Last of the creative Goodies :)

I think these are the last of my creative goodies I had found on our trip.
Funny thing is, all of these purchases were made on the first day of the trip and I'm only now sharing them ;)
These goodies I picked up from Scrapbooks Too.
I was very impressed with their inventory this time :)
They rearranged the store and seem to have a lot more product.
Which made me very happy.
I picked up a few new Prima Doll stamps and some of their pretty tags :)
I also found the Tim Holtz spritzer.

We dropped our girls off at Burnsville mall then Wayne and I checked out Michaels.
I was happy to find some Heidi Swapp stencils :)
These little wood veneer pieces were $1.99 for each package :)

We then stopped in Jo-Anns.
Wayne really wanted me to get the Wood paper pack, so I couldn't disappoint him ;)
I thought the gauze paper was interesting.
Picked up some more tags for my monthly tags as I am out. Plus they are less then 1/2 the price they are here. I usually make my own out of file folders though.

Onto My Day:
I didn't do nearly the things I had planned on doing today.
I did go grocery shopping, not that I wanted to, but because I had to. We didn't have any bread or milk in the house, lol
I actually texted Wayne to tell him there is no food in the house, so if he was coming home for lunch, could he please bring me something as well, lol.
They make pretty good sub sandwiches at Tim Hortons ;)

I did get to play a bit tonight.
I played with my new coloured pencils :)
I have never used Gamsol to blend with coloured pencils before.
But more on that in another post :)

I hope you all had a wonderful and creative Monday.
I had a creative Monday, not sure if it was wonderful as we are in the middle of a snow storm…and its not even April fools day yet ;)

Tracy :)

Last Episode of the Season.

We made it home safe and sound :)
As soon as we walked in the door we turned on AMC to watch the rest of the marathon of the Walking Dead from this season ;)
I am excited, yet sad that tonight is the final episode :(

On our trip we even drove through Woodbury, lol.
Sorry you will only appreciate my humour if you watch my show ;)
I have to say Woodbury had a Hobby Lobby, teehee.

We also went to the Cheesecake Factory.
We had never been there before.
Wow, everything was delicious.
Kristy wanted to save room for dessert, so she only ordered an appetizer chicken caesar salad and a bowl of soup. She couldn't finish even half of it, it was so big.
We were all passing around our meals for each other to try, everything was so good.

No worries though, even though none of us had room for dessert, we each brought a piece of cheese cake back to the hotel with us ;)
This is Heather's piece. Wayne and I dug into ours before I remembered to take a photo, lol.

I am running out of time, as I want to visit all of your blogs before my show comes on, But I will share with you the goodies I purchased from Pine City Scrapbookers on our way home this morning.
Good thing I take photos of my purchases to share with you because while I was in this store, I picked up a stamp that I had in my hand at a different store earlier this weekend, but I wasn't sure if I had purchased it or not.
Checked my phone photos, sure enough I had :)
The brown pack of paper on the left is glassine paper. I have seen others make bags and envelopes out of this material, so thought I would try my hand at a few :)

Time for me to unpack and oogle over all my new goodies :)
I hope you all had a very creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Creative goodies, a few anyway

If you know me, then you know I love colour. I also love to colour.

Today I went to Blicks art store with a purpose. I want to try my hand at colouring with coloured pencils.

I love to colour with my Copics, water markers, distress markers but haven't tried colours pencils with odorless mineral spirits. 

So look what I picked up :). 

Just a minute that doesn't look to exciting.

Now this is so much better...soooo much prettiness :)

I can't wait to get home and play. 

Stopped by Michael's and was so surprised that everything was on sale. I picked up these Heidi Swapp planner/calendars for $3.99 each!!

I was excited about them when they first came out, but couldn't justify spending (I think at home they were about $25.00-$30.00) that much. Especially since I have a day planner.

But at this price I picked up 2. I could start one next year :). 

Since Miss. Swapps inks and sprays wee so inexpensive, I decided to give those a try as well. 

Found a Hobby Lobby. 

You knew paper was coming didn't you, lol. 

I thought these pretty wooden buttons would be fun to use on a card or project. 

Found a Tuesday Morning. 

I also have wanted to try my hand at ATC's (artist trading cards). Even if no one wants to trade them with me, teehee.

I thought they may be a good way to work on new techniques, if nothing else. 

I had to get some peeps at the Peeps store. I picked up some of these pony beads to try my hand at making my own enamel dots :)

Yeah baby.... What is a visit to Mall of America without a banana caramel crepe from Magic Pan ;)

That is all from me tonight. It is tedius typing on my phone ;)

I haven't even shared my goodies from yesterday.  This could take the whole week, lol. 

I hope you all had a very creative Saturday :)

Tracy :)

Road Trip

I was up and going at 4:30am.

If you know me then you know I only get up early for a crop or a trip. 

No crops going on, so must be a trip ;)

We left the house at 5:15am to pick up Ashley on our way to Minneapolis. So happy that all of my girls came along.

First stop was Ryden's to pick up Kristy's birthday gifts. We knew we were heading over the border so figured free shipping is better than $20.00 for each parcel. Here she is opening up her gifts in the dark, lol

Wayne knows that I am like a baby in a moving vehical and sleep a lot. I also hate waking up and not being able to brush my teeth. So he picked me up the next best thing.

I see a lot of snow fell last night. But happy the roads were pretty clear. 

I love driving through these tunnels. Luckily no zombies were inside ( for my fellow Walking Dead and 28 Days Later fans). 

The whole drive we listened to 80's music. I swear I knew all the words. I would even sing while I was dozing... Yup, this is my jam ;)

First stop was Cabelas. 

I stocked up, hope I don't run out. 

Then luch at this retro Denny's. 

I did a couple of my crafty stores. Wayne wanted to drive by Archivers. He was hoping another scrapbook store moved in. Sadly none did. This photo makes me sad :(

I did get to see my hero, teehee. See that zombie behind me, lol. 

Then supper at Red Lobster. No photo as I am sure you know what I ordered. We were told we had an hour wait, but thankfully only had to wait 1/2 hour. 

I am ready for some sleep....odd as I slept so much on the drive here,lol.

So I will share all my wonderful, fun, beautiful and creative supplies tomorrow. I sure wish I would have brought my Copics with me;)

Thank you for joining me on our little family vaca. I hope you all had a creative Friday :)

Tracy :) 

March 2014 Tag

As promised, here is my tag for March.
As you all know I am following Tim Holtz 2014 Monthly Tag challenge.
Here is my finished tag….I'm early, its not the 31st yet, teehee.

I thought I had a stamp set that was similar to the one that Tim Holtz used.
I searched for it and couldn't find it. Then I checked the catalogue of the company that I thought I had got it from, and they don't carry it.
So I must have dreamt it. I know I have some pretty creative dreams, but this is crazy, lol.

My tag took on a different look than Tim's, but I used the same techniques and love that it has such a pretty Spring look to it. Especially since we received more snow today.

Here is a closer look to the stamped image.
To give the image more colour, I used Distress markers and used them like water colour.
I love to use these markers for water colouring :)
I also used Tim's tree branch die to make it look like the nest is nestled in the tree ;)
I don't have Tim's spritzer (I think Stampin' Up sold it at one time), so I just used my sponge applicator to add the distress ink to the dot stencil.

I also cut the bottom part of the flower so I could tuck the branch under them. I wanted it to look like the nest is intwined on the branch. Just like a real bird nest.

And look, I have a bonus for you…a video on my finished tag and some of the process I did to get this look :)
If you would like to watch it on my YouTube channel, just like on the link here "Tracy's Treasures 24"

WOYWW, it is a scary sight at times ;)

I thought I would join in with WOYWW today.
WOYWW is hosted by Julia. If you check out her blog "Stamping Ground" you can check out what everyone else is working on :)
Doesn't this just make you want to create :)

Well it didn't start that way.
I am sad to say that this is how it started.
I am even sadder to say that I didn't even create on this desk.
This is just me putting things on my desk that I didn't want to deal with at the moment.
I had to clean it all off before I even could start to make anything.

Look I actually had a chance to create…that was after I cleaned my desk off, lol.
If you look closely, you can see that I am working on my Tim Holtz March tag.
Yes I make this much of a mess while creating, lol.

I did complete my March tag (I will share that tomorrow) and I did clean off my desk after I made it :)
It is all ready for my next creative adventure :)

I hope you all had a very creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)

Happy Mail from Julie

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!!!
Isn't it beautiful.
The lovely Julie over at "A Beautiful Day" made it for me.
Doesn't it go perfectly with my wall colour in my craft room :)
Thank you so much Jules, you really put a smile on my face :)

Julie wrapped it up like a present.
I did get a kick out of the Christmas tag :)
I don't feel as bad that I haven't sent out a gift or two that I was planning on gifting for Christmas :)

My brother Calum was coming through town and wanted to meet up for supper.
So we went to Applebees where my sister, Julia and her son, my older brother Darrell and his wife and son all enjoyed a bit of time together.
I love getting together with my family, even if we don't get to see each other as often as we should.

I hope you all enjoyed a creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

Happy 19th Birthday Kristy :)

Today was my baby girl's 19th Birthday.
Where has the time gone….Seriously has it been 19 yrs already?!
I am so proud to be this young lady's mom.
She is funny, sweet and thinks of how to make everyone else's day a little brighter.
Kristy is easy to talk to, and a person everyone wants to be around.
I love this girl so much :)

Late last night I wanted Kristy to wake up with a smile, so I put these streamers up so she would walk through them when she woke up.
I was just hoping she didn't get up in the middle of the night and scare the crap out of herself by walking through them in the dark and thinking something was out to get her, lol.
As it turned out, my plan worked.
She came into the kitchen with a smile on her face :)

Because we do everything as a family, Kristy waited to open her gifts when her dad, Wayne, and her sister, Ashley came home after work.
I was going to make sweet and sour ribs for supper but Kristy wanted pancakes….so pancakes it was.
I hope you had a wonderful Birthday Kristy xoxo

I hope you all had a creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

I'm a Card Hoarder

I was wanting to do to a bit of colouring with my Copics today…and maybe make a card.
As it takes me all day to make one card, lol.
But before I started, I thought, maybe I should organize the cards that I have already made.
I sure love to make cards.
But I think I am a card hoarder.

This is over 12" of already made cards!
I really have to send some out.
Funny thing is, if I need a card for someone, I don't grab from my stash as I feel my cards are old stock and I feel the need to make a new card to give away.
I know thats crazy talk, but that is how I look at it.
My goal this year (hopefully before the year end) is to send out all of my hand made cards you see here.
So don't be surprised if you get a random card from me ;)

Tomorrow is Kristy's birthday.
But we went out tonight for her Birthday Dinner.
She wanted to go to The Keg. Kristy loves her steak :)
I got the waitress, Sidney, to take this photo of us :)

Early post from me as The Walking Dead is on soon. Hope it is as intense as last week's episode :)

I hope you all had a creative Walking Dead Sunday :)

Tracy :)

A Perfect Lazy Day

Today was a pretty relaxing day.
Just as Wayne and I had planned :)

We watched movies and had a few treats :)
I was planning on colouring up some images, but ended up making a few pages in my Smash book.
Kristy made supper tonight, which was nice :)

So far Wayne and I have watched Escape Plan, Prisoners, Hunger games and Catching Fire.
I did do a bit of house work, like a load of laundry…which reminds me I need to put it in the dryer, teehee.

I hope you had a relaxing and creative Saturday :)
Mine was pretty perfect…throw in a zombie movie to the mix and I couldn't have it anymore perfect ;)

Tracy :)

Manicure Touch Up

I was so impressed with how long my manicure lasted.
I did a base coat, 2 coats of polish and a top coat.
I has lasted me 15 days
And it got a work out organizing Lynne's craft room, my dungeon, painting in kitchen and just the wear and tear of everyday cleaning and crafting :)

I didn't really want to go through all of the bother of taking it off and redoing them today….so I thought I would cheat ;)

I thought I would sponge on a dark colour to cover up the tips.
If it didn't work, not a big deal, but at least I could try.
I grabbed my polish.
Then I read somewhere about using paper reinforcements to get a nice clean look for a french manicure.
I also punched a half circle out of paper to put behind my nail so I wouldn't have a mess on the sides of my fingers.
I didn't like the reinforcements as they were to rounded for my nail tips.
I didn't need the punched paper as my nails are long enough that the polish didn't touch the sides of my fingers…but that would have worked if my nails were shorter.

Here is the end result :)
I did touch up the bottoms of my nails because they grew since I did my nails, they needed to be touched up again.
I wonder how many days I can get out of this touch up ;)

Wayne took the day off today, so we ran some errands.
I saw these at Superstore and they were 1/2 off ($4.99 each).
The lid has a magnet on the top so when your polish is wet, you use the lid and get this fun effect to your nail polish.
I think I will try this for my next manicure :)

I hope you all had a creative Friday :)
I am having my ladies over for FNS (Friday Night Scrapbooking). We have a new lady joining us, Donna, and she has just picked herself up a nice collection of Copics. I can't wait to share some images with her to colour up :)

Tracy :)

Smash book page for Daddy ;)

I spent a nice day in my craft room.
I made my March challenge card, but can't show it until the recipient receives it.
So I thought I would share my Smashbook pages.

This is my first Smash book. I was gifted it a few years ago.
I have dedicated this book to my trips away with my family and friends.
I had done these pages awhile ago.
The date shows Dec. 2012. I didn't make the pages then, but this was the date of our trip.

I love this photo of Wayne dishing out money to the girls, lol.
Isn't that what Daddy's do when the family goes on a trip, teehee.
I left these pages as they were, I just added the stamp "Remember When" and some washi tape under them. I did cut the words out of paper and cut the fishtails on the one end.

For this page I made the photos down the left hand side of the paper into pockets.
Then I made tags so I could journal on them. I tucked the tags under the photos so they can be pulled out to be read.
This is one thing I like about the Smash book, you can add dimension, pull out tags, or flip pages and use them as there are no page protectors to hinder the inactiveness of them.

I am liking the pages that I am creating as I go along in this book. I don't necessarily like all of the papers that are in here, but I can easily cover them up.

I hope you all had a very creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

Creative Mess, snacks and WOYWW

This has been my snack of choice for the last couple of weeks.
When Kristy saw me with these she asked me "What are you mom…6".
She is one to talk, her and I have been eating Fruit Loops for breakfast, for the last couple of months, lol.

I got to play a bit today.
Look how nice and clean my desk it :)
I started on my challenge card for this month.

Didn't take long for my desk to be full and chaotic….well chaotic to the uncreative ;)
I will link this post to WOYWW (Whats on your work desk Wednesday)

Remember yesterday's post (LINK) about my  Smash book looking more like scrapbooking then smash booking.
Well here are the pages that I did that are more like Smashbooking. I added some hotel card keys, business card, envelope from the hotel.

On this page I added a coaster from Red Lobster, another card key envelope that I decorated up and store names from the receipts or pamphlets.
I still like my pages that look more like scrapbook pages though.

I tried a new recipe tonight.
It was so easy, mix everything up and then don't worry about it while it cooks…..my kind of cooking :)
Under all this cheese is tortellini, tomatoes and sauce…and a bit more…but here is the link to the recipe if you want it. LINK

I still haven't finished my card for this month. It will be completed tomorrow :)
I hope you all had a creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)