Friday 24 February 2017

Happy Birthday Katie

I made the following card for my beautiful niece Katie who turned 19 on the 16th of this month


I used Mariposa papers and Tim Holtz papers, the flowers are mainly Prima, the sentiment is Stampin' Up as is the punch I used to mat the sentiment and the stamps and punch I used for the butterflies
The die is an old Marianne one and the border punch is Martha stewart



The next card I will be sharing will be totally different as it is for AJ, might have to go down the themed route for a 17 year male I think

Love and blue birthday wishes

Tracey

xxx

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Be Mine

Happy Valentines Day

As per usual my valentine will be going to Neil, 30 years together and he spoils me just as much as he did in the early days of our relationship

I made him this card

He is definitely in tune with his feminine side and always prefers the very pretty girlie style cards that I make so I don't ever worry about using pink or throwing handfuls of flowers at his cards


I did add a little masculine grey and the little glimpses of metal you can see peeking underneath the flowers are actually window lead that I have embossed

I used Tim Holtz patterned papers
Prima flowers
Woodware silver balls
A Woodware leaf punch and a Stampin' Up leaf punch
Stampin' Up stamps for the sentiments
The circle die is by Nellie Snellen
I believe the heart die is by Marianne


I have had a lovely day at home, it is also my birthday so I have been truly spoilt and Neil has grand plans for the weekend to look forward to

By far the best part has been all the lovely messages and cards from my family and friends

Thankyou all so much

Love and valentine wishes

Tracey
xxx

Sunday 12 February 2017

Happy Birthday Rob

The 5th February saw my son Robbie turn 21

TWENTY ONE

Just over two decades that boy has been filling our lives with love and laughter

I couldn't be prouder of the young man he has grown into, he has a fantastic work ethic, lovely, kind and gentle nature and is incredibly thoughtful

I truly am the luckiest mum

I tried a slightly different card style this time, it is one I haven't created before and it lends itself nicely to a masculine style as you can create lots of interest without having to add all the girlie touches

Plenty of layers, a monochrome colour scheme and a recurring star theme seemed to work quite well for this style of card

I liked the layout and so have half made a christmas card, which I will share once it is finished ( I haven't forgotten our little challenge Jan)



The papers I used are actually out of an older christmas paper stack, the stamps are all Stampin' Up, tag punch is by Woodware and the numbers have been cut with my Cuttlebug dies ( Hippy chick)


Now counting down the days until I see my boy again

Love and shining stars

Tracey
xxx

Saturday 11 February 2017

Sandy paws and salty licks

Yesterday was our first foray onto the beach this year

These gorgeous blue skies tempted us to don our warm clothes and venture onto the sand


It was actually a little breezy and definitely blew away the cobwebs, you can see the surf rolling in behind Bruce as he waits for the ball to be tossed back into the waves



Molly did the usual and buried and then 'discovered' her ball leaving little holes all over the beach


We wandered from one end to the other and back again, Bruce dashing in and out of the water, Molly my little partner in crime searching for flotsam and jetsam

We found this gnarly driftwood, far too big for Molly to play with but texturally beautiful 


And this chunk of Maritime debris, rusty and redundant, all the way from Manchester


Molly loves exploring, just like me - look at that happy little face ( unfortunately she gets so excited by her new finds she often loses her ball !)


Heading back, wind in our faces, two happy pooches and all the cobwebs completely blown away



The nearest I will ever get to a selfie ! This one was an accident, but look at that beautiful sky


Love and salty kisses

Tracey
xxx

Thursday 9 February 2017

Pretty in pink


Hello

It has been a little while since my last post

We have joined a gym, Neil and I

Neil for physio reasons, he's trying to strengthen his knee after his op and to regain some of the lost muscle on his left side and therefore hopefully regaining a little of his strength and co-ordination

And me, well, I need to shift these pounds before I get to the big 50 or I fear they may never go

I am eating fully vegan now, for health as well as ethical reasons, many thanks to Amy and Ben for all their help and advice and their inspiration in the first place, love you two xxx

I lost just over a stone by going vegan and then a plateau hit and so Neil joined me at the gym as part of my christmas gift, thankyou sweetheart xxx

I have to say I have had gym memberships on and off for years, but this time it just feels right. I love my gym - Snap fitness in St Austell, the staff are lovely and helpful, the gym is brand new and immaculate with absolutely tons of equipment, it is bright and cheerful and I actually look forward to going - that's a first !

We have been working out for a month and I didn't weigh myself at all in the first four weeks. To my dismay I lost only one pound when I jumped on the scales this week, I was gutted, I had worked bloody hard, weights and cardio, five days a week for four weeks

Neil urged me to measure and to not get hung up on what the scale reads, I was sceptical but did as I was told

I had taken my measurements at the beginning of January and when I repeated them I was gobsmacked

All in all I have lost 12 inches in total - 12 bloody inches - wow !!!! that's 30 cm, 300 mm, you get the gist - I am pretty happy with that

The scales have now been consigned to their hiding place under the bed, and, from now on I am just going to go by the mirror and my measurements

So that's the reason I have fallen behind with my blogging and cardmaking

But the upside of all this exercise is, at first it nearly killed me, I was sleeping for England, but now I have more energy, more motivation and my sleeping has returned to a normal pattern once again

I feel motivated to do more, more of everything, exercising, cardmaking, crafting, even cleaning, literally everything !

Woohoo, go me !

So, enough of the update, I am sure I have bored you all to tears

I have a card to share, I made this for my lovely friend Gillian


I used a Martha Stewart border punch and a lattice Nestability die to create the whitework


The leafy scroll is an old Marianne die and the flowers were made using a Stampin' Up stamp and punch set

The sentiment is also Stampin' Up as is the punch I used to cut it out

Gillian is currently nursing a poorly shoulder so I am sending her all my love and hoping she feels much better soon

Love and lost inches

Tracey
xxx