Fishy Favourites

I made this card for my nephew, he has an aquarium, so wanted to make a card that used fish but was still manly (as he's in his twenties) and so not to cute.With some die cut fish, that I've had forever, I used distress ink to tint the edges to give them an aged look. With the distressing ink I stamped some leaves onto some cream card. Mounted it onto some gold mirri and dark brown card, then attached it to the main card blank. In the centre I cut some letters to make his name, aged the edges the same as the fish and mounted them onto dark brown card with some gold border peel offs.I then added the fish (shaped for extra dimension) with silicone glue and some die cut leaves (quickutz). I used gold half crystals to re-create the stones from the aquarium floor. Then I added a scallop circle and greeting. I'm really pleased with the end result, I love how moody the card feels.

Happy crafting.
Tracie x

Jak Heath Blog Candy

Blimey ... have you seen Jak's amazing blog candy. A chance to win some promarkers.

Click here to visit her blog.

A For Adorable

Don't you just love making something that stretches your creativity?
I've had a go at decorating candles loads of times, but did the usual stamping on paper and wrapping it around the candle. This time I used some dimensional stickers. Previously I've avoided using stickers on candles as they lay flat and don't do much to inspire me, but these new stickers from "Anita's" are dimensional. They have parts of the sticker that aren't sticky ... so they only attach to your project in certain places allowing you to shape the bits that don't stick down ... totally cool.
I purchased two scented candles (one vanilla, one berry) and removed the wrapping. I added the dimensional stickers but shaped them so that they stood out from the candle. Unfortunately they didn't stick to the candle very well and had to use glue gel to stop them peeling away. Once this was done, I stamped my sisters name onto the candle with black stayzon (A is her initial too).Then I made a gift bag to match, but silly me forgot to take photos before I packaged the candles ... doh. I added some of the stickers to the gift bag and a gorgeous die cut butterfly, with a scallop circle monogram to finish. I'm really pleased with how adorable they look.

Crafty hugs.
Tracie x

Anya Antics

I made this card for my friends daughter who was turning fifteen ... a cute card but not childish was in order and Miss Anya suited this criteria perfectly. I stamped her several times with black stayzon and coloured her with whispers brush markers. Then I cut out the layers to make my own decoupage.Some gorgeous papers for the matting and layering, some fabulous little silk flowers, I found at a market, a die cut scallop circle with some dinky sweet gems glued down in swirls. Finally I used chipboard letters coloured pink to match the card covered in crystal lacquer.

A sweet card for an extra sweet teenager.

Back soon.
Tracie x

Parkour Pastime

Our oldest son was 16 in March (where's the time gone) ... he is a huge fan of parkour, so naturally I needed to make a card on that theme. I trawled the net hunting for ideas and this is what i came up. The background and wording was done in "MCS" and printed out, then I just simply matted the image onto silver mirri card.

Then with a matching insert the card was done ... suits him.

Thanks for stopping by.
Tracie x

Booty-ful Bunny

For this card, I used a kit ... yes I know ... I don't do kits, but when I saw this one by "Kanban", I totally fell in love with the whole concept.
Why didn't anyone think of this before?

Basically, you get the front and back of the image ... how cool. Kanban have come up with a whole family of characters called the "patchwork pals". In the kits you get scenes, greetings, character sheets and cards and envelopes to boot. And the quality is second to none, anyway ... on this card everything except the gems, flowers, peel offs and ribbon comes from the kit.As you can see the bunny has a front and the rear of the bunny is on the inside of the card ... how cool is that. Easy peasy to assemble. I used spellbinder nesty scallop die cut for the verse (computer generated) on the inside to mimic the circle aperture in the card.I'm totally in love with these cute little characters. And ... why didn't anyone think of this before, I wish it had been me, don't you?

Thanks for stopping by.
Tracie x

Mother ... Like No Udder

I love this card, made for mother's day, but they didn't want flowers on the card but a farm animal. Unusual I know, but so much fun to play with.

The card was stamped using "Kanban - wobbler's" stamps, a great little set with matching paper pad, but for this card i made my own background by stamping the image several times with distress ink and water colouring them. Then I stamped and coloured the main image several times and cut out decoupage layers, built the image up and matted it into a nesty scallop circle, inside a circle cut out in brown card with a border punched along the right edge. Then i was just a case of adding ribbon and a peeloff butterfly.

Different, I'll admit, but O what fun.
Happy crafting and have a great weekend.
Tracie x

Roses for Jackie

I made this cake for my best friend. She turned forty a couple of weeks ago. I happen to be a little younger, I haven't reached that milestone yet, much to her disappointment, lol.

Anyway I made the cake, filled it with jam and butter icing, then covered it with marzipan ... then along came my mum to do the icing (I don't do that bit ... it scares me frankly). Then we add the roses (that my mum made a few weeks before, to give them time to dry) and the lettering. Some piped icing in red around the base of the cake and a bow in each corner made from the same ribbon that is around the cake base.And there we go ... one 40th birthday cake ... gorgeous.

Happy crafting.
Tracie x

Popcorn Passions

I made this card using a "Crafter's Companion" cd rom - "popcorn romance". Popcorn is a gorgeous little teddy, that's been used for cross stitch for years and recently they started their range of knit-able soft toys. Around eight months ago "Crafter's Companion" did a triple disc set of popcorn for birthdays, then another set at Christmas and for valentine's day a romance set.I used the images in "My Craft Studio" and changed the colour to brown (it was various colours before). You can't see from the photo, but the contrast background paper has little horseshoes on it. I cut the backing papers diagonally, mounted the sized pieces onto gold mirri card and added thin gold peel offs for that luxurious feel. I used 1" wide ribbon around the bottom mount.Then for the top, I used nesty petite scallop circle in gold mirri card and mounted it to the card with 3d foam. Then I added the decoupage to the die cut circle and added each layer with silicone glue. I prefer silicone glue for decoupage that has a natural element, so people, animals and flowers for example wouldn't be flat in actual life, so to make them look more real, I shape each layer of the decoupage, by using silicone, I get just the right depth and shape I need, that I wouldn't be able to get if I used 3d foam pads. However each product has it's uses, for pyramage/invertage and my mats/layers, I use 3d foam pads.

Then I added a peel off greeting and a few gold gems, I made an insert to match and rounded the corners, like I did the main card. Rounding corners not only gives the card a more professional finish, but can help soften the look of a card, which is great for ladies and romantic cards alike.

A little late in the day for me, be back tomorrow.
Thanks for popping in.
Tracie x

Wedding Woo's

Sorry I haven't posted any cards the last couple of days, but I'm busy making wedding invites for my niece, who's getting married in June.

White and gold, with ribbon and embossed hearts on the front. Tri-fold with two pockets, one for the R.S.V.P and one for the gift list, with the invite in the centre. Writing all gold embossed, with some gold stamped and embossed swirls. They've turned out to be quite time consuming with all the different elements needing to be separately before I can put them all together, but they look fantastic, so will be worth the effort.

Of course when I'm finished I'll post some pics, but not till she's sent them out, otherwise someone in the family might see them before they receive theirs ... wouldn't want to do that.

Have a great day crafting.
Tracie x