Real santa at the christmas card club

Hello Lovelies. How are you? I hope you are well and happy - sending hugs to those that need it. We're all okay - I had a very relaxed day yesterday - I did a swim then went out for lunch with my friend Julie. We went to a garden centre and I bought a new bird feeder. Our old bird table was blown over in the last batch of winds - Shaun always loved the birds in the garden and fed them religiously. Now its my turn to look after them - I thought he would approve of the new feeder. I also got some Niger seeds ad am hoping that the gold finches tat we have had visit in previous years may return now! Will keep you posted.

Well I'm a day early with this post but since its the first tomorrow I have an IC post for then. So here I am with the next batch of three Christmas cards.

They are all pretty CAS.

This one uses darkroom door stamps and a Tim layering stencil.

This one uses darkroom door stamps.

This one uses Tim stamps and layering stencils.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

playtime with my scribbly birds

Hello lovelies - well I should be at the swimming pool right now but my little Penny kept me awake from about 3am. She wanted to sleep with mummy - she slept but I didn't! Typical isn't it? Anyway I thought I would have a bit of time at home instead of swimming. So here I am. Thanks for all your lovely comments on my toucan card - I'm glad you liked it as much as I did! I've got another bird themed piece to share with you today. It was my idea for a journal page but since the journal hasn't arrived yet I made it into a wall hanging. I've used my new Dina Wakely stencil and stamps to make this plus my new evergreen bough distress paint.

I started with a piece of cardboard that I tore to reveal part of the inner - then used grungepaste and a birds stencil to give some texture to the background. Once dry I added a coat of gesso then a coat of evergreen bough distress paint. I spritzed and flicked with water and removed excess paint before allowing to dry. Then I sprayed with distress stain sprays - iced spruce, denim and the silver one. Once this was dry I added treasure gold to the background birds.

Here's a close up which shows the text stamping that came next and two of the scribbly birds themselves. I also repeated the text in boxes of my writing too.

The scribbly birds were stamped onto card, cut out and coloured with spectrum noir pens then added to the piece.

I should like to enter this into the following challenge:

countryviewchallenges - use something new to you

Big hugs to you and hope you have a good Thursday!

Rachel x

Things with wings at Clarity

Hello Lovelies - hope you are well and thanks for all the lovely comments on my last post - the ladies did indeed enjoy coffee pot and we had a lovely inky time, chat and cake. What more could a girl want?

Today I want to share with you my make for the Clarity Challenge this month - I almost didn't make it - but I finally got my finger out last night and this is what I came up with:

I started by stamping the toucan image then coloured them up using spectrum noir pencils - I looked up the colours on google - there were quite a variety of different colours. I chose one of the brighter colour schemes - I wanted to make a cheerful card. After colouring I masked then used a clarity stencils and brushed over with clarity brushes using a variety of colours of adirondack inks. Finally I stamped the magical stamp and went around the edge with a red spectrum noir pencil. Here's a close up:

I would like to enter this into claritystampchallenge -challenge-23.

I hope you have a good evening! Take care. Rachel xx

coffee pot on Monday

Hello Lovelies. Well its been another good day - we've been at the gym today - well the swimming pool anyway. Lucy and Penny really enjoyed it - so that makes me smile. When we got back we made up some kits for coffee pot tomorrow - these are the cards my ladies should be making using the new sheena douglass die and stamp kits.

Here's a closer look at each make.

I hope the ladies enjoy making these - I'll let you know how they get on - but I must say I'm well impressed with these stamp and die sets - they're wonderful.

Big hugs to you and thanks for dropping by!

Hugs

Rachel x

you gotta have faith

Hello Lovelies - well its been a good day for us - I got some housework done then we all went off to a local playbarn. The girls had a good run around and I got some crafting done. Then we all went to a friends toyshop looking for birthday presents for some other friends. Finally we landed up at my mum and dads and had a lovely tea. So an all round fun day really.

I have a card to share with you that I started almost two weeks ago at coffee pot. The idea was to use chalks and stencils. I hadn't used chalks in such a long time it was lovely and very therapeutic. I did two pieces using a variety of leaf stencils and put them together in this card.

I hope you like it!

Big hugs to you and hope the rest of your weekend goes well.

Rachel xx

a scenic make

Hello lovelies - hope you are well - thanks for your continued support - I do appreciate it! I'm trying to get around to visit if you leave a comment but I am getting myself behind - hopefully I'll start to settle down soon into some sort of pattern. I want to share a card I made on Thursday afternoon whilst at my mums - I used crafty individual stamp, versa mark, black wow powders and pan pastels.

It was pretty simple to do but I think very effective. I'd like to enter this into the following challenge:

craftyindividualsblog -a-challenge-for-january-2015-scenic

I hope you have a good weekend.

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Mia's card

Hello Lovelies. Thanks for your kind words on the invites and also for the funeral. It went quite well I think - there were so many people there from the physics community both from this country and internationally. I knew Shaun was a clever guy and well respected but I don't think I really understood the degree of this. People have been so kind - they have called Shaun a genius and said that he was also very humble about his talent - really he is a great loss to all of us. I thank any of you who are reading this who came along and also those who have sent cards and best wishes. You really are amazing. Thankyou.

Anyway, I have now to get back on with reality and try to sort everything out so that we can get on with our lives. Not an easy task but we will manage.

Tonight I would like to show you a card I made using Imagination Crafts products for my friends daughter Mia.

I created the background using inkadinks from the vintage set. I made a wash on the card then applied a bubble-background stencil and a pad with water. I applied it and faux bleached the bubbles. 

Once dry I added the fairy-moon stencil and applied chartreuse sparkle medium. Once this was dry - I added the stamped star images from Lavinia.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today.

Big hugs to you!

Rachel xx

Penny's Party Invitations

Hello Lovelies - thanks for your kind words. Just a quick post from me today - I wanted to get this posted before tomorrow. So here I am at the last minute! Me and my girls made these invitations to Penny's party on Saturday afternoon. They are made using a beautiful die from Lavinia/Imagination Crafts. We had to make 22 of them.

Here's a close up:

The die cut wonderfully and we were able to complete the job quite quickly!

I'd like to enter this into the laviniastamps-challenge-1-anything-goes.

Thankyou for dropping by today - big hugs.

Rachel xx

The real reason for the season at Christmas card club

Hello lovelies - how are you? We're okay - I managed a good long run on Friday - paying for it now but it felt good to achieve that. The girls are okay - I'll certainly be better once Tuesday is over. I keep trying to tell myself its a chance to celebrate Shaun's life which I know it is but it all feels so wrong because it shouldn't be like this - he should still be with us blessing us with his wonderful smile. Don't worry though - we'll get through it.

I managed to make a trio of cards for the latest christmas card club challenge - two are the same design and there is one other:

The one that I made two of includes use of a TH layering stencil, distress inks - wild honey and ripe persimmon and a clarity stamp plus a clarity word chain stamp. Its not a standard Christmas card but I like it.

The other one uses a Lili of the Valley stamp coloured with spectrum noir pencils:

I hope you like my efforts! Thankyou again to all you lovely people who comment on my blog and to those of you who have very kindly sent cards/flowers. I really do appreciate it. Thankyou!

Big hugs to you!

Rachel x

Mid month inspiration at Imagination Crafts

Morning all! Thanks for your kind comments on my last post and your continued words of support - I really do appreciate it - its a difficult time and being a blogger is definitely helping keep my spirits up. I have been spending most of my time working on things for the funeral and just getting by really.

Its the middle of the months already - and time for my inspirational post for Imagination Crafts. Here's what I have made - it was a birthday card for one of Penny's friends:

I have used the following products from Imagination Crafts in making this card:

star touch stencil

poppies and dragonfly stencil

gun metal sparkle medium

decoupage stamp set - leaves

I hope you like my piece and will join our anything goes challenge here.

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

Two cards for colour challenge

Evening all. I hope you are well. We have had an okay weekend - the girls went to a party on Saturday and I went to my mums and did a little crafting. Today I managed to finalise the time for Shaun's funeral and took the girls to the cinema to see Into the Woods. Strange film - but I did enjoy it.

Here's the card I made at my mums - its for the nurses that looked after Shaun.

I've used stamps from the current release at Chocolate baroque and worked almost wholly with distress inks. I've used colours from the current colour challenge.

Here's another one following the same brief that I made before Shaun passed away.

Again the stamps are from chocolate baroque.

I'd like to enter these into the chocolatebaroquechallenge-six

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

A little therapy - Tim Style

Evening all! I do hope you are well. I want to take this opportunity to thank the many of you who have sent cards and/or letters - I really do appreciate the time you have taken to do this - you are all wonderful.

We are doing okay - the girls are back at school and have been absolutely fine - I have been starting to put together things for the funeral - I only just found out that the coroners office have released Shaun yesterday so things are moving slowly. There has to be an inquest - apparently it is very common since the Dr Shipman cases - the inquest opens next week and will take between 6 and 9 months to conclude. We will be furnished with interim death certificates which should allow us to do most things other than formerly register the death. I really wish things were a bit simpler but we just have to get on with things as they are.

I had an evening in my attic earlier in the week and got to grips with my Tims Tag for January. This was my therapy and my tag is made very much with Shaun in mind.

I followed the techniques detailed here by Tim Holtz. I used musical tissue wrap, spiced marmalade, rusty hinge and frayed burlap and tarnished brass distress paints, distress stain sprains, antique linen distress glitter, chit chat stickers, glue and seal, white acrylic paint. All of the chit chat stickers were very personal to Shaun - I also used the number 8 which is Shauns number. 

I hope you like my tag - it certainly has been great therapy making it. 

I'd like to enter this into timholtz -12-tags-of-2015-january.

Thanks go to Mr Holtz for an enjoyable evening thinking positively about my lovely hubby!

Big hugs to you!

Rachel xx

3rd Blogaversary

It'll be my third blogaversary on 7th January - and I'm offering a candy .... its a surprise!



To qualify for entry to my blog candy you must be a follower and leave a comment here! I would appreciate it if you added my details for the candy to your sidebar too but I'm not going to check!

This candy will be drawn in the evening of January 7th or as soon as possible thereafter - this post will stay at the top of my blog until then!

Thankyou so much for your continued support!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

many thanks and candy winner

Just hopped on to say thankyou for your many kind wishes, cards and flowers - life is very peculiar at the moment but me and my girls are getting there. Your thoughts and wishes mean so very much to me.

There were 26 comments left on my blogaversary post - I asked my two little girls to choose a winning number each - and they corresponded to the following two winners:

no.16 - Lorraine
no.6 - Gwen 70 - well done mum!!!

If you two ladies would like to contact me via email I'll let you know what your surprise is!

Big Hugs Rachel

Shaun lost his battle

Just to let you all know that Shaun lost his battle this afternoon - in the end the infection got him and he had multiple organ failure. He fought so hard and all the staff worked so hard with him. They gave us an extra 4 months with him and for that we are very grateful. Thankyou for your kind words and support - please forgive me if I'm not around for a while - I need a little time.

Big hugs

Rachel xx

CAS in red, white and green at CCC

Hello Lovelies - how are you? I was a bit under the weather yesterday so didn't get to the hospital to see Shaun but I'm hoping to be back to it today - it sounds as though things are going well with Shaun although his infection indicators are still up which is a worry. He's been strong enough to have his cuff down though and say a few words which is good. Looking forward to seeing him today!

Today I have my first three makes for the Christmas Card Club - the theme this fortnight is CAS in red, white and green - I have managed to make three very simple CAS cards:

All cards were made using goodies I bought during the Country View Crafts 24 days of Christmas - there were such bargains to be had - I'm afraid I rather over indulged!!!! Apart from the inevitable bill I'm very glad I did though! the stamps are both paperartsy and the die is a sue wilson poinsettia one.

I am going to try to keep up to doing three cards for each theme if at all possible but I'm not sure how long that will last.

Hoping that the new Year is treating you well - I hope you will join in my surprise candy - only a few days to go now! Big hugs!

Rachel xx

New challenge at Imagination Crafts

Hello lovelies and a very Happy 2015 to you all! May you be blessed with love, health and happiness!

I had a good day at the hospital yesterday - Shaun was sitting in the chair again and everything seems to be going in the right direction - we have some digestive issues at the moment which I hope will be resolved soon. He's doing very well though apart from that - hopefully more of that today! Shaun's brother came over from Germany yesterday too and picked his sister up enroute - we have them for the next few days visits which will be great for Shaun!

Today sees the new challenge starting over at Imagination Crafts - the theme as ever is Anything goes - and you can enter here. Here's my make for your inspiration:

I just adore this stencil - its sooooo pretty and I loved using it to make a scene, plus the frame around it. The imagination Crafts products I used are:

Heron's nest stencil

Bright copper sparkle medium

gunmetal sparkle medium

hunter green sparkle medium

Here's a close up - I teamed it all up with distress inks and other masks in my collection!

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and if you haven't already entered my candy there's a few more days to enter ..... I think you'll like the surprise if you win!

Big hugs to you and thanks for joining me today!

Hugs

Rachel xx