Super News!

I can't believe it but I've received a blog award.  The lovely and talented Judith was so kind to think of me when choosing her recipients.  I'm still bowled over!  Thank you so much Judith.  Here are the details and my choices:-

The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favourite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note

Here's what to do on receiving your Award
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
3. Copy and paste their blog award on your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve recognition
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Here are the well deserved blogs (in no particular order) I have chosen to pass the award to :

Lisa at Ella's Design
Kerryn at The Crafty Goldfish
Katie at Kards by Katie Kreations
Sharon at The Little Stamper
Rachel at Just Another Day

Congratulations girlies - thanks for sharing your wonderful creations.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #114 - Easter

A lovely range of entries for our Honour Your Mum challenge last week.  Very girly and cute.  Check out the Fab'n'Funky Challenges blog to see if you are our lucky winner. 

Now that the chocoholics' favourite holiday is almost here, we have chosen to celebrate with a seasonal challenge...

EASTER

Our brilliant sponsor for this challenge is Joanna Sheen and the winner will recieve a £10 voucher for her website.  Woo! 

This is my Easter inspired card...

When I saw this image for the first time, I instantly fell in love with it.  Tweety Pie is just so cute and I love the look on Sylvester's face.  I printed the image from the Crafting with Looney Tunes CD-ROM, which I bought from Create and Craft last year. 

I took a 5" square card blank and cut two squares, one purple and one yellow and offset them on the card with double sided sticky tape and large foam pads.  The American seambinding was coloured using my Cyan Promarker.  I added a strip of super sticky tape to the edge of the yellow card and folded the ribbon into it to attach. 

The image was attached using foam pads to give dimension.  I cut the sentiment shape using Spellbinders Ribbon Banners.  I used a Quickie Glue Pen to glitter the edges with My Craft Studio Ultra Fine Glitter.  The sentiment is from the Daisy and Dandelion "Some Bunny Loves You" stamp set. 

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

The Wedding of the Year!

Well the wedding of the year is fast approaching.  My best friend Vicki, is getting married on 20 April and when I made their engagement card last year, she asked if I could design the wedding invites.  I jumped at the chance, delighted that she thought I was up to the job!  We spent an entire weekend printing, scoring, guillotining and glittering.  Not to mention the inserts!  It really was a little invite factory for a few days. 

This is a photo of a few of the invites from the back.  There were several piles like this!  I had hoped to put a photo on my blog before now but since the invites all went out last week I can show you the finished version. 

The colours are a fair bit brighter in real life but I was pleased with how they turned out.  I designed them in Serif's Craft Artist and printed on Super Smooth.  We looked into professional printing but the standard wasn't as good.  Little did I know that my little Canon printer would come up trumps!  Although I think it was the Super Smooth that did the trick!

We used a Quickie Glue Pen and drew around the main butterfly image before adding Diamond Sparkles in Faerie Kisses. 

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Sewn with Love

I'm back again!  This time it's my Mother's Day card, made with Debbi Moore stamps.  Whilst we were at the craft show in Glasgow I bought the brand new Debbi Moore Stamping Inspirations Magazine.  I love Debbi's magazines because there are so many great projects and you get loads of papers, toppers and embellishments.  I decided to use the free gift which was a great set of haberdashery stamps. 

My Mam is really into sewing so these stamps were perfect for her card.  I stamped four of the square stamp in blue and four in purple and then cut them out by hand using pinking scissors.  I used my acrylic block to get the right size for the sewing machine stamp and then cut this with the same scissors.  I drew some faux stitching around the image and attached with foam tape.  The sentiment is from that stamp set that I'm continually using but can't remember the make!  I added a layer of silver mirri-paper to give more dimension.  Simples!

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Woo Hoo!

Word Verification is GONE!  I tried for about an hour the other day to get it turned off but the option was just nowhere to be found.  Looked just now and it had magically appeared.  If anyone else would like to turn theirs off, here is the route:-

Settings
Posts and Comments
Word Verification
No/Off

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who takes the time to comment on my posts.  It really means a lot.  I hope I will get more commenting done soon.

Happy crafting and commenting,
Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #113 - Honour your Mum

What a lucky DT we were last week with all of your wonderful entries.  Green was a popular choice but the Irish themed cards were great.  Check out the Fab'n'Funky Challenge Blog to see if you were our lucky winner. 

This week we have chosen to celebrate Mother's Day and our theme is...

Honour Your Mum

Our wonderful sponsor Doodle Pantry gave the DT some super images to use and this is my make...

What a cute little birdie!  This is my first straight easel card as I've only ever made twisted easels in the past.  I covered the inside and front with paper from DCWV and then cut the edge of the front using the Spellbinders Classic Ric Rac die.  I held the die almost a centimetre above the edge and then used my Quickie Glue Pen to add glitter.  I used Diamond Sparkles in Butterfly Kisses. 

The birdie was coloured with Promarkers in Cyan, Grass and Bright Orange.  I mounted the image into plain white card and then orange Core'dinations and distressed the edge with my new Tim Holtz Paper Distresser.  The sentiment is computer generated and mounted with foam tape using the Spellbinders Classic Diamonds to match the main image.  I added three co-ordinating flowers that I recently bought from eBay to finish it off and add another girly touch. 

Hope all the yummy mummies out there had a great Mother's Day.  I spent most of the day at my parents house and had a lovely meal and a good giggle with my Mam. 

If anyone was watching Create and Craft on Saturday morning during the 11am show, you might have heard Martyn read out my email.  I asked if he could wish my Mam a happy Mother's Day and he did a splendid job.  She was bowled over!  Next thing I knew my email had been pulled out of the cup of chance and I won the beautiful card that Tina Cox (parchment guru!) made during the show. 

Anyway enough of my ramblings!  Enjoy your week everyone.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

What a Blast!

A couple of months ago I mentioned that I was heading to Glasgow this month for the Hobbycrafts and Creative Stitches show.  Well that was last weekend and I think I've just about recovered from all the shopping now!  As we don't have much in the way of shopping here, when I get let loose on the big smoke I tend to make the most of it!  My luggage was actually 5kg over the weight restriction coming back and from this photo you might see why!

I went with my Mam and we had such a good weekend.  We also managed to fit in a bit of shopping on Argyle Street and Sauchiehall Street too!  It's no wonder my bag was overweight!  Whilst we were there I also had my final bridesmaid dress fitting.  The wedding is on 20 April and time sure is marching on!  Look out for a post about the wedding invites soon.  Now that have gone out I can share them with you all.

Did anyone else make it to the show in Glasgow?  The place certainly was packed.  We managed to catch a bit of the fashion show on Saturday afternoon in the Creative Stitches hall.  Some of the pieces, especially those inspired by the 1950s were really great.  Others weren't really my taste but very creative. 

I'm itching to get back down for the next one and have suggested that we make another trip in October for the Christmas version of the show but Mam isn't commiting just yet! 

Happy crafting

Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #112 - The Luck of the Irish

Thanks to everyone who took part in our last challenge.  There are a lot of yellow fans out there and who knew there were so many shades!  We loved your varied yellow themed entries.  Pop over to the Fab'n'Funky Challenge Blog to see if you were our lucky winner.

Since it's almost St Patrick's Day, the theme for this week is...

The Luck of the Irish

We also have Nitwits as our fabulous sponsor.  So come on, join in the fun!

As you'll see from my card, I've gone for the colours of the Irish flag as my inspiration and I'm sure those little girls have the luck of the Irish being able to play outside!  I designed the background and faux matting and layering in Serif's Craft Artist Professional.  I picked the two contrasting patterned papers for the "flag" to give a bit of interest and also to make it more girly.  The main image is a freebie from the Free Vintage Digi Stamps Blog.  I just came across this blog recently and totally by accident.  I love this image as it could be used for so many different occassions. 

I haven't used Flower Soft before but those with a keen crafty eye will see some on the leaves of the tree. 

I used the glue that came with the Flower Soft set and it was really easy once I realised I was being too careful with it!  I printed the sentiment out from the software and simply cut this with scissors.  The good old fashioned way!  The layers are all mounted with foam tape or foam pads.

Happy crafting,

Rachel x

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #111 - Mellow Yellow

What a lot of leaping we were all doing last week!  Check out the Fab'n'Funky Challenge blog to see if you were our winner.  Great entries all round.

This week we are celebrating St David's Day.  So our theme is aptly named:-

Mellow Yellow

We were given some lovely digi images by our sponsors:-

and this is my creation:-

The yellow card hasn't show up very yellowy in the photo but it is definitely YELLOW!  I used the Spellbinders Grand Labels Eleven to make a card blank and then cut a piece of yellow card two sizes smaller to match.  I wrapped yellow and white baker's twine around and secured with sticky tape.  This layer was then mounted using foam tape.  I coloured my image with Promarkers but forgot to write them all down for you.  Must remember to do that next time!

The three circles were cut using my X-Cut circle dies.  To achieve the green, I coloured a piece of paper with the same Promarker used for the flower stem and then ran it through my Grand Calibur to cut and emboss the shape.  I can't remember where the sentiment stamps came from but they have been invaluable. 

Top Tip for Newbie Crafters - invest in a set of varied sentiment stamps in a range of sizes.  Consider generic sentiments such as "Thinking of You" which can be used for a wide range of occasions, for both male and female projects.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x