orange purple green and change for junk journal junkies

Hello Lovelies! How are you today? Ready for your bank holiday? I do hope you have a good one. We are footloose and fancy free until this evening when the girls have a friend each coming for a sleepover. I must be crackers!

I have a journal page to share with you today. The theme for last week over at Junk Journal Junkies on facebook was Change and the colours were orange green and purple. Here's what i did.

I started the page using distress spray stains in the required colours then when dry I applied some of the new paint from Indigoblu to the rhs to create a face shape. Next I used one of the new stencils to create the main facial features and then went wild with the hair. I am rather pleased with this face - I know I didn't really draw it but I think it shows how good the stencil is! I finished off using distress inks of the required colours through a clarity stencil.

I am looking forward to seeing what the challenge is this week!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Mistletoe and wine at CCC

Good morning all! By these fortnights roll by a bit too quickly - I only had chance to make one card for this theme of Mistletoe and Wine ...and as you can probably see - I made it mostly during my coffeepot class - time has definitely been against me this week!

Looks like I must have had the wine when I drew those wine glasses! How funny! 

I look forward to seeing what everybody else made of this theme!

Hugs

Rachel x

Coffee pot for May

Hello there! I hope you've been enjoying this sunshine - its been brilliant here! So nice to feel warm although it does make training much more of a struggle! Still - I'll just manage I think!!!

Its been a good week - I hit some pbs in my strength training - 75kg in deadlift, 47.5kg in backsquat and 34.5kg in bench press. It felt good to hit these and I think I could have gone a bit higher too! I'll keep that in the bag though!

On Monday I ran coffeepot. One of the ladies had asked to make a wedding card - now all of the others had said they didn't really want to make a wedding card - so using the same techniques I decided to try and please them all!!! Here are my samples...

Here they are all together - the top right is the one I made as the demo.... I added the vegetation as an afterthought and everybody really loved it - before you tell me its an unusual wedding card - I know - but the wedding takes place in  field!!!!

Here's a closer look...

All the stamps are clarity and I used adirondack inks and stencil brushes with torn paper to create the landscapes.

Hope you enjoy whatever you are doing today!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Last makes from Butterfly one day special

Hello there! Just wanted to log the remainder of my butterfly one day special samples! Here they are!

This one involved stamping the image and masking, then stamping the harlequin fragment, then the background was coloured with distress and then I used the butterfly stencil. The main image was painted with inka gold.

This one was stamped with versamark and white embossing powder was used to fix this with heat. Next inka gold was used to paint the image.

This one was done with distress oxides. It looked much better in real life.

This one was such fun to make - lots of fussy cutting - beautiful butterflies!!!!

I say these are my last samples - a few have been saved for specific posts in June but other than then thats all folks!!!!

Big hugs

Rachel x

A day out and a play

Hello lovelies! How are you? Did you have a good weekend? We certainly did! Busy but lots of fun! We were in a play Friday night and Saturday night - more of that later ..... but on Saturday we went to Clarity Cumbria and made a canvas. It was such a lovely relaxing class - a real tonic! Jo Rice is such a lovely lady! Here's my make! I love it!

We used so many techniques on this one but the basic idea was acrylic paint on a canvas, a sheet of card made up using distress oxides and then stamped on and flowers and leaves fussy cut. Ripped pieces of paper were added to the canvas and the colour was knocked back with gesso. When dry stencilling happened with ink, then stencilling with grungepaste. Then there was a bit of tissue technique and assembly! Lots of fun!

Here's the centre ....

lhs ....

and the rhs!!!! 

Thanks Jo for a lovely day!

Back to the play!

Lucy and Penny were in a play called 'Goodnight Mr Hitler'. A play by Sid Rivers. Meet Lucy the billeting Officer.

And Farmer Crabbie!!!!

They were both brilliant!

And I had my acting debut too.... I was the narrator/prompt in Sherlock Holmes and the mystery of the Aquilla Diamond.

Here are most of the cast from my play! - plus Elaine the director! 

We had such fun and really enjoyed it!!!!

Hope you have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

More one day special makes

Hello there - I've got some more samples to share with you today from the show on Monday. Those butterflies literally flew out of the door!

I saw this one quite a lot on the show - I used the stencil to create this adding different distress inks through the gaps.

This one uses the large background on a piece of hardboard and I used distress oxides to colour the flowers and also smaller butterflies.

Simple background stamping plus fluorishes and the butterflies were added with a pop of colour.

I hope this has given you a few ideas.

Hugs

Rachel x

Tripps card

Good morning to you! Well today I have a card for you made using another hobbyart hare ... this card is for my nephew who is 2 at the end of the month.

Its such a cute stamp - I stamped him then masked. Next I added a sun mask and then created the landscape. I stamped the vegetation and the trees then removed the masksand coloured the sun and the hare!

Here's a closer look! Expect to see this little face again soon!!! Lol!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Some beautiful butterfly makes from the CB ODS

Good morning all! I have some of my samples to share with you from the Chocolate Baroque One Day Special show that aired on Hochanda on Sunday evening to Monday evening. It was lovely to make these samples and brilliant to see them on the telly!!!

I was very taken with the enormous patchwork butterfly...I really enjoyed using it! The butterfly was stamped and masked and then I masked the sun and used distress inks to colour the background.Then I stamped the swirly bits, coloured the sun and butterfly.

Another distress based sample with fussy added bits!

This one used the stencil just as it was and then overstamping using the just butterflies stamps. I added cut out purplish butterfly as a contrast.

I will have more samples to share with you soon!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Quick makes for chocolate baroque

Good morning lovelies! I have some more superquick makes for you today - they are featured along with many others on the chocolatebaroque blog today. Each card took just under 15 mins to make.

A quick case of masking the sun and using adirondack inks and stencil brushes to build a simple scene and the overstamping in archival inks.

This one was built up using distress inks then the meadow stamps were stamped as silhouettes in black archival.

I hope you can pop over and get some more inspiration from the main site!

Just a reminder too that lesley is on Hochanda today with the ODS that launched last night! The times are 9am, 12 noon, 4pm and 7pm. I'll be surprised if the stock lasts! 

Hugs

Rachel x

a christmas carol at CCC

Hello there! How are you? I am good but life has been very busy the last few days - I went to see an ABBA tribute band on Friday night - that was fabulous! I haven't danced so much in a very long time! On Saturday I took the rainbows to a Gruffalo badge day - they had lots of fun and were all smiles by the end of the day! And later today - well we have rehersals for our Plays in Maytime - the girls are both in one play, I am in a second play and there is also a third! Thats next weekend! Phew - super busy!

So today the theme at CCC is a card based on a Christmas Carol ... I wanted to use  a new stamp I bought from Port Sunlight - so I chose the Carol - In the bleak mid winter - and based it around that.

The hare stamp is from Hobby Art - I just love hares so I had to have both of the new sets and I hope to use them in may different ways - I love that I have got him on a Christmas card! Well two!!!

Here's a closer look at the unglittered one - I prefer this!

I hope you have a great Sunday!

Lots and love and hugs

Rachel x

Junk Journal Junkies - yellow, orange and pink

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you are doing well. We have had some glorious days - filled with beautiful sunshine and I have been getting out nd about making the most of it. It would have been my dads birthday yesterday so I took my mum to the garden centre and we bought some plants and headed back to her house. I put the tomato plants into the greenhouse - I am taking mine down and using my dads old one this year. He was a great fan of tomatoes - so it seemed the right thing to do on his birthday. We had a good day!

Tonight I have a journal page to share with you for the latest challenge over at Junk Journal Junkies on Facebook. This week the prompt is yellow, pink and orange and the theme is sun.

I love this quote - its a newish stamp from Indigoblu - infact all the stamps are from indigo blu. To make the background I used distress paints and ink plus a clarity stencil for the sun.

Big hugs to you!

Rachel x

Express yourself facebook challenge

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I am good and very excited after my visit to Port Sunlight yesterday. I had a great time and my lovely Lucy was one of the winners of the prize draw - She got loads of lovely goodies - here she is when she got home....

  She is a very lucky little girl - I hope she'll let mum have a play!

I picked up my prize from the 3000 facebook members giveaway from visible image too.


Lucky lucky me!!!

I also got to speak to many lovely people - Shaz and Doug, Anne Redfern, Elizabeth Robinson, Kay Halliwell Sutton, Cheremane Smith, Lesley Warton, Helen and Mark Alexander, Jean and Malcolm from Crafty Individuals, Keren Baker and so many more folk. If I have missed you from this list I'm very sorry! Here's a picture of me, Shaz, Lucy and Mark from visible image... thanks to Shaz for the photograph!

So a lovely day in all!

I made a quick card for the express yourself facebook challenge for Visible Image - its a words centred challenge.

I love these words - very true I feel! The background is all distress ink that I blended and then stamped the lightbulb from the glimmer of light stamp set.I added the sentiment and the moths afterwards.

Hope you have a great Sunday - we're off for a swim - and I need to run too!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Into the wild woods

Hello there! Well its been an iteresting week - lots of fun cycling and walking and some runs and strength training too. The sky has been blue and the wind has blown verily!!! Its been a good one for me. How about you? I think my highlight was a walk where I saw three baby owls in a tree hollow - so very cute - and so very magical. I made todays page before I had seen the owls so sadly it wasn't inspired by them.

I've used this stamp from crafty individuals ..... I love this stamp - I masked it and just drew and painted the woods around them! Then I coloured the image in. This is for this weeks challenge over at Junk Journal Junkies over on facebook. I was lucky enough to win last week and so this is actually my theme!!!

We're off to Port Sunlight today - looking forward to catching up with a few people and meeting some others!

Big hugs

Rachel x

More flowers for Countryview Crafts

Hello there! How are you today? I do hope you are well! I am sharing my post over at Countryview Chllenges today. The theme is Flower Power and this time I used paperartsy stamps to make a set of three cards. Here's what I did:

I worked with this stamp set from Jo Firth Young - love these flowers and it wasn't a hard decision to use this set. I started by creating a piece in bright colours to cut strips from - I stamped the large flower many times over a piece of A4 then masked and restamped. Then I used distress inks to colour the flowers in.

Next on three cards I stamped some more of the stamps over to the rhs.... Then I coloured in what I had stamped using distress inks.

Finally I cut and mounted a piece of the floral border then added them to the card.

Here's a closer iew of the top two.

I do hope you can join us at Countryview challenges for our challenge this month. You never know - you might win £20 to spend in the shop! The post to link up to is here

Hugs

Rachel x

Fabric and/or fibres at stamps and stencils

Hello lovelies! I hope you are doing well. Things here are good. I am here today to tell you about a new challenge over at Stamps and stencils today. Cec is our host and her theme is fabric and/or fibres and this is what she has to say ....

 Fabric and Fibres - Let's add some fabric and/or fibres to our creations this month.  You can use linen, burlap, organza, wool, lace, ribbon, rope to name a few.  The list is almost endless but whatever you add, make sure there is some stamping or stenciling (or both) on your creation as well.

I decided to use a kit from tando creative in this challenge - and added some burlap!

I started by glueing the sides together ...

next came a bit of painting ....

then I added the burlap and the house bases.

I then added some stencilling ...

for the house tops I painted them using distress crackle paints and distress pens. I also added other items from the kit that I painted plussome pieces of paua shell from New Zealand. The sun is a koru cut by my sister using her laser cutter in NZ. I painted it yellow and stamped some bubbles on it then added it to the scene.

here's a closer view before the glue dried clear! The last thing I added was the words.

I hope you can join our challenge this month - so much you can do with fabric!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Floral Frenzy at Countryview Challenges

Hello lovelies! How are you? I hope you are doing well. Its the first of May! How on earth did that happen? This year is running away already!

Time for a new challenge at Countryview Challenges - this time its flower power! I'm sure you'll find this one quite easy. I hope you can join in with us. You'll find the post to link up to and all the details plus my teamies inspiration here.

I have used some Kay Carley stamps from Paperartsy to make my card. I adore these stamps - I used aquatints, distress pens, crayons and brushos/infusions  to do the colouring.

Here's my card - I started by doing the stamping then coloured it all in. 

The stamps are used were from the following stamp sheets:

eclectica-rubber-stamp-sheet-by-kay-carley---ekc06

eclectica-rubber-stamp-sheet-by-kay-carley---ekc02

eclectica-rubber-stamp-sheet-by-kay-carley---ekc01

The sky and grass basic colours were done with aquatints in a wash. I then used a combination of brushos, infusions and distress crayon to colour the lower flowers. The dangling flowers were done with distress pens and a water brush.

a close up shows the dragonflies - I coloured then using indigoblu luscious powders mixed with water.

I do hope you can join us this month - there's a £20 voucher up for grabs!!

I would like to enter simonsaysstampblog mondaychallenge - the great outdoors

Big hugs

Rachel x