Love you to pieces!

I've been away for a few days.....haven't had much time to craft or even visit my friends here in blog land!!!  I'll tell ya why after my card post...its exciting!

I made this card tonight , of course using Jon as inspiration !
I can't decide which way I should photograph it though, I always struggle with this part....should it be this way:



or is this way better:

 

 Either way, I'm entering it in MUSE #36, featuring this lovely card by Karen M:

and also entering it in Dynamic Duos #72...

And now for the exciting part!!!
For those of you who don't know me personally, you may wonder why my blog is titled 'scrappin'  trackside'...the scrappin' part is probably easily explained....was for my scrapbooking (before i turned more to card making!)  But the trackside part....that is for my love of nascar!  Ever since I became a working mom, I haven't had time to attend races as much. I used to go several times a year, to see my favorite driver, and friend, Brian Scott race!  Now...I'm lucky to go once a year. Well, yesterday, I went to Dover to see him race!  Brian is an awesome guy as well as talented driver!  He hooked me up with some sweet passes so I got a behind the scenes view of the race. Here are a few pictures....I had a great time!

 This one is me, my girls and Brian before the race

 Me and Jon

 Me and my friend Valerie hanging out in Victory Lane

 Brian with his little girl before driver intros....sitting next to Joey Logano, who ended up winning the race actually...

 Me and Valerie in our AWESOME seats :)

 one of the million pictures of I took during the race....was pretty cool seeing the pitstop up close and personal!!

So yeah...that was a good fun day!! Looking forward to my next race which will be...oh....in about a year;)
thanks for visiting my blog today!
~tracey

With Gratitude

At work, on my lunch hour, I sometimes sit at my desk and eat. I use this time to peruse blogs....searching for motivation....so that when I do get home, maybe I'll have an idea of what I want to do. My time is so limited these days!! Today, I saw a few challenges for fall colors and leaves....and so many BEAUTIFUL inspirational cards from all different gals who are either on design teams, or have entered in challenges. Quite frankly, it is intimidating! I think to myself....why should I even bother entering this in a challenge when all the cards already entered are SURELY going to win!! There is so much TALENT out there!!! But alas....creating is a relaxation mechanism for me, and being a full time working mom ( I'm a chemist...I work in a lab all day developing methods for extracting drugs from bodily fluids....yes....sounds fun eh?!) with five kids at home....I need my paper crafts! So anyways.....here is my card, to be entered in the challenges listed below the card:

This is a detailed shot of the card, as I used distress inks, which I blended on the stamp randomly, sprayed the inked stamp with water, and then stamped it onto watercolor paper :



 Here are the challenges I would like to enter this card in :

1.  CAS-ology: week 63, AUTUMN

2.  CAS-ual Fridays, Fall colors and a leaf!

3.  Moxie Fab World, Handmade Cards Week: the Color Media Challenge

(I have included the details of my 'watercoloring' with distress inks above....I hope that qualifies for this challenge!)

Thanks for visiting my blog to everyone who does, I am greatful for each and every one of you!  I'm wanting to get more involved in my blog as some of you do and I enjoy reading about you and seeing all of your personal photos you post.  I'll leave you tonight with a family photo, so you will see who I am with my family. We are a big bunch!!! This is from our vacation to disney in early August.

 

This is me and Jon, my boyfriend, Alexis is right above my head, she is my oldest, Caitlyn is my youngest right next to her, then Austin and Nathan, Jons sons, and JJ is in front. JJ has cerebal palsy, but is one of the happiest kids I know!  This past year, me and my girlie girls merged with Jon and his boys to become one big happy family of 7 living under one teeny tiny roof!  (you think I need my craft time?!!) 

Thanks again for visiting my blog!

~tracey

Hello!

For the past 2 weeks, I've been thinking about what to make for the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab world... the trigger had me stumped!!! Here is the trigger, titled 'in transition'

and here is what I came up with finally :
 I used the title of the trigger (in transition) to help guide me. Arrows to me are a transitionary thing...right? The colors....well I experimented with blending colors a bit, but in the end just decided to do all the rainbow colors next to each other. Oh and since I came back to the ARROWs.....another entry in CASology # 62!!

that's all for now. gotta go start dinner...my homemade spaghetti and meatballs....gotta get the sauce on now so it can simmer all day!
thanks for visiting my blog tod

Life is too short...

 

Unfortunately tonight my love suffered a loss in his family, which is my family too. I have been thinking of so many things tonight....wishing I was closer to my family and wanting to call each and every one of them just to say hello.  Life is just too short....

So I made him this card. I had been wanting to enter the Moxie Fab world challenge I saw earlier today and use my cork....so I did. This is for the  Metal, wood and cork challenge. 

I also used the sketch from CASe this sketch.....here is the sketch:

anyways....gonna try and get some sleep. always hard when jon isn't here next to me....he will be home soon I hope.
thanks for visiting my blog tonight.
tracey

You're a Star!

 So....I made another card for Moxie Fab World's Al lthat Glitters challenge..... after I made the first one, I ran across these gold rub on stars I had and well.....had to make another card! I realize the gold is probably hard to see......here is a closeup:

The little stars are rub ons....the big one at top, as well as the sentiment are stamps that I embossed with gold embossing powder. thanks for visiting my blog tonight! ~tracey

Wine on my mind....

Clearly I have wine on my mind with these 2 creations tonight..... This first one, that i actually really LOVE!!

 

I'm entering this in the CASe this sketch #45 challenge.....here is the sketch:

Here is my second card.....also wine related :)

 

This card was inspired by...

MUSE #35, here is the beautiful Muse card by Marion Vagg...

and for Drunken Stampers #141, BARTENDER!  

I've been thinking lately, I haven't done a design team in YEARS....wondering if I should try out for one. It would be fun! If anyone knows of any that are looking and I might be qualified for let me know please.....THANKS!
thankyou for visiting my blog today!
~tracey

 

a few thank you cards....

.So I have a few cards to share today....for a few different challenges...(as usual!!!)  Here is the first one...
 I'm entering this card into 2 challenges.
 1. Moxie Fab World The Ready Made Embellishment Challenge.Almost every element of the card is from a pack of Fancy Pants embellishments. Matter of fact....the cork paper...is actually the packaging! If you were to flip it over, you would see the packaging...haha.....but since I glued it down, noone will be the wiser! (except for all 3 of my blog readers!!!)

2.  CAS-ology week 62: ARROW!  I don't think any explanation is needed here!

So that's THAT card....I have another one!

Card #2....
This card is for a few challenges as well!
 1. 365 Cards, day 257 Cityscapes revisited....once again...no explanation needed!

2. Moxie Fab World: the stickers and tape challenge.  See the thought bubble with the rainbow arrows on it? Well that is a sticker I got out of one of my Little Red Scrapbook kits!  I did stamp the 'thank you....' onto the sticker, but it is in fact a sticker! I'm always so scared to adhere a sticker! afraid I won't like how it looks and then I will be stuck....so i take my stickers and put baby powder on the back of them FIRST. THEN....I place it where i want, be sure that I like it, and add glue! ( i know, that seems to defeat the purpose of a sticker....but I need to be sure!)

After I wreaked havoc on my craft area the past few days, I need to clean it up! I organized all my close to my heart stamps tonight...omgosh....i have so many! and now i want to use them all even MORE! (maybe tomorrow....if i'm lucky!)

Thanks as always for visiting my blog. I know there are only very few of you who visit, but I appreciate all of you!
`tracey

All that Glitters...

I made this card for the All that Glitters is gold challenge on Moxie Fab world. I used a new Close To My Heart stamp set, and used gold glitter embossing powder to make the rays SPARKLE!!! I originally was going to use just plain gold embossing powder, but when I found the glittery gold in my stash i couldn't resist! Oh, and I used sketch #81 at retro sketches....here is the sketch:

That's all for tonight, thanks for visiting my blog!
tracey

It's my party and I'll craft if I want to...

So today was my birthday.....we won't get into how old I am!!! I wanted to spend a little time at my craft desk, and so i did!  It was a hectic day and I only got 2 cards made....but I have a third one to share because it is just AWESOME!
Jon told me yesterday, after he gave me a few new archival inks I need for the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class I'm taking....that he wanted me to teach him how to do a few things and he was going to hand make my birthday card.  How sweet!   Check out his super sentimental card he made me....and this is the first time he has ever touched anything ink or stamp related:


He wrote 'i love you' using a wine glass, heart and birds!!! all of my favorite things!!! I think he has a future in crafting :)

 Here is the first card I made, which I made for CAS-ology, #61: Silhouette.

And the second one that I used for MUSE #34. This is my card.... And this is the inspirational card by Therese Calvird....I just LOVE this:

I wanted to keep creating, but I am a bit tired....I will attempt to do more tomorrow, but I have all 5 kids on my own tomorrow, so it may be tricky!!! Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Honoring ombre....take 2!

 I made a card a few days ago for the Honoring ombre challenge on Moxie Fab World....but i hated it! So....I've been trying and trying to make another one. After many many failed attempts.....I came up with this one. I ended up taking a stencil, and taping it down to cardstock and coloring around it with different shades of copics. It isn't perfect, but I think it turned out ok. I kind of like the rough look of my coloring.
I added the owl, and used the shades of blue so I could play along with City Crafter Challenge blog week 175: birds. 
So there it is. And now I need to rest my poor aching sick body......I've been sick for almost a month now and I'm so over it! I need some good healthy energy sent my way!!!   Thanks for visiting my blog today.

A special day...

Yesterday was a very special day for me and my wonderful boyfriend....our 1 yr anniversary!  I'm so lucky to have him in my life !   Of course I had to make a special card for the occasion......

 

I used Seize the sketch #3 as my inspiration....

of course, Jon alone is inspiration enough....I think all the cards I make thinking of him turn out best! Here is a photo of a cute frame I found and gave it to him for the occasion:

I'm looking forward to spending many many more years with him! 
Thanks for visiting my blog today!