My niece is sweet 16!

 Hello there! Well its been a busy wee while - been doing lots of walking - did a 20 miler last weekend with my friend Anita - training for the Mighty Hike at Northumberland in July. Yesterday I did a 10 miler - part of the Lancashire coastal path walk that I| started in October. I'm doing that with my friend John - we try and manage a walk every couple of months! Other than that just busy with life really! And enjoying the glorious weather we've been having!

My niece is going to be 16 in April and I have made her a card using Noof - the newish stamp from Lavinia.....

I decided he looked like a bit of a tree climber - so there he is!!! I hope she likes him!!!

Some pictures from the last walk ...

This was the start of the walk - Knott End - looking over to the ferry on the other side at Fleetwood. We were going to do the ferry crossing there and back for completeness but the tide was out!!!!

This was walking on a concessionary pathway along a disused railway  bund near Preesal.

And this was almost back to the car at Cockerham!

A fine walk indeed!

Hope you have had a good Mothers Day!

hugs

Rachel x

sweet treats at Christmas card club

 Hello there - well these fortnights roll around fast don't they? Its time for Christmas card club and its Sweet treats this time out - I have used a pink Ink Designs stamp and made multiple cards of the same design.

I stamped the image and coloured using clean colour pens then cut it out using an hexagonal die. Next I used distress oxide to colour the outer of the diecut plus the card. I also diecut metallic card hexagons to use as mats.

Mums cards are both part os her drive to use up older hunky dory stuff - they look fab - well done mum!

Hope you have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

More Flowers for mother's day

 Hello there! 

Well more flowers here today for the mother's day challenge over on the Countryview Challenges blog. This time I have used the same Kay Carley set as last time - but chose the muscari flowers. I love muscari - they were the main flower in my wedding flowers/invitations when I married Shaun many moons ago. 

I started this card by making the background - I used a lavinia stencil first of all and used distress oxide tumbled glass in the background - I think my sponge must have been dirty as it doesn't really look like tumbled glass. Then I used a Kay Carley stencil to stencil in some background muscari before stamping and colouring the main images. I used clean colour pens to colour the stamped images. 

There's still plenty of time to join the challenge - just link up here.

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Bells at Christmas card Club

 Hello there - well I'm running late - so this will be brief - its bells at Christmas Card Club today - I struggled to find a stamp so have gone anything goes with a stamp from Hobby Art,

My mum has been a good girl and done two cards using honeydoo stamps.

Will edit this later with my craft sale pics from a stall I ran yesterday!

Off walking now!

Hugs

Rachel x

Mother's Day at Countryview Challenges

 Hello there! Pinch punch its the first of the month! I can hardly believe its 1st March already! Wow - this year is fairly speeding away. Of course, being the first of the month means its time for a new challenge at Countryview Challenges and the theme is Mother's Day. My card doesn't say Happy Mother's day on it but it is one I will be sending when Mother's day rolls around at the end of the month. Luckily my mother in law doesn't look at blogs so its safe to post it here. 

I've made it using a stamp and stencil from Kay Carley of paperartsy. I used distress oxides in the background and coloured the image in using clean colour pens - I do rather like them - they blend so well! I also stamped an old Alison Bomber sentiment on my card.

I do hope you can join in this months Challenge. You could win a £20 voucher to use in store. 

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Penguins at Christmas Card Club

 Hello there! I do hope you have been keeping safe during this stormy weather - its certainly been awful hasn't it? Well I love todays theme - and it seems highly appropriate as my Penny (aka Penguino) has her 14th birthday today - so perfect!

I have made 6 cards for this fortnight's theme : My first two are duplicates using a stamp by Katzelkraft that I added some Christmas hats to. 

My next two use stamps from Hobbyart and backgrounds from Stamperia's Poles collection.

And finally two makes just using the Stamperia poles collection. 

Mums makes are all different - she has made this one using hunkydory items ...

This one using a woodware stamp ...

And finally this one using the Grumpy Penguins stamp from KatzelKraft - as above!

I hope you have a lovely Sunday! Big hugs and stay safe!

Rachel xx

Yellow flowers on a Spring day

 Hello there! I hope you are doing well! Time for some more flowers and hearts for the theme at Countryview Challenges this month. This time I have been enjoying doing some masking and using a variety of Chocolate Baroque Floral stamp images plus a background stamp from Crafty Individuals. The Colouring was done using Clean colour pens.

To make my card I first drew and cut out a heart shape - then drew around it onto a card blank three times in a stack. I then created three heart masks and also an outer mask to cover the outside of the card whilst I was stamping the hearts. Then I stamped the heart images, starting with the central one, masking the outside and the lower and upper hearts, then repeated the idea with the top and bottom hearts. The final stamping was done with all three hearts covered and the outside exposed for the text stamping. I coloured the images using clean colour pens and then added the sentiment.

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx