AHSC no.415

Hello everyone. Hope that you are having a great Easter. As this goes live on my blog it is Easter Monday so the last day of our long weekend. We have been busy with getting things sorted in my new craft space (see previous post for more details) but I am still working out where everything is going. I suspect that this will be going on for a while to come yet. But at least I do have a space to be crafting in again even if it is a work in progress.

But any who onto this weeks make. I am here with a card for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #415

As you can see this is a great sketch to have a lot of fun with. It does have a bunny but you don’t have to use a bunny he is just a place holder for an element.

As I said up top I am in the middle of setting up my craft space and I don’t have access to everything yet and this includes my paper pads. So what is a designer to do … hmmm … well I decided to make my own paper with some digital images from Graciellie Designs. I came across her wonderful designs just before we had to pack up for renovations. But this problem gave me the perfect opportunity to use some of her designs. I used the 2 takeaway cups and one of the included sentiments from the Spring Coffee Cup Mega Digital Stamp Set. Using these 2 different cups I set up a grid pattern just a little wider than my card front; on the same sheet of paper I included one of the flower cups just a little bigger (one of the advantages of digital images) and the sentiment and printed these out on my laser printer.

I coloured in the larger cup with my Polychromos pencils and fussy cut this image to be my element on the card. With my Tim Holtz Guillotine Trimmer I cut the cup panel down to the correct size for my card front mounting this on black lightweight cardstock. Then I found some purple and red cardstocks that was a coordinating shade with the flowers on the cup. I cut some more black cardstock for both the colour layers but used my We R Memory Keepers Multi Cut Trimmer to put a wavy edge onto both pieces. And the sentiment was mounted onto black cardstock as well but first I added Love From Lizi Pin Stripe Stickers to the bottom before mounting it.

Making this card with limited supplies was quite fun but I will be happy when I had full access to my supplies again. Thanks for stopping in and looking at my card design for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I hope that you will come and play along with us and show us what you make with this design. Before you go off and do that though I would like to leave you with this final thought for this post.

This is sometimes the hardest thing to do but also the most important.

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

PRODUCTS MENTIONED AND THEIR LINKS

CraftOnline Aust. – Tim Holtz Guillotine Trimmer

Graciellie Designs – Spring Coffee Cup Mega Digital Stamp Set

Love From Lizi – Pin Stripe Fuchsia Pink Mirror

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52CCT April 2021 Sketch

Hello everyone. I am actually running behind schedule with putting this post up. The sketch challenge for April over on the 52Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge is already live. I wasn’t able to get this up by the time it went live but I have been able to add my card to the challenge post now 😀

Here is the sketch that we have been given to play along with

Now you don’t have to use stars in your design of course these are just place holders for what ever you decide to add to your design.

I actually made this card before my craft space was totally taken down and I used items that were left on my desk and I still had my box of stickers so they were used in place of the stars in the sketch. The tag I cut with my trimmer and pair of scissors. I am really happy how this turned out using up the bits and pieces that were left on my desk during pack up.

I hope that you will come on over and look at what the other designers have done with this sketch. And I hope that you will have some fun making something with this sketch and then come and upload your make to our challenge. Before you go off and do that though I would like to leave you with this last thought for this post.

This has been so true with my life. I didn’t want to go through what I did but I am happy to help other with my story.

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

No Post … Why?!?

Hello everyone. Sorry for not putting anything up for a while but yeah … life. Several things decided to conspire against me in my ability to be able to put up post for most of March.

I had planned to be able to write my posts for my 2 design teams as I had made all of the cards for the challenges during March before I had to totally pack down my craft space due to our renovations BUT grrrrrrr.

My laptop decided that it would be a really great idea to die just 1 week into our renovations and with all the lockdowns and other stuff the repair people didn’t get to my laptop until just over a week ago. I would have been doing updates during the renovations’ but here are some before and after pics of what went on.

SO now I am starting to get my craft space and my kitchen sorted. The kitchen sorting is a lot further along as we had delays with our garage conversion project it’s not fully done yet but enough that we can start to put my craft space together.

Here are the before photos.

So we were going to do up two places in our house. Our kitchen which is the original one we put into our house 24 years ago it hadn’t been working for quite a while but we were newbies at construction when we got this place built. And some things that we got weren’t what we were expecting especially the large surround for the fridge. It left us with a very small area for our dining table. So as it said in pic 1 – this was going (((happy dance)))).

Pic 2 is the inside of our garage almost packed up. You really couldn’t move out here before we started taking boxes to storage. But this corner is where my craft space will end up. Lots of changes coming. We will still have the laundry out here but new flooring and wall will becoming.

Pic 3. Well the garage doors will be no more so a dramatic change to how our house looks will happen.

Our updated kitchen thanks to Craftbuilt Kitchens and there great tradies. I would recommend the whole lot of them for any works. I will be keeping their contact details for when we want to do future works. But also thanks to project manager Sharon who kept us in the loop the whole time that works were in progress. This is the kitchen that we should have gotten all those years ago.

My craft space is slowly coming together – well this is only just the beginning of my craft space. I have put together enough to be able to start making cards for my 2 design teams. So YES more posts will be coming in the next couple of days. We bought 2 new storage cabinets from IKEA which my Handy Boys put together for me – I am still trying to figure out how to make them work in my space properly. We are slowly bringing supplies back from storage at a pace so that I don’t get overwhelmed and get sick again. Even looking at this photo while writing this post is getting to my sense of order. So I will move onto the last after photo – the other side of the window wall.

This is how our outside looks now – quite a bit different. It is still weird coming home and not seeing the roller doors in front of our place. The painter (Paul) is one of the tradies we met during the kitchen renos – we loved his work so much that we paid him to come back and paint our new walls both inside and out. I love the Maroon colour that we chose for the outside – it’s dramatic and it is different from anything that I have seen. I guess we are now set for State Of Origin this year 😀

Any way I am off to do more unpacking and sorting. But to also ask my handy boys (my Hubby and Son) to construct some stuff for my new craft space. I will share a final pic once I am happy with my space but at the moment I am just happy to be able to be doing some card crafting again. Thanks for stopping by and looking at my pics of our renos. Before you depart my blog as usual I would love to leave you with this last thought for this post.

What I am trying to achieve with each passing change.

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

52CCT March 2021 Sketch

Hello everyone. Here we are the beginning of March of 2021 – Already! As you are reading this our kitchen renovation is half way complete. But we still have the conversion of our garage starting in a couple of days and then the kitchen installers will be back to finish off. So of course we are out of our house while this noisy and messy stuff is being done and I am without my craft space but not my supplies. Actually I started planning what supplies would be coming with me as soon as we had dates for our move. My clothes and other stuff was just secondary.

The lucky thing for me being on the 52Christmas Card Design Team is that I have early access to the challenges. SO I worked on a couple of months ahead of schedule. I may be working with minimal supplies in a half fixed craft space for a while.

But any who onto todays Sketch challenge with it being the first week of the month. And this is the sketch that we were given.

Now of course this is your starting point. This sketch could be turned into a square or you could flip the orientation or even make it into a slimline card. We just want to see the elements of this sketch in your creation. And this is my take on this sketch.

I stuck with the sketch pretty close. My banner is a little longer than the sketch but it is pretty much the same from there.

This card was made with papers that were on my desk from my previous card. The sticker box was still on my desk during my pack up and I found these stars. I added 3 just for a bit more bling on the card. The sentiment is from Paper Rose’s Crisp Christmas Sentiment Sheets and I added a Love from Lizi Gold Medium Size Pin Stripe Sticker.

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my take on the sketch for 52CCT. I hope that you will come and play along with us and upload your creation to our blog. Before you go off and have some fun with your crafty stash I would like to leave you with this final thought.

Leaphere (@leaphere_) / Twitter
When not crafting in some form you can find me playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Until my next post,
Be kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

Products Used
Paper Rose – Crisp Christmas Sentiment Sheets
Love from Lizi – Peel Off Stickers – Pin Stripe Gold Glitter

52CCT February 2021 Technique Challenge

Hello everyone. We are getting closer to the end of February which in my household means renovations will be beginning soon. But this will definitely not stop me from crafting. I think that you can tell that I am a crafter because the first things that I worked out that were coming with me was my crafting supplies and how much I could get into our new accommodations. The final things will have been packed by the time this post goes live 😀

But any who onto the main reason for this post. My interpretation of this weeks technique challenge over on the 52Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge.

I must admit to not doing a lot of mixed media and not really understanding it fully. But I went down the rabbit hole of the internet and got a little lost while searching. And this is what I came up with after my research.

Since I am down to a limited stash due to our renos I had to use what I still had to hand. So in my paper drawer I found the Kraft paper and this was my starting point. I still had my stencils and some ink. So with my Tim Holts Guillotine Trimmer I cut out 3 tree shapes but decided that I would have them at different lengths. Then I stenciled on top of each one with 3 different coloured inks and added some tinsel with my gold pen. I had some Christmas paper still on my desk and laid my trees on top but it just didn’t look right – the 2 smaller trees looked like they were floating on air and the background paper was too bright.

So out came another stencil and more ink and I was hoping that this would work and not ruin my background paper. I liked the end result and then decided to ink around all the pieces and make some pots and trunks for my smaller trees. When I put everything back together I was almost happy then I sponged black ink around all of the pieces and this just brought everything together. Each tree was missing a star from the top but lucky for me I still had my sticker stash on hand; I found 3 different stars to use. I layered my panel onto some green cardstock and then put this onto a card base.

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my design team make for the Technique Challenge over at 52CCT. I hope that you will consider coming along and playing with us. Before you go off to make your creation I would love to leave you with a last thought for this post.

Just a hope that our renos will help our home to fully become better.

Until my next post,
Be kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

AHSC no.409

Hello everyone. I hope that you are going well and the beginning of 2021 has been great. I feel like January disappeared before I was ready for it and here we are nearly at the end of February. I suppose most of my time has been taken up with getting ready for renovations which start next month.

But anywho onto why you have stopped on by my blog today – my design team make for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. This time around we get to make craft with this sketch …

What a fun sketch to create with. If you have read my previous update post about my renos you will know that I have a lot less supplies to play with this time around but this is the card that I made.

I stuck with the sketch quite close but my elements are squares instead of diamonds. I am really happy with how this turned out from pieces that were still on my desk during my packing and I got to use up some of my little bits of supplies.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my card make for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge design team. I hope that you will come on over and play along with our challenge and upload your creation to our blog. Before you go off and start your creation I would love to leave you with this last thought for this post.

Through all my ups and downs I am always grateful that God is with me.

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

52CCT February 2021 Theme Challenge

Hello everyone. How is your February going? Mine is in the midst of packing – well that and my house is getting emptier in preparations for renovations coming up. My house is sounding so different because of it being emptier the sounds are reflecting different … it is feeling quite weird!

But any who onto the main reason for you stopping by today. My design team make for 52Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge and how I made it. Well first the theme –

If you have come here from the 52CCT blog you will have seen how I used this theme but if not I decided to go down a slightly different route 🙂

I decided to make my card the tag – well in the shape of a card. As I mentioned above I am packing and this includes my craft space but for a few supplies. The lack of supplies made me think how I could use what I had out to make a card and have a little fun.

To make this card I actually hand made the present tag layer first. I first cut out a rectangle and then cut off the top edges at an angle with my Tim Holtz Guillotine this made it simple. To make the larger layers I got a scrap piece of paper and drew around my first layer in pencil then I added a 1.5cm border around the image using my ruler. Cut this out using my trimmer again and then repeated this process for the card base as well. After all edges were made on my desk still was my corner rounder so I used this on the bottom edge of all pieces. Then assembled it all together as I laid the pieces together to check the fit I didn’t like the starkness of the white. But I was lucky that I still had my Distress Inks out so with my large dauber I rubbed some Mowed Lawn Distress Ink around the edge before I stuck it all together. The sentiment if a pre-made one from Paper Rose’s Crisp Christmas Sentiments Pack. I added a star where the ribbon would be as I didn’t have any on hand and this finished off my card.

Thanks for stopping in and having a look at my design team make for 52CCT. I hope that you will play along with our challenge and upload your make to our blog. Before you go off and do that I would like to leave you with this final thought for this post.

I will never stop buying paper books because I love this smell of both new and old 🙂

Until my next post,
Be kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

Products Used
Tim Holtz Guillotine Trimmer
Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Mowed Lawn
Paper Rose – Crisp Christmas A5 12pc Sentiment Sheets

AHSC no.407

Hello everyone. Around my world at the moment I am in the midst of packing up my craft space and kitchen in preparation of our upcoming renovations. So a lot of my craft supplies are slowly being put into boxes and stored off site. I am looking forward to my new craft space and kitchen but this period before everything happens is really stressful. So getting to play with my supplies is a welcome respite and I love playing with sketches that Michelle creates for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

This sketch has a lot of hearts on it but I didn’t go down this path with my creation but am really happy with what I made with this sketch.

I still had my stencils and my distress inks in my area so I used them for the top half of this card using the bottom paper as a colour choice for my inks. Plus I tried a new product to me – Jumbo Dauber – to see if I would have less pain while ink blending. You will be happy to know that yes I have found a product that give me a blend I’m happy with and little hand pain. (I have now replaced all my make-up brush applicators for these ) Sorry but these actual types are no longer available near me because I bought out the rest of the stock from 2 stores 😉 Yes I know that I am packing for renos but it doesn’t mean I will stop crafting in the middle. I am planning what supplies will be staying out for me to use over this period. These supplies will include the sentiment sheets by Paper Rose Studios which have so many occasions included on these sheets I am set for quite a while.

I am really happy with how this card turned out with minimum supplies … maybe I really don’t need all the stuff … oh who am I kidding!! Well I did play with some new stuff – only because I heard great reports from others with limitations that I sort them out. This is what we do to be able to keep doing what brings us joy.

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my design team make for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I hope that you will stop on by the other designers and see how they came up with their designs and that you will consider coming and playing along with this sketch. Before you go off and design your project I would love to leave you with this last thought for this post.

Had to put this in – life has kicked me in the butt this week. #chronicillnessisnojoke

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy

Featured Products
Distress Inks – Faded Jeans and Mowed Lawn
Stencils – New Cheese and Circles by Scrapmatts Australia on Ebay.
Sentiment – Sentiment Sheets – Black & White Sentiments by Paper Rose Studios

A similar product to what I use. These don’t give my hand pain like the make-up brush applicators do. Jumbo Daubers from CraftieCafe in Australia

52CCT February 2021 Sketch

Hello everyone. It is the beginning of the 2nd month of 2021 … oh my goodness how did this happen? But with a new month comes a new host of our challenges over at 52Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge. This month we will be hosted by Lucinda from Lucinda Creates. Since it is the first week of the month we have a sketch to create with and this is the sketch that Lucinda came up with.

Now if you have visited my blog before you know that I love sketches but I don’t make many square cards. And it is the same this time around but I also love showing you how you can take a sketch like this and change it to suit a different sized card.

You can definitely see the elements of the sketch in my creation and this is what we are looking for in creations submitted to our blog. This sketch gave me the opportunity to play with a new die set to me. The bow is part of a 3 sized set which I have had my eye on for a while and finally purchased last month but only arrived a little while ago. So I decided to add a bow instead of the circle indicated on the sketch. The papers were used because this is what I have on my desk that hasn’t been packed yet. (Check out this post if your curious what is happening to my craft space.)

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my design team project for 52CCT. I hope that you will stop on by the other designers blogs to check out how they interpreted this sketch. Also consider playing along with our challenges and uploading your makes to our blog. Before you go off to do that though I would like to leave you with this last thought for this post.

I need to remember that I can do a lot so long as I take care in doing it.

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others
❤ Tracy

Featured Products
Bow Die in 3 Sizes – I can not find my exact one but here is a great set from Paper Rose Studios.

Preparing for Renos

Hello everyone. This isn’t actually a crafting post … well maybe it is in a fashion. Let me explain.

At the end of 2020 my hubby and I decided that we would embark on renovations of our place. This came about for many reasons but one of the big ones was/is my changing health which is declining. OH WOW – I can’t believe that I just typed that!! I think that I have been in denial for quite a while. Any who on with the story.

Well we got the approval for finance and planning began in earnest in December meeting with our Kitchen Designer Guru (the only word that suits) Peter from CraftBuilt Kitchens. And him helping us to redesign our kitchen to work better for my limitations. But with this also came the thought that where my craft space is now won’t work with the redesign so we decided to turn our garage into more living and storage space.

Here is a picture of my space – Mid January

As you can see a box is waiting to be packed. This has happened many times since this and this is what my space looks like just a couple of days ago.

As you can see a lot of items are missing and now a couple of days later even more has disappeared to our off site storage. Because while we are doing kitchen renos we are also getting some extra electrical work done at the same time with extra power points being installed so we have to clear it all out.

And this is where my space will be …

Yeah I know doesn’t look like much at the moment but I can envision what will be eventually. I just hope that I make it in one piece to see it all and get to fully enjoy it. There are days in this process that I wish that we hadn’t started down this path but I know that we had to do something because our kitchen and house needed it.

So if I am a little sporadic with my uploads you will know why … I will have limited supplies but I am determined that I will still create in one way or another. I have been planning what I will be keeping with me to help keep me sane during everything that is ahead of this happening. I will be having to deal with a whole host of people and I don’t do this well but my Hubs will be working during all this time so that leaves me to meet with our contractors.

I wish you all well. Thanks for stopping in and looking at this very different post. I will update as things start moving along as I plan on taking progress photos of the spaces transforming. As I usually do with my posts I would love to leave you with this last thought.

What I will focus on – not just during this reno but my whole life. With God beside me I can and will get through.

Until my next post,
Be Kind to Yourself and Others.
❤ Tracy