WhoIsTracy? Blog

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow's your last chance to enter the June sketch for you to try.



Here's a little re-cap at the cards I made this month using the sketch. My first one was black & white with a bit of felt.



And my second one was full of color! I have this one sitting on my desk still- it makes me smile every time I look at it.



Here's the sketch for you to see, in case you need it. Our sponsor this month is the Lil' Inker Designs.

You have until tomorrow to link up your creations on Jen's blog post here!

I know I have always proclaimed Heritage as my favourite rose that I grow. But Molineux is going to give her a run for her money! Her blooms are a peachy apricot, with hints of pink that age to a sweet, buttery yellow. I just can't get enough of them!

With all of the dry weather we've had this year, I thought she wouldn't bloom as much. But she is. Her blooms are just a bit smaller, which is actually better because they don't flop.



Next up is a mystery Salvia growing in my garden. She somehow survived the great foundation dig last year and is back again, better than ever. I have done a bit of research on this one, but can't pin down the variety yet.

Any ideas out there?



Lastly, my Coreopsis Baby Sun, part of which was transplanted to the front garden last fall. She seems content with her new location and that makes me happy.

Lots of buds here waiting to open.

This week over on Card Patterns we got the chance to dig into our stash and use any supplies we wanted. I just love it when that happens!

I couldn't resist pairing this sweet pinata digi with some of my favourite papers from Echo Park.



This card felt a little busy while I was making it- I used a lot more layers than I normally do. But in the end I was happy with how it turned out. Must have been all those bright colors I used!

Be sure to stop by Card Patterns this week to see the sketch and what our design team made with it. We have a sad announcement up on the blog, too.

Pinata Recipe
Cardstock: PTI white; Xpress Copic blending
Decorative Paper: Echo Park Dots & Stripes Soda Fountain
Stamps: WD Pinata; Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Palette Noir
Copics: BG13, BG15, N1, N3, R11, Y11, Y15, 0
Accessories: circle nestabilities, square punch, Copic Spica black glitter pen, corner rounder punch, Sticky Thumb dimensionals, buttons

Last spring, I divided my Japanese Iris and placed half of it around the back side of my pond. It didn't bloom due to the trauma, but I was hopeful for a wonderful show next year. And sure enough, my patience paid off. She started blooming earlier this week and she is more gorgeous than ever!

I love the way her arching stems hang over the water. I think next year will be even more dramatic!



I don't usually post long-shots of my garden beds, but I'm often asked to. Since I was talking about moving my iris I thought I would post how it looks in its new home this year.

The netting in the foreground is covering part of my strawberry patch. The willow trellis in the back-left is for pole beans. And the wrought-iron tuteur next to is supports my Nelly Moser Clematis. The Stella d'Oro daylily in the center of the photo just started blooming. And behind her are dozens upon dozens of buds on my Asiatic lilies.



The first Asiatic lily to open in this part of the garden is Brunello. You just can't miss her!

Digging through my photos from last year, I can see she is incredibly early this year. I am hoping I will still have some lilies blooming for the garden walk in three and a half weeks!

It's triangles week over on the GCD blog.

I have a couple fun cards to share with you today that incorporate both triangles and stitching on them.

The first one is clean and simple and perfect for a birthday, an invitation, congratulations, or even a new baby (just change the sentiment out).



To create the pennant banner, I cut triangles from 1" squares of paper and pierced holes near the top edges. Using a needle and some embroidery floss, I back-stitched the holes and connected the little triangles together making my banner.

I finished each end of the banner off with a tiny bow out of the embroidery floss.

[Supples: Cardstock- PTI white; Decorative Paper- GCD Studios Country Charm #1505, #1506 Oh Happy Day #1766, #1767, #1769; Stamps- My Cute Stamps Birthday Numbers; Ink- Palette Noir; Accessories- Ornare paper piercer, black embroidery floss, Copic Spica lemon glitter pen]



For my second card, I went a little triangle crazy! {wink}

I cut triangles out of some fun patterns from the Bonjour collection, then pieced them together like a quilt. I faux-stitched around the edge and adhered my paper quilt to my card base.



For my little flag, I cut a piece of oil-cloth (you could use any type of fabric) and embroidered in colors to match my paper. I just stitched simple X's and french knots, then cut the oil-cloth out in a triangle shape. I attached a toothpick to the back of it and then the entire thing to my card base.

[Supplies: Cardstock- PTI kraft; Decorative Paper- GCD Studios Bonjour #1534, #1535, #1543; Stamps- Lil' Inker Designs Rainbows & Clouds; Ink- Palette Noir; Accessories- Ornare paper piercer, Copic Multiliner .3 black, oil-cloth, embroidery floss, Creative Impressions green glimmer ribbon, toothpick]

It's time for our i {heart} papers design team challenge! This month, we were challenged to work with the gorgeous Studio Calico honeycomb journal kits.

I've been training diligently for over an entire year. And although I had a bit of a set-back last year, I dove into race season head-first this year with my first half-marathon Memorial weekend.

I wanted a way to record some of these big races that my husband and I enter and this album was the perfect opportunity!



I covered the front of the album with some fun patterns from Webster's Pages Palm Beach/Game On/In Love paper pad.

That little faux-polaroid was made with a piece of cream cardstock, a scrap of decorative paper, and then some stamps from Lawn Fawn's Say Cheese, Too set.



I kept the inside cover of my album really simple and just added a bit of patterned paper to it along with a sentiment.



My first album page starts out with some snapshots from the half marathon. These are horrible photos, which is why they're so small. I added some fun cartoon bubbles right to the photos before printing them.

I decided that this album would be a combination photo & smash album, depending on if I have any photos of the races we run. Otherwise, I'll just save bits & baubles from our races or print out our times and add those.



This next page has no photos, but I wanted to add something fun to it. So I used the shoe-print stamp from Paper Smooches Happy Camper set all over the page.

These kraft coin envelopes are perfect for holding our bib numbers. I journaled on the back of the bibs before putting them inside. The journaling is just about my training for the event and experience on race day. I think it's a fun reminder of how hard work pays off.



And on the right-side of the page I printed out the official race times from Sunday's duathlon (my first ever!). I folded the page up a bit so you can easily see my husband and my time and then highlighted them.

Be sure to check out what everyone else created today:

Carolyn Mustopa
Deb Felts
Gretchen Belknap
Kate Baldwin
Loretta Lock
Lori Tecler
Lynn Mercurio
Michele Gross, June's Guest Designer

And did you hear that IHP has a job opening for a social media coordinator? Check out all the details here!

Star Album Recipe
Cardstock: PTI vintage cream
Decorative Paper: Webster's Pages Palm Beach, Game On, In Love paper pad
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Say Cheese, Too; Paper Smooches Happy Camper
Ink: Palette Noir, Charcoal
Accessories: Studio Calico honeycomb journal kit, Jillibean Soup kraft coin pocket, Copic Spica black/lemon glitter pen, Sticky Thumb dimensionals, red herringbone twill ribbon, bind-it-all & coils