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...

Welcome Back! I created this card the other day for Valentines. Its probably my favorite design for Valentine's Day because, if you're like me, we don't like a lot of frilly crap on our Valentines.   Simple and clean! Three little buttons paired with divine twine - so cute! I hope you like it! Cheers, 

Hello my Lovelies! I'm so so excited to share with you some fabulous and  thrilling news! Today is the release of three awesome brand new sets, Free Your Imagination , Immortal Love and Beauty is Art from Visible Image . I used the Free Your Imagination set to create a crow card. I stamped the gorgeous bird images and distressed the edges of each selected paper before adhering them down. To add dimension I popped the main images off of the background. I used the beautiful script from the set for my inside inscription and layered with some matching paper. This release is truly a lot of fun. The images are so versatile!! Interested in seeing what everyone else on the Visible Image Design Team has created? Check out the Visible Image blog and have a gander!! You may purchase any of the Visible Image stamps that you have seen in this post from right  HERE . Want to play along with our challenges? Stay up-to-date on current info? Join o...

We all know how hard it can be to make the perfect card for the boyfriend, Dad, brother, brother-in-law or just about any guy in your life. Let's face it, it can be a real challenge to create that special greeting with just enough of a masculine touch that he feels comfortable receiving it as a gift! Well, fear not! Your prayers for a fun and masculine rubber stamp set have been answered! And the best part? There's more than one set to choose from! Visible Image Stamps has been creating hand-poured, high quality photopolymer stamps since 2004 and has a number of great masculine images to choose from. For this card I used the Heavy Metal set and the Handy Hints set. You can purchase these sets individually, or they are also available for a multibuy package, in which you receive Heavy Metal, Handy Hints and the Painted Wood set as well. I have embossed both the sentiment and the steel image to add texture to this otherwise rather plain card. I wanted to keep it...

I created this card from Graphic 45 Papers because I adore the vintage and steampunk themes. This isn't full-on steampunky, but I think its enough of a vintage feeling that you get the idea and the vibe.     This friendship greeting sold today and my customer mentioned that it is somewhat reminiscent of a steampunk-themed wedding she produced the floral arrangements for. I was pleased, since that was the feeling I was going for! Michelle also mentioned that in her arrangements for the wedding that she used a lot of feathers, peacocks and otherwise, a deep deep red and a crisp white with cogs and gears. So I think this was pretty right on for what I was aiming for! What do you think of this card? I loved making it! I adore Graphic 45. I should use more of their papers. I've only ever used their pieces for making cards. Does anyone out there in bloggerland use Graphic 45 for anything else? Scrap projects or dimensional projects? Wha...

Today's post is especially for the dudes. :-) I thought that this set from Visible Image Stamps was perfect for a little 'Mr. Handy' Birthday card. The main theme, other than tools, for this card is embossing. I love encouraging my customers to touch and feel the cards! The metal plate rubber stamp that I used for this birthday card is from the Heavy Metal stamp set , however there is a new background stamp, Metal Plate , that is larger than the one offered in the Heavy Metal Stamp set. Its brand new so check it out! ... I had some fabulous grey paper for the metal background! The metal plate is accented with four grommets and popped off the page with dimensionals for depth.  I wanted to incorporate white again on top of the grey, so I stamped out the drill from  Heavy Metal stamp set , covered it in opaque white embossing powder, heated it and popped it off the metal plate with dimensionals after I cut it out.  Visible Image ...

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!