Friday, May 29, 2026

Going in circles

Good evening blogland

Genuinely I am such a dimwit!  For the first time in absolutely ages I was invited to GDT on a challenge blog and guess what - I only went and got the days wrong in my head!

How on earth I got a Try it on Tuesday challenge in my head for a date that was a Friday I'll never know.  So all I can do is offer a genuine apology to the whole Team and get my card up as soon as possible, 



The theme of the challenge is use circles on you project and this is the card I made:


Supplies used:

Rubber stamps (and matching dies):
My Favorite Things: JB Monkey Around Duo
coloured with my Copics

Dies:
Pretty Pink Posh: Scallop Borders 1
MFT: Die-namics - I&O stitched circles
un-branded stitched rectangles

Anything else:
various very old designer papers
Time for Tea: Sweet Summer enamel dots

OK, so I will apologise one more time to all the lovely crafters over at Try it on Tuesday and go away to hide in my shame for being so incredibly late posting this!

Cheerio for now,
Sarah



Saturday, May 23, 2026

Flowers in bloom

 Good morning blogland,

New Saturday - new challenge and this week it's time for a new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' with the theme this fortnight being 'Flowers'.  As always there are no prizes on offer but the joy is in the taking part and also being awarded a Top 3 pick.  The rules are very simple - you must stamp (rubber or digital is fine), no backlinking and follow the theme and, other than that, we are a very easy going challenge so what you enter is entirely up to you.

Now me and flower stamps don't really get along that well - every time I try using proper flower stamps something always goes wrong. Generally when the theme of a challenge is 'flowers' I would go down the route of flowers on the paper, flower embellishments or the stamp I use being a person with flowers.  This time I thought, nah I'll try for proper flowers again - disaster!

I'll show you the cards first:

Card one:


Card Two:


Supplies used:

Rubber stamp:
My Favorite Things - Magnolia Blossoms
coloured with my Copics

Sentiments:
Card one - Taylored Expressions (a matching sentiment set and die from Simple Strips)
'Happy Birthday' and 'well-rounded'
Card Two - a very, very, very old pre-printed/pre-cut sentiment from Craftwork Cards

Dies:
Card one: Honey Doo Crafts - Triple Dots and Dies & Polkadoodles Botanical Foilage Dies
Card two: Honey Doo Crafts - Connect the Dots & un-branded stitched dies

Backgrounds:
Card one: Distress Ink and blender brush
Card two: Cosmic Shimmer Airless Mister and spattered Distress Ink

Anything else:
Card one: self-adhesive gems

How much can you take of my tale of woe with the first card I wonder?  Well, I mis-cut the die and had to do it again, and didn't get it quite right (the bad bit is hidden!), my glue dispenser bottle was very low -- so I filled it and, obviously, made a complete mess of my work mat and the bottle.  The fine nibs for the differing glues I tried (I was trying to get glue on the back of those delicate dies) were bunged and took me ages to wash them out and get them working again.  I used a pre-cut matt for the card and I do not like it - I really miss the stitched edge and, finally, the Distress Inking went wrong.  I was going for a particular look and I completely got it wrong. I do not like that card.

Feeling empowered that I could push through - I made card two.  So much relief - I made it and liked it!  Yay! 😂

I am not touching flower stamps again for a good long time! 😂

I know my Teamies cards are really wonderfully flowery as well, not nearly as traumatic as mine, so please pop on over and take a gander, we'd appreciate it.

Until next time,
Sarah

Challenge/s:

Allsorts challenge: Challenge 850 - Anything Goes

Cut it Up: #356 - Flowers

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #821 - CAS (I'd like to enter card two)

I love Promarkers challenge: #607 - Special Occasions (Card one is more specifically birthday, so I'd like to enter that one)

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

It's anniversary time!

 Morning blogland,

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at Passion for Markers and normally you wouldn't see me there this week but it's a special one and so both Teams are involved!

And why is it special I might hear you asking - well it's because it's Passion for Markers 17th Anniversary!  I do actually remember the blog challenge starting - and it being a ProMarker challenge blog, I might even have entered, I can't remember but I probably did.  

As it's such a big number - it's also a big prize week.  I'm not going to repeat all the prizes on offer - best to go visit the blog for that - what I will say is it's an 'Anything Goes' themed week to make it easy for you to pop an entry in.  The rules do still apply - use your markers, don't backlink and follow the theme - but such an easy theme this week.

My card for this week is:



Supplies used:

Rubber stamp:
Kanban Crafts : Urban Belles - birthday
Catherine Pooler - Hey, Hey, Hey sentiment stamp set
as always my stamp was coloured with my Copics

Dies:
un-branded stitched rectangles
Catherine Pooler - Hey word die

Paper:
My Mind's Eye - Bloom & Grow
Limetree Craft - blue light card for the matt


Now I started out with ProMarkers and quickly found that I preferred Copics so I drifted a bit, then I stopped crafting for a number of  years and so I wouldn't have participated in every challenge over these 17 years, but I'm pretty sure I have entered a lot and I was so super proud when I was asked to be on the Design Team.  I also think it will take an Earthquake to get me to leave! Even if my crafting at the minute is restricted to 30 mins slots to take account of a DVT in my leg!

I also thought, seeing as how it was a card for a challenge that has been going for a long time - I'd also use supplies that I've had for a long time.  That would be the stamp, That has 2010 as the date printed on the packet, and the paper also looks like 2010 from a quick Google search!

See when I say I've been crafting forever I mean forever - those supplies are new, as far as I'm concerned!  The Catherine Pooler stuff is the proper newest supplies!

So there, I've waffled on for ages - I'll finish by saying both pop on over to the challenge blog there are some wonderful cards on display and - Many Happy Returns Passion for Markers and here's to another 17 years!!

Sarah

Challenge/s:

The Neglected Stuff Challenge - May 2026: The only even 'newish' thing is the 'hey' die. Everything else on the card varies from 1 year to 16 years old..

Dragonfly Dreams: May challenge - use die-cuts.

Just Us Girls: #823 - Word Week: Flowers.  Hopefully flowers on the paper is OK?

Allsorts Challenge: Challenge 849 - Monochromatic (or AG - as you can see I'm going with AG)