Unique Love Story-Art journal page

Just in the nick of Time.
Here is my February Art Journal page.
The theme for this month was Love/Valentines Day.
Considering I had a totally different plan for this page, I'm happy with how it turned out.
I should do the page I had originally planned, to see the difference.

Here is how the page started.
Well, this isn't exactly how the pages started out, because I forgot to take a photo ;)
But this is close to it, I had cleaned this heart stencil off on the pages from an early art journal page.
I figured that it was perfect for our theme for this month, so I worked it in to the page.

I spritz the page with a soft brown.
See the hearts, they still showed through…I was so happy.
I then drew out my book shape as I didn't want any of my other mediums to go past those lines.

I then cut some dry wall tape (that is the mesh hearts you see) into heart shapes.
The mesh is sticky, so they stuck to the pages, but I still added matt medium to them once they were in place.
I then added some embossing paste with the same heart stencil that I had used under the spray.
The red blob is there as I was trying to find the right colour of red paint that I wanted to use.

I didn't find the colour I wanted (even though I have a lot of reds in my paint supplies) so I used some card stock and cut a heart.
I also added some colour to the embossed hearts.

I love Pitt pens, they are just so perfect for adding my shading.

I added a bit of highlight to the main heart and shading all of the other hearts.
Here is the one side of the page fully finished.

And here is the right side fully finished.
I used Wink A Gold in copper for the very edges of the pages.

All done :)
Here is Caroline's art journal pages :)
I know I was shocked I had finished before her…first time!

I made a video on my pages :)
If you would like to watch it on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"


I had my friends over today for scrapbooking.
Because it was Heather's birthday (Heather says Thank you for the Birthday wishes) I had to cancel FNS (Friday Night Scrapbooking).
So I invited my friends to come over today from 10:00am to 5:00pm.
My poor friend Denise cut her fingers on her detailed scissors.
But what is a true crafter do, but use Washi Tape to bandage her finger, teehee.

I hope you all had a very Creative Saturday :)

Tracy :)

Happy Birthday Heather

Today was my middle daughter Heather's 24th Birthday.
Hard to believe 24 years have come and gone since I had her.
24 wonderful, precious years that went by way to fast.

Here is how i packaged up her gift.
I think I was more excited with the presentation of her gift (I made the puff flower out of tissue paper) than her actual gift, lol.
She understood.

I tried to get a photo of us together. I think this is one of the best ones…thats not saying to much ;)

I have no idea what we were laughing at here…probably Kristy teasing me…my girls love to tease me. But I guess that is just pay back for me teasing my mom.

This is my least favourite photo….but it is Heather's most favourite photo, so I thought I would include it.

Here is one of her gifts from Wayne and I.
Heather never asks for anything and is not a girl that has a lot of wants.
She did mention this game system and even suggested we go halvers on it with her….but Wayne and I decided to just get it for her.
She was so shocked to say the least.

We have a tradition in our family that on your birthday, you get to chose the restaurant for the family dinner.
Heather picked Wasabi, a sushi restaurant.
We like our sushi cooked, lol.
So no raw fish or meat for us.
I had to take a photo because this sushi bridge was just to cute.

Last by definitely not least is the cake Kristy made for Heather.
Kristy is the baker in the house, she asked Heather what type of cake she wanted for her birthday and Heather said Beemo from Adventure Time.
I think she did an awesome job on it.
Beemo is the stuffy in the photo.
I think Heather had a pretty great birthday :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Friday :)

Tracy

Luna post ;)

I am officially one of those crazy cat ladies….because here is another post about our Luna ;)
Doesn't she look like she just got caught for doing something naughty, lol.

She thinks she is hiding, lol.
Hide and Seek is not her best game ;)

Heather took my tapestry/wall hanging down when we first adopted Luna.
Luna enjoyed climbing up my beautiful wall hanging.
Heather knew that was one of the biggest no, no's so she just removed it.
So this wall has been blank since then…I was so happy get it hung back up today.
Luna seemed to be happy as well….but this time she couldn't climb it.

I have mentioned before that Luna enjoys watching us at the kitchen table, from the top cabinets.
Her new trick has been chewing on the corner trim…actually she is gnawing on them.
If you remember we have tried sprinting her with water, using tinfoil to deter her, balloons and even sticky tape…nothing works.
So I told Wayne to add some cooking oil, maybe she wouldn't like the taste…boy was I wrong she started licking it.
Wayne wanted to try tabasco sauce, but I said no, I thought that was mean.
So he added some cayenne pepper to the very corner…it worked!!!
Well so far it has worked.
Ashley was over and we were all in the kitchen while Kristy decorated Heather's birthday cake for tomorrow.
Luna slept up there the whole time.
Luna is all rested up, ready to play tonight…when we are all asleep, lol.

I hope you all had a very Creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

In the Zone…..my cleaning lists

I have had so many requests, both on here and on my YouTube channel, for my cleaning lists and on which days I do them.
So I thought I would share them in detail.
I don't know how to do a pdf, so get out your pens and note pads ladies ;)

Now before we start, I want you all to know that I got the zone idea from Flylady.net
She adapted the idea from Pam and Peggy, the ladies that originally came up with this system.
I would suggest you go and check her out for her lists and ideas.
I don't follow her site anymore. Her site has changed and I find it confusing (not a hard thing to do to me). Plus most of the emails sent to me, were advertising for her products, which I don't have.

Okay onto the Lists :)
I love lists…I know many will say "You need a list to clean?!"
No, but its more fun this way ;)
Here is my Weekly Home Spritz Up
I do this every week. I try to make this happen on Monday, but most times it doesn't work out this way.
So I break this down to do a chore or two a day.
For the porch and basement..this is just a quick pick up, not a total clean.

Once a week I work in a zone.
My dining room is the most organized and clean room in my home, as we don't use it that often, so this room is a quick one for me.
The most clutter I have in this room, is a few things thrown on the dining room table…or the cabinet where are bills are kept.
Because of this, I added more rooms to this zone.

I added the front and back entrance to zone 1.
My front entrance is part of the living room and is hardly used, so that isn't a big job.
I do have my Front closet that houses our coats, recycles and a shelf full of odds and ends, that I should tackle when this zone comes around again.

This one is self explanatory…probably the lest favourite zone in the house, because it is the one that should stay the cleanest as food preparation is done here.

I have a small bathroom and I keep up with it daily.
I don't do this list daily, but it do wipe down the bathroom daily.
I will let you in on a little secret on how I keep up with this room daily.
I wash my face with a disposable face wipe twice a day….then I use this same face wipe and wipe down the bathroom counter or the floor around the toilet. The face wipes remind me of those cleaning wipes, but less harsh with the chemicals.
It takes 3 seconds to do this.

Because Zone 3 doesn't take the whole week to do, I have added another room to that zone.
I don't do both of these…actually the Office should be added to my Dining room (Zone 1) as my office supplies are in a cabinet in the living room…nothing wrong with changing things up to suit our ever changing needs.
I sometimes add my Craft room to the extra room in this zone….but not lately, lol.

Another self  explanatory zone.

And the last zone :)
I added my Rec Room to the Living room zone.

So there you have it all of my zones for the month.
I work in each zone for one week and then go to the next zone the next week.
But the end of the month, you have done all of the zones and you have done you whole house.
It is easier to complete these tasks once your rooms are organized though.
I don't always get each task completed in my zones, if that is the case, I will start with the unfinished task the next time that zone comes around.
That is another reason I like to keep my lists in a page protector of some kind, because then I can use a dry erase pen or crayon and check off the tasks that I have completed.

I did a video explaining in more detail…if you would like to watch the video on my YouTube channel, just click the link "Tracy's Treasures24"

Put on some fun upbeat music and go tackle a zone :)

I hope you all had a very Creative and Organized day ;)

Tracy :)

Chickadee card with Gelatos.

I played a bit today :)
Not only is this the first time this stamp touched ink…but that isn't the only first I did today.

I also used my Gelatos as a water colour in colouring in this stamp.
I used my Gelatos with this water pen.
I also used some water colour paper…and as you can see, the first time I stamped it up, it didn't fully stamp.
I have to get a new craft desk, mine is warped and not only bad for stamping…but my containers on the desk are wobbling because of it.

At first I wanted to try to just dip my water pen in the Gelatos…the colour came out very very light.
But then again, I haven't used some of the colours and the Gelato tips might have been hard.
So I took a lid of a container ( I was to lazy to go and get an acrylic block) smeared some of the colour on the lid, and then picked it up with my water pen. That worked so much better.
I even added a bit of the colour directly from the Gelato to the paper, that came out the darkest.

I added some light blue in the blank spaces in between the birds and flowers.
It is more noticeable in person than in the photos.
I am pretty happy with how this card turned out and it didn't take very long at all.

Onto My Day:
I wasn't home much as Kristy needed to do some errands.
Not only that, she dropped her phone yesterday.
Even though it looks perfectly fine and it did work for a bit afterwords..,it was toast.
Our contract wasn't up, but she only had to pay $48.00 to get out of the contract and her iPhone was free with a 2 year contract.
What sucks though, is the price of the monthly bill has gone up. Our old contract was just before Christmas and was a real good deal.

I hope you all had a very Creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Mini Planner Pockets

These are my pages for this week.
I didn't get a chance to fill my week in as I was making these pockets for my journal.
Tonight was the Walking Dead, and I don't do anything when my show is on ;)

I was thinking the other night (as I was in bed, trying to go to sleep) of putting my chore list on my pages, but in a way where I can move them from week to week.
At first I thought I would laminate my lists in a dashboard form.
But then I had a genius idea….okay, maybe not genius, but I think it is pretty darn clever ;)

I remembered I had these name tag badge holder thingies.
I bought them a very long time ago, I think from the dollar store.
I thought they would work perfectly.

I printed up my chore charts.
I clean a room a week. I may not get them all completed in that week, but if I don't get them completed, I just start again on that week when the time comes around again.

I printed them on pattern paper, inked the edges and then did a bit of stamping.
I then used my hand punch (the same one I used when I was a papergirl as a kid, yup I still have the punch…..40 yrs later) to punch the plastic holders so they fit in the binder rings.

As you can see here, I added some pattern paper to the back of the chore charts, we like things pretty :)
I also like this as I can write with an erase pen, on the blank back for other things I  may need to do or remember and can then erase it later.

Ohhh but thats not all.
I also made a video on how I made them with more information :)
If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel, for the full screen, just click on my link "Tracy's Treasures24"
Can you believe I didn't post for 2 days in a row!!
I can't believe it either.

I hope you all had a very Creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Throwback Thursday

Since I have been sharing some cards that I have made with embossing powder and water colour markers, I thought I would share an older card I had done.

For this card it is more about the stamp than the technique.
The stamp is a full coverage stamp, meaning…most of the stamp touches the paper when stamped.
After using VersaMark to stamp the image and using, clear (as the paper is white) or white embossing powder, then heat set the image.
The butterflies were the same colour as the paper, as the stamp was blank there.
I then used my Stampin' Up markers to colour the butterflies.
This could also be done with watercolour paints

I then inked the outer edges with ink.

















I even did a video way back then with a tutorial :)
I made this card back in 2011.

Onto My Day:
I have been Defunkifying my Home, and yesterday I worked on the long needed Linen Closet.
I have been organizing and purging my home off and on for a while now, I have even been doing videos on the areas or rooms.

I am still debating on adding these videos on my YouTube channel and blog.
I know most of my followers come to my blog and YouTube channel because of my crafts, so not sure if anyone would be interested in these videos.
I was even thinking of starting a new YouTube channel just for Defunkifying my Home, but not sure if I could keep up with another channel, but not sure if I should add them to my current channel….so many decisions.
Any suggestions would be more than welcome :)

Hope you all had a very Creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

Thinking of You…water colour card

I had so much fun making my "Faceless Beauty" water colour card, that I wanted to make another one.
I had watched an Amy R video today and she inspired me to try to make this one with clear embossing powder.
I really like how it turned out.

Look…I made a photo tutorial :)
I used this flower from the stamp set that I received as a gift from Unity Stamps called "Have a little faith" :)
Versa mark embossing ink, clear embossing powder and some water colour paper.

After stamping my image with the Embossing ink, pouring the clear embossing powder where I had stamped and then getting the excess powder off of the paper.
Lastly I heat set the image with my heat gun.
It was hard to get a good photo of this, but when the embossing powder turns shinny like this..it is done.

Then the fun part..colouring :)
I used my Distress markers for this.
I have to mention, using water colour paper really does make a big difference in how the distress markers ink moves on this paper.

I coloured right from the marker.
I just put some colour on the bottom of the flower (as this is where I wanted the darkest of the colour to be) and them moved the colour with my water pen….you could also use a wet paint brush for this as well.

Here they are all coloured up…but they needed a bit of something.

To add even more detail.
Once the distress marker ink was dry, I used the fine tip on the marker, to add some flicking for more shading to the flowers.
Sadly, my red fine tip seemed to be dried out, even though the brush tip worked fine…its a mystery ;)
I did the same to the leaves as well.

Lastly I added some colour to the background with my Distress ink from the ink pads with my "Homemade distress ink applicators".
It took me longer to write this post, than it did to make this card.
This card took me no longer then 20 minutes to complete.

I hope you all had a very Creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

Pen love.

When I was writing in my Fauxbonichi yesterday, I used a few different pens.

A couple of them would skip. 

The pens would write nicely on a index card, but not on the smooth paper in my journal.

So I went and found my fountain pen I purchased when I was in grade 5…so about 35+ yrs ago.

I also had an ink cartridge (not from 35 yrs ago, maybe 20).

So I have used it in my Fauxbonichi and it writes so nicely….until I dropped it and got some ink splotches on my paper.

Ashley has wanted us to bring Luna over to her house so Luna could meet Sebastian.
Lets just say, Luna is a domineering little girl.
At first it looked good, they even got nose to nose checking each other out.
Then we heard some hissing, it was from Luna.
We even heard her growl a few times.
Sebastian would just make his quiet "talking" noises.
Funny thing is, they never left each others sides. They were very curious of each other.
But Luna has never been at Ashley's house before, so everything was new to her.

On the drive home, Heather opened Luna's carrier door a tad, so she could pet her.
Luna pushed her way out of her carrier and onto Heather's lap and enjoyed looking out of the window.
I don't like pets loose in a vehicle (one of my pet peeves….see what I did there) so she was put back into her carrier.

I am curious.

I know most of you are stationary lovers, So I was wondering if you have any stationary supplies from 25 yrs ago…if you are even that old, lol. If you do, I would love to know what they are.  I have some writing pads that old, lol.  I sound like a hoarder.

Actually I sound like my dad telling me that his lunch box was older than I was ;)

I hope you all had a very Creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)