Samhain......and Happy Halloween

Good morning and a blessed Samhain to you all.

This is my offering today....using the lovely new PaperArtsy and Distress paints and PaperArtsy stamps :-)

Samhain is the ancient Pagan festival known as the End of Summer/ Feast of the Dead that since being adopted by Christianity has become known as All hallow's eve and then Halloween. It is celebrated from dusk on the 31st October to dusk on the 1st Nov.

It is a hugely important pagan festival - many pagan's adopt it as their New year and as we know it's the time when the veil between the living and the dead is at it's thinnest so they can mingle together.

Now it is often seen as a scarey, spooky time but in truth to pagans it is a celebratory occassion marked with a feast. :-)

It is a time for reflection, for welcoming new life, for wishing old life well on their next journey and for taking stock and looking to the future

So here is wishing you peace and wellness this Samhain

Love

Rae

xxx

Eileen's class makes - made up!!!

Evening all - well nearly night lolol!!

Yesterday I promised I would share with you what we did yesterday at the lovely Eileen Godwin's class outside Coventry!

I have spent today turning the makes into actual cards - YES!!!! I actually FINISHED some class projects whoo whoo LMAO!!

So without further ado and too much waffle ..... for once ......

We had a totally fab day - I HIGHLY recommend a class with this lady if you get the chance! Altough it was a long day it was so much fun with a group of fabulously talented and lovely ladies!!

I hope you like these makes!!

Crafty cheers for now

Love

Rae 

xxx

Wax Resist Technique

Hi Everyone - I hope you are all safe and sound after the last 24 hrs??

I am stopping by with a really simple but stunningly effect technique - introduced to me by the lovely Eileen Godwin :-) Check out here amazing blog HERE.

The wax resist is created by stamping in Archival and then taking a white wax crayon adding highlights before blending over with Distress Inks. Then simply polish lightly....

I started with a vintage feel using Sheena Douglass stamps....

......then I went for a wintery effect, this time using Indigo Blu's trees.....

....love how it gives a snow capped feel to the trees. My final piece is totally diff and more in the style of "teach"......using Designs by Ryn fabulous new stamps.....

   

The centre panel uses the technique and then I deliberately overworked the base card with thin layers of water on the leaves to create a roughed up distressed effect!

I hope you like the technique and are inspired give it a go - it is so easy and I hope you think effective :-)

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Lost Coast Designs.......finally.....

Good evening all.

How was Monday for you? Hope the week did not have a too traumatic a start!

While picking up some crafty goodies online last week when I came across a Lost Coast stockist in the UK. 

I have had my eye on this stamp range for a good while so decided to treat myself. :-)

At the end of a very busy crafty day yesterday I had a real quick play (10 mins - an absolute miracle for me lol ) with a couple and this was it.

On this card I have used the Large Perspective Background and the Face with Butterfly embossed onto a Distress background. I am off down to Coventry next week for a class with the lovely Eileen Godwin - so thought I best get some practice in :-)

Check out the full Lost Coast Designs range HERE

My purchases came from That's crafty and you can find them HERE

I think this may be the start of yet another whole new love affair.....

:-)

Have a good evening and thanks for stopping by.

Crafty cheers for now

Love

Rae

XXX

Take One Woodware Christmas stamp......

Howdy Campers n Crafters!

Sheesh! Saturday has sneaked back around Muy Rapido this week lol!  

It is a glorious day here in Cheshire - Hope it is the same with you :-)

Today I am going to share some of those dreaded C word cards with you as there are only 10 Saturdays til it is upon us!  

Yesterday Mum and I took a trip to High Legh Garden centre for coffee and the craft shop. While we there Mum espied a card made using this stamp from Woodware

She isn't a stamper but is beginning to fancy a go. While unpacking our purchases I decided to have a practice with it.........and oops if I didn't get carried away!!

So here is my take on the one stamp challenge I gave myself last night :-)

These first two cards were coloured using the Gorjayous Wink of Stella pens - I really have fallen head over heals for their subtle glimmer factor!

To add more interest the card on the left is decoupaged - it's an ideal stamp for this as it's easy to see where needs cutting.

After this I decided to go for a slightly more glamour-unge style

This time I used Distress Inks and Distress stains to create the backgrounds (I particularly love the metallic stains for adding Christamssey shimmer :-) ) and chose to ink the stamp in parts rather than as a whole.

I hope you like my first Christmas offering - I am sure there will be more to follow - I guess it's inevitable with the silly season bearing down on us!! 

Have a good weekend and I will see you all soon

Crafty Cheers for now

Love 

Rae

xxx

The "MAIL" Man

Evening all!!

How are you? It's def taken a winter chill here - lovely to come back into a warm snuggly house having been out all day - Sincerely Yours at Leigh. Lovely to catch up with my crafty friends - spent too much lol!!

Anyway this week over at SPLODGEAWAY HQ  it is all about craft cycling - using up all those "bits" us crafters accumulate!

I had been busy making Christmas Cards last week and I decided i would only allow myself to use whatever bits were left over on the desk for my project.

I love the way that die cutting scraps have added extra interest to the layers.

I was also surprised how far the off cuts stretched!

I only had one ink pad on the desk and fortunately they all fitted together! Tag style cards are great to use up those smaller layers. I used Swirly lattice, Dotty the lot, Diamond Metal, Hexey and card king to emboss and ink through for the background tags

I used Darkroom Door's Mail Art stamp set on the dancing man from the Altered art kit. I used this mask as a stencil to cut out the topper.

I hope the DT's project this week have given you ideas for using up all those pesky scrap odds and ends :-)

Have a great weekend all

Crafty Cheers for now

Have a lovely weekend!

Love

Rae

xxx

Splodgeaway "Fairy" Tale.........

Howdy all!!
Happy Weekend :-)

I had so much fun with my other Splodgeaway fantasy project this week that I am back with "Part Deux"

This time I have gone with a "fairy" tale theme. Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen

 I have used a whole myriad of masks to get lots of layers again on this project. Initially using water over the alphabet border to create a mottle pattern. Then distress inks were used with the runes and pentacle from the Gothic Alter layout before I got the fabulous Tattered Angels Sprays out with Leaf the Lot for a subtle hint of shimmer.

After that I applied perfect medium and clear embossing powder through the square edged Brick mask, and then Gold sparkle embossing powder through the leaves on the fantasy Unicorn Stenskape. I also used one of my fave masks - one of the very first Splodge masks of Unicorns and Mermaids. 

The tag was topped off with "Honesty" from Sheena Douglas's lovely A little Bit Magic set - To give an ethereal feel she was embossed on tissue and then white washed from behind with acrylic paint for a semi-translucent look. To add still more depth I gently rubbed Yellow Diamond Treasure Gold over the clear embossing and on the edges before finishing off with the snowflakes and the title. 

Hope you have lots of crafty plans for the weekend??

I am busy working on some magazine stuff so whatever you have on have fun getting creative :-)

Crafty cheers for now

Love and hugs

Rae

xxx

Splodgeaway Fantasy........

Good morning all. How's your week going? 
Not to fear the weekend is in sight :-)

Over at Splodge HQ everything has gone all mystical and magical and fairytale this week.
Check out the fabulous giveaway on the splodge blog HERE

So this is my 1st offering....

...... I have gone with a one layer card using distress inks and my new and shiny Wink of Stella pens ;-)

Oooooo me does love them......lots n lots. 

Have no fear there will be more coming up with them soon......

Just because a card is One Layer doesn't mean it can't have depth.

By using masks with different detail, some small patterns and some large open designs; and then a tonal colour scheme this will naturally add depth to your project.

To complete this project I used the following masks Fantasy Fairy StenSkape; Celtic Knot; Blobby lines; The masks of many faces and one of the Bountiful Butterflies 2 masks - all available HERE

So go have some fun and let your fantasies fly across the page :-)

I will be back later in the week with more!!

Crafty Cheers for now

Love and Hugs

Rae 

xxx

Clarity Winter Challenge and Goodbye

Good morning everyone :-)

How are you enjoying this late Indian Summer we have been having? It's been glorious here in Cheshire the last few days and it seems set fair for a little while longer :-)

Well today brings the end of an "era" so to speak in my crafting life.

 This is my last DT piece for the Clarity Blog.

New challenges, new directions and new beginnings are calling :-)

Time is a very precious commodity and I have realised that I need to spend more time on things that are working for me, profiting my new business and offering me enjoyment. After all that is why I craft and why I set up this new venture. 

As a result adjustments were needed and one of them is an end to my Clarity Blog DT work. 

However I wanted to go out "in style" so to speak ...... and I hope this offering does just that :-) 

The theme this month is 

WINTER.

I have had this frame for a while and I knew that I wanted to do a winter "collage" for this project so it was perfect. I love scene building so I went to town creating these scenes from a limited colour palette of Adirondak Denim, Cranberry and Purple Twilight along with Distress Stormy Sky. 

The list of stamps used is rather a long one - so here goes :-)

Small Lone Spruce; Sprucescape ; Remountable Christmas Clear set, Remountable Sport set; miniature snowflake corner; Snowflake; snowflake 2010; Mistletoe Sprig; Christmas Window; Carriage as seen on TV; Large and medium lamp posts; Large naked birch tree; Large Naked Pine; Small ivy corner; Church and the Lesson 21 Trees

All bar the Lesson 21 trees are available HERE Lesson 21 for now are available here 

I knew I wanted a mix of winter scenes balanced with a selection of  patterns and a variety of background techniques. The first time I tried pattern building - my ol' head was in bits lol but its not as taxing as it seems with a little practice and patience. In the picture above It's almost as relaxin' as zentangle - honest :-)

I wanted to keep texture and interest with each piece and I love the softening effect of vellum (or you could use tracing paper) over the top of this skiing scene

Couldn't resist a nod to the cute with this "pile" of snowmen and Mr Robin :-)

The frame was decorated using PaperArtsy Fresco Paints (here) and Golden Glass bead Gel Medium. I used loads of crackle medium and iridescent paint with the glass bead medium to create lots and lots of texture on the frame. (Why doesn't texture photo so well!!!) All finished off with the FAB-U-LOUS Royal Amethyst Treasure gold.

Well that concludes my final "official" Clarity piece - though clarity will pop up in other future projects I am sure..

I do hope you like it :-)

Have fun creating for this month's winter challenge HERE

 Good Luck to you all :-)

Here's to exciting times ahead.

Crafty cheers for now

love

Rae

XXX