HAnglar Holidays!

A very quick post as I'm rushing to get this card into the Lovely hAnglar Only challenge (Holiday) before it closes, plus the Boy Wonder is waiting for me to take him to his friend's house for tea!

My hAnglars are coloured with Copics as per usual. The DP is Prima in the background, with Bo Bunny paper on top - this has had a doing with a Martha Stewart PATP. No flowers today - it didn't seem right somehow - so I stuck on some shells which have had a touch of Glimmer Mist.

Told you it was a quickie!  Right, better put some face on and get in the car!

Have a lovely weekend,

Tracey xx

Strawberries, Chocolate and Cream!

No, that's not what I had for breakfast (although sounds like a plan to me...)! It's the new challenge over at Sweet Stampin' today!  We'd like you to use these colours and/or images in your lovely creations this week.  Our sponsor for this challenge is Pollycraft who have digis to give away to one randomly chosen winner, so do hop over and take a look.

Housework calls now before I start my unpaid chauffeuring job at "Tracey's Taxi's" and take the Boy Wonder to his various social engagements!

See you later!

Tracey xx

Recycling ... An Eggsperiment

Sorry about the pun - here's a card I've made for the latest TOMIC challenge. We have to incorporate recycling into our design and that's something I don't find particularly easy.  However, as a keeper of chickens I am the recipient of egg boxes donated by almost everyone I know.  This is so kind, but often results in egg boxes taking over my kitchen.  When this challenge was announced on Monday I knew exactly what I was going to recycle although I wasn't immediately sure how.

Now I have egg boxes of various colours and at first I thought the green ones might make grass or even a football pitch, but no, I messed about with that idea and consigned my efforts to the bin.  I decided in the end to go for a plain brown egg box and spray it with Glimmer Mist.  It then occurred to me that I hadn't used many of my new Magnolia stamps from the Winner Takes It All set ... egg boxes ... space ... the moon... craters.  Don't ask me how my brain works to get the surface of the moon from an egg box but that's what I came up with!

I sprayed the egg boxes (I needed two in the end) with Glimmer Mist in both gold and coffee.  The spray actually made the egg boxes much softer and I was  able to tear and squish them into shape quite easily once they had dried.  I only used the part which holds the eggs to get the crater effect. 

I used Copics to colour my little astronaut Tilda and added glossy accents to her space helmet (apologies for the photo - the light's reflecting off the helmet).  The rocket and moon have also been coloured with Copics; the moon has had some Glamour Dust added and I put glossy accents on the window of the rocket. The paper is from my stash. 

I'm not too hopeful of my chances of auditioning for Blue Peter anytime soon, but I'm going to enter this in this week's TOMIC Recycling challenge anyway!

It was the Boy Wonder's first day at High School today and he really enjoyed it! Long may it continue.  I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time when I saw him looking lost on his way to English this morning.  He thankfully saw me pointing at the classroom door and was able to get to his class on time - just!

I've got first years tomorrow so I need to get back into the swing of shouting "Young Man!" while I learn their names!

Hugs

Tracey xx

Sweet Stampin' - Little Ones

Well, I'm back from York - we got there in the end!  I managed to get a battery for the key thingy and we were on the road by lunchtime on Monday, so we got to York late afternoon.

I'll be on a diet for the next few weeks as we ate out every night.  If anyone is going to York and wants to go out for dinner, let me know - I would happily recommend 3 wonderful restaurants which not only did stunning food but were very child friendly.  And of course, we went to Betty's for tea and cake (Faye, the cakes were amazing!).

And now it's back home to do the washing and ironing and generally get ready for going back to school next week.  But not before I've shown you my card for this week's challenge at Sweet Stampin'. It's Team Abi's turn this week and the loveliness that is Dora has chosen our challenge theme - Babies or Little Ones.  We are sponsored this week by Bugaboo and as you'll see by the creations the Sweeties have made, these digis are just the cutest! 

I'm still in my "round" phase so I cut out my Doodlebug card using my large Go Kreate die.  The dots on the Doodlebug card are very tactile as they are flocked (how terrible does that sound, but I'm sure you know what I mean!).  I added a Doodlebug ribbon and cut the mount for the image from more plain Doodlebug card.  I didn't want to put flowers on the card so found these little foam hearts in my stash.

I coloured the cute digi image with Copics apart from the baby's nappy, which I covered with Blue Doodlebug flock.  Finally I added some pearls around the edge of the circle and put Stickles on the clouds and moon.

Off to do a bit of blog hopping now to catch with what I've missed this week.  Do pop over to Sweet Stampin' and join in if you can - there are Bugaboo digis for one randomly chosen winner! 

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have fun!

Hugs,

Tracey xx

Thank you Mum and Dad

The best laid plans ...  Sod's law ... More of that in a minute.  First I'd like to show you a card I've made for my mum and dad who are coming over to look after the dog, the house and the hens while the Boy Wonder and I have a few days away.

I might have mentioned that I'd had the old Pink Paislee "Queen Bee" pad out and I couldn't resist using it to make this thank you card.   I love these papers - lots of yellows, greens, golds and browns - a bit autumnal I suppose but I find them so versatile as well as pretty.

The image is a Lili of the Valley favourite and she's been coloured with Copics and given a good sprinkling of Glamour Dust.  I've kept the embellies to a minimum ( well, for me!) and have just used some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and a Bazzill rub on sentiment.  The butterfly has been cut using a Cheery Lynn medium die and some left-over vellum.

I decorated the inside with more of the lovely papers which you can just see here.  I'm going to enter this card in this week's Lili of the Valley challenge, which is "Thank you".

It will be a bit quiet on the blog for a few days as I'm meant to be taking the Boy Wonder to York.  I say meant because today my car won't start.  It's not actually the car that's got the problem, but the key thingy - you know the sort, it's not actually a key but a thing with a battery and a chip in it and you just press a button to start the car.  And the battery in the thingy has died.  "Just get a new battery" I hear you cry in unison.  Hmm... well I would if there was such a thing as a place to buy batteries here.  I can get AAs and AAAs and the square ones you put in your smoke alarm but the key thingy takes a particular type of battery.  The type of battery which is normally to be found in a more specialist type of shop.  And shops are in rather short supply here.  The nearest M&S (forgive me for repeating myself, I know that this is a recurring theme of mine) requires a 100 mile round trip, not that they would have a battery for my key thingy.  And anyway, I can't get there because my car won't start.  And I'm meant to be driving to York tomorrow...

Have a lovely, stress-free week everyone!

Hugs,

Tracey xx

An afternoon of paper stroking...

is what I have to look forward to if I can get all of my housework done!  I've been having a little spend (as you do) as I practically have a panic attack if I think I'm running out of my favourite papers.  To be honest, "running out" actually means being down to 2 sheets of said paper.  I'm saving having a stock-up of my flowers for when I get back from York next week - that will be my "end of school holidays" treat, I think.

Anyway, why am I here?  Oh, yes, favourite papers!  A perfect example of this is in my card for today.  I adore these Girls Paperie papers as you've probably realised, as I use them so often! I love the soft colours and floral patterns and the fact that they are double sided makes them even more perfect!

I followed the sketch for the challenge over at Magnolia Stamp Lovers and stamped and masked Tilda with Lamb so that I could put the barrow behind her.  All of the colouring has been done with Copics and I added just the tiniest touch of Glamour Dust here and there.

All of the edges have been distressed using a combination of inks to get a slightly grungy, worn look.  The old Doohickey die has been used again to make a border around the card - it's a fiddly exercise, but I rather like it.  The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the little ribbon in the top left hand corner was from a pack I got from Lakeland more years ago than I care to remember.

I'm putting this card into the following challenges:-

Magnolia Stamp Lovers - Sketch
TOMIC - Masked images

The Boy Wonder and I are off for a mini-break in York next week and I'm really looking forward to getting him away from the X-Box! Hopefully the weather will be a bit better but there will be plenty to do regardless. I really want to do a Ghost Walk (they're very entertaining) and I also would like to go to the Dungeons but Gregor didn't like the Dungeons in Edinburgh because they were quite scary.  I think the Viking place is a must and there's also a Karting track, which is at the top of Gregor's list.  I think it does Gregor good to see life outside our tiny rural community and as I spent so many years in London I get a "city buzz" craving every now and again.  And of course, we can't go to York without popping into Betty's for tea - Faye, my love, I'll be having a cake for you while I'm there!

Tracey xx

Down on the Farm!

Just a quickie for now as I'm late with my Sweet Stampin' post!   Just wanted to tell you that our challenge at Sweet Stampin' this week is "Down on the Farm".  You can make anything you like as long is it's
(a) stamped and (b) fits our challenge theme.  The Sweeties from Team Fi have made some fabulous creations in case you're in need of ideas - hop over here to take a look.

Tracey x

An attempt at a Tag...

This is something I haven't done before - a tag.  I thought I'd give it a try for the Lovely hAnglar Only "Make a Tag" challenge and must admit I found it quite difficult to work with such a relatively small space.  Still, it's a first attempt so next time hopefully I'll make a better one!

I used a combination of Bazzill and Pink Paislee "Queen Bee" papers and cut out the layers with Nesties.  The edges were inked with Shabby Shutters and Mustard Seed distress inks apart from the image layer, which I inked and stamped using a Stempelglede grunge stamp and Pumice Stone DI. 



I've kept the embellies very simple, just some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts (ooh goodie, I'll need a restock of my stash soon, what a joy!), some Papermania adhesive pearls and a die cut which I coloured with a brown Copic pen.  The little hAnglar bug has also been coloured with Copics and I've added a little touch of Glamour Dust to the wings and lace on the shorts.

I made a card while I had the Queen Bee papers out and I'll post that in the next couple of days. 

Hope it's warmer where you are - it's like winter here!

Hugs,

Tracey xx

Sweet Stampin' - Rainbows

We have a new challenge for you today at Sweet Stampin'.  Rainbows!  We'd like to see your creations featuring rainbows - what a lovely challenge for a wet weekend!

Here's my DT card - I went for a gatefold

... complete with wonky cloud!  Er, where's the rainbow?

The DP is all Magnolia as are the die cut fence and clouds, the rainbow stamp and, of course, Tilda with her umbrella.  The sun is a digi from this week's sponsor, Tiffany Doodles and the flowers are a combination of Primas and Wild Orchid Crafts.  I also used about 2 gallons of Picket Fence crackle paint along all the edges inside and out.  Tilda was coloured with Copics and the puddle and raindrops had a squirt of Glossy Accents to make them look wet.

The Team Abi Sweeties have made some lovely cards to inspire you, so do hop on over here to take a look. I do hope you can join us this week!

Have a lovely day

Tracey xx

Round and Round in Circles

While the title could quite easily apply to a typical day for me, it's actually a reference to my card for today. I like making round cards every now and again as it makes a nice change from my usual 6"x6".

I inked up this Tilda and masked her with a post it so that I could stamp the window scene behind her.  This combination of stamps fits quite well into a medium sized Go Kreate circle (to be honest, more by luck than by judgement).

The image has been coloured with Copics and mounted onto a circle cut from my last piece of this pretty paper (might be Melissa Frances?).  The doilies are Tesco's finest reduced to 50p for a mixed pack - again, I don't know whether I'll be able to get any more but these were a great size for cards.  I struck lucky with the flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts as they match the DP so well.

Here's a look at the inside

I'm going to enter my card into these challenges:

The Official Magnolia Inspiration Challenge (TOMIC) - Make a Round Card
Just Magnolia and hAnglar & sTanglar - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

I went into school yesterday to see how my classes had done in their exams.  The results were just fantastic and I'm so proud of my kids - they all worked really hard and got brilliant marks (more than half of them got a Credit 1 at Standard Grade and the majority of rest got a Credit 2 - not bad for a mixed ability class!).  I've got the Higher class for the coming year so the challenge is to get an equally good set of results next August!

By the way, if any of you have seen the summer recently, can you tell it to turn round and make its way back up to SW Scotland!

Have a lovely evening

Tracey xx

Keeping it simple...

I like sketches.  They're great when your mojo's gone walkabout and you don't know where to start.  The sketch at Lili of the Valley this week was really straightforward (always a bonus) so I didn't have to faff too much matching up papers etc.

The image is one of the newer Lili of the Valley girls and she has been coloured with Copics and cut out with a Nestie die.  The paper is from the K&Co Julianne pad and I managed to find some matching blue Bazzill in my stash to cut the Marianne die swirls.  The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the ribbon was in my stash.

This card is being entered in the following challenges:-

Lili of the Valley - Sketch
CES Challenges - Feeling the Blues

You won't believe what I'm going to do next.  I'm going to get rid of the seaweed that is growing on the drive at the front of the house. Yes, folks, SEAWEED.  That should give you an idea of how wet it has been here over the past couple of days.  And I'll leave you with a tip gained from experience ... never have a white front door when you live on the flight path of seagulls! 

Have a lovely day!

Hugs,

Tracey xx