Happy Halloween

Hello everybody! And a very Happy Halloween to you all!

Just to let you know I survived my first day at work! And they are even letting me return later in the week! Crazy I know!!!

So Halloween ......

A quick make to say stay safe and have fun!

We are off out trick or treating tonight - my girls have their costumes ...I will dress up should the mood take me!!! I will add piccies at some point in the future!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Ali's card

Hello there! How are you? I am good - I start my job today so feeling a mixture of emotions! I hope all goes well!

Lucy's sale went well - we got almost half of her target - we will try again next week as we have huge amounts of stuff left over. I was really touched by the amount of people who said they would make a donation when I put Lucy's pics on facebook. I have declined the offers as I want Lucy to 'earn' the money but it was so lovely of people! Thankyou!

Today I would like to share a card with you that I made for my friend Ali. She loved it!!

The image was a recent release from Donna ratcliffe - I loved this cat - he is fabulous. My background is from one of my DT pieces later in the month - I will explain to you then how I made it!!!!

Hope you all have a great monday!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

CCC: sentiment focus

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well! As this comes live I will be with my eldest daughter Lucy at a 'bootsale'. She has been set a personal challenge at school and decided she wanted to try to raise £100 for the unit that helped her daddy when he was in hospital. I suspect we will fall far short of the target but I have been so impressed in seeing her sorting out her toys and books and clothes to try and sell. Bless her cotton socks! Her daddy would have been so very proud!

I am sharing a set of cards with you today that I made for the latest Christmas card club challenge - the theme - Make sentiment the focus. My cards are pretty plain - distress oxide or stencilled backgrounds and TH sentiments.

I have done the sentiment in each case in flake! I am loving the TH plaid stencil - so pretty!

Hope you have a great Sunday!

Big huggles!

Rachel x

More CB samples - loved these stamps!

Hello there - well the shows are all over now but I thought I would add a few more of my samples from the show....

This one got a lot of air time...I was really pleased when I tried the flake with the stamps - I did wonder about detail ...but it worked just fine!!

I enjoyed pattern bilding with the key stamp set.

I just felt the need to make a scenic card too!

I hope these samples given you a little inspiration!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

A few more CB one day special samples

Hello there! Wow - Have you been watching the shows - the samples are amazing - I am truely humbled by the samples my teamies produce, show in show out...but these are amazing. I was pleased with mine when I sent them off but I have to say... my teamies are amazing! Please check out the shows!!!

Here's a few more from me!!!

I do hope you like them !!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Lesley's back on hochanda

Hi there .... just to let you all know that Our Lesley is back on Hochanda at 6pm Thursday with a one day special .... I 'll just give you a sneak preview of one of my samples from the show and hope you'll be able to join her!

Lots of different techniques going on here - the background is mostly distress oxides but with some splatting with acrylic paint. The tag background is made with sprays including metallics.... and the stamps - well you'll need to check those out in the show. I really enjoyed working with them!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Lisa's card

Hello there! How are you today? I am tired but feeling good....been to the Cumbria Crafters Retreat all day today - and will be back there again tomorrow. Its been lovely so far. Can't wait for another day of crafting tomorrow.

Tonight I want to share with you a card I made for my friends 50th birthday that is coming up.

The image is from a stamp by Donna Ratcliffe. I have coloured it in distress inks and used them to stencil through a small scale  TH stencil.

A closer look!

Hope you're enjoying your Saturday night! Off to check out some blogs!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Something wicked!

Hello hello! How are you? I hope you are doing ok? Well penny has finished for half term! Blimey! How am I going to get anything done??? Never mind....I guess we'll just bimble along together!

Today I have a card to share with you made using TH stamps and Alison Bomber quote stamps. 

The blueprint Raven stamp is quite old but the flying raven stamp is relatively new and I have also used the background cobweb from the recent release too. In the background I have also used a couple of TH stencils - the autumn leaves and the bats.

Here's a close up - you can see that quote stamp better here. Its fabulous! 

I think this will make a fine Halloween card!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Shine Bright

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well. We are all still struggling a bit with the cold but getting on the right side of it I think!! I managed a big chunk of crafting today - I am trying to get ahead of myself before the next set of stamps arrive for chocolate baroque! I managed to get one made for my nephew's 16th birthday today - he'll be 16 in November - so I am quite ahead of time! I used a gelli print background and stamps from visible image.

The lightbulb and words are from the shine bright set; the circles are from the Ripple effect stamp that I was lucky enough to win a while back! I have also used one of their stencils too - strobes! 

I hope JJ likes it - can't believe he's going to be 16! 

Have a great evening - off to catch up on your blogs now!

Hugs

Rachel x

15 minute makes at Chocolate Baroque

Hello there - over on the chocolatebaroque blog today there are some 15 minute makes to inspire you to make a card even if you're in a hurry. My cards from this post are as follows:

This one is simple stamping and embossing in white. The detail in the stamps means they can be used simply in this way to produce an effective card.

In this one I stamped in black archival then added some brushos and used a paint brush to pull out some of the colour in the land part of the stamp.

This one was so quick - I masked the sun then used torn paper, stencil brushes and distress ink to create the landscpe before filling in the sun and doing the landscape.

I do hope these inspire you to get your stamps out for that last minute card!

Hugs

Rachel x

Non- traditional colours at Christmas card Club

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well and are having a good weekend so far! I just discovered I have a post for tomorrow so I decided to post my Christmas card club makes a little early. The theme was non- traditional colours and I decided to play with distress oxides - just for a change - and the new camel set of stamps from HobbyArt.

The backgrounds were lovely to make - the three camels have all been stamped and fussy cut and added to the card. I also added the hats and the funny sentiment!

This time I added a moon too! They are such characters!

Here's the four of the cards all together!

Big huggles!

Rachel x

A great school trip and more pottery painting!

Hello there! How are you today? I am good - glad to be indoors with all this rain....the cat is out and about just now though - crazy girl. Probably mousing somewhere. But she is on lock out so can't bring them in! At least that is sorted now!

My school trip today was good - it was a science based event at the Lancaster Maritime museum and the kids had to work in teams to devise tsunami proof buildings and wind turbines and they also talked about earth structure, fossil fuels and other ideas. It was great to see them put ideas into practical use.

After that I went and picked up my latest piece of pottery painting.... my gecko teapot stand...

I am rather pleased with this little fella - I may have to do a teapot to match!!!!

I don't think I have blogged the last two makes either ... two coasters...

  

Thats all for today!! Look out for some crazy camels heading your way on Suday!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Adventure Awaits

Hello there! How are you all? Sorry I've been missing in action - things have been rumbling in the background and blogging time has been limited. Anyhoo, here I am - I'm off to have a quick nosy around just as soon as I have blogged this card!

I made this using a stencil and stamps from the halloween release from Tim Holtz. I adore the splodge - and Mr Raven sits on it so prettily!!!! 

I am away on a school trip tomorrow. Off to the Maritime Museum in Lancaster where we shall be looking at some science experiments. I am wondering if it could be pulleys? What do you think? I shall let you know!!!

Have a fabulous Friday!

Rachel xx

ATC swap - enchanted forest

Hello there! How are you? I am good and feeling strong - I did a PB in the gym yesterday backsquatting 50kg for 4 reps. I was very pleased! I wonder what I coud do for one rep??? Maybe that will happen before I have to give up for 2 months for work!!!

Today I have my ATCs I made back in September for the theme 'Enchanted Forest' plus the ATCs I received in return.

These are mine - I wanted to use Lavinia stamps for this theme. 

Here's a close up. The background is done with distress oxides and the stamping is all Lavinia stamps. Here are the ones that came back to me.

They are all lovely!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Rachel x

City of dreams

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are fine and happy! We are good and survived the sleepover so far - at this point it is still going on!

I am involved in a card swap and the theme this month is city of dreams - I found this quite difficult to get my head around until I remembered this stamp set from Sheena Douglass.

I hope this will do?

I got some good news yesterday - after an interview up at Lakeland Plastics in Kendal on Tuesday I was offered a temporary job. Nothing too taxing and just three days at school hours but at least it will help to pay for Christmas! Not sure where the hours are going to come from but its only short term so I should hopefully manage!

Big hugs

Rachel x

More CB makes

Hello there! I thought it was about time I posted some more of my samples from the last CB shows.

I still love this die from Karen Burniston, it makes such fabulous cards - Well I love them! 

This one was using distress inks...

And this one distress oxides!!!

Hope you've had a good evening - we have had fun - the cat keeps trying to bring mice in still so she is on lock out at the moment. She needs to learn! 

Wish me luck for tomorrow - the girls are both having a friend over for the night - oh my goodness - why do I do these things??? 

Big hugs

Rachel x

Autumn at Stamps and Stencils

Hello my lovelies! How are you? Its time for a new challenge over at stamps and stencils and the beautiful theme chosen by Toni is Autumn and tags...here's what she's got to say ...

 The Season of  Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness' I'd love to see your projects that are inspired by this beautiful season. You may love the rich, warm colours or the shapes of fallen leaves and natural forms. Let us celebrate the wonders to be found around us. The only catch, is that I'd like you to use a tag or several tags, as your substrate. Your tag can be any size or shape and made of any material but it must be a tag. It must also feature some stamping, stenciling or preferably both. I'm looking forward to seeing your creations!

Here's what I did using this wonderful prompt...

This is a pretty large tag. Its one of the 'medium' sized Tim holtz board etcetera tags. I started by giving it a coat of tangerine twist paint from paperartsy....

Next I used a TH layering stencil and TH opaque matt texture paste.

Next I used distress stain sprays to colour the tag and paste.

I used mustard seed, carved pumpkin, brushed corduroy and bronze.

Then I stamped and coloured images from scrapcosy and fussycut them and added them to the tag, I also added the bird image from TH papers. The stamped verse comes from Alison Bomber.

Here's a few close ups ...

I do hope you are inspired enough to join us in this challenge! You can see my teamies makes and link up here.

Big hugs

Rachel xx

More Autumnal Hues!

Hello there! Its my posting day over at Countryview Challenges today and I have created another piece in autumnal hues - its a box picture including stamps from scrapcosy at paperartsy. The lovely fella featured in the photo is my gorgeous and dear departed husband Shaun. It was taken in Australia back in 2003 when life was very different from now! Glorious memories! I have used the main title 'forever autumn' in reference to the song.... and the thoughts and theories comes in largely because Shaun was a very clever man - a professor of physics who had a lot of thoughts and theories!

To make my piece I took the following steps - I started with a natural wood frame and painted it using pheasant bronze paint from indigo blu.

Next I stamped the scrapcosy stamps and coloured in distress inks...

The next step was to creat the main background which I did using a tim mini stencil and distress inks.

Finally I assembled the piece - keeping adding layers and height since the frame allowed this.

I love that little snail - too cute!

I cut the letters using a sizzix tim holtz alphabet die and cut the letters from claritystamp papers.

I do hope you can join us in our challenge over at Countryview challenges which you will find here!

Hugs

Rachel xx