Candle Celebrations

I made this candle set for my sister's birthday in January.I diecut a spellbinders scallop & plain circles, stamped a "sarahkay" image into the plain circle and coloured her in with whispers brush pens. For the band around the candle I cut to rectangles and border punched each long edge and layered them on top of each other. I attached the band around the candle with silicone glue. Then I glued the stamped image to the band and used prima flowers, some ribbon and a plastic greeting tile.I made a box to match and decorated it with curly ribbon.

*Remember to stick a label on the box telling the recipient
to remove decoration ... if they wish to burn the candle.*
back soon.
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

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

Monochromatic Elegance

Today I've made a card for my cousin and her husband who are celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary.
I've used decoupage with silver foiling and kept the card colours monochromatic (black, silver and white).

I did a main mat with white (swiss dots), then backed that with a narrow border of black and then silver. I rounded the corners, to give the card a softer look. Then I used my scallop nesties to make two mounts for the decoupage and greeting. I also diecut a ribbon slider, for the wedding anniversary number.I used the ribbon slider on white organza 1" ribbon and added a a double bow to match. Then I used some silver gems to finish the card.

Thanks for stopping by.
Tracie x

Disco Diva

Well I did manage to get this card made before the cuttlebug died ... the image is a digi download from squigglefly called '80's dancer', just perfect for Pam as she love's 80's music and dancing.

I printed her out several times and coloured her with whispers stamp pens, then cut my choice of layers, shaped and decoupaged her up and set her aside to dry. I wanted the background to look like a nite club, so I added a disco ball (clipart matted onto nestie) and arranged the papers to look like light radiating from it, with fine border peel offs to tidy the cut edges. I made the central layer by running pure white paper through the cuttlebug using the swirls embossing folder, matted onto red mirri and added a couple of my ruffled border punch strips (which I love doing).
Then I added a greeting plate and mini roses, that were originally cream, which didn't fit the theme, so I coloured them with the whispers pens and added leaves punched from pure white paper. Finally I added the 80's dancer and finished with a few mini flower in red.
This is nothing like my original idea, it just sort of ran away from me and I'm not as happy with it as I could be ... maybe different colours would've been better?

Back later, happy crafting.
Tracie x

Roses For Mother

Ok, yes I realise Mother's Day has come and gone, but with my pc problems, their better late than never, I say!

I purchased this stamp at a craft fair it was in a bargain bin and cost me £1.20, what a bargain.
I stamped them onto watercolour card and coloured with watercolour pencils. I tried to keep them as delicate as I could as I wanted the cards to look light, fresh and romantic looking. I ran round the edge with an ink pad to match the colour of the rose and mounted onto silver mirri.
Then I simply made a swiss dot layer with three co-ordinating gems and organza ribbon bows.
I hope you can see the light and fresh effect I got from the pics.

Thanks for stopping by
Tracie X

Spring Milly

Milly's back, this time I wanted to make it look like you were looking through a woodland into a clearing. So I stamped Milly and coloured her with Whispers brush pens, then I cut two mounts (one green and one cream and used a nesty for the aperture) and cuttlebug embossed the cream layer and tinted the edges with mauve ink.

I punch loads of ash branches in two shades of green and glued them to the back of the cream mount, then glued the green and cream mount together. I placed the mount over the milly image to align it and taped it in place, then glued the whole lot to the card base.
I finished by adding some paper flowers etc and a greeting.

Tracie x

For the Love of Lauren

I made this card for my son Ashley to give his girlfriend for valentines day. I used spellbinders labels 2 dies to cut out a single layer of decoupage and the outer frame. I simply added these to a 5" square card that I had swiss dotted. The frame was raised with foam pads.

I used quickutz metro alphabet for the love sentiment, cut from red to match (though on reflection it may have looked better in black, to balance the card a little better?) I used black silk flowers, with a silver finding and a brad in the centre, with the ash branches in yellow. I added a heart ribbon bow to complete the card.

Isn't young love sweet!

Tracie x

Little Boy Blue

These cards came about because I wanted to test embossing texture plates through my cuttlebug with a silicone sheet, something I'd seen being done on another site. I have about ten texture plates but had't used them much because embossing them by hand took forever. So I embossed the baby feet onto blue pearl paper ... I love embossing onto pearl medium, the effects are great and seem to have more depth.

I used a sizzix sizzlet alphabet, grosgrain ribbon, mini soother, baby themed sheep stickers from Sainsbury's of all places, nestabilitie scallop die for the mount and all done.

Quick simple and great fun.

Tracie x

Rugby Rookie In Stitches

Good morning everyone ... well it would be if I hadn't been woken at 7.30am by the council preparing the road for resurface today. Could they possibly have been any louder? It's typical any other day I would have been up for work, but I have a later start today and would have like at least an extra hour in bed ... nevermind, back to cards.

Don't you just love this gorgeous Edwin stamp from magnolia.

He's actually the footie boy, but as the ball isnt quite symetrical I thought it would work well for rugby too ... with the help of a bit of added detail.

I stamped the background with white stayzon rugby balls. Diecut and coloured the lettering (cuttlebug Kids), the greeting (Cuttlebug small embossing folder and diecut using nesty scallop small) and the Edwin image is watercoloured and decoupaged in the colours of the team Dan plays for.

I cuttlebugged a fiskars texture plate (mosiac effect with silicone sheet), set six blue eyelets and laced with coloured paper to match lettering. I added fake stitching around the edge to simulate a rugby ball.

Tracie x