Zara's card

Good morning! How are you today? I hope you are well and happy? If not sending big hugs! We are good - school is back in full swing and things are getting back to normal.

Today I have a card to share with you I've made for Penny's best friend - she has a birthday tomorrow - she is heavily into gmnastics so I decided to use Clarity stamps of gymnasts for her card - she is also very fond of the colour blue.

I masked off the central band and then  created the background using distress inks, stamps and stencils. Next I used a blue archival and stamped the word. Finally a black archival was used to add the gymnasts!

I think she'll like it!

I'd like to enter this into simonsaysstampblog mondaychallenge Stamp it

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Travel at countryview challenges

Hello lovelies! Well its time for me to do another post for countryview challenges to share the challenge theme for this month which is travel  - I wanted to use the tim-holtz-cling-mounted-stamp-set---cityscapes and i ended up doing a journal page ... as always I started with a page of brayer wipes!

I added more paint using the brayer and landed up with this background ...

I was happy with this but still added a little more paperartsy fresco vanilla to tone the colours down before continuing. Then I stamped the cityscapes directly onto the page - they didn't show up well so I moved to white card and fussy cut them!

I also added stamping and diecuts - from paperartsy and Tim holtz stamps plus an indigo blu script stamp that is always on hand on my desk. 

I added the city names using Tim stickers as the outline ..

The diecuts are from Tim Holtz - I love to travel - its part of life - but in the words of Tim - we always should 'enjoy the journey!

I hope you can join us in our challenge this month! You can find the linky here

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Bright beautiful and Luscious!

Good morning all! A quick reminder post today to bring the Indigo Blu challenge back to your attention! The theme this month is bright and beautiful! Just use indigo blu stamps and link your make here.

I have been lucky enough to get hold of some of the beautiful pigment Luscious that Indigo Blu launched over the summer. I used it in this project mixed with water as a paint - mixed with thick slap it on through a stencil and mixed with embossing powder. Its very versatile! And it produces such a beautiful sheen. Here's what I made!

So I have used the following stamps:

floral-fantasy-a5-red-rubber-stamp-by-kay-halliwell-sutton

big-butterfly-a6-red-rubber-stamp

script-background-a6-red-rubber-stamp

I used three colours of luscious-pigment-powders - gold, orange and purple. I used them mostly mixed with water as a form of paint but in the background also combined them with thick slap it on and pasted through texture-6-x-6 stencil.

On the butterfly and the 'doily' I stamped the images in flitterglu then added a mix of the luscious powders and embossing powder. You can get an idea of the sheen on this photo - its really pretty!

I hope you can join us - you have a chance of winning a fabulous prize! 

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Winter scene at Christmas card club

Hello there! Well yet again I am posting a day early due to other commitments tomorrow - the theme is mine for Christmas card club this fortnight. I love scenes so it was an easy choice for me. I was fortunate enough to get two of the new sheena dies so wanted to use them - sadly the stamps have not yet arrived so I just did silhouettes. The other two cards are made by combining two different choclate baroque stamp sets.

I am really pleased with the second set - that deer is cool!

I hope you have a great Saturday!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Super star crazy dog!

Hi there! A bit of a late post from me today - I've been out cycling after dropping the girls off at school. Now, having made a quiche for tea I am ready to blog!!!

In the summer I was lucky enough to get a place on the Fiskarettes guest design team - Fiskars have sent me some wonderful goodies to play with and my first make using the goodies is being shown on the Fiskarettes facebook page today! Here's what I made:

I have used the following fiskars products to make this card :

Power punch - star

Small star punch

Tag maker

Guillotine

The power punch was brilliant - it cut through a variety of materials very easily - I have cut through corrugated card and cork on this project and there were no issues at all.

This little chap is of course a crazy dog!!!

The tag maker is very easy to use and makes small tags and adds metal reinforcers to the holes.

There is still a chance to enter a great competition on the fiskars FB page -  

Follow this link - and have a look at what you have got to do to be in with a chance to win! Go on - you know you want to and the prizes are amazing!

I would like to enter this into craftstamper take-it-make-it-challenge-september

Hugs

Rachel x

autumn colours at stamps and stencils

Goodly morning to you! How are you? Its my second post already today! Busy for the 1st when it lands on  a Thursday! Its my challenge starting over at stamps and stencils today and I have chosen the theme Autumn Colours - you do not need an autumnal theme - but you can use one if you wish - I am just interested in the colours - reds, oranges, yellows and golds and browns. It is a mixed media challenge and you need to use stamps or stencils or both. I did a journal page for this theme.

Here's the completed double page ... and a step by step follows ....

I tend to use my journal to wipe off my brayer when I'm using it ... here's some wipe ups from when I did the Birgitte Koopsen class in April.

I soon had it coloured with fresco paints ....

I used a distress spray though a stencil to add a light watermark ...

Then I used the same stencil with vintage photo ink to get a darker impression - I also used some stamos here to create the background.

I also stamped and coloured a paperartsy image from Clare lloyd .. I extended the head and gave her a body too ... I also stamped the clouds in paint and birds ... and added the sentiment...

Here's the lady ...

and the sentiment ....

and my photo showing the link between the sentiment and the piece.

Please check out what my teamies have made and find the challenge link  here!

I hope you like my piece and feel inspired to join us with this months challenge.

Big Hugs

Rachel x

Travel at Countryview Crafts

Hello lovelies! How are you? Or should I say 'pinch punch first of the month????' Can't believe September has rolled around already - its amazing how quickly this year is going by. Or is it just me? Today at countryviewchallenges we are starting a new challenge and this one was chosen by the lovely Jennie - the theme is Travel. I decided to make a journal page.

Its a fairly simple page reflecting a play with some paints and new dies. I used the sizzix-thinlits-die---globe-by-tim-holtz and  the sizzix-thinlits-die-set-13pk---adventure-words-script-by-tim-holtz and also the photograph comes from tim-holtz-idea-ology--found-relatives.

The background is painted using fresco paints and distress paints ...

The clouds are from a stamp set from paperartsy by Clare lloyd.

I hope you will join us!!!

Big hugs

Rachel xx