When in Rome

Hello Peeps

I was going through some photos the other day and realised I had not shown you guys these two layouts!  Not sure why or how I missed them so here they are......

Two layouts for which I used photographs of Hubby and I when we were in Rome.  The one of Hubby is named "I Simon" as in "I Claudius"!!  You can see the Forum in the background, as that is where we were! 

The title was cut on my Silhouette cutter.

And a little close up of some of the details.  Those stars were actually on the paper strip that you get on the edge of the papers!  Waste not want not!

And here is yours truly at the Coliseum.  I could not get over how big that building was.  I know you see pictures of it (The Italian Job!) but you cannot get an idea of just how big it is. 

Another title cut on my Silhouette!  Vidi (I came), Veni (I saw), Visa (I spent)!! You can always find room for string on a layout!

Some of the details and more string!

These papers are not my usual type but pretty nonetheless.  Thanks to Penny and Ally for the layouts.  These were started on the Retreat in February but not quite finished until recently!  

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment so I know you have been.  

Have a great (if wet) weekend!

TTFN

Hettie.

WOYWW 160 - Sorry I am Late Miss

Hello there Peeps

Today is Wednesday and I had every good intention of posting my desk up nice and early this morning for the weekly WOYWW blog hop, but I truly have extenu exenu errrr special circumstances.  Miss! I woke up early and for some reason I immediately looked at my phone and saw a text message which started sorta......."don't panic but....had a bit of a mishap...."!  My day got changed!  I drove down to Morriston Hospital, Swansea, where Hubby had been taken, to meet up with him and wait........

I will spare you the gorey details but his index finger is now 1/2" shorter than it was when he went to work yesterday evening!  

So now we are safely back at home I can now post my desk up for all to see....

Urm, my clock was correct (but then if it had stopped it would be correct twice a day!), those are holly leaves from the Tim Holtz lamppost die for my Chris Rudolph Day cards HERE (I still have the other six to do!), red Liquid Pearls from making the berries on the holly leaves, bits of red card left over and ready to make the next cards, the card on the right just above the die is from Karen in Canada, in which was my WOYWW ATC, the photo to the left of that is one of my Father-in-Law, which I got out to scrapbook, post it pad to mask off the sides of the cards I am making and some string next to my distress applicator spinner - always useful string!

So, there you have my desk today.  Not sure it will be changing much tonight as I just want to sit with a cup of tea in a real bone china mug and do some blog hopping via the lovely Julia!

Oh! and a special thanks to the guys and gals at Morriston Hospital.  They were rather great and looked after us well.

TTFN

Hettie


P.S.  If you are looking for Monkey, he is sat on my other desk waiting for me to start machine sewing again! He likes watching the sewn fabric coming through the machine!! Honest!

Rudolph Day and Snippets!

Hello Peeps! 

Phew made it!!  Ever have those evenings (or days) when nothing seems to be "with" you?  Well I have had one this evening. 

I desperately wanted to get my Rudolph Day cards on my blog tonight and when I saw my Buddy Sandra's post this morning I was relieved to find I only needed six cards as I was trying to get 12 ready!  When you see them you will realise why!  Nothing went right for me this evening, but I did finally manage to get in my room and finish six cards, photograph them and I can now show them to you. 

Here they are.....

Do you remember last month I said I wanted to make a set for a raffle prize?  Well here are the first six!!  I will hopefully finish the rest later this week!

Don't forget that you can play along too so why not make six Rudolph Day cards (not allowed to mention the "C" word!) to enter the challenge and link your post to Sandra here.  The Lovely Di, our Playground Leader,  has given a prize for those that link up and take part in the challenge.  Also, as I have used all Snippets I can also link my cards up to the Snippets Playground.  This is a great way of reducing the Snippets mountain!!

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment so I can pop and see what you are up to.

Hugs

Hettie

CC2C - The Time of my Life!

Good Evening Peeps

How are you all on this lovely Sunday evening.  What a day we have had here in South Wales today.  

The Lovely Linda over at 3Ls has given us an extra week to complete the Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge No. 10 so I have now been given a chance to join in.  I had a rather hectic week starting with two wonderful days in London to celebrate my birthday.  We had Tea at The Ritz followed by an evening at the Theatre to see The Phantom of the Opera.  What a way to celebrate my birthday with my lovely cousin Tracey!  

So in honour of my birthday trip to London and in thanks to my wonderful friend Sandra who sent me a wonderful set of Stampin' Up stamps for my birthday present here is my tag for this Challenge.......

The lovely peeps over at The Funkie Junkie's Boutique are sponsoring the Challenge this week with a prize of $25 to the lucky winner so why not join in?

I still don't have the Tim Holtz tissue wrap so I used some more of the tissue pattern which I used for the Challenge a few weeks ago, but I have now got some on order as I know I will have some fun with it!  Thanks Linda for making me spend yet more money!!  (As if I need encouragement!)

The tag was first stamped with embossing ink and clear embossing powder, then inked with Adirondack Lettuce and a wetwipe along with Mustard seed, Dusty concord and spritzed with some water.  I stamped some smaller flowers with Archival ink (purple) and Peeled paint and embossing powder. I used some distress ink reinker/perfect pearls to spray some colour on the flower (one I had used in a previous Challenge). Some gold "pollen" in the centre of the flower and a small piece stamped with a Paperartsy sentiment and some leaves cut with Paperartsy leaf die.  

Some Snippets are in there there so I will enter it into the Playground!

Thanks for looking and hope you like and please do not forget to leave me a comment so I know you have been and so I can pop and visit your blog too!

Hugs

Hettie

Friday Snippets - One for Mum

Hello Lovely Peeps

Things have been a bit topsy turvy this last week and I am trying desperately to get back on a level footing again.  So I thought I would get back on the straight and narrow by posting the card I made for my Mum last week.

I bought this stamp with my Mum in mind as she has Hunka Munka from about the 1950s when these first appeared and is my Mum's favourite Beatrix Potter story.  When it came to Mum's birthday I forgot where I had put the stamp so made her something different.  However, I came across the stamp and as my Mum has not been feeling very well lately I thought I would make her a card "just because"!

Just made with some scraps left over from a scrapbook layout (not yet shared that one with you!) and surprise surprise I have used the pop up form which, as you may be aware, I love! 

I am linking it with our Playground Leader, Di, as it is made from scraps.  And I had a lovely surprise today when I discovered that I was lucky enough to be drawn from her basket to win some Promarkers.  That was a perfect end to my lovely week!  Thanks Di.  I hadn't realised it before as I was packing my case to go away on Sunday evening (when I normally look at the Roll Call) and went to bed early (I had a 4am start on Monday!).  I will be calling by later this evening to see you all so stand by your beds!

Hugs

Hettie

It's All Mine! - Scrapbook Layout

Hello Peeps

Sorry I have not been around much this last week, but I have been in London for a few days having a fabulous time with my lovely cousin Tracey.  I feel absolutely spoilt and did not want the two days to end but end it had to and now things are a little more back to normal (whatever that is!).

I missed out on the WOYWW yesterday as I was shattered from Tuesday, having walked most of London and then arriving back home very late and having to go to work on Wednesday.  I will share more of London with you hopefully tomorrow.  But for now I wanted to share with you a layout which I have completed recently.  

This is Hubby on his birthday two years ago.  The cake is one I made for him and in that box on the table is a canvas which I made for him to go in his play shed!  Perhaps I should take some pictures of it and show you as it was a fun piece to make!

Not quite sure of the papers but the vine was made using a vinyl type fabric and a Sizzix die. The circle was cut out using templates.  Punches were used on the edges.

This layout was not made using snippets but I did create quite a few so expect to see some cards being made soon to join the Snippets Playground!  

Please leave a comment so I know you have been.

Woo Hoo - Friday tomorrow and I guess the weekend weather is not set to improve!  Typical as I am supposed to be dancing in the grounds of Christ College, Brecon on Saturday.  Guess it will be in the scout hut!!

Hugs

Hettie

It is Friday - so why not have a joke?

This is for you Sandra!!  And of course, anyone else who finds themselves here!!

This was an e-mail that was sent to me the other day, and I thought I would share it with all my lovely followers and blogging friends!

Enjoy!!

Farmer John lived on a quiet rural highway.
But as time went by, the traffic slowly built up and became so heavy and so fast

that his chickens were being run over at a rate of three to six a day.

So one day Farmer John called the local police station and said,

"You've got to do something about all of these people driving so fast and killing my chickens."

"What do you want us to do?" asked the policeman.
"I don't care, just do something about those crazy drivers!"
So the next day the policeman had the Main Road ’s workers
go out to erect a sign that said:

SLOW: SCHOOL CROSSING


Three days later Farmer John called the policeman and said,
"You've got to do something about these drivers. The ‘school
crossing' sign seems to make them go even faster!"
So, again, the policeman sends out the Main Roads workers’
and they put up a new sign:

SLOW: CHILDREN AT PLAY

That really sped them up. So Farmer John called and
called and called every day for three weeks.
Finally, he asked the policeman, "Your signs are doing no
good at all ... can I put up my own sign?"

The policeman said, "Sure, go ahead."
He was willing to let Farmer John do just about anything
in order to get him to stop calling to complain.


The policeman got no more calls from Farmer John .
Three weeks later, curiosity got the best of the policeman
and he decided to give Farmer John a call. “ How’s the
problem with those drivers. Did you put up your sign?"

"Oh, I sure did,” replied Farmer John , ”and not one chicken
has been killed since then. I've got to go. I'm very busy."
He hung up the phone.

The policeman was really curious and he thought to himself,
"I'd better go out there and take a look at that sign … it might
be something that WE could use to slow down drivers."

So he drove out to Farmer John 's house, and his jaw dropped
the moment he saw the sign.

It was spray painted on a sheet of wood....
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NUDIST COLONY
Go slow and watch out for chicks!

Keep Smiling .....

CC2C Week 9 - Fob Watch

Good Evening Peeps

Not sure about you, but we are having an absolutely awful shower of rain tonight.  As I sit here I can hear the rain coming down outside and it sounds like a monsoon!  So much for "flaming June" ey!

I am a little late in posting my CC2C post tonight, on account of my hairdresser has been up and took longer than either her or I anticipated.  Never mind - I am still in time.

This week the Lovely Linda has asked us to decorate a  Fob Watch.   And this week the lovely guys of Simon Says Stamp are sponsoring the Challenge.

I actually have a couple of original fob watches which I have been holding on to for a long time in order to decorate so it was time to get them out of the box where they have been unloved for many years and get decorating.  First job though was to take out the original watch workings.  Thanks Hubby!  

If you have the latest Compendium of Curiosities book by Tim Holtz you will know that he shows us ideas of how to decorate one on page 35.  

Then choose a theme.  Easy.  Christmas!  Set to work........

The piece is actually silver and some of the hallmarks are inside the covers so I used my ATG to adhere the insides so that if I ever want to change the decoration I should be able to pull it out with a little effort.  The Holly is cut from the TH Lamppost die using shrink plastic, coloured with alcohol inks and shrunk.  The snowman is a stamp, coloured with Copics and adhered to a rusty heart and then add glossy accents.  

I wanted to keep the original face in the watch so I altered with a mix of Juniper and Red Pepper alcohol inks with gold and a little wheel out of the original watch.  Stamped with Crafty Individuals stamp and Ranger Archival ink, I cut out the word and covered with glossy accents with some gold micro beads added in.

Lift the clip and there we have another little cubby hole to decorate.  

A plain back with a simple word.  

Lastly the cubby hole at the back of the watch.  Santa was originally silver which I didn't like so I just topped up the alcohol inks used earlier and set to ink it.  A little brad to join the snowflake and Santa and popped in.  The same Crafty Individual stamp used earlier but different word.

The glitter paper is Snippets of K&Co papers which I had used in my Christmas album and cut out with my Nestie dies (I cannot cut a circle to save my life!).  And hey presto my fob watch has gone from unloved in a box to well loved and come the season, will be worn on a long silver watch chain (it needs cleaning from years of non-love).  If I decide not to wear it, I will put it on the Christmas tree instead!

Thanks Linda.  Love this Challenge.  I am also going to enter it into Simon Says Stamp Challenge of Anything Goes and the Snippets Challenge!

Don't forget to leave me a comment so I know you have been.

Hettie.

WOYWW 158 - ATC Reveal

Hello Peeps

Happy Wednesday to you all.  Only two days left and we hit the weekend!  Yippee!  I have a looong weekend to look forward to then too!  Off to jolly old London Town!

Well, it is that "day" again where we show off our desks and link them to the Mighty Julia and have some fun looking at others' desks.  Here is mine.....

Fairly tidy as I had just cleared up after finishing the project on the mat.  You will have to pop back if you want to see me reveal what that project is. 

And this week, now I know some peeps have received my ATC, I want to reveal mine sent and the ones I have been lucky enough to receive.  Here is mine which I sent  (or variations of).......

And here are the ones I have received so far (though I know there are still a few to come yet)......

(Glitter Grammy (my official PiF to receive from), Annie, Belinda, Jo, Karen, Ann (my PiF  to send to) and Sandra.  Thank you everyone who agreed to do a swap with me.  They are all wonderful and diverse and lovely to receive.  In fact I received Mary's and Bella's on the same day - USA and Africa!!  And a HUGE Thank You to Julia for organising it all, even if you did have to sit at a Bar to do it all!  For those of you who have received mine, please feel free to sniff the globe!!!  I know Sandra did last night and even got her husband to sniff it too!  It is "sniff art"!!  In fact it is the new "flavoured" embossing powder from Stampin' Up ordered via Sandra!  Hee Hee!  I love using that stuff as my room got to smell like cup cakes after making a few!  

Right.  Off to link up with the Lovely Julia and then take my turn in hopping around! If you leave me a message I will definitely come back to see you! 

TTFN

Hettie

Happy Birthday to my Big Brother!!

Hello Peeps

It has been three days since my last posting but I have been a bit of a busy bunny.  The only thing is I don't know quite what I have done.  Though I do know I last Saturday evening  Hubby and I were out celebrating a very Special birthday for my Big Brother.  It is actually his birthday today but you can't quite celebrate the same in the week.  Also, my niece told me that it is the Rules that if you have your birthday on a weekend then you have a "Birthday Weekend".  However, if your birthday falls in the week you get to have two "Birthday Weekends"!!  Woo Hoo!  Mine is on a Monday this year so I am hoping that counts as two then!

So here is my Brother's card........

Good old Penny Black!!  Every time I use this stamp I think of my brother as he was a Soldier once upon a time.  In fact, he was one of the line-up immediately outside a certain Cathedral at a certain wedding which took place in July 1981!!  He was in the Prince of Wales Regiment after all!  The paper behind the stamped image is of globes because my brother did get to travel all over the world whilst he was in the Army and stars because he is a Star to me!!  

Most of the papers were made from Snippets so I am joining this in to the Snippets Playground.  As the weather looks dry (at the moment anyway) I think I might  just go down the slide as long as someone has been down first with a towel to dry it off.  Why not join us?  Help reduce your Snippets mountain as we all have one!

Off to check on my chooks and then have a wander around some blogs as I didn't get chance last night.  Housework ey!

TTFN 

Hettie

It's Friday so Friday Snippets Time

Good Evening Peeps

Yes I know.  It is not Friday.  But you see I started the post on Friday but err, fell asleep whilst having a hug on the settee with Hubby and err, woke up on Saturday!  So I folded away the laptop and now I am posting it on Saturday night!

I have here two birthday cards, which I have made for lickle people but in different colourways.  Top one for Ryan who was two this week and the lower one for Carmen who will be 6 next week.  

As you may tell, I am now using circles!  If you know me, you will know that I cannot cut circles to save my life.  My secret??  Treated myself to a set of Nesties in, yep, you guessed it, circles!!  Lurve them!  It is great that you can line the stamping up and cut whilst seeing what you are doing!

I did buy a circle cutter a while ago, but I don't get very good results with it and am generally disappointed with it and it was not cheap :-(

Anyhoo, both designs are House Mouse stamps which were coloured using Copics (love them), stamped with a freebie from Do Crafts.  All papers came out of my Snippets box (es) so that means I get to play in the Playground with our lovely Leader Di (aka Piglet!).

Right, just come back from a fabby meal with the family for my Brother's 50th.  Will show you his card later this week!

Hugs

Hettie

Yikes - Wednesday! Really? That means WOYWW!

Hello Peeps

Well this sure has been a brilliant weekend with a fabulous spread of pomp and ceremony and good old Britishness!  However, whilst I was enjoying my little self yesterday I forgot that it was Wednesday today!  So Happy Wednesday, and Happy WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday as if you didn't know)!

I cannot show you my ATC which I made as I don't think the recipient has received  it yet and I don't want to spoil the surprise.  I can tell you I have received a few beauties today and I have a lickle project in mind for them!  We shall see what happens.

Well this week I decided it was high time I cleared my sewing machine of the blanket of dust and got stuck into the quilt I am supposed to be making for our quilting group's challenge (I have to have it finished by October - Oops!).  

No I am not making bunting!  That is Jan's job and I wouldn't like to upset her!  Hee Hee!  I am chain sewing though!

And look who has crept over from the other desk to be in the shot!  Well I wouldn't like to upset his fans now would I?

Well, regular visitors to my blog should know what to do now, take a picture of your desk and link up with the lovely Julia and join in the Wednesday madness.

I will try to get around to you in the next evening or so if I don't manage today (I am late after all). 

Hugs

Hettie

CC2C - Upcycle or Recycle?

Hello Peeps

How are you all on this damp Bank Holiday?  You can always tell a Bank Holiday in the UK - it is the one day you can almost guarantee it to rain!  Never mind, I don't think anything could dampen the spirits of those people in London today or the whole weekend.  Next time I am going - for sure!

Well, yesterday and today whilst things have been busy in London, I have been stuck (such a hardship I know) in my Craft Room and today's showing is what I have made.  Over at the Lovely Linda's we have been asked to use packaging and over at Simon Says Stamp and Show the Challenge is to show some texture so woopee! I can combine the both in this lickle project.

Here it is to begin with showing some of the items I was about to use in this project....

(Can anyone tell me what the difference is between "Recycle" and "Upcycle" please?)

Can you believe I had to drink the diet Coke in order to have a second can?  Such sacrifices I have made for the sake of art!  Here is the finished article....

The base is from a box in which some supplies came in.  

Close up of the inked and embossed flowers and flourishes.  All made from coke cans, die packaging, Prima and Anna Griffin packaging.  

All the buttons are from a tin which a friend of mine rescued from her Aunt's house when she died.

The fluffy fibres were from the same place as the box.  Every time you order from that company you have some fibres in the box which usually match the papers you have bought.  The little clip came off the scarf I bought from my favourite shop only last week.

Even the lace was given to me when I went on a retreat in Cornwall some 3 years ago

More labels from my favourite shop and some splats from Distress Stains.  The clip and Giggle tag are only two of the three bought embellishments on this layout. 

These flowers were made using Cuttlebug dies and the sleeves you get when you buy take out coffee.

And the star of the layout - Sputnik, who started out being found in a skip in Cardiff herself.  So all in all, a "Rubbish" layout!

Hope you like and please leave me a comment so I know you have been.  

I also want to say Hi to my latest follower.  Thank you for following me.

Hugs

Hettie

Edit - Woo Hoo!  Teacher over at the Playground has told me to link this to the Snippets Challenge because it is technically Snippets albeit from the Recycle Bin!!  Why don't you use up your Snippets and join us in the Playground, though most of us are on the Carousel in this yukky weather as at least there is a roof on there for us to shelter under!  

TIO Challenge - Die to Stamp!

Hello Peeps

Just a quick posting before the Jubilee Concert comes on tonight!  Looking forward to seeing Sir Paul McCartney take to the stage!! 

I have promised Helen for ages that I will join in the Tag It On Challenge and so today I have made a tag and hopefully her and the Team will like....

This tag has been embossed, sprayed with Colourwash, ironed, stamped on, distressed, inked and here it is now.

I was trying to show the shimmer of the tag here but not sure it has come out very well on camera. 

Hope you like. Why not join in.  Click HERE for instructions.

Please do not forget to leave me a comment so I know you have been.  Enjoy the Concert those of you who are watching it. 

Hugs

Hettie

Scrapbooking a Scrap 365 Lift

Hello there Peeps 

Have you been watching the Pagent today?  Wasn't it wonderful.  I thought the Queen looked absolutely fantastic and seemed to be enjoying the whole event!  I started a layout just at the beginning of the Pageant but could not take my eyes off the screen so I decided to down tools and watch it.  I wasn't disappointed and typical of the British we enjoyed it even in the rain!

So what am I going to show you today then folks?  As we have an extra long weekend and Hubby is working, I decided I was going to spend the four days working on the garden in the mornings and then scrapbook, make cards or quilt in the afternoons.  However, yesterday morning my neighbour asked me if I was attending the "Do" at the local Village Hall which I had quite forgotten about and hadn't attended the meeting some weeks ago. So I duly made a Jubilee chocolate cake and basically gatecrashed!!  I am glad I did as it really was quite good and at least I felt I was taking part in some kind of Jubilee event!  Here is the cake I made complete with some Jubilee bunting on!! 

(Not the best photo as it came off my phone!)

So when I returned home I set about doing some scrapbooking and here is my first completed layout.

I set myself some Rules for this weekend's crafting.  They were that the layouts were to be made from either kits or to include Snippets or both.  The majority of these papers are from a Cosmo Cricket kit (8x8) which I bought some time ago and include Snippets.  

There is also some spraying of TH reinkers with perfect pearls, punching, stamping, scrunching, string, distressing and die-cutting.  

I have lifted this layout from one in the Scrap 365 magazine, though theirs had 3 photos and a panel of journalling.  My panel of journalling is behind the photo on the left where you can see the tab.  When I saw the layout in Scrap 365 I knew exactly what photos I wanted to use.  

When I laid this layout out first Hubby happened to see it and said that he wished I used different photos as he hated these.  I carried on and did the layout anyway.  When he saw it complete he said he actually liked it.  I then learnt that he used to hate with a passion going to the photographers to have photos taken as his Mum and Aunt used to make a meal of the whole event and it was that which he hated!  Glad we got that sorted.  I love the jumper he is wearing - his Nana made it!  Bless!

Right, tummy is rumbling so I must get off downstairs and feed it.  This layout includes Snippets and as it is the start of the new week in the Playground I will be entering this into the pot. Why not dig into your Snippets box and join us.  We would love to see you there!

Hugs and please leave me a comment so I know you have been.  And before I go I just wish to say Hi to Annie, my newest follower.  Thanks Annie.

Hettie.