Crazy Few Weeks!

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

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!

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

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!

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

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.

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