Another oldie - tutorial for Stamps and stencils.

Hello there! I hope you can pop over to stampsandstencils today where I have a tutorial for the making of this card....

It was one of the samples for the chocolate baroque show last week.

Big hugs

Rachel x

stand out

Hello there! How are you today? I hope you are well and happy! I am relaxing after a hard day at home doing chores. I am a bit slack overall - there doesn't seem to be the time available in my life - but today I have managed to clean the kitchen properly - then muck it up again making pizza and veggie chilli - the living room has also been hoovered and I am pleased to say there is a carpet!!! result!

Tonight I have put my feet up and made a card using a visible image stamp. Its the first outing for me for this stamp - I do like it a lot.

A great on for a teenager - relatively masculine but I think it would also work for a girl. I started the background with distress oxides then stamped the image and words. Next came the stencilling with distress ink and then I added shadow and finally added the stickers.

I can't believe the school holidays are nearly over and that we're moving towards September. My Lucy is really looking forward to going to high school on Tuesday. Penny is back on Monday whih isn't going down well just now.

Better sign off just now - ready to watch the new bakeoff. I wonder what it will be like?

Big hugs

Rachel xx

A great festival and a lovely play with new Indigoblu stamps

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you have had a great bank holiday weekend. We got back from the festival late yesterday - I will show you some pics shortly! It was great fun.

Tonight I boxed up my samples for Saturday's Chocolate baroque show and turned my attention to my new indigo blu stamps - I had a little play and made this card using the wild poppy set.

I used distress inks and one of the new TH layering stencils too. Such a pretty stamp set - love it!

A bit of an arty view - a bit blurred too!!!

So the festival - Solfest 2017. I took the girls on the understanding that there was a family camping field. Sadly when we got there this wasn't the case so we were in amongst the revellers! It wasn't ideal but I think it bothered me more than them. The childrens activities were great...here's some pics to give you a flavour!

  

  

Lots of colour and lots of fun!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

More CB christmas samples

Hello there! I hope you managed to catch Lesley on the shows on Saturday - just wanted to log some more of my samples here....

I made this scene up using some extra trees and the main building stamp.

This one used the innie and outie tree stamp that i stamped onto card in black ink for the central one and in embossed white ink onto purple card for the outer two!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Christmas at Chocolate Baroque

Hello there - just a quick one to let you know that Lesley is on Hochanda today at 8am and 12 noon. She is going to be showing Christmas stamps and doing lots of fab demos - here's a couple of my samples from the shows.

simple repeat stamping and colouring with distress inks....

distress oxide background and a white embossed topper.

I hope you have chance to catch the shows!

I would like to enter these for august-rudolph-days-challenge

Hugs rachel x

Connie's card

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well and happy! We are excited as its festival time for us. We're off to a small festival in Cumbria today - really hoping for not too much rain and lots of fun!!!

Today is a friend of Lucy's birthday - so I had to make a card and used a woodware stamp that Lucy forced me to buy at the Kendal paper warehouse last week!!!

The background is distress oxides - I just love them! I have folded  an extra piece of card and made a branch for the owls to sit on. The owls have been stamped and fussy cut and their eyes done with glossy accents. I hope she likes it.

Have a great day!

Hugs rachel x

another birthday ....

Hello there - I hope you are doing okay? We are good but hurtling quickly towards the end of the school holidays - only one more week after this one!

I have another birthday card to share with you today - this is for Fred. He is going to be 7. He has been diagonsed with aspergers syndrome and has a real thing for traffic lights. I came across these dies by Tim holtz in my 'yet to use' drawer and thought I could do something with them.

He likes pink too - I do hope he likes this card - its definitely a one off - as is he!!!!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Evalinas card

Birthdays seem to be coming thick and fast at the moment so I have had to be busy making some cards...todays quick one is for the girls friend Evalina who they saw just a few weeks ago at PGL. She really enjoyed singing whilst we were there so I thought this would work well for her.

The stamps are from visible image and the background is made from 3 distress oxides - peacock feathers, broken china and salty ocean. I used my stamping platform to do the stamping - its fabulous for working with silhouette stamps.

I hope you have a great day!

Love and hugs

Rachel x

More blues and greens at Countryview Challenges

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well! Its my turn to post over at Countryview Challenges today where the theme for this month is 'Blues and Greens'. It gave me the opportunity to use a stamp from the lovely Tracy Easson - I adore these ladies she does although my daughter Penny calls them sad. I think they are soulful! This set is called Soul sisters ...it reminds me of me and my friend Sandy way back when!

This is the finished piece and here's a little step by step...

This is the stamp set I used. I started by stamping the image twice - once on card and once to form a mask...

After placing the mask I started the background using distress inks...

Next I coloured the girls again using distress inks and a water brush....

I added some flowers and words and cut to size then mounted on black then on a card blank.

To finish off I used a posca pen to add some interest to the green top.

I hope you like these soulful ladies in blue and green - maybe you'll join in the challenge this month! 

Big hugs

Rachel x

Christmas card club: The true meaning of Christmas

Hello there - well its time for another Christmas card club outing - the theme this time is 'the true meaning of Christmas. I thought I could break open my new sheena dies and stamps and make a card including an image of a church.

I cut the church and tower then stamped and coloured. I used a stencil brush and distress ink (stormy sky) to create the landscape behind the church before sticking it on. I added sparkle to the snow on the church and added white posca pen snow in the sky!

I actually made three!

Quite enjoyed these!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Frida Kahlo - at Junk journal junkies

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are okay? If not then here's a hug to help make you feel better!

I have a journal page to share with you today - its not good - I don't draw well - but I wanted to log it as its a piece of work I have done! The theme at Junk journal junkies is Frida Kahlo this week - I really love this lady - the more I learn about her the more I admire her! Anyway - promise you won't laugh ....here's my page.

She made some really inspirational quotes too. I liked this one. I also liked a few more ...

I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim

At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.

I paint flowers so they will not die.

There is nothing more precious than laughter

A very interesting lady!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Samples from CB 9 august show

Good morning! How are you? I do hope you are well. I have a few more of my 9th August samples to share with you today. I do love these stamps and enjoyed making all of these!

This one was pretty simple - stamping in versamark and heat setting with white embossing powder and then colouring in with pencil crayons. 

I stamped this one then roughly masked and created the surroound using distress ink which I then spritzed and flicked. I then coloured the image in complimentary distress ink colours and stamped the sentiment.

This one seemed to get quite a bit of airtime during the shows.... its simple white embossing and I painted the flowers with distress oxides.

Beautiful stamps!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Hello

Hello there! How are you? I am good and have just posted off my samples to chocolate baroque for the next show on the 25th August. Its always good to get samples finished and then I can move onto the next makes! Today I have made my ATC swaps for August - I'll save those for another day..... I also made my Joanna Sheen swap card - the theme this monthi is butterflies....here's what I did...

All of the stamps - apart from the 'hello' are by paperartsy - a mixture of sources - the flowers are Kay Carley and I think the large butterfly is Jo Firth Young whilst the litte butterflies are Claire lloyd. The hello is by IndigoBlu. 

I used brushos to make the background which I did after stamping the flowers. It has been done on watercolour card.

My girls are both in the theatre this week - a week to a production - they are supposed to be performing Little Shop of Horrors on Friday night - I wonder what its going to be like - it seems pretty quick to me to get organised!!!!

I hope things are going well for you!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Running late!

Hello there - well I should have put this post out at 7am - but I forgot it was the 15th today - so sorry its late but better late than never!

This simple card took less than 15 mins to make. I simply stamped the image in versamark and heat set the image in white embossing powder. I then used colouring pencils to colour the flowers and leaves.

There is much more quick inspiration from my teamies over on the DT blog here.

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Lucy's card and cake

Hello there! Wow it feels like its been a while since I got on here - my last posts were scheduled as we were away on holidays - more of that later but sorry for lack of comments and thankyou so much for all of yours - you are very kind!!!!

We got back last night and my feet have barely touched the floor since then. Its Lucy's birthday today and so last night I had to defrost and then decorate the cake - then I got up at 5.30 this morning to make quiche and pizzas, rice salad, potato salad and coleslaw. We had my lovely mum and her brother and sister in law over and also Shaun's mum and brother and his family came up. It was lovely to see everybody and I think that Lucy had a lovely day. She is looking very grown up to me!

This is the card I made for her using a beautiful stamp from Tracy Easson.

here's a closer look!

Here's the cake! I was pleased with this!

And here's my beautiful smiley big girl!!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Chocolate Baroque samples

Hello there! Hope you enjoyed the shows yesterday - here's a quick look at three of the samples I made for it!

This one is on kraft card - I gessoed the back then worked with distress oxides on the background and used stencils. The stamp was semi fussycut.

The technique on this one is the same as above but the colours are just different.

This is a little hanger - fussy cut roses and stamped background.

More samples coming soon!

Hugs

Rachel x

Freedom at Junk Journal Junkies!

Hello there - a quick journal page last week for the facebook group Junk Journal Junkies!

It was due in on Monday - I wonder what the new theme is????

Just a quick note too - Lesley is back on Hochanda tomorrow with more lovely stamps! Not sure of the times yet but here's a sneak peek of one of my samples....

Carol singers at Christmas card club

Hello there! How are you? Good I hope! This is a scheduled post as I am away with my lovely girls on PGL - more of that on our return.

Today at Christmas Card club the theme is carol singers. I only made two cards for this one - both using TH cabinet cards and the same stamp.

The stamp is an oldie from flowersoft!

My fave! brown and blue works so well! 

This one is okay! It doesn't work so well but hey!

Have a great sunday! Hugs rachel x

ATC swap July.....Happiness is ....

Hello there! I take part in an ATC swap organised on facebook by Lindsay Mason. The theme for July was 'Happiness is ....'

Here are my makes....

I used a stamp from Dyan Reavely and dylusions. I also used brushos.

So my theory is that happiness is 'crafting' and 'cats'....what would you have written on your ATC's?

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Techique school at stamps and stencils

Hello there! Well I hope you're sitting tight for a technique post today - the new challenge at stamps and stencils is Technique School! Here's what Autumn has to say...

 Technique School - This month we want you to play teacher and share a favorite process or new experiment.  Document your findings with at least one process photo.  We can't wait to see your technique tutorials and new ideas!  Remember to use stamps or stencils or both! 

Well I can't wait to see what my teamies have done! You can check it out here.  They are super talented ladies  - I for my part have gone for an oldie but a goodie - using fusible film and fibre. I used it to make the flowers in this project....

Here's what I did .... first I gathered my supplies ....

Stamps - this time from paperartsy - any rubber stamps are suitable for this technique and some clear stamps too - Clarity for sure - I have also used imagination crafts stamps with this technique but I would be cautious with other clear stamp varieties!  I also have here fusible film, angelina fibres and a bag where I collect cut off waste that can be used in the 'sandwich'. More of that soon. I also have a craft iron which I switch on to heat up.

If you overlay your film on the stamp you want to use and make sure you cut it twice the length of the stamp. You can then fold it over to make the bread of the sandwich.

In between the sandwich add some angelina fibres - not too much but enough to make a filling.

With your stamps lying down on a heat proof mat ink them up with archival ink.

Add the sandwich over the inked stamp .....

Overlay with baking parchment and run over with the craft iron....

On removal of the paper the stamps with film and fibre should look like this.

and peeled off the film and fibre should look like this.

Having fussy cut my flowers I then went on to make my card...

The background is made using distress oxides - a nice contrast to the shimmer of the flowers. I also used a TH stencil in the background too.

A final view!

I hope you have enjoyed my lesson! Can't wait to see what my teamies have been up to!

Hugs

Rachel x