Created all day and a new photo challenge for December

Day 30 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful that I started my blog and my YouTube channel almost 4 years ago.
Without my blog, I would not have been able to make contact with so many of you creative, caring and special ladies.
I honestly feel a connection to you all.
Some of you text me or phone me and I get a Smile on my Face and Warmth in my heart every time I read a comment from you.
So Thank you all for coming to see what I am up to…even if it is just my everyday, boring life :)
















Today I spent the day with Wayne watching movies.
But I also created while we watched television.
You can tell winter is here, lol.

If you are wondering what I was making.
I was making cards.
What kind of cards you may ask….well I can't say as I don't mention this season until December ;)
So come back tomorrow and I will share more ;)

You know I am always up for a challenge…even if I make it just in the nick of time or don't complete it at all, lol.

My favourite scrapbooking magazine "Canadian Scrapbooker" is putting on a challenge for a photo a day with these prompts to follow.

I do take a photo a day anyway, so thought this would be fun.

I am thrilled to find out that 2 of my daughters, Ashley and Kristy, are going to follow along with me, as well as my friend Debbie :)

I think I may jot some ideas down for each day….just incase I get stuck.

Who else is up for this?

I had a very creative day today.

I got 14 cards complete…even if they are all the same and I totally copied them from someone else :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Saturday :)

Tracy :)

November Tag and FNS

I finally got to make my November tag for Tim Holtz 12 monthly tags.
It is a chalk board technique.
I had a whole different version in mind, but didn't have the stamp that I thought I did…so I had to totally change my design.
I made two versions of this tag.

Let me take you through my process.
First thing I had to do was make the tag, as I didn't have any black tags.
Figured I should make two….you never know I MAY make a mistake, lol.
After I made the tags I used Versamark ink to stamp my images.
I used two different stamps.
Again stamped both of the tags, as I read that this technique may take a few tries.

After I added the Versamark ink, then added Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder by Ranger.
Tim stated that when you melt this, you don't melt it as much as you usually do.
You want a matt finish, not a glossy finish.
I love this matt finish, I would be happy with it just like this :)

I wanted…okay, I needed to add colour to my tag.
I love colour and couldn't stick to the black and white like Tim Holtz.
So I inked up some paper and punched out some leaves.

Then I realized I didn't have any chalk in the house.
Just my luck.
I was chatting on the phone with my SIL/friend Sharon, as I was making this, and told her I didn't have any chalk. She thought she had some, and would bring it over, as tonight was Friday Night Scrapbooking.
Turns out she didn't have any chalk, but ran into the dollar store to pick me up some on her way here….what a sweetheart she is :)
So I coloured the whole tag with the chalk….tag on the right.

I used two different ways to rub the chalk into the tags.
The first way, after I added the chalk, I rubbed it in with a piece of paper towel.
The second way, I rubbed it in with my finger.
The camera doesn't show it as well, but the second one picked up the chalk better. The paper towel took off to much of the chalk.

You know I like colour so I wanted to add more colour to at least one tag.
My good friend Denise had her Stampin' Up chalks with her and generously offered them to me :)
So I added more colour to my one tag :)
I also added the leaves that I had coloured up.

Here is a close up of first tag.
I wish I could have got a better photo than this, as in the photo the images look shiny. Which they are not.

Here is the tag I did with the coloured chalks.

I added some washi tape as ribbon to the top of the tags.
Not sure on my feeling of these tags.
But then again, if I would have started them at the beginning of the month and not the day before they were due….I could have played a bit more ;)

Day 29 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful for my Friday Night Scrapbooking nights.
I love to have all my friends over on this night….sadly not all of my friends can fit around my dining room table….so I really need to take over the rec room so we can all create together.
I am missing 3 of my crafty friends from this picture tonight.
Can you believe this is the best photo of us all, teehee.
I swear Kristy took over 20 photos, and this is the best one of the bunch, lol.

This is what most of the photos looked like, we were either laughing, someone was looking away or just looked bad, lol.
Love these ladies.
I am in the back, then on my left (your right) is Sharon, beside Sharon is Lynne and last but not least, on my right (your left) is Denise :)
Always a fun night.

I hope you all had a very creative Friday :)

Tracy :)

Happy Fakesgiving :)

First off I want to wish all my U.S friends a Happy Thanksgiving.
Most of you know that I am from Canada and we celebrated our Thanksgiving last month.
We never have any leftovers so that is when Fakesgiving was born :)
Here is last years post http://tracystreasures-tracy.blogspot.ca/2012/11/whats-next-thanksgiving-in-box.html

I usually invite my siblings and their families, or Wayne's sister and her husband, but this year we just wanted to keep it simple (and have more leftovers for us ;). It was just my girls, their boyfriends and Wayne and I for dinner.
We also usually save it for the weekend, but decided to have it today….no cooking for me this weekend, get ready for a lot of hot turkey sandwiches ;)
Kristy made the dessert as she usually does.
Kristy is trying to keep us healthy, so for dessert she made a healthy brownie with a tad of ice-cream…and I mean a tad, lol.

How can you tell Ashley was here tonight ;)

Day 28 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful for modern medicine and modern tests.
As much as I hate to take medicine, I have a few health issues so I need to take it.
I have always told my girls that hate is a strong word, but yes, I do hate taking pills.
I even stop taking my medicine when I am feeling better. I know this is something I should not do…but this is how much I hate taking pills.
I know the root of why I don't like taking pills, but such is life.
I am still very thankful that these medicines help me live a longer better quality life then I would have without them.






















I wasn't able to create at all today as I was cooking and washing dishes most of the day ;)

I hope you all had a creative day spent with your family :)

Tracy :)

My day in Pictures

Day 27 of 30 Days of Thankfulness
Today I am thankful for authors.
I love to read, I love to get lost in a book.
My love of reading started at a young age. It helped me escape my reality for a while.
I loved to read about the adventures of Harriet the Spy, all of the Judy Blume books, then went on to all of the VC Andrew books, and as you can see my favourite author is Stephen King.
My dad and I would talk for hours about Stephen Kings writing.

Today I needed to go grocery shopping for our Fakesgiving for tomorrow…but I will share more of that tomorrow ;)
But on our way into Safeway we saw this awesome bike.
So cool that it has this backseat with a canopy.
How fun would this be, not only to drive, but to take a ride in.

Kristy was happy to go out and do errands with me as that meant she got to be my driver.
Both Heather and Kristy love to drive.

This is a sure sign that Ashley is over.
She always takes her socks off and just leaves them in the middle of the floor, lol.
I should get her back and leave a pair of my underwear in the middle of her floor at her house…I wonder if she will think its funny then, lol.

Ashley came over for supper and then started to make a wreath like she made last year, but this one is for her house.
Then we started talking about Christmas decorating…remember we are working as a team on our decorating this year.
So we ran to Michaels as they are having great sales this week.
Ashley picked up 9 strands of garland for the outside of her house and I picked up these outdoor lighted trees.
They were 50% off and I had a 35% off total purchase including sale items coupon.
I couldn't use the coupon?
Why?
Because my trees were 4.5'. The coupon could only be used on trees under 4'.
Can you believe it!!!
At first I wasn't going to get them, but I really like them…so I sucked it up and got them.

Came home and watched Survivor. Who else watches Survivor?
That was my day in photos for today :)
I hope you all had a creative Thursday.

Tracy :)

I'm a Techie ;)

I am so proud of myself :)
You know how technical I am…okay stop laughing.
When I want a photo from my iPhone, for say my blog, I usually email it to myself.
But for the last few days I haven't been getting emails from myself or from Kristy.

So yesterday I transferred or copied all my iPhone photos to my Macbook Pro…...all by myself ;)
Okay, I actually watched a short YouTube video….but I didn't have to ask the family for help this time.
I had 1889 photos on my phone and have had my phone for less than a year.
So now I have 2497 photos on my laptop and have only had that for 4 months
Guess I like to take pictures :)

I heard there were some awesome deals at Michaels this past weekend.
As much as Wayne was encouraging me to go and check out the sales, I just wanted to stay at home on Sunday. Plus I really don't need any other creative supplies.
But this morning, my friend Lynne wanted me to go with her to Michaels as she was excited about the paper packs being on sale.
So I went, just to tag along…ya right, lol.
Mind you I think I had the least amount of goodies. I didn't even need a cart or a basket for that matter….but Lynne on the other hand…..lets just say she found a lot of goodies ;)
Here are the goodies I picked up :)






















Day 26 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful for learning new things :)

I hope you all had a wonderful and creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

A Crafty game of Pool and new doors

I have been thinking of taking over the pool table for my Friday Night Scrapbooking :)
I bought this pool table for Wayne about 15 yrs ago for his birthday.
At first we played a lot. But not so much in the last few years.
So if I do take it over, I need to make a temporary cover/table for it.

I was thinking of buying some thick wood or chipboard (not crafting chipboard, but what we call chipboard here, is slivers or pieces of wood adhered together with glue it is then compressed into sheets).
I would have to put heavy foam on the edges and in the centre of the table so I don't mark up the edges or ruin the felt of the table.

Of course now that I am really seriously thinking of doing this, Kristy and Heather played a few games last night.

Day 25 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful that I am able to be there when my girls need me.
Even in their younger years, I was lucky enough that I worked out of my home, so I was able to be there for every school outing, volunteering at the schools.
I didn't miss a play or concert and am so very thankful that I didn't miss any part of their lives.

Ashley's week of vacation time is up, so she went back to work today.
She was getting her new front doors installed today. The contractors were coming at 8:00 am.
If you know me then you know I am NOT a morning person.
So I suggested that Heather (she didn't have to work today) and Kristy sleep over last night, and I would come over when I woke up ;)
Crafty aren't I ;)
All went well, and I was so happy that it wasn't that cold out today, as not only did they replace the door, but the whole casing and trim as well.

I'm a bit of a creep aren't I, lol.
This is one of the contractors outside putting on the screen door.
I have been taking photos of the progress of Ashley's home.
I did get some sneaky photos of the men working as well…shhhhh.

As the contractors were putting on the new doors, Heather and Kristy were taking turns playing video games and stayed in the bedroom with Sebastian (Ashley's kitty), he is an indoor cat and we didn't want him escaping.
As they did that, I put on…yet another…few coats of paint on the Big Project.
I think we should do a clear coat to protect it…then it should be all done, then I will share it with you :)

I hope you all had a very creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Music for my Soul

Today was a stay at home, relaxing type of day.
And a perfect one at that as we got snow all day today.

Day 24 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful that I got to stay in the house and listen to some music from my youth.
Thankfully Wayne and I enjoy the same music :)

Short post as it is Walking Dead day here in our house ;)
I hope you all had a relaxing and creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Kitting up the Kit….and a few thankfulness's ;)

Last night was Friday Night Scrapbooking and I had 4 ladies as well as myself here and we had a wonderful time :)
I really need to take over the rec-room pool table as we need more room.
I have to research how to (safely) cover a pool table ;)

So last night I worked on another kit I bought at the Crop & Create event I went to last month.
The kits show you what your pages will look like, but you have to cut the papers based on their cutting instructions.
I have to say, I did make an error or two in the cutting department.
I am more of a visual person, not a "follow instructions" type of person , lol.

This kit makes 3 different (one page) layouts.
As you know, I am a two page layout scrapper.
What I did was cut all the papers for each layout and put them each in their own bag.
I have all the left over paper in another bag.
What I am going to do is match up, or use my own card stock for the background and then use the leftover pieces for the second page.
I have been pretty impressed with the extras in these kits :)

Yesterday I forgot to share my Day 22 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Yesterday I was thankful for a nice warm/hot candlelit bath.
After working in Ashley's unheated garage all day yesterday and the day before, I was soooo cold, I needed to get my core temperature back to normal ;)
Mind you my nose and toes were still freezing to the touch when I went to bed.

Day 23 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful for my favourite beverage.
I have almost quit my pop habit, but I will not say, I will never drink this sweet nectar again ;)
I have quit drinking pop for a year or so in the past, but why deny myself of something I like so much So today I am thankful that I can still drink my pop and then go back to water for the rest of the week, or month..or for however long I want ;)






















I have another thing that I am thankful for today.
Becky Higgins has a class going on at Creative Live called Scrapbooking with Project Life.
It was a 3 day free course. It started on Wednesday till Friday and ran for, I think, 7 hours each day.
As I was busy with Ashley I didn't get to see most of it.
But this weekend they are re-airing it.
Even though I don't do Project life ( I do Project 365, with my own supplies). It was very educational and I am sure many will start up with her kits…hey, you never know, I may as well ;)
One of my favourite parts (that I had seen) was the segment with her brother, talking about photo organizing and backup.
I took screen shots and notes as I really need this.
Here is the link if you want to tune in..Becky Higgins.

That is all for me for tonight.
Wayne and I spent the day with Ashley.
Ashley and I are so so close to being finished with her project :) :) :)
Because it was -26C, I told her and her boyfriend to bring the project into her spare room last night, as the wood filler wouldn't dry in this cold.
So today I sanded and then Ashley and I prepped the wood and put one coat of paint on it.
She had to go out tonight, so we weren't able to finish it.
I was going to stay and work on it, until it was finished. But I promised Wayne we could go home during Half time of the foot ball game.
He said we could stay, but we needed to do a bit of errands before heading home and it was after 5:00pm.
Hopefully it will be completed tomorrow and I can finally share it with you :)

I hope you all had a very creative Saturday :)

Tracy :)

Katies Wedding Tag and a video

I made this tag for my friend (all of our friend) Katie.
We all know that Katie and AJ got married recently and I wanted to send her a Congratulations card.
Well my card turned into this tag :)
I wanted the colours to be autumn colours as those were the colours in her wedding.
I chose this Prima Doll stamp as it looks like she is wearing a wedding dress.
I inked and punched out the flowers to sort of match her bouquet.
Added two hearts one symbolizes Katie's and the other one AJ's.

This is the back of the tag.
I used a Prima tag and the back is plain white. So I added pattern paper and inked it as I did the front of the tag with Tim Holtz distress inks.
I made the pocket and added a tag I had made for my message to them.
I have to thank Katie for these photos. I was in a rush to do the video and then to package up the tag to be mailed away…I forgot to take actual photos of the tag..oops.
So thank you Katie :)

I am so happy and thankful that Ashley figured out how to upload my video today :)
So here it is ….
I hope you all have a creative Friday….Friday Night Scrapbooking for me :)

Tracy

Working on the Big Project

Another day at Ashley's, another day of projects :)
Today's project was a big one.
Not quite finished with it, but love how it is turning out :)
I don't want to share too much of this project though..wait for the big reveal.
See all this wood…I love the smell of fresh cut wood.

Starting to piece together the project :)
The green markings is painters tape. After the pieces were cut I numbered them to make sure they don't have to keep measuring them or get mixed up.
See my pink tote…yup its pretty. I have another one for my smash book, planner and journal supplies ;)
2 drills are better than 1, This way I don't have to change out drill bits ;)
Can you tell what it is?

I worked on this project in Ashley's massive garage. Sadly I couldn't figure out how to turn on the heat.
So I wore my winter jacket and froze. I kept on going into her house to warm up.
Cold arthritic hands don't want to work properly.
Yup that is snow…did I mention it was frick'n freezing out.
But near the end of the day Ashley's boyfriend, Tyler brought me a nice warm cup of hot chocolate from Tim Hortons :)

Day 21 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful that I know how to use power tools.
I love to be independent of having to ask a man to do something for me.
Don't get me wrong I love men ;)  But you know the saying, if you want to get something done..you have to do it yourself ;)
I countersink my screws so we have a nice flush finish :)

I hope you all had a creative Thursday :)
I am starting to get a migraine. And when I do I lose parts of my vision…dancing lights makes it hard to focus. So if spell check didn't pick up my spelling errors I apologize ;)
I had already uploaded the photos so figured I would crank out this post.

Oh ya, and the video problems are still a problem.
I brought my new computer and jump drive to Ashley's so she could figure out my video problem.
She informed me I needed to import my video…I saved it, thought it was the same thing, apparently not.

Tracy :)

Technology Killer and a killer saw

I do love technology.
It lets me share my creations, come in contact with people I would never meet in my life and it is fun…..when it works correctly.
As I shared with you my troubles with my old laptop yesterday.
I thought I had figured out a solution to my video problem.
Nope.
Ashley was helping me out via FaceTime, did it work….
Nope.
Am I frustrated…
yup.

I did a video on this really pretty project.
But I should have uploaded my video before I mailed the project away.
But that is just not my way…..remember…I'm a procrastinator ;)
So I thought I would share with you a sneak peek of the project today, and hopefully figure out this video problem and share the full project with you tomorrow.

Day 20 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am thankful for this guy :)
The big project Ashley has volunteered me for, I needed to do many cuts.
My saw I would have to use is at home, and to heavy for me to bring to her house.
Thankfully this guy made most (if not all) of the cuts for me on this awesome saw.
Look at this sucker..I think I may need one ;) ...The saw, I need one of these saws…man you ladies have dirty minds ;)
Thank you Jamie :)

I was going to try and use Kristy's laptop (as it is Windows). I go to turn it on and the screen is black…I think I am the killer of laptops….hope Kristy doesn't read this..she is at Ashley's, so she doesn't know this..yet.

I hope you all had a wonderful and creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)

More Paining and Day 19

Day 19 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I am Thankful for my laptop….and pretty red mouse ;)
I know I spend to much time on this laptop, but…
it is how I get to chat with many of my friends,
it is how I post daily on my blog,
it is how I post my YouTube videos and
it is also how I find some creative inspiration :)

Today I was planning on sharing a project that I had made for someone special.
I have the video done, but haven't edited or posted it to YouTube yet.
The reason…My MacBook Pro didn't read my video camera, so I have been using my old laptop to do all my videos.
I went to go on it today, and it wasn't playing nice.
So Wayne is (hopefully) fixing it. He also sent me drivers (?) for my Mac so I can upload my videos from my video camera to my new laptop.
I hope it works as my video is in my old laptop.

Today was spent at Ashley's house.
Ashley and I painted, Heather raked the front lawn and Kristy was at her boyfriend's house. One of these things is not like the other, lol.

Ashley has been asking me to do this one big project for her, since she purchased her home.
I keep putting it off, as I am nervous that I can't make it perfectly.
When I told her that, she said "Mom, I wouldn't have asked you to do it if I didn't think you could….plus you are the master of all things creative".
Now this girl knows how to stroke my ego, lol.

I hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

Day 18 and the day with my girls.

Day 18 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.
Today I got to spend the day with my girls.
Ashley took the week off of work and the other two didn't work today :)
So Ashely volunteered us to help work on her house, teehee.
But before that, we went to Vanderwee's to check out the Christmas displays.

Then we were off to Ashley's house to help her with some work.
Heather volunteered to rake up the leaves. And boy were there are a lot of leaves.
As Heather was raking the leaves, Ashley and I painted her bathroom.
Ashley is planning on re-doing her whole bathroom in March or April, so she wasn't going to waste her time painting it.
But I convinced her to paint it anyway. Since it is going to be awhile, I told her wouldn't it be nice to have a crisp, clean, newly painted bathroom until then.
She agreed and is happy that she did :)
The biggest hurdle was keeping Sebastien (Ashley's new kitty) from getting in the way.

When we were getting paint from Home Depot, we looked at the Christmas trees.
See the photo on this box of this beautiful full tree……...

Here it is on display.
See all the gaps and empty spots…not so nice up close is it, lol.

I think I'll be spending most of my week with Ashley painting and working on her house.

I hope you all had a wonderful creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Gambling layout and the Walking Dead :)

Another layout!!!!
Wow that is 6 in one month, more then I have done all year…and the year before that ;)
This is the last layout from the kit I was working on. I did have to add card stock and the brown paper from my stash.
I'm not as happy with this layout, as the colours seem to not flow, but it is what it is.

The photos on this layout are from when my SIL/friend Sharon and I went for a little vaca. just the two of us.
She gambled and I crafted….I don't think my $20.00 would be considered gambling, lol.

Sharon gave me the poker chips from her son's stash ;)
The pocket has more journaling inside.
If you are wondering how it is going to be read after it is placed in the page protector…I cut a small slit in the page protector so the journal card can be slipped in and out. I also have a photo of Sharon's winning pay stub on the back of the journal card :)
All the photos in these layouts were taken with my iPhone.
The photos of the actual layouts look a little wonky, but believe me the photos and embellishments are on the layout straight…I just can't seem to take a good photo of my layouts.

Here is the sketch I followed for this 2 page layout.
The sketch was supplied at the Crop & Create event. This sketch was a challenge they were doing during the event, so I thought I might as well use it for this layout.

Here is the layout as a 2 pager :)

I had shared with you that I adhere my layouts to a tile to keep them from bending or bowing when I photograph them.
I add a bit of light adhesive on the top 2 corners and adhere my layouts to the tiles. The layouts come off easily afterwards.
The tiles are just left over peel and stick tiles from our basement, not ceramic tiles.
Just thought I would share that as well.

Day 17 of 30 Days of Thankfulness :)
Today I am thankful for Sunday.
Because on Sunday comes my favourite show….the Walking Dead!!!
I can not tell you how much I love this show.
Every Sunday, I not only watch the new episode, I also watch last weeks episode.
I think about this show during the week and we even have Walking Dead marathons during the off season.
Can you tell I love this show ;)

Oh and for the record, yesterday's chocolate photo…I was having a marshmallow dipped in chocolate…I had ate the banana dipped in chocolate earlier, teehee.
Talk about chocolate…Kristy found my stash and hid it on me today, lol.
She is serious about me keeping on track with my healthy eating.
But I put up a fight and hid my Bear Claws I bought at Cabalas, no one is taking those away from me, lol..

I hope you all had a very creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)