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 3 of Fun Shopping...not shopped out yet.

Yes, more shopping and I am NOT shopped out yet.
Wayne and I went to Crafts Direct in St Cloud.
I usually go with my friend Sharon to this store when we come for our girls getaway. This is the first time Wayne was here with me.

ok, this is a no judging zone.
I have beautiful paper, I love beautiful paper, I don't need more beautiful paper, but they keep designing beautiful paper.
So I keep purchasing beautiful paper.
This paper is just so so pretty...I usually have an idea on what I plan to create when I purchase papers, but this time, nope....but I still bought it ;)

I also had to pick up these Tim Holtz alphabet foam stamps...they were so inexpensive, how could I not.
As well as these Kelly Creates month and weekly stamps....couldn't pass them up for the price as they were on clearance.

Then onto Crafts Direct outlet store.
They have such great deals...which they did again this time.
I was so happy to see these ephemera packages.
We never see them in our city, we usually have to wait for the Scrapbook Cottage to come with Crop & Create to get ephemera.

When we got into Minneapolis we headed to a Joanns.
I don't understand coupons rules.
Wayne was in line ahead of me (as I like to use coupons for every purchase) and theJoanns coupon needed to be used on an app...so I told him to use a competitors coupon that he had on his phone.
I was then called next, I had the same coupons, and the young man let me use 2 competitor coupons.
Where the teller Wayne had said he could only use a competitors coupon if he had the paper version, not his phone version.
I told him he should have not bought the ink....as I only purchase from big box stores when using a coupon.
So one of these inks was actually full price..every thing else I purchase is with a coupon, on sale or clearance.
I may buy a lot at one time...but I use coupons, teehee.

How awesome is Tuesday Morning!!
I love this store and look forward to seeing the goodies they have when we come here.
I was excited to see these Tim Holts stamps here..and of course a great price!!!

A quick run into Michaels for some more blending foam circles and another Distress Oxide ink (thank you Tim and Jennifer for your videos).

I also noticed that there was a new Hobby Lobby close to where we were, so guess what...I went in to check it out, teehee.
I picked up 2 more of these mini distress ink holders as I seem to be collecting them, lol
I also picked up these rose gold letters and these cute word stickers.

We enjoyed a lunch at Denny's and then supper at Red Lobster.
We will be enjoying leftover shrimp tonight in the hotel as we weren't as hungry as we thought.

I hope you all have a very creative day
I will share my shopping goodies with you tomorrow as phone coupons never run out, teehee.

Tracy 💗💗💗

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 💗💗💗

One Good Friend...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 5th challenge and my friend Lynne chose the theme this time.
It was to use circles, your favourite colour and some type of texture.

Here is my take on the challenge:

Again I used some of my girl images these ones are from the Prima line by Julie Nutting.
If you know me then you know my favourite colour is burgundy.

I had so much fun with this background.
I started by adding gesso to my page and then adding some colour with Vicki Boutin art crayons.
One of the things I really love about Vicki's crayons is that there is no waste..you can use the whole crayon right up to the tiniest piece and the wrapper is just that...a paper wrapper that can be recycled!
And of course there are some beautiful colours.

Because I used gesso first, I was able to wipe some colour away to give a pattern to my page.
I used this mini circle stencil and with a baby wipe on top of it, I wiped the colour away...pretty cool eh?!
And see these glossy darker circles??
I used (again) Vicki Boutin's iridescent glaze and added a bit of the art crayon to add some colour to the glaze for my texture.
This is the same colour I used on the background...but the colour is more vibrant.

I then used an empty paper loo roll dipped into black paint to get my black circles around the glazed circles and the did some splatters with the paint, which I watered down a bit.
The sentiment I printed on my computer and cut to size.

For the dolls I just used some pencil crayons to colour them up and used some pretty pattern paper and fussy cut out their dresses.

There you have it my completed art journal page for our challenge.
I am pretty impressed that I remember all of my steps as I had made this page on the May Long weekend at my friend Sharon's camp :)
Oh yes, and the grass is some washi tape.

Here is everyone's take on this challenge.
I know I say it every time, but I just love how all of our pages are so different even though we all follow the same challenge.

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

Tracy 💗💗💗