Rachael's Handmade Designs

I'm currently working on my home, upgrading here and there and adding touches that I love. A few weeks back I  installed kitchen cafe curtains (sewed them myself!) and as a simple decorative touch I added one of those retro three arm towel racks above the sink.  I found a delicate pillowcase that had embroidery on it that I loved and cut it down to tea towel size.  I've been displaying this on the towel rack ever since. This also gave me an idea.  Embroidery is cheap, easy and fun (seriously, the floss is practically next to nothing and you can get a whole pack of all sorts of colors at Joann's for less than $10) and, even though I've never done embroidery before, when I was little I did cross stitch, which is kind of the same thing.  Well, I've seen tea towels on etsy that women have embroidered and I absolutely love them. But lets be real - I'm not going to spend $35 plus shipping for a stinking tea towel!  And besides, personal crafts are...

I'm not usually a football fan, but I like to support the home team. So when the Hawks got to the 49'ers game I thought, "well, this game decides who goes to the superbowl, so what the hell?" and I watched. After we won and I found out a friend of mine was going to the superbowl, I made this little card for her to commemorate her trip! She said it was great fun and unlike anything that she'd ever experienced! What do you think of the card? She sure loved it! (I got the idea from Impress - they always have cute ideas!) Hope it brought a smile to your face! :) Cheers!

This happy little card has just been freshly listed in the shop! This card was so much fun to create! I think rainy-themed cards or Seattle-themed cards have been my favorite to create with lately. They're so much you can do with them, and I keep adding to my rubber stamp collection with rain-accessories, so that works out well for me I guess! :) This card features a new stamp I just purchased to work with the umbrella I paired it with and my other rainy/Seattle-themed stamps. I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I added some liquid applique to the top of the umbrella to create a wet look! What do you think?

Welcome! Today's card is straight from the city. I found a new Space Needle stamp by Impress Stamps, paired it with a rain background also from Impress and matched that with the Big City Stamp Set from Mark's Finest Papers. After popping the little heart off the page from the Space Needle stamp, adding a sentiment and matting the entire image in grey, here you have the finished card! Its listed in my shop and available for purchase. I hope you like it as much as I do! Leave me a comment if you like it! :) Cheers!

Hello and Welcome once again! Thanks for dropping by! Today's blog post is covering what's going on in the shop. I have expanded my artistic reach into the world of mixed media and have acquired some gesso and spray inks. I've had a rather good play and these two cards are what I came up with! I'm offering two cards for the price of one. They measure 4x6 and are each provided with a crisp white envelope. Like any little piece of art, they are not perfect, but that's what makes them wonderful! Its a little difficult to tell, but the above card is blue and purple mixed spray ink.  And this one is kind of a relief blue tinted gesso of the same stencil. These little cards are great in person and they were so much fun to have a good play with! I can't wait to create more! I hope you enjoyed them! Have you worked with spray inks and/or gesso before? If you have, leave me a comment and tell me all about it! Cheers!

Hello and Welcome! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Freshly listed in the shop today is the Biker Babe greeting! Isn't she hot?! Love the mix of blue and zebra and polka dots on this card! Layering adds depth. Sparkle adds fun. :) Sexy Biker Babe Greeting Measures 4x6 and blank inside! Great for any occasion. Super fun and appropriate for a man or woman. Perfect for the non-prude. :) Cheers!

Today's card is One for the Boys! Masculine cards are difficult for me, but I love this image by Kenny K. Its perfect for those punk little fuckers that you love to hate! :-) Just kidding!!     This was the first time that I've ever done a sk8ter boi card. :) Also, the first time I got to use my new Spellbinders nestability to create the die cut!   I love how the die turned out and I was able to create a concrete look using silver metalic paper (don't try to distress it! the ink will never dry!) and layer the papers to create depth.  I even had the chance to write in creamy white on the brick wall.  Originally I wanted to use my silver sharpie for a spray paint effect, but I couldn't find it. I cut the little skater dude out after coloring him with my copics, popped some rivets on the die cut and used some dimentional stickies to pop the little guy off of the brick wall, leaving his hand just just be glued. I also put some di...

Hello and Happy Happy Saturday! I'm so excited about this week's challenge - its so much FUN! This week's challenge is the Avengers or Superheros. I haven't seen The Avengers, so I chose to run with the Superhero theme, which is great because its the perfect theme for a masculine card. So you can see I'm pretty excited to share this new card with you!  And so, without further ado, here's what I created! I hope you enjoy this masculine superhero handmade card! Please leave me a comment and don't forget to follow this blog! :) Cheers! Xo 

Here's this week challenge from Speedy Fox and Friends. Recipe cards are so difficult for me! This one was: use 1 paper, two colors and three embellishments. Easy, you think. Yikes, when I sat down to play, my mind went blank. Zip, zilch. Nothin'. But, I think it turned out pretty well! I have another recipe card blog hop on Wednesday November 28th, so if you're interested in playing along you should sign up at the bombshell forum: bombshellstamps.com Thanks for stopping by! Cheers

Hello and thanks for joining me again! Today's project is for Speedy Fox and Friends Design Team at Mark's Finest Papers. The challenge was #133 - Add a Fence. Boy, was this card a challenge!! After rummaging around in my collection (seriously, I don't think I own a SINGLE fence item!) I finally gave up and downloaded a digital image, which worked out better than I could have imagined! I colored the image and set it aside. I matched a copic color to a color in the polka dot backgrounds and colored the rick rack ribbon with the copic marker. (As Copics are alcohol-based markers, this acts as a stain.) I then layered a brown on the polka dot paper, added the rick rack and the fence. I stamped out the small Amaryllis from the Amaryllis Definition set and colored it with Copics. I added pop dots to pop the flower off of the page. I then stamped the sentiment from the same set that reads "You make the day sparkle." Well, what do you think? Now's your chanc...

Welcome Back! I created this bright fall card using a number of different techniques.  First, I printed out the image, colored it with Copic Markers and blended. I used Copics because I wanted a nice bright color pop. Next I embossed a scrap piece of teal paper and used an orange ink pad to rub over the embossed surface of the paper. I think it adds a nice highlight to the embossing. Following that, I cut a paper doily in half and layered it on top of a piece of designer paper that I had pre-cut and distressed with walnut ink distress ink. I then popped the teal embossed paper off of the page as well as added rick rack ribbon in brown and orange. I popped the Sassy Studio Designs  image off from the embossed paper to give the card focus to her. The image I used was Pink Ribbon Sassy. What do you think? What's your favorite awareness holiday to craft for?

Hello All, Here's a tutorial for you so that you can incorporate your images into you projects in a new way! You Will Need: A plastic element of some sort (I'm using TH fragments with the tag hanging bit) A permanent black ink (I'm using Memories) Your favorite Bombshell Stamps image (I'm using one of the swallows from  Love & Luck ) Glossy Accents by Ranger Alcohol-based markers (I'm using Copics.) A heat tool Your favorite accent paper Scissors Emery board Thread or cord or a jump ring, if you wish Start out with a clean plastic surface of your element. Stamp your image. Heat dry with your heat tool. (Be wary of melting the plastic!) Whip out your copics! I'm using B34; R08; and YR04 to color my swallow. Have fun coloring! Layer colors if you like for more opacity. I have chosen to add B24 to my bird to add more depth. I found that with Copics on these fragment bits, particularly with the lighter colors, ...

Hi! A really quick and easy project that packs a lot of punch! The finished project can be used as a gift tag on a present, an accent on a page or an addition on a greeting card. This project features the  Koi Tattoo  set and is not exactly a tutorial, but just a little project for inspiration. ;-) I hope you like it. After stamping out and coloring my Koi, I started out using a plain craft tag, some no-name blue ink (to set off the orange Koi) and my brayer. I rolled the brayer in the ink on all sides to make sure I had an even application and layed down the color. I did this twice until my tag was completely covered. I cut out my Koi and placed it on the tag and stamped 'harmony". Next I used the small wave stamps from the set to create a textrued background. After gluing my koi fish down I slightly distressed the edges of the tag and added some green ribbon. You could add a little glitter to this, or perhaps some glossy accents for a wet look. Voila...

The Pin Up challenge this month is "Raise Yer Flag" as June 14th is Flag Day here in the USA. So for this challenge I decided to use the American Flag colors. Here is what I came up with. I hope you like this little card as much as I do! I used a masking technique with the Cowgirl Pin Ups set paired with a flag digital image from Bombshell . I think this is a cute card to send for the 4th! Thanks for checking in! Cheers,

Welcome Back Everyone! I wanted to share with you a card that I created recently using a sketch designed by Kathi at Bombshell Stamps. You can see all of her great sketches compiled thus far right  here ! Kathi is always creating fresh new sketches that you can play along with in the  Bombshell Forum  as well! As part of the challenge you have a chance to win something! (And really, who doesn't love free stuff?!) This card features the Bombshell Stamps  Ahoy There  set, Kathi's December 2011 Sketch and Spare Parts' teal brads. (I found mine at Hobby Lobby.) I love the detailed sparkly brad bits!! Anyways, I hope you love this sketch as much as I do. (Check out the sketch challenge in the forum! Its always fun to see what everyone comes up with!) Cheers!

Hi All and Welcome! If you're here for the Bombshell Blog Hop, you should be coming from Laura's blog.  The challenge for this hop was to make a card featuring the following colors. This was a real challenge for me! I decided to use my new set, Growing Hearts . Here's my take on the hop's card! Please let me know what you think! Leave a comment below. :-)  Now, onto Kelli's blog at ! NOTE:  If you have come to this page just out of the blue and would like to join in from the beginning of the hop, go here to join in the fun from the beginning! Blog roll: Alison Laura + Rachael's blog - you are here - + Kelli Mary G. Alaine Glittery Katie and finally, last but not least, Kathi    Have fun hopping!! Cheers, Xo, Rachael

Hi Ladies! I wanted to share with you some of my first layouts. Please keep in mind when viewing these that I *just* started scrapbooking, and although it's not really that different from cardmaking, I am truly more of a card maker at heart. ;) I know, excuses, excuses, right? :P So here's my first ever layout and they're listed in order. I think I can actually *see* the layouts progressing, can't you? lol Please leave comments and let me know what you think!!!! I'd love to get better at design elements and I'd love to hear your feedback! (not completed) Comments welcome!!! Cheers, Xo, Rachael