Holiday Here We Come!

Well after the last photo I posted the weather has not improved that much although we haven't had any more hail! We did try a day at the beach and took the buckets and spades but after an hour we retreated to our friend's house for lunch and a play as the cloud and wind finally beat us.

Which is why I can't wait now for our holiday! Italy here we come, the weather is sunny and in the low 30s. Just had a few cards to make before I pack for those people celebrating whilst we are away.

My mother-in-law is celebrating a birthday and after finding out her favourite colour is red, I made this from the kids.

From us I tried a bit of stamping although no colouring in!

Have a lovely relaxing birthday Kate! I also had a couple of cards to make for my friend. I have had my first go at pyrimage with the Popcorn the Bear CD rom from Crafters Companion.

I love teddy bears and thought that this was cute card for a little boy celebrating his 2nd birthday. I also had a card to make for her cousin and not knowing how old he was or what he was interested in I finally decided to play it safe with this one.

The images and background paper are from Pink Petticoat, a digi download site that I use alot, especially for male cards. Well i'm off to bed now, the packing is awaiting me tomorrow and hubby has now finished work for the next two weeks! Have a great few weeks and I will catch up with all your lovely blogs on my return! Tracey x

Whats Happening with the Weather?

Yes it's the school summer holidays and yes of course that means rain but this?

I don't know if you can see from this photo but we have hail and the bit of grass by the patio is actually under water! There was thunder and lightening too! The kids and I decided to watch a film and snuggle down so that was good.

We have also had Nanny Gorgonzola's funeral this week but thankfully the weather was much kinder to us.

Nanny Gorgonzola as she was known to our children passed away peacefully in her own home on 10 July 2009. She had a lovely send off this Wednesday and a gathering afterwards where her and grandad's friends had a dance and shared many happy memories of a lady who did so much for others and was a real part of her local community. Grandad has recently been introduced to my blog so I know he checks up on me, Grandad, you did her proud and I shall always remember Nanny's great sense of humour and her twinkling blue eyes.

As we are about to go on holiday I am trying to finish all of the cards that I have been asked to make. This one was a request from my friend's Aunt who wanted a 25th Wedding Anniversary Card that could be framed after it had been opened. I have only been making cards for five months and was quite nervous about making this card but thankfully the lady who had asked for it was quite specific about what she wanted and this is the finished piece.

It actually looks nicer than the photograph. The card is pearlesant and the two hearts on the front are genuine swarovski crystal and really catch the light beautifully. The hearts have been mounted on mulberry paper which I have fluffed out at the edges and this was then mounted onto some beautiful indian paper which has silver flecks in it. The names of the happy couple have been placed around the hearts with beads. Its quite a simple card to look at I didn't want to detract from the hearts which were quite expensive. I hope they like it!

I hope your week hasn't been as wet as ours and hope you all have a great weekend!

Tracey x

Teachers Presents!

We have had the first day of the holidays now and are relaxing and chilling out! I've now got the time to post photos of the presents that I made for Olly's teachers.


and close up............

From the top.......

The boxes were cut on my cricut machine using the Tags and Boxes Cartridge and I then joined the edges and turned it into a box! I stamped a cute image onto shrink plastic and coloured it in and then stamped a label shape and wrote on it 'with love from Olly' . I then used the heat tool to shrink it to size. This was all then threaded onto a wire with beads, bells, hearts and ribbons added too. Oh and I filled them with chocolates!

I then used some of the leftover paper to make the cards, here's one....

I think they liked them and hope you do too! Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Tracey x

Where have the last seven years gone?

Where have the last seven years gone? Tomorrow is my eldest son Tom's last day at junior school, he starts grammar school in September and I am so proud of him! I have been busy this week making teachers presents and cards. Here are a few, I warn you, he has alot of teachers!


For his music teacher.........

Sports Teacher ...........

French Teacher..........

Maths Teacher...........

And finally for today, his computer teacher.....

Most of the papers for these cards came from DCWV Grade School pack which was great as I really would have had no idea where to start with making so many cards!

Tomorrow all of the children in Tom's year and the parents will have a picnic on the school lawn and then they will be taken by limosine to our local theme park by the sea front. After that we are all off to a local chinese restuarant to celebrate the end of the school year. I'm getting a lump in my throat just thinking about it, but i'm sure we will all have a great day!

Take care, I will post some cute present ideas that I have made for my youngest son's teachers tomorrow, he is about to start year one in September, don't even get me started on that one!

Lots of Love

Tracey x

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Hi all, hope you have had a great week. This week we have celebrated my husband's birthday. The sun shone and we had the family over for a lovely bbq and chilled out! Off course I made some cards for him, this one is from our youngest son with an image that looks very much like our own scruffy little dog!

This slightly more grown up one is from our eldest son and using papers and images from Pink Petticoat. I really love these!

Finally I tried to go with something a bit different for my husband and pulled out some paper, chopped it up and made this one below.

Thankfully he really liked it. Which is good as I pass all my cards past my husbands meticulous eye and always get an honest opinion, whether I want to hear it or not!

Finally I just had time to make a wedding card for my friend who liked the butterfly image that I had used on a previous card and printed the name of the bride and groom to make it more personal.

I am now frantically trying to make teacher cards as the kids break up in two weeks time. The youngest one has four teachers so I am going to have to think of something different for each one! Enjoy your weekend, and I look forward to catching up with everyones blog on Sunday!

Tracey x

For the wonderful men in my life ..............

Next week is my wonderful Hubby's birthday and what with that and Fathers Day this Sunday, I have been busy making cards for all the lovely men in my life. You may notice a theme here!



Yes my husband is a keen fisherman (although he does not get to go as often as he would like!) so his cards have a very fishy theme. This one is from my eldest son for Fathers Day.

And this one is from my youngest son. I thought the image was quite cute and I am gradually getting used to colouring in with my new watercolour pencils!

My lovely Father-in-Law also likes his fishing although it used to be said that he spent more time falling in the lake than catching anything! Lol! Sorry Derek this ones for you!

My other lovely Father-in-Law is a keen gardener and so I found this image on clip art for him and kept the green theme going. I hope he likes it!

Finally its my good friend Liza's hubby's birthday today and he loves his footy so I came up with this card for him. Happy Birthday Russell!

Well thats the Fathers Day cards done and now I am on to hubby's birthday ones, can you guess the theme?

Have a great week and lots of love to all the lovely dads out there for Sunday.

Tracey x

A Mixed Bag!

Its been a mixed bag both weather and card wise this week! One minute I am wearing my flip flops next I need my wellies! I have been making a variety of different cards too! This one is for a friend to give to her mother-in-law.

She picked out the colour she liked and I went from there. Another friend also asked me to make a card for a 70th birthday and they picked this colour.

I wouldn't have picked this colour out for a male card but it actually looks quite nice and I will probably use it again instead of my usual grey, blue or silver! Finally I have played a little more on the computer and put together the card below which could be used with a different sentiment.

I quite like this card and it can be made fairly quickly which always comes in handy! Well the sun is shining at the moment so I am off to make the most of it before it pours again! Have a great week all. Tracey x