Rachael's Handmade Designs

Today's great interview comes straight to you featuring a shop that specializes in RETRO ACCESSORIES!! Read on and visit the shop for some great shopping! 1. What’s your name and shop name and what do you do? Disgrace To Blondes retro accessories. Mainly I focus on Miniature top hats. I have always thought they were adorable! We do have other accessories: Hair flowers, bows, jewelry and I am now working on Steampunk accessories. 2. Where are you located? Bellingham WA 3. What’s the favorite part of your craft? The excitement of the customer. I love when people bring me ideas and I am able to execute them 4. How long have you been crafting? 5. What’s your favorite thing to make? Steampunk items. I love the idea of soft and hard combined. 6. What kind of camera do you use to shoot? I have a canon for shooting all my merch but mainly I ship out my product to photographers and models to work their magic. 7. Who or what models your items? SOO Many different girls. ...

Hi Everbody! I've got some cute new additions to the shop! I made this sweet little coffee card with a new coffee stamp. Available for Mother's Day is this sweet textured floral card. I also have a dog-themed greeting that's pretty cute! Would be perfect for Dad. And of course, there's Betty. Hope you enjoy these cards! Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hiya! Welcome Back! Today's blog post is a technique - I never used this techniqe before, but I think I will be using it quite often now!  Here is the card that I used in my sandpaper diestressing project: I distressed the blue lined paper.  So what I did for this is cut the paper down to size, and then ink the edges with a teal.  After the ink dried a bit I took a piece of sandpaper and roughed up the edges to introduce texture and age the project a bit. You can see how it really adds to the overall feeling of the card. I was really happy with how this project turned out. Like I said before, I had never used a distressing implement before (other than fire or ink, of course) and I'm pleased with how this Mother's Day card ended up! I hope you utilize this technique in your cards or scrapbook pages because it really is quite fun! Cheers! Xo, Rachael 

Hello Again! I wanted to share with you an interview I did with Jennifer Porter of Jack's Daughter on Etsy. Jack's Daughter is one of my FAVORITE rockabilly reproduction shops on Etsy, so I said to myself "self - you should do an interview with this shop owner" - and voila! Now we have today's posting! 1. What’s your name and shop name and what do you do? Jennifer Porter but everyone just calls me Jenni. Shop name 'Jack's Daughter' This name was thought up by my daughter ( see Licorice and Cream on FB ) and she also designed and drew the logo. My Dad's name was Jack and he died in 2002 so the name is really for him. 2. Where are you located?  I'm in Bairnsdale - a small country town in Victoria, Australia. Population around 12000 people and located on the Gippsland Lakes and close to the snowfields as well as the lakes and ocean but 3.5 hours from Melbourne - the capital of Victoria. 3. What’s the favorite part of your craft? The favourite...

Hello All My Lovelies!! Today's entry is my entry for the Bombshell Stamps Blog Hop: Weddings! And here's my card! and I actually made another one that is available in my shop: ***  Hop on to Kelli's Blog  to see the rest of the crew's great projects!! Cheers! Xo, Rachael

Hiya!  I was thinking about what a sign my dad has says (it's in German) and so I looked up how to say cat or kitten in all these different languages. That's what lead to this Tuesday's Stuff Love. I just plugged in "language" and these are some of my favorites which ended up in my treasury. I hope you like it! It was fun to make! Also, here's what I've been working on that is art-related, but not a card. Follow this blog for a chance to win my blog candy. :) Cheers! Xo, Rachael

Aloha! New in my shop this week are these two fun cards: Sew Sweet Thank You  and this Bicycle Thank You. I've also opened a new shop over the weekend to sell my jewelry supplies, so come find me! SeattleSupplies is now open for business - good deals all around. :-) That's all for today. Thanks for stopped by! :-) Cheers! Xo, Rachael 

Hello and Welcome Back! Today I get to sit down with one of my favorite crafty goddesses who really sets the bar for all things crafty. I adore her work, so I was uber excited that she agreed to an interview! 1. What’s your name and shop name and what do you do? Hello, my name is Cheryl Valadez and I have an Etsy shop called EnchantmentInk. I also have a blog called The Ink Trap (http://inktrap.blogspot.com/). I play with paper and love to create handmade cards. 2. Where are you located? I am very lucky to reside in sunny Albuquerque, NM in the Land of Enchantment. 3. What’s the favorite part of your craft? I teach card classes and I love to share and exchange information with other folks that are passionate about paper arts. 4. How long have you been crafting? I have been making cards for roughly 13 years. Prior to that, I really didn't do much crafting and would never have considered myself to be very creative. 5. What’s your favorite thing to make? I love to mak...

Hi Again! Well, I've been stuck with Jury Duty this week so my schedule has been interrupted. I haven't been able to find time to stamp as a result, so I thought, 'well, the least I can do is pick up a bit' and get to the projects that I have been putting off...like mounting some new stamps. So here's my craft table, relatively clean! (Well, as clean as it ever gets.) And my newly mounted stamps! Yay! That's it for today. Follow my blog for a chance to win my blog candy, AND please don't forget to leave me some feed back on a poll I created at the top of the page on the right. :) Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hello Everyone! There's something great about an altered picture frame. Whether it be simple and classic, shabby and chic, or rusticated, everyone loves a thoughtful frame with a great photo. So here are this week's favorites that will always be in style. A couple of reminders: 1. I'm looking for feedback on what my readers would like to see in my shop! Cast your vote at the top of my blog on the right; and 2. Don't forget to follow this blog for a chance to win my blog candy! Cheers! Xo, Rachael

Good Monday Morning Everyone! I’m feeling quite happy today because I was called for Jury Duty and they said I could go home and that I don’t have to report until tomorrow. So yay for me! I’ve got some new items in my shop to share with you! I was so busy this last week making loads of cards to share with you and keep my store fresh and exciting - I really think I hit the nail on the head with these cards! So, let's get started! This is my new "Wanna Cuddle" card, available in my shop. I made use of my favorite Martha Stewart scalloped punch for this card and paired the girl with some fluttery pink bug backgrounds. I matched buttons and hemp cord with this to finish it off! So cute, and layered inside too!   Next is this super cute crafting card for the person you know that's super crafty. It's a little gal selling her crafty goodness! ;) I paired her with layered tags. One is printed, one is embossed, and the yellow tag has a little angel stamped onto it in s...

Welcome! Its amazing to me how many techniques you can use from one sort of craft and transpose the same technique with another sort of craft. Today's technique you might have seen in needlepoint crafts. The exciting part of Bargello is that you can re-create the look with papers!  Above: an example of Bargello. So to recreate this technique with paper, here's what you can do: 1. Select your complimentary papers. Stripes and geometric patterns look pretty and cool. I used shades of blue. 2. Cut your papers into varying widths of long strips. 3. Organize your paper strips into a fashion that pleases you, running lengthwise and glue down. Make sure there isn't any gap-osis! :) You can either tape the strips from the back or lay the strips directly onto a piece of tacky paper. 4. Cut the strips vertically. Now you can stagger the strips by moving some up and some down to create the cool effect! Tape the strips together on the back to permanently form the patte...

Hi Everyone! Well, here's a sweet interview with one of my favorite people, BombshellEm! S he’s a paper-crafter, a mommy, and a wonderful, sweet person! What a doll! She's also Ms. June over at BSS ! Check out her interview below!   1. What’s your name and shop name and what do you do? Emily and my blog is : http://bombshellemsartisticexpressions.blogspot.com/ 2. Where are you located? Good Ol' Northern California, in the heart of Mendocino County 3. What’s the favorite part of your craft? My favorite part of my craft is I can make something for someone and it can brighten their day. I have this thing about sending homemade mail to people just to let them know that I am thinking about them. 4. How long have you been crafting? Its more like when havent I been crafting!! Apparently for as long as I could hold a crayon, I have been doing something crafty. 5. What’s your favorite thing to make? My favorite things to make are homemade treats (cookies, brownies, ...

Hello Out There in Bloggerland! Welcome back! Thanks for joining me! I've got a lot to show you today, so let's just jump right into it! I've been working on a number of different cards this week. Working with layers and unique shapes. Above: I've been trying to work with this image for several weeks and it just has not been coming together. I finally tried to pair it with pink after trying this laced edge, and I got it! The card will debut in my shop later on this week, so keep your eyes peeled! Above: This is my second time working with Kenny K images, and I gotta say, they're pretty cute!! Gate fold cards are a fun way to add interest and interactivity. I've been totally inspired by my friend Katie to start to work on on! We'll see what happens! ;-) See Katie's blog here . And I've been meaning to use this image as well. I decided that before I purchase new stamps, I need to use what I have. I like this image because it's completely...

Welcome Back! Glad you stopped by! Today's Stuff I Love segment is featuring craft room goodies. It's important to be able to keep things organized while you work, so I gathered these things to make that possible. Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to follow this blog for a chance to win my blog candy! :) Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hola Everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! It's Monday again and I've got some new items in my shop to share with you. Releasing Monday is this cute and sexy bombshell wedding card.  I created this card from my new stamp set from Bombshell Stamps, along with some recycled lace and some embossing powder to add texture to the fan background. The sentiment in the lower right hand corner reads "A Bride to Be" in gold embossing powder. The second handmade card to be released this week is a "Just Chillin' " Birthday card. The image used here is from Kenny K. Hope you all enjoyed this post. Keep a look-out on my store for these new cards, and check my flickr site in the right-hand bar for more cool photos. Don't forget - follow this blog for a chance to win my blog candy! Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hi All & Welcome! Today I'm going to teach you how to incorporate relief work into your handmade cards! There are a couple of things that you're going to need: 1. Clay, artists cements and/or pastes as your relief material - this particular type of artists cement dries to an opaque matte and is carvable. ( US Art Quest 101 Artist Cement) 2. A stencil - plastic or brass works best. (*you can make your own out of your favorite stamp or using a cricut machine.) or there are some on etsy; 3. A knife; 4. Small particles such as mica, beads, rocks, or glitter. You can even use pigments or shadows from leftover makeup. If you're going to make your own stencil, make sure that you make it out of something that has a bit of strength to it, like a heavy poundage cardstock, or even cardboard or chipboard. How-To 1. Lay your paper down with the stencil over it. Spread the cement evenly and in one swipe, if possible. 2. Gently lift off and immediately clean the stenc...