Chocolate baroque pot

Hello there! Apologies first of all - this post should have gone live at 7 this morning! Sorry lesley! I was away at Center Parcs and forgot to set this one before I left. I'm back now though so I hope you will enjoy this!

I started with an MDF pot and painted it black using gesso.

Next I used the chocolatebaroque arched-landscape-cling-mounted-rubber-stamp and stamped and coloured it four times.

I stuck 1 image on each side of the pot.

Its such a gorgeous image!

I really love it - it makes such a cheerful pot!

I do hope that you like it!

Big hugs and best wishes for a very merry Christmas!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Indigo Blu - new challenge - all that sparkles!

Hello Lovelies - its great to be with you today to launch the new challenge from Indigo Blu - its the first with the International Design team on board on the all new Indigo Blu blog! I hope you're enjoying what has been going on and I hope you'll enjoy all the new posts you'll be able to access as a follower.

Anyway - onto todays post. You can find inspiration from my teamies here. Here's what I did:

I've gone scenic on you again! This time I've been using the new Indigo Blu stencil laurel-leaves along with modelling-paste. I actually used the coarse version of this and whilst wet topped it with fine glitter. In real life the sparkle is fabulous!

I have also used stamps from the b-f-f set and also from the Clumber Park A6 stamp set.

I hope you are inspired to join us in this months challenge - if you use Indigo blu stamps you will be in with a chance of winning a great prize. Why not give it a go!

Hugs

Rachel x

Last coffee pot this year!

Good morning all! I hope you are well! I am hoping for a lie in this morning as it was the village ladies Christmas do last night. I hope all went well and that I'm not feeling hungover this morning!!!

I have the cards I made from the final coffeepot of the year to share with you today! It was at Wendy's house this week. Our usual host Emma was off with her school on a pantomime trip so Wendy kindly offered to host and luckily for me Diana was in charge. So all I had to do was to relax and enjoy the crafting! Here's what we made:

We used an old Glenda Waterworth stamp from before Chocolate baroque - I think its beautiful!

On this first one I stamped in versa mark and heat embossed with gold sparkle powder. I then used distress ink to paint the leaves and berried and mounted on green card. Finally I used red berries to colour the actual card.

This one was stamped in black archival and then painted with distress. I stamped the image a second time and fussy cut this and added that with foam pads once painted. The background used a holly stamp to create a border. 

I hope you have a really great Saturday - not sure yet what me and the girls are up to! 

Big Hugs

Rachel x

Funkie Junkie 12 tags week 12 plus a second Tim tag

Hello Lovelies! How are you this morning? I'm good and well and ready for the last day of school!!! It will be so good to have the girlies all to myself for a  couple of weeks! Really looking forward to that!!!

Today I have 1 tag to share with you that is doing the double - it is my second entry for Tims tags December and also my entry for the 12 tags of Christmas week 12 as sponsored by  thefunkiejunkie boutique. I have enjoyed getting all of my tags made this year and want to thank Linda for the fabulous challenge and inspiration! Here's my make:

I have loosely based it on a cross between Linda's final tag and Tims December tag - from Tims tag I have taken the wreath and made it from snowflakes pnched using one of his punches. The corrugated card is inspired by Lindas' tag and I have inked the raised surface.

I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges:

timholtz 12-tags-of-2015-december

thefunkiejunkie 12-tags-of-christmas

Have a great Friday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Funkie Junkie 12 tags of christmas week 11

Good Morning! How are you today? I hope you are okay! Thanks for dropping by today - I know its a really busy time of year so your visit does mean a lot to me.

Today I want to share a quick make with you for my 12 tags of Christmas week 11. This is sponsored by thefunkiejunkie boutique. In week 11 Linda did a fabulous textured background - my background is less fabulous. But here it is!

I made the tag by lathering on wendy vecchi crackle paste and once dry I added distress ink followed by sprays.

You can see the crackle in this stamped sentiment. The snowflakes are diecuts from Tim Holtz punch.

I would like to enter this into thefunkiejunkie/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas week 11

Have a great Thursday - and before you go here are a couple of pictures of my girls from Tuesday night:

so proud of them!!!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Tranquility at Chocolate Baroque

Good morning lovelies! Today is the second of my GDT spots for chocolatebaroque blog and I have chosen an older set of stamps to work with and created a scenic card. The stamp set I used is called tranquility and you can find it if you follow the link. I also used one stamp from the fantasy-castles set.

I started by stamping the lady image then masking her.  Next I stamped the pillars and finally the castle and cherry blossom. Then I added landscape using distress inks and landscape and cloud masks.

I coloured the images in using pencils.

Once coloured I added the Tranquility stamp.

Here's a final look!

I hope you have enjoyed this scene - and a break from Christmas! Maybe I've inspired you to have a go? 

Big Hugs

Rachel x

Lucy's card

Hello there! I hope you are well! Thanks for your comments on the teacher gifts - they did enjoy them so all the hard work was worth it!

Before I forget I just wanted to let you all know about the changes to the Indigo Blu blog - the International design team are now posting their works of art from the same place as the challenge blog. You can read all about it here.

Well today is school nativity day! Really looking forward to it. Lucy is playing Mary and Penny is the King who brings the gold. I'll let you know how it goes later in the week!

Today I want to show you the card I made for Lucy and also for the Clarity Challenge.

I did have fun making this card - i started by stamping the image and masking it off and some stars. Next I used blueprint sketch on the insides of the houses which are from a Clarity stencil.

I then used salty ocean to complete the sky and also used more Clarity stamps to add further stars using blueprint sketch.

On the outside i used more clarity stamps on the card then mounted the card itself and added the word Noel.

I would like to enter this into:

claritystampchallenge-34 a Christmas story

Have a great Tuesday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Good Morning! How are you? So the final week of school starts today - my word - soon my little chipmunks will be filling my days again! Can't wait!!!!

Yesterday we had a very busy day - we moved all the stuff back into the living room - its now decorated fully! We also got the Christmas tree - trimmed it - and finished off the teacher gifts - thats what I want to share with you today!!!

So the first job was melting chocolate and pouring it into moulds and leaving it to set - once set two of these chocs and two thorntons chocs were added to a small bag.

Next I got out a pre prepared (by me)  house complete with tree, snow and wreath and added the chocs through the back of the rook.

Next we had a team effort - I added the cellophane, Penny tied the bows and Lucy added the handmade tags.

Here's a finished one ...

And here's a stack of them - 14 in all! Everybody from the head teacher to classroom assistants, secretary and cookie will get one! I do hope they like them!!!

Thought you might like to see our tree too:

Its a bit smaller than usual but I had to put it up so it had to be manageable.

It didn't take our Mischief long to investigate and give her seal of approval.

I hope if you weren't feeling festive you are now!!!

Big hugs!!

Rachel xx

Mum and dads christmas card

Hello Lovelies! Well I hope you are well and happy! I have had a busy couple of days but need to get myself sorted out and get on with things! Oh its a crazy time of year isn't it? So Friday night I went out to a Christmas Caberet at the Dukes theatre in Lancaster - it was so very funny - it was done by a group called Slightly Fat Features - amazing fun - if you ever get chance do go and see them!!! Today I've been to the village Church Christmas Coffee morning, back to the Dukes for their Christmas production of beauty and the beast, then finished off at the family bingo back in Hornby! I definitely know how to live! Lol!!!

Today I want to share with you the card I made for my mum and dad - I do love this!

I made the background using distress paints onto which I used silver embossing paste through a Tim Holtz stencil.

The main snowflakes are also from Tim Holtz  and I have used the associated embossing folder with it - then swiped over an archival ink - and also rubbed in further ink and added glossy accents.

The verse is from Claritystamps

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

craftstamper ttake-it-make-it-challenge-december

(although this card is for my mum and dad I have their permission to enter it into this challenge)

sparklesforumchristmaschallenge59-die-cuts-for-christmas

I  have made this card also for my Christmas card Club - the theme this fortnight is anything goes!!!

Big hugs and see you soon!

Hugs

Rachel x

coffee pot makes

Hello Lovelies - how are you? I hope you are well.I'm well and so are my girls. Things here in Lancashire seem to be getting better after the floods of the weekend - although there was more chaos today with more rain - I somehow suspect we haven't seen the last of the high river yet. We have problems still with bridges being out. And roads still remain closed in places. But we ourselves have been very lucky - compared to many friends. My heart goes out to those that have been flooded - it must be awful.

Today I have my makes to share with you from Coffee pot on Monday - I was in charge this week - we all made two cards - a simple diecutting exercise - then a colouring exercise.

this was the colouring exercise - the stamp is from Chocolate baroque - from the December month of the year of stamping. I coloured in with spectrum noir pencils. The image was part stamped in the background too to make a border. Since I managed to forget my rocker block I showed the ladies how to stamp a large stamp like this one without a block - I think they enjoyed that and got great results!

This is the second card we made using a create a card die from crafters companion. They did like this one!

I'm off to the hairdressers today - I hope my new colour streaks work well! Tonight I'm out with the ladies that I used to work with from the grammar school. We're off to the Dukes  Theatre for a cabaret evening - not sure what to expect! I'll let you know how it goes!

Have a great Friday!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Tims tags December

Hello lovelies - thanks for your lovely feedback on my canvas yesterday - you are very kind! I have my first entry for Tims tag december to share with you today - I say first as there is another in progress in my head at least! In this version I have used all the the techniques used by Tim on his tag here. I did, however, forget the splattering bit.

I loved doing the burlap part of this tag using spray stain. 

This shows the tag more closely ...

I wish I had given more volume to the wreath.

I would like to enter this into the timholtz 12-tags-of-2015-december.

Have a good Thursday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Guest Design Post at Chocolate Baroque

Hello there! How are you! Today I can officially share with you that I was lucky enough to be asked to fill a post on the chocolate baroque guest design team - that means I get the opportunity to post three times this month for them and three times in a future month too! Woohoo! I was so very excited - I adore their stamps and hope you will enjoy what I have done with them.

Today I have a canvas to share with you. I used the mermaid-queen stamp set and seadragon stamp set. Here's the finished item and then I'll show you a step by step.

So to start with I had fun creating the background:

I worked on an 8x8 inch canvas board and used distress paints to create an initial wash.

Next I added distress ink spritz ....

and then some background stamping and some paste work through a stencil.

Lastly I did more stencil work including colouring and also dripped some paint from the top of the canvas. 

Then I got to stamping the chocolate baroque stamps and also fussy cut all the images.

There is so much detail in these images - they're fabulous!

Before sticking them onto the canvas I stamped the secrets of the deep words all over the background then arranged my images to create a scene.

So this is my first post for Chocolate Baroque ... I have more to share with you next week!

Big hugs!

Rachel xx

ATC swap - Alice in Wonderland

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are well. I'm okay and glad to report I got to see my mum and dad today and they have their power back - my dad is okay too which is great news. And we have our water back on - another positive! Its at times like this we all have to count our blessings and be grateful for what we have.

Today I would like to share with the the ATCs that I made for this months swap - the theme was Alice in wonderland.

I really enjoyed making these - I love my set of Alice in wonderland stamps and very rarely remember to use them! They're from a set by Oxford Impressions. The background was created using a stencil and distress inks - I think I used spiced marmalade and peeled paint but my memory may be wrong!!!

I hope you have a great Tuesday - its the girls Carol concert down at the church in the village tonight - I'm really looking forward to that. 

Big hugs

Rachel x