Champayne Celebrations

Turning 65 ... what a milestone for this guy. I've used this layout several times ... I simply adore it, so classy for a man too.I stamped the background using brown dye ink and water coloured using whispers brush markers. I mounted this layer onto gold mirri card and then onto the black base card. I used Arty Farty's celebration bottle template, cut out all the pieces in co-ordinating colours and layered the pieces together, then I just added some quickutz stars and ribbon.

I made a quick envelope box to match, very sophisticated for the older gentleman.

Back soon, take care.
Tracie x

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?

Definitely not me ... I've turned into a twilight fan, while I was poorly with lot's of time on my hands, I decided to read twilight to see what all the hype was about, well ... I just couldn't put it down. So then I had to by the rest of the saga and before I knew it I'd read all four books thrice ... yes I did say three times ... how sad am I?

But I have to say my fave is Jacob (not Edward) ... I looked around for a tote bag ... but didn't find anything I really liked, so ... why not make my own. I used some 'iron-on transfer paper', designed what I wanted on the bag on my pc and printed them out.
Then after allowing the images to dry for 15 minutes, I cut around them but not to close as the paper has a tendency to curl if it has to many intricate shapes. I ironed the bag nice and flat, removed the backing paper and laid the images down in position. Using a piece of baking parchment (not greaseproof paper as this sticks to the image) and a hot iron (no steam), I ironed the transfers into place using a fair amount of pressure, but only for about 20 seconds on each area (otherwise the transfer will burn and lose it's colour).

I love it, and so many people have asked where I got it, cool.

Happy crafting friends.
Tracie x

Long Time No See

Hey Girls ... yes I've been away for a while, doesn't mean I haven't been crafting ... just illness/injury and recovery. But I'm finally refinding my feet and thought it was about time I tried to get back with the whole blogging scene.

Thanks to everyone who emailed me in my absence, your well wishes really did make all the difference. xxx

So let's get back to crafting.
Tracie x

Faux Stitching

Good morning everyone, no card today ... but ... I've had a request to show how I do my faux stitching!

I'm in the middle of making some superman underpants ... YES, you read right, lol. So I will take some pics as I make it and will post a tutorial, it's incredibly easy.

Thanks for the request.
Tracie x

Dad Dig's his Shed

Today's card is for Father's Day, made especially for my father-in-law, who loves his garden. Perfect lawn (you could play bowls on it, it's that flat, green and trimmed), gorgeous flower beds, tubs, hanging baskets and a bountiful veggie patch. So I just had to make a gardening card, didn't I.
I found this gorgeous decoupage sheet and thought it suited my father-in-law brilliantly. So I cut out all the layers and decoupaged them up. I added glitter pen to the cobweb's to make them glisten and stand out, made a blue scalloped background and swiss dotted it, then cut two white clouds and layered them between the sky and the shed. The fence wasn't part of the decoupage sheet, but I found it on another and thought it went well with the shed.
Then I added a sentiment to what should have been the back of the shed and cut it to size, with a matching blue background, to make a greeting tile and added some extra pots etc and a ladybird.

Thanks for stopping by.
Tracie x

Soapstar Superstar

Good evening everyone, I'm really late today, sorry ... I've been out in the garden with my Mum, planting (well ... I should say watching, as my back injury doesn't allow me to do any digging etc ... but I can manage a bit of weeding and of course sweeping up). Today is the first relatively cool day we've had here for over a week, so we took the opportunity to get all the summer bedding plants out, hanging baskets done and tomato plants into bigger tubs. My Mum did a fantastic job, as she always does for me ... tomorrow I'll take some pics, so you can see.

Ok, back to today's card ... I had an unusual request ... for a lady who loves Martin Kemp (member of the 80's group Spandau Ballet and Actor here in UK). I've never been asked for anything like this before, ever. So, I needed help ... luckily I have a friend who collects 80's memorabilia and she was able to send me some black and white magazine photo's of him.To make the card, I used the fact he is an actor and made a couple of film strips, placing the magazine pictures behind each clip (you can just see by the photo that some of the magazine clippings were a bit big ... but they seemed to work out Ok with a bit of jiggling about). Then on "My Craft Studio", I made a faux film set, with lighting etc and added a couple of swirls for extra details ( I also made an insert to match). I then cut a wide strip of white paper, a narrow strip of silver, punched the edges using my floral geo punch and added them onto the card, butting up the straight edges. Black organza ribbon with a bow helped to disguise the join and add extra interest.I used foam pads on the back of the film strips to raise them up and placed them on the card, the horizontal one first, then the vertical one. The small flower waste from the punch was added to the card, with tiny pale blue gems in the centres.

It turned out far better than I expected.
Thanks for stopping by.
Tracie x

Cuttlebug Update

As you all know, I injured my bug a few weeks ago (and yesterday I had a message from a gentleman called Matt, who said his wife had, had the same thing happen to her) ... after contacting Provocraft (cuttlebug manufacturer), I have a couple of suggestions.

* Provocraft guarantee the Cuttlebug for 12 months, but this only covers manufacturer defects (it does not cover any damage or defect caused in any manner after your purchase).

* The height of your cutting materials should not exceed 1/8" thick. (by running through thicker material, you risk damaging your machine and may negate the warranty).

Having said this ... to my knowledge, I've never over stressed the machine (forced something to go through). However the gears are under great stress when we run items through the machine, so it's understandable that after time these gears become weakened. My bug was nearly three and had covered a large amount of ground, I can tell you, I've made so many cards with it, that it really didn't owe me anything. I have been unable to find anywhere that sell replacement parts for the cuttlebug, I guess it's because the machine itself isn't exactly a considered purchase, say like a digital cutter.

So my hubby is going to try and make a new gear for me, whether it will work or not ... I guess we have nothing to lose. But I have to say, how lucky am I, I married an engineer, whose willing to try and save me buying a new one.

Have a great day everyone.
Tracie x

Potted Dragons

My sister came round for a cuppa and catchup on Thursday ... she ended up having a go with stamps and asked me a favour! She's a Rainbow Guide Leader and as Father's day is fast approaching and she was at a loss what to do ... could I help? ... she did however bring a gravy tub with her (you know the famous brand granules), with the idea of making it into a pen pot.So, I measured the pot up and on my pc, started to play, to see what I could come up with. I decided on some "Dustin Pike" - digi downloads, because they are generic. I didn't want to do fishing, footie or the like, as not all Dad's do the stereotypical male thing's and besides these dragon's are really cute , I'm sure the Rainbow's will love colouring them in. This project had to be easy, the Rainbow's are between 5 and 8 ... so it could'nt be anything to difficult for them to make.
So once I printed the item's out and coloured them in, I simply used double sided tape to adhere the band around the pot. Then to make the stick decoration ... I cut around the circle, then diecut two scallop nesties and mounted the image onto one of the nesties. Then I stapled the straw flat and used silicone glue (Rainbow's will be using PVA) to sandwich it between the two layers of nesties.

It turned out really cute, I hope the Rainbow's enjoy making them and they're Dads make good use of them. I'll get my sister to take some pic's of their finished pots for you to see.

Happy crafting.
Tracie x

Classic Christening

Good afternoon, Ladies ... well I've had a busy morning. My sister popped round for a cuppa and ended up having a go at stamping. She has recently started scrapbooking and caught the bug really quickly, so is now driving her family as mad, as I drive mine, lol.

So today I have made a christening card, using a Kanban, pyramage kit. The card that came with the kit, I cut up so that I will be able to get two cards from the one kit (typical crafter). I used three layers of the pyramage and placed it in the top right hand corner so that I could get some flowers on the spine. I added a chunky cream and gold bow to the card, with a ribbon slider cut from gold mirri with scallop nesties and a computer generated greeting. Then I wrapped the ribbon around the bottom of the gold card, before attaching to the main card.I didn't have any flowers in the right colour, so I made the flowers from some handmade paper using scallop nesties and cutting each circle into flower petals and shaped them with my Leone em tools. I finished the card with pearlescent blue ash branches.
Time for a cuppa tea ... phew! Enjoy your day, ladies.
Tracie x

Soccer Sensation

I don't know about everyone else but I just love school holidays! Mmmmm ... who am I fooling, the first couple of days a great and then they slowly start to become a nightmare. Now that mine are teenagers, you can imagine, boredom, bickering and the tiniest amount of friendship, the only thing they ever agree on is food and they seem to graze constantly. Well, we're half way through half term ... roll on monday!

Anyway back to today's card ...
I woke this morning to a text asking me to make a card today, for someone I work with, whose Dad's birthday is this weekend. Nothing like an urgent make to get the blood pumping.

As his Dad is a big Wolves fan and that they won promotion the the premiership next season, I thought that I would use this to my advantage. So black and orange, sorry gold and football it is ... oh dear (I'm a Birmingham City fan ... so this is gonna be fun!!).
I started by matting a piece of swiss dot green card onto black and placing on an orange base card. Then I decided on the size of the football (this one is 10cm) and cut both layers from a template in black and white and glued them together. I used quickutz grass die in two tones of green to add some depth and layered the grass and football onto the card.

For the trophy I used a decoupage sheet from "My Craft Studio" - A Carousel of Classics cd-rom set (1960's world cup trophy) and adapted it to become the Championship trophy for Wolves. I cut all the layers out, decoupaged them up and added the team colour ribbons to it ... just like the real one. Then by adding labels 2 greeting and some quickutz stars in co-ordinating colours and a few dots here and there, finished the card off perfectly.

Hope your surviving the school hols too!
Tracie x