafting?? 

Thank you so much for a stunning Thrinchie and for the inspiration my lovely XXX 😍 

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Ladies, I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to share your incredible challenge projects, it feels like I am receiving the biggest and best gift every week and gives me such pleasure in showing how amazingly inspirational you all are!! 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you ❤❤❤

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,

My love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

How are we all today,  It's blooming chilly here! I hope that you all are managing to stay warm. 

Yesterday was a busy day,  blood test was fairly straightforward,  she said that they were testing for Liver, Kidney function, Inflammatory Markers and HB levels, and something else but I can’t remember,  I never feel to bright after a blood test. The nurse said that she went through same problems but after starting HRT everything went back to normal, I'll mention it to GP but I don't think I'm ready for more medication. 

The house viewing was a waste of time, why they use wide angle lenses to make things appear so much bigger than they actually are is a just wasting peoples time.  In the photos the driveway looked huge, in reality the current tenants car was similar size to our Kia, that was parked against the garage door,  Sophie really struggled to fit her car on, so there is no way Lucy would fit on too, let alone Lewis and Matt or Becca, the kitchen was nice and the downstairs bedroom was perfect, however the lounge was tiny,  the conservatory was good too although it was bigger than the garden!!  So we will keep looking. 

Today's card is a mixed ink background, I used the exact same colours as I used for yesterday's card.  

It looks quite different,  the first card uses  Seedless Preserve and Tattered Rose  that I blended. 

Today's card background was made using the 'smooshing ' technique,.  I started by stamped the doilies around the edges of the card, added white embossing powder and heat set. I put the three inks on my glass mat, spritzed with water and then 'smooshed' my card into the ink, I dried it and then repeated twice more.

I dried each layer and once I was happy with it I took a soft ,(micro fibre,) cloth and buffed over the embosed areas to remove excess ink.  For the sentiment I used a die cut circle that I stamped a doily onto, I then die cut 'with love' dies twice and added Seedless Preserve ink over it, to give it some dimension I added Clear Embossing powder  and heat set. I found some Tattered Rose colour gems and added them to the doily centres. 

Shopping 

Sonia's Shopping 

Sonia ordered some essential craft bits from Amazon,  they include a new plate for her doe cutting machine, some glue bottles, blending brushes, card & envelopes & double sided tape. 

What a great haul Sonia, thank you so much for sharing everything with us. XXX 

Sandra's shopping

These Glimmer Foil plates were bought in half price sale on either In2Craft website or Spellbinders Uk sale.  My first attemp at foiling weren't perfect, I am determined to perfect it though so will do more research. 

These first two items were totally free ftom the Sale-a- Bration event, that paper is gorgeous 😍 

I really love the frame dies that came with this bundle, the floral stamp is so pretty too and there are some great sentiments. 

These letter dies really appealed to me as the letters are narrow do won't take up half tbe card when used, I also really appreciate that you get multiples of the popular Letters  

Another gorgeous set of frame dies, I saw some projects using these on Pinterest and couldn’t resist! 

Lastly these two partial backgrounds dies look great tucked behind one of those frames above or behind a floral Centre piece, so I look forward to having a play with these. 

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I hope that you all have a lovely weekend,  wrap up warm if you are venturing out my lovelies, 

Love and hugs to all of you 

Sandra

xxxxxx