Our Next Challenge

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

I am keeping my fingers crossed that you will get to see today's blog post as at the time I am writing this we have had no Internet service all day (Thursday), I have called Gigaclear and they said that there is no  'optic' coming to house, I understand that we have fibre optic broadband,  so I'm guessing that's what is broken.  Annoyingly it means that Paul will have to go into the office today instead of working from home.  We have no tv or home phone either, since early morning yesterday.  The girls were totally lost without Internet access, Sophie ended up going to Lewis's,  although she was going anyway,  she left much earlier, Lucy Paul and I set to finishing off the Jigsaw puzzle we started on New Year's eve.

Our Next Challenge 

You have probably guessed from the photo above that this next Challenge will be 'Using anything New or barely used'  

We are all guilty of buying a stamp or die set on the back of seeing a card or project that we loved.  I have done that many of times,  you may use it once to re-create that project and then the item gets set to one side, I have a basket of New items and then another for Nearly new, rarely used stamps/ dies.  We may also have received a crafty gift for Christmas or maybe you have a magazine laying around that you haven't made anything from. 

I hope that you all enjoy this challenge,  I am really looking forward to it 😊. 

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I hope that you all have a lovely Friday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

One stamp 3 Ways

 

Watercolour card

Kraft card

White card

Good Morning Ladies, 

Ooh last night was cold, goodness me, it was literally freezing 🥶.  Thank goodness for that log burner and hot water bottles! 

Today I am sharing a set of cards that I made on Tuesday,  I started out making the one on white card, I started to clean the stamp, spritzed it with water and stamped it onto scrap paper, I liked how it looked so decided to stamp it onto watercolour card after adding a spritz of water, so I did the same as I did for the first card,  then I thought lets try it on Kraft card, the colours look quite different on the different substrates.  I can't decide which one I like best, I love the texture of the watercolour card and the Kraft card, the smooth white card shows the colours more but I think the watercolour one (top) is my favourite. 

The stamp I used is 'Positive Thoughts'  (SU) from 2020.  

I hope that you all manage to stay cosy and warm today my lovelies,

Love & Hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxxx

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

I would like to welcome 'Mrs A'  who popped in yesterday, thank you stopping by and commenting xx

We had a lovely sunny day yesterday,  I got up and opened all the windows, I wanted to let the lovely crisp fresh air in.  I didn't leave them open long though as the sun was masking how cold the air was.  I don't think we got above 1° all day. The sun on the patio is lovely though, I  stood out there with milo, the sun on your face for a few minutes feels so good. 

I made today's card on Friday, I wanted to create a Christmas card using different colours,  the die is called 'Festive Collection - Denise'.  The colours I used are Balmy Blue, White & Rose Gold mirror card.  It was hard to capture the colours on camera.  I really like the colour combination, I couldn't decide on a sentiment though, I will add on later. 

I hope that you all have a good Wednesday   wrap up warm as today is going to be colder. 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra 

xxxxxxx

A Romantic Anniversary card

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

Goodness me we had a very cold day yesterday,  I don't think we made it above 5°, I secured my place right next to the log burner!  I hate being cold, it seems to make everything hurt more!   (Is it only me?).  

My wheelchair is fixed, the lovely chap has to work out of his van, which must have been freezing yesterday,  so Paul took him a hot cup of tea to warm his hands.  He gives the wheelchair a full going over and put in a report to have it replaced,  the handles are loose, the tyres are worn, there were a few safety issues too like the brakes.  He said that they expect the wheelchair to last 5 years, so the fact that mine has lasted 10 is pretty good going.   Anyway it's such a relief to have 4 good wheels!  He was impressed with Paul's makeshift repair though.  Paul told him to send the bill to Transport for London' ! 

I made today's card yesterday, I just picked a stamp/die set and went with it.  I have had this stamp set since 2018!  I think I have used it once or twice maybe, which is terrible considering how much it cost.  I saw a project on Pinterest, many versions of the same card in fact.  I used Kraft card with the soft green of 'Soft Sea Foam',  I love the soft green against the Kraft colour.  I die cut a few layers of hearts,  using the colours above and a light cream card that has a lovely linen texture.  I added the sentiment  "I live our life together "  I will use the card to give to Paul in March when we celebrate the anniversary of the day we met 35 years ago! 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Noble Rectangle Card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you have all had a lovely relaxed weekend.   We had a very relaxed day yesterday,  we started planning our veg garden at breakfast,  Paul then went out in the garden for an hour  I joined him later and we measured the area we are putting raised beds in to see how many we could fit in the space.  We did a couple more little jobs then I came in, I had another terrible night without sleep (Saturday into Sunday) so my heart was struggling to keep up with my body. I could easily have had a nap at around 4pm but I didn't want to incase it caused another sleepless night.  We were having Becca, Adam & Flynn coming over for tea, so I got Paul to get sausagemeat out of the freezer, I mix sage & onion stuffing mix into it with a beaten egg and mix well, I line a loaf tin with bacon, push the sausagemeat mixture into the tin and wrap the ends of the bacon over the top.  It's delicious sliced up and served with roast chicken and it made our chicken stretch to feed a few more, I swear a large chicken today is a ,'small/medium' of a few years back.  A large chicken today barely does the four of us.  Anyway Flynn didn't come and Becca had to work so we had plenty of leftovers,!!! 

Today I am sharing a card I made on Friday, I stamped the vase and flowers in 'Misty Moonlight' and Balmy Blue' ink, I then dug out my Sue Wilson Noble Rectangles and created a frame using Misty Moonlight card with white on top.  I die cut the floral inked topper using the same dies, I created a top folding card base out of white card and mounted a mat of Night of Navy on top to create the background for the framed piece.  To finish the card I added a bow with a tag and 3 tiny diamantés on the flowers. I was actually surprised at how much I liked the frame that those dies created so I will be taking them out of retirement 🤣

I hope that your week gets off to a good start,

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx

Your 'Old' Challenge Cards

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

Oh I am so delighted to be sharing your cards again, it seems like ages since we had our usual Sunday display.  

What are you all up to today? Can you believe we are half way through January already?  I have a feeling this year will whizz by just like last year!  We are looking forward to creating our vegetable plot in our new garden,  Bill next door has said he has all the soil we need and the machinery to dig out new beds etc,  which is so kind and will save a lot of money.  We are both excited to plan what we will grow.  The soil was very heavy clay at Manor Lodge that had never been dug, which made it so hard to grow any root crops. 

Your Challenge Cards

Sonia

Sonia's Description: 

I’ve used Spellbinders A2 Bracket Borders One, and the corresponding stamp set from JustRite stamps. I used Sue Wilson’s tag die for the sentiment and Tim Holtz butterfly.

Oh Sonia,  I have both these stamps and dies and you have REALLY inspired me.  Your card is so beautiful, that pretty die cut edge combined with that pretty lacy stamp are a match made in heaven. Thank you so much for taking part in this challenge my lovely XXX 

Karen

Karen's Description:

Another oldie

Card 1:  I made the card blank with a mixture of SW Lattice frames and scalloped frames 

Shadow box embellishments and the really really old item is gingham card from C&C That has to be at least 10 years old.

Card 2:  A very old Sue W Striplet die which I cut again in orange and trimmed away the butterflies which I backed with vellum (shame it looks a bit grey in the photo) and double embossed them

The sentiment must be at least 5 years old from Paper Boutique

Card 3:  A Woodware stamp that is probably one of the first stamps I bought - at least 3-4 years ago on a messy Aall and Create background I re stamped the flowers in white and fussy cut the heads and coloured.

WOW Karen you are on fire with your cards for this Challenge,  sometimes a challenge just kicks our creativity into gear and this one certainly has for you, you have really inspired me, I was struggling at the start of the week but your positive attitude and amazing cards really helped me.  I now hava a little pile on my desk of projects for next week.  Thank you so much my lovely friend XXX

Maria 

Maria has created this fantastic card for our Old die/stamp challenge, those corner dies are lovely Maria, I have to say that I have used similar dies to cut into my base card but hadn't realised you could use them to create toppers.  That glitter card you have used is such a lovely colour Maria, it looks lovely with the white die cut.  This card would be great for many different occasions, you could leave it simple for a great 'man' card or add some pretty flowers by tucking them into the lattices.  Thank you so much Maria for taking part in this weeks challenge, especially while you are having work done at the house and packing for Austria. XXX

Janet

Janet has shared this absolutely stunning card using a selection of Sue Wilson original dies.  The card base is embossed with a SW embossing folder,  I must dig this one out, I forgot all about it, its a real versatile folder.  The combination of dies work so well together and Janet has layered the dies onto double sided adhesive and added some glitter which really lifts the card, making it a real 'WOW' card, the beautiful flowers and pretty bow are the icing the cake.!!  Thank you so much for sharing such a beautiful card XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:  

Hi here is my card for this week, 

The embossing folder is an old cuttle bug one.

I dies are spellbinders, but can’t be sure.

The cogs are chip board painted with black gesso.

What an amazing card Lilian,  a brilliant Man card, the detail in that embossing folder is stunning,  you wouldn't believe its an original Cuttle bug E folder, it must be at least 10 maybe 15 years old. The extra cogs work perfectly as embellishments,  they look like they were made to go with it.  Thank you so much for taking part in this challenge my lovely XXX 

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Oh my goodness I have a huge smile on my face looking back at the lovely display of cards that you have all created.  I am so incredibly grateful to all of you.  ❤

I hope that you all have a lovely relaxed Sunday,

Love & Hugs to all of you, 

Sandra

xxxxxx

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Another very chilly day here, I am so grateful that we are in a much warmer home, I recall last winter having heating on full, all day too and still having to have electric radiators with you whatever room you are in.  Thankfully Bill (our landlord) is very much into saving money so the house is very well insulated snd the windows are like new and have no draughts!  It really makes such a difference. 

Karen

Karen's Description:

I’ve been making these recently too The Knit and Natter group at the John Lewis store do projects as well as being able to take your own things to do

At the moment it is sunflowers for our local hospice and chicks to house creme eggs

Oh Karen what a fantastic idea to raise money for Charity, I think they will look so lovely with creme eggs in, I love them, I bet the chicks are cute too.  Thank you so much for sharing your creation with us XXX 

Diary of an Edwardian Lady Magazine 

I received this Boxed Magazine Kit for Christmas, I love the Embossing folder and the dies, I'm not sure about some of the papers, they don't look like something I'd normally use, however I have an Edwardian Lady Diary that I have had for a few years but I can't bare to cut into it, I intended to use it to add to a journal of some kind, I almost want to make a resolution to say that I WILL create a journal of some kind this year, whether its a Junk Journal or Art journal!! Watch this space,  I may use this box kit for that purpose.  Let's look at the papers and inspiration.  It's the same Ladies that design for  Creative Stamping Magazine.

The first feature tells you a little about Edith Holden, the author of the Diary of an Edwardian Lady, a naturalists diary for the year 1906.  It has a collection of words and paintings of the British Countryside through changing seasons. Her artwork us incredible  

This first feature looks at adding touches of  nature to your projects.  

These cards (above) all have Acetate added to layering.

Marie gives some great hints and tips for creating backgrounds,  whether it's advising that you stamp off the edge of your card when creating backgrounds, it looks more natural.  Or instead of placing a piece of backgrounds paper down, cut into it to add more interest. The circle card has diecut flowers adhered to the circle and you then ink over them do they look like they are embossed.  There are more ideas in the write up.

Now how about this for a Fancy Fold card, I don't think you'd get it in the post box though 🤣😂

Some clever ideas and designs to get the most of your stamp set, stamping over the edge of your card really does add the 'wow' factor.  

A look at some of the papers included......

Some pretty papers and toppers, really nice quality paper too. 

Katie Skelton shares some ideas for using your dies to create stamped images.  Katie's cards look ok, I'm not sure how successful it is though, I have zoomed in on the 'Step by step' guide for you.....

You can zoom in, if you can't see it clearly I will blow it up and send it to you if you fancy having a go. 

I really like some of these ideas particularly the Seed packets.

Some inspiration for the embossing folder thats in the kit.  Oh there are some lovely cards in this feature,  I particularly love the pink card with the bird, the background is embossed onto vellum, such a soft background.  

I am going to leave it there, there are a few more features but this review is dragging on a bit!              All in all its not a bad magazine kit, all the bits are really nice quality.  

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Sonia's Shopping 

Sonia has shared her craft Shopping with us,  I really like those Spellbinders Mix & Match sentiments, Sonia, I look forward to seeing them die cut to see how big they are, I really need some more sentiment dies. 

The PinkFresh snowflakes are really pretty, I can't wait to see you use them.  Lastly the Taylored Expressions Christmas sentiments, I didn't even know that they had Christmas ones, I have their Birthday/All Occasion version and matching die and I love them, so easy to line die up with the stamps and I love having a collection of sentiments stamped ready to pop onto a card.  

Thank you so much for sharing your shopping with us Ladies XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra

xxxxxxx