Birthdays for Alec and Connie!

Hello there! I hope you are well. We are all good and looking forward to a day crafting up in Lindale with the super lovely Jo Rice. I'll share my makes another post - I am sure they will be simply beautiful.

Today I want to share two cards I made for you for brother and sister Alec and Connie, both friends of Lucy. Both were made in colours of Burnley football club that they support and using visible image stamps.

Both the backgrounds were made using distress oxides....

The stamps were stamped in black versafine.

Glad to note they went down well!

Hugs

Rachel x

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

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

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

stay curious

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are good. My leg is still sore - I went for a sports massage yesterday - oh boy that was painful. The lady doing the massage said she thought it was just a pulled muscle but that I should see a doctor if the pain continues for much longer. She's also advised use of calf shields - a type of sports compression socks....so thats the next step!

I got chance on Sunday to have a play with some visible image stamps...here's what I made!

I've been using the distress oxides again! I do love the effect you can create with them. Beautiful things - can't wait for the new colours to come out!!!!

I was glad to have my Shadow stamps!!! hee hee - its just like her .... here she is for real...

she is a funny wee soul and quite cheeky! She went into my neighbours house yesterday - I had to go and chase her out of the bedroom!!!

Have a great Tuesday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Born to perform!

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are doing well. Thankyou for any comments you left on my last post that included CB Hochanda show samples. I think the shows were lovely and Lesley did a fabulous job. Love my season ladies!

Today I want to share with you another visible image card I made - this one uses mostly stamps from the Born to perform set but the birds I added were from 'ahead of our time'.

The bottom background was made using distress oxides - peeled paint, cracked pistachio and broken china. The background behind the dancer was done using distress inks - the same colours plus twisted citron and lucky clover.

I love that tutu - its such a fabulous effect - I added the birds from the other stamp set - I think she rather looks like a magician!!!!

Its my lovely mums birthday today and we'll be off to Clarity Cumbria for the day - I have baked so I hope everybody is hungry! Tonight I'm taking mum to a show in the village - looking forward to that!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Dimension at visible image

Hello there! How are you? We are good and my eldest Lucy has returned from her 3 day residential to Edinburgh so all is even better! She had a good time visiting Mary King's close, the National Gallery, Scottish Parliament, Dynamic Earth Park and the Camera Obscura. Sounds pretty good to me!

Yesterday was a bit of a funny day - after my run - which was ok - I spent some time at home and then the power went off. There was a power cut that tripped in and out for a while then stayed off for nearly 1 and half hours. Now we often get power cuts but this one was odd as my house alarm kept going off! It was very weird - never done that before! Somebody told me there's a backup battery in the box that must have ran out - need to remember to look into that one!

Anyway - whilst I felt confined to barracks without power i decided to have a go at one of the newest sets of visible image stamps....here's what i made....

I adore these stamps - so very cool - I decided to make something for the current VI challenge on facebook.... its all about dimension and i think this fits the bill!!!I used distress oxides to do the background and also a further sheet of A4 on which I did some other stamping too. I also used my TH stamping platform for the first time whilst making this card - I think it will make planning and placing of images much easier!

Hope you have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Express yourself facebook challenge

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I am good and very excited after my visit to Port Sunlight yesterday. I had a great time and my lovely Lucy was one of the winners of the prize draw - She got loads of lovely goodies - here she is when she got home....

  She is a very lucky little girl - I hope she'll let mum have a play!

I picked up my prize from the 3000 facebook members giveaway from visible image too.


Lucky lucky me!!!

I also got to speak to many lovely people - Shaz and Doug, Anne Redfern, Elizabeth Robinson, Kay Halliwell Sutton, Cheremane Smith, Lesley Warton, Helen and Mark Alexander, Jean and Malcolm from Crafty Individuals, Keren Baker and so many more folk. If I have missed you from this list I'm very sorry! Here's a picture of me, Shaz, Lucy and Mark from visible image... thanks to Shaz for the photograph!

So a lovely day in all!

I made a quick card for the express yourself facebook challenge for Visible Image - its a words centred challenge.

I love these words - very true I feel! The background is all distress ink that I blended and then stamped the lightbulb from the glimmer of light stamp set.I added the sentiment and the moths afterwards.

Hope you have a great Sunday - we're off for a swim - and I need to run too!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Emi's card

Hello there! I hope you are doing ok and if not sending hugs!

Last week it was my oldest daughter Lucy's besties birthday - so I had to make a card! She's a bit crazy so I used the visible mad hatter image to make her card.

I started with a distress background and added stencilling and extra stamping. I had already stamped and masked the image. I then removed the mask and coloured the mad hatter.

I hope she wasn't offended!!!!

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Joe and Ben's birthday

Hello lovelies! Well I hope you are well - sorry I've not been by for a few days but things are currently mad busy! But today is the 11th birthday of my lovely friend Carolines twin boys - Joe and Ben. Joe is part of the drama group and is quite a character. Ben on the other hand is quiet and loves football. Chalk and cheese! I couldn't not use tweedledum and tweedledee from Visible image but I also added some crazy things to make it more like a birthday card! Here's what I made...

I do hope they like it!!! Dee and dum are from visible image as is the large circle stamp in the background. I stamped dum and dee, masked then created the background. I used the new TH scribble stencils in the making of that. Once I had unmasked and coloured dum and dee I cut and stamped the hats, ballooons and dickie bow (crazy things) then added the large number 11 (also from TH). 

My girls are taking part in Young Voices tonight at the Manchester Arena. I'm looking forward to it!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

alice stamp playtime at coffeepot.

Hello lovelies - well its a funny day today in our house - my little girls are both packed up and ready to go on a school residential today - they're off to Malham Youth Hostel for two nights and I won't see them until Friday 3.30! Whatever am I to do? Craft seems to be the answer.

I am sharing with you today my makes from coffeepot on monday - I took the visible image stamps of Alice in wonderland to play with - and about 20 different stencils - virtually all clarity. The ladies had a great time playing - these are my makes.

Here's all three - I made the white rabbit one as inspiration - the cheshire cat as a demo and then the alice one.

The process was the same each time - stamp, mask, stencil, reveal, colour then add extra details.

I think this needs more colour!

My favourite - the white rabbit is brilliant!

Time for an update on my kitchen - the floor is down, the ceiling and lights are done - the cupboards are mostly in - it looks like this ...

so we have progress - but plenty more to be done yet!!! I'll update again soon!

Have a great wednesday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Coffee pot from last week ...

Hello all! I hope you are well and happy! I had a lovely weekend - we went to visit my mum and dad on Saturday and then Sunday I had a few hours with Lucy as Penny was at a friends birthday party. Me and Lucy went off up to Brockhole near ambleside and had a great time - and also booked her birthday party for the summer.

   

I don't know why that tongue has to pop out on selfies but it seems to!!!

Anyway - I just realised I haven't posted my makes I did at coffeepot last week - it was a gelli plate background making week - and these are the two cards I did at the session:

all of the stamps are from visible image - and the backgrounds were made using distress inks on a gelli plate - they were applied directly then spritzed with water and smooshed using clingfilm!

I made a few backgrounds and will be using them up in the near future I am sure!

Big hugs to you!

Rachel xx

a little magic

Hello lovelies - how are you today? I am good and looking forward to my friend Alisons wedding. She gets married at lunch time and we are going as a brownie pack to make a Brownie arch for when she comes out of the church - she has been Tawny owl to the pack for a good few years.

Today I want to share a quick make with a visible image stamp set. The background was made when I was making my Oak house studio card here. Then I simply stamped using this fabulous stamp set.

The unicorn and sentiment are from the same stamp set - the small 'star' is from a different VI set.

I love the sentiment - how very true!

And I don't know if you saw my new t shirt on fb?

It goes with my card!!!

Just a short post today! 

Hugs Rachel x

embossing at Christmas card club

Hello Lovelies! How are you? I hope you are well. We are busy but happy. I finally managed to get Sundays Christmas card Club cards made - sorry I'm so late everyone - things seem to be very hectic just now!! The theme was embossing wet or dry - I did both.

I used a sheena embossing folder and visible image stamps. Quick and simple!

Have a great Friday - its Macmillan coffee morning at school today - fingers crossed for a good event!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

More coffee pot makes

Hello lovelies! Did you have a good day? I did and so did my little munchkins!!!! They're both still out at friends houses so I'm making hay while the sunshines!!!

I ran coffee pot today and we did our brushos makes - the technique went down well with the ladies and we made a few backgrounds each - here are mine with the card that i made ....

I tried a variety of colours this time - the colours definitely came through stronger with the glossy card! 

I used another visible image stamp and this time used brushos and water to create the background on the card.

Here's a closer look at the topper. fabulous stamp!

I hope you have a good evening - I'll be around to visit soon! Big hugs rachel xx