The possibilities are endless

A quick and easy card I put together tonight after tea, isn't the image adorable ?

Papers are Panduro, chipboard butterfly is K and Co, the script tag was brought back in a little gift of goodies by my friend Allyson, who I miss loads as she now lives in Canada. Heart border is a Martha Stewart punch, flowers, leaves and ribbon all from my shop.

Remember the little canvas bag my friend Nicki bought me ? Well I did decide to alter it, just a little, not a lot lol, the flowers were crocheted by Nicki and Anita, the button, lace, ribbons and pearl drops were all in my scraps box, the monogram is by Stampin' Up, the bag  was always cute but it is now cute and flowery - perfect !

We had a girlie catch up at the shop this afternoon, lots of laughs and silliness, Margaret is back from her recent holiday and bought us all one of these little driftwood boxes, we are all itching to get going with altering them, I don't think I am going to do much to the wood though as I love the rough texture and wonderful natural colour - thankyou Margaret xxx

I have a new supercute pink Moleskine by way of Anita, thankyou xxx I have lots of ideas already and think that it might be fun to do something together on one of our afternoons each week, we both have the same book so it will be cool to see how each one turns out.

Finally I have my kit from Kirsty Wiseman to play with, oooooooo all those yummy touchy feely goodies to play with, so many fun projects and so few hours in the day - I am voting for an extra day in the week - anyone care to join me ?

Love and possibilities

Tracey xxx

Reflection

I have been dipping my toes in and out of art journalling for a while now ( or should that be dipping my inky fingers)

Jan recently bought me this book, although the publication was intended originally for just journalling, Jan saw it's potential and thought of me.

So here are the first two pages

A few step by steps to illustrate how I came by the finished pages, first was a couple of book pages, adhered to the pages and then gesso applied all over, just leaving the quotes naked.

I then dry brushed on yellow acrylic paint, allowed this to dry and added bright pink acrylic paint in the opposite direction

Both pages were then given a random wash of white acrylic, watered down a little, and then I used a stencil and Peeled paint Distress ink to add the leafy details

I masked off circles and applied Worn Lipstick around the edges to highlight the quotes and loosely around the page, a few black rub-ons were applied around the two pages and then I set to work creating my reflective girl, she was hand-drawn, her skin was coloured with polychromos pencils and her hair is black, white and electric blue acrylic paint.

After I had added the girl and journalled I spattered on some white acrylic and shabbied up the surface in parts with sandpaper

Reflection at the bottom of the right hand page has been handwritten in a black Pitt Artist pen

The quote I used at the top of the page is :

Why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts, and thoroughly examine and see what these appearances in us really are ? - Plato

I am not in love with my handwriting, and at first I wondered if journalling was ever going to make it onto the page, but then I reminded myself that this book is for ME, it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't even need to be pretty, it just needs to be whatever I feel or want to create at the time, the pages can be turned and new ones created, I can move on, maybe there are life lessons already emerging after only one session !

Message for Jayne with a 'y' lol, I haven't used any glitter - honest he he, sorry couldn't resist, happy weekend hon xxx

Love and reflections

Tracey xxx

Happy Birthday Mum

It is my mum's birthday today - happy birthday Mum, love you xxx

This is the card I made for her

I was inspired by a card Bonnie made as a sample for the shop, I obviously did my own thing but, Bonnie's card was definitely a spring board for my own design, thankyou Bonnie xxx I really think Bonnie ought to have her own blog, she is so fun and full of life and so very talented to boot !, you would all love her almost as much as I do.

I used pearlescent paper and card throughout, Nestablities, Marianne design butterfly and flower dies.

This next card was the one I taught in class this week, a little bit of painting with Distress inks, the papers are by Bo Bunny and the stamp is one by Mo Manning, I have just a couple left in the shop they are moving like wild fire.

I love this one because the boy reminds me so much of my AJ, even his hair and skinny legs are the same - too cute !!!! I honestly think hospitals will be full of thumb joint replacements instead of knee and hip replacements when his generation reach their old age, most kids are permanently attached to handheld games or texting ! I thank my lucky stars that my boys are good old fashioned outdoor types, AJ spends a lot of time out in the park playing and loves his bike and skateboard, Robbie is also out and about, playing football and has taken up golf again, although he does give his thumbs a thorough workout too lol

Messing about with Anita on tuesday we decided to quickly put a card together with some christmas papers, using the same design as the card above that I had taught in the morning, I threw this second card together in about 10 minutes.

Note to customers, all last years christmas papers are reduced by at least 50%, to make room for all the new supplies coming into the shop over the coming weeks, so grab yourself a bargain if you are one of those already thinking of christmas !

Jan brought me in this fantastic journal today, thankyou so much Jan, I love it, it is quite big and has loads of pages, each with a quote. I have just read the forward and it is intended for straight forward journalling, an emptying of the head in the morning. I love this concept and to be honest mine won't take long to empty ! But me being me, I have decided to art journal so the pages will be decorated too, I don't think I will stick to a set premise, I am just going to go with the flow - whatever takes my fancy.

So, thankyou so much Jan this was such a truly thoughtful gift and I promise to share my progress with you xxx

As I mentioned each and every page also contains a quote, this I love, here is one that stood out as I flicked through the book :

Creativity lies not in the done but in the doing.

 So very apt !!!

Finally I received this supercute little canvas bag from Nicki, it housed a yummy block of handmade soap which smells divine. Thankyou honey xxx

I am obviously using the deliciousness of the soap in the bath, far too lush and fragrant to leave in the bag and I wondered what to do with the suddenly bereft bag.

Lightbulb moment thus ensued as I realised it was perfect ATC size, so now I have it dangling in a little corner of my recently tidied craft space, housing my latest set of ATC's all ready and awaiting their swap.

The question is to alter or not to alter !!!!!!!!!

I keep thinking it needs a little crocheted flower and maybe a sweet button or two - what do you think ? Should I pretty it up further or leave well alone ?????

Love and little cotton bags

Tracey

xxx

Cards and gifts and ATC's oh my !!!

WARNING - long post - photo heavy catch up

Last weeks class cards, the first is an A5 simple card, papers are My Minds Eye

The second one is much smaller than it looks here, it actually only measures 3.5 inches square, I was inspired by the quilting technique my friend and Stampin' Up demonstrator has used previously, Yee Ting will be teaching this fantastic idea on 25th August at the shop, there are places morning and afternoon  - please ring the shop for details.

A quick and easy card I made in my lunch hour earlier in the week, I love using these shaped 12 x 12 scrapbook papers on cards

My sweet friend Sara popped in last week also and brought me this Gorjuss mug, she knows I can't resist anything Gorjuss - she saw it on her travels and thought of me - how sweet, I don't see so much of Sara as she has a fab new job and I do miss her, now every time I sip my coffee I will be reminded of her friendship. Thankyou Sara xxx

Anita bought me this fab little keepsake for the shop from her recent holiday, she said it suited the shop perfectly and I have to agree as some of my best friends have been made through the shop, I love it - thankyou Anita xxx

And now into this week, these are the cards I taught in class tuesday and wednesday, the first one is using Basic Grey papers

And this second one uses papers by Making Memories

And so on to the Running With Scissors ATC swap for June, here was the card I made, the theme was RECYCLING and I stipulated that green had to be incorporated somewhere on the ATC

I used corrugated card from an old box for the actual atc,which I painted with gesso and then overstamped with green ink and a crackle effect background stamp. I recycled a book page for the heart, a piece of green making memories packaging for the smaller heart and a vintage button, the sentiment is by Stampin' Up.

Below are the ATC's I received in return, we swap five

They are from left to right top row Anita, Helena and Nicki, bottom row, Su and Margaret, thankyou all so much for playing and swapping ladies, there were so many inspiring ideas this month.

July's theme is Circles and the requisite colour is yellow, if you would like to play along the details are on my website HERE, the thread for this month is HERE, you have until 31st July to get your 5 ATC's into the shop.

Finally I received this lovely stamp set from my friends Nicki and Anita today, they popped to Tilly's to make the most of the fantastic sale Denise has on at the moment and couldn't leave without treating me to these lush stamps - thanks girls xxx
Soooooooo, as much as I have whinged about NO CHRISTMAS stuff yet, I think I might have to join Chrissie, Marlene and Keitha in the 'christmas cards early brigade', because these little beauties are so not going to sit on my table unused, in fact......shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................. can you hear that ? they are calling me to come and play !

Love and scrummy Santas

Tracey xxx

Refurb

I have been promising refurb photos for a while, sorry I haven't done them sooner, I have been busy getting my classes up and running again.  Steve from Foto Inspirations came last week and took the 'afters' for me. Thankyou Steve.

Before - the view from the door, you can see the ripples in the floor, the shelves are almost empty after our huge January sale. The sale was a massive success and made it much easier to clear the shop, we had so much stock to store and it also meant we could start with a 'clean slate' ( read this as lots of lovely new products !)

After  - A lovely even and level floor, the newly laid concrete is so much better and much cooler in the warmer months too, the flooring is a special kind that is easy to clean and hard wearing, looks pretty stylish too, I love the fact that it makes the shop so light and airy. Everyone says how bright and spacious the shop now seems.

Before - The old shelving had seen better days and although it had served its purposes well, we really needed extra storage for all the yummy new A4 cardstock. The units had been damaged and so it was a good time to renew the shelving into something that was both more practical and that looked brighter and more open.

After - the new shelving houses over 100 shades and styles of A4 cardstock and paper, we have more than tripled our range and have space to accommodate even more. All the shelving was put together by dad who worked tirelessly to get us back up and running again, thanks really isn't enough, one day I will find a way to repay him for all his hard work and support, love you dad xxx

Before -  the corner that once housed the sofa, the sofa was damaged also, so had to go, and as it had only ever really been used to drape coats on, we decided to utilize the space to house extra 12 x 12 papers.

Dad added some slat-walling to where the noticeboard used to be to house all the adhesives and we added a further 64 paper trays to hold even more 12 x 12 papers, we currently stock well over 500 different sheets of patterned paper.

All these next few photos are 'afters', the tables all set up for our next scrapbooking class.

I hope you all like my little tour of the shop.

What we haven't shown is the area out back, we have also redone all of that too, the kitchen, stock room and bathroom areas. They have all received new doors, units, shelving and a much needed coat of paint and the flooring is the same as in the main area of the shop.

I have been promising these photos for a while and debated whether to post them in the end. I wasn't sure that we had anything to celebrate, after all we only suffered a flood like so many other Britons this year. But, all in all, I am proud of what we have achieved. It was hard work and there were times I felt like giving up but my family and friends were amazing and so supportive !

We have loads of exciting plans and changes too, it really was a kick start - watch this space !              

Love and new beginnings

Tracey xxx

Sports day

Yesterday was AJ's last sports day in primary, he goes up to the academy in september, good grief where have those last 11 years gone ? I am already feeling choked up at the thought of my baby going to big school.

He won the 'bean bag on head' race and came second in all the others, although the sack race looked like it was never going to end, they all fell about in fits of giggles near the finishing line and could hardly stand in the sacks let alone hop to the finish !

At the end of the afternoon, the relay team, AJ looking very casual as usual.

Sorry, I have nothing crafty to share, I have the mother of all head colds, I don't usually get head-aches at all nor colds and refuse to be beaten by this one but it has knocked me for six and I just haven't the energy to craft.

CLASS NEWS

Parchment Craft

Parchment classes are resuming tomorrow, if you had a place before we refurbished then your place still stands. They will be held on the 1st thursday each month. Morning and afternoon sessions.

Stampin' Up

Sadly as a few of you are aware Deidre is emigrating to Chicago in just a few weeks time, I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thankyou to Deidre for her lovely Stampin' Up classes, everyone will agree Deidre was like a breath of fresh air and will be missed greatly.

Stampin' Up will still be with us at Running With Scissors though in the lovely form of YeeTing. YeeTing has some fantastic classes planned for us, they will be held every 2nd and 4th thursday in the month, beginning 25th August, morning and afternoon.

Cuttlebug

We will also be holding a brand new Cuttlebug based class on the third thursday in each month, we have morning and afternoon sessions available, at present morning sessions are fully booked but there are places in the afternoon, this new class will be starting next month ( August)

Please call in to the shop or ring 01472 359158 for further details or to book a place on any of the above classes.

Love  and a hop, skip and a jump 

Tracey xxx

Me in my Moleskine Part three

And so the journal itself is finished. I still have all the tags to make for the pockets and the more lengthy journalling that accompanies them but the bones of my book are done.

Page sixteen - Handwriting

Page seventeen - Music

Page eighteen - Family

Page nineteen - Friends

Page 20 - Food and drink

I don't have anything to blog, I am all journalled out, so without further waffling I will bid you all a good night

Love and wordy wafflings

Tracey xxx