wanderlust challenge one - journal page

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are doing well. Did you have a good Saturday? Mine was fabulous - I had a great parkrun with my girlies - we managed to take 9 minutes off last weeks time and didn't come last either!!! woohoo!!! That feels much better! Hopefully next week we can skim another minute off! That would be good! To celebrate we went off to Giannis in Kendal for Pizza - yum!! Lovely!!

When I got home from kendal I managed a short time in the attic making a journal page - its my entry to the first Wanderlust challenge - wow you should see the work that was submitted - the standard was incredible - now I have no illusions that my piece is any good or going to win - but I did enjoy the process. The idea was to think about something that has frightened you but has actually set you free... when I lost Shaun I was absolutely terrified of being on my own - but now I find it quite liberating - don't get me wrong - I would share my life with Shaun again in the blink of an eye - but I guess my piece is about trying to find the positives in loss - if there are any and if that makes sense! I'm gibbering i think.

I heard this song on the way back from Kendal and it seemed to fit ...

From darkness of loss ....

into the light of positivity and the good in life.

I used the Kim Costello Paperbabe templates to help do the figure ... not perfect but I like it.

We were also supposed to reflect on a lesson on composition to make this piece - I have tried to apply the rule of thirds plus a none central focus point plus added darkness in a balanced way. Well I think so anyway!!! Lol!! Probably got all that wrong!! Nevermind!

I can't believe its February tomorrow - how did that happen???

Hugs

Rachel x

playtime

Hello Lovelies! How are you today? Hope you are okay and if not sending hugs! We are good. Hoping to do the park run again today but its all weather dependant. I'll let you know if we manage it!

Today I want to share the results od a quick play with two of the new sheena stamp and die sets. I think the card looks overcrowded but I wanted to post it anyway!

I must say the dies cut fabulously easily and then the stamping helped to give a realistic result.

I look forward to making more of these for my garden happy friends!!

Whatever you are doing today enjoy yourself! Also just a reminder that my 4th-blogaversary candy is here.

Big hugs

Rachel x

coffee pot with diana

Hello Lovelies - how are you today? Are you getting a battering from Gertrude? If so stay safe. We're good but pretty tired. Looking forward to the weekend!

Today I have the cards that I made at coffee pot on Monday to share with you - Diana was in charge and we were stamping with some spring flower stamps.

The first was done in versamark onto kraft card and heat set with white powder. Then I coloured in pencils.

The topper on this one was done similarly but the stamping was in versafine. I also used another primrose stamp to form a border. I think this looks very pretty!

Hope you have a great Friday - I may swim today - but may take the day off! Not sure!

Big hugs to you all!

Rachel x

wanderlust travel journal ....

Good morning lovelies! I am so happy to be able to report that my wanderlust travel journal from Kate Crane's class in week 2 is finally ready. I hoped to get it ready for a trip i am taking at half term with the girls to the Viking Festival at York. I am so pleased it is ready - here it is:

These are the hard covers created using hardboard and sticky back canvas, stamps and stencils and grunge paste and Indigo blu paints.

Here are some of the views from the inside. I have used blank paper to create this - I think it was such a clever idea and loved the tutorial from Kate Crane - clever lady. I also used paints from indigo blu, stamps from indigo blu and also stencils from paperartsy plus distress inks and pens.

the sentiment stamps are from a combination of sources.

Can't wait to use this jounal!

I am pleased with it - thanks wanderlust and thanks Kate Crane!

Hugs

Rachel x

Craft stamper - sparkle and shine!!!

Hello Lovelies! How are you today? Hope you are good! The man came yesterday about the blinds nice and early - so i was hoping to get out on the bike - however, high winds and rain stopped play! So I'm swimming first thing! well - once the chublets are in school anyway!

I was lucky enough to get another card in craft stamper magazine as a reader submission - for the Ready set stamp section. Here it is.

I used a couple of stencils - the girl image is an Andy skinner one - I used sparkle medium through that one - the larger one all over the background is one from Joggles and its a 9x12 inch stencil called Endless.

I also used a stamp from visible image too!

Need to get my act together and get another card submitted to see if i can be lucky again!! Why don't you give it a try - if i can be lucky I know you can too!  The latest call is here.

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

Flowers at Clarity

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you are well! I am good - feeling positive after my exertions yesterday. I'm hoping to squeeze a bike ride in at some point today - but it all depends on the man from Hillary's blind who is coming this morning about my bathroom. I hope he comes early and doesn't stay long then I can get a few miles cycling in before I head off to school library for the afternoon!

Today I have a quick card to share with you that I have made with the clarity floral challenge in mind.

I have used two clarity stamps and first and second generation stamping to create the effect. Its pretty simple but I think its effective!

I'd like to enter this into claritystampchallenge-35 floral

Have a great day - the girls both have a friend coming home from school tonight for tea so it be a bit of a madhouse here!

Big hugs

Rachel x

I really want????....

Hello Lovelies!How are you today? I hope you are well! We had a good weekend - visited my mum and dad yesterday and dad was better again - he's almost back to normal now - which is wonderful to see. Not quite - but definitely getting there!

I have been playing catch up with my wanderlust course - I found my computer couldn't play the videos - its been a real pest recently too -not allowing me on different websites too! Anyway, I bit the bullet and got hold of a new one. Now I'm not sure it really is what I want - but at least I can watch the videos now! Anyway - one of the things to do was a second book prompt - we had to do a page inspired by .....what I really want is ... I also wanted to address the hearts challenge over on the paperartsy blog. Here's what I came up with!

I created a painty journal page by brayering different opaque chalk paints onto my page then I did some stamping and stenciling and mark making with white paint.

Next I stamped and fussy cut the cog hearts and added them.

I added some script too ... and a picture of my hearts desire - my late husband!

Such a gorgeous man - miss him every day!!!

I would like to enter this into the paperartsy topic-2-hearts-challenge.

allsortschallenge-valentines-day

I'm looking forward to a run with my friend Emma this morning, followed by coffeepot - Diana is in charge today so I can sit back and play!  I then have my regular visit to the gym to do some weight training. Should keep me out of trouble! 

Have a great Monday!

Big hugs

Rachel x

CCC - sleigh

Hello Lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are fine! We are all good and my dad is doing well too - thanks for all your best wishes for him - he is very tired though and wants to sleep a lot of the time. My poor mum is very tired too looking after him but she did get a lift yesterday at slimming world - finding out that in a fortnight she had lost half a stone! Well done mum!!!

We did our first park run yesterday - we did come last - and it took 52 minutes for the girls to run/walk the 5 km - but it was hilly and they actually did very well - I am very proud of them!!

Today I want to share my makes for this fortnights christmas card club - I have done three replicate cards using clarity stencils and stamps.

I placed the bauble stencil on card then created the scene using clarity brushes and torn card and a moon mask. Next I added the tree stamp and finally the santa sleigh.

I traced around the stencil with a fine liner and added paint dots to the sky. I also used the sharpie pen around the outside of the topper. Finally I mounted them onto card.

I do like the way the tree line stamp has worked!

I hope you have a wonderful day - we're off to visit mum and dad again! Here's hoping its a good visit! Should be!

Big hugs to you!

Rachel x

More inspiration for bottles at Countryview crafts

Hello there! I hope you are well and happy! I'm here today with more inspiration for you for the challenge over at countryviewchallenges. The theme for january is to be inspired by Bottles. There's still a week to enter - go on - have a go!

My piece today is an 8x8 canvas board.

I started the background using distress paints including reds and oranges mostly - I cracked open my new candied-apple for this one! Whilst the background dried I created the card that the butterflies were stamped onto. This was done mostly with distress stains in green shades.

I stamped the -perspective butterfly from Tim Holtz onto this card and then fussy cut.

The apothecary-vials are my take on bottles for this piece - I thought they made cute bodies!

The rest of the background was completed using a small vine stamp and also a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp also from the perspective set.

I hope you can join us at Countryview challenges!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

craftstamper take-it-make-it-challenge-january

butterflyspotchallenge -butterflies-i-is-for-inks

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

Tims tag January

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well. I'm glad to report that my dad is home and doing okay - which is great! I'm off to see them both again today - I'll get their shopping in and stay around for a little while. Hopefully I feel as positive after my visit.

Thanks for your kind comments on my post yesterday. Today I have my first Tims tag for this year.



Tim is revisiting techniques this year - you can find out about the two techniques for this months tag here. Here's what I did.

I used Tims techniques to create the background - I had problems with the blackboard technique however, I couldn't access Tims page for the full details at the time so used another blackboard technique that is much 'cleaner' but i think far less effective.  

I liked using this stamp though as I think the wings echoed the background rather nicely!

I would like to enter this into timholtz 12-tags-of-2016-january.

Have a good Friday!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Its anything goes at Indigo Blu

Hello there! How are you today? I'm here to bring you news of the latest Indigo Blu challenge the theme of which this time is 'Anything Goes'. You can get full information and details plus more inspiration here. Basically though you can do anything as long as you use Indigo Blu stamps/products.

Here's what I have done:

I used two stamp sets here:

tasty-textures-a5-red-rubber-stamp-by-kay-halliwell-sutton

big-butterfly-a6-red-rubber-stamp

I also used stencil-texture, english-cottage-artists-acrylic-paint-townhouse-teal and grandma's teacup and also indigoblu-megaflake-chocolate-box plus indigoblu-flitterglu.

I gave my card a base coat of grandma's teacup and when dry used a stencil brush and the texture stencil to add some detail in town house teal. I also used the stamps from the texture stamp set to add more details on the background including some in flitterglu and flake.

The large butterfly was stamped in archival ink then coloured in pencils, fussycut and added.

The sentiment comes from an older Indigo blu stamp set b-f-f-a5-red-rubber-stamp

I hope you can join us this month!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

craftstamper take-it-make-it-challenge-january - use a stamp

butterflyspotchallenge -butterflies-i-is-for-inks

Big hugs!

Rachel xx

coffee pot makes

Hello Lovelies! How are you? We are good! Thanks for your kind comments and support about my dad - I really do appreciate it!

Today I have the cards to show you that we did at coffeepot on monday. I promised the ladies a bit of die cutting. Well we had to get inky too - I can't help myself! This is what we did!

We used distress inks and clarity stencils to create the backgrounds. The colours we used were fossilised amber and squeezed lemonade and wild honey.

I applied a layer of squeezed lemonade and then the fossilised amber and wild honey through stencils.

The bee was cut using a bee die from Tim Holtz. - this was embossed with a corresponding folder then I also cut some wings from packaging. I coloured the bee in distress markers. 

The ladies really enjoyed it!

Big hugs to you! 

Rachel x

lace and buttons for Crafty Individuals

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you are good. I'm okay and so are my girlies - we made snowmen yesterday - well Penny did - it was great snow - stuck really well. Sadly most of it has gone now but here's what Penny did.



As you can see the snow was pretty much on its way out then! Still. It was nice to see.

We also went along to see my dad in hospital yesterday - he was very confused but more mobile. We're hoping he'll be home today.

I would like to share a card I made today with the Crafty Individuals challenge in mind. I had lots of fun making the background on the card with distress inks and stencils and snowflake paperartsy paint.

The topper is a fairy stamp from Crafty Individuals - I stamped it in potting soil archival ink and cut it out before adding to a mat and adding lace behind. I also added some pretty wooden buttons and the scrabble letters to spell the world beauty.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

craftyindividualsblog - January challenge

I've had a nice run this morning and been to my weightlifting at the gym - deadlifted 55kg today so feeling quite pleased!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Clarity Cumbria January

Hello Lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are fine and coping with the weather! Have you got snow? We have! I couldn't believe it this afternoon at Lindale when it started to snow! And its settled. I wonder if there will be anymore overnight?

Today was a lovely session at Clarity Cumbria. We started off by making a foam background - then went on to making a concertina style card - its a lovely design. Here's my version:

This is the front -- I decided to make this for my sister who is moving into a new house any day now.

This is a second flap that you open before the main focus in the middle.

This is the main feature and the open sides.

And a close up of the central picture.

After Lunch we stencilled and stamped onto our foam backgrounds.

Finally we used the wee trees and wee foliage stamps to create this last card - I had to finish it off once i got home - we all had to cut and run because of the snow.

So that was what I did today - when I got in the back door - this is what greeted me - the girls had been very busy with their nana putting this together.

Looks fabulous - can't wait to try a little bit. 

Finally an update on my dad. Firstly the good news. The oncologist thinks the tumour in his liver hasn't changed size in 4 weeks - its possible its benign. They offered him a biopsy but even if it is cancerous they doubt my dad would be strong enough for either surgery or chemo so we think the biopsy is a bad idea. He will return in three months to have another scan to check on the tumour size. 

However, his mobility is very limited. He had to go back into hospital on Thursday as he fell at home and couldn't move. He should be coming back out again on Monday with carers in place 4 times daily. we'll see how that goes.

Take care and I look forward to hearing what you make of todays post!

big hugs

Rachel x

tate's card

Hello there! How are you today? I'm glad to be able to report my dad went home last night - not sure how he went on but I'm sure he was glad to be home. We go off today for his meeting with the oncologist - I hope things aren't too bad for him. He's had so much to contend with.

On a brighter note here's a card I have made for nephew Tate who will be 6 on Burns Night.

I used scarecrow and star stamps from Paperartsy. I stamped the scarecrow first then masked him - next it was the stars and I masked those as I went along. Then I added the background, removed the masks and coloured things in.

The sentiment is from Clarity - I used it to cover the christmas sentiment that came with the stamp.

I hope you like the card!

Have a good Thursday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Clarity calendar challenge

Hello my lovelies! How are you today? I'm feeling a bit nervous as I put in my entry for the Kendal Sprint Triathalon last night - there won't be any sprinting going on - but its my challenge for the year - its not until April but this entry will hopefully keep me fully focused! I know - I'm crackers!

Onto today - I have decided to play along with the clarity calendar challenge - its new this year and you have to use the techniques detailed in each months calendar piece. I love to try things out so figured this would be fun - January's entry involves making a reflection using a gelli plate. I have produced this.

So the reflection uses the gelli plate - the top uses the same stamps in a regular way.

  

Here's a close up of the main section. All stamps are from clarity - I used all adirondack inks including expresso, meadow, lettuce, butterscotch, cloudy blue and sailboat blue and clarity brushes.I haven't made a copy of the calendar - I have used different stamps and the same techniques - not sure what we were supposed to do!

I would like to enter this into claritystampchallenge calendar-challenge-1

Have a wonderful day!

Big hugs

Rachel x