Oopsie!

Hello there! A late posting for me today - I thought I already did this! I think there is a pattern developing here! I hope not for long!

The new stamps from Donna Radcliffe - I really love these images - todays one has a background on yupo with alcohol inks....

I decoupaged up the butterflies....

Here's a closer look!

I will try to get more of this set stamped up soon!!!!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Chocolate Baroque guest design

Hello there! Well its 24 hours late but here's my post for the chocolate baroque guest design team....i am becoming muddled!!! Oh dear!!!

I used all chocolate baroque stamps, stamping and masking to create the scene - I then used distress inks to create the background and do the colouring!!! It was my mums card for her recent birthday - she liked it!!!

Big hugs - have a great day!

Rachel x

hongkong garden

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are ok. My leg is still not right so i'm not running now until Friday - thats giving it a bit more time to rest. I hope that will sort it out!!! It does give me a little more time too to try and think about what to do at Rainbows tonight!

Today I have a quick journal page to share with you. The theme over at Junk journal junkies this week is Oriental and the colour palette is red, pink and blue. I used stamps from Lynne Perella at Paperartsy and a stencil from Tim Holtz.

This is my first page in the journal I made with Anna Dabrowska down in Coventry. Its much smaller than my other journal so will be kept for when time is limited as it seems increasingly to be these days!!! I roughly coloured the whole page in spun sugar distress then stamped the top and bottom stamp. I then added the central stamp and masked before using spun sugar through the blossom stencil from Tim Holtz. I then added a little colour to the stamped images and stamped a few more images.

Have yourselves a lovely day and take care!

Hugs

rachel x

Final Mackintosh samples

Hello there. How are you? I am ok but my leg is still causing me trouble so I'm not running again today - I think I'll swim though!!!

Today I want to show you my final samples from the show before last for chocolate baroque - the mackintosh style stamps...

I really enjoyed making this one - its a ceramic moneybox...I used starlight paints and mackintosh beauty stamps.

This one involved repeat stamping in versamark setting in white embossing powder on the black background. 

The photo of this one has got scrambled but you get the general idea. I think this one got quite a few good comments from Charlie when the shows were on!!!

Have a great Tuesday!

Big hugs

Rachel x

My day at Clarity Cumbria

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well. I am good apart from a sore leg - I think I did something whilst running Sunday morning - decided to rest my leg today so hopefully that will help! That and my foam roller!!!

I've got my makes from Clarity Cumbria to share with you today. Its was a lovely day - we all had lots of fun!

Here's my notebook I made - really had lots of fun doing this! The colours all came from indigoblu luscious powders plus a little gilding wax.

The stencils I used were a combination of Tim Holtz and Clarity. Many of the bits and bobs were from prima, some Tim Holtz plus a couple of shapes from NZ!

This was a lovely card to make - i first randomly gessoed on kraft card then when it was dry I used stencils and distress inks to complete the background - plus a posca pen. The butterfly is from Clarity as is the friendship stamp!

A lovely day was had by all. Sunday was good too. Penny had her first gymnastics competition - she did really well - sadly not good enough to get a podium place but I think she was brilliant! Her best friend came first - that could be a bit tricky!!! Seriously though she was very pleased that her friend did so well!

Have a great Monday!

Hugs

Rachel x

White Christmas at Christmas Card Club

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well? I am good and feeling pleased after my lovely mum had a great birthday yesterday - thanks to Jo Rice and all the lovely ladies at Clarity Cumbria for making her day so good - I'll tell you about our makes another day!

Today I want to share my makes with you for the Christmas Card Club - the theme was White Christmas - and although I could have gone with a scene I decided I should get some of those dies out that I never use!!!! Here's what I made.

So its white on white with a bit of gold!!!

This one has got TH pine branch plus a sara holly strip die - the stamps are actually paperartsy!!!

This one has got a corner die from crafters companion and the peace die also I think crafters. The poinsettia and angel die are both from Sue Wilson.

These are certainly different for me - it took me an age to make them - give me inks and mess any day! Lol!!!

Have a great Sunday - Penny has her first gymnastics competition today - its going to be a long one!!!! The things we do for love eh???

Big hugs

Rachel x

Born to perform!

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are doing well. Thankyou for any comments you left on my last post that included CB Hochanda show samples. I think the shows were lovely and Lesley did a fabulous job. Love my season ladies!

Today I want to share with you another visible image card I made - this one uses mostly stamps from the Born to perform set but the birds I added were from 'ahead of our time'.

The bottom background was made using distress oxides - peeled paint, cracked pistachio and broken china. The background behind the dancer was done using distress inks - the same colours plus twisted citron and lucky clover.

I love that tutu - its such a fabulous effect - I added the birds from the other stamp set - I think she rather looks like a magician!!!!

Its my lovely mums birthday today and we'll be off to Clarity Cumbria for the day - I have baked so I hope everybody is hungry! Tonight I'm taking mum to a show in the village - looking forward to that!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Chocolate Baroque shows ...Hochanda

Hello there - just wanted to let you know that Lesley is back on Hochanda today at 3pm and 7pm with some stamps you may have seen before and some brand new stencils. Here's a little taster of a couple of my samples ....if you get chance look out for them!

This is one of those 3D step box cards - I used the summer lady image and used brushos in the background. The image was coloured with distress pens. I added some butterflies from the last collection too! And the word stamp came from the stamps from the kingfisher show.

This one is the spring lady coloured with pencils, masked and then one of the primrose stamps repeat stamped around the edge. 

I hope you can join Lesley for the shows!

Hugs

Rachel x

Dimension at visible image

Hello there! How are you? We are good and my eldest Lucy has returned from her 3 day residential to Edinburgh so all is even better! She had a good time visiting Mary King's close, the National Gallery, Scottish Parliament, Dynamic Earth Park and the Camera Obscura. Sounds pretty good to me!

Yesterday was a bit of a funny day - after my run - which was ok - I spent some time at home and then the power went off. There was a power cut that tripped in and out for a while then stayed off for nearly 1 and half hours. Now we often get power cuts but this one was odd as my house alarm kept going off! It was very weird - never done that before! Somebody told me there's a backup battery in the box that must have ran out - need to remember to look into that one!

Anyway - whilst I felt confined to barracks without power i decided to have a go at one of the newest sets of visible image stamps....here's what i made....

I adore these stamps - so very cool - I decided to make something for the current VI challenge on facebook.... its all about dimension and i think this fits the bill!!!I used distress oxides to do the background and also a further sheet of A4 on which I did some other stamping too. I also used my TH stamping platform for the first time whilst making this card - I think it will make planning and placing of images much easier!

Hope you have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Second GDT post for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning to you! I do hope you are well! I have my second of three pieces this month made for the Chocolate Baroque Design team blog which you can find here. This time I whipped out my distress oxides and made a card!

The flowers are from the sunny-sunflowers-unmounted-rubber-stamp-sheet. I stamped them on the bottom of the same piece of card that I cut the main background from. Fussy cutting wasn't too time consuming with these images either.

The butterfly is from the just-butterflies-unmounted-rubber-stamp-sheet and I added pearls for the body.

In the background you can see that I have overstamped in DIO using rustic-fragments-rubber-stamp-sheet.

I hope you like the effect of the distress oxides - I love them!

Big hugs Rachel x

More macintosh samples

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are feeling good and doing okay? I want to share some more chocolate baroque samples from the last show with you today - I have just sent off the latest batch of samples for the show on Friday so I will share those with you at a later time! These today are from the June 7th show....

I really like this one - the green is so pretty - the background is distress and stencilling and the main stamp has been coloured with distress pens.

Funny line on the picture again - it seems to be my computer thats doing it but I'm not sure why? Anyway this one is a shaving foam background that I overstamped on and the image has been coloured with distress pens. I used another stamp on the background too.

Again simple colouring with distress inks!!!

I have another post to share with you for samples from this show but I'll leave it for a couple of days!!!

Have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

seaside journalling

Good morning! How are you? I do hope you are well. I am very excited about seeing my eldest daughter in her new school uniform - wow - I proper welled up - my big girl is definitely growing up! Time sure moves fast doesn't it? I just hope her daddy can see how wonderful she is turning out to be!

Today I have a bit of journalling to share with you - it was for a prompt from junk journal junkies - seaside....

I have used paperartsy stamps in this piece and spray inks. I also used a dina wakley stencil and clarity mask (to create the clouds).I added a little more of my paua shell too. I do enjoy journalling - its a chance to try different techniques and stamps and generally play!!!

Have a great day!

Hugs rachel x

Mackintosh stamps set samples

Hello there - well I have a few of my samples from the last Chocolate Baroque shows to share with you today - there's still more to come!

This is my first ever step box card - I bought the card shapes in a pack of three at Port sunlight - I used the Chocolate baroque stamps here teamed up with a stencil from Claritystamps and also starlight paints plus distress inks.

This mixed media box is topped with a canvas built up using tissue technique , stencilling and painting.

I seem to have another gremlin in this picture but I used a stamp repeatedly to create a border and added the central stamp. The colouring is by distress pens and I used a TH stencil in the background.

More soon!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

aTC swap - May: Transformation

Good morning all! How are you? I hope you are well and happy. We are all good - work is going on towards the next Chocolate Baroque TV shows next week and I haven't even blogged my mackintosh samples yet!!! I will start to remedy that tomorrow! Today I wanted to share my ATC's I made for a swap run by Lindsay Mason on Facebook. The title of this swap was transformation. I was a little stuck - and in the end went for flowers, bees and honey!

Relatively simple I think! The swaps I got back were lovely - sadly I have misplaced them temporarily so can't log them here! They got opened on my birthday - my daughter had confiscated all the mail and so there was rather a lot of opening going on! Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I hope you have a good day and enjoy what you do!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Quick makes for Chocolate Baroque

Hello there! I do hope you're having a great day? I have two super quick makes for the Chocolate baroque blog today. These cards took 15 minutes of less. These are pretty simple brusho makes!

Both cards were made in the same way - stamping onto watercolour card then adding brushos and spritzing. Effective and quick! What do you think?

Hugs

Rachel x

Guest DT at Chocolate Baroque

Hello there! Well I have my first guest DT post for June over on the chocolatebaroque blog today. This is my favourite piece I made for TV shows in May. I adore the stamp and think the result is very effective. And that frame was an IKEA special!!!!

For full details check out the blog post on the chocolatebaroque blog

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

coffeepot

Good morning all! Hope you are doing ok. I am fine and bringing you my makes from our Coffeepot session yesterday - the ladies wanted to play with distress oxides before committing to buy so thats just what we did. I made a card based on a canvas I has done with Jo Rice and used Clarity stamps throughout.

The one on the left is the inspirational card - the one on the right I made going through the techniques with th ladies.

I used distress oxides to create the background - using three on a sheet, spritzing with water and smooshing my card through. Next I added more of single colours and built up layers until I was happy. Next I stamped the two stamps in the corners and added the white highlights. I repeated this process on a piece of A4 card and stamped and fussy cut lots of flowers and leaves before adding them to the card in the form of a wreath - that was after I had added the friendship stamped onto white card.

I think the ladies enjoyed the process even if they didn't finish what they were doing!!!

Hope you have a great day! 

Big hugs

Rachel x

Applied creativity in three acts part 3: Anna Dabrowska

Good morning all! I feel like I am getting a bit behind in my posts. Finally I have managed to blog my post for the final artist from last weekends Applied Creativity in three acts. Anna Dabrowska - absolutely brilliant classes and I made two great pieces - well I think they are anyway!

The first piece was called Fairy Queen - this is my version of the make in my favourite green colour!!!

Ok - my computer has added a black line that I can't get rid of - but you get the idea!

No black line here - lots of beautiful paints and gorgeous metal embellishments.

My second make is along similar lines but this time it was a cover to a journal that we did.

I decided to go along the orange/yellow lines. I love all the elements and the journal paper is so thick - I look forward to filling it with arty stuff!!!

Here's a close up .....

And finally here's a picture of me with the lovely Jennie. We have both been on the CVC DT for a while - it was so lovely to meet her!

Big hugs!

Rachel x

More hearts at Countryview Challenges

Hello there! Its my turn today on the Countryview challenges blog. Our theme this month is hearts and this time I decided to make a heart shaped wall hanging.

The heart plaque was made from MDF so I started by coating with gesso - then once dry I added two green based chalk paints and covered the whole heart.

The next step once the paint was dry was to add torn bookpaper. After that I did some stencilling.

Finally stamping and cutting and adding of images!

Simples!

I hope you can join us at CVC - you can link up your heart project here.

Big hugs

Rachel x

christmas card club - anything goes

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well. Its been a busy few days here what with my birthday on Wednesday, what would have been Shaun's 50th on Thursday - oh and the election, a trip to see a celebration of Simon and Garfunkel on friday night and school fair today. So please forgive me if I haven't been keeping up with comments. I am off there now!!!!

Today I have my Christmas Card Club make for tomorrow - I have another make tomorrow so I thought I had better squeeze this one in tonight. The theme was anything goes - so I took the chance to play with distress oxides and a newish to me stamp from woodware.

As you can see I made three cards .....

the backgrounds all started with wilted violet, broken china and spiced marmalade distress oxides. Some got a bit of fossilised amber added for good measure.  The snow was actually stamped separately and cut and pasted on. I then added the stamps of snowflakes and some glitter too.

I did enjoy doing these. I hope you like the results of my playtime!!!

Big hugs and great wishes for a beautiful day!

Rachel xx

Craft - its a big thing!

Hello there! I have a post over on the stamps and stencils blog today - the challenge theme this month is 'words with meaning' ....I decided to use the word Craft ... and decorate the letters to add to my dining room. Here's the final result and the how to can be found over here.

2nd post from Applied Creativity ....and its my birthday!

Hello there! Back again to share some more Applied creativity makes with you. This time the makes from the classes by Marta Lapkowska. What a sweet lady! Really lovely easy going classes and beautiful makes I think.

Day 1:

Marta had us all using items from 13 Arts. I had never used their stuff and found it excellent. I will definitely use their stuff again.

Day 2:

My fave piece from the weekend - oh so pretty. We worked on an inch thick piece of  wood, used die cut squares/rectangles and those beautiful flowers plus gesso and sprays. Oh yes stencils too. The gesso is so thick we used that through the stencil!

This is me and Marta! She was so very lovely.

Here's all of us....

yes - there were quite a few - but only 30 in a class!

Its my birthday today! 49 years young! I am off for a run - 60 minutes - then a bun with my friend Sue. Then I'll be going for a meal with the girls and my mum and shauns mum later.

Big hugs!

Rachel x