Henry's card

Hello there! How are you? Sweltering I suspect! Its certainly hot here! I've been at work today too and will be again tomorrow! Hopefully I'll see some wages soon! That would be nice!

I got chance to make another card yesterday for my nephew Henry - he's going to be 16 I think so I'm not sure the card is entirely appropriate - but I hope he will like it!

The background is made using distress oxides - the stamps are from Tracy Easson... great set. I think they'll get a lot of use!!!

Hope you've had a great day - hugs Rachel x

Coffeepot and a birthday cake

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well and happy! This weather is certainly beautiful isn't it? I am loving the sunshine! The garden is a bit dry but I think its worth it!!! You'll be glad to hear we survived rehearsal yesterday and have one final one on Wednesday night before the shows on Friday and Saturday night! Fingers crossed we iron out some of the wrinkles before then!

Its been Coffee Pot today - we managed to make some pretty cards using stamps from hobbyart. Here's mine...

I love these sunflowers which are stamp of the month at present. The dragonflies are also from Hobbyart but a different set.

To make my card I created a background using pixie powders, then created another more orangey background and stamped on the flower heads. I created a third background that I stamped the dragonflies onto. After some fussy cutting I stamped the stems directly onto the first background, added the bow stamp and then stuck on the flower heads and dragonflies. I also stamped the dragonfly verse.

I did this over the weekend too - it was my mums birthday on Sunday ...the flowers were done using sugarpaste and a mould and the rest was painted directly on!

Hope you're having a good day!

Hugs

Rachel x

candy canes or gingerbread at CCC

Hello all! How are you today? I hope you are well. I am looking forward to it being this time next week when my days as Mrs Twit will be over! Lol ...okay so maybe not! But seriously, its the dress rehersal this afternoon - and my goodness - I hope it goes better than the last rehersal!!! Wish me luck!!

Its Christmas Card Club again today - and the theme is candy canes or gingerbread. I have been struggling for time and again have only got one very quick one made. I used brushos and two stamps from Tim Holtz.

Its making me chuckle as I look at it!!! What a mess! Still it is better than nothing!

Have a great Sunday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Final June GDT post - Chocolate baroque

Hello there! I have a piece over at the Chocolate Baroque Design team blog today - its my final GDT piece for June.

My third and final piece of inspiration for this month is a small tryptych. I have used the following stamp sets in creating this piece: Birdcage collage, a littlebird told me, rustic fragments and sunny sunflowers. 

I started by gessoing the tryptych then, once dry I stamped the birdcage collage and coloured it using a combination of acrylic stamps and distress inks. 

Then I painted the gessoed surface with distress ink before stamping over it with a rustic fragment stamp.

 Next I prepared some card with distress inks and stamped and fussy cut some of the flowers and leaves and also a bird. I added these to the sides of the tryptych and finally added the words 'a little bird told me'. 

I really enjoyed making this piece...its living in my craft room - formerly known as my dining room!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Twits!

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well! I am tired - its been a busy day but I think I have just about completed the scenery for our production of the Twits...I thought I would share that with you tonight!

These are the flats I painted for the jungle scene - I say I - my friend Faye did the tree trunks and bushes but I did the rest. I scaled up the sheena hibiscus flower stencils to get the flower effect...

These are the ones on the left side of the stage ...Faye did the bush here too and the tree trunks.!

These are for the main scene of the twits garden - there is a caravan too that they live in but I haven't got that on camera yet - its mostly Faye's wotk though to be honest - the caravan I mean. I did the entirity of these flats.

These are on the left of the stage - I did the front one and Faye did the rear - she may be adding a broken down fence before the night!

Here's the poster - we are doing two plays - and I am in both - I am old Mrs Twit in scene one of the Twits - my Lucy plays young Mrs Twit in the rest of the play... Penny is the RolyPoly bird! I am also 'player 2' in Hamlette - just a bit part but lots of fun!

Its been a lot of work and to be honest the play itself needs lots more - but time is nearly run out!!!

Big hugs!

Rachel xx

More 15 min makes for Chocolate Baroque.

Good morning all! How are you? I do hope you are well and happy! More chocolate baroque for you today. I have two cards from last months shows involving the feather stamps. Two simple, quick cards to make....

This one was stamped in archival black ink directly onto a premade distress ink background - it could have been onto paper! I just then stamped the background stamp and added the topper! Simples!

This one involved multiple stamping with some feather stamps in versamark and then setting with white embossing powder. Then I added brushos and water ..... finally i stamped and added a sentiment!

Have a great Saturday - school fair day for us!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Be Happy!

 Hello all! How are you? This is my second post of the day and  its the second one for the Chocolate Baroque Guest Design team. I've chosen to make a card this time using the A6 stamp Fountain Scene. I've teamed it up with one from the rustic fragments set and also a sentiment from the see beauty clear stamp set.

I started by stamping the Fountain scene stamp using black ink the roughly masked it before stamping over the edges with the burlap style stamp. Next I added some colour to the outside using some mica paint powders and spritzing them with water. Finally I coloured the image in using water based pens. The final step was to mount the picture and then add the stamped sentiment. 

I hope you like my card!!

Have a great Friday!

Hugs

Rachel xx

More words of wisdom

Hello there! Its my turn over at Countryview Challenges today - having just got hold of some of the new Tracy Easson stamps I felt the need to use them for this challenge. The theme this month is 'words' and you can link up here. I used lovely distress oxides from Countyview Crafts in this make to compliment my choice of stamps.

To make the background the distress oxides peeled paint, twisted citron and evergreen bough. I added them to my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then mopped up on the card, drying inbetween swooshes.

This is Lottie Land Girl and she really does speak to me..... I used part of the background to paperpiece her dress and coloured the remainder in using distress inks.

This is the main saying on the stamp set!

I do hope you can join our challenge over at countryviewchallenges where you might win a £20 voucher to spend in Susan's shop! Go for it!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Ribbon ATC's for May Swap

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well and happy! I have been busy working this week - I have the day off tomorrow but back in on Friday - its not been too hard but has certainly been hitting my crafting and exercise time!!!!

Tonight I want to share with you the ATC's i made for last months swap at UK Stampers Forum... I used a lovely stamp from Hobbyart...the theme was ribbon!

I did enjoy making these .... such a pretty image - the background was created using pixie powders and the image was decoupaged up onto the background. I have my swaps I have had in return ...I have one of each of the following ...

I got the one on the left here...

and the red one on the right here!!!

Beautiful swaps!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Mitre corner cushion

And now for something completely different! I have been starting to do some knitting - I did a class held at my lovely Pottyroos where I have learned to make a cushion ...

The first part was to make the checkerboard side. It was interesting building the squares up gradually - the mitre corner design is very clever - and no sewing together of individual squares.

Here it is made... next we had to make the back ..... this one is not mine - I don't have a picture from this point  so just so you can get the idea ....

stitches all picked up and then stocking stitch...plus a fancy cast off method called a picot edge. Next the final base flap was knitted and then the cushion was sewn together...

Here it is completed ....

Here's the back showing the picot edge and also my pottery painted buttons - just for show!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

CCC: anything but square

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are good. Still enjoying the weather? Its been basically glorious here for nearly 5 weeks - thats got to be a record - and I am loving it! It makes such a difference to life in general!

Well its been a very busy week one way and another and I have had very little time to get ready for Christmas Card Club but I have managed a quick one - the theme was not square and I used some crafty individuals papers and stamps along with some paper dolls to make this card...

I am sad there are not more but time is very limited - I will try harder next time!!!

Hope you have a great Sunday - I'll leave you with some pics of Penny doing her Jujitsu display yesterday at Caton  Gala ...

She did good!

Happy Sunday xx

Tealight holder

Hello there! Its my first GDT piece of the month of June over at the chocolate baroque blog today and I decided to go for a pottery piece - a tealight candle holder...

To make it I brayered the glaze onto a craft mat, picked up some on the stamp then added to the pot. The stamp is not mounted onto a block although on this occasion it could have been because the surface I was stamping onto is flat. I then used different coloured glazes to paint the image. The pot was then fired in a kiln and this is the result.

This image is the Floral delight image from Chocolate Baroque.

I do hope you like this!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Book covers at stamps and stencils - and a milestone birthday!

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are good! I am 50 today! Wow! I can't believe it....how did I get to this age???? Lucky I guess!

We have a new challenge starting over at stamps and stencils and the theme is all about altering book covers... its Lula's Theme: Do judge a book by it's cover!  Here's what she has to say about it....

Reading books has been my favourite activity ever since I was a child. I am also addicted to altering ordinary items surrounding us. For this challenge  I'd like you to alter any book cover. Creating altered cover is something anyone can do because your only limitation is your own imagination.  You can use any type of books from children's books or user manuals to art journals. Don't forget to use stamping or stenciling and join us in the fun!

I decided to just take a paperback off my shelf and set about altering it...

I used an indigoblu stencil and opaque stencil paste first of all, directly onto the cover....

Next I added some mint green paint from indigo blu.

Once dry I added some paint and some gilding wax on the raised areas...

Next I added some pixie powders with water to the surface which intially also gave a crackled and distressed look ..... 

Then I added some stamping using stamps from Hobby Art....  

Finally I used glue and seal to add some stamped and fussy cut images - the glue and seal reacted a little with the underneath and some of it lifted off. Lesson learned ...i actually quite like the effect but i have to admit it wasn't what I intended!!!!

I do hope you can join us!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

A crafting birthday party

Hello there! Have you had a good weekend? I have had a brilliant weekend - my long planned birthday party came and went - but it was such fun! For the daytime I had 12 friends over to craft with the very lovely Jo Rice... We had such a great day ...Jo is so beautiful and kind - thanks so much Jo if you are reading this!!!

Here we are at the end of the day with our completed ATC boxes! 

Here's a close up of mine ...

I do like it - but many of the others were so amazing I wasn't so keen on mine on the day - but now I like it!!!

Here's some more pics from the day ...

my fab cake!!!

me and my bestie, Sandy...

me and the lovely Jo

and a wonderful face from the crafting world - my beautiful friend Anne

In the evening I had a ceilidh - I am currently chasing pics so I will add those to another blog post!!!

Big hugs!

Rachel xx