Swaps and mothers day

Hello there! How are you? I trust you are fit and well. Wow it was a glorious day here yesterday - hope you enjoyed the good weather too! We went swimming in the morning - it was very quiet - I had the lap lane all to myself but only managed 24 lengths - it took me ages to get my breathing settled - not sure why! I spent the afternoon in the garden - I got my first bed all planted up - mostly onion sets but also a few rows of lettuce seeds and a row of raddish seeds, I hope the good weather lasts so that we can get more of the beds organised very soon.

Today I want to share with you the card that I made for my mum for mother's day - she liked it but I don't think its really her thing so won't do this sort of thing again for her! I also made a matching tag that I swapped with blog buddy  she.

Both of them used the stamp set from Crafty Individuals that you can get here. I did some masking to create the scene and was rather pleased with the little scene I created. 

I've also been involved in an ATC swap - one with That Craft Place on the natter and chatter facebook group and the other with She.

The stamp used here is a TH one and I used a die from Crafty Sentiments to make the flowers.

Here's the tag and ATC I got back She - I was so chuffed - wonderful pieces - the tag is a size 10 so pretty big!

It seems to be on its side - lol!!!! Fabulous Jofy stamps and a fabulous tag and ATC - lovely!

A final ATC that arrived on Friday from my teamie from that craft place and all round mega talented lady   Kerry whom you can find here.

I have been a lucky lady haven't I receiving such wonderful masterpieces! Thankyou She and Kerry - Lovely work that will be treasured!

Thanks for looking today! Big Hugs!

Rachel xx

Christmas Card Club - a cute Christmas

Morning lovelies! How are you? I'm good and feeling very happy after a lovely day out at Port Sunlight Yesterday! I managed to see my lovely friends Anne and Mo - and went over to see Linda and Sue demonstrating at Imagination Crafts:



Sorry the pictures a bit blurry - mum had trouble using the camera on my phone - lol!!!! We did have a great time - blimey - I do look a mess - still nevermind! A happy mess lol!!!!

Here's my goodies:

As you can probably see I got some clarity stencils, some imagination crafts goodies, some lavinia stamps and some crafty individuals stamps. I also got a WOW mould for shabby roses, some grunge paste and a cosmic shimmer mister. The lovely anne also gave me some feet that she had bought! What a lovely lady!! Thankyou to my lovely hubby for giving my girls some pennies to give me to spend at the show - what a lucky lady I am!

Its my first posting today for the Christmas card Club - I joined to try and help make it better preparing for Christmas - I hope to do more than one card usually - but this time i only managed to do one. Its another card in a box - so much fun - I'm doing these with my ladies tomorrow!!! My last one was super lucky too and won over at PTW where I got some gorgeous lace from the Ribbon Girl xx Thankyou xx

I used distress to create the background papers and the images are from a pad by trymcraft.

Love those little gingerbread men - they're mounted on acetate and bob around quite nicely!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

CHNCcraftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: Monthly challenge March

CHNCcraftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: going round in circles

fab 'n' funkyfabnfunkychallenges: Christmas

Hope you have a wonderful Mothers Day - I think we're off to the swimming baths! Exciting stuff! Big Hugs to you and thanks for visiting.

Rachel xx

Jean's 90th Birthday

Hello there - how are you? When you read this I will probably be on the way to Port Sunlight with my mum - really looking forward to it - it was such a wonderful show last time I went! Anyway I hope you have a great Saturday - and if you're going to be at Port Sunlight I'll maybe bump into you! Lsat night it was the international fashion show for brownies - here's Penny as Miss Thailand - she stole the show somewhat with her little bows.



Lucy didn't go in her outfit - she got changed there and unfortunately I forgot my phone - but here she is



such a happy picture! I love it!


My neighbour is going to be 90 today - so this is the card I have made for her. Its using a Mo Manning image:

The papers are by LOTV and are from the heartfelt pad. The image has been coloured in promarkers and cut out using a spellbinders die. The white flowers are cut using a memory box die.

These red flowers and the butterfly were made using moulds I got fromThat Craft Place. I used cosmic shimmer Clear UTEE mixed with tropic red cosmic shimmer UTEE  (also from That Craft Place) and poured it into the moulds. I took the casts out of the moulds whilst they were still warm which allowed me to trim off any edges. Sorry for the blurred picture,

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

DP2:mosdigitalchallenge K is for Kick up your heels

Del Doodlesdeliciousdoodleschallenge: Special Lady

CYPC: craftyourpassionchallengesFor the ladies

I'll attempt to get around your blogs tonight but please forgive the lateness of the hour! Big Hugs to you!

Rachel xx

its another bright one!

Goodly morning to you lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are well. We're all good - looking forward to the weekend - I'm taking my lovely mum to Port Sunlight and hoping to see a few blog buddies whilst I'm there. I won't have much to spend - they really shouldn't put these things at the end of the month lol! But I will enjoy it anyway!!!!

I've got another bright one to share with you today. I've made this one with the vintage journey challenge in mind - there's not much vintage about it - but there's lots of lovely Tim Holtz goodies been used in its making.

The background was created on the gelli plate - at the same time as the one from yesterday - I added some stamping with a TH stamp to the background and also added some black embossing paste through a TH bubble mask. When dry I rubbed over with mowed Lawn DI through the bubble mask.

Next came diecutting - I cut three of the 6 petalled flower on the Tattered florals die and assembled them to make a flower - Hels Style. Then I cut the clock and coloured it with spiced marmalade and scattered straw.  Finally I used a memory box die to cut the foliage in black.

The final thing was to stamp the main sentiment in versamark and heat set with olive wow powders. I then diecut the sentiment and rubed over with spiced marmalade DI.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

A Vintage Journeyvintagejourney - Words, words words.

Frilly and funkie frillyandfunkie- time after time

Thanks for dropping by today and for any comments you may leave. Hope to see you again soon and if you're at Port Sunlight I might see you there!!!!

Big Hugs rachel xx

Flower Power Dream

Hello there! How are you today? I'm feeling a little tired this morning - we had a full on Rainbows session last night doing Mothers day cards and working on our Scarecrow for the upcoming festival - and then it was time to go off to the Village institute for drama group - we did a reading for the BFG. Both girls want to be in it this time!!!!!

Today i want to share with you a card I've made for the Clarity Flower Power Challenge - I wasn't aware of this challenge blog but as soon as I found it i knew i had to join in. I've combined the theme with the Sunday stamper dream challenge this week too. Here's my make:

I've used several Claritystamps to make this card - but let's start with the flower. This petal set was one from the Classroom series - I love it to pieces - I chose 4 different petal types and stamped them in versa mark and added a variety of wow powder colours before heat setting. Then I used mustard seed and spiced marmalade DI to colour the petals in before fussy cutting.

Next came the background - for which I used the good old gelli plate and some TH stencil letter to create the word dream - I even remembered to do the letters backwards to that it read right on the print!!!! I used a combination of red and yellow acrylic paints and also sequin waste to get the main print. I wanted to keep it quite zingy but relatively plain to allow the flowers to pop.

I used two more claritystamps to complete the background - the Blake verse and the word dream that came from another classroom set.  Then I added the flowers and a button. I hope you like my creation - I certainly enjoyed making it! I just love these bright in your face colours - wonderful!

I'd like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Clartiystampsclaritystampchallenge: Flower Power

Sunday Stamper:pinkleart Dream

Penny's pennyschallenges- fave colour combo orange/yellow and black

thats Craftythatscraftychallenges: Inky antics

Hope you have a good Thursday - I'm off to see my mum and dad - a bit of shopping to do then its back to the madness that is Thursday evening dancing lessons for my girls! At least we don't have Brownies tonight - that pleasure is being saved for Friday this week when they're doing an international fashion show. Lucy is Miss Pakistan and Penny is Miss Thailand!

Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you again soon!

Rachel xx

mum/girly at Creative Inspirations

good morning all! how are you? I hope you are well and happy! We're all good!

This week's challenge at creative inspirations is It's A Girl Thing! We want to see creations for females only, perfect for the fact it is Mother's Day in the UK this Sunday!

This week's prize is from MEL JENS DESIGNS and is 4 DIGITAL IMAGES OF THE WINNER'S CHOICE!

I used the Meljens butterfly image and this is what I made:

The image was coloured with promarkers and then I used DI around the image - victorian velvet. The back ground papers are from LOTV from one of the pads I was so lucky to win in their blog hop about 4 weeks ago. The flowers are sheena douglass and the script is an embossalicious folder with a white versa mark swiped over the top.

There's also a choc baroque fluorish stamp up at the corner too.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges.

CYPCcraftyourpassionchallenges: mother's day/for the ladies

PFPpromarkerchallenge: embossing

totally gorjusstotallygorjuss: for mum

ilovepromarkers - anything goes

Thanks for dropping by today - and for any comments you choose to leave! Hope to see you again soon! Crafty Hugs

Rachel xx

Alice's 18th Birthday card from the rainbows

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are good and enjoyed the sunshine yesterday - it was beautiful here - really lovely and I even managed a run and my back seems to still be okay! Fingers crossed it stays that way. Thanks for all you lovely comments on my card in a box - they really are so simple and effective I think you may be seeing a few more!

Todays card is one I made for my helper at Rainbows - Alice - she's going to be 18 in April - now this card is the one that the rainbows are going to give to her - they call her ladybird which explains the ladybirds anyway! The design was based on one involving clocks from this months craft stamper magazine by Jane ....

I started out with an A4 sheet of kraft card and cut it into 2 x A5 pieces - then folded the card by scoring at regular intervals - for the exact measurements see Craft stamper magazine.

Next I did the stamping using a papermania ladybird urban stamp - I stamped in versamark and heat set with black wow powders. Then i coloured the ladybirds in using spectrum noir pens. Finally I used spiced marmalade DI all over to warm up the kraft card - I repeated this on the reverse and on both sides of the second card too.

I folded the pieces along the score line and stuck them to a regular A6 sized card at the back then added the lettering on the front pieces.

Finally I made some rainbows and attached them by strips of acetate. Because its transparent it looks like the rainbows are floating around in the air - I think its cool - what do you think?

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

sssmonsimonsaysstampblog- transparent

thats craftythatscraftychallenges - inky antics

I hope you have a good day and thanks for popping by! Look forward to seeing you again soon! Hugs Rachel xx

Playing with paper - my first card in a box

Hello there! How are you? I am good and had a very happy time yesterday - with my hubby and girls and mum and dad - what could be better eh? My girls did their grading for jujitsu yesterday - Penny got green belt and Lucy got blue belt.

They did very well! After the grading we went out for lunch then had a round of crazy golf at the park and then girls played on the equipment. A fabulous day that we all enjoyed!

Onto my card for today - its a box card - or should I say card in a box.

I was inspired by seeing all these cards so headed off to U tube to find a demo and I found lots but the particular one I used can be found here.

I made up the box first then set about creating the decorating paper and butterflies - I did the paper using distress inks, a sheena embossing folder and then swept over the embossed image with a grey staz -on. I cut the pieces of paper to fit the box then stamped the butterflies in versa mark and heat set black wow powders. Then I fussy cut the butterflies.

The stamps are from Sheena and the images were coloured with spectrum noir pens. The sentiment is also from sheena douglass.

This final picture shows how the box folds flat for folding!

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

CVC:countryviewchallenges Paper chase

Crafters Companioncrafterscompanion: Monochromatic

thats craftythatscraftychallenges: inky antics

ptwpapertakeweekly: girlie

Thats all for today - got another kinetic card for tomorrow! Hope to see you then and thanks for visiting today!

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

A buzzy beach house

Good morning lovelies - how are you? I am fine but glad I wasn't having high hopes for the sale yesterday. Todays post shows one of the only things that sold - and that was to my mum bless her! if the number of people passing though the hall was as much as 40 I would be very surprised - it was shockingly quiet. Still - I do have other outlets which is good!

I made todays post with the WOW embossing powder challenge in mind - the theme this month is wood - and I'm hoping that MDF counts as wood. The beach house is made of MDF and is from the MDF man.

I started by base painting the whole box with gesso then painted the sides with green acrylic paint and the roof with blue acrylic paint.

Next I used the imagination crafts bayleaf stencil and forest green sparkle medium to add to the background. I also used a clarity mask to create the clouds on the roof by using versa mark and white opaque  wow powders and heat setting.

I then took some Art Parts from Wendy Vecchi - the flowers were covered with versa and dipped in wow powders - the yellow, orange and blue pearl - and again heat set. The stalks were done in the same way and heat set with olive wow powders. 

Finally i made the buzzy bees using fimo. The wings are made from webbing.

I should like to enter my box into the following challenges:

WOW powderswowembossingpowder Wood

Polkadoodlespolkadoodle: Spring is in the air

divasdivasbydesignchallenge: Flower power

CFAS:craftingforallseasons No Dp's

CYPCcraftyourpassionchallenges:go green

Simon says stamp weds challenge:simonsaysstampblog Glitter it

wedodoobadoo/wk-2-sweet-as-honey-dutch-doobadoo

Thats all for today - thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon! Thanks to all of you who sent best wishes for my back - touch wood its feeling better - not right but definitely better than it was. I'm hoping that another day of rest should do it good! And thanks also for the wedding anniversary wishes - we're going out for lunch today to celebrate - thats after the girls have done their jujitsu grading!

Big Hugs to you!

Rachel xx

Tims tags March

Good morning all! This is a scheduled post as I'm off to my sale this morning - I'm not expecting to do very well - I never do at this one but I thought I would give it one last try! Fingers crossed though!

I'd like to share my Tims tag for March with you - this tag really was a make do tag for me - I certainly did embrace imperfection - I had ordered a few things already with my tims tag money and there was nothing left in the pot - so I really had to think hard to try to use as many of the techniques as I could this month. Like Tim I started out making two tags - the lighter and the darker - but the lighter one got messed up along the way and I didn't have enough stuff to finish it - so I am only sharing one tag.

Here is Tims:



You can find his instructions here.

Here's my tag:

I followed as many of Tims techniques as I was able to. I did the smudge stamping and kept to a nature theme - but in places I had to use rub ons rather than stamps. Also I used the mask but do not have the distress marker spritzer so I used distress in the regular fashion then misted water on top and blotted after about a minute - it did give a faded look to the weathered wood distress ink that I used  but it certainly wasn't entirely the effect I had hoped for! Still I'm embracing my imperfections! Lol!

I hope you have a great day today and thanks for dropping by - I'll catch up with you all later!

Hugs

Rachel xx

New Release Blog Hop at Crafty Sentiments

Hello there! Are you ready for a blog hop?

Welcome to the Crafty Sentiments Hop Meeting Molly - 

we shall be sharing with you some brand new stamps and giving you the chance to win some!!  There are also a couple of 3 month GDT spots up for grabs -All you need to do is join our fab hop you have until the 23rd to hop along .Please remember to leave a comment on everyones blog and finally finish on the crafty sentiments inspirations blog, let us know you have hopped and tell us your favourite stamp - if of course you could choose just one - Have fun - don't forget the first day was yesterday.

The blog hop list for this second day is:

Mikha
Cathy

Diane

Susan

Rachel

Shazza

So if you're hopping you should have come here from Susan and should be moving on to Shazza next. 

Here's my card:

Molly is looking very retro here - the colours are the same as my mum and dad had in their kitchen in the  seventies - nice!!! It was of course all the rage at the time! The image has been coloured with promarkers and fussycut. I have used spellbinders dies to cut the oval and two crafty Cutters dies - one to make the rolled flowers and another to make the lacy edge die cut. The sentiment is LOTV.

I'll try to add some more pictures soon - my computer keeps crashing - so hopefully more to come! It perhaps feels a little like me - I had to cancel my run today - my back is not good today - I'm hoping its not my new running shoes that have caused it - I can't think of anything specific that I've done! Oh well! Hopefully a few days off and I'll be okay!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

MAWTTmovingalongwiththetimes: Photo inspiration - eggs and green

CYPCcraftyourpassionchallenges: Go green

Ribbon Girltheribbongirlchallengeblog: Green

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon - if you're hopping hop on to Shazza.

Big Hugs to you!

Rachel xx

Boys Toys and welcome Daisy

Good morning all! How are you? Did you get some sunshine yesterday? We did - it meant I had a lovely run - I'm hoping to go again today but the weather forecast isn't quite so good - fingers crossed they're wrong!!!

Todays card is one I made for the Joanna Sheen Forum Card Swap that I'm part of - the theme this month is Boys Toys. I took the opportunity to use a vintage train stamp from Crafty Individuals.

The backing paper is kraft card that I have run through an embossalicious embossing folder, the foreground paper is by coordinations/graphics 45 and I have sanded back to reveal the clocks. The image has been stamped in sepia archival and is from Crafty Individuals. Its a chunky tag stamp.

I'd like to enter this card fr the following challenges:

The male room:themaleroomchallengeblog Vintage

Fab n funkyfabnfunkychallenges - boys to men

Twisted tuesdaytwistedtuesdaychallenges - don't go near the edge and use script

incy wincy - monochromatic

PIOpileitonchallenge: for a guy

Crafty Catzcraftycatzweeklychallenge - Boys and their toys

paulaholifieldcrafts -albc-are-we-there-yet?

I've got another quick card to share with you today - this one was made for one of the mums from school who had a new baby on Monday.

Its an LOTV image and I've debossed some card using sheenas daisy embossing folder.

The daisy ribbon I have had for a few years - it came off a market stall.

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today and thanks for dropping by. Big hugs to you and hope to see you again soon!

Rachel xx

vintage at Creative Inspirations

Hello lovelies - how are you? I hope you are well! Thanks for all your comments yesterday! You are very kind! And our trip to the garden centre was lovely - I managed to get a few plants and had a very naughty cake - yum! Mum and dad enjoyed it too - I think they could have spent a fortune!

This week's challenge at creative Inspirations  is Vintage / Shabby Chic!
All you need to do is include this style on your creations!

This week we are joined by a brand new sponsor called LIVE & LOVE CRAFTS!

They have a beautiful on-line store full of gorgeous crafting goodies!

They are giving this week's winner a £10 STORE VOUCHER!

I made a Mothers day card using the vintage sewing plate from Crafty Individuals and an embossalicious embossing folder.

The card is 8x8 and I've embossed a piece of centura pearl card then rubbed gently with tea die DI. I've stamped around the edges using a sewing stamp after rubbing the DI into the edges to distress it. I added some lace from Crafty Individuals then stamped the images.

Both have been stamped in sepia archival then distressed around the edges. I added more lace around the main corset image and added a TH pen nib butterfly in the top left corner.

The other corset is from Crafty Emblies and has been coloured with distress stain and added. I have also added two Wendy Vecchi buttons.

I'd like to enter this mothers day card into the following challenges:

Crafters Companioncrafterscompanion: Monochrome

sweet stampinsweetstampinchallengeblog: mothers day

AGOACpinkgemchallengeblog: Mothers day

Incy Wincyincywincydesigns: Monochromatic

Inky Chicksinkychicks - use lace

PTWpapertakeweekly: For mum

Thanks for dropping by today and for any comments you choose to leave! Big Hugs and hope to see you again soon!

Rachel xx