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

The written word at Countryview Crafts

Hello there! First of June! Blimey! These months are rolling around quickly aren't they? We have a new challenge starting at Countryview Challenges where Teresa wants us to use The Written Word. I have been waiting for a project that would allow me to use the fabulous Entomology set from Tim Holtz ....and I think this was the very one! Here's what I did ......

I started by creating a distress oxide background then stamped the insect images on top. I then coloured them and set about cutting the the word out using dies before then mounting the card on black before adding the letters back ontop and offset and also raised using those horrid little sticky squares! I do like the result. How about you?

I do hope you can join us this month. You can link up your project and see what my uber talented teamies have done here.

Big hugs

Rachel xx