Handmade with Love

A Last Few Christmas Cards

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000Z

I love this stamp by Hannah Davies/Impression Obsession and used it to make our cards to our family this year.

I stamped the stocking twice onto linen card stock and layered it on 3d foam pads.

I added lots of bling to this card and coloured a little silver in on some parts using Smooch.

I tried it in different colour combos. Red on black. And black on red.

And a bit of pink too.

Not long till the big day now!

Tracey x

Our Christmas Cards for this year.

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000Z

Hi all, I hope you are well. Well the presents are wrapped and the food shopping has arrived so I am ready! I was really late in starting our christmas cards this year. We send a lot and I wanted to make them all so they had to be relatively quick and easy to do.

I printed the sentiment on the computer as well as the greeting on the inside of the card.

I added lots of bling and some glamour dust. The stamp is from Penny Black.

The bow is from Papermania.

They are all sent now! Hope your christmas plans are going well.

Tracey x

Magazine Christmas Trees

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000Z

I have seen these trees over the web and thought I would have a go at making one. All you need is a magazine and a bone folder.

A tutorial can be found on good old Martha's blog here.

I added some gold spray and finished. A great way to recycle your mags.

Tracey x

Inspired by My Son

2011-12-18T16:41:00.000Z

I hope all your christmas plans are going well! My youngest son made this wonderful Christmas card for our family at school.

I was so wowed by it that he kindly taught me how to make one so we got out our papers and had a crafty afternoon.

This was soo relaxing to make, just folding paper!

We added some glamour dust to the edges and tried different colours too.

We made ornaments, tags, cards, such fun!

But best of all was my son's creation when I let him loose on the bradlet draw!

Fantastic! Can't top that one, lots of christmas sparkle!

Have a wonderful run up to christmas.

Tracey x

Final Card for the Challenge, Let it Snow!

2011-12-11T20:19:00.001Z

This is my final card for the Less is More challenge this week. It's a card that I have made for my son to give to a special little girl that he has a soft spot for at school. If you look closely there is a heart in the middle of the snow flake on the little mouse's nose.

The image is a digi download that I got from the Digi Stamp Boutique a few years ago, I can't find it on there now. I glamour dusted the outside of the mouse to add an extra bit of bling.

I have almost finished my christmas cards now, I started a bit late this year!

I hope you are all enjoying the run up to Christmas!

Tracey x

Another Card for the Less is More Challenge

2011-12-11T20:12:00.001Z

The theme is Let it Snow for the Less is More challenge, I made a few of these Penguin cards for my little boy to give to the girls at school, the boys got a similar one with a penguin with a baby blue hat and scarf.

The image is from Hero Arts Christmas Critters from Two Peas In a Bucket, I have added and a few gems to the snowflakes on the little penguins hat and glamour dust to the hat and scarf.

Have a great week.

Tracey x

Let it Snow!

2011-12-11T19:41:00.001Z

Hi all, how are your christmas plans coming along? I am just finishing off making my christmas cards and thought that I would take part in the Less is More challenge this week which is Let it Snow! The ladies have come up with such lovely inspiration again, I always look through their blog for ideas!

I have made this card using the Stamping Up Medallion Stamp as a snowflake for a card for one of my sis in laws and her other half.

Here is another slightly different version with a bit of different bling on it.

I have a couple of other cards to add to this challenge but think I need a separate link so will post again.

Have a great week!

Tracey x

Decorations and Labels

2011-11-27T22:27:00.001Z

Our christmas visiting has already started and I have been busy decorating gifts. I bought a great Sizzix die and made lots of bows and home made tags.

Some I made in different colours...

And in some I used just one colour..

I stamped some kraft tags..

And coloured them in.

I love decorating gifts and making them look special, I have so many more I have to do!

How are your christmas preparations going?

Tracey x

A Great Trip to the Doctors

2011-11-06T10:00:00.000Z

And no I am not pregnant! He he :-) I had to pick up a prescription this week and whilst I was waiting, I saw some books sitting all unloved on the window sill. This being one of them.

It's an old hymn book, I can't see when it was published but it's old and a bit tatty but the pages inside are beautiful...

And distressed around the edges, it looks like it has had the Tim Holtz treatment!

I asked the receptionist if it was for sale and for a fair donation it was mine!

I was looking to use the papers in some sort of mixed media art journalling, I am so excited to be going on this course with Dyan Reaveley from Art from the Heart in less than a month. I also thought the papers could be used make great christmas decorations.

Trouble is the book has made it this far in tact and I love it as it is, I'm not sure I can bear to tear the pages out of it. What would you do with it?

Have a great bonfire weekend.

Tracey x

Taking Time Out to Enjoy the Little Things

2011-10-20T11:20:00.000+01:00

My little fella has two weeks off this half term and we have spent our first couple of days chilling out and doing the things that we used to do before he was at school.

We have been to the park and fed the swans.

We drank hot chocolate in the cafe in the park. We played on the swings and slides.....

We have admired the trees, flowers, sun and the nature that surrounds us.

We have walked the dog, watched a film in bed and another with a blanket on the sofa.

He has reminded me what it is like to be eight, to be care free, to enjoy the simple pleasures in life and make the most of the day!

I hope you are all having a great week!

Tracey x

A Productive Morning!

2011-10-13T12:53:00.001+01:00

Hi all, welcome to my new followers. One problem I have come across is that if I click on a new followers details, it does not come up with their blog so I can't join them. However if they comment I can then click on the comment and find their blog. Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be appreciated!

Hubby was off sick earlier this week so we snuggled down in the lounge with a hot water bottle and a blanket. I bought in a few of my new Prima stamps from QVC and a small table and made a few much needed cards.

I stamped using Versamark ink onto Linen card.

I added a little colour with distress inks.

And added a little bling.

I used different colours.

I love the green and yellow, not my usual colours!

Another stamp from the pack.

And in a different colour!

Thankfully hubby is now feeling better and back at work, just in time for my youngest to start his two week half term! I hope you all have a great week!

Tracey x

Weddings and Anniversarys

2011-10-04T13:30:00.000+01:00

Hello all, life seems to be keeping me busy at the moment and my friend Jennifer reminded me this morning that I had not blogged for ages, so hello Jennifer, I finally did it!

Last month saw me making a lot of wedding and anniversary cards, the most special one being from me to my hubby to celebrate 16 years of marriage. We have been together since we were at school!

I used a heart shaped stamp from Papermania and stamped it onto linen card stock in Crimson Versamark ink.

This was layered onto black card with black and red ribbon. The sentiment was printed from my computer in Edwardian Script.

I then added a bit of bling, yes I know its a card for a man but I couldn't help it!

Here is another card I made for my neighbour to give to her brother on his wedding day.

The heart was stamped with silver ink onto linen card.

I layered it onto grey and silver linen cards and used some foam pads to give it some dimension.

A few Papermania gems were added to finish it off! I have actually made three of these cards recently with different colour gems and backing paper, one in purple which looked lovely although I didn't get time take a photo!

Finally an anniversary card that I made for my friend and her husband, although the photo didn't come out to well. This was a digi heart from 2 peas in a bucket which I printed onto linen card and added some dark grey pearls.

Let me know which heart you like the best! I hope you are all having a great week, I am off to catch up with what you have being making.

Tracey x

Birthday's Galore!

2011-09-24T20:50:00.000+01:00

Hello all and welcome to my followers new and old! It has been a manic month for birthdays and anniversaries and with the kids only just going back to school I have been busy trying to keep up with my cards!

Today my youngest son who has just reach the grand age of 8 is having a sleep over with two of his little friends. We had a group of his friends come to see Smurfs 3D at the cinema and then went for a pizza and now the two remaining ones are playing quietly with him upstairs. I hope they don't stay awake to late as I want to be bright and bushy tailed to go to Ally Pally tomorrow for the Stamping and Scrapbook show!

Apart from my son's birthday this week I have also had our gorgeous niece's birthday.

First a quick bit of background not only is Grace gorgeous but she loves monkeys so much that my sis in law has two cuddly toy ones so that she is never without her monkey! I thought it would be a good idea to send her a card from my two little monkeys to their lovely cousin!

I used a digi set called Animal Crackers by Libby Pritchett & Tracey Howard from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I used a branch of a tree and two cute monkeys and arranged and printed them from Publisher. I then decoupaged their heads, flowers and some leaves and covered them in glossy accents to make them stand out a little. Finally some wiggly eyes were added and a sentiment backed onto some pink paper.

Our card to our niece was made with a stamp I have had for ages and love using it for babies and little ones.

Stamped in pink onto white linen card stock.

Layered onto pink card and silver linen card stock..

I then added a bow, glamour dust to its ears and paws and a few gems onto the card.

I hope she likes it! Anyway I must go and check on the little ones upstairs and get them ready to snuggle down for a dvd, wish me luck!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Tracey x

Cards for Kids

2011-09-10T09:20:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I can spend hours thinking of ideas for cards and other times I will see something and the ideas just flow! I saw a Digital Paper set by Lauren Grier from Sweet Shoppe Designs, I can't find it on there now so I think it's retired. It's full of monsters and great backing papers.

I wanted to make some quick cards for the kids to give to their little friends on their birthdays and made these in a matter of minutes.

I punched the little faces out with my circle punch and stuck them on with some foam pads.

I added some wiggly eyes that I bought from the Factory Shop and used Glossy Accents on their hats to make them shiny.

Same idea as the previous card but with another wonderful backing paper.

Here I used one of the backing papers and added a 3D sticker that I bought in a set from the Factory Shop.

This one has girly colours suitable for a tom boy!

I really enjoyed playing with these papers and it feels good to have a little stash of cards ready for all the birthdays coming up!

Have a great weekend!

Tracey x

Cards for Men

2011-08-28T16:28:00.000+01:00

Hubby and the boys have been away at our caravan this weekend so I have indulged in a little craft shopping and card making.

I have made this card for my god mother to give to her son, she wanted something to do with bikes as he loves cycling.

The card was made from this Digi kit and printed onto linen cardstock. I printed the bunting, cut it out and mounted with foam dots. A few silver embelishments were put at the centre of the wheels and on the bunting. I love Polka Dot Pixels, they have alot of images that are suitable for male cards!

I am entering this card in for the Cards for Men Challenge where this weeks card is Anything Goes. There are so many beautiful cards on the blog, I am in awe of your colouring in too!

Have a good weekend all!

Tracey x

Gift Tags

2011-08-22T11:06:00.000+01:00

With the kids still on summer holidays I am keeping it quick and simple at the moment and just spent a few minutes making some gift tags. I love kraft and bought these tages ages ago online.

This is a prima stamp which I used on my card in this post. I stamped it in white and added white sparkly embossing powder.

I think it looks just as pretty in black with a little bit of stickles in the middle of one of the butterflies.

A cute teddy bear, stamped in white and embossed too.

And in black with a red heart.

My X-Cut butterfly punch with some gems.

Some decoupaged butterflies which I outlines in black and added a stitch punch at the bottom.

Part of a beautiful Hero Arts Tree Stamp with just the lady birds coloured.

A simple flower.

A butterfly with stickles.

Part of an Anna Griffin Stamp with stickles.

Papermania Cupcakes with a stickle on the top (I need to get more coloured stickles)!

I now have some gift tags ready for presents which I will wrap in brown paper and finish with a colourful bow.

And for now I will keep them in this pretty pot which I bought recently from the lovely gift shop in the next road to mine!

Have a wonderful day!

Tracey x

A card for a Challenge!

2011-08-20T22:07:00.001+01:00

It seems ages since I have made a card and when I was looking for inspiration on the Less is More challenge blog, I saw that this weeks challenge is to include something that moves.

I love this Prima stamp with butterflies and decided to use it to make a card for my friends birthday.

I coloured the images with distress inKs and added some gems to the centre of the butterflies. I added a little silver smooch pearlesant ink to the lettering and butterfies too.

I mounted the image onto pink card and then silver linen cardstock. I hope you like it!

Have a great weekend.

Tracey x

Catch Up - Anyone out there?

2011-08-14T18:26:00.000+01:00

It has been so long since I last blogged that I am not sure anyone will be reading this anymore, I almost stopped completely but got the urge this afternoon to update my blog anyway, even if its just for me to use as a reference for the cards I have made and things I have been doing.

We have been away twice since we went to Cyprus in June for my sis in laws wedding. We have been to Mustique for another wedding, my hubby was best man and we were only there for three days including travelling! We had a bit of a relax though and the wedding was truly lovely, I have a thing for sunsets at the moment and took this photo on the evening after the wedding.

The week after that we went away for our annual holiday to Italy. The weather was lovely and warm and we had a lovely time with the kids chilling out and playing in the pool. Every evening there was a beautiful sunset, it felt so peaceful and magical.

I also tried taking a few photographs of the beautiful fields of sunflowers which are so pretty this time of year.

Finally, we had some wildlife come and visit us on holiday, this baby fox came up to join us when we were eating outside. We gave him food and he ate it less than a metre away from where we sat.

And another not so welcome visitor found in our bath!

This photo was taken after I had let the scorpion away outside, they are not so poisonous out there, more like a bee sting but I still would rather he didn't visit again!

Anyway that's enough about sunsets and holidays, we have also completely refurbished our bedroom and hall, stairs and landing and I will post photos of them another time too. I have also taken the sofa out of my craft room which was really just a dumping ground, and moved some furniture around and it feels so much tidier in there now.

As for cards, I have been making some, but just haven't got round to blogging about them and sometimes just didn't have time to photograph them before I sent them out.

I have a couple of cards that friends and family have asked me to make so I shall get back into the swing of things shortly, I hope!

Anyway for someone who wasn't going to blog, I have rattled on enough. I look forward to catching up with you all and hope you are enjoying your summer!

Tracey xx

Been Busy

2011-05-25T13:43:00.000+01:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted on my little blog, I haven't even been visiting any blogs, I've missed you!

I have been doing a little bit of photography but mostly I have been making my sis in laws wedding stationary for her forthcoming wedding next week in Cyprus.

I have never made wedding stationary before and wanted it t be just perfect, I am glad its finally finished.

Place Settings ready to go with a sprinkle of glamour dust and a gem in the middle of each heart.

The heart and border match the colour of the bridesmaids dresses.

Seven Table Names mounted on gold linen cardstock.

Twenty five Good Luck cards to hold lottery tickets for the guests.

The Guest Book.

The Table Plan

Top of the Table Plan

One last photo before it all gets packed ready to travel to Cyprus next week, I hope it travels well!

Hopefully I will catch up with you all when things return to normal when I get back!

Tracey x

Happy Mother's Day

2011-04-03T21:13:00.002+01:00

I have had a lovely Mother's Day, we have done some work in the garden, it looks so beautiful at this time of year. This photo is from one of our pear trees.

The sky last night was beautifully pink, just perfect....

Many of our trees and plants are in full bloom..

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mums who do the hardest job in the world...but the most rewarding.

And for those of you that can't be with your mothers or if you are a mum that can't be with your child today, then keep them close in your hearts.

Tracey x

Another Card for the 'Less is More' Challenge

2011-03-22T14:51:00.000Z

I am loving the clean and simple look of the cards on the 'Less is More' Challenge Blog, your cards are such an inspiration. Here is another card I have made for this weeks challenge of Masculine Cards.

I have used my Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder to creat this card and layered it onto navy card. I added a layer of foam tape between one of the layers to make it look a little less flat and add some interest.

The only embelishment is a piece of navy ribbon tied in a bow. Thanks for taking the time too look and for any comments you leave, they are always appreciated!

Tracey x

Male Cards

2011-03-22T14:42:00.000Z

I have loved looking at everyones creations on the 'Less is More' challenge blog and there are lots of helpful hints and tips too.

So after weeks of watching everyone elses beautiful creations I am now able to join in this week as I have had to make some masculine cards for some special fellas in my life, I just hope these cards fit the criteria!

This card is made with an Anna Griffin Stamp that I bought from QVC a while ago. I stamped an embossed it with silver embossing powder and added a couple of pearls.

I layered the stamped image onto black card. The card and background for the stamp are pearlised but I don't think that you can tell from the photo.

I am not sure if I need to post the cards seperately so I will create another post with another card that I would like to enter into this challenge.

Thanks so much for look and any comments you leave, they are appreciated.

Tracey xx

Storage

2011-03-03T14:58:00.000Z

I love all things crafty and I also love home accessories, I am constantly looking for items for my craft room which will store my craft things in a pretty way!

This set is for the kitchen for crisps and peanuts but I like my crafty things in there!

This is perfect for storing my ribbons on old fashioned wooden pegs.

My Martha's!

And other ribbons.

This is perfect to hold my latest card away from the mess on my desk.

Yummy vintage buttons in a pretty see through jar.

And a cup cake stand to store my wooden stamps.

I hope you like them! What are your favourite storage items for your crafting things?

Tracey x

Valentine Cards

2011-02-12T23:11:00.015Z

Valentines Day will soon be upon us and here are some cards that I have been making for my friends and of course myself to give to our loved ones.

A simple card with scored lines and gems on linen card stock and a sentiment printed from the computer.

This heart was a digital download, re-coloured a deep red with black gems.

Three heart shaped brads that I have had for ages placed onto linen card stock and then layered with 3d foam pads on to red card stock then placed back onto linen again!

A heart that I made from a love poem printed from pink petticoat papers punched with a slightly scalloped heart. I then gave some dimension by punching several hearts, folding them in half, gluing the backs together and then sticking it on a heart shaped base!

Finally a heart printed from Microsoft clip art images, I think this would look good with some bling or glamour dust too.

I hope you like them, I'm not sure which one I am going to give to my hubby yet. Have a lovely valentines day whatever you are doing!

Tracey x

Valentines Flowers

2011-02-05T15:48:00.000Z

I have been looking at some great flower tutorials on the internet and had a go at making a few myself.

They would be a great addition to a valentine gift, to decorate the top of a box or even put on a card.

I printed this love poem from Pink Petticoat on both sides of my paper and then added a button with a prima gem on top for the centre.

I printed the above flowers with these papers from Pink Petticoat on both sides and then followed this fantastic tutorial here.

Have a go, they are such fun to do and so pretty too.

Tracey x

What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday!

2011-02-02T08:06:00.000Z

Good morning, afternoon or evening to you all and thank you for visiting my desk this week. I will return your visit!

This is my desk ...

This week I have been stamping and colouring with distress inks, I am using hammered paper for a bit of texture so the stamp doesn't always come out completely perfect but I am ok with that, I am enjoying my colouring in!

I have taken advice from you experts and stamped a few images when I have my stamps out so I can use them later. It has saved me so much time doing this and I only have to clean the stamp once, bulk colouring in is handy too. :-)

The flowery stamp on the left is Hero Arts and I have embossed this image with clear embossing powder and coloured it in, I like the effect!

Hop over to our wonderful host Julia's blog and see whats on everyone elses desk this week!

I hope that you all have a great week!

Tracey x

Whats on Your Work Desk Wednesday!

2011-01-26T09:07:00.000Z

Now I am back doing WOYWW I have really noticed how quickly the weeks are flying by! Thanks to all those who visited me last week and your kind comments, I really don't know how some of you make it all the way round but I will return your visits eventually!

Here is my desk, there is a theme here, can you guess it?

My friend asks me to make a Valentines Card for her husband every year and then he asks me to do the same so I have to be quite careful! My friend likes to see some ideas and have an input in the card so I have made lots of little samples that could easily be made into a bigger card to give her some ideas. Her husband is completely different and says 'You know what she likes, I will leave it to you!'.

Anyway I have really enjoyed gathering together anything red and heart shaped and making something with it, I will post the cards later this week and have also been making more flowers so watch out for those too!

I look forward to looking at your desks this week to see what you have created or your storage ideas or just a general nose! If you would like to see more desks and make lovely friends hop over to our host Julia's blog to join in.

Have a great week and I will catch up with you later.

Tracey xx

A Birthday

2011-01-25T12:38:00.000Z

Now I have gotten over the fact that I am old enough to have a teenager, I just thought that I would share the cards that I made for my son on his birthday.

This card is made with a fab image from Mo Manning and I decided to keep it trendy and only use black, red and white not to mention my colouring is not great and I didn't want to colour the whole thing in in case it turned into a disaster!

The image was perfect for him as I think he would be permantly attached to his X Box if we allowed it!

The other card I made for our youngest to give to his big brother, we have a very scruffy dog which looks like this one.

This one I did colour with distress inks and a blending pen, I think it turned out ok. The stars were a download from Pink Petticoat that I printed onto Kraft Paper.

We had the family round for a chinese takeaway the night before his birthday as he spent the actual day with his friends. I scanned some of his baby photos into my computer and then put them on a disc and played them through the TV all evening, he wasn't too embarassed and his aunties loved it!

As you can see from this photo our family get togethers are getting larger and larger, I am going to have to get another table and chairs to keep in the garage for when everyone comes round!

Have a great week!

Tracey xx

Whats on Your Work Desk Wednesday

2011-01-19T09:39:00.000Z

Hello to you all and thanks to anyone who happens to land on my bog today to have a look at my desk, I will return your visit! If you have no idea what I am talking about then take a look at our lovely host's blog Stamping Ground to see what its all about and take part too!

This is whats on my desk today...

I have been making 3d flowers, tutorials are all over the web but if you want one let me know. The blue and cream one is made with papers from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection and are a bit vintagy looking. I have made a pink, blue and yellow one with papers from the Factory Shop, I love these colours together and the pink one was made by my little boy who wants to take it to school for a certain little girl he likes :-)

The card at the back has a fab Mo Manning image on it printed in black and white for my eldest son to write out his thank you cards for all his lovely gifts on his birthday last weekend. Still don't think I have gotten over the fact that he is a teenager now!

Now I am off to see the lovely Nina at Sugar and Spice in Billericay this morning to learn something to do with 'kissing'. Hmm will show you more when I get back!

Have a great week and I will visit your desk when I get back.

Tracey x

Getting Some Fresh Air

2011-01-16T23:57:00.005Z

As you know bug boy likes the great outdoors so when I saw that Hylands in Chelmsford was putting on a scrapbook safari, I booked us in! A lovely lady from Hylands took our group around the grounds and explained what was going on with the wildlife and nature at this time of year.

We also looked at different fungus's growing on the trees.

After a lovely walk we went back to Hylands & filled the pages of our scrapbooks. I made one for Olly using some digi papers with a nature theme, I laminated them to protect them a little.

The lady said it was the nicest scrapbook she had seen so I was a proud mummy. We filled it with lots of pictures and also made a pine cone bird feeder to take home.

It was great fun and lovely to walk about in the fresh air with my little fella, we can't wait to go back again soon!

Tracey x

Feeling Very Old!

2011-01-15T13:15:00.001Z

Today my baby, my first born......

Turns into a teenager......

Where has that time gone? Off to Nando's & the cinema with my teen & his mates, off course we are not allowed to sit with them, just pay the bill!

I hope you are having a good weekend!

Tracey x

Whats On Your Work Desk Wednesday

2011-01-12T09:16:00.001Z

Hello friends, thanks for popping by to see whats on my work desk today and thanks to all who visited last week and are new followers its great to make so many new friends! Here is a piccie of my desk this week..

I must confess that I am not much of a stamper or even a colourer, I like colouring, I can colour in the lines but i'm not confident about the shading and stuff. So this week I decided that I would have a little play and have been using my distressed inks and a blender pen to stamp and colour the little dog image on the card on my desk for my son's 13th birthday this weekend. Any advice from you seasoned stampers is greatly appreciated, I am in awe when I see your work!

I have also been flicking through cards magazine, has this gone out of publication in the UK? I can't find it anymore! The spotty box file is full of scraps, I cleaned out a whole two draws of bits of paper and have filed them according to colour and whether they are plain or patterned. Its worked really well and I have now used alot of my scraps up because I don't have to hunt through two drawers to see what there is!

Hope over to our wonderful host Julias Blog to join in with WOYWW. I am of to Sugar and Spice in Barleylands now for a scrapbooking class where we will learn a new technique every week so will come and visit you later!

Have a great week!

Tracey x

Whats on Your Work Desk Wednesday - Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T10:46:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you all and I hope that you will forgive my absence from WOYWW. I was finding that I just didn't have enough time to go round to everyones desk and felt bad so I had a little break but I've missed you! This is my desk today, very tidy, I have even dusted!

There are a couple of cards on there, one for my next door neighbours little boy who is one today and another for my sis in law whose birthday is on Saturday. My cream caddy to the left is full of stamps that I have mounted but not used so I decided to leave them in there until I had tried them out.

Unfortunately my cleaning is not quite finished....

I still have this lot left to sort out! Ooopps!

I got a new lense for my camera for christmas and thought I would share what I took out of my window yesterday, Whats out my Window? Doesn't have the same feel as WOYWW.

Did anyone else see the partial eclipse? It was really stunning!

Anyway if you would like to join in, pop over to our wonderful host Julia's blog to see what's on everyone elses desks today and I will try and catch up with you all later!

Tracey x

Merry Christmas One and All!

2010-12-24T16:42:00.000Z

Well its nearly here, just one more sleep and I have been banished to my little room whilst hubby wraps my pressies. I just thought I would show you my last lot of christmas cards for this year. I love this stamp by Penny Black.

Stamped here onto some Vellum which has snowflakes in the background with linen cardstock.

A ribbon and some crystals were added to bling it up!

A slightly different version with red and embossed gold.

Some red gems were added to finish it off and linen cardstock for the card itself.

This beautiful Papermania Stamp with baubles and extra bling.

And this digi tree stamp with pearls and gems added.

I have just taken the dog for a lovely long walk along the seafront and took a photo of the sunset on my phone.

It made me feel all peaceful and happy.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Tracey x

Nearly Done!

2010-12-20T17:03:00.000Z

Hi friends! Nearly there with all the family cards, I have decided to use my favourite Pink Petticoat papers this year for all my sis in laws and my new nephews and neice.

I used Woodwares Fluffy Stuff on this first card.

A double layer card with the centre cut with a circle nestie.

This one was glamour dusted!

A simple christmas tree, blinged until it could bling no more!

I love how the shiny baubles catch the light.

A bit of paper peicing going on with this tree although you can't see it too well and then the whole thing covered with glamour dust so it sparkles.

This year there are some special new little people in our family.

My beautiful neice Grace.

And my two gorgeous nephews, Freddie and Lewis.

The mouse image was from the Digi stamp Boutique click here for their christmas images!

I hope yor christmas preparations are going well, only a few more sleeps left now!

Tracey x

Christmas Cards .....of Course!

2010-12-07T14:51:00.000Z

Goodness I have not blogged for ages but I have been busy making cards and wedding invitations! I love Christmas and I love making cards for our family and friends. However we send alot of cards, about 150 not including family so I needed to come up with something relatively easy in order to get them all done. This beautiful NOEL image comes from here and I first saw it on Me and Lil G's blog here. I have tried to make several different versions of this card.

Different shaped card,

Monochrome

Traditional christmasy colours.

But in them all I have added some bling!

Which one do you like best?

I hope your plans for christmas are going well, have a great week!

Tracey x

Photography

2010-11-02T09:59:00.000Z

My wonderful scrapbooking weekend with the Scrapagogo girls has not only made me want to scrapbook more but also take more photos! The kids were still on half term yesterday so we made the most of it by having a walk down Southend Pier and caught the train back.

At 1.33 miles long Southend Pier is the world's longest pleasure Pier and has some amazing views.

This one looking back to the shore, in the centre of the photo you can see the famous Kursaal. The Kursaal was the world's first ever theme park, pre-dating Coney Island in America.

Halfway down the pier and the light is bouncing of the water.

The RNLI station.

The little train that took us back.

The pier from the beach.

My gorgeous big fella who actually enjoyed a day away from the x-box!

My little fella who was trying to throw stones out to the water and searched for crabs.

My little camera that I keep in my bag has panoramic shots so this is one I took in panoramic mode sweeping round from the pier to the other side of the beach.

Little fella is still off today so we are going to the beach with the dog and I am going to take some more shots. I also hope to grab some shots of the amazing colours of the trees at this time of year, it looks so wonderful and golden. I love this time of year and hope you are enjoying it to!

Of course I kept our train tickets and will make a scrapbook page of our little outing. I will upload my Scrapagogo projects soon, we had such a great time!

Tracey x

Missing in Action

2010-10-27T23:26:00.000+01:00

It's been so long since I posted on my little blog, it has been quite neglected! I have been busy doing this and that and suddenly a whole month has nearly passed by! This weekend I will be at the Scrapagogo Getaway in Hertforshire with my friend Linzi, we are so looking forward to chilling out and having a laugh.

Sadly the Getaway means we will miss spending Halloween with our other friend Jo and we usually go round to her house with the kids, play games and go trick or treating so I have made a little card and gift for her.

Its all girly, pink and blingy!

A little gift tag and a bag to be filled with sweets.

The papers and image are from Pink Petticoat and the ribbons and gems are from my stash.

We have also had a special birthday with our little boy turning 7, so this card was for him from his big bro.

The papers and image are from Pink Petticoat again and I have used my cuttlebug to emboss some stars and cut them out and added faux stitching and buttons.

The little guy is also a huge Lego fan and as he was getting the Lego castle for his birthday, I made this card from hubby and I. The images are from the Lego website and I cut out some characters and stitched round the edge of the card.

He had a joint party with two other friends and we booked out a whole cinema screen to watch Marmaduke. I was in charge of making party bags ......60 of them!

Appart from that, I have also been trying some baking..

And have been making some homemade soups which the whole family loves, definately need more of this now it is getting colder!

I look forward to catching up with you all soon and showing my makes from Scrapagogo. Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!

Tracey x

Baby Baby!

2010-10-05T22:29:00.000+01:00

You may remember in June this year I became a first time Auntie to two precious Nephews called Freddie and Lewis. Well I am now also proud Auntie to my new little neice Grace who was born when I was at Ally Pally last weekend! I didn't think anything would top the excitment of Ally Pally but that definately did!

We all went for cuddles last Saturday and were are all very excited and arguing over who was going to get the first hold! Of course we bought the pink baby clothes, pink champagne, cuddly toy etc and I even picked up a pink baby scrapbook kit from Ally Pally too.

I made a card. I saw a similar one on Angela's blog with the boy version of these Zoe Pearne papers. Angela's cards are amazing!

I then got a bit carried away and made a little coaster album for my sis in law so that she could put a few photos of her precious bundle inside. I used some glittered thickies on the front for her name.

Yummy papers!

Some ribbons, hearts and flowers as embelishments.

I added a few ribbons for decoration and then as I had some paper left over and was still tickled pink to have a new neice, I made another mini album but a different style.

There also tags inside where she can write little notes, like Grace's birth weight etc.

Looking forward to lots more cuddles with my neice and nephews in the future! Thanks for taking the time to read this post!

Tracey x

A Beautiful Bag

2010-09-29T20:54:00.000+01:00

Before I got into crafting my main expenditure went on handbags. I love them! So I was really excited when my friend Jennifer invited me round to her house and said that she would make a bag for me!

Jennifer very kindly let me go through her stash of fabric, ribbon, flowers and buttons and made an across the body bag for me. It also has smaller handles so that I could hold it if I wanted to. The black fabric is from Ikea and I love the bright colours, they really make me smile and her stitching is beautifully straight, something I cannot do!

Jennifer made the top part of the bag with a lovely vibrant green and accessorised with pink and black ribbon and a flower. AND she did all this whilst I watched and chatted away! Would I be able to make one myself now? Probably not, but then I am very lucky because she has made me a shoulder bag too that I just can't wait to show you.

And the exchange? I am going to show her how to make mini albums and let her rummage through all my papers and that could take a while!

Thanks again Jennifer!

Tracey x

A Flag Book

2010-09-27T21:02:00.000+01:00

The lovely Nina at Sugar amd Spice gave another fanstastic class the other weekend where we learnt how to make a Flag Book. It looked really complicated but actually its quite easy and looks fantastic, I can't wait to make more!

The papers were quite manly and the Flag Book takes 56 photographs so I thought it would be ideal to make for hubby with photographs of our project in Italy (i.e. demolishing one falling down farmhouse and building a new one!).

I used some rub-ons from Delish for the front..

And mounted lots of little 2 by 3 inch photographs of various stages of our on going project.

There are some tags in the front and back pockets for notes and I stamped a little stamp of an Olive Tree on the back of one and attached some thread to the top of the tags.

When you hold both edges of the book the pages flip over like a little movie!

This is how it looks from above

And from the back!

I have really enjoyed this class and all the lovely ladies that I met on it. I can't wait to make more. We are doing exploding boxes next!

Thanks for looking, have a great week!

Tracey x

Finally Back in the Room!

2010-09-17T09:35:00.000+01:00

Well the summer holidays seem to have passed by in a flash but it has seemed like ages since I did anything in my craft room. The kids went back to school last week but then hubby was poorly and off work for a week and the dog wasn't great either so my visions for last Tuesday of sitting down with a cup of tea and enjoying absolute silence became two trips to the doctors a trip to the chemist, a trip to the vets and food shopping! The rest of the week didn't get any better but I won't bore you with that!

I had a parcel delivered yesterday with this yummy stuff..

I have been lusting after the Letterpress stuff for ages and when I saw that the Docrafts website had 50% off everything, I couldn't resist!

I have also been encouraging this little guy who is 7 next week and already knows that he wants to be a chef to make some meals on his own. So last week he made this salad, all by himself, cutting and choosing the ingredients himself

Radishes, avocado, little gem lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, red onion.. he put loads of lovely bits in.

And made a tasty salad dressing with lemon, olive oil from our trees in Italy and sea salt. It was yummy and we had them with my favourite lunch, jacket potatoes..

Luckily little one's plans are that when he owns his resturant, I will be a bit old and he doesn't think I should drive so he is going to pick me and hubby up each day and drive us to his resturant where we can eat for free, whatever we want, even if it's not on the menu.

This week my friends and I are organising a joint birthday party for our kids and 60 of their friends at the local cinema. Hopefully at some point I will be able to make some cards!

I hope you are having a great week and thanks for taking the time to read this post, I'm sure you must have all thought I had given up blogging!

Tracey x

Whose the Daddy?

2010-09-03T09:41:00.000+01:00

It was hubby's birthday in June and I have only just managed to take some photographs of the little mini book that I made for him from the kids.

I used a template that I bought ages ago and printed paper from Pink Petticoat's Big Fella Kit which is here. It has great images and papers for your big and little fellas! Here are some of the decorated pages.

I inked over the paper to make it look a bit more grungy and added some tickets

I changed some photos to black and white and added rub ons.

A star stamp decorated this page with a matching paperclip.

The Manly-iest flowers I could find!

Some buttons and brads.

And the back, both of the kids had half a page to write their message.

The album was held together with some book rings and decorated with ribbons.

Well its just me and my big boy this weekend as hubby and the little one are going to our caravan and someone needs to dog sit! We have negotiated our itinery. Craft shopping in the morning with lunch out, then x-box time (for him not me!) and a film and popcorn in the evening. I am really looking forward to spending some time, just him and me.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful weekend, whatever you are doing!

Tracey x

A Blog Award!

2010-09-01T06:53:00.000+01:00

My beautiful friend Clare has kindly passed this award on to me. She has lots of lovely creations on her blog as well as news of her fund raising for St.Wilfred's Hospice and card making sessions with the lovely people there, take a look here.

After getting the award you have to:

1) Thank the person who gave you the award. Thank you so much Clare for thinking of me, I am thrilled to bits!

2) Post the award. Yep done that!

3) List 3 things you about yourself

I was a model for Tixylix (the childrens cough medicine) when I was a child and a little photo of me happily taking my medicine was on chemist counters up and down the country

I am vegetarian and have been for 22 years and forget that not everyone else is!

I have been with my hubby since our school days and only went out with him for a laugh. 23 years later we are still together.

4) Post a favourite photo

The fella's in my life. I love them to bits! On holiday, relaxed and happy. Good Times!

5) Tag 5 people you would like to pass this award on to;

Andy aka Hubby! (Is that cheating?)

When I first received a blog award I hardly knew anyone to pass it on to, how times have changed, now I can think of lots of blogs that inspire me and I enjoy reading. Check out these blogs for some wonderful inspiration.

Have a wonderful week!

Tracey x

Bug Boy at it Again!

2010-08-30T12:41:00.001+01:00

Warning! Close up photos of Insects - Look away if you don't like them!

Anyone who regularly passes by my blog will know that my youngest son has a passion for bugs, creepy crawlies and anything you can find out in the garden, so it didn't suprise me when he came running in with this yesterday...

See those lovely dirty fingers? Yes bug boy was back but with a snail this time! I rarely ever get my SLR camera out but with nothing better to do I took some more photo's in the garden.

Bug Boy feeding the snail, look at the beautiful colours of his little house!

And the snail going for a climb.

I have also bought some plants for the garden, this beautiful hydranga.

And these winter Cyclamen which had just been watered.

Finally, indoors I found these..

Not sure what it is, and neither did bug boy, but it obviously wanted a rest from being outside. I am going to enter this photo into the Macro Monday Challenge on Lisa's blog here. I only found this blog today and there are some stunning photos there. I also found this hairy fellow..

Which I was not so keen on, but he sat still for a photo and then did a little dance with his back legs so must have been a bit of a performer! I hope that you are enjoying the bank holiday weekend, leave a comment and let me know what you have been upto!

Tracey x

Back from hols with some exciting news..

2010-08-18T23:35:00.000+01:00

We have just returned from our family holiday in Italy. We are totally in love with the country, the food, the wine and the people! We are also totally in love with the landscape and architecture, we stayed in Umbria, next to Tuscany.

Fields of sunflowers are out at the moment stretching as far as the eye can see..

The weather was changable and there were some magnificent thunder storms that you could see rolling towards you from over the hills. Mixed with the sunset, they produced some magical colours and scenes that made me feel quite humble at the beauty of it all.

And most exciting was this sunset taken one beautiful evening...

When we took a walk up to our new adventure, what will be our home away from home, Hubby's dream. An old farmhouse with beautiful views of the valley.

The structure is not great so the whole building will have to come down and will be rebuilt but all useable roof tiles, stone, beams etc will be set aside to be re-used in the new house. If you have an interest in property renovation then take a look a hubby's blog where he is going to record our journey with lots of photos.

Apologies for the non crafting post, let me know where in the world you love to visit!

Tracey x

A Coaster Album of My Fellas

2010-07-29T15:38:00.000+01:00

Another Mini Album that I made at a class with Sugar and Spice Crafts in Barleylands Billericay is a coaster album. I love the papers we used they were girly and lovely and I decided to keep this book for myself and put photos of the special fellas in my life inside..

We choose a letter and cut it on their massive Die Cut Machine! Then inked around the edges. The flower and butterfly were added when I got home.

I even put a rare photo of myself with the kids in. I HATE having my photo taken!

My gorgeous hubby and our fluffy little norfolk terrier or is it fluffy hubby and gorgeous norfolk terrier?

Four hearts, one for each of my family and a photo I took of the boys for photography class but they could not stop messing about long enough for me to get a good one!

And the back! We inked the edges of the coaster pink after we had covered them. We then used a ring to hold it all together and tied some co-ordinating ribbon round for decoration.

I hope you like it, I enjoyed making it and have already bought some more blanks ones to do some more!

Have a Wonderful Week.

Tracey x

What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday?

2010-07-28T09:54:00.001+01:00

Hi fellow WOYWWers I hope you have been having a great week! This is what's on my desk today..

Yes I have finally bought myself some copies of Craft Stamper magazine, after seeing all of your lovely creations I have decided to try to get a bit more inky! I also made some purchases when I went to my fav craft shop on Saturday, they had 20% of everything so it would be rude not to buy anthing don't you think?

I'm really loving making mini books at the mo so I bought some little stamps that I can use to decorate them and a some words stamps too. Here is another purchase I made this week..

Twenty to 40 year old vintage buttons in the jar with the ribbon attached for £10! I love them! They were for crafting but actually look so lovely sitting on my fireplace at the moment so I may well have to order some more. They are from Cavania the link is here.

Finally that card that I had to make last week for my hairdresser, the one about either stick people, trains or morris dancers, well I finally came up with this..

You can't see it but its on linen card stock. It's not a great photo but here's a close up..

I googled stick men bride and groom and this came up so I printed it and drew over the lines again because they were a bit sketchy and used my promarker to shade around the edge. I have added glamour dust to her dress and veil, crystal flowers to her bouquet and used glossy accents on his hat.

Anyway she picked the cards up last night and loved it so I am a relieved crafter with a lovely haircut!

Pop over to our wonderful host Julia's blog to have a look at other peoples desks! The kids have friends round today so I will catch up with you all this evening and the coming days probably! Have fun!

Tracey x

A Star Shaped Mini Album...

2010-07-26T16:08:00.001+01:00

Every Saturday for the last four weeks I have been going to my local craft shop Sugar and Spice, in Barleylands Craft Village to do the 'Off the Page' course run by Nina. I have had such a fab time, met some great ladies and learnt some new techniques.

This weekend, I made this!!

A mini book that folds out like a star!

Then folds back up like this

and contains lots of 3 by 2 inch photos

on each page

This really has been the most lovely mini book I have every made, and they are so easy to do! I am going to make some with Christmas papers and give them our families so that they can hang them up as a decoration. The photos in this one are of our trip to Lapland over Christmas three years ago we had a blast and the kids loved seeing Father Christmas on Christmas Day!

I hope you all have a great week.

Tracey x

Close Up of Cards

2010-07-22T18:04:00.000+01:00

I thought I would show a close up of the cards that were in my previous post and give the details.

The cupcake card is a digi download from Pink Petticoat and so is the pink paper that I have used in the background called Flourishes and I have added some glamour dust over the flourishes.

The sentiment was printed from the computer and layered onto pink cardstock. The texture on the cupcake was made using Woodware's Fluffy Stuff (thats what it's called!) I applied it to the cup cake, threw some glamour dust over it and then used my heat tool to set it.

I also printed the image onto the flourishes paper and cut the cupcake case out and stuck it to the original image to match the rest of the paper. The button was from Basic Grey and the leaves were coloured with promarkers.

The other card is one I have made for a Sapphire Wedding Anniversary

I stamped the heart in Versafine Magestic Blue onto white linen cardstock. I then mounted the image on some silver and dark blue card in layers, some with tape and some with foam pads to make it stand out a bit. Blue and clear gems were added to the heart. The image was printed from the computer onto linen cardstock and then mounted onto dark blue. I added a bit of blue organza ribbon underneath the heart to finish it off!

Hope you like them! Have a great week!

Tracey x

What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday!

2010-07-21T10:16:00.000+01:00

Hello fellow WOYWWers, I hope you are all having a great week! My little one has been on summer holidays for over a week now and I think I have worn him out as he is still asleep at 10 am this morning! Oh to be 6 again eh? This is what my workdesk looks like today..

I am just finishing some cards that my hairdresser asked for, these two weren't too hard but I am stuggling with the final request, a wedding card with stick men and a train or morris dancers! In my dear hairdressers own words it is a little bizarre and I am trying to come up with some ideas that still look weddingy if you know what I mean, any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!

This is a close up of the two cards I have made..

A saphirre anniversary card and a 40th birthday card that had to have a cupcake on it!

My eldest son finished school tomorrow and we are all looking forward to chilling out together, I can't wait, especially if they manage not to argue too much!

Pop over to our lovely host, Julia's blog to join in or just have a nosey at everyone else's desk.

Have a wonderful week and I will visit you later!

Tracey x

Butterfly Hybrid Card

2010-07-19T10:16:00.000+01:00

As soon as I saw this digi kit from Vinnie Pearce on Two Peas in a Bucket, I knew I had to have it! I love pink and I love butterflies and the papers were perfect for my sis in laws birthday card from the boys.

I punched a butterfly from the background paper with my Martha Stewart buttefly punch and layered the two butterflies together with a piece of thread. I also added another butterfly to the paper with the x-cut butterfly punch. The word Auntie was added to the paper in Microsoft Publisher and I added some gems and pearls to the centre of the butterflies. Thos was all then layered onto a linen card.

A really lovely set of papers, I shall be using these again!

Have a great week!

Tracey x

Film and Food and a Card!

2010-07-18T13:13:00.000+01:00

It was my sister-in-laws birthday last week and we all met up for a lovely chinese meal with the family, it was great! Also to celebrate we are going to see Toy Story 3 on Tuesday, I remember when this film first came out when my eldest son was a toddler, we watched it so many times and it's still one of my favourites.

I wanted to make a bright card with flowers on it for sis-in-law but had to play around with it to get what I wanted. I usually find that thinking up the ideas for a card takes longer than actually making it and this was no exeption, this was the result.

I used some pink foam to cut some flowers with one of my sizzix folders and then added a couple of buttons to make the middle. This was mounted on some hammered white card and some lovely pink cardstock which I cut with my nestabilities. The background of the card was printed from a flourishes paper from Pink Petticoat and the sentiment was printed from the computer.

I hope you are all enjoying the weekend!

Tracey x

Whats on Your Work Desk Wednesday

2010-07-14T12:43:00.000+01:00

It's WOYWW and I haven't been on for a few weeks now and I've missed you! As we are sitting in the craft room today and I have a very special visitor, I thought I would pop a photo up to join in.

This is my work desk today...

I am making a card for my sister in law whose birthday it is tomorrow, don't worry it's being hand delivered! The tree card is going to be from me and hubby and I am now making one from the boys. Can't decide on hearts or to use some foam flowers that I have cut out on my sizzix though so will have to have a play around to get an idea!

And now to my special little visitor...

Yes my youngest has already broken up from school, so after walking the dog and having a play, he is quite happy to cosy up on the sofa and play his game. I am so enjoying his company and looking forward to spending the next eight weeks with him!

If you have no idea what WOYWW is then wander over our wonderful host Julia's blog now to see what its all about. Thanks for reading and I hope to catch up with you all later.

Tracey x

Schools Out for Summer!

2010-07-12T17:39:00.000+01:00

Schools out for summer at least for my six year old! My eldest son is not so impressed to have another two weeks of school! And of course on our first day of summer hols it rains! Not that I am complaining, I have loved this hot weather but the garden needs a drink and we could all do with a bit of a cool down!

I have been making teachers cards for my little one to say Thank You for a fantastic year. He has run into school happily every day and that has made my heart happy. Now we have eight weeks off and I plan to make the most of my time with him, I am very much aware that he will not want to go to the park, farm, zoo, beach etc for many more years and that makes me sad so we are going to make the most of these holidays! I guess I am going to spend quite a bit of time with him here..

A little area of our garden where he likes to play, catch insects and dig!

Anyway, for the teachers cards I used some paper from DCWV Grade School and some bright lime green cardstock and some ribbon from American Crafts.

And made very similiar cards

For each teacher!

The Font was a download from Two Peas called School Days. As a class we bought the teachers vouchers but I made a little gift box up with some chocoloates, a best teacher book mark and glass heart so that he had something to give himself.

This was for one of the teachers and then for the other teacher who does alot of outdoor things with the kids in the wooded area by the pond I made this one.

All the papers are digital downloads from Two Peas In a Bucket.

Thanks for reading, I hope that you are all enjoying yourselves whatever the weather!

Tracey x

Crazy Few Weeks!

2010-06-27T15:16:00.002+01:00

It has been a crazy few weeks here and I feel like I have constantly been chasing my tail since we came back from our holiday so not much blogging has been done for a while!

Hubby had Father's Day and his birthday within a few short days of each other, last weekend we had a family BBQ to celebrate both occassions which was fantastic, I love the in-laws and as my sister-in-laws get partners or have babies etc our family meetings grow and grow! This was the card that I made for hubby's birthday from myself.

I was browsing through the Two Peas Digital Section and found this kit which was under Fonts but was full of swirls and patterns like the one above so I download that and added some manly bling and printed onto linen cardstock. The base part of the card was printed with a wash from Pink Petticoat and I added ribbon too.

Although it was his birthday, I was thoroughly spoilt when Hubby came home with a new i-pad for me! I had bought him one for his birthday and he liked it so much he bought one for me too! We had a lovely dinner out as a family and then spent some time relaxing in the garden and in our little pool.

I have loads of card orders at the moment and am starting to panic as my youngest only has a couple of weeks left at school before he breaks up for summer and I am helping out on a school trip for one of those days. I made this card for my hairdresser to give to her Nephew on his 18th. She wanted the age on the card and happy birthday so I came up with this.

This is another download from 2 Peas and the kit is here. I printed this onto linen cardstock and added a bit of bling to jazz it up. Happy Birthday was printed from the computer.

Sorry the photo is a bit blurry, it was taken just before I had to rush it round to her!

Finally yesterday was my dear friend's son's Bar Mitzvah. The ceremony was lovely and her son read a long passage from the Torah. He did brilliantl! Its amazing that he has learnt to read and speak a whole new language for this ceremony and he didn't just read, he chanted the words. I have never been to a Bar Mitzvah before and had no idea how much work was involved, I admire him for all his hard work which is alot for a 13 year old, who now in the eyes of his religion, is considered a man. Well Done J!

I copied some text from the Torah onto linen card stock and printed a border around it. I then made the star with four different colours of cotton and twisted them and sewed them onto the card. I matted this onto some silver and red cardstock and then placed it all onto some linen card. The sentiment was made on the computer.

Tonight we are going to his party at a bar and restuarant on the beach, the weather is gorgeous, there is entertainment for the kids we are all going to have a fab time, I can't wait!

I hope that you are all having a great weekend too!

Tracey x

Father's Day

2010-06-18T15:57:00.000+01:00

As Father's Day is fast approaching I wanted to make some cards from my boys to give to their lovely daddy. I started to think about what hubby stood for he is loving, patient, kind, a role model, I hope that my boys grow to be just like their daddy, and then this card came to me.

I used publisher to create a banner with the words DAD and then added other words around it to show all the qualities that their daddy has.

This was printed onto white linen card stock from the Papermill Shop and then layered with pale blue and navy cardstock. The sentiment was typed on the computer and the wash background was printed from a download from Pink Petticoat. The ribbons and brads are from my stash.

I am entering this card into the following challenges, Crafty Cardmakers - Cards for Men and Creative Card Challenges - For the man in your life.

That's one card made and from my youngest son I made this card, we call him baby bear and my husband loves fishing so it seemed to suit!

I printed popcorn the bear from my cd onto linen cardstock and pyrimaged the image. A couple of pastel pieces of card made the layers and the sentiment was printed from the computer directly onto more linen cardstock. I added a little bling, just a little, I couldn't resist! I am entering this card into the Spoon Full of Sugar challenge which is Enjoying the Sunshine, although it mostly rains when hubby goes fishing, it looks quite sunny in this image!

Finally and last but not least, this card is for my father-in-law from us all on Father's Day

Papers and sentiment are a digital download from Pink Petticoat all printed onto linen cardstock (I am loving linen at the moment, have you noticed!) and the ribbon is from my stash.

We are having hubby's dad and family round for a BBQ this Sunday, however you spend your weekend, I hope you have fun and Happy Fathers Day to all those special dads out there!

Tracey x

Some Men's Cards!

2010-06-16T09:42:00.001+01:00

With Fathers Day coming up I thought I would post some of the 'dreaded' mens cards I have been making recently, this one was from the kids to my wonderful father in law on his recent birthday. I am going to enter this card into the Cupcake Craft Challenge where the theme is One for the Boys! Now I have two brand new baby nephews I am definately going to have to get used to making more male cards!

I made this card for my friend to give to her lovely dad on his birthday. She is a scrapbooker and likes nothing more than tearing and distressing papers so I tried to make this card in her style and distressed almost every edge of paper I could find! I am going to enter this into the Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge this week where the theme is red, white and blue. The digi stamp and papers are from Pink Petticoat.

Here is a closer look at my distressing as it doesn't show up very much in the above photograph.I usually like nice clean lines so this one was difficult for me, I think I managed to make my distressing look a bit too neat!

This is a card that I made for one of our friends, I was running out of ideas and time with this one and am not so pleased with it!

All of the above cards have been made with paper and sentiment from this kit from Pink Petticoat, it really has saved my life so many times when I have had to make a card for a man.

Finally I made this card for another of my friends to give to her lovely dad on his special day, the colour requriements were blues and greens and she picked out the paper, the 65 was cut on my cricut and layered so it sticks out a bit and the label was printed from the computer.

I am now off to make yet more male cards, fathers day, hubby's birthday and some other male birthdays, I can't wait to get the flowers and bling out again!

Have a great week!

Tracey x

What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday - Anniversary Edition

2010-06-02T11:07:00.000+01:00

It's WOYWW, the anniversary edition and I would like to thank Julia for bringing us all together every Wednesday, I really look forward to it, in fact I plan my Wednesday's around it!

I have an apology to make as I am not at my desk. I am on my hols but did not want to miss out on the fun so instead of my desk, here is where I am..

In my favourite place in the world appart from home, Italy! Yesterday we went to a place called Cortona which is absolutely beautiful and I went in this shop which you ladies would just love.....

It's a stationers, they make their own paper and then make the most wonderful diaries, note books, address books, journals etc with it! I have seriously stroked ALOT and got some weird looks in the process! They also have ink pens, proper ones that you dip in ink and a choice of different coloured inks and notecards. This is what I bought, I had to restrain myself, I wanted everything!

Finally we had a lovely lunch and then had to have one of these....

Ice cream and yes they did taste as good as they looked! I hope you are all having a great week and I am looking forward to having a look at what you have made this week!

Tracey x

What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday!

2010-05-26T10:31:00.001+01:00

Thanks to everyone for their comments last week, I appreciate you taking the time to visit. This is my desk this week, its fairly tidy.

I went to a scrapbook crop on Friday and started a page with this photo of my son who decided to cover himself in stickers when he was younger. I thought I would try to finish it off today. I am going to add some thread through the buttons on the paper and some other bits to finish it off.

I also found this when we were at our craft village on the weekend...

It was only £19 so I had to have it! My little boy said he thought I should keep paper in the bottom and my 'pretty things' as he calls it in the top. Any other suggestions?

We are on holiday next week so I won't be able to take a photo of my desk, if I can get online I will send you one Italy instead. If not enjoy the one year anniversary challenge!

Pop over to our host Julia's blog to have a good look round everyone elses desk. I look forward to having a look around your desks today, have a great week!

Tracey x

A Fab Weekend

2010-05-24T09:55:00.000+01:00

Hubby has gone on a fishing trip to France for a week so it was just me and the kids this weekend and we made the most of the weather! We went to Barleylands Farm and Craft Village in Billericay and I took loads of photos of them having fun. I use Picasa 3 for my photo editing and was having a play around with it and made this collage of the photos I took that day.

I may even use this for some quick scrapbook pages too and my youngest has taken it in to school for show and tell today.

It's my Mother-in-Law's birthday this week and I made this card from the boys to give to her with a lovely butterfly stamp that I bought from Hero Arts.

I stamped the image in blue ink onto a blue wash paper. I mounted it onto some navy card and then mounted this with 3d foam pads onto white linen cardstock. I then printed a digi paper for the background and mounted this onto navy cardstock.

I then embellished the butterfly with crystals and pearls.

Let me know what you think, its always good to hear your comments and suggestions. Have a great week!

Tracey x

My Second Nephew's Card and some Challenges.

2010-05-22T22:42:00.003+01:00

I have just finished making my other new Nephew's card and gift box and have used another digital image from this set from 2 Peas in a Bucket.

The Stork has been re-sized in publisher to fit my card and I added a frame around the outside edge from the same kit, this was printed onto white hammered cardstock. I then layered my image onto some navy cardstock and then layered this with 3d foam pads onto light blue card.

I decoupaged the stork and the baby in it's little bundle and added glamour dust to them to give them a bit of sparkle. I also added a bit of bling for the stork's eye.

As with the card in my previous post, I have made a box to keep the card in which I printed with another digital paper from the kit and added another stork image. I did the same with the envelope that we are giving them with a voucher to buy some baby goodies! The insert was also made the same as the card in my previous post with the frame and some digi papers.

I have only ever entered one challenge before but today I am going to enter this into two challenges! It must be all the excitement of being an Aunty!

Lucy's Cards Challenge is to make a card with a digital element, I think I have that one covered so check out Lucy's challenge here. I have got alot of inspiration from her cards, and love her designs.

The other challenge I am going to enter is Dare U to Digi Stamp where the challenge is One for the Boy's. With two nephews born in one week I have definately had my fix of boys cards and have loved every minute of making them. Check out the Dare U to Digi Stamp challenge here for lots of inspiration and ideas!

Ah well I am going to try to link my post to these challenges now, apologies in advance it I make a hash of it!

Have a wonderful weekend in the lovely sunshine!

Tracey x

An Auntie Again!

2010-05-20T14:18:00.001+01:00

Hi all, following yesterdays post I am please to say that I am an Auntie for the second time this week! My nephew Lewis, was born today weighing exactly 7 lbs and all is well!

I can't believe my luck at having two new nephews in one week! However I wasn't so lucky in finding the stamp that I wanted to use to make my first sister-in-laws card but as it happens I think things turned out for the best as I went digi instead!

Some weeks ago I bought this kit from 2 Peas in a Bucket. I have used Microsoft Publisher to size and print the element on the front as although I am doing a Photoshop course at college, I still have no idea what I am doing!

I re-sized my image and printed it on to some lovely hammered white card twice. I then decoupaged some of the layers and added some little gems. The finished piece was then mounted to to some navy cardstock and then matted onto some light blue cardstock with 3d foam pads.

The sentiment was typed on Publisher in my favourite font, I changed the colour to blue and printed directly onto white hammered cardstock.

I used a digi image from the kit to make a frame for the insert for the card.

Finally I made a small box to send the card in with a matching digi image on the front.

Well that's one card made, now I have to think of something else for my second sister-in-law! Have a great week everyone and let me know what you think!

Auntie Tracey !x