snowy trees at christmas card club

Good morning Lovelies! How are you today? I hope you are doing well! If not sending hugs and wishes for a speedy recovery. We are all good in the Fisher household. My dad is not brilliant - I saw him yesterday when I dropped the girls off - I could have sobbed. He just seemed so frail. He was a little more like himself when I got back from Lindale and we had a few smiles and laughs so that was better. Its so hard seeing him struggling. And my poor mum too! Bless them!

Its Christmas card club today and Christine has chosen the theme Snowy trees - I managed to make 3 cards....

They were variations on a theme but all basically the same.

I used all Tim Holtz products ... dies, stamps and distress inks!

I think this is my fave of the three ...

But I am pretty pleased with them all - basic steps:

1. stamp background trees in versamark and heat set in white embossing powder.

2. Die cut trees in foreground,

3. stamp newsprint stamp in versamark, set with white embossing powder and die cut deer.

4. Create landscape using masks and torn paper and stencil brushes.

5. assemble and stamp sentiment.

I hope you've enjoyed my post today!!!

Big hugs!!!

Rachel x

Birgit koopsen bernstein day 2

Hello lovelies! How are you today? Well its been quite a week here - pretty busy on the skip filling front - I have now finally got close to clearing the back lawn - but not quite - one more skip to go I think! Thats one for next week! Its been so expensive too - the whole roof has been a pretty costly thing. I hope it lasts long enough to see me out!

Today I would like to share with you a few photos from day 2 of my Birgit workshop. I haven't completed my make but here's as far as I've got ...

We started by using the gelli plate and lots of yummy acrylics to create lots of prints.. The idea was that we would use these in image transfers with black and white photocopies. I duly printed out lots of pictures but didn't take photocopies so my images didn't transfer correctly - we were told what to bring - I just didn't do it right!!!! 

Thankfully people from my table kindly let me use some of their spare images -  so on this page the heart is a transferred image ...

as is the eiffel tower on this one and the typewriter on the next.

I added stamping to the pages and bound them together into a book - I have pages with no images on and will aim to do those very soon as I now have photocopies of the photos I wanted to use.

Here's my little book ... I'll let you see the other pictures once they are complete!

It was a great weekend - and I've booked another one with mixed media artist Riikka Kovasin - really looking forward to that.

Today I am off to my usual Clarity Cumbria day - the girls are spending the day with my mum and dad. My dad seems to be okay - fingers crossed he stays that way!

Have a great Saturday!

Big hugs

Rachel x

two 15 min cards for chocolate baroque

Hello there! I hope you are well! I have two cards to share with you today that took 15 minutes each to make - I already had a mask made for the fairy one so that took less time than it looks!

I stamped the fairy from july-fairy stamp sheet then coloured her in with spectrum noir pencils. Next I masked both her and the page and applied distress ink in mustard seed and spiced marmalade to the central panel. Finally I overstamped using a small flower from the same stamp set in dried marigold distress.

I also added shadow under the fairy feet!

This next one uses the elegant-iris stamp sheet. I simply used the one stamp to create the background ...

Then stamped the collage image and coloured it with distress markers and added a border before sticking this ontop of the background.

I hope you like my simple makes from today - you can see more over at chocolatebaroque design team blog.

Big huggles and have a great day!

Rachel x

magical ATC swap

Good morning lovelies! I do hope you are okay and ready for a new and productive day - I am nursing a sore foot at present - I managed to stand on a nail yesterday and get it embedded in my foot - ouch! I have (I hope) done all the necessary things but will keep an eye on things! On a brighter note my dad came back from hospital yesterday - I hope he's going to continue to be okay! At least being in hospital gave my mum a bit of a break although I daresay not enough.

Today I would like to share with you my makes for last months ATC swap - I have received mine back but sadly I haven't had chance to photograph them - anyway - here's the ones I made:

The theme was 'magical' - I decided to do a natural themed make using this beautiful hare stamp - that in itself is magical to me!!! I love hares!!!! I do hope the ladies in the swap enjoy these!

Back tomorrow with my makes from the second day at the Birgit koopsen bernstein workshop!

Big hugs

Rachel x

more stencils at countryview crafts

Good morning lovelies! Well another day has dawned and today its my job to bring you a little inspiration for the challenge over at countryviewchallenges where the theme is to use a stencil. There is the usual challenge plus this month Susan is offering a prize for a blog hop - if you go here you can get all the details of how to enter both.

So today I have a card I have made for a friend from drama, Neil. Its his birthday on Saturday - I think I'm pretty safe posting it here - I know he doesn't look at my blog .... or even know that I have one! Lol!!!

Okay so this is what we're heading for .... and this is how I made it .....

I started by brayering three colours of fresco paint onto a piece of A4 card ...

Once dry I started to add some clocks using a layering-stencil---clockwork from Tim Holtz. I used snowflake acrylic white fresco paint through the stencil.

Next I added some words using layering-stencil---traveler also from Tim Holtz.

Next I cut the piece of card I wanted to use and stamped on stampers-anonymous-tim-holtz---evolution stamp and also used the stampers-anonymous-tim-holtz--newsprint--stamp. I stamped in potting soil archival ink.

Next I used thinlits-die-set-22pk---gearhead-by-tim-holtz to cut out the corner and also some cogs.

I added these to the card and layered up!

I do hope this card is appreciated! And I hope you can join us at countryview challenges by using a stencil and also joining our blog hop!

Big Hugs

Rachel x

coffeepot masculine makes

Hello lovelies! How are you? Back to normal for me today - although it wasn't all normal... I had to take Bez to the bus station to catch her bus home first thing and then it was time to go to coffeepot - I was in charge again and had been given the brief of masculine for a thirtieth. So out came the Tim goodies!!!

These are my makes - the ladies did a brilliant job with the distress stains and inks they used too and enjoyed playing with the stencils.

I took 4 distress inks and stains - wilted violet, candied apple, lucky clover and carved pumpkin.. this one used the wilted violet and the carved pumpkin.

This one with the lucky clover and carved pumpkin.

and this one the wilted violet and candied apple and carved pumpkin.

I would like to enter these into a few challenges:

craftstamper take-it-make-it-challenge-may

will add more later!

After coffeepot I met my mum in Lancaster and then we went up to the hospital to see my dad - he was admitted again on Sunday but I think he'll be home today - he's doing pretty good! Fingers crossed!

I hope you have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Birgit Koopson weekend day 1

Hello lovelies - I'm back!!! I bet you've missed me - lol! I had a wonderful weekend at a workshop in Teeside with Birgit Koopsen - absolutely brilliant - colourtastic! Loved it! Here are my makes from day 1 .... using Birgit stamps plus others from the Carabella studio  team.

Oh I had fun amking these and think you will see their influence quite a lot in future posts!!!

Big hugs!

Rachel x