a grand day out!

Good morning all - I hope you had a great bank holiday Monday - we had a lovely day but we were struck by how cold it was down at Indigo Blu in Retford - it was glorious when we left Lancaster at 9am but quite cool and windy when we arrived at Retford just before midday. We had a lovely day and met some old faces and some new ones. We watched Jenny Marples do some wonders with a canvas and saw Kay doing her stuff too but we spent most time talking to the lovely Elizabeth Robinson whom I haven't met before - she was a big hit with my girls! She was making a beautiful canvas with one of the lost-family-mixed-media-paper pad girls. - and inspired by that I made one too when I got home - also using some other Indigo Blu goodies.

I have used indigo blu stamps and stencils to make this plus a very wistful lady from the lost relatives cards. I also used some flake and flitterglu.

I have used a new to me floral stencil in the background that I used with grungepaste then covered when dry with indigoblu cottage paints - grandmas teacup and snow white.

I also used paperclay flowers and a heart that I tinted with some paperartsy gilding wax.

I enjoyed making this piece inspired by my day out. Thankyou to all at Indigo Blu for a fabulous day!

The girls had fun too - they each got a stamp and some other bits and bobs - we bumped into a lady called Louise whom I had met a few years ago and she gave each girl a little mdf flower - Penny decorated hers as soon as she got home ...

She also lost a tooth whilst out - and the toothfairy came last night!

Hope you enjoy the final day of May!

Big hugs

Rachel x

a quick make for chocolate baroque

Good morning all! I hope you are well! I feel better as I saw my dad yesterday and although he claimed he felt awful he did look much better to me. Thanks all for your concern and comments. It is greatly appreciated. I won't get to see him today as I am taking my girlies down to the open day at Indigo Blu. Really looking forward to it! I'll let you know how it went!

Today I have a quick make for chocolate baroque to share with you. They have been showing cards on their blog twice a month that can be made in just 15 minutes. Todays one from me is really simple - the stamp speaks for itself - I have just added colour using spectrum noir pencils.

I adore this stamp - perfect for a summer card - I used a stamp from the seashore summer scenes stamp set.

Very quick and simple CAS card - I hope you like it!

Have a great bank holiday Monday and don't forget if you're in the area ....

I'll maybe see you there!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Christmas Carol at Christmas card Club

Hello Lovely peeps! How are you? I hope you are well. Well I am feeling very lucky and very thankful today - I was lucky enough yesterday to win an amazing candy from Brenda over at Floral Fantasies - its a tote with goodies in from tattered lace. I'll let you all see it when it arrives - but it was just the boost I needed. I went to see my dad yesterday with the girls - on Friday my mum had seen him and said he was really perky and much more himself but sadly we found him asleep!!! He woke up about 10 mins before we had to leave. He was okay though - I have to take confidence in him being better on Friday. We're popping in later today and hopefully will find him in a positive frame of mind.

Today I am sharing a trio of cards for the theme today at Christmas Card Club - its Christmas Carol and I have chosen the carol 'I saw three ships'. I have used a stamp from Little Claire and also brushos and distress pens.

Here's the trio ....

and a closer look  - they are all, of course slightly different but you get the general idea.

We went to a wedding in the afternoon yesterday - the girls sang in the choir and i snook in to watch them - this is what they were wearing ...

they are sweetie pies - love them to bits!

Hope you have a good Sunday!

Lots of love and hugs

Rachel x

Rose's gift

Hello lovelies - thanks for your kind words yesterday - I was in a bit of a state - today has been much better. Lucy has been fine, Penny is much better and will be back at school tomorrow. Just my dad who is still in hospital and seems to be very weak. I'll keep you posted!!!

Today I have been confined to barracks - mostly - with Penny off school again - we have been sewing - I have finally managed to finish my pin cushion for brown owl's birthday. Thats what I want to share with you tonight - I know Rose doesn't look here so I'm safe... Please remember this is from a kit - not my design - but all my work.

Those owls took such a lot of time to make but I think they're worth it! I'm pretty certain brown owl will like it! 

Have a good evening - off to check out your blogs now!

Hugs

Rachel xx

a bit of a day!

Hello all! How are you? I hope you are well. I'm good but it seems that all my nearest and dearest are not doing so well. Penny has a poorly tummy, Lucy had to go to A and E after getting hit in the face by a cricket bat and my poor dad has been readmitted to hospital after his INR levels were sky high. Never rains but it poors eh? Lucy is absolutely fine - thankfully - she has three steristrips and glue holding the wound together. I'm not convinced Penny is too ill - but my dad continues to be a big worry!

Anyway - to wind down from this day I spent a short time making my late entry to the Lavinia challenge - one of these months I'll get there earlier....but here's what I did...

I'm back to those boxing hares. Just love them to pieces. I have tried to add some blooms this time as the theme of this times Lavinia challenge is Spring Blooms.

I created the background using torn paper, stencil brushes and adirondack inks. Then overstamped in Lavinia stamps - the moon mask was removed and more ink added to make a sun!

I have entered this into Lavinia Spring Blooms challenge - the link will take you to my piece - I would love it if you could give me a like! Thankyou very much if you manage it!

Here's a wee piccie of my brave girl ...

Love  her to bits

Big hugs

Rachel x

Coffee pot care of Diana

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well. I am good and looking forward to a day in the village today - making teas and coffees this morning and running the school library this afternoon. I certainly know how to keep busy!

Yesterday morning, after a run, I went to coffeepot - Diana was in charge today and we did two cards - the brushos one was actually last weeks card but I didn't manage to go last week so Diana kindly brought everything with her for me to do. Very kind!

Here are both of the cards.

This one used brushos and indigo blu stamps  plus some watercolour pencil crayons.

This one I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention to the stamp manufacturer - but I think its very pretty!

It was lovely to see Anne back at the group - she's been missing for about 3 months - ill - but she was looking very much her old self which is great!

Have a great Tuesday!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Helen's card

Good morning lovelies! How are you today? Thanks so very much for your best wishes for my dad - it was good to see him yesterday ..he looked better than the last time I saw him - and he ate well on Saturday night and he ate a little bit whilst we were there which is all positive. Lets hope that he's going to pull it out of the bag again.

Today my lovely friend Helen has her birthday - so this is the card I made for her. She likes crafting and does cake craft and sewing too - I went with the sewing theme to fit with the current AVJ challenge. Here's my make.

I wanted to go feminine as Helen is a real lady so I went with spun sugar and antique linen mixed with some sepia tones. I used a two tim stencils - blossom and lace and an image from tim stamped in sepia archival. 

The dressform is from a stamp set by rubberdance that I was lucky enough to win from Katy Leitch - thanks Katy.

The flower is cut from tattered florals overstamped with a tim stamp and finished off with a beautiful tim button that I got from the lovely Redanne. I added the lace and the rubberdance edge stamps!

I hope she likes it.

I would like to enter this into vintagejourney sew-special

and also allsortschallengehappy-7th-birthday-allsorts

Have a great Monday!

Hugs

Rachel

Tripps card

Hello Lovelies! Hope you are okay today.... I feel much better - yesterday I had a rather large hangover after drinking too much on Friday night - blimey - must be turning into a teenager again. Needless to say I won't be doing that again for a long time!!!

Things are not very good with my dad again - he's really going down hill. He doesn't want to eat anything so consequently has no energy and keeps falling from the chair or the bed then my poor mum has to call the ambulance to move him. Its a downward spiral - I really don't know what to do for the best.

Onto happier things - my youngest nephew Tripp is 1 this week and this is the card I have made for him.

I decided to use the crowned rabbits alice palace stamps from Crafty Individuals. I stamped and coloured them and fussy cut them.

The background is made using distress - and my fave joggles stencil.

I do hope he likes this! 

I would like to enter this into craftyindividualsblog - anything goes

allsortschallenge happy-7th-birthday-allsorts

Off to see mum and dad again today - I hope we can bring a bit of sunshine to them both.

Big hugs

Rachel x

All your dreams come true at Indigo Blu

Good morning Lovelies! How are you today? I do hope you are well and happy. We have a new challenge for you at indigoblublogchallenge  where the theme is may all your dreams come true. Well I was thinking along the lines of the that wonderful daydreaming girl stamp - lost in thought - but in the end I went with another girl stamp - this one is called dianne. Here's what I did:

I stamped Dianne in brown archival ink and masked her before creating the background using distress inks. I also stamped into the background using limor-circles and stamps from mr-darcy-a5-red-rubber-stamp set. I also used starburst stencil and weird-science stencil in making the background.

I coloured the image using pens and then added the Breathe from the plume stamp set.

I do hope you like my orange masterpiece! There is great excitement at Indigo Blu just now too as it will soon be their 5th birthday - there will be an open day going on on the next bank holiday monday - so Monday 30th May. I'm really looking forward to it! I'll be taking the girls along for a visit! 

I hope you can join us for the new challenge - and the open day!!!

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

dancing in the moonlight!

Good morning lovelies! How are you? I hope you are well. I'm excited about the make I have to share with you today... I just did it last night and was very pleased with the result - its a copy for this months clarity calendar challenge. I love the stamps - and I loved this piece as soon as I saw the calendar! So was very keen to copy it! All was done as suggested but I did use distress pens to colour the chickens and blobbed paint rather than flicking - I couldn't find the brush I wanted so in  huff I turned a normal brush upside down and blobbed my paint - I rather like the effect!

Here's the full finished piece ....

a little closer ....

and just the main focus! This is destined for my living room!

I would like to enter this into claritystampchallenge calendar-challenge-5.

Have a lovely day! I have a spin class at 9.30 then gardening club at 12 then i am helping out at the flower festival this afternoon. Busy busy!!! Looking forward to seeing the drama group tonight too for a few drinkies!

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

Hugs

Rachel x

Tims tag May

Hello there! Another month and another attempt at Tims tags - I enjoyed the techniques on this tag but I can't say that I am over thrilled with my result! Nevermind - its a warts and all blog so i will show it! Here's Tims tag:



I think I just didn't have the best tissue tape and I haven't used all the adornments .... Here's mine:

Here's the full thing - I followed the techniques here.

Here's that lovely face on the tissue tape - a great resist technique indeed - 

Here's my arty shot! It shows those flowers nicely I think!

I would like to enter this into timholtz12-tags-of-2016-may

I hope you have a great Thursday - going to be a busy one here!!!

Big hugs

Rachel x

The green man

Hello lovelies ... hope you're having a good day so far? I know its early but hopefully its good! I got lots of gardening done in the last few days ... here's a few pics..

here's the baskets all planted up ready to harden off before hanging up.

These are the back garden beds - all planted up except one - I've got peas, sweet peas, spinach, cos lettuce, rocket, broad beans and leeks.... one more bed to be done then I can get around to the front.

Here's my new roof - from the back.

The front garden is in full bloom ... beautiful colours.

Onto todays card - I started the stampbord on Saturday at Clarity Cumbria ... that made it a quick job to stencil the background and complete the card this evening - its going to be for my dad on Father's day.

The stamp is this months club stamp - love it!

Here's a close up....

I would like to enter this into the claritystampchallenge-39 - anything goes.

sirstampalotchallenge /may-challenge-anything-goes

Have a great day whatever you're doing!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Stampbord from oak house studio

Good Morning to you! I hope you are fine today and enjoying your day so far! I am feeling good and looking forward to seeing the shows on Hochanda today from Oak House Studio - Lynnda is going to be on at 11am and 3pm ...so if you're going to be out why not record the shows - I'm sure you'll love the colour chemistry inks and other goodies Lynnda will be demonstrating.

I used the blue colour chemistry ink in the making of this stampbord atc...

The stampbord also came from oak house studio! As did the stamps and the embossing powder.

I hope you get chance to have a look!

Big hugs to you and have a fabulous day!

Rachel x

Clarity cumbria May

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I am good and my girlies are good too - they graded successfully for their brown belts in jujitsu yesterday ...




so proud of them - my clever little ones - its good to see them learning how to defend themselves - and a little anatomy and japanese too! Its all good!

Today I want to share my makes from Clarity cumbria on Saturday - as always Jo Rice gave us plenty of inspiration and we did a few techniques - some familiar - others less so. Here are my makes:
The class stamps were the wee farm animals and wee farm buildings.

To make this one we did water colouring with spectrum aqua markers and stamped using the class stamps plus wee foliage and wee trees sets.

This one was made using an ATC size of stampbord - we started by using shaving foam technique on the stampbord and then stamped and scraped according to what we saw...

This was a quick and simple one using a stencil and stencil brushes and adirondack inks.

Finally a cute tag - we used distress on the background and spritzed through a stencil to form a ghost pattern. great technique. I added white dots using a posca pen to highlight the pattern - love doing this!

So there we have it! A brilliant day and fabulous inspiration from Jo. 

Big hugs

Rachel x