Scrapbook Tuesday...WaTer on Tuesday...

Hello

 

Yikes!  I better get a shuffle on while it is still Tuesday!  As we had a Bank Holiday last weekend, I planned to catch up on some sleep and have a play in my room.

 

I am not showing you the evidence of my sleep catch up but I will show you what I made in my room....

It has been ages since I did a scrapbook layout and I really enjoyed this one...

 

Aren't these die cut flowers darling?  This is a NBUS  Poppystamps die and was bought for me by a Special Friend.  You know who you are.  Now you know for sure that I love it.  I coloured them with Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, Abandoned Coral (NBUS), Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, and Pine Needles DIs.  I also cut some MB flowers used with the gutted piece of background.  Some of the flowers to the left of the photo are Prima, some punched card and manipulated and one is layered paper flowers, spritzed, scrunched over a brad and prayed with Brushos when dry.  Things I do for a layout ey!!

These pink flowers are ancient.  Heidi Swapp bought from a craft show many moons ago.  The corner is a Susan Wilson die.

The papers are MME and ...oh darn I forgot.  There are also lots of Snippets used.  This butterfly was "borrowed!" at a retreat several years ago and has been nestling in my Tin of Shame. 

The letters were cut on the Cricut.  I glossy accented them and sprinkled some micro beads on them, as well as the centres of my die cut flowers.

This red flower is a brad by Tilda (NBUS again) which I bought when I saw them in a shop in Prague.  I really didn't expect to see brads in a fabric shop in Prague!!!!

 

 

Right, it is still Tuesday so I am joining Elizabeth for her T on Tuesday, though I am upping my water intake for May as I am conscious I don't drink enough.  Joining the Girlies on the swings at the Snippets Playground too.

 

If you think you may have seen this photo before, you are right.  I scrapped the same some time ago.  However, last year I entered it into my work's Wildlife Photography Competition and it won!! Well, I had to scrap it again as it was a shame to waste the photograph. 

 

Thanks for calling by.

 

Hugs

xx

Tea on Tuesday - T is for BeauTiful.

Hello there

I hope you all had a beautiful weekend over the Bank Holiday weekend?  I sure did for most of it.  I decided it would be a computer free time as I spend so long all day on my work computer and then a few hours in the evening, the sun was out to play and I was going to enjoy it.

Now it is Tuesday, and time to share a cuppa with my friend Elizabeth.

Now regulars will know I usually share a scrapbook project with you.  However, today I am going to share something that will no doubt turn into a scrapbook project.  The mug is a bit of a clue.....

It is actually one of Mr Hettie's Sophie Allerton mugs, which he let me borrow for my share today. What am I showing you?  Something wonderful from late yesterday afternoon.  Mr Hettie opened up our bee hive....

Some propalis honey in the making there.  This was the first time I was able to spot it.

Some capped honey ready for us to extract in the next week or so....

We took the frame below out for a few moments and the bees came up for a looksie...

Now this is a frame with egg cells on.   No if you look closely towards the top, about a third of the way down you will see a little black spot poking out.....

Here it is before the....

And now....  Yes.  We got to witness a bee emerging from its cell!  It is the one on the left here.  What a wonderful sight to capture.  Mr Hettie thinks it is a drone as it is substantially larger than the other bees, though not big enough to be a new Queen.  I feel so honoured that we were able to see it and on an occasion when I remembered to take the camera with me.

And here I am in my finery!  That is the Chicken Run behind me!

I hope you enjoyed sharing this with you and no doubt you will see a scrapbook project using these photos.

Hugs

Hettie

Scrapbooking Tuesday - Live in the Moment...

Hello there Friends

I am afraid due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to share a Layout/scrapbook page with you last Tuesday, but I hope you will forgive me when you see what I have brewed up for you today!  You may want a cuppa as it is a bit of a heavy post.....

I am using my lovely new "the Sweetest Thing" papers and stamps by MME.  Awesome papers and I was sensible enough to buy the 12x12", 6x6" and stamps that all co-ordinate bootifully!  

So I started with a fairly plain sheet which I sprayed with a mix of Colourwash (Cranberry and Plum), Perfect Pearls Mist (Forever red) and Glimmer mist (Gold).  

I took another piece which has a pinky damask background and my honeycomb mask and Distress Inks (Festive Berries and Picked Raspberry) and adhered it to the centre of the background piece.

Then came the fun part..... I die cut, electronic cut and "fiddle-farted" with flowers to my heart's content.  I used some of the pieces left from the centre panel, some of the 6x6" paperstock, plain white card stock and some Snippets to make flowers, leaves and more flowers!  I cut some of the flowers out on the Silhouette using plain white cardstock as well as some print 'n' cut flowers and the pink rose picture.  The flowers I put together with my glue gun and then sprayed them with the same mix of colourwash and glimmer mists that I used on the background.  

I die cut lots of the flowers and leaves using printed papers from the collection and also my Snippets box.  Dies used ranged from Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, Sizzix and Paperartsy.  The cream doily pieces were cut from Snippets which my friend Kim thought would be funny to send to me at Christmas with a whole pile of other Snippets!  See! They do get used!!

I used very few bought embellishments other than four teeny tiny paper flowers by Hero Arts, the metal TH embellishment, two TH buttons (very stingy with those buttons!) and the pearl brads.  

The bees were stamped using the stamps from this range with Momento ink, embossed with clear embossing powder, coloured yellow with a Copic pen and then washed with pearl PP.  I then cut them out and added them on to the layout with foam pads to (hopefully) make them look like they had just landed.

Here you can see the depth of the flowers.  This one at the bottom right was made with a die I bartered for at the Crop with Debs!!  It is my newest die and I Love it!!!

Here is another view so you can see the depth of the layout.  Let me tell you, I will not be crushing this into an album!  I shall be taking a trek to a well known Hobby shop to buy a frame.  The colours match our bedroom and this is one of my favourite Photographer photos (scanned and converted into black and white).  Megan broke free from the Bridesmaids and wanted Uncle Simon to pick her up!!  Of course he obliged!  (She is 25 this year!!  Scary!!)

The centres of the flowers were glued and then red and gold micro beads were sprinkled liberally inside.  

And isn't this lace divine?  I bought it a little while ago from HERE and I have not used it until now as it is soo gorgeous!  I don't want to use it all up too quickly now do I?

Well, sorry this is a bit of a long post and thanks for staying with me thus far.  I hope you have enjoyed it and if you wish to know anything about what I have done, please feel free to ask.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges.....

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Snippets

Frilly and Funkie - Sunday Share - Lace (go check out the shop - I dare you not to buy anything!)

Fashionable Stamping - Something new

Hugs

Hettie

xxx

Honey for the Honeymoon....

Hello There Friends

And a special Helloooo to Debra and welcome to my little blog.  Thank you for following me.

Sorry I have been absent, but things have been a little hectic in the Hettie household of late.  Mum is still in hospital.  Unfortunately during her stay some nasty kind so and so sat between Mum and the next patient, whilst visiting the next patient with a bad case of Flu and has passed it on to Mum, who like me is susceptible to these kinda things and now has a chest infection on top of the kidney infection she went in with.  As you may imagine, this has upset her just a tiny bit!  NOT!  This also means that I am not able to go visit now in case I pick anything up.  Honestly some people ey!!

On top of that I have been visiting our local hospital too, but I shall maybe tell you about that another time!

Right then.  On to today's post.

As you will know from previous posts recently, we have had a family Wedding recently whereby my Nephew got married.  Well, as Bee Keeper of the family we had to give some Honey to the Honeymooners.  However, I could not find a honey jar locally that I liked so I got to do my own jar instead.

I took a standard Kilner jar and decorated it.  Why not?  The papers used are the MME The Sweetest Thing range in 6x6".  Dies used are Memory Box which I bought at Ally Pally.  Let me just tell you, those Bees are little buggers blighters to make!!!

Any excuse to get the alcohol inks out to make a tag for the jar using memory glass and the stamps that came with the papers.  Well, it would have been rude not to buy them too (and the 12x12" papers of course!)

Here is the top of the jar, which I used some Spellbinders dies.

Don't you just love this ribbon?  My Buddy brought that back from USA for me, though I have since found a source fairly locally.

I raided the Snippets Box for some white pieces of cardstock for the Bee wings and also raided my ribbon and fibre basket so I shall take this to the Playground to share around.  Knowing my Nephew the honey is all gone by now.  I know Miss is a little partial to our Honey too so I may be forgiven for missing class this week!!

Can you just say a prayer for our bees right now?  They are not having a good time of late and what with the recent weather  they are really struggling.  

I hope you are having a good weekend so far.  I understand the weather in the UK is great for scrapbooking/quilting/sewing/card making so off you go!  

Hugs

Hettie

Mr Hettie's Birthday Card and some new Goodies

Hello Peeps

Well, where did that weekend go?  Sunday evening with three weeks' ironing done and nearly time to go to bed ready for work in the morning!

Now when I came home from Ally Pally, I did not take a photo of my buys and a few peeps have been asking me what I bought.  So I thought I would show my buys as I use things. Don't feint, but I put everything away in their new homes, like a good girl.  I even sorted my stamps out into alphabetical order on my twirly thing!!  I know....don't feint now!

So, this photo shows four things I bought at Ally Pally.  The stencil, the scraper and the texture paste and they are all sitting on my shiny new glass mat - a super large glass mat  Brilliant purchase and a bargain too!  A bit of a bind getting it home on the train but worth it! As for the stencil...who could resist a tree of butterflies?!!

Now on the following Sunday morning I decided to try the paste using a brass stencil that was still in its packet and was purchased at least 12 years ago, way before we ever had bees!  I picked up a Snippet of dark Bazzill card that was hanging around on my desk and set to it.

So here is what I made using the stencil and paste.  Now I know I need to buy some more fine glitters!  The yellow background was made from a piece out of the Snippets box stamping it with cobalt Archival ink using a Penny Black stamp which I bought on that famous auction site!

Here you can see the lovely schparkle of the glitter.  The white paste is pearlescent so has a sheen also.  Woo hoo!  Another string to my bow!!

Right then, off to the Snippets Playground for a hot chocolate, cwtch and bedtime story from Miss Di!

Hugs

Hettie

Scrapbooking Layout - Too Busy to Notice

Hello Bloggers

Well, I had a whole heap of plans for what I was going to achieve today but so far I have only managed one!  Best laid plans.... springs to mind.  However, what I have achieved I am very happy with and I will share with you tomorrow.  But for now I thought I would share a layout from PB days!  No.  Not Penny Black but Pre-Blogging days.  They seem such a long time ago but in reality they aren't that long!

These photos were taken when I went on a retreat in Cornwall with Linda at Just Scrapbooking.  I arrived the afternoon before the retreat was due to start as it was a 5 hour drive and I didn't want to be worried about getting there on time and I also wanted some rest before I started.  So after Dinner I went for a wander in the gardens and sure enough a photo opportunity presented itself!

Hope you like.....

Funny enough this was before we had our bees!  Thanks to my little notebook I can tell you I completed this layout on 20th July 2010.

Back to work tomorrow and scary thought.....this is the last Bank Holiday until December 25th!  

Have a great week everyone!

Hugs

Hettie

CC2C 15 - SSS - Honeycomb Sentiment

Hello Bloggers

Before I start my post today, I just would like to say a huge Congratulations to the British Team for all their achievements in the small event which is taking place over here called the Olympics.  You have all done a wonderful job regardless of whether you have achieved medals.  Well done boys and girls.  You are doing the country proud!  I have never enjoyed an Olympic event so much as I am this time. It may be possibly due to it all taking place in sociable hours!

Right, little ramble over, now I want to show you my latest piece of work for the Lovely Linda’s Compendium of Curiosities II Challenge as well as the Simon Says Stamp for this week.

Linda has asked us to turn to Tim Holtz’s book II at page 56 and make a piece using that technique.  As it happens, I had recently bought a new set of embossing folders which were dying to break free of the packaging and on Tuesday a new stamp arrived, which I had ordered.  So an idea was born to create this……  

The background was inked using Distress Inks (Wild Honey, Forest Moss, Rusty Hinge and Brushed Corduroy), spritzed with a little water and then stamped with a flurry of stamps (Hero Arts, Penny Black, Paperartsy, Blade Rubber).  The background for the sentiment was inked up and again spritzed, the sentiment stamped with Archival (coffee) and then embossed with clear embossing powder.

My Bees were stamped onto grungepaper using black Archival ink, embossed with clear embossing powder.  The bodies were coloured using Distress markers (Wild Honey) and the wings were painted using Pearl Perfect Pearls and waterbrush.   When I got home from work last night, Hubby had been decanting our first crop of honey into jars during the afternoon.  Mmmmmn!  Beautiful Honey on toast!  Perhaps that is why I love using these Bee stamps so much! 

I mounted the black cardstock onto canvas board, a little washi tape around the edge and then layered all the elements on top, punched hanging holes using Crop a dile and then wired the hanger, and added a little fluff to the wires and applied a liberal amount of Gold Glimmer Mist over the whole piece.  (Well!  Team GB did get two lovely gold medals yesterday didn't we!)

Simon Says Stamp is looking for sentiments so I am entering this piece in there too. 

Thanks for looking and please sign in to the Visitor’s Book so I know you have been.  Gotta love comments!

TTFN

Hettie

Thank You and Get Well - Snippets

Hello Lovely Bloggers

Well, here we are in July and no change to the weather and no sign of Summer 2012 yet!  Never mind, we still have August and September to look forward to!

I wanted to make Hubby a Get Well card and a card for my dear Friend last week, and now I know both have received their cards I can now post them for you to see.  First is Hubby's......

From the photo it looks that the sentiment "Feel better soon" is wonky but I can assure you it isn't in the flesh, so to speak.

Here is my friend's card......

Both cards were made using a Sizzix die, the book pages were from a French novel which I bought at a Charity shop, the bees are from Jo Copper-Sandon's stamp (well, it is mine really as I bought them, but Jo designed them!), not sure what make the chicken wire stamp is, the sentiments were from SU, Hero Arts and K & Company.  The ribbon was brought back from USA and this is its first outing.  It cost a small fortune so I am limiting its use!

As they were made using Snippets I can have a play in the Playground.  Why not join us?  Liberate your snippets pile, make a card or layout or anything else you wish and link up with the Playground Keys Keeper and you too can play.  Anyone joining me on the monkey bars?

Please don't forget to sign in the visitor's book so I know you have been and then I can pop over to your blog!

TTFN 

Hettie

CC2c- Bees in My Garden!!

Good Evening Peeps

For anyone who has popped over here to see what I am showing you in my Scrappy Tuesday session, well I am afraid that for this week it will be a Scrappy Tuesday on Thursday!  The reason being is I have been working (albeit slowly) on my latest lickle project for my CC2C with the Lovely Linda.  Also, I wanted to try and tie in this week's piece with Sarah over at Mojo Monthly, as well as  Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes as it has Snippets in there I can join in on  Di's Snippets Challenge.  So for once you have a four for one on this piece.   

I cannot tell you exactly what the challenge is with the CC2C Challenge, week 5, other than it involves Shattered Stains and can be found on page 48 in the new Compendium of Curiosities.  You may remember I had a go at this technique when I undertook the Creative Chemistry Course recently and absolutely LOVED this technique.  So when Linda announced on Friday that this was this week's challenge I put my thinking cap on and decided to try out a little theory which popped into my mind a few weeks after the Creative Chemistry course.  This was that I if I stamped an image using Archival ink I could maybe use a wash made with Perfect Pearls and water to colour an image in, to make a flimsy wing type colour for Bee wings.  Well, I have tried it and I like the effect.  Let me know what you think please. I should also mention that this week's Challenge for CC2C is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!

The background to this piece is a canvas base which I have coloured using Mustard Seed DSs, and Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey DIs.  Edged with black and then the edges covered with papers stamped with my small Bee stamp and grunged using a piece of metal mesh which I "acquired" when I was in the shed some time ago.  Not sure if Hubby notices it has gone yet!  Shhh!  

I cut a piece of cardstock to size and used the Wrinkle Free Distress technique with the spritz and flick (love doing this too!) to obtain colour and depth to the piece.  Using Black Soot DI to stamp various flowers and flourishes and Archival to stamp the Dragonflies (first outing for them!).  I then adhered the background piece to the canvas.  

Using various different pieces of patterned paper (mainly snippets left over from the layout I showed you last Tuesday), cardstock and book pages, I used punches and dies to create (loads and loads of) flowers and leaves in order to make flowers with layers.  I inked most of them (when don't I ink ey?) and I scrunched, frilled and generally manipulated them until I got them in the shapes I wanted.  I then adhered them together using glossy accents and finished them off by adding a bottle cap with a punched middle, adding glossy accents before adding micro beads to the centres.  

To make the bees look like they are hovering I cut up small pieces of wood (you know those little pieces of wood you get with the canvas to wedge it?  well I sawed those up into little pieces), adhered them together with glossy accents and attached them to the canvas and adhered the bee to the wood using foam dots.  

To make the quotation, I inked up a piece of A4 cardstock about 3" and typed up the verse on my computer and printed on top of the coloured paper.  The reason I did it this way is I have learnt (the hard way) that if you print a sentiment and then ink it with DIs it smudges, even when I have tried heat setting it first.  Therefore, I colour first and print second.  It might not be the case for everyone but it is for my printer (HP)!

Well, I can honestly say I have had a few fun filled hours of learning and playing with this piece and have had a lovely piece to give to my Bee Keeping Husband to go in the porch.  

Please leave me a comment so I know you have Bee-n!  Why don't you join in the Challenges too!  

Hugs

Hettie

Ingredients:- Papers - Authentique, MME, Bazzill, Old books; Ranger/Tim Holtz - black Archival ink, pearl Perfect Pearls, Rock Candy Distress Crackle, Stamps, Glossy Accents, Distress Stains; Mustard Seed, Peeled paint, Distress Inks; Black soot, Wild honey, Rusty hinge, Vintage photo, Spiced marmalade, Mustard seed, Crushed olive (my latest favourite!), Antique Linen; Stamps - Paperartsy, Jo Capper-Sandon Stampotique, Autumn Leaves; Micro beads - Art van Go; Beer bottle caps; Recycled chipboard; Punches - Stampin Up, Martha Stewart; Dies - Tim Holtz, Paperartsy, Sizzix.

Buzzzzzzz!! Scrapbook Layout

Good Evening Peeps

I thought that I would share with you another one of my layouts from the Retreat which I went to recently.  The subject is one of Hubby's Bees which he photographed in February last year.  The white in the background of the photograph are the snowdrops which were out at the time.  Hope you approve....

I am sorry I cannot tell you any details of the paper make but you may recognise them as some of the papers from which I created the Snippets for my card which I posted yesterday.

I hope you are having a great crafty weekend.  Today I attended a quilting workshop  where we worked on a block with a fabulous technique which I will, of course, share with you just as soon as it is finished enough for me to show you.

I understand the weather forecast for tomorrow is great if you are in a drought area and fantastic if you were thinking of having a crafting day!  What a shame!!  Guess you will find me in my room!!  (Yeay! Doing the Happy Dance!!!)

TTFN

Hettie

Bee Mini Album

Good Evening Peeps

I hope it has been a good day for you all and the weather has been kind to you.  It certainly has been a lovely sunny day in South Wales, not that I got chance to see much of it being a working day!

For those of you who follow WOYWW you will remember that I was making a Mini Album for my Hubby who is a Bee Keeper, and that I promised that I would show it to you.  Well, after sorting through some photos on my computer to upload for printing I came across the pictures of the Bee Album and remembered that I have never put it on here for you all to see so here it is....

I have used a plethora of techniques ,most of which were from from Tim Holtz' Compendium book.  The papers were MME Stella Rose and also papers created by leaving card in the bottom of my spraying box!!  Stamps are a mixture of Tim Holtz, Stampotique, Paperartsy, Hero Arts and Blade Rubber Stamps.  I have also used embossing folders by Tim Holtz, too many DIs to list, Perfect Pearls and gold embossing powder.  The tags were made using a Tim Holtz die (well worth it's weight in gold as I don't have to keep buying tags).  Ribbons, buttons and bling from stash and bound with my BIA.  I have also used my Silhouette for a few bits and pieces as well as Martha Stewart punches.

I do hope you have enjoyed seeing the finished album as much as Hubby enjoyed seeing it when he opened it on his birthday.  I also would like to thank my sister for giving me the idea of a "Quote Book" when I asked her for a suggestion.  I just adapted it to a Bee Quote Book.  The quotes I found on the Internet!

Please don't forget to leave me a comment so I know what you think of my little album!

Happy Crafting!!