Little letters of love

Hello again

This is the last of my New Years Cards

I made this one for my very special friend Beryl

I really enjoyed making these cards and will definitely be doing some more next year. But, by far the best bit, was sitting down and writing the letters I put in them

Not because the notes contained anything profound, they weren't Shakespearean in nature, nor were they full of clever anecdotes or poetic achievements

The fact was, that as I wrote each letter, I indulged myself by thinking about the special people I had written to 

As I jotted down the families activities over the christmas period, I recalled fond memories of times spent talking to the recipients in person, sharing memories, stories, laughing and sharing

I feel very blessed with my family and my friends

The most important things in life are not things !

 Love and little letters of love

Tracey

xxx

Pretty in peach

Good evening

As promised I am back with another New Years card

This one was for my lovely and very special friend Pat

I added a little celebrational bling to the subtle colours with some Stickles and gems, the background paper has a little glitter in it too but the camera did not pick that up unfortunately

I am delighted to say my lovely and very talented friend Jan has accepted the challenge and already has a christmas card on her blog, so be expecting one from me very soon

You can check out Jan's inspirational blog HERE

If anyone else wants to join us in getting a head start on the christmas cards, please free free to jump in, I would love to see them

I have one more New Years card to share which I will return with tomorrow and then I must crack on with the multitude of birthday cards I need for February

Love and peachy kisses

Tracey

xxx

Keeping in touch

I don't usually make New Years cards

But this year I felt I wanted to start a new tradition, for me anyway

Being so far away from the majority of my friends and all my family I have decided to make a better effort at keeping in touch the old fashioned way, ie by putting pen to paper

We all message each other either on facebook, instagram, messenger and by text or email but I thought it might be nice to take a step back in time and say hello the traditional way

The first of the New Years Cards I made was for my lovely mum and dad

I hope the discovery of a nice fat, non brown envelope on their doormat made a nice change

And yes I have found my cardmaking mojo

I have quite a few to make for the end of January and February, so hopefully my crafty posts on here should be a little more regular

And one last thing before I go

A special friend of mine subtly dropped a little challenge my way just before christmas

Jan, I accept your christmas card challenge, if you are still up for it, I am aiming to make 2 a month, what do you say - is it game on ?

I will be back tomorrow with another New Years card

Happy crafting

Tracey

xxx

Happy birthday dad

For one of the special men in my life, 

the very first special man in my life, my lovely dad

I had this vintage style map paper in my stash, it's been there quite a while as it is one of those that I like too much to cut up.

I was searching for inspiration for dad's birthday card and trying to get out of the blues and browns rut that I have fallen into with masculine cards

And as I looked at the world laid flat on paper the quote came to mind - perfect for dad as he does, indeed, mean the absolute world to me

I computer generated the sentiment as I wanted to play around a little with the fonts and size

Hope you have had a lovely birthday dad, love and miss you

Tracey

xxx

Crackers, cards and cats

 Good evening

I hope everyone is enjoying their run up to Christmas and not getting too stressed

I am loving the family being home, Amy and Ben arrived yesterday, so the house is full, and happy

I made these cute little crackers for my neighbours doggies, they have some little festive dog biscuits in them

And I made some of these gift card holders for the kids, I copied a design that my good friend Linda shared, she made me one and the bottom held chocolates, in my version I added a lip balm to each one and all the kids gift vouchers fit onto the slot at the top

Thankyou for the inspiration Linda

Finally I have a cute photo to share

The pets are all spoiled for humans to snuggle with at the moment

Sox couldn't wait to get on Rob's knee so perched herself atop his shoulder

They are so going to miss them when they have all gone back to uni

Love and christmas kisses

Tracey

xxx

A Vintage Christmas

These are the final four christmas cards I made this year

All four the same but different if you know what I mean

Same basic design, slightly different papers and images

The stunning papers are Maja design from Sweden, I bought these at a craft show that I visited with my lovely crafting buddy Jan. I just had to have them and knew they would make beautiful cards

I used Marianne dies for the baubles and large flower, the small flowers are a Stampin' Up punch

The little gold leaves are an old Woodware punch and I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz distress inks in Walnut Stain

That is the last of my christmas cards this year

Love and vintage wishes

Tracey

xxx

White christmas

Aside from the little forest of christmas tree cards that I made, the other style of christmas card was these, which I also made in abundance

Again I went with a production line of die-cutting, inking and tearing, making the job much more organised and easy than had I created all the cards totally unique

The music paper was some that I had from my shop, I believe it was originally from Payperbox and the rest of the elements are die cuts, the sentiment stamp is one from Stampin' Up

Although this method of mass production was easier I did miss the challenge of coming up with completely original designs for each card so I think for next year I am going to start earlier ( maybe even one card a week all through the year as I keep promising myself) - well thats the theory but I have been aiming to do this for the last four years !!! 

Love and white winter wishes

Tracey

xxx