Birthday and christmas all rolled into one

First up today I have the card I made for Neil for his birthday

I have seen this combination of aqua and deep red all over pinterest and on many a cardmaking blog, I love the contrast, so decided to try it out for Neil's card this year. He loved it too, so it was a successful experiment

We celebrated the occasion at The Rashleigh in Charlestown ( where Rob works ) and enjoyed a beautiful meal, there were plenty of gluten free options for AJ which was a bonus and Rob was happy to be back drinking the local beer. He has come to the conclusion that it is hard to find a decent pint back up country ( this is what happens when you educate a drinker and have access to a wonderful array of local brews)

Up next I have Neil's christmas card from me. I made four of this design in total, for special people, all the same but ever so slightly different

Every year I attempt to make 'flatter' more mail friendly creations but I just can't help adding all the little bits and bobs. So I gave up on the clean and simple style and decided to hand deliver most of them ( they took up half my travel bag when I delivered the 'northern' cards last week )

Well, that's it for today. Roasting aromas are wafting in from the kitchen as I type this post, tempting and tickling my tastebuds. I wonder if anyone will notice if I purloin a potato. It is time to put the finishing touches to our dinner so I will bid you good evening and will return tomorrow with some more christmas cards

Love and sparkles

Tracey

xxx

Christmas before Easter

As promised here is the first of my Christmas cards

I decided in January that I would make them through the year to save time in November and December when we are all super busy anyway

The papers are from a Trimcraft stack I bought in The Range at the end of last year, they are very traditional colours and style and beautiful quality

The card is a folded design with a band running through the middle so it gives a nice 3 dimensional effect when stood up

And here it is folded flat, ready for the envelope

I used a Nellie Snellen die for the oval, a Marianne die for the tree, Cuttlebug embossing folder on the tree, Stampin' Up stamp and punch for the flowers and the sentiment is also Stampin' Up

I will be interspersing the christmas cards with my regular cards and projects throughout the year and I also hope to get back into my scrapbooking soon, I have so many great photos to use

I will be back tomorrow with the first of the two cards I recently made for a special occasion 

Love and baubles

Tracey

xxx