Purple Birthday

Hi everyone!

Im back to show you the birthday card I made for my friend Nicola's 21st Birthday which was before we broke up from Uni.

I am mega pleased with the way this one turned out (I seem to impress myself lately lol) and Nic thought it was gorgeous!

I used:

• my new LOTV Fairy on Tiptoe stamp
• Coloured with my Promarkers
• new Creative Cottage digi papers
• Wild Orchid Crafts roses
• Nestibilities dies
• Martha Stewart Butterfly punch
• Crystal Stickles
• And a printed sentiment

 I practised for ages and ages to get the colours to blend properly and got there in the end!

I would like to enter this card into the folowing challenges :

Lili of the valley thursday challenge - new beginnings ( I used my new LOTV stamp,new digi papers and tried blending the promarkers together)

Passion For Promarkers - Anything Goes

I love Promarkers - Anything Goes

and Creative Card Crew - Birthdays at Christmas

Well for some reason I volunteered to have everyone over at my house for New Years Day instead of everybody going to Mams house so me and the bf have A LOT of cleaning, tidying and cooking to get done! Hope you all have a good new year and Ill hopefully be back soon :)

Rachael xx 



Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Apologies for my absence - two weeks of no posting is very naughty of me, I'm surprised I got so many  presents on Christmas Day lol.

Anyway I have a Christmas card to share with you on this cold Monday.

I am really really pleased with how this turned out which is very unusual for me!

Here is a close up of the gorgeous LOTV penguins image:

For this card I have used:

• LOTV penguins stamp
• Pink Petticoats dots paper in ocean
• Wild Orchid Craft roses
• Promarkers
• Crystal Stickles
• Gems and a charm from Bunny Zoe Crafts
• And a printed sentiment from the computer.

I decided on Mam and Ian instead of Mam and Step dad cos I think it sounds weird for some reason lol. Anyway Mam was really pleased with it so Im happy lol!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - For Someone Special (My family are pretty special to me!)
Passion for Promarkers - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Snow
And Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Snow Much Fun


Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! Off to visit more relatives!

Rachael xx 

Prairie Fairy has moved back to Blogger!

Hi guys just a heads up to say that Prairie Fairy has moved back over to Blogger so remember to change the url's on your links etc.

There are some brilliant digi images over there, one or two that I may need to treat myself too!

The fairy is also offering this AMAZING candy for all of us who spread the word so hop on over now and see if you can enter before 24th December!



Rachael xx

Im on a roll

3rd post this week people!! I am on a roll lol!

Anyway I'm here to share this little Forever Friends card that I made for Christmas for my Uncle. Iv used a 4x4 card blank, some gorgeous Pink Petticoat paper and a nestability square that Ive inked. I very bravely hand wrote the sentiment and don't think its that bad. And of course I used a gorgeous Forever Friends bear that I decoupaged up.

Sorry the photo is bad but that's what happens when the light disappears before 5 o'clock!

I would like to enter this card into the  Cards for Men Challenge - Christmas.

I may be back soon at this rate lol!

Rachael xx

A very cold WOYWW

Hi all!

Ive managed to trudge home from uni this morning through the left over snow and ice and thought Id share my mess a.k.a crafting space with all over on Julia's blog.

I thought Id share a photo of my craft storage as my mess is spilling over onto the floor this week!

My craft table is full this week too.

There are some images that are coloured and ready to be made up into cards, some images that still need to be coloured, some random little envelopes I found when raking through my stash, a Forever Friends waterfall mechanism that needs to be mounted onto a card and some bits for my Malawi scrapbook as well as the usual suspects of scissors, foam tape and glue runner etc.

Hopefully Ill get round to more WOYWWers this week as well as finishing my blumin math assignment!

Hope you re all well and keeping warm!

Rachael xx

A card in 45 minutes or less

Hello blogland - hope you re all warm! We had more snow last night but not enough to cause any huge problems well not until it all freezes over tonight that is!

So over at Forever Friends Challenge blog they have asked us to make any card as long as it includes Forever Friends images and has taken 45 minutes or less to make.

Its my Step Dads birthday today and although he's not really a Forever Friends kinda guy when I was rummaging through my stash I couldn't resist using these papers as at the mo in his two weeks off the mother has him decorating!

I used one full sheet and cut out parts of the bear from another sheet and decoupaged him up . I wanted to try and keep it really simple as I'm no good at cards for men. I put a brad in each corner and used a simple sentiment stamp in navy blue ink to match the papers.

It took me preciously 34 minutes! It would have been less but I'm a bit out of practice of cutting out small things and there were a couple of hairy moments when trying to cut the paste dollops out!

Hope you like it! Speak to you all soon

Rachael  xxx

WOYWW 77

Hey WOYWWers!!

Hope your all keeping warm? Here in Sunderland it is mighty chilly and we are due for yet MORE snow!!!
So much they have cancelled uni tomorrow (yey) but my Debrief weekend in Bradford has also been cancelled (boooooooo) which means I wont get to see GOLD Team Malawi 2010 till the new year. I am absolutely gutted particularly as for the past two weeks I have been working on my Malawi scrapbook.

Here is a photo of the living room carpet where I have been grouping and trimming the photos if necessary

When we got home and uploaded all of our photographs and realised that we had over 3000 between us so it has taken quite some time to narrow them all down!

And here is a really bad shot of one of my pages

As there are so many photos I'm not going to be able to do it like a conventional one photo a page scrapbook so I'm classing this as more of a diary than a scrapbook me thinks lol!

Anyway in proper WOYWW tradition hop on over to Julia's blog to have a nosey at everyones craft spaces!

Wrap up warm wherever you are!

Rachael xx

Pretty in pink

Long time no post - sorry! Ive been busy with uni, had a mega GOLD Malawi presentation last week which didn't go very well (in my opinion) and I had the awful sickness bug for three days the week before that!

I have managed to create a few Christmas cards though. The first being this cutie

This is Winter Millie from Wild Rose Studio. This is the first time I have stamped and coloured her up with the PM's and I think she has turned out pretty good!

I followed Dawny P's sketch to join in with Wild Rose Studios First Christmas blog hop. I used Little Fleurs Pink Pinstripe and Dotty Snowflakes from my fav at the mo Pink Petticoat.

I also used some pink roses from Wild Orchid Crafts that I glittered up with the old Stickles and used some gems from my stash and a printed message as I am yet to find a stamp that says 'Gran'.

Hope you like it!

I'm off to do more work lol and will be back with another card soon

Rachael xx

WOYWW once again

Today is the day to upload another picture of my little craft space and play along with all you lovely people in blogland at Julia's Stamping Ground.
A very very quick post today as I'm off out to give my first GOLD Malawi presentation at the Division AGM. I'm gonna use it as a bit of a practice as I have been asked to do a HUGE presentation at the County Annual Review! Scary or what! The only good thing is I know I cant get anything wrong as I was the only one who went to Malawi lol! And Iv had two presentations at Uni this week so have had a bit of practice.

So a little bit busier than last week. Iv been trying to use my LOTV bear stamp to do the Distress Ink watercolour technique thing that everyone seems to be doing but alas I have not cracked it yet! I also got my TGF Cheeky Mate stamp out hoping to use but I haven't had the time yet.

Also sorry for the dark photo - by the time I got in from Uni it was dark already and my living room light is naff.

Here's a little picture of Milton who I made last week and was telling you about.

For once I am really pleased with this card from the colouring in with the PMs to the layout and the background paper! No too sure about that glitter stuff tho hmmmm

   I used my LOTV Christmas sentiment stamp again and added a little gem on the dot for the 'i'.

I would like to enter Milton into

Incy Wincy Designs - Anything Goes

Lexis Creations  - Anything Goes

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Let it sparkle

ABC Challenge - G is for glitter
One stitch at a time challenge - Christmas

Fussy and Fancy Challenge - Winter Wonderland

and Totally Papercrafts - Bling it on

So happy WOYWW and I'll come and visit you all soon!

Rachael xxx

Whats On Your Workdesk? Wednesday

Hi all its that time again to load up photos of the tiny desk.

This week its not so bad at least you can see the actual desk unlike last week!

Ive been playing with my new Wild Rose Studio Milton stamp and this is what was left from the playing session. (He's been moved to the dining table to dry hence why he's not in the photo.)

Ill load him up once he can stand without his flower falling off!

Considering its half term I haven't had much time to craft :( hopefully tomorrow Ill find time in between retyping my maths assignment that the stupid Uni computer deleted on Monday when I tried to put it on my USB stick grrrr.


Anyway hope everyone is well and Ill try and get round to everyone sooner this week as I have no cupcakes to stand in my way! (They went down a storm btw and the dodgy trefoils weren't even questioned!!)

Have a good day :)

Rachael xx

WOYWW and Centenary Day!!!

Happy WOYWW and Centenary Day for all of you involved with Girlguiding UK!

Its the Centenary end today with half a million girls and women in the UK renewing their promise at 20:10 on 20.10.2010! How awesome!

So just a quick WOYWW as I have to get organised for the ceremony tonight - polish the badge and all that lol!

A little crafting has gone on this weekend with the Pink Petticoat penguins making another appearance. I loved the little pink one so much I decided I would make a blue one and think he is just as cute!

Coloured with the PMs of course and layered onto Pink Petticoat snowflake paper.

The tiny desk this week is a full on mess! And has turned into a dumping ground for all things craft related lol. Never mind Ill tidy it later (she says with fingers crossed!)

Hope all are well

Hugs

Rachael

Im back....

Hello all

Ive missed quite a bit of blogging these past two weeks as we had some sad news two Fridays ago. The BF's Grandad, who lived next door to us with Nana sadly passed away so I have had a pretty stressful two weeks with going back to uni and trying to be strong for BF and his family. He'll always be missed but life unfortunately must move on (with him in our hearts of course).

So I decided to treat myself to the wonderful Halloween Anya digi from The Greeting Farm!! Just in time for Cupcake Craft Challenges *Scary Creatures*. Now this Anya aint that scary but hey ho its still Halloweeny!

And just as I was catching up on my blogging I noticed that the challenge over at Passion for Promarkers is to use *orange,black,green and purple with an option of Halloween* which I think this card pretty much covers lol!

And on even further blog inspection I have realised I can enter this card into these challenges too! :

               Alys Sunday Challenge - Halloween

                                          

One stitch at a time challenge - Digi images

                                          

Lexis creations - Spooky

                                        

   Cutie Sunday - Halloween

                                        

    Bee Crafty - Halloween

So that's all for now. I hope everyone is well and I will hopefully see you all soon!

Hugs

Rachael xxx

Its a late one ... WOYWW

Hello blogland!

Its a bit of a late post today. I am blaming the fact that I have started Uni again this week not that I am unorganised lol. Ive also been trying to sort through 2500 Malawi photos as I need to get my scrapbook started and I'm not even 1/4 of the way through!

Anyway as per usual on a Wednesday over at Julia's it WOYWW. So here is my pretty messy tinny little desk:

Iv been using the Flirty Anya stamp that I received from my little sister three weeks ago for my birthday. Ive done my first paper piecing project on her dress, flower and those tiny quite fiddly shoes but I think she looks quite good. I now just need to stick on her my base.

Sorry I didn't get round to everyone last week. I must try harder although can foretell Uni will get in the way!

Well thanks for looking and hope you all have a good day :)

Rachael xx

WOYWW? And so it begins ....

Well folks its that time of week again (this one must have clearly been stolen from me because I have no clue where it has gone!!) to post up what we have been doing and share what state our work desks are in aka WOYWW.

So here is mine:

I succumbed to starting my Christmas cards and bought this fantastic digi set of 12 penguins from Pink Petticoat and have coloured them up with my PMS. I also bought the Mini Snowflake digi paper set from them which is unbelievably good value for money. For only 1.99 you get 43 different colour ways both positive and negative! Iv had to steal an external hard drive from the BF to store all the files because there are so many! Well worth a look guys!

I decided to use one of the penguins and matched the backing papers to her scarf. I'm quite pleased with her and cant wait to use some more of the brilliant Pink Petticoat papers and the rest of my penguins!

Apart from that not much crafting going on down this end as preparations to go back to uni next week have taken hold- humph.

Well I hope everyone is well in blogland!

Rachael xx

Im baaaaaaack!!

Hello wonderful blogland how I have missed you!!!

I did have an amazing time in Malawi though and could talk forever about the project, the people and their culture and just the experience as a whole. And let me tell you all those nasty injections and concoctions were definitely worth enduring due to the fabulous memories that have been created over the last month!

Maybe I'll post up a few photos if I get a chance and considering there are  about 4000 ( a lot of scrapping lol) it might take a while to find some extra special ones to post up but watch this space anyhow.

So my first WOYWW since returning home! I landed in Heathrow last Wednesday so I don't think that technically counts! And what did I find after the long trek on the train and the drive home when I walked into the house? My craft stuff had been moved! Now on a normal occasion I would probably go bananas at the thought of the BF moving things around especially with me being so far away but on closer inspection I was thoroughly pleased and grateful for what he had done.

My craft area went from this :

To this:

While I was away he bought small bookcases, removed the shelves and fitted runners so I could slide my large boxes in and out. This means that everything (for now) has its own home and doesn't have to live on the floor! Everything is so much easier to access and there isn't any more rummaging to find something because I can see it all! Apparently it took the BF and his sister three days (!) to move everything from one side of the room to the other and organise it and what a good job at organising they did! When I first saw it apart from being overwhelmed by how much stuff I actually have I thought that it was going to take me days to sort it all out again but they did such a good job I'm leaving it the way it is! Can you tell I'm pleased lol?!

So that's my new crafting space! And I wanted to share it with all my fellow crafters. I also thought Id show you the new crafting goodies I got for my birthday last week, which was spent on an awful plane coming home but never mind.

My FIRST Martha Stewart punch, some oval nesties, 4 new TGF stamps and two crafty books! I'm so pleased and consider myself to be quite a lucky duck at the moment!

So apologies for the extremely long post but not being able to blog for a month while in Malawi nearly killed me!

Thanks for looking (and reading so much!) and I hope you all have a good day

Rach xx

Im alive!!!!!

Hi all just a very quick message to let you know Im alive and well in Malawi!

We have officially finished our Project and went to the Magga headquaters to evaluate this afternoon. They were full of praise and thanked us for all that we had done. We thanked them in return for giving us such a lovely welcome and making us feel a big part of Malawi Girl Guides Assosciation

Off to a National Park tomorrow in hopes of spying some elephants and hippos then going to Cape Mclear to chillax for a few days before the brutal three day journey back to the UK next weekend!

Hope all are well and an immense amount of crafting has taken place in my absence!!!

Speak soon

Rach x x x

My last day !!

My last full day in the UK! I will hopefully be able to update you as we go but the internet is apparently scarce in Malawi and expensive if you do come across it!

We have our group blog which is linked here Gold Malawi 2010 if you want to keep up with us a bit more. We will try and update when we can but if you dont hear from us for a while dont panick!!


Have loadsa crafting fun in the next month and I can't wait to get back and see all the fantastic projects you have made. And start on the dreaded Christmas Cards!!

Hope you all have a good day

Bye for now

Rach xx

Its been far too long!

Hello blogland how I have missed you!!

I have been so ridiculously busy with Malawi preparations and some overtime at work (finally!!) that I simply haven't had time to stop by and say hello. So apologies.

And to hopefully make up for my absence I have a photo of a card I made for a friends birthday.

 She really likes purple so I thought this purply/pinky Buzzcraft Butterfly would be perfect. Decoupaged up with some trusty silicone glue and sparkle addedd with the good old Diamond Stickles. She thought it was gorgeous which made me pleased as it was two weeks late (naughty me!).

 Hope you all have a good day and Ill hopefully be back for a visit before I leave eeek!!

Rachael xx

Flowers flowers everywhere!

 I think I have been so inspired by all of the wonderful blooms in my yarden (lol) I decided to colour up the CC Designs Heidi among the Flowers Digi stamp I bought last month from All That Scraps. I followed the sketch over at Anyone for Anya  and used my Kay Miller Designs Digi paper kit to create the background. Im not really sure which kit I used! I bought 7 and use papers from each so its hard to keep track!

I didnt have a sentiment that I wanted to use so I used one of my new Wild Orchid Crafts 20mm purple roses instead with added Stickles for sparkle!

Over at Alys Sunday Challenge the theme is flowers so I am going to enter my card there as there are flowers on my paper aswell as the image and the rose ofcourse!

Hope you all are having a good weekend!

Rach xx

WOYWW again!!

I can’t believe how another week has gone by with no card making going on!

I’ve been very focused on going to Malawi and getting very sorted this week. I still have a few things to buy but had an attempt at packing everything in my rucksack yesterday and am very surprised as to how little will go in! Aaaah!

I’ve also had a lot of travel vaccinations this week. I had my first of 3 Hep B injections last Friday and today I had my first of 3 Rabies injections in one arm and my one and only Meningitis in the other and then ….. well .....I had to drink the most disgusting thing I have ever encountered. Honestly it wasn’t much but it took me 45 minutes. That’s right folks 45 MINUTES! I had to walk out of the travel clinic with the cup still in my hand! I can not wait to have to do that all over again next Wednesday all in the hope Ill be immunized against Cholera. NOT!!!!!

Anyway I do have a few photos of the goodies I have bought over the past two weeks to share with you. I cant wait to get to play with them!!

I also thought I would stick a few photos of my flowers blooming in my yard up too as I am soo pleased with them!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Rach  xx

WOYWW

What a week! Not much crafting has gone on :( My hay fever has unfortunately gotten the better of me and EVERYTHING irritates me :S much to the BFs annoyance (and mine lol)! I have managed to start something today though while I sat and watched England's victory (!) [ Note to self - do not watch another England match while colouring. It ends up in a mess! ]

So I thought I would join in over at WOYWW .

As you can see there is a Cheeky Shooter, Ladybug Nora and some flowers - all coloured today with my PMs.

I don't have a particular project in mind for these two yet but hopefully the hay fever will calm down soon and Ill get some inspiration and motivation! In the mean time I can get even more excited about Malawi!! Flights are now officially booked - 6 weeks on Saturday!!! Yeyyy! Mosquito net bought and nearly have everything off my list!

Thank you for looking

Have a nice day!

Rach xx

Cupcake Kiki

Hi everyone hopefully I'm in time to enter this card in the I love Promarkers Sketch Challenge.

I've been waiting for my new patio doors to arrive this morning so have been sitting waiting by the front door hence the lateness! Then I couldnt find any handles so have spent the last half an hour looking for handles only to be told by the BF's Nana (who lives next door) that the handles were bought seperately and the BF's Dad has them so panick over!!

I coloured Kiki with my Promarkers and tried to match the colours to my Doodlebug Spots and Cupcake papers. I then used the same colours to create the striped paper so it all matches. Really pleased with how the stripes have turned out!

I went out into the garden yesterday and am really pleased with all the lovely colours there are so thought I would take a photo or two to show you! I think they are the nasturtiums I bought from Suttons. I bought so many and planted them at the same time I cant remember what they all are!

Anyway enough of my rambling Im off to buy a mosquito net from town for Malawi. Not long now!

Thanks for looking

Rach xx

Babies babies everywhere!

Good morning! I was meant to post this up last night but after I got in from Aquafit I was far too tired! It was great fun though and will be going back next week so I can get fit for Malawi!!!

Anyway enough of my ramblings. When I saw the Forever Friends Kinetic Card Challenge I thought I would have a go so I attempted to make a swing card (I think thats what you call it!). We have five friends and family who are due to have babies in the next few months so thought I should start on the baby cards!

I found some blue gingham/check paper and my Forever Friends baby stickers and set to work.

I stamped a sentiment on the other side of the sticker so when it swings round it wasnt just a plain circle.

I stamped 'Congratulations' inside the card after realising my blank was too small for it to go on the front but Im still quite pleased with it!

We only know of one baby boy so I need to make atleast another 4 boys and 4 girls just incase!

Off to salvage my bunny tail plants that have been flattened due to the heavy rain : (

Thanks for looking.

Rach xx