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

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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

AHSC no.405

Hello everyone. January 2021 is nearly over already … how did this happen?, may I ask you. Life is definitely different for all of us. I don’t think that anyone hasn’t been affected in some way or another by the events of the pandemic. But during this I have had time to sit at my craft desk and make some cards. I have to admit though that making them has been hard because I haven’t really felt very crafty so when I get into one of these moods I fall back on an old faithful way of getting my crafting going and that is using sketches.

I am lucky to be on a sketch design team so I have access to new sketches to play with 😀 And this week the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and made by Michelle is …

This was a lot of fun to play with but I did change it up a little as you will see now …

Yes this is a Mothers Day Card. I donate cards and these cards are needed at the end of February to make it back to the recipients in time for May. You can see that I used a lace border die instead of ripping my paper as indicated in the sketch. I tried several times to make it rip so I was happy and lets just say that previous attempts are now in the recycle bin. But I am still happy with how this card turned out.

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my design team card for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I hope that you will consider joining in on the fun of making projects with this sketch. Before you depart my blog though I would love to leave you with this final thought for this post.

Focus on today and what is needed now. But also plan a little for the future but don’t worry about it until it arrives.

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

52CCT January 2021 Theme Challenge

Hello everyone; can you believe that it is already week 3 of January! Time seems to be flying by but I am here to highlight our Theme Challenge over on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge. I hope that you will love the theme so much that you come on over and play along with us.

You of course can take this theme any way you wish and you can use any medium to create bells on your card project.

I dug through my stash because I was sure that I had a bell sticker in my stash and I was correct. I decided that I wanted 2 bells on my project so I got some red metallic card and traced around my first one to get the shape and cut it out with my scissors. I used my scoring tool to make some marks on the card just so that it wasn’t plain.

I decided to keep the rest of the card fairly simple so I searched my Christmas paper stash to find something that was nice but would highlight the bells. Once I cut this paper to size I got out some of my silver line stickers and put these around the edge and found a silver Christmas sentiment as well. Just putting it out there … Why is photographing metallic objects so darn hard? You get one right but then others aren’t 😥

Thanks for stopping in and looking at my design team work for the January Theme Challenge over at 52CCT. I hope that you will consider playing along with us and sharing your work on our blog. Before you go off and do that though I would love to leave you with this last thought for this post.

Trying to make peace with what you thought would be can be a very hard thing to do. But when you do live with the now you can find life goes a little easier.

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

AHSC no.403

Hello everyone; how is your 2021 starting out? Well as I am typing this Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is in a 3 day lockdown … it finishes tonight but then new restrictions come into place for the next 10 days and then everything will be reviewed again. So this lockdown has given me the opportunity to get into my craft space and have some fun with my supplies.

Any who onto the main reason probably for you to stop on by my blog to see my Design Team make for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I didn’t have access to the same shape for the sentiment but I did have something that I had coloured in over the new year period.

All of these papers are from a paper pack that I have been working through. I am loving all of the different types of cards that I have been able to make with it so far. It feels good to be using up items from my stash that way I can add new items to it. I used some Black Nuvo drops as well these are new to my supplies but I am really liking them.

The image block is actually made up from 2 different digi images. The Spring Couple is a retired image from CC Designs and the border stamp was a freebie from a card making magazine that I got quite a few years ago but its still a favourite because you can put any sentiment into the banner so its very adaptable.

Thanks for stopping on in and looking at my card design for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. We would love for you to come on over and play along with our sketch. Before you go off to do that I want to leave you with this last thought for this post…

A good way to look at things especially in these uncertain times.

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