playing with the majestic oak

Good morning all and how are you? Hope your Saturday is good so far and gets better all the time! I've got a hectic morning - so whats new - I'm face painting at a kids party that my girls are both going to - only Lucy has a ballet lesson this morning too - so I have to paint Penny's face, take Lucy to ballet, drop Penny at the party, get Lucy and go back to the party to paint the other faces! This afternoon we're on a tidying mission as hubby will be back tomorrow!

My card today is the result of watching Sheena on Create and Craft and then going off for a play - this is what I came up with:

I used the reverse of the centura pearl card and used DI black soot all over the card apart from a large central circle. Then I poured my radiant rain misters onto my craft mat and used sponge to sponge first blue, then purple, then yellow all over the card - but mostly in the balckened areas. Once dry I used cut and dry foam and added fired brick DI all over the card and when dry I stamped the tree in black archival and fixed with clear embossing paste. Then I used the aged beautifully stamp set to add the text and the crackles and the corners. After matting and layering I added this to pastel centura pearl card after tying a bow and added the wisdon sentiment. I love it! Thanks Sheena for continually bringing out fabby stamps and giving us all so much inspiration!

I'd like to enter this card for the male card challenge over at crafterscompanion and also the embossing ans texture challenge at stamping sensations.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for visiting! Hugs Rachel xx

resist -ance is futile!

Good morning happy stampers and goodly decoupagers. How are you today? I'm feeling better after taking it a bit easier yesterday - I missed my class - what a rebel - but will be running today so thats okay......I'm feeling a little worn out with hubby being away - he really does quite a lot in terms of children entertaining! Still he won't be too long now!

Onto today - well I was so happy when I came back from the show at the weekend - I had my kroma crackle that I was so excited about, my black gesso and even a heart shape to alter - so I got to work on sunday night - gessoed the heart and once dry painted with acrylic paint and then added some pan pastels and stamped some bits and bobs on to the heart - including some sheet music that I stamped in versa mark then covered with clear powder and heat set. I then added more colours to use the music as a resist. Finally, once happy, I added my kroma crackle and then began the long wait. Come Monday night there was no change - just a milky appearance to my piece. Come Tuesday night it was the same - on Wednesday night there were a few crackles - but nothing much. I applied my heat gun and made sure all was dry then added some stamped cracks from sheenas aged perfectly set of stamps. I must say I am disappointed with the crackles from the kroma crackle - I will read the instructions again very carefully and have another go - has anybody else had some fab success???? I finished off with some slap it on then decorated with leaves (crafty emblies) and butterflies (stamped and mounted onto mouldable film and heated to give dimension). I'm quite pleased overall but not with the crackles.

This bottom picture shows the white crackles off best. The sheet music stamp is from Do Crafts.

I think I've waffled enough!
I'd like to enter my heart hanger into the following challenges:
AGOACpinkgemchallengeblog: Things with wings
Sunday stamperpinkleart: Resist
Pan Pastelpanpasteluk: In the pink
Charismacharismacardz - no digis
MAWTTmovingalongwiththetimes: Colour challenge - purple, black, pinks.
Do Craftsdocraftsblog: Anything goes

Looking forward to a less busy day today - I've got running this morning and gardening club at lunch time - then I'm free until I pick the girls up at 5.30 to take them to jujitsu. They're off to a friends house for tea! Yipee! Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks for dropping by.

Crafty Hugs

Rachel xx

feeling blue

Good morning lovelies - are you okay? I'm fine - the title of my post refers to my card - not to me! Isn't it cold? I had a very soggy run yesterday morning - I'm off to a class this morning so I will at least be dry apart from the sweat of course. Back to running on Friday though!

My card today has been made for the current housemouse challenge - I was lucky enough to win a class from the creative classroom from the last challenge - has anybody done any? Can anybody recommend any? Not sure what to choose. Anyway - back to my card and it features decoupage from Joanna Sheen featuring some very cheeky house mouses.

Aren't they naughty? Little mice up to cheeky antics - love them. The flowers are WOC and the embossed background is from embossalicious.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
House and friendshousemouse-challenge: Feeling Blue
Incy Wincyincywincydesigns: Animal antics
Forever friends monthly challengeforeverfriendschallengeblog: AG
ALBCpaulaholifieldcrafts: Kraft it
Fab 'n' funkyfabnfunkychallenges: Your fave embellishment - flowers
TPSthepapershelter: AG

Before I go just wanted to let you know about the show that Crafty Sentiments will be at at Tyne and Wear at the weekendin Sunderland. Check it out if you're in the area!

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon! Big Crafty Hugs....

Rachel xx

Magnolia Madness at Creative inspirations and mid month reminder for CCAYR

Good morning Lovelies. How are you today? Good hopefully. We're all good here although me and my girls are missing my hubby - he's off in the States at Yale University but he won't be too long now.

Today there's a new challenge starting today at Creative Inspirations (cinspirations).Its called Magnolia Madness so we'd like to see your creations including magnolia goodies please. This week's prize is from CRIMSON CLOUD which is 4 DIE CUT PACKS OF THE WINNERS CHOICE!

Here's my card I made using a Tilda stamp:

I love this image - this is one that I got from squirrel when she was selling off some stamps - thanks squirrel - she's a beauty. I've coloured her with promarkers except the dress which is paper pieced with fabulous crafty individuals papers that are also featured behind the frame. There's also lace on there - blue and cream - diecuts (bird and cage and bunting)  and of course flowers (WOC). The sentiment is from the everyday grunge messages at LOTV.

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

inkychicks: Blue and brown
cutecardthursday: Something Blue
comeandgetitchallenges: Cream, brown and blue
twistedtuesdaychallenges: Girls best friend
LEJlejdesignschallengeblog: Borders and corners (Lace border behind the image and the corner of diecut bunting and flowers).
bearlymine-challenges: Lucky Dip (lace, diecuts and flowers).
midweekmagnolias: birthday

I've got another card to show you as a qucik reminder of the gingerbread challenge thats on over at CCAYR (christmascardsallyearround) this month:

The papers are from trimcraft and the image was a freebie over at Mo's Digital Pencil.

Thats all for today - thanks for dropping by and big crafty hugs to you all!

Rachel xx

Crafty Sentiments: Add a charm and didn't they do well!

Good morning all - I hope you are well and happy. Its another day and on this one I've got to tell you all about this weeks new challenge from crafty sentiments - we want you to 'add a charm'. As simple as that! Check out the challenge blog here for details of the prize and also for all of the other DTs wonderful makes. I used the image called Jasmin-Dreams - from the wedding release in March I think it was. Here's what I did:

The card blank is one from Cupcake crafting and I've used some Kate Knight papers from a free stack from a magazine a long time ago. The stamped image has been coloured with promarkers and the die used is my fave spellbinders oval. The flowers are woc and the ribbon is from the pretty little ribbon shop. The charm is from the ribbon girl. The lace - now that could be woc or the ribbon girl - not sure!

I'd like to put my card into the following challenges:

Crafts and mecraftsandmechallenges: Lace
Totally Gorjusstotallygorjuss bingo - lace, ribbons, flowers.
Lacy Sunshinelacysunshinechallengeblog: Not square
PIOpileitonchallenge: For a teen
AIartisticinspirationschallenges: Lace and flowers
Cupcakecupcakecraftchallenges: Lots of layers.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with 6 lovely ladies at a craft morning that my running partner emma organises and usually runs- I took along embossing paste, stencils, distress ink and tags and they really did so well.

Mine is the one to the extreme right - we had one more person than I was expecting so I didn't have enough bookprint tags premade up - so I just used a piece of paper to demonstrate the techniques - I think they''re all wonderful and look so colourful together and so different from one another! It was a lovely morning ladies - thankyou for being so open to trying new crafty ideas!

Thats all for today - thanks for dropping by and hope to see you again soon! Big Hugs Rachel xx

Sals DT post - sketch 39

Good morning lovelies! How are you? Its been very wet here - I hope it picks up soon.  Today I've got a fun card to share with you using this fortnights sketch from SALS(seemsalittlesketchy).

The image is Princess Leia from sassystudiodesigns
 
 - they're our sponsor this week and you can win .4 images of your choice. I've coloured the image with promarkers and added faux stiching on the panels. I added the writing and stars (cut using xcut dies)  plus the greeting and stars brads. I think this image is fab and great for any star wars fan - male or female.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Penny'spennyschallenges: Diecuts and/or punches
Movie Magic Monthlymoviemagicmonthly: Star wars vs star trek
That craft placethatcraftplaceblog: Makes for men

Thats all for today - thanks for dropping by! I'm off to do a workshop with my ladies from the coffee pot again this morning - we're doing distress inks, embossing paste and stencils today - I'll take a photo for tomorrows post so you can see how they all got on!  Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Port Sunlight - and Craft-a-scene reminder: Ships in the night

Hello there lovelies - did you have a good Saturday? I had a wonderful time with my lovely mum - regular visitors will know we went to Port Sunlight yesterday - the Happy Stampers Show! It really is a fabulous venue and may be small but its definitely perfectly formed!!!! Thankyou so much for such a fabulous show - I was lucky enough to see the lovely Redanne there - we bumped into each other a couple of times - it was so lovely to see you Anne - and next time we must stop shopping long enough for a brew!!!!  Here's the crafty stash I bought for myself - hubby gave me some pennies too to spend for my birthday coming up in June - but that has to go away - so no photos of that stuff until after my birthday.

Pennies are a bit tight this month - but I just had to have some stuff from indigo blu - so I got a mannequin kit, black gesso, slap it on, board hearts, and kroma crackle. From paperartsy I got some size 8 and some size 10 tags, an owl stamp from Lavinia (that was my mums treat for taking her), frantage and a lucky dip of faceted gems from chloes - 10 packs for a fiver - bargain!!!! In the birthday goodies there was some distress paints, eco acrylics, DI, sparkle medium, masks, detail embossing powder and some more lavinia stamps. So much wonderfulness - I'm itching to have a go with that Kroma crackle - it looks so good on the telly!!!!

Anyway - back to my post proper - I need to remind you that the challenge over at Craft-a-scene this month is ships in the night. Now I'm showing this card but for so many reasons I'm not happy with it. Its very simple and quick but like I say - not happy with it!!!

I made the background with pan pastels and added the yacht into the foreground later colouring with promarkers. The birds are from a kanban stamp and were added last.

Thanks for popping along and I hope to see you again soon. Need to catch up now with the blogs! Big Hugs Rachel xx