Rachael's Handmade Designs

Aloha my little crafting friends! About a week ago I ordered the Distrezz-it-All by Zutter in association with Donna Salazar. Well, yesterday it arrived on my doorstep! YAY! Already my mind is a buzz with all of the creative things I can do with this wonderful little machine. Shabby chic custom journals, here I come! ;-) I'm working on a mini album for my father with my DIA! Now, where to find The Cinch in Seattle. Any ideas? Xo, Rachael

Welcome Back! Last week was pretty busy for me so I didn't get to blog much, but I have had the chance to be able to create some more items for my shop yesterday evening. I'm working on a new line for my shop! It's called 'The Buckle Line' and consists of my new design called Buckle cards - the only ones like them on Etsy! This one's called the Rock Star Buckle Card. Look for the new line on Etsy as this card is making it's debut today. Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hello Everyone. I just listed a new, unused Magnolia Tilda Mounted Rubber Stamp for sale on Ebay. Little Tilda is holding a pumpkin lantern/bucket.  This stamp is mounted and brand new but does not come with the original packaging.  Ebay Here are some photos of this Tilda stamp. Tilda is up for sale, so check out her listing here . Cheers, Xo Rachael

Hiya! This week I decided to interview another shop I have admired for some time, Abunchofscrap ! This shop has a collective, cohesive look. Her creations are wonderful and have provided me with inspiration! From cards to scrapbook layouts and suppliesI hope you enjoy! 1. What’s your name and shop name and what do you do? The name of my shop is called AbunchofScrap. I create with paper: things that make you smile and things that will help one cherish the memories of that day or event. 2. Where are you located? I reside in the state of Michigan and have established myself and my shops in my quant little home. 3. What’s the favorite part of your craft? My favorite part of crafting is creating something from nothing. Making a simple piece of paper or scrap paper into something that is useful and cherished. 4. How long have you been crafting? I feel that children are born with the ability to create or “craft” it is how one feeds this skill that determines if ...

Ciao my friends! Thanks for checking in! It's been a busy week since I last posted something about my studio. I've created a lot of lovely cards and tried out a few new things! Last week I was playing around with different folds. I decided on this fold, a stair-stepper or side ladder card for my dad's birthday. I abandoned this actual card last week, but I plan to use this fold for his real card. And here's a sweet layout I did for me and Andrew's scrapbook. I love the lettering and how the 'stitching' turned out on black. Yeah, I need more black... I've discovered the butterfly setting on a cricut cartridge I have. I've been kinda going nuts with it, it's so adorable! It's in the above photograph, and here's a photo of a card I designed in the last week that also features them.  That's my handwriting on the sentiment. One of the few times I incorporate my personal writing in my cards! (You should feel privileged for viewing...

Welcome! Here's the Stuff I Love for this week. Xmas in July! There's so many great things on Etsy sometimes it's hard to sort through all of them. I hope you enjoy this treasury. As always, click the image to magnify! Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hello Again my Friends!!! So glad you came back for a gander! :0) I had a great, relaxing weekend. Take a look at some new items in the shop! I made this cute little "thanks" card with flower and two butterflies. It's out of my norm, but that's my handwriting in the sentiment. Also, LOVING the butterfly feature on my cricut!! They're coated in pink to pop them and I added a little bling to add some sparkle. Cute, huh? I thought it was perfect for summer! I also added this sweet butterfly 5x5 card to the shop as well! Isn't this absolutely adorable? I used designer papers from the hopskotch line, as well as some other fancy printed papers I've been stashing away for far too long! ;-) Check back tomorrow for my Stuff I Love entry! And then on Wed you can see everything I've been working on in the studio lately! Cheers, Xo, Rachael

One of my favorite fabric crafters granted me an interview! Check it out!! 1. My name is Judy, my shop name is By Judianne and I make purses, totes, etc. 2. A am located in Marysville, WA 3. My favorite part is designing. 4. I've been crafting for many, many years. 5. My favorite things to make are all of things in my shop. 6. I use a Canon SD 890 7. My youngest daughter models my bags. 8. Knowing that others like what I do well enough to spend their hard earned money on them. 9. Keeping to a schedule. 10. During the slower times, I create approx. 3-4 items per week; during the busy times (fall) 7-10 items per week. 11. Beautiful fabrics, colors, textures. 12. I usually cut out and prep (pin and iron together) several items at a time and from that point forward, make each bag individually. Sometimes I will take a couple of days just to try out new designs and/or ideas. Then I make patterns for the designs that work for me. 13. Do ...

Happy Friday All! Today I bring you a new technique I've learned about! It's paper piercing - I know you will love it! Onare is literally piercing paper, as shown below. Photo courtesy of creativepapercrafts.com This technique can be done a number of ways with a number of different materials. Originally it was done on tin. There are severaly different layouts/templates to choose from and they usually run from about $11-$14. The decorative template is placed on a reverse side of card stock, the pierced completely or partially through. I would just use a pin, but there are piercing tools available for purchase. Or you can use a combo of both large and small piercing tools to add further depth. Pretty cool, huh? If you happen to scrapbook as well and have some swirly templates for rhinestones, you could also use the tamplates you already have to try and get the same effect. I think that's what I'm going to do! :-) Thanks for tuning in! Cheers, Xo, Rachael ...

Hey, thanks for checking back! Here's my Stuff I Love which is just a jumble of things I love on Etsy right now! Click to enlarge the image! Enjoy! Cheers! Xo, Rachael

Welcome back! Thanks for joining me! I haven't been creating very much lately because I my boyfriend was in town, and we were out and about doing other things like going to the lake and water park. So much fun! Now that his visit is over, I have a little more time on my hands. Tonight I completed a layout for our scrapbook and started and completed another! (Well, all but the title.) I was looking for inspiration to make a card and I came across a funny and cute little attribute that I've never seen before! Inchies!! Funny little one-inch squares. Usually it's a collage square that incorporates a background, image, or a word or letter. Julie O'Neil created these funny things as a way to integrate many works into one cohesive, quilt-like piece of art. I think they're great! They can be made of either paper or fabric and have become a viable form of art and format for card-makers specifically. Here are a couple that I love! photo courtesy of PhizzyChick on flickr...

Aloha Everyone! I haven't been very regular with the blogging lately because I've been entertaining a house guest and we've been so busy! So here's a short update. I noticed that there are some basic things that one should have for papercrafting, particularly attending classes and such. So, I've listed a basic cardmaker's kit here for your reference! What should I have in my basic cardmaking kit? Scissors paper trimmer with extra blade liquid adhesive tape runner and an extra pack ink ruler foam dots glue dots tweezers piercer (I just use a pin!) sandpaper journaling pens an x-acto knife with extra blades pencil Also, the Puyallup Scrapbook Expo is JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!! I'm unreasonablly EXCITED! I'm really excited for a couple reasons. I've never been to a scrapbook expo - makeup trade show, yes, but scrapbook expo, no! lol. I'm super excited to see what the different exhibitors will have, and how many vendors there wil...