DYSU Guest Designer Spot - THANKS CHALLENGE

Hi everyone

well todays the day I take the guest Designer spot over at the 'DO YOU STACK UP Challenge blog' Their Sponsers this week are ' BROKEN BOX STOCK'  and the Challenge is to make a 'THANK YOU' Project, so why not pop over and join in the fun and you may be lucky enough to win some fabulous digi images or even a your own guest spot on DO YOU STACK UP!! A huge thank you going out to all the folks at DYSU for the inviting me to Guest spot with them this week and be part of their fantastic Challenge xx

Here's my inspiration for their blog, it's a Stepper card using a Broken Box Stock image called 'Surpise Toodles' This image can be found on their website if you would like to buy it and make your own work of art


I used my Spectrum Noirs and Promarkers to colour the image and then I cut them out on a piece of white square card.

I used Spellbinders Decorative Elements Labels 8 to mount my coloured image onto and used A 'Thank you' Stamp and a 'Friendship' Stamp as Sentiments and the verse on the right hand side is from the Stamp Barn and read's

Friendship's a flower for all seasons,
it never will fade away
lasting with a loyalty growing
bringing a joy to each day.
friendships a gift to be given
for then you'll find its true
by passing it round, there's a promise
very soon it will come back to you.

The little envelopes at the front of the stepper card were made with a woodware punch and filled with card candies!! The patterned blue paper was from http://www.cupcakecrafting.co.uk/

I hope you like my inspiration and it prompts you to go off and create something clever or pretty or just fun that's the most important element in any crafting is that you have fun doing it.

I can't believe its just 48 hours before December , wow!! that was the fastest year ever , I 'm still waiting for the summer to start!! Only 34 days left to 2013!! its been a good year this year for me , my first year in blogger - land , my first year on a design team. 9 months ago I didn't even know what a Design team was or did, now I'm on 3, guesting on others and winning Challenges every month how cool is that, so if you're out there thinking I couldn't do that, blog and DT, dont believe it, why not give it a try, I never thought I would get here or have so much fun on the journey xx Cant wait to see what next year has in store...

hugs to all xx

J & C Creations November Inspiration - Floral

Here's another contribution to the Floral Challenge hope you like , there are a selection of spellbinders dies to choose from in this one, my favourite is the layered Poinsettia. It is quite an old die from Spellbinders but still makes an appearance every christmas as its such a winner!! 

To make this you will need

Kraft card blank

Spellbinders layered Poinsettia Set

Spellbinders Foliage set

Spellbinders labels 22

spellbinders Fleur de lis Rectangles

spellbinders labels 17

Tim Holt's Distressing inks Peeled Paint

Tim Holt's Distressing ink Pine Needles

Cosmic Shimmer Glue

brown and white patterned card

Cream, white, green, brown and silver card

clear Glitter

gold Stickles glue

Sentiment

Cut 3 pieces of cream and brown card in graduated sizes, Matt and layer your cream and kraft craft card onto your blank. I dusted the corners of the cream card with a Tim Holt's Distressing inks Peeled Paint ink pad.

Cut out 2 labels 17 the larger one in silver and the smaller in green. Cut a smaller die in silver from the labels 23 set and then a smaller die in brown card from the spellbinders Fleur de lis Rectangles set. Then cut out in white card a Spellbinders labels 22 die and then stamp your sentiment on it. Layer these onto each other.

Cut out your Poinsettias from white card and glitter around the edges with gold Stickles glue, Cut your leaves in brown and white patterned paper and then ink through with your Tim Holt's Peeled Paint and Pine Needles .

Add clear glitter to the veins of the foliage. Assemble the flowers and leaves around your sentiment on your card add some green pearls to the corners to finish.



Tracey Anne xx

All the Sparkles.....

Hi folks

Hope you had a good weekend , Sorry if my posts have been limited this month we are still suffering from weather gremlims in the PC plumbing and so haven't been able to blog as frequently as I wound have liked.
last weekend we went little black dress shopping,  ( not half as little as it used to be) the annual Christmas do is fastly approaching and the wardrobe was bare!!.
Found the most amazing shoes to go with it and a cute little everyday bag to finish the outfit, so I very successful trip indeed!!

 And its put me in the mood for a bit of bling so my first project is quite sparkly for my usual creations but hopefully you will like it. The Tree stamp is from a clear stamp set called Holly Christmas and is from Butterfly Kisses at Hobby Arts and comes with a good collection of sentiments , both the top and bottom greetings are from the same set. The  backing paper is also stamped with a sentiment from the set onto black card with a papermania  embossing powder seasalt white. The tree image has been coloured with alcohol pens and then decorated with tiny red gems from my crafty stash.

The  image has been cut out with a spellbinders Decorative rectangle die and then trimmed around to fit in the green glittery frame. The green frame was made from a technique shown by the amazing Ali Reeve from 'Stamps away' so I cant take the credit for it but am happy to share how its done as I think it's a great way to jazz up a frame or border .

 Step 1
 Take some gold mirror board and have a good scribble over it with some Alcohol pens I've used blue and green on mine
Step 2
 while the ink is still wet, throw some thick embossing powder on the top and heat from above with a heat gun

step 3
 when everything has cooled and set ,cut out your frame  with your spellbinders die

you will get the most amazing shine and glitter frosting look on your frame or shape without having to take the glitter from the shelf , why don't you try it , bet you love the look you get x

 Below is another card made from the same Stamp Set Holly Christmas but with a different Spellbinders die this time I used Fancy Floral Ovals and cut from some different backing card , this was made the same way as before but I have used a different stamp this time from Stampendous  called Christmas background from their rubber cling stamps range, and a corner Punch from woodware on the corners.

thanks for visiting my blog , hope it has inspired you in some small way and hurry back soon

I would like to enter these cards into the following Challenges
ABCChallenges/Anything goes
EurekaStamps/challenge 16# let the holidays begin
MakeitMonday challenge 117# / AG
Eclectic ellapu Challenge /Christmastime

J and C Creations Challenge / Floral Delights

November Challenge Floral Delights Project 3

Here's a card I made for my friends over at J and C Creations, at Maidstone. we went over to the warehouse last weekend and had a lovely afternoon, watching demos by Jenny from Hobby Art and spending all our money on goodies, I picked up tons of bargains and got to catch up with the girls xx

Anyway less gossip and back to the Project.... 

Take a 7x5'' white blank base card and matt some purple card onto it

Cut out 2 Fleur de lis dies in white card and Stamp your sentiment with Tuxedo black onto the smaller one, mount onto some purple card then add to the larger die cut.

create a mask of your flowers by stamping onto a post - it note and then cutting it out

Stamp out a bunch of flowers and mask off with a post-it note

then stamp another bunch on each side , colour with your Spectrum Noirs. Then stamp a 4th bunch separately and colour, cut out and decoupage over the middle bunch.

Pens used to colour flowers and leaves

Flowers -Spectrum Noirs LV1,LV2,LV3 Leaves - Spectrum Noirs CG1,CG2,DG2

Add some glitter mount onto a floral oval die cut and add to main card , cut out your Butterflies and add , then place a satin bow and some paper flowers in the bottom corner

Items used

White Card

Purple and licac Card

Heartfelt Creations / Flirty Fleurs Stamp

Spellbinders Fleur de lis Rectangles

Spellbinders Foral Ovals

Butterfly Die

Spectrum Noir Alcohol Pens

Ribbon, paper flowers , Decorative hat Pins

Sentiment stamp

Tuxedo Black Momento ink pad

Glitter

Cosmic Shimmer Glue

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges
Catch the bug / colour Challenge
Crazy4challenges/put a bow on it.C4C164

 

Tracey Anne xx

Just Gorjuss!!

 Good morning folks

Hope you're warm and well this foggy Thursday  morning, well it's jolly chilly outside in my Surrey garden this morning, the squirrels have been by and raided the rose hips off the rosebush and one cheeky little beggar started digging up my daffodils,I only put them in last week!!. They must be able to smell them or something,  either that or they were hanging over the fence watching me plant them , like little Ninja Squirrels!!!

Taken at the Ace Cafe , London

Well a week has passed and so finally has my rotten headcold , I even managed a bike ride to Hever castle in Kent at the weekend, (needed to get some riding in, hadn't ridden for 3 month's due to a very painful Tennis Elbow) We need to get ready for the Great Bolney Toy run in December taking Toys to children less fortunate than our own, more about that later) Anyway I now have no excuse not to get back to work and start creating and blogging again so here's today's contribution.

The Stamp is from the 'Simply Gorjuss ' collection and is a new favourite , gives me plenty of practise doing hair and faces , this one is entitled White Rabbit which can only be a reference to Alice in wonderland , Well she is isn't Alice here, she's my daughter at 8 years old asking can she go to bed early on Christmas eve so Santa comes earlier!!

I used my Cricut machine to cut out a tree and added a swirl and some flowers and beaded branches to decorate it and mounted it onto some patterned paper from my drawer of crafty stash.





Alcohol Pens used

Face Promarkers - Promarkers-Almond, satin and Dusky Pink
Hair Promarkers -Promarkers Cocoa, Tan , Spectrum Noirs EB5,TN7
Dressing Gown - Spectrum Noirs DR3,DR5
Pyjamas - Spectrum Noirs CT2, CG2
Clockface - Spectrum Noirs TN2, Promarkers Satin

 The little girl was coloured in with promarkers for the face and Hair and Spectrum Noirs for the rest of her , The light coloured spots on her dressing gown were a blender pen dotted over it to remove the pink, The edge of the watch face was done in a fine Silver Holographic Glitter.
I hope you like her , I'm sure you will be seeing more gorjuss images coming along soon on this blog xx

I would like to enter this into the following Challenges
Craftingforallseasons Challenge 40
DivasbyDesign/Anything goes
The Pink Elephant ChallengeTPE174-
creative moments Challenge 4 Anything goes
The Paper Girls Challenge /Thank you
ScrapaliousChallenge /be thankful

She also reminds me of the one of the Children we visited at Footprints Care home in Canterbury. Each year over 500 - 2000 bikers (some dressed as bunnies or Santa depending on the date) ride from Whitstable to Canterbury to deliver Easter Eggs in March and Toys in December to the local Children in need  . We normally ride the countryside lanes on decorated motorcycles to Canterbury first to St Nicholas Special needs School  and then onto the Children's home, They are great days out and the general public love to watch along the roadside and of course the kids love all the goodies we bring, so its win win for everybody, even the motorists don't seem to mind waiting while we all ride by!!

This year we hope to do 2 Toy Runs local to us for the Children's Trust, one from Bolney to Gatwick and the other from Croydon to the Children's Trust in Tadworth we will be bringing toys for them to distribute to the children so NO SNOW THIS YEAR PLEASE!!! as they had to cancel last year due to the frozen roads!!
If you would like to see what its all about, just click on the link below to see a typical Toy run..

Reading Toy Run
This is one a lot of our friends attend but its a little to far from where we live for us xx

TUESDAY ALCHEMY CHALLENGE 40#

 

Hi folks

Welcome back to Tracey Anne Designs and another Tuesday Alchemy Challenge to enter and this ones a Dosi as Challenge 40# is ANYTHING GOE'S!!!
 

This weeks sponsors are the wonderful Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and Scrapper's Delights, both offering free digi designs up for grabs for the lucky winners, so get yourself over to Tuesday Alchemy and join in this weeks Challenge and show us how talented you are...
 

6 single digis to win

5 digital images to win

 

 Here's my inspiration for the blog its a list book for Christmas you could use it for that mammoth shop that we all do the week before the holidays where we spend 3 times the amount of cash we would normally do on stuff we would never dream of eating the rest of the year, like Brussel Sprouts, Parsnips, Turkey breast and of course the now traditional Terrys Chocolate Orange !!( other chocolate is available lol) . You could also give this to the kids so they can write their wish list for you to pass on to the fat guy in red. I am under strict orders not to say the 'S' word before December or my stocking is guaranteed to be empty!

 CHRISTMAS LIST BOOK  Featuring 'Beautiful Bow, Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamp'

You will need
Cheap Shopping list book
Beautiful Bow Digital Stamp
Spellbinders D-lites Medallion 4
Spellbinders iron accents die
Spellbinders Fleur de lis Square die
Penny Black 'Beautiful Season' Stamp
Tim Holts 'Broken China'  ink pad
Gold, black and white card
Pastel blue shiny card
Gold peel offs
Red Glitter
Ranger Glossy Accents

Step 1
Cut 2 medallions out of gold card using Spellbinders D-lites medallion 2 dies. These dies are relatively new to the market and are smaller than the average spellbinders die but lack nothing when it comes to detail, there is a large selection to chose from and they are quiet beautiful and I can see myself and others buying many more of this range. Check them out over on J and C Creations Website        

 Step 2                                                          
Print out 6 Beautiful bows and colour 3 in using your Spectrum Noirs , Any Alcohol pen with do this job but I love my Spectrum Noirs and pull them out at every opportunity. when this is done cut them out and decoupage them on top of each other , repeat with the remaining 3. Add red glitter to the berries and glaze the bow using Ranger's Glossy Accents. when the bow is completely dye (this may have to be left overnight) glue onto your gold medallion '4'                                                                    

 

Step 3                                                                

Take a cheap list book I bought mine from a local supermarket , most sell them in the stationary department, mine was from Sainburys it was in the sale with 70% off and cost me 29p!!!! Cover the front with black and gold card and decorate with some gold flexi border peel offs.  Stick the gold card on first and then matt and layer the black , then I edged the black with some gold peel off stickers to create a 'frame' for the bows and Sentiment to sit in

 

 Step 4

Stamp a sentiment onto some white card, I used a penny black wooden stamp called 'beautiful season' I stamped it in 'broken China' blue and then punched out using a 2" circle punch, then I cut out 2 dies , the first was a medium size Spellbinder's iron accents die in Gold and then a medium square Spellbinders die from the Fleur de lis set in pastel blue. layer these up and glue onto your note book .

 

This project took only a couple of hours to complete, less drying time and looks beautiful. I hope I have inspired you to do something similar it doesn't have to be the same stamp or the same die cut but the idea is to take something boring and make it special.

I plan to make more for my friends and family with their favourite things on the medallions like Dragons, butterflies , shoes and motorbikes !! If you can stamp it ,you can put it on...

Have a good day and don't forget to pop over to Tuesday Alchemy for a chance to win some great digi images and join in the fun, share your ideas and show us your creativity

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges

Artistic inspirations Challenge 15
LadyAnneschallenges Anything Goes
EurekaStamps Challenge 14 - Scripture or inspirational sayings
Lawnscaping challenge -Dust'emoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Tuesday Alchemy Challenge 39# ANYTHING BUT A CARD




Morning fellow Crafter's

 Welcome back to my blog I hope you all had a super weekend , As I did, we were Celebrating Halloween, watching Fireworks and eating jacket spuds full of chilli and cheese , drinking Lemonade and laughing with friends, a great time was had by everyone.

This weeks Tuesday Alchemy challenge 39# is ANYTHING BUT A CARD ,Huge thanks to our 3 sponsers who are Stitchy bear Digital Stamps, LEJ Designs and Broken Box Designs who are offering up $10 store vouchers , some digital images and a Holiday Stamp toodle set as prizes for the lucky winner entries of this weeks blog Challenge.  So get your creativy out and start making something to share with us at Tuesday Alchemy and be in with a chance to win 


My Contribution to their blog this week is my memory book and the reasons why I picked this project. I thought for a change I would tell you 'why' I choose to make this, rather then 'how' I made it....




Well its dull and grey outside in Soggy Blighty today , the rain has held off for 24 hours but there's a fog over the garden so it feels as winter is upon us now more than Autumn. I thought I would share with you how we spend our Christmas Eve.
30 miles from where we live in Surrey is a stately home called Knole House and in its grounds the Reindeer roam freely, so every year myself, my husband and daughters go up to the park and meet with our dear friends and their families and we have a lovely picnic of hot Chicken wings, mulled wine and mince pies and the little ones feed the Reindeer carrots and apples. Most times they are really shy (the Reindeer not the children) but if the winter is cold and they are hungry enough the brave ones will come up and eat out of your hand. Its a wonderful experience and we look forward to it every December and it's a world away from the busy town and mad day to day lives we come from

So that is the inspiration for this memory book, the joy and pleasure we had that day and the memories saved in an album to be looked at a later date. I will be putting our photos in later..

It consists of 3 inserted card pages which are double sided so there are 4 picture frames inside and there is space on the adjacent pages to do some journaling, to add times and dates and of course memories. The cover has been decorated with some silver card , soft lilac feathers and a beautiful Reindeer topper made using some Spellbinder  die-cuts ,the Persian motifs set Cut in white and purple and a Marianne Design Reindeer Die. I've added some gold and white paper flowers to the right-hand corner and a giant wired bow. There are lilac pearls in the corners too and the book is tied closed with some lilac ribbon that is attached to the inside cover and back of the book. Inside the book are silver frames to insert photos in and a selection of round and square white cards to journal on .
The corners of the pages have been decorated with reindeers, Sleighs and snowflakes
Hope you like it and it inspires you to make your own memory book or something similar
xx

Entering this in the following challenges

Created with love - Challenge 16 no Red/green Christmas

Try it on Tuesday Challenge -Memories

Can you digit Challenge -Favorite animal

Through the craftroom door challenge -Anything goes

Fancy Sweetie Trees ...

Hi everybody ,

Just a quick fly by today as I'm up to the eyeballs in stuff to do , have been under the weather for the last few days and I've got a bit behind in the household chores!! was away in Hampshire at a firework party on Satuday and took most of sunday to recover so havent done much plus the Gremlins have been chewing on the Internet cable again and we lost contact with the outside world for a few days, happens a lot in the raining season which in Britain is anytime between September to July!! I think this years summer was cancelled due to lack of interest!!!!

Any hows here's today project.....
SWEETIE TREES..
great to decorate the table at Christmas or to give as a gift if you are visiting , I've even seen them at wedding just covered in mints to make the wedding decor, they looked fabulous . The ones below are my first attempt at them and I'm quite pleased with the results and plan to make more to give as gifts and sell on my Xmas craft stall at our local Club which helps raise money for the British legion
 

To make these you will need
PVA glue
long Pins
Polystyrene balls -1 per tree
Small tin bucket
Plaster of Paris (POP)
Ribbon
Topper
3 packets of toffees, mints ,sherbets etc..
9'' stick

Step1
 First paint your polystyrene ball a nice colour so when the sweets start to disappear you are not left with an ugly white ball to look at, leave to dry

Step 2
Decorate you stick with ribbon and then set in plaster of Paris in the centre of the tin bucket, made sure to use a tin one as the POP gets hot and would melt a plastic one!!

Step 3
Decorate the tin with some glitter ribbon or a topper or even a cup cake wrapper will do anything the brightens it up!! I put some double sided tape round mine and them covered the tape with glitter on the front  I've put a Santa on one and a sentiment of another ..

Step 4
Take your painted polystyrene ball, now dry, and push a pencil or pen inside it to make a hole. Dig in half way then put some PVA down the hole and push onto your stick, again leave to dry

Step 5
Take your sweets and dip one end in some PVA glue and then pin onto the ball starting at the bottom and working your way up to the top. put a little glue on the pin as well as you dont want it to be pulled out with the sweet the longer the pins the lest chance that will happen. Different sweets make different trees, all white mints look great on wedding tables where as purple and gold are great at Halloween, and multicoloured ones arefab at Christmas...

Step 6
Decorate the bare spaces on your ball if you have any with some ribbon and then tie a large ribbon around the stick to finish . Always make sure the tin at the bottom will be big enough to support your finished tree as when they are covered in sweets they become quiet heavy and always supervise Children as the more determined little monsters will always find a way of getting to the pins inside the ball, or using it as a hammer to bash their sibling with!!! At best you could just come back and find a bald tree !!

I would like to enter these in the following Challenges
Monochrome Challenge /come and get it
Loolipop crafts Challenge 93# Halloween
Pile it on Challenge 45# make it sparkle
celebrate the season/ greatimpressionsChallenge

Boozy Wine bottle.. BUGALOO DIGI STAMPS



Morning All out in Crafty land

 

Today has started well by finding out I'm a C.R.A.F.T. Winner over at the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge blog and soon I will be receiving 4 free Ribbon Spools from Fantastic Ribbons Good times !!

 

 If you would like to be in with a chance of winning a Prize why not pop over there and check out this weeks Challenge and while you're at it don't forget to look in on Tuesday Alchemy's Challenge too. Two really good Challenge blogs worth a visit...

 

In today's project I've used a Bugaloo Design. I had a lot to choose from and you will be seeing more of them later but for now I think I will stick to using this one with a Christmas theme and do something appropriate for the season.

This boozy lush is JJ , and the digi stamp is called 'JJchristmas- cheers' I wonder if she is based on a real person,  anyway it seemed the right thing to do to put her on a wine bottle Sleeve.

 Its the easiest thing to make and looks cool if you are giving a bottle as a gift, This bottle will be consumed later in the evening as I'm told a glass of wine a day is good for you (I'm up to December 12th 2014 so far !!!)
It's also supposed to help with the odd headache but by the look on JJ's face, its gonna give her a major one in the morning.


 Boozy Wine Bottle Sleeve

You will need:
Red Card
HunkyDory Polka dot Patterned card
HunkyDory snowflake Patterned Red card
JJ Christmas- Cheers digi Stamp
Spectrum Noirs
Spellbinders Floral Oval Die set
Double sided tape
polka dot Acetate
Glitter
Silk Flowers
Sentiment
Red and Gold ribbon

Step 1
Take a piece of A4 Red card and cut  so it is 15cm x 29cm. put it on your Hougie board if you have one in a landscrape position and score at 7cm,14cm 21cm and 28cm you will have 1 cm left which will be your 'lip' to stick it together with

Step 2

Cut an aperture in the first panel this is where the design is going to cover. Colour your digi image and cut out I used Spectrum Noirs Red DR5 for the bow,straw and berries, the dress and holly leaves were Green DG3, DG2, CG2, the boots were DG3 and the glass and her hair were CT3 and OR1. The flesh i.e the face, arms and legs were a combination of Pro-markers satin , Putty and Almond.  You will find her on the Bugaloo website under sassy girls and my my, isn't she just that!!

Step 3

 Cut a 9cm square in red card and score at 1cm on all four sides, once that is done cut a tag out of the corners so you can later fold and stick to make the top of the bottle sleeve cover. It will form the top of the sleeve and will slide over your folded box/rectangle box shape sleeve when you have decorated the front.  Cut an aperture in the middle of your square for the neck of the bottle to slide into, don't be mean with the size of the hole you don't want it to get stuck half way up. I used a 4 cm die on mine from the spellbinders set  Sprightly Spockets'  but a plain Circle cut out or hole punch will do as long as its in the middle. Save the cut out from the sleeve top and you can mount your sentiment on it later ....

Step 4

 using your Spellbinders Floral Oval Dies cut 1 medium and 1 large diecut from the 2 patterned cards. Cut out the centre of the smallest diecut using the dots around the oval as a guide  Take smallest metal die (not paper diecut ) and cut an aperture in the larger die, fit smallest diecut into largest diecut and back with Acetate, ,As Alexander meerkat would say 'SIMPLES! 

 Step 5

 Fold Red card into rectangle shape and stick down lip and then add lid and stick on , Decorate with some double sided tape wrapped round the box top and bottom and then cover with glitter , add some silk flowers in the corner and a sentiment at the top and you are finished.

I also thought it would be nice to make a matching card to accompany the wine sleeve

The centre design is the same with an aperture in the middle of the card but I decided to change the colours a little on the back ground . The gold star paper is from the HunkyDory range, I believe this one (as where the 2 patterned cards above) were  found in a paper set that came free with their magazine. and the corners are some old favourites I use a lot from the Marianne Designs dies Range. The Sentiment in the left hand corner is also HunkyDory.
 

 

 All you need to do now is put it on your bottle and tie some ribbon round the lid of the bottle to make it that perfect gift for the perfect host or you could just stay indoors in the warm by the fire and admire your handy work as you polish off the bottle , don't forget DRINK RESPONSIBLY AND NEVER ALONE XX

These projects have been entered in the following Challenges
All that Scraps/Anything goes Challenge (weekly)
Lady Anne's Challenges/Anything Goes (monthly)
Diva's by Design/Festive Challenge 59#  (Weekly)
ABCChristmas Challenge 'V' for Vibrant Colours (weekly)
Clear it out Challenge /Gift
Paperminutes Challenge 241 /wrap something
The Crafty Pad Christmas is coming Challenge 194#
 

Till next time

Happy Crafting xxx