Wedding gift

As mentioned in a previous post, I have recently been commissioned to create a scrapbook album for a wedding gift

My cousin wanted a smething special for his best friend and his wife

Phil sent me some photos, suggested the front half of the book be a documentary of Liam's childhood, the back half being a documentary of Amii's childhood and where they meet in the middle, two blank pages for a couple of wedding photos

The rest was up to me

I loved Phil's idea and the album came together quite easily

Liam's half

The two centre pages, ready for photos of the wedding

And Amii's half

I absolutely loved working on this album, it was refreshing to have a change from cards, I really must start scrapbooking for myself again

I have heard from Phil and the happy couple were delighted with their gift

Love and happy scrapping

Tracey

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

Hangin' around the christmas tree ...........

As promised here are the five wall - hangings I made for my friends at work

It was my way of saying thankyou for a lovely year of friendship, support and lots of laughs

This first one is for Sue

I chose colours to match her decor at home

Sue adores green, so I thought I would be safe with this one

The poinsettia is a Marianne die

The ovals are Stampin' Up

Ivy punch is Woodware, as is the small daisy

Small flower is Stampin' Up as are both sheets of the green paper ( stripes and trees)

This next one is for Margaret who likes bright fun colours

Punches as before

Little wooden christmas trees are from a couple of years ago and were bought in The Works

This next one was for my neighbours Mary and Colin

I made this silver snowflake hanging for Gillian at work

Most of the snowflakes were die cuts my lovely friend back in Healing gave me - thanks Trish

And finally this last one was for Janice, who mans the till and has endless patience with me when I try to use it

Another Marianne die for the branches, glitter paper and bauble punch from Stampin' Up

And in case anyone is wondering, the actual circles for the hangings are upcycled from old CD's

The CD's are covered in patterned paper ( I use a Pritt Stick to attach the paper ), once the glue is dry, cut around the CD with your craft knife, then repeat for the back

The holes required for threading the twine/ribbon to hang are made using my trusty Cropodile

I will be back tomorrow with another batch of  Christmas cards 

Love and friendship

Tracey

xxx

Anniversary

Neil and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary back in May

I wanted to make him a keepsake rather than a card, so crafted this little exploding box

When the lid is removed three layers of pages flop outwards

Each of the pages is embellished with a pocket, in which to hold tags

I made 25 tags in total and wrote on each of them a little message

25 tags

25 years married

25 reasons why I love him

There are many more

We decided to spend the day together pottering around Padstow

Loved this doggie made from wellie boots

We headed to the harbour first then meandered around the tiny streets

We stopped at Rick Stein's for lunch. I love Rick Stein, have watched most of his shows and was looking forward to the experience

Sorry Rick, we have enjoyed better fish and chips in Grimsby ! It wasn't awful but it wasn't the best we have had either, and, for the price, I would have like to have eaten from proper plates rather than the cardboard it was served in

We then drove a short distance to Port Isaac

We really liked it here, it was still off season so not too busy

We don't watch Doc Martin so didn't partake in the hunting down of all the sites from the TV series but we did enjoy it for the picturesque fishing village it is

After a quick wander round the shops at Wadebridge we headed back home for an Italian meal

Neil asked me if I would do it all over again (meaning marry him) and I said yes I would

He then presented me with a stunning new wedding band

(see - he's definitely a keeper)

We spent the evening with our lovely friends Sue and Paul at Fowey and discovered a fab local band Assassins of Silence

We had decided at the beginning of the year to celebrate our anniversary this year with music, we both love mostly the same kind of thing so choosing gigs we would both enjoy was a breeze

That is a whole other blog post though as this one is getting rather long, so I will leave our gigging adventures til next time

xxx

Jan's Card

I made this card a couple of weeks ago, it was for my lovely friend Jan who has been an absolute rock over the last couple of years. Jan always gives 100% to all her friends and I feel incredibly lucky to have her among my friends

The card is made from a series of large tags, folded to create a sort of mini book

The front cover

I used one of my favourite sets of papers - Mariposa

The quote is computer generated and sums up Jan's friendship to me

I wrote the birthday greeting on the little tag inside this pocket and added ribbon to the top so Jan would know to pull it out and read it

This card was such a joy to make

Love and friendship

Tracey

xxx

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