Day 5 of Fun Shopping...time for home.

Last day of our getaway and I was missing my daughter's and grandsons.
But before heading back home I had one more crafty store I love to visit..Pine City Scrapbooking.

They have the cutest cards there and I love to see all of the creativity they share.
I found these cute little stamp sets and thought they were adorable...I even picked up the flare for the lamb's face.
Also am excited to play with the Tim Holtz plaid stencil...I actually have an idea for a background I want to try with it.

I know, I know.....I don't need any more papers.
But look how cute these are for Dawson's baby album!!!
I have enough boy-type papers to create many baby boy albums, but these papers and cut aparts are just so cute, how could I not get them, teehee.

We came home Friday evening to my daughters and my grandsons waiting for us 💖.
We unpacked the jeep and went straight for some snuggles...actually I got some snuggles in before unpacking the jeep, teehee.
The rest of the evening was chatting with my daughters and playing with the grandbabies.
When they went home, I went downstairs to decorate for my Halloween Scrapbooking Crop I host every year.
I will share that in the next post!

I hope you all have a very creative day.

Tracy 💗💗💗

Day 4 of Fun Shopping...starting to slow down.

I was so looking forward to going to Mall of America today to get my crepes!!
I love the banana caramel crepe!!
Wayne and I walked around the mall and even checked out the mall's map...only to find out that the crepe place "Magic Pan" closed last December 😭
I was seriously so sad...nothing I ate today measured up.

But these came to a very close second, teehee.
We always get these twists with the icing, YUM.
But today they had something I had never had before...Churro Frosting Sandwiches.... its 2 churros with icing in the middle of them.
Wayne liked it, I haven't had mine yet.

To help me get over my loss of crepe, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked me up some Tim Holtz goodies as well as 3 quilt wall hanging panels....haven't sewed in awhile, but looking forward to putting these cuties together.
We did sneak off to Cabalas in Woodbury (nope, we didn't see the governor there).

I ran into Micheals to pick up some more distress ink round foams, then I noticed that they had their paper pads on sale....a real good sale.

Lastly I went to Dollar Tree to look for a large tote bag to cart my new goodies home.
Sadly they didn't have any totes, but I did find 2 cute infinity scarves for the cooler weather.

I always bring a plastic case with me on a trip, to bring any loose papers home without ruining them. I also usually bring 2 bigger totes for my purchases.
One tote I used for my knitting (as I am knitting a queen size afghan for my daughter) and the other one is full.
I will be doing plenty of knitting on our long drive home tomorrow.

I hope you all have a very creative day.

Tracy 💗💗💗day 3 of

Day 2 of Shopping Fun

Second day of our trip and I am having so much fun shopping (maybe to much fun).
I uploaded the coupons on my phone and got Wayne to do the same thing, and we sure are making the most of them, teehee.

I was so excited to see so many Art Basics by Finnabair on sale at Micheals today.
I have wanted more brushes to use with my distress and art crayons and these were such a great price!
I am hoping to have a brush for each colour family.
I also love love love these silicone brushes (again by Art Basics) for adding gesso to my pages for a nice smooth finish. I have the thin 1" brush, so was excited to find these..again at a nice price!

I decided on the soft pretty planner (remember my dilemma in yesterdays post).
I think the weekly layout will work better for me.
When looking at the cover I noticed that they can not be taken off anymore.
Good call Micheals!!!
Last year I heard and noticed that many customers were changing the covers and the planners were just a big mess.
My planner cover from last year can be removed, so if I get tired of the soft colour and need a bold one, I will just add my last years on here.

Another one of my favourite stores here in the good ol' US is Barnes and Noble.
They have the cutest journals...believe me, I have most of them in my bookshelves at home, teehee.
I took a quick peek into this "The Story of my Life" journal and thought the prompts in there looked interesting...I wish the cover was cuter, but I can fix that ;)
The "Ten Little Pumpkins" book is for my grandsons. The cover caught my eye as the pumpkin is made with those fun sequins, when I rub my hand across it, it changes to the word "Boo"
The story is a take on 10 monkeys jumping on the bed.
And of course I needed some writing or note journals and these are so so pretty.

Next is to Hobby Lobby again.
I know I keep going back to these stores....but they won't let me use multiple coupons in one trip, lol  and I hate to pay full price for anything.
I have the regular sized distress inks and have had them since day 1...but these mini ones are perfect for bringing and leaving at our camp/cottage for the summer as I create up there more in the summer than I do at home.
I have one Oxide ink back at home and haven't really given it a good work out.
But last night as I sat in the hotel room, I got a chance to watch a few videos, I haven't been able to watch craft videos for a few months!!!
Well thank you Tim Holtz and Jennifer McGuire for enabling me in purchasing all of these Oxide distress inks, lol.
Me being a collector.....well I think I may need them all, lol.

Another visit to Hobby Lobby as I really like this stamp set.
It is so versatile.

That is all for today......tomorrow we head to Minneapolis and Crafts Direct!!!

Hope you all have a very creative day.

Tracy 💗💗💗

When the cats away, we will..... shop.

Ohhh I have so much to share with you....its been a month since my last blog post!!
I used to post every day and now that hubby and I are both retired it seems I should have more time...but it goes by more quickly, lol.

I will do an update post or posts later on, but lets start with today.
My honey and I are on a little getaway!!!
Every once in a while we like to head to the border for a little R&R and some shopping 😏

Here we are!!!!

At first he wouldn't let me get a photo of us together, so I was trying to make it look like I was picking his nose....I never once claimed to be mature, lol.

We went to 5 Guys for lunch and then Red Lobster for supper.
Just a little phone etiquette.....please turn off your ringers during dinner.
It is a bit infuriating to hear someone's cell phone go off every 3 seconds (I'm not even kidding..a party of 3 and I don't think any of them looked up from their phone the whole meal) during dinner.
I love themed rings, my friend has one and I will call her when she is over just to hear my theme (which by the way is the music from Walking Dead), but hearing a themed ring isn't any less irritating  than a ring during a meal out.
Off my soap box for now, lol.

First stop was to Hobby Lobby 💗
We don't have a Hobby Lobby at home, so it is always a treat when I get to shop at one.
We also picked up some Christmas wrapping paper.

I ran into JoAnns while Wayne went to Best Buy.
The Joanns here is a smaller store, but I always seem to find something.

I then went into a Dollar Tree.
What I love about these stores is everything really is ONE dollar.

Ashley asked me to pick up the alphabet puzzle from the Walmart here....I found it!!!
As well as something extra for Sawyer and Dawson.

Micheals was next!
I found these really cool keys, they are really heavy.

Wayne picked up a container for Kristy as she has taken up that Diamond Art and has baggies of those diamonds, so thought this would be easier for her to organize them in.

Target always has such cute clothes for little ones.

We also ran into Office Depot as I wanted some of these Job ticket clear pockets..I like them for storing my 8.5x11 cardstock.
Wayne and I love these Pilot G2 gel pens so purchased 3 boxes, teehee.
And I was happy to see these sticker books by Vicki Boutin and Heidi Swapp at the front entrance.

I was very excited to see the new Recollections planners at Michaels today!!!
I am torn on which one to get.

I love both of these covers!!
I am a more drawn to the bold colours so my eye went straight to the Every Moment Matters cover.
But the Enjoy the Simple Life is so soft and pretty.
Ohhh such a dilemma.

So I opened each planner to the weeks (as the month pages are the same).
So to make it even harder, each of these planners has a different weekly layout.
My planner I use now, has the same layout as the bold planner....but then looking at the soft planner I think I could merge my creative planner and my life planner into this one, so I would only need one (but do I only want one, teehee).
Sooooo I was thinking if I got tired of the soft planner cover I could change it up with my planner cover I have now, as it doesn't have the date on the front.
Why do I make things so difficult, lol.

So that is our trip so far and I will share with you again what we do tomorrow :)

Hope you all are having a creative day

Tracy 💗💗💗

Thank you & Happy Day Cards

I have this really pretty paper that I was saving.
That was until my daughter used it for her 8x8 album she makes for her boyfriend every year.
When I saw that she had cut into it, I swear I was hiding my emotions really well....then she said, you were saving this paper weren't you.
Yes, I wear my emotions on my sleeve, lol.
But in all honesty, I am glad she cut into it, as who's to say when I would...or if I ever would.

So it gave me a reason to make a couple of pretty cards with the left over pieces....considering she used both of them, lol.
I made this "Thank You" card.
Such a simple yet pretty card, I let the paper do all of the work.
The sentiment is from an old Studio G ditto stamp set.

And because I had another pretty piece of paper, I also stamped "Happy Day" from the same stamp set for an upcoming birthday card I need.

Because there was a tad more pattern on this sheet of paper I used them for the insides of the cards where I can write a sentiment to the recipient or stamp one.


The inside to the second card.


Here are both of the cards together.
See the pretty copper or rose gold foil on these...so pretty.
So simple, pretty paper backed onto some grey cardstock and mounted on the card!


I needed to use my Tim Holtz travel sized Stamp Platform, as I stamped it 3 times to get the ink a nice crisp black that I wanted.
It was only the second time using this tool and I got it marked up...I feel like I ruined it and cried to a friend via text about it...as I knew she would understand, lol.

My friend suggested to use nail polish remover, but she said it dulled the shine on hers.
Another friend had read to use a Magic Eraser..but I know from using that on my floor that it takes the finish off.
I didn't want to lose the shine, so figured I would just live with it.
At least it is straight and a happy sentiment, lol.
Turns out I wiped it off with hand sanitizer!!!!

I have been AWAL most of the summer due to cottage time and enjoying the outdoors.
But decided to link up my to a challenge on these cards..I'm hoping to do more in the future :)
I have linked up with "Paper Business Papercraft Challenge #10" Anything Goes with the option of Thank You.

I hope you all have a very Creative Day
Tracy 💗💗💗

Adventures Await.... Art journal page

I have a few groups of friends that are into art journaling and we give out challenges to keep us motivated to try new things.

This is our 4th challenge and I was to pick the theme.

I wanted us to use a girl image and something that represents you.

Here is my take on the challenge:

I created this page during the May long weekend that my daughters and I spent at my friend Sharon's camp.
What represents me is reading and writing. I love to do both.
And I love these gorjuss girl images.

I really like the vintage look that distress inks give me.
I started with inking the pages and then stamping, also with distress ink, using a script stamp.

And to make it look even more vintage I also inked around the edges of the pages.
It is a lot of work, but so worth it for the look I wanted.

That was...until I dropped the ink pad...oops.

I made a miniature  book for my girl to hold.
It also has pages that can be flipped :)
I wanted a bigger girl and also didn't want to bring my markers on this crafty get away, so I printed up an already coloured image and enlarged it to the size I wanted.

I used the Tim Holtz typewriter die to cut out the vintage typewriter and added a pattern paper with typed words on it to the die cut piece.
The books are from my stamps that I stamped and again enlarged, and coloured with some distress inks.

Here again is my completed page.
I really like how it turned out and this does show my interests.

Here are everyone's challenge pieces who took on this challenge.
I love how they are all so different even though we all followed the same challenge.

I hope you all enjoyed a peek into my art journal and hope you all have a very creative day.

Tracy 💗💗💗

Listen to Your Heart art journal page

A few groups of my friends and I have some ongoing art challenges.
Some are new to it and some have been doing it longer than I have.
My friend Sharon came up with this challenge, the theme of this challenge was "Love" and to use "strips"

Can I say how much I love how this page turned out!!
When I look at this page, I see me!
I have always said I really don't have a specific style as I love all types of styles.
But this page has inking, and stamping, a heart, burgundy and contrast...so much of what I love!!!
I do have to point out that this page was inspired by an art canvas I had seen on Pinterest "here"

Let us start with the process.
I inked the whole page with distress ink and then stamped it with a script text in the same colour ink.
I love the subtle look to this background.

Then I did what I love to do and that is to ink the edges.
I used 3 different colours of ink to give it a old aged look.
Inking does take a lot of time to do, but it is soooo worth it.
I then added some stamping here and there.

I love how this colour pops off of the page.
This heart started out as a white piece of cardstock and I coloured it with spritzes and inks.
I also did some stamping on it with the same script stamp as well as stamping with some flowers and other odd and end stamps, and of course I inked the edges.

Here is another look at the inked edges as well as the ripped part of the page.
I added some of the same spritzed paper behind the rip for some more pop to this page.

Wondering where the strips came into this page?
I used long stamps as my strips as well as a strip of key washi tape on the top left and bottom right of the page.

I also inked where I was going to place the heart for more depth.

Here is the completed page!

Here are all of the art journal pages with this theme "Love" & "Strips"

I love how they are all so different, but using the same themes! 

And look...I did a process video!!!

If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel...just click on the link "HERE".


Thank you so much for visiting me on my blog today :)
I hope you all have a very Creative Day.

Tracy 💗💗💗

Be Bold, Be Bright, Be Beautiful. Art journal page

Another art journal challenge!!!
This time I was the one that picked the theme...can you guess what it was?
I wanted to play with some bright bold colours :)
I think I achieved my goal ;)

First off I used some Dylusions paint to colour my background.
I love the bold bright colours these paints have...odd that I haven't used them that much.
I honestly did not like the background when I first started out.
After adding the colours, I then used a few different stencils to add some texture to the background.

I used these same Dylusions paints, but in different colours for the butterflies.
I just added the colour on some white cardstock, stamped the images and then fussy cut them out.
This one is my favourite...It is a Tim Holtz butterfly stamp (Thank you Lesli for lending it to me💗 )

This stamp is from Inkadinkado.

I also added some rub-ons to the background before adhering the butterflies.

I used these letter stickers Sharon gave me that she picked up from a discount store...they were for signs, but I have used them on so many projects!!
The sparkly "beautiful" came from a sticker pack.

I also did a process video on how I created this page :)
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures 24"


I am posting this challenge on my Facebook Group Tracy's Treasures Shares.
It doesn't have to be an art journal page, it could be a card, scrapbook page, knitting, quilting...what ever your medium of choice is.
I would love if you joined us there...I would love to see what you create.
Here is the link "Tracy's Treasures Shares"

I hope you all have a very creative day
Tracy💗💗💗