spooky 15 min make

Good morning all! How are you all? I hope you are well.  I have to report that the new TV is in and working - we almost managed to set it going without any help but sadly I had to resort to asking a neighbour in the end. Its probably a good job I did though as I wouldn't have realised a few things about it if I hadn't!

 I have a spooky quick make on the CB blog today for Halloween. Here's my card ..

I used a stencil and distress ink  to create the background but the main image is from chocolate baroque. I coloured the image using  distress pens.

My girls are back at school today - well they're actually going to tower wood. They'll  be on the lake doing a variety of things - I suspect they'll come back tired and hungry ...but not too tired for trick or treating!!!

Stay safe and enjoy yourself. Hugs rachel x

anything goes at christmas card club

Hello lovelies! How are you this morning? I hope you are well. We are looking forward to lunch with my mum today. Oh and we have to pick another TV up - the old one broke last night during strictly! Not the best timing - its a good job we can get TV on the computer!!! I suspect there will be some colourful language later when I try to figure out how to set the thing up!!!!

Onto today - our christmas card club has a theme of anything goes - now I was very happy to see this as I got hold of two of the new Tracy Easson Wonky Tonk Christmas stamps last week and wanted to play with them. So thats what I did....

This set is called under the mistletoe - I love it - its my favourite! 

Here's a closer look!

And I think this one is hearts home for the holidays - which again I adore...

Tracy has a giveaway on her blog at the moment ... its here. Why not try to win a set - my comments on there! I would like another set! Lol!!!!

I would like to enter this into allsortschallenge week-387-lets-make-start-on-christmas

Hope you have a great Sunday!

Big hugs

Rachel x

More play time

Hello all! How are you? We're good today - we've had a lazy day. We had to wait in for the rat man - as it turns out I should be calling him the mouse man!!! He reckons it will be virtually impossible to make the house inaccessible to mice - so I will have to just keep vigilent for signs of them. Given they've been under the floorboards if I don't hear them or they don't eat any pipes I suspect that will be quite tricky. But at least its not rats - which would have meant broken drains!!!!

Whilst I was away my clarity stamp and stencil for this month arrived and today I had a play with them. My card is similar to one of the suggested ones in the blurb that comes with it - but I have used the stamp and the stencil together.

I think the set are pretty magical...that stamp is just gorgeous and the stencil is going to prove very useful I think.

I stamped the image then masked it and a moon before creating the background from distress.  I stencilled in the trees and coloured the image and 'moon'. Finally I added the sentiment from a new Tim Holtz stamp set.

Hope you have a great Friday night!

Hugs

Rachel x

dreams of summer

Hello there! How are you? We are back home now after a few days away visiting Shaun's mum and brother's family. Its been a lovely few days. My mum came with us too and we had lots of fun. We managed to get out every day and did plenty of walking - not too many complaints from the girls which is great!

I made a card in the attic tonight - trying to get caught up and get ahead really. This is a just because card - I've had these stamps almost a month nd not inked them up until tonight - love them. They are from Paperartsy - eclectica-rubber-stamp-sheet-by-kay-carley.

I masked off the outer edges and used distress to build up the middle portion. Then I did the stamping.

Finally I restamped the flower heads and stuck them to the card.

I have a few pics to share with you from the last few days...

     

Hee hee - that one of Penny is sooooo funny! These were all at Biddulph Grange today - the colour in the China garden was amazing!!!

Better get off to sleep I think!

Hugs

Rachel x

Fiskarettes tree

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you are fine and happy. We're enjoying half term. Its been fun so far!
I want to share with you today a make that I did for Fiskarettes - you'll find it here.
I used a clarity stencil and a Fiskars punch and distress inks plus scraps of paper to make this card,

The butterfly punch is a squeeze punch and works beautifully with paper.

The distress colours I used were ripe persimmon and fossilised amber. The stamp is from Clarity. 

I would like to enter this into the Clarity challenge this month which is claritystampchallenge round and round challenge ... I hope this is okay with the added butterflies! Makes me think of that Joni Mitchell song ...and the seasons they go round and round .....

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Tims tag October

Hello there! Its Sunday again - and we are still warm - woohoo! Heating is so very lovely!!! We have a quiet morning ahead then the girls have a pre grading class for Jujitsu - in November they have their brown tab 1 to grade for. Its getting pretty serious but they seem to be managing ok! Little stars!

Today I want to share with you my take on Tims tag this month ...



This is Tims - as you can see its pretty spooky. Now I didn't have any of the build up monsters so instead I used an autumn leaf - seems appropriate for the season. I built it up but thats not very evident on the tag sadly. Here's mine....

I decided to include a an extra leaf that I cut using a tattered leaves die - I cut it in the sticky backed burlap.

The background was created using halloween ephemera - I used a lot of orange as the leaf wasn't going to be very autumnal! As I seen the picture there it looks like the pumpkin is a ninja!!! Lol - that wasn't intentional!

I couldn't find the industrial folder so I used a cogs one - but you can't really see it here - sadly the layers don't show either! Oh well!!!

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

Have a great Sunday!

Hugs

Rachel x

patchwork creatures

Hello there - I write this in a warm house - wow - it makes such a difference to have heating - fingers crossed the rodent (s) that caused the damage have bit the dust!! Otherwise there will be more problems to come I suspect!

Tonight I have a patchwork card to share with you in response to the latest challenge over at Paperartsy. I have used a layout very similar to that used by Jennie ....but the main inspiration for my card is by helen-chilton. My card really looks nothing like either of these though! I used those fabulous creatures from Elenazinski.

These guys are fabulous - love them to pieces!!!! And I love them only partially stamped too - aren't they cool????

My method is very simple - I cut 9 4x4cm pieces, stamped coloured and assembled them! Not rocket science but cute I think! What do you think?

I'd like to enter this into the squares-and-grids-challenge over at paperartsy.

Big hugs and a happy Friday night to you!

Rachel x

Monochrome at IndigoBlu challenge

Hello there! Well its the 21st so time for a new IndigoBlu challenge. This month our theme is monochrome. When I was down at headquarters earlier this month I bought the box tree that I have used for this months theme. I also used lots of other Indigo blu goodies that I will link to the IndigoBlu site as I mention them.

The first thing I did was gesso the wooden boxes and when dry I added english-cottage-artists-acrylic-paint-wimberry-pie. Once dry I mixed super-thick-slap-it-on with luscious-pigment-powder in lilac and then applied to the sides through  indigoblu-stencils-c51/stencil-stars-6-x-6. I also applied it through the same stencil to white paper. I added gems onto some of the stars.

I used 3 stamp sets winterland-wood-a5-red-rubber-stamp-by-kay-halliwell-sutton, sparkle-and-glisten-a6-red-rubber-stamp-by-kay-halliwell-sutton and jewel-a6-red-rubber-stamp-by-kay-halliwell-sutton

I stamped all images in flitterglu and added embossing powder, heat set and fussy cut.

I really hope you can join us ... the teams amazing inspiration and challenge details you can find here. 

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

coffee pot baubles

Good morning lovelies! How are you? I hope you are well. We are good althoughI am  reeling from the news we may have rats under the floorboards - and if so they're getting in due to broken drains - doesn't it just get better and better??? Watch this space - I will update you when I know any more!

Coffeepot was under my control this week - I decided to do baubles - the ladies loved making them - I didn't have quite enough to make another one as a demo so I made a card instead. Here are my makes...

I bought the baubles at clarity cumbria - the poinsettias are double sided.

I made the card to demonstrate making the poinsettias - they are made using chloe stamps stamped in red archival, coloured with distress and then I added glitter modge podge to them before cutting out and mounting together. The music stencil is from TH - as is the stencilled believe.

Take care and have a great wednesday!

hugs

Rachel x

Clarity Cumbria October workshop

Good Morning! How are you? I hope you are doing well. We had a relaxed night last night - it was brilliant - I got some DT work done and had a bath - the girls both enjoyed being at home for a change...and not doing their swimming lessons! I think things are catching us up - good job half term starts Thursday teatime!!!

I wanted to share my makes from Clarity Cumbria on Saturday with you today - beautiful makes I think - I adore these Jane Nestorenko stamps.

On this one we painted onto black card using Inka Gold.

This one used a book page rolled into a scroll - coloured with pencils.

This one used distress inks to make a blended band then I stamped the agapanthus on top.

This one is probably my favourite. I love this blocked stamp. Thanks to Jo Rice for wonderful company and great designs xx

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

More spooky fun!

Hello there - its my turn today to do the blog over at countryview challenges - our theme this month is all things spooky. I decided to make a fun spooky card this time using things Tim Holtz!

My background is created by brayering distress ink - blueprint sketch - and also using a stencil lightly in the background.

The doggie is one of the stampers-anonymous-tim-holtz-cling-mounted-stamp-set---crazy-dogs. The pumpkin is from the larger version of these mini-blueprint---halloween-2 and the broomstick is Tim Holtz ideology.

The moon comes from a Tim Holtz ephemera pack and the hat is from the stampers-anonymous-tim-holtz-cling-mounted-stamp-set----crazy-things-stamp-set.

All items were stamped and cut and assembled! Simple!

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

Big  Hugs

Rachel xx

Sentiment focus at Christmas Card Club

Hello there! How are you? We had a great time at Clarity Cumbria yesterday - thank very much to jo rice .. you are one very beautiful person Jo! We made some beauties that I will show you later in the week. Today its Christmas Card Club and the theme this time was Sentiment Focus - I decided to use the new Tim Holtz sentiments - I bought the set with all of the sentiments on - these are smaller than the other ones. I used them to make three cards.

I teamed all three up with distress background overstamped using a Crafty Individuals stamp and die cuts too. Here's some close ups.

I am looking forward to seeing what the other ladies have come up with!

Have a great Sunday and enjoy whatever you do. We are off to church this morning - the girls are both singing in the choir and doing readings. Then we're going to a fundraiser at the hospice. I hope that goes well.

Do take care!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Quick make at chocolate baroque

Good morning all! How are you? I hope you are well. I am at Clarity Cumbria today with my mum and girls - I look forward to showing you our makes later next week!

Today I want to share a quick card using stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

These stamps are from the put a spell on you stamp set. I used a clarity stencil and masked off the edges. I used carved pumpkin distress ink through the stencil then stamped the images and distress inked the outside.

It was a quick make - only took 15 mins to make. 

You can check out other quick makes on the blogpost here.

I'd like to enter this into thatscraftychallenges clean-and-simple-challenge

Big hugs

rachel x

Christmas robin at coffeepot

Evening all! How are you? I hope you are well. We are good. I had a great day today - I was supposed to be at home doing chores but a friend Andrea invited me to swim fit  - we know how to live - so at 11 I left the house and had a great swim....then we stayed for lunch and chatted the afternoon away. It was great therapy! Really enjoyed it!

Today I have a Christmas card to share that I made at coffeepot on Monday - Diane brought along a couple of stamps and I chose this robin one to stamp and colour.

I used water colour pencils throughout. The stamp I think was woodware and I used a hobby art holly leaf around the edge of the base card.

Hope you've had a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Autumnal wreath

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are doing well! Its been a bust few days here - still chilly but with the promise of work starting on the pipes next week I am hoping the chill won't last too much longer. At least indoors!

Today I would like to share the Autumnal wreath with you that I made for Fiskarettes UK that was on their page last week. Here is the final thing...

And here's how I made it ... I started with a  polystyrene ring and covered it with fabric.

I added  some slap it on and some luscious. Then I coloured some paper with inks and added stamping.

I cut this into strips using my fiskars guillotine ..

Then used my butterfly squeeze punch to punch some shapes,

I also punched some stars from different materials using my multimedia star punch.

I added these and all the butterflies to the ring ..

I then puncjed more butterflies and some flowers using scrap paper and added these to the ring to end up with the finished item.

I had another item on the facebook page for Fiskarettes UK today - here's a sneak peak...

Take care!

Lots of huggles

Rachel x

Dirty weekend at IndigoBlu!!

Evening all! How are you? I hope you are doing well! Isn't it cold? Or is it just because my house has no heating! Typical!! At least we have hot water though and a log burner - so hey things could be much worse!!!

I wanted to share my makes with you from my Dirty Weekend at IndigoBlu - dirty in terms of paint, slap it on and Luscious!!! Lol! It was a hoot - we had such a good time!

Here I am with Diane and Lou showing off our makes from day 1. They were all stunning. Beautiful work from everyone. Here's a close up of my box.

I created this using the fabulous luscious powders - they really are fabulous - we used them in a few different ways at the workshop and I look forward to putting them to more use over the next few weeks.

Here's what we did on day two:

This took me way out of my comfort zone ... but I liked it by the end!

This is very much a work in progress - I have completed the cover but haven't done the insides as yet. This started out life as a prayer book... but will now act as a small art journal!!!

I had such a fabulous time and look forward to using the techniques I learned and applying them to other ideas that are bubbling under!!!

Big hugs

Rachel x