Christmas Cards 2018

I used to make many different cards for Christmas, but my dilemma was then, who gets which card....funny how it was so stressful for me, lol.
So for the last few years I have been keeping it simple and making the same card for everyone on my list.

If you remember the make and takes from the Crop & Create event, I mentioned that one of the cards,  from Sharon at the Scrapbook Cottage, was the inspiration for my cards for this year.

This is my take on Sharon's card.
I love this snowflake die set by Hero Arts..isn't it so pretty.

The first thing I did was work on the sky background.
I took Vicki Boutin's foundation paper (3 full 12x12 sheets actually) and coloured the background with distress oxide and distress inks.

I then flicked some water on the inked paper as the inks react with water.
Still doesn't look like much.

The die set comes with 2 pieces, one is in the shape of a ornament and the other a circle of snowflakes.
I used the ornament die to cut out the inked paper as it is to go behind the card front.

The snowflake part of the die, is pretty intricate, so I used a piece of wax paper in between the paper and the die to make taking off the paper easier...and you know what, it worked!!
I then adhered the coloured paper to the inside of the card.

I then stamped on the sentiment and I was done!
I really like how they turned out!!

I hope you all have a very Creative Day!

Tracy 💗💗💗

Christmas Cards 2017

My Christmas cards are completed and out in the mail.
I kept it simple again this year..very simple.

If these look familiar to you, its because I made a set of my Christmas tags with this cute image.
Also Sharon from Scrapbook Cottage, made a gift card, card like this at the make N take at Crop & Create.

I love this stamp from Lawn Fawn called "Here we go a Waddling"...so cute right!
I put the cute little Penguins on a tag and coloured them in with my Copic markers.

I used older papers for the background of these cards.
My creative friends can take the tags off of these cards to use in a different project if they choose to.

To even make things easier this year, I stamped 8 images on my Copic colouring paper.
I made sure that I had room to cut them into tags.
I then coloured the sheet of stamped images.
Lastly....I photocopied these stamped images on the high quality setting on my printer and on a good quality paper.
Voila, I have coloured images I just needed to cut into tags!
I have done this before and loved how they had turned out.
But putting your printer on the highest quality setting is the key, I can't tell the difference in the ones I colour to the ones I printed!!

The second time I went to print out my set of coloured images, I forgot and pushed blank and white copy, lol.
They are still usable as I can add colour to the book and the trip of their hats..I can also add some sparkle to their hats.

The second mistake I made was I stamped the inside sentiment incorrectly.
I was using my Tim Holtz stamp press (which I have to say I love!)
I think I put this card in upside down, lol.
So I cut the front pannel off and adhered it to a new card base and re-stamped the inside of this card...correctly ;)

Those are my cards for this year :)
I hope they put a smile on the faces of those receive them :)
Here is a video I made on these cards.
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"



Have a very Creative day!

Tracy :)

My Christmas Cards

Even though one of my goals this year is to not play catch up.
I haven't shared with you a couple of my Christmas projects :(
So I thought I would make an exception to this new goal of mine for my Christmas projects ;)

Another goal I have for this year (and the last couple of years) is to keep Christmas simple.
This means I am keeping my Christmas cards simple and making them all the same.
I figure I can go all out and be more detailed on my Birthday cards I send out :)
Any way.... I saw a tag on Pinterest by Julie Day and loved the simplicity of it.
So I recreated it with my supplies.
Honestly when I first made this card, I didn't like it at all.

But once I stamped the snowflakes (which were not on my inspirational piece) and added the sparkly stickles on the background I liked it a lot better....so much so I was inspired to do an art journal page from my Christmas cards...but more on that in another post.

I also did a quick video sharing how I made these cards :)
If you would prefer to watch the video on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"

I hope you all have a very Creative day :)

Who doesn't love a creative party

Stampin' Up fun.

I hosted a Stampin' Up party last Sunday and we got to make 2 beautiful cards.

I love the copper and how it pops off of the black cradstock.

The top panel of the card is embossed and shimmer is sprinkled on top.

Isn't this embellishment just so pretty.
I love the look of embossing and really love the copper embossing powder on this one.

And our second card has a totally different look than our first one, but equally as beautiful.
The dry embossing on here is very pretty.

We used the copper foil paper again and I love the look of it.
Isn't that mini pinecone charm adorable!!!

And here we all are busy at work.

And then we have this little guy.
I had his parents over for dinner tonight and didn't want him to go home.
Looks like he is saying "Go home!?!...really...but I want to stay and Grandma Tracy's house".
At least thats what I think he is saying with this expression, teehee.

I hope you all have a very creative day and I will try to reply to my messages and emails tonight :)

Tracy :)

Christmas Display

Today seemed to go by in a flash.
I am not sure why, but before I knew it, it was supper time.
I didn't get to do 1/2 of the things I wanted to do, but I guess tomorrow is another day.

Today is Day 9 in my photo challenges.
For Canadian Scrapbookers prompt, it is
"Display"
I love to decorate every room in the house..even the bathroom ;)
But this display is in our basement when you first get downstairs.
This is an old dresser.  I bought when I moved out on my own.
It has been stained, painted, stripped down and stained yet again.
I enjoy changing out the displays whichever the season.

I have my paper quilt framed. I had made this a few years ago.  I had also made the wreath hanging off the edge of it.
I sewed the gingerbread lady and snowman stuffies.
In the centre of the display is a scene that Wayne and I bought when we first got married. The little people skate around on the rink and it also plays music :)
The wooden shovel in the left corner is one that my aunt painted and decorated for me one Christmas.
I put a sheet of cotton to look like snow, to cover up a treasure box my dad made me, which I painted. It is more of a Spring theme then a winter one ;)

The only problem with following 2 challenges at the same time, is that they may repeat each other.
For Heidi Swapps challenge, her prompt is
"Christmas Card.
Because I wanted to keep my Christmas cards simple and make them all the same…I only have this one to share.
I used two different sentiments on my cards. This one is from the $1.50 bin at Michaels.

Here is a quick card I had made a couple of Friday's ago.
I just used some paper scraps and a stamp. I don't really care how this one turned out, plus the stamping didn't turn out very good.
But if I run short of cards…this one will be sent out ;)






















I hope you all had a very creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Last Creative shopping and Parental Bullying.

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel you should have stepped in and said something to someone, but didn't?
This happened to me yesterday at Mall of America.
A mother was angry at her daughter (about 12 yrs old) and was swearing and threatening her.
Her daughter didn't want to leave the mall and the mother was swearing and telling her…wait until you get home, your @ss is mine!
They left, then came back as the mother didn't have her purse and yelled to a gentleman inside the store to get her her purse.
The man knew her, but didn't say anything to her.
I was hoping he knew she was just frustrated and wouldn't really punish her as bad as she made it sound.
I have stepped in before, and chatted or calmed a mother down. Not in a judging or pointing the finger kind of way, but in an understanding its not always easy, sympathizing kind of way.
But this has been eating away at me since it happened.
I know many say not to meddle its not your business….especially with parenting.
But when is it parenting and when is it bullying or abusive?

We made it back home safe and sound.
I started and completed a novel on the way home.
We also stopped off at Pine City Scrapbooking and I found the die I was searching for the whole trip :)
The Tim Holtz poinsettia die.
Wayne noticed that the store had the pillow box punch board that I had purchased yesterday. Then he noticed they had a gift box punch board and told me I needed this.
Who was I to argue ;)

Talk about the pillow box punch board, I did get to play with it last night in the hotel.
My advice when using this product is to use heavy card stock.
Mind you I have a heavy hand when scoring, so that may have been a bit of my problem, as the one side ripped a bit.
I used a cupcake wrapper for the accordion embellishment and a flower…both from the $1.50 bin from Michael's.

These were beside me for most of the drive back home….I think my daughter should have invested in some new socks on her big shopping spree, lol.
Can you guess which of my daughter's these tootsies belong to?

For Canadian Scrapbookers daily photo challenge today's prompt…
"Cards"
Since I had finished my Christmas cards last week, I thought this picture would make the cut :)

Day 8 for Heidi Swapp's daily photo challenger her prompt was
"Reindeer"
I don't have my indoor decor up yet..I don't like it up to early. I will put it up this week.
I made a paper quilt years ago and framed it, so I used one of the blocks I stamped for todays photo.

That is all from me tonight.
I hope you all had a creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Christmas cards and all day of Walking Dead

It is now December, so I can share some Christmasy things with you now ;)
34 Christmas cards complete :)
Every year I make all my Christmas cards.

I make two batches.
Trash cards:
Those are the cards made with my scrap papers and are for the people, I know, will trash the cards at the end of the season.
Fancy cards:
Those are the cards that take a long time to create. Usually I colour the images with my Copic markers and use my prettiest of papers.

But this year I had seen this card on Pinterest (you know I always give credit to the original creator…if I can). I followed the link to Tamara's blog
Of course I didn't have the same stamp that she used, but had this one in my stash.
The blobs you see on the trees is wet stickles.
And yes that is my thumb in the photo, lol.

Since I took step by step photos, I might as well share them with you on how I mass produced these cards.
First off I did 3 cards and then figured…yup, these are going to be my cards for this year, so then  decided to assembly line these puppies.
I also did them in groups of 10 as I was still playing with the idea of doing a different type of card for the card keepers in my life ;)

Okay, so the first thing I did was cut my card stock up to make my card bases.
I always use 110 lb card stock from Staples. I purchase it in packages of 250.

Next step is to stamp all of my images.
This stamp is a wooden stamp from Inkadinkado, but doesn't have a name on it.
The reason they are stamped on the paper like this, is because when I make my 5.5" x 5.5" cards I am always left with a strip like this…so this was a perfect way to use them up :)

Next step…cut coloured card stock and mount the images on them.

Now to cut the flags.
I knew I had a lot to cut out, so I made this template to make things move along more quickly and easily :)

Like the original card, I liked that the stripes were on a diagonal.
I didn't have any paper like that (actually I didn't look to hard, teehee) so I cut this pattern paper on an angle to get the same or similar look.

I put the first flag on just perfectly, then I used that one as a template placement for the rest.
I put the flag onto the flag of the template.

I added some adhesive (my tape gun) to the back of the image piece and then placed it on top of the template image.
Because the adhesive is on the image piece it will pick up that flag perfectly straight :)

We are getting there people ;)

I then adhered the images onto the card bases…Lookin' good ;)

Second to last step…stamp on the sentiment.
I didn't have a dark enough blue ink for this, so I coloured on the sentiment with my Stampin' Up maker.
This sentiment came with the snowman blueprint stamp from Tim Holtz.

Here I used a sentiment stamp from the $1.50 bins at Michaels.
Last step is to add stickles to the ground and trees.
I don't think the original card had sparkle to it.

I love a stack of homemade cards, don't you?

I am following 2 photo challenges this month.
The first one is from my favourite creative magazine Canadian Scrapbookers.
I shared that on my post yesterday.
The prompt is: Warmth.
I chose my snuggle blankets.
I keep these two in my living room and you can find me under them every day or night,
I love my blankies ;)

The other photo a day challenge is with Hiedi Swapp
I am suppose to have a album made and share my pages daily.
Because I just found out about it today, I will make my album or journal tomorrow and share the page tomorrow.
The prompt for this challenge is "So it Begins".
"Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas"
This is a photo of Kristy and I putting up our outside Christmas decor.
This is the earliest I have ever put them up.
I usually am climbing up piles of snow to do this. And freezing my fingers off.
It was -4C today..so not to bad :)

We had a Walking Dead marathon and pig out day all day today.
Just finished watching the mid season finale of tonights episode and Oh My Goodness!!!
I won't spoil it, but intense!
I think I will be watching it again tonight.

Hope you all had a very creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)