Camels, turkeys or sheep at Christmas card club

Hello there - its my choice at Christmas card club this fortnight and I have been playing with humorous stamps from Hobby art. My theme is camels, turkeys or sheep...I have done all three!

My camels are looking very cheeky and a little cold!

The poor turkeys are dreading the occasion - since we don't eat turkey they're safe at our house!

As for the sheep - they're very grumpy!!!

All stamps are from HobbyArt. Great fun stamps!

Hope you have a great day!

hugs

Rachel xx

swaps

Hello there - just wanted to record some of my swaps from this month - made and received...

These I received last month - the theme was pointy hats...

These are the ones I made this month - the theme is music.

These are coins I received this month - and the bunting is one that past through my hands enroute to its new owner!!

These are the coins i have made for this month.

Its all a bit higgledy piggledy as I am finding it hard to locate pics! Sorry - I think my head is a bit befuddled with the teaching and everything!!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Inspirational post at Stamps and Stencils

Hello there! I have an inspirational post over at stamps and stencils today - more adventures in the world of lift ink.... here's what I made....

If you want to know how I made it please make your way over here.

Have a great day.

Hugs

Rachel x

I see you baby ...

Hello there ...its nearly the end of the month and I have finished making samples for next month and so I have had a little bit of a play time!!! I got some new stamps from paperartsy recently and have used them to make a tag ...

Such a fun image - and I just loved that saying...everytime I stamp it I start singing!!! Lol! Funny!

I am having a smart meter fitted today - I am hoping all goes well - I'll be able to see what is most expensive in the house!! My mum likes hers so I thought I would take the plunge!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

More Indian Elephants

Hello there! I have some cards over at the Chocolate Baroque site today which you can find here. Here are the cards I am showing - you can get details by following the links!

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Bookstand

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well! I am good and have had a nice relaxed day. I started with a swim and then went to pottyroos and made another sample for chocolate baroque plus started my next piece for me - being there reminded me that I hadn't blogged my recipe book stand that I made for my mother in law for Christmas.

She loves Chickens and does a lot of baking using recipe books - hence the idea! Hope she's going to like it. I used stamps by clarity. 

Here's a close up:

its by no means perfect but I think it will go down well!

Hope you've had a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Polar or teddy bears at Christmas Card Club

Good Morning! How are you? I hope you are having a good Sunday so far! We are getting ready to take Penny to her tab class - not long now until she grades for blackbelt Jujitsu - hardly seems possible for such a little dot! Bless her!

It is time for Christmas card club again and the choice this fortnight is Polar bears or Teddy Bears. I chose the Polar Bears. I did a bit of a batch make using stamps from Hobby Art.

Here they are!

and close up - a simple card to make - I stamped and masked the big bear then used a circle stencil to add distress ink and the ice peak piles in the background. Then I added the sentiment and the snowflakes and lastly the little bear! Cute!

Have a great Sunday!

Hugs

Rachel x

15 min makes with Chocolate Baroque

Hello there! How are you? Good I hope! Things here are plodding along - trying to summon up all my positivity for teaching on Monday - I will get there! Gladly I'm off to Jo Rice's class today with my girlies and my mum - I'll show you what we did later in the week!

Today I have my quick makes for chocolate baroque from the Indian elephant stamps from July.

You can get the full details plus much more super quick inspiration over at the Chocolate Baroque design team blog here.

Hope you enjoy!

Hugs

Rachel x

Coffeepot

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are well. Today I want to record my makes for our coffeepot session on Tuesday. It was a very quiet session with only 1 lady turning up other than myself and my mum. Still, we had fun! Here are the cards I made for it.

All very quick cards this time and using Lavinia stamps and dies.... First one - I used distress inks through a circle to create a backdrop and then stamped on top and added sparkle to the wings.

This one is on a background that was gifted to me by the lovely Linda Simpson many moons ago - thanks Linda! Simple stamping and a little colouring....

More circles of distress this time linked up with a die. I combined this with some Clarity stamps...

For this one I created the background then stamped the seahorse, vegetation and jellyfish before cutting and mounting on the black card.

Finally another distress circle teamed up with a die.

We were busy indeed!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

RoadTrip

Hello there! Today I have a post over at countryview Challenges but the main details are here. I of course, had to have a play with the new Lift Ink from sir Tim! It took at few attempts to get used to it but I think I am there now.  Here's what I made ...

Since its a relatively new technique I thought I would add more details... I made this back in August though so by the time you see this you will probably have had lift ink overload!!!

I started by applying alcohol ink in three colours to a piece of felt and adding it to yupo.

Next I chose my stamp and added lift ink then stamped on the alcohol ink, I stamped with the stamp then onto a piece of card. I continued with this until I had filled my piece of yupo.... and part filled the card. 

You need to dab any lift ink off before wiping away. The stuff removed and stamped on the card is now 'permanent' so then I added distress oxides.

This was the background before I added more stamping and the cut up yupo!

I hope you enjoyed that!

Big hugs!

Rachel x

Jane's card

Hello there! How are you doing? Things here are good. I managed my first teaching day yesterday and although things could have been better, they could have been much worse too! Oh yes and on Sunday I passed my first 1/2 stone lost milestone with Slimming World. Much more to go but its a start!

I have a birthday card to share with you today for my sister in law, Jane. I do hope she likes it.

I created the background first using distress inks then added the stamping before doing some colouring to compliment the background.

I have coffeepot to do this morning - we're working with more Lavinia stamps so there'll be more see very soon!

Have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Elephant Canvas

Good morning all! How are you today? I am on the Chocolate Baroque Design team blog today and have some elephants to share with you.

I made a canvas - it is actually just greyboard that I worked on but you know what I mean! I have used  lots of Chocolate Baroque stamps sets on this project - I just love the black and white against the colours...Full details are on the blog over here. Thanks for dropping by!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Yarn Bowl

Hello there! How are you? I do hope you are well. I have a bit of an ear infection so not brilliant - that'll teach me to use cotton buds! Still I did manage to get lots done yesterday - I had a successful run and spent a couple of hours in school trying to get organised for Monday - I have three 100 minute lessons to teach ...oh well. I suspect I am under prepared but its so very hard to tell until you have taught the kids once! I'll feel better once that first teaching day is over!!!

I've been doing a bit of pottery painting - this one has been on the go for a while but now it is finally done.

Its a yarn bowl - I have used stamps from Clarity and I used a bit of an ombre in the painting!

Here's the bowl further around - and the dobbing around the rim.

Here's the main feature of the yarn bowl - you can put your ball of wool in the bowl and the cat won't chase it! Result!!!! I wish I had done a few dots - but there it is!

Hugs

Rachel xx

ATC's at paperartsy

Hello there! How are you? Here's hoping you are well. Thanks so much for the lovely comments on yesterdays post - you are very kind. I've stuck with pperartsy characters today and made a set of ATCoins for the theme over at Paperartsy this fortnight. Love these quirky characters!

I started by painting the coins and adding detail using a JOFY stencil (PA83). I then used Darcy's stamp set EDY22 onto card and did a bit of fussy cutting! Hope you like them!

I'd like to enter these into paperartsy-topic-15-artist-trading-coins

I had a grand day out with my lovely mum yesterday - we went to the show at Event City near the Trafford Centre . I got myself a very large ball of wool and a pattern for a celtic knot shawl. It will take me forever so don't hold your breath! I also got a book on needle felted animals - looking forward to playing!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Anything goes at Stamps and Stencils!

Hello there! Time for a new challenge at stamps and stencils today - and the theme is Anything Goes! As long as it includes stamps or stencils of course. Here's what Sue had to say ...
 It's been a while - Being creative often leads you in different directions and sometimes it isn't until you start that you know where you are heading. For this challenge I thought that as we've not done it for a while it would be good to let your creative spirit wander and have a theme of Anything Goes. Your project must be mixed media and include stamping and/or stencilling but apart from that it's up to you !

So here's how my spirit wandered ... it made a new ATC case ... I seem to need these at regular intervals!!!

I started by stencilling using two aalland create stencils using gesso ... one dry I added a coat of 

mint green paint and then some stamping ...

Next I got playing with some paperartsy stamps.... this is the back.

And this is the front!

Its nearly full already! I will need to get myself another!

Hope you can join us! You can find amazing inspiration and link up here.

Big hugs

Rachel x

Foliage at Christmas Card Club

Hi there! Running late today - to be honest I already thought I had done this one and it turns out I am less organised than I thought!!! Anyway, here I am eventually with my Christmas Card Club makes - 4 cards with one stamp set here.

Here I have used pixie powders and stamping in coloured inks plus a cut out trick I did at the Jane Gill class hwere I bought this woodware stamp.

More coloured inks but without the cutout.

This time using flitterglu and flakes...

and finally alcohol inks and lift ink!

Lots of fun with a foliage theme!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Planes, trains and automobiles at Countryview Challenges

Hello there! First of the month and time for a new challenge at Countryview Challenges. This time the theme is planes, trains and automobiles! Great theme. I have dusted off an oldie, added a relative newbie stamp and done some drawing too for this challenge....here's what I did...

Okay firstly then the background - a rough covering of broken china distress ink incluing using a cloud mask. My draings of the planes were done with the help of you tube tutorials! 

This is the relative Newbie - a stamp from Mark Gould.

Here's the oldie - a stampers anonymous image from tim holtz time traveller set. 

I used some words from a couple of Tim Holtz sticker packs ... I think it was small talk and the one that are random book page quotes....

i hope you will be able to join us - there's a £20 voucher up for grabs! You can get more inspiration and enter here.

Big hugs

Rachel xx