Weekend at the Cottage

The weather was chilly and raining most of the weekend.
We did get the water in and the storm windows off.

Luckily I brought a few crafty projects to work on ;)
I purchased these Spectrum Noir markers.
You know I love my Copics, but I thought I could leave the SN markers up at the cottage so I don't have to cart my heavy bag of Copics back and forth.
I only have 3 packs of the SN, so brought some of my Copic markers, but only some colours for hair shades.
But I needed more colours to colour in other images.
I guess I need more markers ;)

I remembered to bring my trimmer, but forgot my bone folder to score my cards.
So what is a creative girl to do...improvise, teehee.

In between the rain, I got to go for a bit of a quad ride.
I also went on a little nature walk.
This is an old tub I found at an old homestead years ago.
It looks like someone plowed into it when clearing the road of snow :(
It is in pretty rough shape now.

I saw this bird nest waaaaay up high in a tree.
I was so excited to see the baby birds in the nest, so got the big ladder and carefully climbed up.

Must have been from last year, as it was empty :(
We had seen a robin in the yard, but I guess this wasn't her nest.

Sadly only got in a short walk before the rain started again.

Oh look, I see a woodpecker found a nice meal inside our log table.

Besides creating, what is there to do during a cold rainy day at the cottage?
Drink a nice cold can of Coke and have a snack while working in my planner beside the fire :)

No matter what the weather is...Rain or shine, this view is so worth coming out here.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a creative day.

Tracy :)

My Week in Photos

Lets start with today :)
As you can see we are at our Lake...so nice to be back here for the season.
Such a gorgeous view.

Last weekend was the May Long weekend, we celebrate it by crafting at my SIL's camp :)
Her camp is close to the US border and my daughter asked us if we could pick up a parcel for her she had there.
So we decided to make the most of this little excursion and went to the casino for dinner.
While there, Sharon had to play a few slots....she even won a bit of cash :)

This is what happens when my girls get a hold of my phone...silly girls :)

Another beautiful view.
This is from my SIL's deck...beautiful Lake Superior.

When we came home from Sharon's camp, I had noticed these pretty bugs on my lilies.
Come to find out that the multiply like crazy and are destroying my plants.
So I picked them off of my plants...there were over 20 of these guys and I keep checking for more every day.

Ashley and Tyler needed a pet sitter, so I went over to check on Oscar and Sebastian.
For some odd reason, Oscar was very calm and sat beside me most of the time I was there.
Usually he is all jumpy....but he was a good doggy :)

Can't forget about Sebastian :)
The good child of the two.

Today Luna surprised us by jumping on top of the cupboards.
She used to do this all of the time when she was a kitty, but not so much lately.
She was up there watching Heather cut up some chicken.
She was happy when Heather gave her some.

I hope you all have a great creative weekend :)

Tracy :)

Fun with Art.

I had a GREAT long weekend at my SIL/friend Sharon's camp.
Every May long weekend my daughter's and I are welcomed to Sharon's camp for junk food, creative filled weekend.
Sharon and I headed out a day earlier than my girls....its good to be retired ;)
Oh, and if you don't know already...I am the short one.
I am actually on my tip toes to look a bit taller...I know, it didn't work, lol.

Sharon and I do many different types of art..but we have been (mainly) into paper crafting for the last 20 yrs.
But this weekend my oldest daughter Ashley, suggested we try our hand painting on canvas.

I love all types of art and jumped at this idea...so I ran to the dollar store to pick up some blank canvases for us all.

I had paints, but Kristy picked up some tubes, also from the dollar store.

My daughters set up our work areas and came prepared with the inspiration copies for us all.

She found our inspiration piece on "Pinterest"

Then off we went

I have to say, I think we were all pretty impressed with what we all created....especially since Sharon didn't burn hers as she thought she was going to have to do.

After the painting was all cleaned up, it was time to scrapbook.

I have to say I outdid myself this year.

I made 20 (photoless) layouts and 11 cards!!

That is major for me..but then again, staying up past 2:00am, you can achieve a lot.

Now to figure out my laptop problems.

My iPhoto isn't working again.

I had to email these photos to myself, then put them in a folder in order to share them on my blog.

I couldn't post from my phone as the blogger app I had on my old phone, I can't find, and the new one won't work in Canada.

I am just frustrated with technology...but love it when it works ;)

I hope you all have a very Creative day :)

Tracy :)

Girls Long Weekend

I am so excited!!!!
It is the May long weekend...which for me means, an extra long weekend creating at my SIL/friend Sharon's camp creating.
I think I packed pretty light this year :)
I only had 2 bags, until Kristy mentioned it didn't look like I had brought enough to do.
She was really shocked that I didn't bring my markers.....so back down to my craft room I went to grab a few more projects to work on :0

We call it the Girl's long weekend as my daughters come as well.
But because they all work, they won't be coming down until tomorrow.

I hope you all have a very creative day and a fun, safe long weekend :)

Tracy :)

Garden Girl Birthday Card

I made this card for a friend who loves to garden, and she has a beautiful yard to prove it.
It was her birthday last week, but we all celebrated it last night, with our usual dinner and a movie.

I used one of Val's Digital Design's images called "Kididdles Girl Summer".
I think she is so cute.
The summer bonnet did not come with this image, I fussy cut it from the papers I used.
I did a bit of fussy cutting on this card as there was a cut apart paper in this paper pack from Mary Engelbreit.
The flower pot by her feet were fussy cut and then popped up with a foam dimensional.

As well as the bird house and the "Friend" sentiment.

I also fussy cut the trelles, sentiment for the banner and the blossoms at the bottom.
For the base of my card, I used papers from "Paper Garden"
They sent me some of their card stock to try and I have to say, I really like them for card bases and embossing.
I really like the look of their shimmer paper and I found (with my last card) it embosses so nicely.

Here is the card closed up to be put in the envelope.

I followed this sketch by MFT, but.....again was to late in posting to my blog to enter the challenge.
I have such good intentions though ;)

I really like making these easel cards.
Not only are they fun, but I love how nicely they stand up to display them :)

Oh and look, I did a quick video :)
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel, just click the link "Tracy's Treasures24"

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

My Week in Review

Last Saturday I put on a mini crop in my home.
My friend Lesli thought I needed this sign, teehee
How could I argue ;)

I completed a layout, coloured this image and made the card and started another layout.
Pretty good for me ;)

Sunday was Mother's Day.
I spent it the same way I always do, with my daughters outside, enjoying the weather and and doing some yard work.

The girls also went out and picked up some ice-cream ;)
Caramel Cone Explosion for me...but I shared mine with Wayne.

Monday my Copics and I had a play date at Lesli's.
Even though I brought my markers, I used Lesli's new Spectrum Noir.
Love the bullet tips on them.

Not sure if the delivery guy was trying to hide the package, keep it protected, or was just being funny.
But thought this was amusing trying to hide the package under our garbage lid, lol.
Funny thing was, we were home and the delivery guy didn't even knock or ring the bell.

Wednesday my friend Lynne invited me to her house to scrapbook.
I made a card :)
Lynne had her desk to work on, I had the table....but in true Lynne form, she took over my space as well, lol.
I had a pop...but didn't get to drink it all as I spilled it.
I got a bit on one of Lynne's layouts...but that wouldn't have happened if she would have stuck to her area, lol (luckily it was vintage colours so you couldn't tell).
But a few drops got in my phone somehow and it is now in iphone heaven.
Thankfully Ashley gave me her old one (which is newer than mine) and I was able to get a new sim card. They even upgraded the card..and it was free!!

I had Friday Night Scrapbooking...which may be the last one of the season.
Saturday Wayne and I headed to the cottage.
It was snowing and so very cold...yes that is snow on the ground.

I spent the first few hours keeping the home fires burning....and keeping warm in front of it.
Took a while to warm up the cottage.
It was too cold to turn on the water yet (don't want the pipes to freeze).
Wayne's dad has the cottage next door to ours, and he has his water pipes further underground than we do...so Wayne got some water from him and I was able to use the toilet :)
You don't realize the joy in that, lol.

Even though it was really cold and snowing, we still had to take the machines out.
I had on double and triple layers...it was a chilly ride, but felt so good to be riding again!
I even had 2 layers of gloves on, lol.

I can't forget to include a photo of my riding partner!
Here is Wayne...always behind me;)

Woke up to hail on the deck this morning.
We were going to have a power outage in the afternoon.
With no water and no power.....we decided to just go home.

I also did a bit of craft room organizing...but we will leave that to another day.

I hope you all have a very creative day :)

TRacy :)

Adhesives....Defunkified!!!

I tackled my adhesives and LOVE how it turned out.
Is it odd to be this excited about organized glue?!?!

I had a mixture of different types of adhesives in this one drawer on my desk.
I like how they were close at hand...but a mess to just grab and go.
I kept my foam adhesives, double sided tapes, glue dots (or snot dots as I call them) and some of my ATG refills in here.

But you may wonder...where does Tracy store her liquid adhesive.
Well let me tell you...I kept them in a high cupboard behind my desk.
As you can see, I seemed to store more than just adhesives in there.

I had this container in there and was excited to see what treasures I had forgot about.
Turns out...it was clear packaging I had saved to make shaker cards, and recipes I will never make...I don't even like to cook!!
Now I have an empty container as I trashed what was inside.

I did a video in more detail....now doesn't that make you happy, teehee.
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel, just click the link "Tracy's Treasures24"
I do keep a small amount of adhesive in my working bin, but the rest is tucked away in these containers that easily slide out.
One container for each type of adhesive...liquid, double sided, foam and then my hot glue guns :)
I know you want to have one last look ;)

I hope you all have a very Creative and organized day :)

Tracy :)

Pocket Cards...Defunkified!!!

Now don't these look so nice and organized...

Well you know they didn't start off looking that good :)
I kept my pocket cards and my tags together in this Ikea container.
And kept the Ikea container in this tray.
And as I had mentioned before, I tend to pile things without a home, on top of flat surfaces....and this was as good as a flat surface to me ;)

I also purchased quite a few more Pocket cards and kits.
Funny as I don't do Project Life (as this is what these are intended for) but I sure seem to purchase them.
So first thing I do when organizing is to put everything out on my large table.
Once I have everything in front of me, it is easier to see all that I have.
It is also easier to see what I don't want and can pass on to other and also find the best way to organize and store them.

At first I was going to store them in the Core kit packaging.
That would have worked great!!!
But I found out I could store more in these Ikea containers.
Thankfully I picked up a few of them on one of our trips.

This Ikea container holds the older cards that I had.
As well as my grid and index cards.

I put the core kits and some other smaller kits in this second Ikea container.
I also cut the packaging from the boxes and put them in the back of the container.
Because the packaging has pictures of which cards are in which kits, it is easier to find the ones I want.
I made a tab for each kit, labeled them and even added a card from that kit on the front of the tab, so I know at quick glance what colours are in that kit.

I am really happy with how these turned out, I can see at a quick glance which ones I have and I don't have to open a package each time I want to get one card.

I have been learning a couple of things about how I work and how to organize my supplies that will work better for me :)

Now onto the video :)
If you would rather watch it with the full screen, check out my YouTube channel for this video and many others :)
"Tracy's Treasures24"

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)