My shining star

My shining star

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Colour challenge at chocolate baroque

Hello there! How are you? I am late this evening - Its been a long day and there's still more to be done before I go to sleep - I'll keep this brief I think!

I have a card I made for the chocolate baroque colour challenge - here. The colours are really beautiful this time - some of my fave combinations:



I just had to join in - but lack of time meant it had to be a quick make!


I used one of the recent images and teamed it with a background made using a CB background texture stamp.


The ribbon came from That Craft Place.


The colouring was done using distress markers - I rather wish I had used pencils!!!

I would like to enter this into chocolatebaroquechallenge-21.

Have a great Thursday tomorrow!

Hugs

Rachel x

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Holly's card

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well and happy. I've had a busy day so far, pizza making, 5 km run, tea and coffee making and school library - now I have two friends home with the girls to keep them entertained until 7!!! I'm grabbing a few minutes before I have to cook the pizza and of course my tea!

Today I have a birthday card for my niece Holly to share with you - I hope its not too grown up - she's 10 but an old 10 if you know what I mean!


I've used a second background I made when I did the clarity calendar challenge - its so useful to have extras made for when you need a quick card.


The cards I have used are both from Indigo Blu - I will never tire of this girl - the quote is from one of the recently released weird science sets - love it!

I hope you have had a good day!

Big hugs and be round to see your blogs very soon!

Hugs

Rachel x

Monday 28 March 2016

my past - wanderlust journal page

Happy Easter Monday! Did you all have a good Easter Sunday! We had a nice time - we did an easter egg trail in the house then went to church - the girls sang in the choir then did a hunt in the church and were presented with an egg for their choir duties! Nice touch I thought! Then we went off to see my mum and dad - my mum cooked a lovely roast dinner and she and the girls played monopoly! It was a lovely day.

Today I have a journal page that I made for my wanderlust journal - the theme this time was 'my past'... here's what I did....


My first thought was obviously for Shaun .... so I inked up the young lovers stamp from crafty Individuals. I've been looking for an excuse to use this and this seems perfect. Next I masked it off then added some ink to a gelli plate, spritzed and used a large mount to add this to the pages - I added more ink and went in again.


Once dry I added more stamping - some paperartsy, some crafty individuals and some Indigo blu - I wanted to use some of the chemistry lab set as an ex chemistry teacher that is very much part of my past.


I decided to colour in the girl image and leave the man uncoloured - to highlight the living and the deceased.


Not sure why this particular song popped in my head ... but there it is - and it seems appropriate.

So enjoy your holiday today - not sure what we're going to do .... I hope the weather's good.

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Sunday 27 March 2016

Lilac, rusting, card, metal and lace.

Hello lovelies and a very happy Easter to you! I hope you have a wonderful day! We are off to church this morning - there is an easter egg hunt and then I happen to know all the choir members will be getting an egg - both my girls are in the choir so we do have to be there!!! Then we're off to my mum and dads for the rest of the day - see you soon mum!!!

I wanted to enter a few challenges - two of them I have tried to combine in this project I want to share with you today. Over at A vintagejourney there is a travel bag of things to use -
Substrate – Board (eg - grey board, coaster board, cardboard, chipboard) 
Main Colour – Lilac or pale purple 
Technique – Rust Effects (perhaps using rusting or embossing powders or rust coloured paints) 
Product – Something metal 
I managed to do all of these! 

Creative carte blanche also has a great challenge on this month - triple trouble with corrugation, lace and metal. Again I think I managed all of these.

I made a canvas board using lots of yummy goodies from Tim, paperartsy and indigo blu.


I started by painting the board in Indigo blu whinberry pie acrylic paint - such a pretty colour. Next I added some stamps from the eclectica-rubber-stamp-sheet-by-emma-godfrey.


Next I worked on the card layer - I used the techniques from the top layer of tims tag this month - I love these techniques and the effect produced.  Then I added the lace and stamped the image - elsie from indigo blu.


I did some enamel rusting on the verse layer ...


I put rusty hinge distress paint on the butterfly ....


and I tried rusting powder on the main metal piece - sadly I don't think it worked very well!!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges.



I hope you have enjoyed my playtime - I certainly did!!!

Before I go .... here's a picture of Lucy and Penny and the Easter eggs they made for school:


Hugs

Rachel xx


Saturday 26 March 2016

Clarity calendar challenge - March

Hello Lovelies! How are you today? Did you have a good time yesterday! It was great weather here - we had a morning at home then went out on an Easter egg hunt/cryptic quiz ... it was great fun and we ended up in the village tea room and at the park and river. I was there with my friend Helen and her youngest daughter who is a big friend of Penny's. Finally we went out for tea at one of the local pubs.





As you can see we had lots of fun - so much so infact that I forgot to take the girls to Jujitsu - so naughty of me - ooops!!!

So today I have my entry for the Clarity Calendar challenge March to share with you.


I'm pleased with this one!


The details are on the calendar - but it involved a gelli plate, ink and a plastic bag to make the background!



I think this verse is so special and so true!


I would like to enter this into claritystamp calendar-challenge-3

Hope you have a great day!

Big Hugs

Rachel x


Friday 25 March 2016

feminine at clarity

Hello lovelies! How are you? I hope you are well - and a very happy Easter to you! We are hoping to have a relaxed day together today - me and my girls - but there may be a bit of Easter Egg hunting going on I suspect!

Today I want to share with you the card I have made for the Clarity challenge - all about the girls.

I have used Clarity stamps and stencils to make this card ...


First I created the background using torn paper and adirondack inks applied with clarity brushes. Then I used the stencil to add the ladies...


I used parts of stamps plus full stamps to add vegetation details. Plus the word Faith.


I finally added a splash of white acrylic paint to add some precipitation onto the card. 

I would like to enter this into the claritystampchallenge 37 all about the girls.

Have a great Good Friday.

Hugs

Rachel xx

Thursday 24 March 2016

Nells Card

Hello there! How are you? Thanks so much for your kind comments on my Clarity Cumbria makes. You are lovely! Today I have a card I made for Penny to give to a little Girl Nell who was 6 last weekend.

I used an LOTV  topper  and cut it with a die. The background was made using distress inks and a stencil from joggles and another from crafters workshop.


The letters were stamped using clarity letters and boxes.

I hope Nell liked her card!

Big hugs for a happy Thursday xx

Rachel x


Wednesday 23 March 2016

my Clarity Cumbria day

Hello there! How are you? I hope you are well. If not sending hugs to you! You would have chuckled if you had been at the swimming pool with my and my girls Monday night - it was their swimming lessons and they were having a fun 'lesson' - lots of jumping in and games and races ..... Penny managed to lose one of her teeth - honestly - you wouldn't believe it - but it happened!!! So of course the tooth fairy had to be booked for a visit!

Today I would like to share with you my makes from Clarity Cumbria on Saturday. Jo Rice was our host and as always we had a lovely time.


This is my first full make - we did some utee on the main image so it looks like a tile.


Next we made a hook plaque.


We used stencils, stamps and grunge paste, paints and ink.


I love the Einstein quote - fabulous!!!

Finally we used acetate to add smooshed distress in a controlled way.


love this - definitely my favourite make!!!!

Hope you have a great Wednesday! Enjoy!

Hugs

Rachel x



Tuesday 22 March 2016

A Sporting Life!

Hello Lovelies! How are you? Thanks for your kind words on my tag yesterday - and from those of you on FB your kind words about mine and shauns wedding anniversary yesterday. Its good to have such wonderful memories! 

Today I am sharing a card with you that I made for the latest Joanna Sheen Card swap - the theme was a sporting life - I have to admit I struggled - but then I came across hedgie here and everything fell into place! As well as using a penny black stamp I used some Tim trees and some CB snowy stamps.


I also used a stencil from Tim and two tim dies for the words!


This image is supercute! Love him!!!




Have a great Tuesday!

Hugs

Rachel x

Monday 21 March 2016

Pink green and yellow at Indigo Blu

Hello Lovelies! Well its time for a new challenge to start at Indigo Blu - the theme for this month is yellow, green and pink. For this challenge inspiration I had fun with indigo blu stamps and stencils and made a tag:


There's lots of layering in this tag - I started by making the main background. I used distress inks to cover the tag then inked through laurel-leavesstencil. I used several colours.


I added tasty-textures script in yellow archival ink. Next I moved on to the main image colour-me-daisy and stamped and coloured it.


Then I added the word-blocks-1-by-mike-deakin and coloured the background and edged it too.


Finally I added some blobs of pink and yellow.

I hope you will join us in the challenge which can be found here.

Big hugs 

Rachel xx

Sunday 20 March 2016

ccc - 2 or more patterned papers plus a parcel!

Hello lovelies! How are you today??? I do hope you are good and had a great Saturday - apologies for being MIA for a few days - nights out sure do play havoc with blogging - I should be back in force later this evening! Last night I was out enjoying the Hornby Occasionals version of Iolanthe - I went with my friend Helen - I don't think it was her thing but I really enjoyed it!!!! Today, palm Sunday, my girls are singing in church then Penny has a party and finally we have a drama rehearsal so its another busy day- its all good though!

Today it is a difficult theme for me at Christmas card Club - its 2 or more patterned papers. Its difficult because I don't use patterned paper much at all these days - I guess I could have made my own - but I thought I would dust off some from many years ago. I teamed them (from LOTV) with a stamp from Tim.



I look forward to seeing what the other ladies from our lovely club have come up with.

I got a lovely parcel arrive on Friday ... from oakhousestudio. The lovely Lynnda turned the order around remarkably quickly - thanks Lynnda - I'm looking forward to having a play with these goodies on Monday!


I'm particularly looking forward to playing with the pure colour chemistry inks - I'll let you see what I get up to - but you may have to wait until April!!!!

Have a great Sunday!

Big Hugs Rachel x

Saturday 19 March 2016

Tims tag March

Hello lovelies - how are you today? I am excited as I'm off to Clarity Cumbria today hosted by the lovely Jo Rice - Off to get inky and painty and play! And tonight I go to see the village production of Iolanthe. Should be good!

Yesterday I had a good day towards my triathalon training - I cycled nealy 12km to the gym - swam the 16 lengths I need to do for the distance then cycled back. I was going to run the 5km on the end but got distracted by a spinach protein shake - yum!!! Times were good for me - very slow for a proper triathelete - but hey - I just want to complete the course!

Today I have Tims tag to share with you - this has been my favourite technique combo so far. I really loved creating this - thanks Tim!!! Here's what Tim did:

2016TAG

I used exactly the same techniques but varied the dies I used plus I used a different wordband. All the techniques are listed here.


I wanted to use the umbrella man - I love this die and thought he would look good using this technique.

A close up!


This one shows the added enamelling that I did - its in the top - because the card was so thick it almost burned - ooops!!!!


And here's the band I chose - a great saying I think!

I would like to enter this into the timholtz12-tags-of-2016-march

See you tomorrow!

Hugs Rachel x

Friday 18 March 2016

More Industrial at Countryview Challenges

Hello Lovelies! I'm here today with more inspiration for the Industrial challenge over at Countryview Challenges. This background I have used was created last month as part of a piece for stamps and stencils and can be found in detail here.

I have teamed the background up with a stamp from Chocolate Baroque. I coloured this stamp with distress markers from Countryview Crafts.



Here's a closer look!

I hope you have a great day and find the time to join us at the challenge which you will find here.

Hugs

Rachel x