coffee potmakes

hello Lovelies - hope you enjoyed the sun today? Its been fabulous here and I'm hoping the sunshine stays for the rest of the week! I had a great swimming lesson today and I'm definitely improving. Still my crawl was pretty bad - so I had to improve really!!! The girls both enjoyed their swimming today - it was the perfect place to be - although tomorrow I may be in an even more perfect place - drifting down the river in my wetsuit to the lake....I'll let you know how it goes!

So tonight I want to share with you a make from coffee pot this week. Diana was in charge and we did some colouring with spectrum noir pencils -

I'm not sure where the flower stamp came from but the sentiments are definitely Card-Io. 

I'll be over to see you soon - just got to get the girls to bed and do tonights crafting then I'll be there! hugs rachel xx

lavinia challenge make and a wonderful sports day!

Hello Lovelies - how are you today? I hope you're doing well and have had fun in the sun today. Its been amazing here - such a lovely day. Before I tell you all about sports day I want to share my make with you for the challenge over at lavinia - can't believe I nearly forgot to do this one this month.

The challenge is all about colour - so I got my lovely brushos out again for a play - I know - can't help it - I'm hooked!

All stamps used are from Lavinia.

I introduced a little bit of promarker in the tips of the flower petals. The stamps were initally stamped on water colour card with versa mark and heat set wow embossing powders.

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

laviniastamps-challenge-6

wowembossingpowder june-challenge-summer

theartisticstampercreativeteam junes-creative-challenge-summer-is-on its way

Now its been a wonderful summer sports day for my girls today - here's some pics:

They both did really well - Penny got first in the sack race and 2nd in the skipping race. Lucy got third in both sack race and egg and spoon! And their house priory won too! Woohoo! Well done.

Well thats all for now - the plumber is coming tomorrow hopefully to fix a leak in the bathroom - then I'm looking forward to another swimming lesson. Hope you have a good day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

a quick chocolate baroque make and some ballet exams!

Hello lovelies - well its been a busy day - both my munchkins had their ballet exams today - Penny did primary ballet and Lucy grade 1. Here's what they looked like before them:

    

They both came out smiling too although Lucy said she slid during the Polka. Nevermind! They enjoyed it and thats what its all about - we get the results in 6 weeks time.

I have a quick card I made for the chocolate baroque challenge to show you today.

I used distress inks and a stencil to make the background and overstamped with one of the nature fragments. Then I stamped one of the beautiful sentiments and also some of the butterflies that were stamp of the week a few weeks ago. I enjoyed making this one.

I'd like to enter this into chocolatebaroquechallenge-twelve. 

This is the colour challenge:

I used rusty hinge, dried marigold, peeled paint and weathered wood distress inks on my card.

I hope you had a good Sunday! We've got more excitement tomorrow - its sports day at school - Penny is doing the sack race and the skipping race whilst Lucy is also doing the sack race and also the egg and spoon - I'll let you know how they go! I'm doing the ice cream sales lol!!!! If its a day like today I'm sure they'll go well!

Big hugs!

Rachel x

Bravo Jo Rice!!!

Hello Lovelies - well its been a fabulous day - I've been to Clarity Cumbria and the wonderful Jo Rice has come up trumps again with some amazing designs - here are my takes on her makes:

I love love love them all - but the second make - bottom left - has to be my fave .... a closer look:

This one was coloured using spectrum aqua markers ...

This one made up the background after stamping the geese and masking. The background was built up using adirondack inks, clarity stencil brushes and a moon mask and a piece of torn paper.

This one is a bit different from Jo's - I took the cockerel stamp set too so used that for the last two. 

The background on this one was a mop up from the aqua markers used on the first.

I think they're all amazing designs - thanks to Jo for a fabulous day of wonderful makes and to Lisa and Freda for lovely company today! 

Hope you all have had a wonderful Saturday!

Big huggles!

Rachel xx

More brushos!

Hello lovelies - how are you today? Hope you are well and happy. We are good and ready for the weekend - we've got lots happening this weekend - I have tomorrow at Clarity Cumbria and the girls are off to my mums for the day. Then on Sunday they both have their ballet exams. They both feel ready so fingers crossed!

Tonight I have another brusho card to share with you - I have used some stamps from Indigo Blu - music-hall - stamp set - I  used flitterglu to stamp the images, added black wow powders and heat set. Then I added the brushos and spritzed with water.

I then added mermaid lagoon through a flourishes-stencil to two corners and stamped another sentiment also from the music hall set.

The background of the card was made using the same stamp set and mermaid lagoon ink.

I hope you like my make for tonight and aren't getting too cheesed off with brushos - I am enjoying playing!!!!

Have a great Friday evening! Don't forget to leave a comment on my previous post for a chance at winning my giveaway!

big hugs

Rachel xx

hello friends

Hi there my lovelies - I've got a bit of a prize for one of you lovely followers - you are all so kind - here's the prize:

This is my 1200 post!! Blimey - how did that happen! 

All you have to do is leave a comment here and I will pick a winner on the 1st July!

Looking forward to your comments. You must be a follower.

Hugs rachel xx

Happy Birthday Mum!

Evening all! Thanks for your kind words on yesterdays card - I really do appreciate it! Have you had a good day? Mine's been good - I had a good run then took mum and dad to The Fenwick for lunch. It was lovely - my dad was quite amusing - he had 3 half pints of beer - I think he was a bit tipsy! He did make me and mum chuckle! Then I took them to a garden centre - they bought some pots and I bought an obelisk and a clematis - I'm hoping it will all look good. It was quite interesting trying to get it all into the car! lol!!!!

I want to show you the card I made for my mum today - its the brushos again - and paperartsy stamps. I do like this - the sentiment is chocolate baroque. I used versa mark and the white opaque wow powders to stamp the image - this was then heat set.

I used frantage to finish off too.

Here's a closer look.

I 3d'd the flowers to add a little more texture to the card.

I would like to enter this card into craftstamper take-it-make-it-challenge-june

wowembossingpowder june-challenge-summer

Hope you have a great day tomorrow - big hugs rachel x

A lovely swim in Windermere!

Hello lovelies - its been a stunning day up here. Blue skies and sunshine - and I drove up to Windermere with a friend and we had a lovely swim at Fellfoot park. Naomi swam much further than me - but I certainly enjoyed it - I tried crawl this time and since my lesson last week it was so much easier. It meant I actually moved a little more quickly through the water. The water was lovely - but definitely shallower than the last time I swam there. But still lovely!

Tonight I want to show you the card i made for my dad to give to my mum - its her birthday tomorrow and I'm looking forward to going for lunch with her and my dad. She's such a sweetheart! Love you mum!

I created the background using distress inks and stamps from chocolate baroque. They include some stamps form the sunny sunflowers set and some from the nature fragments set.

The topper is made using another chocolate baroque stamp set - the sunny sunflowers - I coloured the flower with distress pens then masked and stamped the leaves. The sentiment is from a LOTV stamp stamped onto card coloured with ripe persimmon.

here's a closer look.

I added a heart from TH - thanks Mo! Love these hearts!

I hope you have a lovely evening and manage to have a good day tomorrow too!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Tims tag June and a coffee pot make

Hello Lovelies - have you had a good day? I've had a great one - a run then playing with brushos at coffee pot, a swim and then some housework - not so fond of that bit - lol!!!! But it feels good to be one more first down - yesterday was very emotional - but thankfully its passed - and I can get on with things again.

So Tims tag June - I wasn't sure about this one - but I enjoyed the process - not sure about my outcome either lol!!! You can find Tims original here.



Here's what I did:

I followed the tutorial - making up a custom pad using twisted citron, I used the tyre layering stencil - but didn't turn it through 90 degrees to get the plaid effect - and I used the alarm clock die.

I used a combination of chit chat stickers and the quote stickers to make a saying.

I cut the clock using the corrugated card and cork.

I would like to enter this into the timholtz12-tags-of-2015-june challenge.

I also wanted to show you what we all managed to do at coffee pot today too:

It wasn't quite the same as the original from craft stamper but I love it and the ladies loved it too - they think brushos are fabulous!!! Look out for more makes coming soon!

Hope you're having a good evening and thanks so very much for your kind words about my DT position - you're all really very kind! Thankyou!!!

Hugs rachel xx

Indigo Blu Challenge DT - woohoo - lucky me!!!!

Hello there! Well its time to reveal my wonderful news - I have managed to make it on to the DT for the Indigo Blu challenge Blog!!!! Woohoo! I'm so pleased and am looking forward to the next year and seeing what it brings.

Anyway - the new challenge is called 'Flutterby'. I hope you can join in...who doesn't like a good old flutterby?

The rules for joining in the challenge are here:

Rules & How to Enter

1. Entries must feature IndigoBlu stamps only.
2. To submit your entry you must use the link at the bottom of the new challenge blog post.
3. One entry per person.
4. The deadline for entry will close at 8pm on the 20th of the month.
5. Prizes must be claimed within 7 days of being announced.
6. Any entries that don't adhere to the rules or the theme will be deleted.
7. New entries only please. All entries must link back to the challenge blog
   and link up your blog post containing your entry rather than your whole blog.
8. The winner will be picked at random.

If you do not have a blog you can e-mail your entry to HQ at Challenge@IndigoBlu.com marking your subject as Challenge Entry and include your full name in your correspondence. This e-mail address is only answered Monday to Friday so make sure you have your entry e-mailed in with enough time for it to be added to the list.

Please check out what my amazing teamies have done here - and also join us!

Anyhoo - here's what I have done as inspiration for the challenge:

I used the recently released ink-splat-butterfly from Limor Webber. I stamped it in versa mark and added black wow powder and heat set. I then used distress inks to create the background colours and stamped in similar colours using limor-circles stamps and also script-background stamps. I also used the words from the plume set of stamps.

I used similar colours on the background card and also the background script stamp.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

pennyblackatallsorts june-challenge-wings-fantasy-and-fiction

Have a really great Fathers Day - we are planning on a few things - saw my dad yesterday so today we're focusing on Shaun. Another first to get through but feeling strong!

Big hugs to you!

Rachel x

Pink and white at Christmas Card Club

Good morning lovelies! How are you today? I'm fine and feeling happy - I had a good run yesterday but then had a few wobbles - it was a day of peaks and troughs. But I 'm okay - a glass of red at the end of the day yesterday sorted me out!

Its Pink and white at Christmas card club tomorrow - but I have another post for tomorrow so I thought I'd post this a day early. Its the choice of the lovely Karen today - and posed a few problems for me - pink is not a colour that I use often - but I think I did okay in the end.

The die cut behind the sentiment is from memory box. The other die cuts are from Tim Holtz - I used an indigo blu stamp to stamp on the poinsettia. The centre of the poinsettia is a beautiful TH button - thanks Anne!!!

Thats all for today - some exciting news for you tomorrow!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

hidden objects and first prize!

Evening all! I hope you had a lovely day! I had a great one - I took my good friend Danielle to the gym with me - we did a class (body balance) then went to the hydrotherapy pool and sauna before having lunch - a lovely girly day and catch up time! This evening I took the girls to see how they did in the flower arranging competition - well would you believe they were the only entrants in their class? And of course they got joint first prize!!! They were very happy - bless their cotton socks!!!

Tonight I have a file folder project to share with you - I made it to house two of the tags I won from the lovely alison bomber. She had made them at Ally Pally earlier this year. The challenge over at paperartsy is hidden objects so I housed these beautiful paperartsy tags in a file folder decorated with paperartsy goodies.

I used a variety of stamp sets and fresco paints.

The file folder is folded to create space for the tags.

Thanks so much Alison for these tags - I'll have to think of another way to hold the larger tags - need to get my thinking cap on!

I'd like to enter this into the paperartsy -topic-11-hidden-objects-challenge.

Big hugs and thanks for any comments you may choose to leave!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Swimming, Crafting and flower arranging!

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you're okay and have had a good day! I've had a beautiful time today - I went for a swim and practiced some of the things I was taught yesterday - then I went to my mum and dads and had a crafternoon - we played with brushos - and followed a project from this months craft stamper - lots of fun - I will do a simpler version with the coffee pot ladies on monday I think. Here's the results:

I am very excited with this one - I think the techniques are brilliant - just follow them in craft stamper!

The stamps are paperartsy - i used  versa mark, white embossing powder, brushos, frantage, alcohol pens. My mum really enjoyed this too - I think I'll try applying it to my own version - altho' the design is so beautiful I daresay I won't get such fabulous results! 

Tonight me and my girls did some flower arranging - well they did it really - I just cut the flowers. We have a festival happening in the village at the moment - Lord Roger Montbegon was one of the 25 barons involved in the signing of the magna carta 800 years ago and he lived in Hornby. The play the girls did on Saturday was part of it and there is a flower arranging competition tomorrow - so the girls wanted to join in! The theme is Hornby. This is what they did.

I'll let you know tomorrow how they get on - but I'm very pleased with what they have done! And they had such fun!

Hope you have a good evening - its running away from me today - will be around to visit after I have done another post - I've got news!!! More of that soon!

Big Hugs

Rachel x

Fathers day card

Hello Lovelies - how are you today? I hope your Tuesday has been good. I've had a great day - a slow run but a good 5 miles! Then I went for a swimming lesson. I am rather slow so I'm hoping to improve - I learned quite a lot about front crawl - my technique was rubbish - I hope that with the improvements suggested today I can increase my speed in time. I've got two weeks to practice before the next lesson! I'll be swimming tomorrow so I'm hoping to put some of it into practice.

Thanks for your kind words on yesterdays post - I do appreciate them - I would like to share a make with you today for fathers day - my dad loves owls so the new owl stamp from Clarity was my stamp of choice.

I started by stamping the owl then colouring him with spectrum noir pencils. Then I masked him off and created the background using distress inks and clarity masks.

I added the geese from the new geese set then a sentiment and finally some vegetation from another clarity set.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

claritystampchallenge-28 - boys boys boys

littleclairesdesigns monthly-stamp-challenge-fathers-day

unrulypaperarts - the great outdoors

craftingforallseasons challenge-104-its-boy-thing

pennyblackatallsortschallenge-wings-fantasy-and-fiction

Hope you have a good evening - I'll be visiting later! Big hugs rachel xx

coffee pot cards

Hello lovelies - how are you? I hope you've had a good day. Its been good for me and my girls - I went to coffee pot and made two lovely cards then went home and did some gardening - my girls both had good days - little penny had a forest school day so she was playing in the forest all day! Wish they had done these things when I was at school!

Anyway - back to coffee pot - here are todays makes which focused on embossing powder. Thanks to Diana ... she got the ideas from a magazine - the main stamp came from craft stamper magazine.

I stamped on watercolour card using versa mark and then added white embossing powder then heat set. I also drew in the stalks with a versa pen and heat set white powder.

I used distress inks mustard seed, ripe persimmon and dusty concorde to paint the colours.

This stamp is a card-io one and was treated exactly the same.

The second card we did involved clarity glossy card and black embossing powder.

The stamps were indigo blu from a set that came free with a magazine once - and the card -io sentiment again. I used mustard seed and ripe persimmon distress inks.

I think both cards are a great combination of distress inks and embossing powders.

Hope you have a great day!

Big hugs 

Rachel xx