Clarity Cumbria July - Busy buzzing around!

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are fine and well. I am tired today - it was definitely a busy day yesterday and it started with a family trip to Clarity Cumbria. Jo Rice was as brilliant as ever ...she had some bees and butterflies for us to play with...Lucy and Penny both wanted a butterfly and I ended up with two bees - my choice indeed!!!

I love these little fellas!

I added some stickers ....

stamps and stencils too aswell as the paint.

I also made this card - I love this!

This card was made via a bleaching technique with a stencil.

Such a lovely day and then a fun sleepover in the evening for Lucy's party ...

We had a Harry Potter theme for the evening ....

We started with some outdoor activities including a treasure trail and broomstick riding and a waterfight. They then moved inside for pass the bertie Botts every flavour beans ...

After tea we had cake - made by my friend danielle ...

She is amazing!!!! And then they did Harry Potter charades and watched part of film 5 - The order of the Phoenix - before retiring to bed. This morning they were up for pancakes for breakfast and then games recommenced .... Harry Potter Trivial pursuit, the pea game, the chocolate game and finally another hunting for things game! It was all good fun and all of the kids enjoyed themselves - including me!!!

Have a great evening!

Hugs

Rachel x 

More ODS makes

Hello my lovelies! How are you? I do hope you are okay! I had a great evening catching up with poldark last night ... and tonight I need to catch up with Outlander. Have you been watching that one? I love it!

Today I want to share a couple more of my ODS makes!

This simple hanger was made from one colouring sheet.

This card includes a distress oxide background. The flower is the 'poppy' type one stamped and fussy cut and added to the 'leaf' stamp.

This is another card made from a colouring page!

I have one more set of samples to share but will leave that until next week!

Lucy has her birthday party tomorrow - birthday comes a fortnight later but we have to try and work around holidays and friends holidays. We're just having two girls over for a sleepover but its going to be a bit of a Harry Potter Fest! I will let you know how it goes!

Off to Clarity Cumbria as well tomorrow! not sure what jo has up her sleeve for it but it will certainly be a full day!

Hugs rachel x

phoenix

Hello there! Just a quick post from me tonight - I need to catch up with the goings on of Ross Poldark before I retire this evening.... I made a journal page yesterday - the theme was 'fantasy' and the colours were red, purple and aqua...

I used a sheena stamp set, brushos and distress inks to make this.

quite a good sentiment i thought ....inspirational!

have a great evening.

hugs rachel x

More chocolate Baroque ODS samples

Evening all! Well its been a funny old day here - rain and sun and now more rain! Lucy and I stayed at home crafting today - I didn't get a huge amount done but at least it was some! I'll show you a journal page tomorrow but today i wanted to add a couple more samples from the ODS that Chocolate baroque did on Hochanda this week.

I actually saw this triptych ... the two end pieces are cut from colouring pages whilst the central portion is stamped and coloured.

This one is an alcohol ink background ...The leaves and flowers were fussycut and added to the card after stamping the image on top.

I loved using these new stamps - I hope those of you that were tempted enough to buy enjoy them!

Hugs

Rachel x

One day special by Chocolate Baroque at Hochanda

Hi there! Did you see Lesley's launch last night of the new one day special? If not you can catch her at 9am, 1pm and 5pm on Hochanda! Here are a couple of samples to wet your appetite!

This one is a portion of one of the colouring pages ...

This one is using the chequered flowers stamp. I made this by stamping with versamark and heat setting white embossing powder. I repeated this aroud the edges too and coloured with spectrum noir crayons.

The other ladies have done some amazing things! I hope you have chance to check out the shows today!

Hugs

Rachel x

Music at Junk Journal Junkies

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are well. We are good although I have been very lazy of late and will try to do a run today - the first for a week! I'll let you know how it goes. I suspect doing the GNR this year is going to be off the cards but I will make my decision nearer the time!

Today I have a journal page to share with you - the theme was Music and the colours burgundy, purple and orange. I made the page mostly by blending distress oxide inks - the central stamp is from Alison Bomber at Paperartsy and the roses are also paperartsy - this time scrapcosy.

I used a clarity stencil too ... and part of a stencilgirl stencil!  A quick page necessitated by lots of work going on for the Chocolate Baroque shows that start tonight at 6pm and lead into a one day special on Tuesday,...

Here's a sneak peak of one of my samples from the show...


I hope this can help tempt you to join Lesley for the launch of some brand new stamps and some other lovely goodies too!

Big hugs rachel x

Christmas Card club: Jingle bells

Hello there! Well the fortnight has rolled around again - and its time for Christmas card club again - the theme this time is Jingle bells... well I had great plans for this one but then the new Indigoblu Christmas stamps popped onto my doormat ....and there was a pair of bells on the wreath ....so it would have been rude to not use the stamps!

I decided to do do cards using this stamp - the one on the left is white embossing on black card and the right is simple stamping. Both have been coloured with spectrum noir pencils. 

I had a great Friday night - we were saying goodbye to brownowl at a local campsite - lovely to camp out and sing guiding songs!

here's my two with friends Rebecca and Samantha - both former brownies...

Here's Brownowl with her husband and daughter. Alice used to help me at Rainbows too.

and here's Lucy toasting marshmallows!

A lovely night indeed!

Hugs Rachel x

Bye bye Rose!

Hello there! How are you today. I hope you are well....sending hugs if you are under the weather physically or emotionally. We all need a good hug at times!

Today I have the card I made for Brownowl - she left brownies at the end of June after 23 years service. We have her leaving 'do' tonight - aptly a camp with songs and games. Looking forward to it. Brown owl is called Rose so I decided to use this stamp set from scrapcosy at Paperartsy.

I did the stamping on the card in versamark then set with white embossing powder. I added the stamp from Alison Bomber - the Rose is a rose .... it seemed appropriate! The butterflies were stamped and added later. I used two distress inks - tattered rose and victorian velvet.

Two close ups - I do hope she likes it - its something a bit vintage and different for me but I really like it! 

Things were fun at the demo yesterday - I didn't get to stay too long as predicted but we all made a little folkart card so that was nice! 

Big hugs one and all!

Rachel xx

Shine Bright!

Hello there! How are you? I am good and enjoying the summer hols so far. We've had a lovely bikeride and been to Fellfoot Park. Plenty of sunshine and seen friends too! Definitely a positive start to the holidays. Lets hope it continues!

I have a card to share with you today made using a relatively recent Clarity stamp plus distress oxides.

The stamp is part of a set - Earth, Air, Fire and water. I managed to pick up this stamp last week on the Crafters Companion site when they had a very special offer running just for the day ... I got a bargain I think! 

To make the card I stamped the image then masked and created the background using distress oxides in picked raspberry, candied apple and wild honey....I coloured the image using spectrum noir pencils....

and the sentiment is from a set by Tim Holtz

I do hope you like it!

I am meeting my mum today and we are off to Carnforth to visit the Christmas in July craft demo held by Rowan Tree Crafts. I suspect  we won't be there for too long sadly as I have one young lady and one little girl who are not impressed with my plans!!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Messy Little one

Hello there! Good morning to you! I wonder how many of you were as cross as me last night? I was trying very hard to book a workshop ticket at Art from the heart for the Tim workshops in September but if you were trying too you'll know that the website crashed within two minutes! no real surprise there then! I hope things get sorted out soon so I can have another try!!!

Anyway - life goes on and I have a card to share today for a swap - the theme was welcome little one and this is my take on it!

I had fun making this with some of the new distress oxide colours. I used picked raspberry and seedless preserves and also wild honey I think! The pram was cut from the edges of my background card where I hadn't got much colour.

Stamp is Tim holtz part of the blueprint range!

Have a great Tuesday - we're off to Fellfoot park. Looking forward to it!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Teal, yellow and gold.... mythical

Hello there! First day of the summer holidays for us today - I am off for a run this morning - or a fast walk more likely if the last one is anything to go by!! Then if the weather is dry we may go for a cycle this afternoon!

This is a page I did in my journal last week for the prompt 'mythical' and the colours teal, gold and yellow. The mermaids were all created using a Stencil girl stencil. I love the stencil! Expect to see it in use again!

Big hugs

Rachel x

positivity

hello there! how are you? I hope you are well. We are all good. My lovely Lucy finished at primary school on friday so there are mixed emotions going on right now....

this is lucy and her bestie with the cups they both won! They are both going on to different high schools so its a bit sad really.

We need to stay positive. I made this card with that in mind.....

I used some of the new distress oxides and jofy sets 53 and 54 that i got at the workshop last week. accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. sounds good to me!

Have a great day!

hugs rachel x

15 minute makes: Chocolate Baroque

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well! I am good and bringing to you some 15 minute makes that came from the last two chocolate baroque shows.

This one and the next were both made in the same way. I stamped in archival ink then coloured in distress pens. Then I masked and spritzed with distress stain sprays.

This one was stamped in versamark and then set in white powders. The words were stencilled in and then pencils were used to colour the image.

All very quick simple cards.

I do hope you like them!

Hugs

Rachel x

teacher gifts

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are well! If not sending a great big gentle hug!

Well today I wanted to show you all of the teacher gifts we lovingly made - but sadly they have all gone to the teachers without being photographed. Luckily though I have a spare that I made so you can at least get the gist!

The notebooks are about A6 size and were bought in packs of two from the pound shop. We enjoyed altering them and I think the teachers enjoyed receiving them - along with a chocolate orange each! 

I decided to keep this one as I quite liked it!!! The process was pretty simple. Stencilling, adding stuff, painting black, adding luscious powders and gilding wax.

Have a great Thursday - we are thundering close to my Lucy's last day at primary school - I am getting the mountain of tissues in for Friday when she has her leavers assembly!

Big hugs

Rachel x

coffeepot July: Yupo

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are well? I am good but struggling with time this week - there just seems to be so much on in Lucy's last week of primary school. She certainly had a good time last night.I'll show you some pictures soon.

On Monday morning we had our last coffeepot before the summer break and I decided I would introduce the ladies to yupo. They have used alcohol inks before but never on yupo and were all suitably impressed with how easy the inks go on. I made these two cards as samples...

As you can see I also used the alison bomber words ... I just love them!!!

This is the one I made as a demonstration. 

The ladies loved making them and managed to do almost three each. They seemed to favour the silhouettes. All flower stamps and dies are from Tim Holtz.

So to Lucy's special night ...

They had a bit of fun with some crazy wigs in the playground before heading off .....

in the Hummer!!!

They had lots of loud music by all accounts on the way to bowling and then tea at frankie and bennys.

It was certainly a good night!

Hope you have a good Wednesday - we have a drama group social tonight - I will be singing! Get those earplugs out if you're anywhere near!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

chocolate Baroque winter

Hello there! A scheduled post today as I knew I wouldn't have time to write it for today!!! I just wanted to complete my show of chocolate baroque seasons samples - these are my winter samples....

these two utilised distress oxides ..

this one was done a long time ago and has already been blogged elsewhere!!!

Have a great Tuesday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Jo Firth Young comes to Carnforth!!!

Hello there my lovelies - well it was a rare treat on Saturday for me when the lovely Jo Firth Young headed north and led a workshop at Carnforth Station visitors centre ... hosted by Rowan Tree Crafts. Sharon is the main lady there and is really lovely - if ever you get the chance to visit the shop - its really friendly and stocked with loadsa goodies!!!

Anyway Jo is a really lovely lady - I have so many sets of her stamps but have never met her! It was just lovely and her project was fabulous - here's her make ...

it used two of her new sets of stamps plus some an older set and three different stencils.

Here's a smiley picture of me and Jo...

I was also lucky enough to meet up with Chris from Pear Shaped Crafting...

I really enjoyed meeting Chris and hope to meet again.

Now to my make ...

Here's the whole thing ....

the left hand side ...

the centre - i used one of the new Alison Bomber stamps here. They had arrived into my hot little hands on Friday and I was desperate to ink them up!!!

and this is the right hand side.

To be fair to Jo I won't go into details ...but lots of fun was definitely had!!!

Have a great Monday - we have a busy day. The coffee pot ladies are coming this morning and its the girls sports day in the afternoon. In the evening Lucy is going by Limosine to her school leavers do! I don't know - it seems a bit crackers but she is super happy so has to be worth it!

Big hugs

Rachel x