Promarker Give Away!!

Hi everyone!!

Just a quick post to let you all know about the fab giveaway from Handy Hippo...

To celebrate Handy Hippo now stocking single Promarkers they are giving one lucky crafter the opportunity to win 20 Promarkers!!!

And the best bit is the winner can choose the colours!! How fab is that!?

Ooooo thinking of all those yummy colours I haven't go my hands on yet lol!

To enter and have a chance of winning pop over to :

Jules - Always with a heart blog

Hugs

Rachael xx

Purple winter fairy

I just managed to get these Christmas cards finished! I stuck to the same layout as this card HERE as I was having a really hard time with no mojo and thought a similar card is better than no card at all!

I used the gorgeous Wee Winter Fairy again and of course it had to be the colour purple lol. Definitely a contemporary Christmas card!

I coloured her with a mix of Promarkers and Flexmarkrs (list at bottom if anyone is interested) and I slathered lots and lots of glamour dust on her fur trim and her ear muffs.

I also went round the sentiment with Glamour Dust as I thought it looked so much nicer than having just a plain purple border. I actually did this with all of the sentiments for my Christmas cards - I swear there was glitter EVERYWHERE!! He he lol.

What I used:

• 6 by 6 white card blank
• Wee Winter Fairy digi stamp
• Lavendar Pink Petticoat bloack colour and Sprinkled with twinkles
• Promarkers and Flexmarkers
• Crystal Glamour Dust
• WOC roses and sweetheart blossoms
• TRG purple dew drops

Promarkers and Flexmarker colours used:

Blush, pastel pink, cool grey 4, FM soft mauve, orchid, meadow green, poppy and pastel beige.

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

• I love promarkers - Challenge 97 - Anything goes
• Passion for promarkers - Week 129 -  Celebrations

I will be back with some more Christmas cards soon!

Hope you are all well :)

Hugs

Rachael xx

Forever Friends Fortnight Challenge - Sketch

Helloooo and Merry Christmas!!

This should have been up on Boxing Day but Ive had to work the last few days and Mr Blogger has been playing up too the naughty thing!!

Anyhoo this fortnights challenge over at Forever Friends and Co is this fabulous sketch by Sande:

and this is what I did with it:

I was getting sick to the back teeth with Christmas cards (anyone know that feeling lol!?) so decided to open my new Forever Friends love kit that I got on sale at Hobbycraft (along with another 2 lol!) and create an early Valentines card for the bf :)

What I used:

6 x6 white card blank

FF decoupaged bear from Love kit

Heart paper from Love kit

Sentiment from Papermania set

WOC red roses

So there you have it! Please pop over to Forever Friends and Co to see the fab DT creations! And remember you dont need to use an FF bear any animal will do!!

Ill be back soon with some Christmas cards I that I managed to finish just in time lol

Hope you're all enjoying the festivities :D

Hugs
Rachael xx

3rd Annual TGF Customer blog hop - general project!!!

My first rubber stamp was from The Greeting Farm and I must say my collection has definitely grown!! I love the characters Anya and Ian and think they are sooo versatile and easy to colour (which is good for me as I'm useless!!) In fact the whole reason I use Promarkers (which I first stole from my BF lol!) was because of TGF stamps!

So I thought I would join in with the 3rd Annual TGF Customer blog hop with a general project which starts HERE.

You can visit the blog to see the list of hoppers and read how you could win some AMAZING prizes!!

 For my card I decided to use my favourite TGF stamp - Fleur Anya.

I have used Kay Miller Lovebug digi papers and coloured her in with Promarkers and Flexmarkers.

Not a colour I have used before but I must say I love it!!

What I have used:

• Promarkers and Flexmarkers - Buttercup (Hair) Blush (skin) Pastel Pink (cheeks) FM Watermelon and Magenta (Dress and flowers) and lemon (flower centres)
• 5x5 card blank
• Kay Miller Lovebug digi papers
• TRG ribbon coloured with PM
• TRG clear dew drops
• Craftwork card sentiment.
• Stickles (not that is shows well!)

I'm really excited to join the huge list of fab hoppers and am looking forward to seeing all of the creations!!

Hope you are all well and happy hopping!

Hugs

Rachael xxx

What a week!

What a week Ive had! So sorry for going awol and not commenting much this week guys. I had an infection in my wisdom tooth (I swear I'm gonna PULL it out myself!!) at the beginning of the week and now I have managed to catch the blooming flu from the bf!! As well as trying to meet the Uni deadlines before the Christmas break and buying and wrapping Christmas presents I have had no time to do anything else!!

We havn't even put the tree up yet! What are we like!!!

Anyway enough of my whinging lol I am intending on having a full on PJ day tomorrow catching up with my crafting and all of you and find the tree!!

Hope you are all well and are more organised than me lol!!

Love Rachael xxx

Whatever Wednesday no.3

Phew another week over!! Anyone know where it disappeared to lol?

I have a few crafty creations in progress but nothing finished just yet sooooo this weeks topic is...

Children in Need

I thought I would share some photos of the cakes I made to sell at Guides to raise some money for Children in Need.

I made both vanilla and chocolate cakes.

I used coloured chocolate drops (cheap Smarties lol) to act like the spots on Pudsey bears headscarf.



We found proper Pudsey cake cases in ASDA too and of course I couldnt resist!!


I also made a few for Tom and I to eat with little sugar craft bears we also found at ASDA yummy!!
The cakes went down a storm, well any food does with our lot!
We also attempted to make a giant Pudsey out of 1p and 2p pieces and it took an hour but we got there!

We made an outline with large sheets of  yellow paper as the coins didn't show up on the wooden floor.

 Pudseys head being formed!

And a nearly finished Pudsey!
 The ole camera died just as it was finished which I was gutted about because the girls had worked so hard and I was really impressed with it too! We raised £35 in total which is fab and is twice as much as last year! And the Guides all enjoyed themselves which is fab too!

Well must go, full day of phonics training at Uni tomorrow :s can you tell I'm excited ha ha lol!

Hope you are all well! Ill be round to visit you all soon :)

Hugs
Rachael xxx

Whatever Wednesday no.2

I know I said I was going to do this every week then missed one! I have no idea where last Wednesday went mind you lol.

Anyway the topic of today is.........

"Moo Cow"

Yes I have been at it again and made another little felt mascot friend for Bat HERE.

 This time I took a photo of all of the pieces before I hand stitched little Moo Cow together.

And here is he in my hand (to give you a sense of size) all finished.

I must say his tail was the fiddliest because there is a tiny amount of toy stuffing in the tip. Oh and cutting out his tiny eyes and nostrils!

I have started a reindeer which will hopefully be finished in time for Christmas!

I love making these mascots! Even though to some it might not seem as 'proper' crafting/ creating because I am not actually designing these mascots myself  like you would a card or scrap page but I still have to cut out the templates, then cut out the felt pieces then figure out how on earth the sew them together because the instructions are in Japanese (because only the best felt mascots books are in Japanese you know lol! I have only found two decent ones in English so far!!)

Anyway it keeps me amused and quiet according to the BF apart from when an eye falls off!!.

So feel free to join in with your Whatever Wednesday offerings. I know some have also said they feel the pressure to blog all of the time!

Happy Crafting or whatever lol!

Hugs

Rachael xxx

Forever Friends Fortnight - White and Sparkles

Time for another cute bear! This Fortnight the challenge over at Forever Friends and Co is

"White and Sparkles"

For some reason the right side looks warped :/ not impressed!!

What I used:

• White 6 x 6 card blank
• White card embossed with Cuttlebug swiss dots folder and swirl folder (which hasnt been used before woops!!)
• Forever Friends die cut decoupage and sentiment
• TRG clear dew drops
• White sparkly ribbon

Not a colour combo I have ever tried before. I must admit only using white really scared me BUT I am quite impressed with myself lol!

For this challenge we are sponsored by Di' s digi downloads.

So there you have it! Hop on over to Forever Friends and see the wonderful DT creations! And remember you don't need to use a Forever Friends image - any animal will do!

I hope this scheduled post has worked (having bother with them recently!) as Im at my placement school today eeek! 29 7 year olds aaaaah lol! Im sure I'll come out alive - I hope lol.

Happy crafting!

Hope youre all well

Hugs

Rachael :) xxx

Whatever Wednesday

I don't know if its just me but for some reason since starting my blog I have felt under pressure to post. And being under pressure makes my mojo disappear. And I get extremely jealous that other people seem to have loads of mojo and can post lots! (Cant believe I have just admitted that!) And I feel that everything I post should be linked to a challenge - aaaah the stress!!!

So I have come to the conclusion that I will be posting a 'Whatever Wednesday' post every Thursday sorry Wednesday (lol) in order to keep my silly self from the feeling this mysterious pressure to post all of the time!!This may be non-craft related post, in fact it will most likely be non craft related post lol!!

                                        Soooooooooo.......... my first Whatever Wednesday......

                                                                    Cakes :)

I made these bad boys quite awhile ago and they manged to cause quite a stir when I posted them on Facebook lol.

They are raspberry and coconut sponges cakes with a raspberry jam filling, glace icing and dunked in coconut (slight addiction to coconut!)

I cut a little square out of the cake, filled it with jam and stuck the cake back on the top.

This is the bf hold the cakes by the way! I am not that hairy!!!

I then smothered it in jam and pink icing and then dunked it in a bowl of coconut. This hid the little cuts. A bit of a faff but totally worth it!

So there you have it! They were pretty scrummy too even if I do say so myself!

Right Uni works calls :( watching the whole Letters and Sound DVD and writing down each activity is beyond fun!! NOT!!! Lol.

Hugs

Rachael :) xxx

FF Fortnight - Christmas is Coming

How time flies!! Faaaar too quickly for my liking!!

This fortnight the challenge over at Forever Friends and Co is

"Christmas is Coming"

A nice and easy theme if you ask me! Especially since I really need to catch up on my Christmas card making  :S

This month we are sponsored by the lovely Whoopsie Daisy. Some of the DT have used one of Linnie's beautiful images.

For this card I have used :

• A6 white card blank
• Red and green cardstock
• Red snowflake and green holly paper from the First Edition 6 x 6 Festive Treats pad
• Decoupaged Forever Friends bear from CD rom
• LOTV christmas sentiment
• 'All I want for Christmas' ribbon (74p from WH Smiths a bargain lol!!)
• Green brad
• Red gems

We also have some new DT members (hi girls!!) so please pop over and see all of their creations!

And remember you dont need to use a FF bear - any animal will do!!

Uni is a major headache at the minute - organisation comes to mind!!! Hope to get some more time to start on the long list of Christmas cards that need making!!!

Hope you are all well!!

Hugs

Rachael xxx

Introducing ..... BAT!

I am pleased to introduce you to my felt friend

BAT!

  

A marvelously creative name I know lol. 

I found some amazing felt mascot books whilst on holiday in London and pretty much got obsessed over summer. My wonderful boyfriend Tom bought me '190 Felt Mascots' book from Japan which contains all 190 patterns to make little felt mascots. Its all in Japanese (obv lol) so I pretty much made him up the way I thought best but he turned out ok I think well apart from the slightly dodgy left eye lol.

He is made completely out of felt form Hobbycraft and stuffed with toy stuffing. I hand cut all of the tiny pieces and sewed them all together with a little help from some craft glue.

I have a few other felt mascots that I am hoping to finally share with you all over the next couple of weeks.

Happy Crafting!

And Happy Halloween!

Hugs

Rachael xx

Forever Friends Fortnight Bling Bling

Aaaaah this was scheduled to post this morning but didn't grrrr!

I'm back with another challenge over at Forever Friends Fortnight and this fortnight our challenge is

Bling Bling

Now I have had a word with my camera but it is still not acting nicely in regards to taking a photo of my card and actually showing the shine!!! Grrr lol. I decided that as today also coincides with Halloween (which is also my sister's birthday but that's not relevant lol but is the reason this is sooooo late as I took her to York for the day) I felt the need to make a Halloween card as I'm now too old *sniff sniff* to participate in any Halloween shenanigans and am also faaaaar too busy with the dreaded fourth year dissertation!

I outlined the pumpkins and some of the ornage stripes on the backing papers with a gold Stardust pen and have coloured in the pumpkins eyes with a black Stardust pen.

I also outlined the Forever Friends bear with a gold Stardust pen after decoupaging him so add a bit of interest and sparkle. 

What I used:

• 5x5 card blank
• FF image from CD decoupaged
• Free Halloween digi papers from Shery K
• Gold and black stardust pens (that dont really show up!!)
• Square nesties
• Printed sentiment
• Purple brads
• Purple card candy
• Purple cardstock

We are sponsored by Di's Digi Downloads who have some fab images and our winner gets to choose 5!

So please pop over to the Forever Friend challenge blog to see the other DT creations and remember that you dont need to use a FF bear just an animal and follow the theme.

Happy crafting!

Hugs

Rachael xx

Lilac and green

Finally a card!!

I was very intrigued by the "Lilac and Green" colour combo over at The Ribbon Girl that I thought I needed to have a try.

Its Milly's first inking - naughty me!!

I'm not sure what the technique is called when you have a bit of the image sticking out from the shape you have cut but I think it works well with the butterfly which is slightly decoupaged.

I know Iv used this same layout on two previous cards but I just cant help it! I love it too much and the whole slight CAS thing goes with the shape of the card blank!

Anyway this is what I have used:

• Craftwork Card s Elegant card blank
• LOTV Milly with Flower stamp
• Label Nesties
• Promarkers - Lilac, Meadow Green, Blush and Pastel Pink for skin, Caramel hair, FM - Pink Pearl (I think!)
• TRG - seam binding coloured with Apple PM
• Dew Drop Gems
• WOC cherry blossoms spritzed with Perfect Pearls

Challenges:

The Ribbon Girl  - Lilac and Green

LOTV - Bingo (Diagonal - Gem, Flowers and Ribbon)

Hope you are all well!
Back to the dissertation proposal writing I suppose. Sorry for the lack of commenting guys pretty busy at the mo!

Hugs
Rachael xxx

Crafting with the Mother :)

I thought I would share a few photos of what Mam and I got up to yesterday.

I must admit there was more crafting going on on her part as I was more the facilitator lol such as making sure the Cuttlebug 'sandwich' was correct and reassuring her that the loud cracking noises were fine when she ran things through!

Mam had bought some Imaginisce Snag'em Christmas stamps and had already stamped them out and coloured them in with my PMs so yesterday we decided to make them into tags for presents.

Here are some finished tags that just need hole punching and some ribbon tied through the holes.

And this is the box of shapes and images that need sticking together. 

 We managed to take over the whole dining table and the ironing board!

I was going through my Christmas stash box that I took to Mam's, with the sister (who for some reason didnt want to be photographed perhaps because she had been out the night before and was in her dressing gown hmmmmmmmm lol!)

and Mam created these two beauties:

The card blanks are from Craftwork Cards that we bought at the GNPE and the images are LOTV die cuts that we also picked up at Harrogate. The easel card still needs a sentiment and she wants to put some embellies on too but we ran out of time - huh never enough crafting time!

Well done Mam I know you'll be reading this!

Hope you all don't mind me sharing my crafty adventures with the family!

Hope to be back soon.

Happy Crafting!

Hugs

Rachael xx

Forever Friends and Co - Fornight challenge

Hi guys I'm back (and still alive)

This fortnights challenge over at Forever Friends and Co is really easy

Anything Goes

We are sponsored by the wonderful Whoopsie Daisy and each DT member got to pick a sheet and I chose this lovely sheet of images.

I felt that the card should be red (not my usual colour!) as there are hearts on her dress and in her hair and I don't really do well with pink lol.

What I used:

• Whoopsie Daisy digi image
• Promarkers
• Raspberry Road digi papers - Fight Like a girl
• WOC flowers and seam binding (coloured with PMs)
• Craftwork Card sentiment tag
• Red gems
• Crystal Glamour Dust

So hop on over to Forever Friends now and see the other lovely DT creations! We are also having a DT call as we have sadly lost of few DT members (you will be missed!) and are looking for 4 monthly DT members and 4 fortnight DT members.

Remember you don't need to use an FF bear to join in - any animal will do.

-----------------------------------------

I am seriously struggling with being creative at the minute - I don't know what it is but its seriously doing my HEAD in! So I apologise for my blogging absence with posting and commenting :(

Hope you are all well.

Hugs

Rachael xxx

Forever Friends Fortnight - White, pink and brown.

Oh I'm quite late with this whoops! Naff weekend at work hence the lateness, how I wish I could just leave!!!

Anyway enough of my whining on to this fortnights challenge over at Forever Friends and Co.
This fortnight the theme is white, brown and pink and we are sponsored by Stitchy Bears who gave us some images to play with.

I'm not sure whether the colours really go with this image but I tried to do it justice! I love the shape of the main card - must do this more often!

Short one from me today, still loads to do!

Please jump over to Forever Friends to see the other DT work and join in! Remember you don't need to use a Forever Friends bear, any animal will be fine!

Bye for now

Hugs

Rachael xxx

Less is More Week 34

I was very annoyed with myself that the glue didn't dry on time to submit my LIM card for last weeks 1000 entries Anything Goes challenge - sorry guys! I could get a photo as it kept falling apart!

So I tried extra hard this week!

No idea why Ive gone for silver wedding anniversary lol but I am very pleased with what I came up with!

Chrissie and Mandi gave us this fab sketch to work with:

Bit of an arty side view

I cut a heart out of white card smothered it in embossing ink and dunked it in my silver embossing powder. I think I did this three or four times until I was happy with how covered it was!

I haven't used my embossing powders for years and wonder why because I love them! I think the mess I manage to make stops me sometimes lol.

I printed the sentiment on to the card blank first using a free font  called "The only exception." I printed the word 'silver' in a very light grey so when I went over it in my quickie glue pen and glamour dust it looked silver and sparkly and I'm quite impressed!

What I used:

• Craftwork Card card blank
• Computer generated sentiment
• Crystal glamour dust
• Hand drawn heart covered in silver embossing powder
• Hand drawn box with black fine liner pen
• 4 x small crystal gems. 

I really do love this sketch and have a few more ideas for more cards, shame I have don't have enough time to try them all now I'm back at bloomin' Uni!!

Oh well lol.

Off to get ready for Guides - Cupcake Madness tonight nom nom nom!!

Hugs

Rachael xx

LOTV Challenge - Aqua, white and glitter!

A very quick post today! I know I have been a naughty blogger recently, sorry!

Started back at Uni this week (fourth and final year yeeeeeh) so have been catching up with the girls which has included lots of shopping and lunches out!

Anyway I was very inspired by the colour combo of Aqua, white and glitter in this week LOTV challenge so thought it was about time I got out my Christmas Dance stamp I bought at the GNPE and used it!

None of the photos show just how lovely the Glamour Dust looks on her fur trim!

What I used

• LOTV Christmas Dance stamp
• LOTV small Christmas Greetings sentiment
• Flexmarkers and Promarkers
• Blue 3mm pearls
• Woodware snowflake punch
• Printable Heaven snowflake paper
• Crystal Glamour Dust
• New Label Nesties

I would like to enter this card into the:

LOTV Challenge - No. 113 Aqua, White and Glitter

I'm not that keen on it but its all I could come up with since my mojo has decided to up and leave > < grrrr!

Oh well its another Christmas card to cross of the list I suppose!

I can NOT get over this weather!! I swear it is as warm as when I went to Malawi!! Well maybe on a cold day lol but still for September this is freaky! I feel like I should be eating ice lollies with my shorts on ha ha!

So off to tackle my first Uni to do list in 3 months lol!

Hopefully be back soon.

Hope you are all well.

Hugs

Rachael xxx