Get Well Soon

This year has been an awful one for friends and family becoming poorly, I am almost fearful to pick up the telephone

This card was made for Neil's mum who recently had to have her hip replaced, complications after surgery quite literally knocked her off her feet for a while

She is on the mend now, thank goodness

Back tomorrow with another Get Well Card

Love and healing wishes

Tracey

xxx

Get well soon Mum

The first get well soon card I made

This one was for my mum, I made it over a month ago and no she is still not well

Mum is still in hospital

We are all hoping mum is all better and home very soon

Many thanks to everyone who has been sending well wishes and cards, dad and I pass them on and Mum appreciates them all so much

Also massive thanks to the nursing staff on C6, they have been so kind and are doing their very best to help mum as far as they can

Love you Mum

xxx

Thankful

 Happy New Year

My first card of the year is a thankyou card

I created a variation on the standard stepper card with a double step in the centre

I used a mix of old dies and new dies. I just love my new cha cha cha dandelion dies

The leaves are Marianne, as is the fancy tag in the centre, the green centres to the flowers are an old Martha Stewart snowflake punch and the butterflies are a cut and emboss folder from Stampin' Up

The extra step in the centre of the card adds a little more dimension and an extra surface to decorate

I hope you have all had a lovely new years day

We have spent a peaceful and very restful day at home, a long lie in followed by a roast lunch and not much else to be honest - bliss !

Love and happy new year wishes

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 

Scrapbook Saturday

It has been a very long time since I have completed a scrapbooking page, just for me, just for fun

When I had the shop I had to do one every week for the classes and after a while it become more of a task to cross of my 'to do' list rather than the hobby I used to love and the hobby that led me into all things papercrafting

It felt extremely relaxing creating this page, I didn't have a deadline or a range of papers to try and sell. I didn't have to think what I had taught in the last class and try to incorporate a new technique. I just chose a photo, spent a very enjoyable few minutes rummaging amongst my stash and then 'played' with all my supplies

Of course my first 'subject' had to be Molly, she hasn't featured yet in any of my papercrafting projects so it was only fitting she was the first scrapbook page

I used a sheet of cream cardstock for the base which I stencilled with brown ink

I then drew and cut out a sunburst style design from a sandy coloured sheet of patterned paper, cut out each alternate ray of sunshine, distressed all the edges and then used a stencil and gesso to add texture to the central part of the design before inking all the edges in dark brown and Scattered Straw distress ink over the stencilling

I then delved among my scrap boxes for some smaller pieces of patterned paper to use for the borders and matting. I am desperately trying to use up some of my older pieces before I buy any new ones

Here is a close up of the stencilling and inking I used on the two different sheets

I definitely have the scrapbooking bug back. I have a million ideas running around in my head again and often wake in the middle of the night as a new design pops into my mind

Love and scrapping

Tracey

xxx