Birthday card for Janice

My lovely friend at work - Janice, recently celebrated her birthday, and this is the card I made for her

I used some new papers ( real bargains from The Works) and some older dies

The little hanging sign is part of a very old Marianne set, you can use it with a lantern to make a lamp post or you can do as I have done and turn it on it's side for a completely different look

I used a Martha Stewart punch for the border and most of the flowers are Prima

I will be back soon with possibly a Christmas card !

xxx

Get well soon

It has been a terrible year for making get well soon cards, I think I have made as many of these as I have birthday cards

Hoping the rest of this year and next year is a much healthier one for my nearest and dearest

xxx

80 years young

This was an extra special birthday card for a special lady

I made a 'flip' style card, which was a nightmare to photograph but looked really pretty in real life

Still wading my way through older cards but definitely getting more up to date now.

xxx

Journalling cards

I often accumulate little bits and bobs intended for one purpose and eventually end up using them for something entirely different

In this case, I had a little stack of journalling cards, bought for adding words to my scrapbook pages and now being used for matting and layering on my cards

Note to self, must start scrapbooking again !

Yes still wading my way through the last 6 months worth of cards, I can't even remember who I sent some of them to !

xxx

Best Wishes

Another card from 'way back when'

I am not sure I will ever catch up, but, at least I am finally finding my mojo again.

I got to the point of looking at some of my stash yesterday. I didn't actually get it out and I didn't actually make anything, but I did think about it 

I also bought a couple of little paper pads on my last trip in Newquay and Neil bought me some Christmas papers when we went to Truro

New stash does always inspire me, so maybe I need to get them out and start stroking them if nothing else

Hoping this beautiful weather stays a little while longer

xxx

From the archives

Another card from the archives

Working my way  slowly through the photos on my Mac

The weather remains glorious here in Cornwall, t-shirts and flip flops are still being worn, most of the trees are still lush and green, Autumn seems a while off yet !

Note to self, must start thinking about Christmas cards

xxx

Happy Birthday Chloe

We were invited to a 21st birthday party this past weekend

This is the card I made for the birthday girl

Ohhhh to be 21 again !!!

I used Tilda papers

Some payper box glitter stickers for the name and the numbers

Hanging heart die and 'happy birthday' die are from China

Butterflies were made using a Stampin' Up punch

Flowers are Prima and Wild Orchid crafts, with the daisies created using a Woodware punch

Thankyou for inviting us Ally, 

Chloe looked beautiful, 

we hope you all had a great day ( and evening)

Love and special birthdays

Tracey

xxx

Mothers Day cards

 Hi

I am still going through the archives on my computer and catching up on cards made these last few weeks

Here are the Mothers Day cards I made

First up is my mums

I created a three layered front to the card

I used my new dies from China

Heart border punch is from Stampin' Up

Letter dies are Cuttlebug

Heart dies are Nellie Snellen

This second card was made for Neil's mum

I went for Spring colours on this one and decided to make a pretty 'Easter style' wreath as the focal point

The flowers are Prima

Dies and papers are from China

Ribbon and lace from my stash

Sentiments on both cards were computer generated and hand cut into banners

My own Mothers Day was lovely

My cards and gifts were thoughtful and perfect and Robbie also took us all out for dinner to the newly refurbished Pier House in Charlestown

We enjoyed a stunning meal, warm and friendly atmosphere and stunning views across the harbour 

Love and gratitude

Tracey

xxx

Happy new year ( in April )

Please excuse the randomness of my next few posts

We have enjoyed a busy couple of months and I have lots of crafty makes to share - far too numerous to upload to one post, so I am intending to share them over the next few days until I am all caught up again

There is no rhyme or reason to their posting so please don't get confused by the lack of chronological order

It has been a stunningly sunny and beautiful day here in Cornwall

I took advantage of the agreeable weather and spent all morning mowing and tidying the garden, it looks much happier for a prune and spruce up

I  am now cream-crackered and fit for not much else, hence an hour or two faffing with photos and updating the old blog 

Here are some "happy new year " cards I made back in January. I don't usually make this type of card, but, with so many friends living at the other end of the country, I think it is a lovely way to keep in touch

I used the same stack of papers and ribbon for each card, in an attempt to cut down on procrastination ( and mess !)

And here they are, all close up and personal, so you can see the details and the foiling in the papers

Personally we have had a good start to the new year but unfortunately a few of my close friends and family have not been so lucky, many of them seem to be dogged by misfortune and /or ill-health, there will be several get well cards to share in the next few days

Neil and I have been to our first festival of the year, Winters End in Poole - Dorset

I also managed to sneak some time, a whole afternoon to spend with my lovely friend Pat who has recently moved to Bournemouth, it was like we had not been apart and we were chatting and giggling away, both enjoying the same naughty humour

- as always !

Robbie came with us and we camped in the campervan, in the middle of a forest - in february - yes we are a little bit bonkers

The festival was fantastic, some amazing talent, bands we were familiar with and some new ones too

The three days were an absolute blast and the weather, although cold, behaved itself and kept dry and sunny. Thankfully all the gigs were indoors, so no need for wellies and woolies.

See you tomorrow with another little update and some more crafty bits to share

Love and sunny kisses

Tracey

xxx

The dark side of Disney

A little departure from the norm this evening with my card design

This next project was a commission for the guy who did some of our decorating to give to his partner for her birthday

Bart commissioned me to make one a couple of years ago, if your memory is good, you might recall me sharing a Tim Burton style card

His partner loves all the evil queens from the Disney movies and her favourite colour is green - et voila

I created lots of layering on this 8in x 8in card, with the images downloaded from the internet

 I had the sequin waste left over from a previous project and the gorgeous black net along the bottom was a gift from my lovely friend Carol many moons ago

I tied all the colours together with some die-cut foliage and a sprinkling of gems

Bart loved the card and was sure his partner Carla would too

It makes me so happy to know I have contributed a little way in helping someone give a personal and thoughtful card to a loved one

This was just a brief interruption to the avalanche of festive makes, a continuance of christmas crafting will resume tomorrow

Love and, dark disney kisses

Tracey

xxx

And Christmas resumes

Good evening

I have another batch of Christmas cards to share with you tonight

I bought a lovely 8" paper pad from the Range last year and these Vintage style papers have been a joy to work with

The Christmas tree stamp is by Stampin' Up and the little wooden reindeer was bought in The Works last year

I seem to have amassed a great deal of DL sized envelopes so tried to use a few up this year

The house die below is an old Spellbinders die, the poinsettias are Marianne, sentiment is Stampin' Up and the trees were made using deckle edged scissors as I didn't have dies small enough for these trees

This next lamppost is a Tim Holtz die, sentiment is once again Stampin' Up

I thought I was almost through sharing all my christmas cards, but checking my camera tonight I still have a fair few to blog. I hope I am not boring everyone with them

I am not sure I will be able to keep this blogging pace up once all the christmas crafts have been shared, but I must admit to having found my crafting mojo lately, so, who knows, maybe next year will be more creative

So, what do you do when you lose your mojo, hit a wall, lack inspiration

Here's 5 ideas to kickstart your creative flow

1. Use the internet for inspiration, join sites that post photos of the crafts you enjoy

I love 

Pinterest

Scrapbook.com

UK Scrappers

2. Connect with other bloggers, create a reading list on your preferred device of creative bloggers whose style makes you want to reach for your supplies

3. Reorganise your crafting space and supplies. Oftentimes, just reacquainting yourself with your bits and bobs is enough to spur you into action, have your favourite colours and styles to hand and make your crafting space comfortable and easy to use

4. Join a class or club. Sharing ideas with your fellow members and taking a course can help you to think outside your creative box, trying new techniques and sharing them with others is inspiration itself. My favourite part of running my classes when I had the shop was "show and tell", I loved it when class members brought in their makes from home and know they inspired me as well as all the other class members

5. If all else fails GO SHOPPING ! Treat yourself to a new piece of equipment, a magazine or a book of ideas. Something as simple and as inexpensive as a beautiful sheet of patterned paper, some pretty ribbon or a new die is often enough to create a little spark of creativity 

Batch baking

I like all of the cards that I create to be slightly different, unique

At christmas time when there is a call for many more cards than in any other month of the year,  I find it much easier, and speedier too,  to mass produce

Therefore, I sketch out several designs and then create little groups of those designs, slightly altering the embellishments, the colours or the positioning of the main elements

I call this my batch baked christmas cards 

Here is one of my 'batches' - I made five of this particular

design

I used a variation of dies from all the main companies

The stunning silver glitter card is from Stampin' Up

As the design only required small pieces of patterned paper, I was able to use many of my scraps up and still get a lovely detailed layered look

I also seem to have amassed lots of die-cut sentiments. I usually prefer to stamp all the greetings,  but, when I looked through them it seemed a shame to just store them away (hoard !) for another year, so I made an extra effort to find homes for them this year

In other news :

It was my last day at 'work' this morning and as Christmas and New Year falls on mondays I won't be back for another three weeks

I will really miss my monday mornings at the the shop, we always have lots to talk about and generally end up in fits of giggles at some point or other

I made all the girls on my shift a little christmas wall hanging this year, so I will be back tomorrow to share photos of those 

Until then

Love and batch baking

Tracey

xxx

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

Magical creatures

There has been much happen since my last blog post

I have not quite got the hang of blogging everyday occurrences and tend to only think to blog if I have crafting to share. I must rid myself of this habit as my crafting is much less prolific now

We have been to a couple more gigs, we saw The Cadillac Three in Cardiff and then more recently The Temperance Movement in Plymouth

We have enjoyed lots of beach days with the dogs

And we made a much needed flying visit back up country to visit family and friends before christmas

This last few weeks have seen copious amounts of crafting as I needed forty christmas cards, six birthday cards, an anniversary card and a commissioned card had been ordered 

Going back to November, this is the card I made for Amy for her birthday. She is currently enjoying all things unicorn so I set to work trying to find a way to make one from my trusty punches

It was a case of trial and error. My first couple of attempts looked farcical rather than magical, but, I persevered and I think the final version turned out rather cute. Amy loved it

The next couple of cards were for my lovely neighbours Mary and Colin who both celebrated birthdays at the beginning of December

I must apologise for the poor photos, the pictures were taken in bad light and don't show the true colours as they should

They are a very special couple and have taken me and the family under their wings since we moved here

So, the lights, tree and trimmings are all up, the gift shopping is finished, the cards have been made and mostly delivered, the house has been spring cleaned and we have almost completed the wrapping, I don't think I have ever been so organised and I must admit to feeling rather relaxed and ready for the festivities to begin

All the girls from work got together for the christmas meal last week, we met at The Britannia for a delicious and very festive 3 course meal, a little tipple and many laughs, so the christmassy feelings are in full flow

I will love you and leave you as Neil and I have one more small pile of presents to wrap and I will be back tomorrow with some more craftiness to share

Love and unicorn sparkles

Tracey

xxx