Quick cards for chocolate Baroque

Good Morning all! How are you? I hope you are fine and well. We are good. Lucy and I went to visit another school last night - we are very lucky where we live to have such a good selection of schools. I think she'll be fine wherever she decides to go. I do have my preferences which I have shared with Lucy but I think its her final decision!

Today I would like to share with you a couple of quick cards that will be featured over on the chocolatebaroque blog. They were both made in around 15 mins each and both from the same stamp set - a little bird told me.

Here's both of them together.

This was simply a case of stamping and colouring and adding the sentiment which came from artistic-affirmations-rubber-stamp-sheet. I added a mat plus a pen line around the edge. Colouring was in distress pens.

This one was stamped and coloured and masked then I added a stencil to the background and went over in distress inks.

Two very quick makes - I hope you like them!

Hugs

Rachel x

calendar chllenge at Clarity

Evening all! How are you? I hope you are well. I'm fresh in from drama where we have been doing a bit of physical theatre - taking the parts of props like a bed and a cuckoo clock. It was good fun and not only the children enjoyed it!

Today I managed to finish my entry to the clarity calendar challenge - this month is my fave picture soI had to enter. I had most of it completed at the weekend but then couldn't find what I had done with the hare and fern stamps - luckily my lovely mum came to the rescue.

I followed the method as set out and made everything with reference to the original.

I am super pleased with this one - but its such a wonderful design to copy! 

I would like to enter this into claritystampchallenge september-2016

Big hugs

Rachel x

a little oriental swap

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are okay and have had a good day. Its been full on community Tuesday for me today - serving tea and coffee this morning and helping in the school library this afternoon. The new reception children were in today for the first time so there  was a definite aw factor.

today I would like to share with you the card I made for the cardswap I take part in. The theme was oriental and this is what I made.

I have used all chocolate baroque stamps and using masking I have created a scene.

The colouring was all done using spectrum noir pencils.

I do hope the recipient likes it - she is a new lady so I hope I have made a good impression. 

Over on the fiskarettes uk fb page I have a pop up box today. Here's a sneaky peek...

why not check it out???

Big hugs

Rachel x

coffee pot flowers

Hello there! How are you today? I am good. I had a good visit to coffeepot. Diana was in charge so all I had to do was to sit back and enjoy. More of that in a minute - just wanted to announce the winner of my ministencil set. random org came up with number 6 and that corresponds with Barb so if you could email me your details barb i'll send them off to you!

So today we had a choice of floral stamps, distress inks and stencils to play with - these are what I came up with. I did the red rose first then saw that Marjory had done a blue flower - so the blue version was born!

I think the stamp was called wire flower and it could well have been woodware. 

I really like the blue one - much better than the more traditional colouring.

I am back in charge next week and we have decided to turn our attention to the C word!!!! So it'll be Christmas cards from here on in!!!

I hope you've had a good day and Barb - I hope the stencils will make your day brighter!

Big Hugs

Rachel x

CAS at Crafty Individuals

Evening all! How are you? I do hope you've had a good sunday! Thanks so much for your kind comments on my tims tag - its a great technique - I hope to try it again very soon.

This evening I have a Crafty Individuals make to share with you - I adore this stamp - the sentiment is from another CI set! I have used distress inks and a TH stencil to make the background after lots of masking.

Its another trip down memory lane for me!

A great bit of therapy!

I'm entering this for craftyindividualsblog september-cas.

I have a few more challenges I am trying to enter before the end of the month! Need to get Crafting! 

Here's something to make you smile....

Doesn't she look lovely? She's not happy though - only have to wait until Thusday for the cone to come off ... bless her!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Tims tag september

Hello lovelies - well its been a busy few days but finally I have chance to catch up with blogging and post the tag I made on Friday afternoon. Today has been a blur - Lucy did the 11+ for the local grammar where I used to work. She doesn't even know whether or not she wants to go to the school - she has sat the test as she wants the option! Bless her! Only time will tell! I also took her climbing then deposited her at the brownie holiday!

Onto tims tag - I love love the technique this time with the alcohol inks on the yupo. You can find all the steps to the technique here. Here's my tag!!!

I adore the stamp set this stamp is from. I didn't find it easy to photograph. I think you get the idea though.

I would like to enter this for timholtz12-tags-of-2016-september

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

what a day!

Hello there! I do hope you are well! I am hoping for a better day today - I didn't have a very good one yesterday - nothing much really - just a few niggles getting me down. Missy came back from her op on Tuesday and is doing fine really but the cone is really getting her down. She's also realy missing being outside - I have bought her a jacket and lead but she hates that too! And to top it all mice have nibbled through water pipes under the floor causing my boiler to not be able to keep pressure - so no hot water or heating! But hey - like i say just niggles!

I have a make to share over on the fiskarettes UK page today - the link is here... here's a sneaky peek...

Here's last weeks Halloween tag ...

To create this I used mostly distress inks plus a tim stencil and distress crayons. I also used Tim halloween paper ephemera.

I made the flowers using a fiskars punch - the papers are from docrafts.

I hope you have a good day ... big hugs Rachel xx

Autumn animals at Indigo Blu

Hello there! Time for a new challenge at indigoblublogchallenge and for this month the theme is Autumn animals! I have made a card using the nature-ii-a5-red-rubber-stamp set.

This hedgie is such a cutie pie! I used a brayer to get the mirror image and masked to add the mushroom which is from the same stamp set.

The background is made using luscious-pigment-powders in teal and bronze and super slap-it-on plus texture stencil.

A close up of the stamping - in the background the sky and ground were painted with the same powders mixed with water.

Here's that cheeky hedgie!

I hope you can check out the main page here. Brilliant prizes plus the chance to join in - whats not to like! Just create something to fit the theme using Indigo Blu stamps.

Big Hugs

Rachel x

Coffee pot - distress crayon fun

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well and happy! I am good - a little tired and emotional - I have to take the cat to the vets this morning for her operation. Not looking forward to that but so many people have said she'll be fine - so I hope you're all right!!!

Yesterday it was my turn to do coffee pot - I chose to make cards using a distress crayon watercolour resist technique. Here is one of the cards I took along that was made using the technique.

I used distress crayons, inks and crayons. Also fluorish stencil from Tim Holtz.

This is the one I made to show the techniques.

And here are my very happy ladies with my lovely mum in the middle! They did enjoy it! So glad and their makes were fabulous! 

I have a small giveaway - just leave a comment to enter! I will draw the winner at the weekend!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

saturdays visit to Clarity Cumbria

Good Morning! How are you? I hope you are doing well. It was a good weekend for me - we all went to Clarity Cumbria on Saturday and then on Sunday I did my second triathalon - and managed to take 17 mins off my time from April on the same course - its amazing what you can do when you go the right way lol!!! Anyway I am chuffed!

So today I would like to share my makes from Jo Rice's workshop with you. I love the two with the boy on - such lovely designs!

I think they are lovely! If you live anywhere near Lindale in the North west you should come along to the next one - you'll have fun!!

Another busy day today - I'm in charge at coffee pot - we're playing with distress crayons today - I will show you what we do tomorrow! 

Look forward to seeing you soon!

Big hugs

Rachel x

woolly hats and mittens at christmas card club

Hello there. Well I was going to be showing you the beautiful makes from my day with jo rice yesterday .... but no - time has come around to christmas card club again and I must post my makes today! Its the lovely Kates challenge today and she has asked for woolly hats and mittens! So here are my makes!

I managed three cards - all very similar! All of the stamps are from Little Claire.

The mittens are from a die by crafty sentiments.

The snowflake is from memory box....

The words are Tim Holtz dies.

I do hope you have a great Sunday - I'm doing a triathalon....oh my goodness!!! A bit scary - hopefully I'll have good things to tell you tomorrow!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

busy days, craft stamper and a poorly puss

hello there! How are you? So sorry I've been MIA for the past day - I'm off to try and catch up ASAP. But first I wanted to tell you what I've been doing!

I went up to Kendal with my friend Rose on Wednesday - we had a cycle ride - the route was the one that we'll both be doing in a triathalon on Sunday - I'm really looking forward to it and am hoping i can improve on my time from April. Not sure if i will though - I haven't exactly been working hard so maybe it won't quite happen as I hope. We also managed to catch up with a neighbour who is cycling lands end to john o groats in 9 days  for the paralympics charity. Wow!! What an amazing feat!

On Thursday I went to my mums and we had a lovely lunch out but then went home and found my cats tail was yet again bleeding - she was still managing to lick the wound with her cone on so I had to whip her back to the vets to put a bigger cone on her. Later on me and my mum went to see the Rat pack vegas spectacular at the Grand Theatre in Lancaster - it was great fun - I especially liked the person playing Sammy Davis Jnr. He was brilliant.

This morning I had to take Missy back to the vets - we got the results from her samples and they said that she had tumours in her tail. The best course of treatment seems to be to remove her tail - so thats what happens on Tuesday next week. Poor puss!

I have a card to share with you today that is in this months Craft stamper magazine - I am so chuffed to have been published again - thankyou so much Trish Latimer!

 Here's the card - I used visible image stamps from the Alice series. And here's a picture from the magazine!

We're all off to clarity Cumbria tomorrow - looking forward to that! I will have plenty to share with you then. 

Off to check out your blogs now!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Playing with Luscious at stamps and stencils

Good morning all! Just a quick post from me on here today - I have a tutorial on stampsandstencils blog where I made pages using luscious powders... this is the result...

I hope you will pop over to see how I did this!

Hugs

Rachel x

15 minute post at Chocolate Baroque and a sneak peek

Hi there - my first of two posts today ... and a sneaky peak too... isn't it always the same - nothing for days then three come along at once!!!!

On the chocolatebaroque blog today there are more ideas for quick makes ... I have two cards to share...

This first one involves creating a quick distress crayon background - I added the colours gradually to the card and used my fingers to blend. The stamps are from the wild-meadowrubber-stamp-sheet. I stamped them in black archival.

This is a quick make using the Daisy centre flowerhead. I coloured this using distress inks and pens and a paint brush.

Finally a tag that I have on the fiskarettes facebook page ... here's a sneaky peek ...

I hope you can join me over there!

Thanks for looking today!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

coffee pot and colour run

Hello Lovelies ... how are you? I hope you are well. I have found a short window of time before we head off for swimming. I thought I would write this blog post now so I can save a bit of time for later!!! I have distress crayon playtime on my mind!!!!

Today was the first time coffeepot met this academic year and my mum came along so that was good. Diana was in charge and these are the cards I made using woodware stamps...

I love this teasels one - the yellow is wild honey and the brown is brushed corduroy onto kraft. I stamped the tesels in sepia.

Now this next one I think is called summer meadow but I could be wrong. The background is done with ripe persimmon distress plus wild honey. I have stamped the image in sepia archival and coloured the flowers in a combination of distress and watercolour pencils.

This one is not yet complete - its the teasels again with fired brick and ripe persimmon distress. I used flick and mop to get the splodges. I will hopefully complete this later.

Yesterday me and my girls did the colour run in Morecambe in aid of St Johns Hospice. The hospice at home team looked after my dad a lot in the last few weeks of his life. We raised over £500 for them - thanks to those of you that sponsored us ... here's some pics....

This was us before the race ...

during the run ...

and after the run.

It was a perfect day weatherwise. And a perfect day smiles wise!!!

Have a great Monday evening!

Big hugs

Rachel x

playtime distress crayon resist

Hello Lovelies! Well it was a funny old day yesterday! I had a lovely morning - swimming with my friends Rose and Alice and then lunch with another friend Catherine - then gardening at school. Sadly things went a bit wrong then - I got home from school to find my cat licking her tail madly and she had quite an oozy bloody tail when I investigated. Anyway, the vet put a cone of shame on her to prevent her from keep licking the wound so she feels proper sorry for herself. Then I found out I had managed to miss Jenny Marples demonstrating only 15 minutes from my house!

I have been carrying on with my Tim lessons from the summer - todays make involves the distress crayon resist technique. Its a great technique - I hope you like the results!

I used a Tim stencil to do this and distress inks.

Centrally I used a Tim Holtz quote and some tim holtz punched shapes. There are also some added flowers from my 'craft box' for this month too.

A closer look. The fabric behind is from the finnabhair range.

I hope you have a good Saturday. Lucy is starting climbing lessons today! Not sure what else we are doing!

Big hugs

Rachel x