A stitch in time saves nine .....

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are well. I'm good - I had a good day yesterday but will feel happier when Shaun is back home safe and sound. Thanks for all your lovely comments yesterday. Unfortunately my dads results weren't so good - it looks as though his cancer of the bladder lining is regrowing so he will have to go in for another procedure. Poor man. Life doesn't seem fair sometimes. On the positive side though it hasn't passed through the lining so its not a life threatening form of cancer which has to be good.

I have to take little Lucy to the hospital today for an ultrasound scan. She has had tummy pains for about 18 months now and we can't get to the bottom of it. This is the next step! Hopefully we'll find something out soon.

Onto my post proper today. I have made myself a new sewing box - the old one was starting to fall to pieces so it was time for a new more substantial box to be created. This is what I did using an MDF box from the MDF man:

The first thing I did was to paint the box with silkies from Imagination Crafts. Next I used a Crafty individuals leaf stencil/mask to create the pattern on the lid. I used pebeo silks (cinnamon) applied with cut and dry foam through the stencil.

Next I turned my attention to the 'topper' and stamped the images from Crafty Individuals and also cut the scissors using a sizzix die. I used clarity stamps for the lettering.

Next I added the lace - this was from a win over at Papertake weekly when they were sponsored by the Ribbon Girl. Lush Lace!!!

I would like to enter my sewing box into the following challenges:

Sunday stamperpinkleart: Natural

Crafty Individualscraftyindividualsblog: Vintage fashion

We do doobadoowedodoobadoo: Shabby Chic

ABACanythingbutacard: Repeating pattern

ALBCpaulaholifieldcrafts: Sew what?

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today ..... I have a task this afternoon - making and decorating Lucy's birthday cake - I'll blog a picture of it tomorrow if it looks okay! Its going to be very dark!!! She has chosen black icing!!!! Oo er missus! 

Take care and thanks for dropping by!

Hugs

Rachel xx

A buzzy beach house

Good morning lovelies - how are you? I am fine but glad I wasn't having high hopes for the sale yesterday. Todays post shows one of the only things that sold - and that was to my mum bless her! if the number of people passing though the hall was as much as 40 I would be very surprised - it was shockingly quiet. Still - I do have other outlets which is good!

I made todays post with the WOW embossing powder challenge in mind - the theme this month is wood - and I'm hoping that MDF counts as wood. The beach house is made of MDF and is from the MDF man.

I started by base painting the whole box with gesso then painted the sides with green acrylic paint and the roof with blue acrylic paint.

Next I used the imagination crafts bayleaf stencil and forest green sparkle medium to add to the background. I also used a clarity mask to create the clouds on the roof by using versa mark and white opaque  wow powders and heat setting.

I then took some Art Parts from Wendy Vecchi - the flowers were covered with versa and dipped in wow powders - the yellow, orange and blue pearl - and again heat set. The stalks were done in the same way and heat set with olive wow powders. 

Finally i made the buzzy bees using fimo. The wings are made from webbing.

I should like to enter my box into the following challenges:

WOW powderswowembossingpowder Wood

Polkadoodlespolkadoodle: Spring is in the air

divasdivasbydesignchallenge: Flower power

CFAS:craftingforallseasons No Dp's

CYPCcraftyourpassionchallenges:go green

Simon says stamp weds challenge:simonsaysstampblog Glitter it

wedodoobadoo/wk-2-sweet-as-honey-dutch-doobadoo

Thats all for today - thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon! Thanks to all of you who sent best wishes for my back - touch wood its feeling better - not right but definitely better than it was. I'm hoping that another day of rest should do it good! And thanks also for the wedding anniversary wishes - we're going out for lunch today to celebrate - thats after the girls have done their jujitsu grading!

Big Hugs to you!

Rachel xx

A pink hankie box and froggie fun

Hello there! How are you this morning? I'm good and pleased to note that I have finally figured out how to pin things quickly in pinterest so my craft board is finally starting to fill up! I'm a bit slow I know but I'm getting there! Thanks so much for your comments on my kingfisher card yesterday - I'm glad you liked it!

Today I have an altered hankie box cover to share with you - its another one from my MDF man box of goodies that Shaun got me for Christmas. I've used some chocolate Baroque stamps with it.

I started with a plain MDF box and added a layer of gesso. Then sprayed the box with some dylusions sprays and some cosmic shimmer mica sprays.

Once dry I stamped the chocolate baroque image on all 4 sides. Then I painted the berries in with pink silkies from Imagination Crafts.

I stamped all of the butterflies again on paper, coloured them in and stuck them on to the sides and the top. The flowers are made from a giant flower spiral from spellbinders.

I think thats all!

I'd like to enter this box into the following challenges:

sirstampalotchallenge: pink

delicious doodlesdeliciousdoodleschallenge: ABAC

PTWpapertakeweekly: AG with option of handmade flowers

Just got a few froggie pictures to share with you from my garden - we discovered the spawn on Saturday and yesterday the pond was swarming with froggies:

Love this piccie - looks like the frog on the right is smiling x

doing what froggies do!

lots of spawn.

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today and thanks for popping over. I'm fleathering with my ladies today after a nice little hill run! Hope it goes well! Will try to remember my camera! Big Hugs! Rachel xx

PoppyClock!

Hello Lovelies! How are you today - I'm okay but missing my Shaun - he's off in America again - but will be back soon so not too long to wait!

Todays piece \i have to confess to having trouble with - I have started it a number of times and the colours have changed and changed - I'm not totally happy with it but time has run out on this one - so I'm running with it! Let me know what you think!

I don't know if you've seen these pocket watches from the MDF man - the clock part is about 12" in diameter - so its large!

I've used a sheena douglass stamp to stamp the main picture - I've also used a cloud mask from clarity to create clouds behind the front piece and also on the front piece of the clock. This isn't showing too much but it is there! I've also used UTEE and moulds to create the butterflies and stuck them onto the back panel of the clock so they can be seen through the cut outs.

The outer part of the clock has been made textured by using a cogs stencil and texture paste. Then its been painted red and the numerals were done in a black spectrum noir pen.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Simon says stamp Monday:simonsaysstampblog Time

Frilly and Funky/frillyandfunkie: Stencils and texture

Pan pastelpanpasteluk: Frame it

Sunday stamperpinkleart - use bright colours

Artistic stamper theartisticstampercreativeteam- letters, words and numbers

Thanks for dropping by today - I hope you have enjoyed my piece - I think I'm happy with it - lol!

Crafty Hugs

Rachel xx

Sneak peak of new releases at Crafty Sentiments

Good morning to you! How are you today? Good I hope! We're all good and happy to report that the jumble sale raised about £165 yesterday - which isn't bad at all - I think we'll do that again some time.

Well I've got two posts today both scheduled for the same time - never had that before - I wonder what will happen? I guess I'll soon see!

This post is a sneak peak for the New release at Crafty Sentiments - there are some beautiful images in this release and they'll be in store on 22nd January.



I got the image called 'I Love you' to play with and I thought it would be fun to alter a letter rack - for all those love letters I get - lol! (not)......

I've coloured my image in using speccies and covered the MDF letter rack with papers from the secret garden series from Graphics 45. The flowers on the rack are made using an Imagination crafts stencil and texture paste. I pasted through the stencil onto my craft sheet, lifted and cleaned the stencil and left the paste to dry. Once dry they just peeled away from the craft sheet. I've added some pretty metal centres to the flowers and also added a dragonfly charm.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

A little box - a new years resolution

Hello there -I do hope you are well!  I'd like to show you today a box I made inspired by the current Craft Stamper Magazine. One of my New Years Resolutions is to try more techniques/projects from Craft stamper to broaden my horizons and get more experience of different media. I just fell in love with the project by Trish latimer..... and wanted to try it but with a twist...I wanted to do a box rather than a hanger.

I started by finding some fabric that I liked and stick it to my studio 490 flexible film and left it to dry naturally. I then took a plain box from the MDF man and coated it with gesso - then when dry added gold paint from an adirondack dauber. when this was dry I stamped the Crafty Individuals script stamp on the lid and added the lapis blue sparkle medium from Imagination crafts through a stencil from that special touch. I left this to dry then did the bases of the box - using the same stencil and versa mark and brass regular wow powders. Then I worked on the butterflies - the stamp is one from an old Craft stamper magazine - I stamped in versa then heat set with brass regular  wow powders. I added the gems to the butterflies then cut the flowers from the fabric/film  using tattered florals dies from Tim Holtz. I heated the flowers to form the shapes you see and stuck the layers together using some brads from Creative Expressions. Finally I stamped the words using dylusions stamps and put the piece together. Hope you like it as much as I do!

I'd like to enter this box into the following challenges:

Sunday Stamper pinkleart- Dream
Funkie Junkie frillyandfunkie - New Years Resolution
Simon says stamp Monday challengesimonsaysstampblog - Blue
Wow Powderswowembossingpowder - use fabric
sisterhood of craftersthesisterhoodofcrafters - something New (lapis sparkle medium, box, script stamp and stencil)
CFAScraftingforallseasons: All things bright and beautiful
PTW:papertakeweekly AG - option of something new
Inky Chicksinkychicks - AG
Incy wincyincywincydesigns - three fave embellies - flowers, brads, butterflies (gems).

I hope you have a wonderful day - I'll be at my mums and doing the food shopping but hope to get crafty later - we both bought some primary elements in the Create and Craft sale so will probably have a play with them! I'm so excited too - found out yesterday I won the Simon says stamp weds challenge so have a $50 spree to look forward to!! Woohoo!!!! What a lucky lady I am!

Thanks for dropping by today and big Hugs to you!

Rachel xx

Blue at Crafty Sentiments and my morning at coffeepot

Good morning to you! How are you? Good I hope! I'm still reeling from the PTA meeting I went to last night and all the things that need to be done before the christmas fair on the 30th! Deep breath and as Kath Stewart would say big girl knickers time!!!!

Over at craftysentiments today the new challenge is Blues.

The prize up for grabs is this fab stamp just right for your christmas creations !!

If you use a Crafty Sentiments Design image you will be entered 3 times and be in for a chance of being our Crafty Sentiments favoutite !!  Just put a #3 after your name when entering.

Here's what I did using the image wizard charlie that you can get here

The image has been coloured with promarkers. The stars were double sided sticky shapes that I've stuck down and added glitter to. I've also created a faux frame around Charlie. 

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

TPCtotallypapercrafts: Use glitter

charismacharismacardz: AG

I love promarkersilovepromarkers: all that glitters

I've got some pictures to show you of our makes yesterday at coffeepot too.

The shapes were from the MDF man - a mixed bag of 15 holiday ornament shapes for £5. What a bargain. we decopatched the shapes then added the diecut 3D snowflake from Tim Holtz sizzix range. Simple but effective I think. 

Thanks for dropping by today and I hope you've enjoyed your visit. Hope to see you again soon.

Big Hugs 

Rachel xx

New release at Crafty sentiments: Christmas rush

Hello lovelies - its time for me to show you the new release at Crafty Sentiments called Christmas Rush and you can get it here. It was in the shop on the 22nd but the day to show you this little beauty is today. Three of us from the DT (the mulled wine drinkers) were charged with coming up with a a common theme each and adding it to our projects. See if you can work out our common elements on the inspirational blog here. Here's my make:

This is a money box for helping me save for Christmas - woo hoo - I definitely need it! Anyway - so what have I done? The box was from the MDF man and was painted with gesso then pebeo acrylic paint. I stamped some script then used an imagination craft stencil called 'the clearing' with sparkle medium. The roof was tiled with sequins and the brass star on the front was covered with versamark and lilac wow powders were added. and heat set. The stamp was coloured with promarkers and fussy cut and added to the moneybox.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

WOWwowembossingpowder: Stars and stripes- I have one star and a striped roof)
Crafty Catz: craftycatzweeklychallengeSpots and stripes ( my spots are in stripes)
Crafty Ribbonscraftyribbonschallenge: ABAC
aud sentimentsaudsentimentschallengeblog: Christmas
Allsorts CBallsortschallenge: Treemendous
Sweet Stampinsweetstampinchallengeblog: wood, trees and leaves
craft-roomchallenge: stencil or mask

Thanks for joining me today and hope to see you again soon!

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

A hankie box cover for my mum

Good morning lovelies! I do hope you are well and I want to thank you for all of your wonderful comments yesterday - I was very pleased with my box but even more so after your kind words so thankyou very much!

I've got another box to share with you on this day - the first day of the holidays for my two little munchkins. Its a hankie box and I made it whilst at my mums - and she has claimed it so she must like it!!!

I started with a black box from the MDF man and painted it with gesso then with orange pebeo acrylic paint. Once dry I added the crafty individuals stencil onto each side and the top and used black dreamweaver embossing paste through the stencil. This process was done it batches leaving it to dry between sides. Once this was done I used distress inks (spiced marmalade, scattered straw, walnut stain) to create a background and then used the Crafty Individuals create a meadow stamp set to add pictures to the squares I had cut out of the backround. I stuck these into the pattern then stamped the heartfelt creations stamp firstly with versamark on black card and added copper kettle embossing powder. Secondly with versa on the remaining background paper and black embossing powder. Then I used the die to cut these out and made flowers to sit on the top of the box.

I'd like to enter this box into the following challenges:

Crafty Individuals:craftyindividualsblog October Inspired- this is the colours of October for me!
2 sisters CB2sisterschallengeblog: Halloween colours
pan pastelpanpasteluk: autumn colours
simon says stampsimonsaysstampblog: Halloween colours
crafty ribbonscraftyribbonschallenge: ABAC
Crafty little fairiescraftylittlefairieschallenge: AG
PCJpaper-craftingjourney: AG

Thanks for dropping by today and I hope to see you again soon!

Big Hugs

Rachel x