Heather's 26th Birthday

Today is my daughter Heather's 26th birthday.
We celebrated her birthday with dinner out with the family.
Heather usually chooses sushi for dinner. We then all came back home for some cake.
She loves New York style strawberry cheese cake, as well as Strawberry custard cake. She can never decide which one she wants, so I get both :)

Heather loves the Gorguss Girl images.
She has loved them before they even had made them as stamps.
So every year I make her a card with one of these girls.
This is this years card :)

It seems like forever since I have coloured.
I pulled out my Copics and coloured this one up..I really need to do more colouring, I am a little rusty.

I like this little cluster I made.
I used a wood heart and coloured it up with my Copic, I also coloured up the birthday banner with a Copic marker...oh yes, and even the twine I coloured up.
Sure got some use out of my Copics this day :)

Here is the inside of the card, as well as the envelope.

Here are the colours that I used for colouring her up.

I decided to follow a sketch and picked this one from Freshly Made Sketches

Again, here is my finished card.
Kristy was questioning the paper choices I made as Heather is not a girly girl.
But once I had the whole card put together, I got Kristy's approval, teehee.

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

February layout from SCT planner sketch

Another layout!!!
Another layout where I used Scrapbook & Cards Today sketch from my planner.
It is the sketch from February.
If you had noticed all of my layouts from these sketches have been not only Christmas themed layouts, but they have all been on my grandson Sawyer ;)

I started a tradition with Sawyer, where I read him "Twas the Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve.
When my daughter's were young, we would read from this Christmas book all during the holiday season, then when they were old enough to read, they would read the stories to me.
So I love that I could continue this with my grandson :)

I knew I wanted to scrapbook this tradition, but when I found this paper with the whole story written on it from Graphic 45's "Christmas Past" collection...I just knew I needed to use this paper...how perfect!!!!
For the title I used my label maker with gold backing and backed it with papers from Recollections "Joyful Christmas" collection.

I love this little cluster I created in the corner.
I cut the tag with my Stampin' Up tag punch from the Recollections paper.
The doily was inked with Distress ink and the ornament piece was from a Christmas gift tag that I kept as I thought it was to pretty to get rid of ;)
If you look closely, you can see a bit of sparkly  thin thread. I purchased a whole collection of different colours from the dollar store before Christmas.

Here is the sketch provided by Scrapbook & Cards Today in my Creative Planner I purchased from them.
Just to show that being it was a sketch for February and was mainly a heart themed layout, I took it in a whole new way.
I used a square shape instead of the heart, and my cluster was in the opposite corner of the layout
Mind you I would love to do a heart layout as well ;)

I actually made my layout in December, before I even made the January layout.
But I wanted a double page layout for this one, and February's sketch fit perfectly for this page.
Here are both of the pages side by side...February and December's.
To see a closer look at December's layout check out This post

Because both of these have photos on the layouts...I can count them as complete...right Kristy?!

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Book Review....The Illegal

I completed my second book of the year!!
Another 427 pages read :)
I know that may not sound like a a big accomplishment to a lot of you, and it wouldn't have sounded like a big accomplishment to me years ago either.
I used to be an avid reader...I would stay up all night to finish a book, I would read while walking, or just sitting outside or when we would go for a drive. I used to read many books a month.
But in the last few years, my reading has really slowed down.
So for the last couple of years I have challenged myself to read 12 books a year...one a month.

This particular book was given to me by my friend Debbie as a Christmas gift.
Debbie is always giving me books to read :)
And now that I have mentioned to my friends my goal, they are giving me books left and right...but you won't hear me complaining ;)
This was a pretty good book.
I don't want to say to much as I don't want to ruin it for anyone else who would like to read it.
It is basically about a boy, Keita, who is a runner.
He lived a good life with his family in a nice but poor little town, until the government changed hands and all was not well.
I escaped to Freedom State, which the majority of the people who lived there were not happy with how many illegal immigrants were coming into "their" land.
It is a good book and from what I am reading about what is happening in the US at this time...one to read to give many a different perspective on this issue.
The author is Canadian and actually is from the same province as me.
I was chuckling about the use of Tim Horton's as a coffee shop in the novel as it takes place far from Canada.

Here is the write up from the back of the book.

The photos are pretty dark as I stayed up quite late reading and then took that photos.
Not good lighting at 2:00am

Tracy :)

January's layout from SCT planner sketch

I had mentioned in this post HERE, that to help me do more scrapbooking pages and to keep me motivated, I have been following the Scrapbook & Cards Today sketches in my creative planner.
Here is my layout for January.

I used my antique typewriter that my daughters and husband bought me for Mother's day a couple of years ago, check out this post if you would like to see it
I think I may need a new ribbon for it though.
I love these sparkle letters...so fun!!!!

And here is a closer look at the star of the layouts...my grandbaby.
I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of layouts on him this year and for all my years to follow :)

Here is the sketch that I used.
There is a sketch a month posted in their creative planner Scrapbook & Cards Today.

Again, the completed layout.
It has photos on it, so in my daughter's eyes.....it's complete, teehee.

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Happy Family Day

Today is Family Day!!
It is a day to celebrate families.
And we did :)

We had a family brunch. Everyone contributed in one way or another and it was so good!!!
After our brunch everyone was full and tired....even Sawyer went for a couple of naps...one of them in my arms :)

On a side note, it is pouring rain outside.
We would usually be getting snow, but the weather has been unusually warm the last couple of days.
This will help the snow piles to shrink.

So if you were able to celebrate Family Day what did you do?

Tracy

Will you be my Valentine?

Who could not love this cute little face.
This is my grandson Sawyer and I just love him to bits.
I spent Valentines Day with him...best Valentines Day ever :)
My daughter Ashley did a little Valentines photo shoot of him.
Isn't he just adorable!!!!
I also love the background...they are his crib sheets that have "I love you" written on them.

Did I tell you I can't get enough of this little guy <3 p="">He sure has my heart.

My daughter takes such beautiful photos, even when the model doesn't want any part of it, teehee.
Every time Ashley would take the camera away from her face and chat with Sawyer, he would give his mama the biggest grin.

But here is my true Valentine.
Wayne and I have been together since I was 16 yrs old...I'll be 50 this year, so you do that math.
I tease my SIL to never do the math, lol.

I hope you all had a nice Valentines Day.
Wayne and I just sat around tonight and watched a movie as I did paper work.
I don't even think I ate a piece a chocolate today.....I better get on that!

Tracy :)

Scrap for Heart 2017

This past Saturday was the Scrap for Heart Crop Event!!
I love a good crop ;)
I have been going to this event every February since 2011.
My friends and I always have a great time...but with my friends it would be hard Not to have a great time :)
With all of the chatting, visiting and walking (yes my friend and I would take breaks and walk...got in my over 10,000 steps that day!) I did complete 6 layouts.
2 of which I have photos on...which Kristy says is all I got done. Because in her eyes a layout isn't complete unless it has photos.

I made a little kit to do pages for the 1/2 Marathon my friend Debbie and I completed in 2014.
I had been bringing this little kit for these pages to every crop I have attended.
I was determined to complete it at this one.

Here is the second page to this layout.
I saved the newspaper from that day with our times and a bit of a write up of the event.
Simple layout...but I like how they turned out :)

Here are a few of my friends and I.
This photo was taken later in the evening, so a few of our friends had left already.
It was a PJ theme crop.
I am not one to go out in pyjama pants, but at the last minute decided to just go with the flow, lol

Can you believe I only brought one tote for a 12 hour crop!!!
I couldn't and neither could any of my friends, teehee.
To make it easier on myself, I just brought some kits, extra matching papers for the kits (as I like to extend my kits) adhesive, trimmer and scissors.
Ok, ok, I also brought some punches, mini stapler and anything else I could fit in the tote, but still only one :)
But truth be told, I did bring a small bag with the treat bags I made for my friends and my munchies ;)

I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy :)

Life update

I was reminded by a friend that I haven't posted since Feb 1st, so I had figured I had better get on that ;)
I have actually been busy the last week or so.
It was Wayne's 53rd birthday on the 2nd, so we did a little road trip to Duluth :)

Wayne and I love Red Lobster.
Sadly we don't have one in our city the closest one is across the border in Duluth.
We celebrated Wayne's birthday dinner at Red Lobster....we even shared a complimentary dessert :)

I am in a "No spend on scrapbooking supplies" challenge, so sadly no buying crafty supplies for me.
But that didn't mean I didn't buy anything.
I found 9 cute outfits for Sawyer ;)
This one reminded me of the sleeper in "The Christmas Story" except it's not pink :)

Grandpa Wayne loved this outfit...being as he loves to operate his loader, so had to get it for Sawyer.

Grandma loves her Sawyer hugs, so this was the perfect onesie

I had to get Sawyer a few toys to play with when he comes to visit grandma...right ?!?

Don't worry I picked up a few things for me :)
Yummm.
I ate the snack cake already, but am saving the Peeps and Caramel puffcorn for the crop I am attending this Saturday :)

I also found this cool pair of leggings.
I love the pattern on them...so much so that I had to get the sales lady to strip them off of the mannequin, as this was the only small in the store, teehee.

I had to laugh when I saw these earplugs in our hotel room.
I teased Wayne that they had it noted on our file that he snores very loudly ;)

Before we drove back home, we stopped at Cold stone....or what I call it Stone cold, for some ice-cream :)

This was our view driving home.
It was white out conditions.

I am sure Lake Superior was a bit chilly ;)
We always stop of at "My Sister's Place" for lunch on our drive home, but with the weather and slow driving, we decided to drive straight home.
We did stop of at the Holiday gas bar for a burger.

All of our daughters, son(in law) and our precious grandson were waiting for us at our house to not only welcome us home, but to also celebrate Wayne's birthday.
We ordered out as we didn't want to go out for supper and then enjoyed some birthday cake.
Look at Sawyer...he is loving the bunny grandma and grandpa bought him <3 p="">

Wayne's and I celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary on the 5th.
We celebrated by playing Resident Evil 7 BioHazard...well actually Wayne played and I told him what to do :)
Perfect day for us....I think I also enjoyed a can of Coke that day, lol.

There you have it...all up to date now :)

Tracy :)

Art Journal "Peace on Earth"

Another art journal page :)
If you art journal or if you just enjoy looking at other's work, then you have probably seen a page similar to this on the net,  Christy Tomlinson did the first one.
I did a bit of a photo process for this page I did.

I have a huge ginormous jar of black gesso, so I wanted to use some on this page in hopes that the papers I use for the tree stand out.
I started with adding texture to my page.
I started with a napkin, doesn't matter the pattern as I was going to cover it up.
I scrunched up the napkin to give it some wrinkles or texture.
I then added some drywall mesh and embossing paste with a stencil to add even more texture.
Lastly I added the black gesso to cover it all up.
Doing this I can add texture to an other wise flat page.

Look at that texture!!!
As much as I wanted the page to be black...I still wanted to add subtle colour without taking away from the black page.

I experimented with different mediums on top of the gesso to add some colour.
I also tried different types of embossing paste to see how the snowflakes would look on the background.
As you can see some of the texture or embossing pastes took on the blue colour of the mediums I tried.

I added blue Dylusions paint to the right hand page.
See how it is still dark, yet a bit of colour comes though.
I did notice that it isn't as noticeable on the finished page though.

As much as I like the dark background...I added the snowflakes for a bit of contrast and interest.
I also printed up the lettering on pattern paper from my printer.

After adding the snowflakes, I thought the contrast was a bit to much, so added some watered down Dylusions paint with an old toothbrush and flicked it on...see the splatter :)

Now for the focal point of the page....the Christmas Tree :)
I cut stripes of Christmas pattern papers and then cut them to size to form the tree shape.
I also heat embossed red sparkly embossing powder on a plain wood star.

Now in true Christy Tomlinson style, I doodled.
I doodled around the page as well as all over the tree.
I used to be intimidated to doodle on my pages, but once I got started, I didn't want to stop, lol.

Here is the completed page again.
I am really happy with how it turned out!!!
Like I had mentioned, this type of journal page has been recreated by many art journalers and artists.
But what I haven't seen is one with a dark background like I have created.

So this is my last art journal page from 2016.
Looking forward to making a lot more in 2017!!

I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy :)