Au Revoir Steph...

Hello there

Lovely weather isn't it...NOT!  I took Dobby out for a walk last night.  It didn't rain on us, it just poured with water!  Both of us looked like drowned rats when we got in!!

Never mind, perhaps my colourful lickle book will cheer you up?

Whilst on leave from work, one of my colleagues left the company to join another firm a lot closer to home and nearer to her small children's schools.  So, as has now become a tradition here, I made her a lickle book for everyone to sign...

Our company colours are orange and purple so I chose the orange as one of the main colours and mixed it with black. Perfect colours for this time of the year me thinks. The covers were made using MME paper.  The large flower to the bottom right is the last one of a pack a friend of mine brought back from France for me.  The others are a mix of Papermania, Prima, Kaisercraft and die cuts.  

The two leafey fronds are cut using a TH die.

I fancied making some windmills to compliment the design on the paper, no idea why, and just fiddled with a square of paper until I was happy.  I attached them with the glue gun (which I managed to burn my fingies with - should have had adult supervision me thinks) and poked them into a TH birdcage diecut.

Now on to some inside pages...Now Steph is French, so I used some of my 7 Gypsies stamps which I won some time ago to add a little je ne sais quo (don't expect moi to spell French correctly now will you?).   What is embarrasing is that when using these I realised that some have never been used - eek!

My favourite stamp on the inside cover...

Some of the saying stamps were borrowed,from my matey.  I have also used some TH stamps, TPC Studios and others.

Some of the little strips are Snippets from my London album I made earlier this year.  Waste not want not!

 

The whole book was sprayed with some TH Heirloom gold glimmer spray.  Very shimmery which you cannot see from the photos.

I understand from the Girls in work that Steph loved her book and was a little emotional to read it in public.  That is nice to know.

I am joining in with Shopping our Stash as they are looking for Fall colours.  After seeing all the lovely oranges of trees last week then I think this is very autumny.

Right, as there are many Snippets in here I am taking this over to the Playground.  Hopefully the smell of damp souwesters will have died down now and there is some hot chocolate on the hob!

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

Funkie Junkie - 12 Tags of Christmas - No 8

Hello There Peeps

Not long now until the Big Fat Chappie with a red suit comes to visit, with presents if you are good, but coal for those who are naughty.  I am hoping for a tonne myself!! And some clementines would be welcome as we forgot them yesterday! Tee Hee!

Right then.  Onto the purpose of today's post.  I am behind on my Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge but luckily Linda is keeping it open for another two weeks.  Phew!

So here is my Tag 8......

I had an absolute ball with this one.  My favourite so far!   I just let it flow using the background that Linda showed us and snowflakes, but the rest was just fun!

Linda showed us the technique for the background which is HERE.  I don't have the Distress Paint but I carried on and used Picket Fence Distress Stain instead of paint and it worked ok for me.  The stamp I used is my Hero Arts holly stamp.  This stamp is usually a stalwart for Christmas cards but I don't think I used it this year!!!  I used a NBUS in the stamp!  I bought these last year and so far I have only used the star before. 

The sentiment is from the Artistic Outpost stamp with the TH snowflake stamp.

I coloured my Snowman with an assortment of Copics, DI (with water pen) and Distress Pens.  The nose I blinged with Schtickles and the scarf with Glossy Accents. I punched a couple of holly leaves with a Snippet of metallic green card and for holly I used schtickes again.  His body has been swooshed with Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  So shimmery though I could not capture it on the photo as I hoped.

The Snowflakes were all cut from Spellbinders die  and I added some schtickles in the centres, and that charm is one I bought in a gorgeous shop in Bath as well as the teeny tiny bell.  I used some ribbon which I coloured with distress stain.  The Let it Snow ribbon is VOS and so is that blue metallic cord.   I used some wording from TH chit chat stickers. 

I am slowly catching up.  Finished all my wrapping tonight!  Yeay!  You should see my Rudolph beers!!!  I will share later!

As I mentioned there is now more time to finish the challenge and if you have nothing else to do on Christmas afternoon after the dishes are done, why not sneak in to your craft area to join in.  There is fabulous prize which is sponsored by Funkie Junkie Boutique.  

As there are Snippets here by way of white cardstock and the green holly I am taking this over to the Snippets Playground.  The Playhouse  is looking very festive right now!

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

Funkie Junkie - Christmas Tag - Tag 3

Hello There!

Before this Challenge runs off without me I thought I had better share my third tag in this series with you.  As you know I am taking part in the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge again, having taken part last year.  As last year it is being sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique stockists of my favourite stamps and the most exquisite lace!

Rightio.  Onto the Challenge.  If you want to see Linda's Tag click HERE.  I took her idea of stars and stencils for this tag.  I realised I did not have a stencil so I made my own using my trusty Silhouette.  However, it was a long job as I have now discovered that I need a new blade.  Hurrumpf! So I ended up cutting all the perishing stars by hand.  However, I do have a fabby stencil to use again so no problemo!

I first of all stenciled ink with Brushed Corduroy DI.  Wasn't quite sure what stamp I was going to use, but when I was rummaging through I came across this stamp.  A nearly NBIS.  I inked it once to see how it was and coloured the image in pre Distress Pen and not many Copic pens days and decided it was a PITA so never used it again.  However, I now have Distress Pens and more Copics so decided to give it another go.  This time I am much happier, but if I use it on a card, it will be a special person who I give it to let me tell you!

I then worked out roughly where I was going to stamp this image and then using my stencil with some Poppy Stencils embossing paste I added more stars on and left to dry over night. Once I knew the paste was dry I stamped the image with Archival ink and then set about colouring in the image. Not the easiest but I kinda like the rough and ready finish as it suits the tag generally. Well I think so!!

I then used a Lavinia stamp with teeny tiny stars and blue-grey Archival ink and randomly stamped the tag.  I used some Rock Candy Distress Stickles on the Santa, roughed up the edge of the tag and coloured the edge with bronze DS.  It does look better IRL. Then added some wooden stars with the little TH wordies.

Some ribbon and a Santa charm (VOS) and it was complete.  Yeay! a quarter of the way through and a stamp that I had put aside now in use!  (Note the stars on Santa's sack!  I only noticed them when I was colouring in!)

Thanks for popping in.  

Hugs

Hettie

Pivo O'Clock - Scrapbooking Tuesday

Hello Friends

Well would you believe, I was having a tidy up in my room, when I came across a photograph of Hubby on our first Christmas trip to Prague?  Should I put it back in a box, (not with all the other photos of the same trip as it would take too long), but in a box with mixed photos?  Or should I scrapbook it?  Well I think you can guess which option I chose, or you wouldn't be seeing a layout below!!

So I started with a sheet of plain cardstock and I took some acrylic paints and various paintbrushes and even a toothbrush and flicked some black and gold paint over the card.  Leaving this to dry I carried on with the rest of the elements.  The swirly piece is half of a shaped page being used as a template, cut out of Kaisercraft and then mounted on a piece of green co-ordinations cardstock and trimmed to about 1/4-1/8th inch. I then took some Technique Tuesday stamps and stamped with Black Soot DI.

The large rectangular piece was made one evening when I had a video clip of Donna Arkle playing with spray inks and a glass of wine on the go!  I created several sheets of sprayed paper and this is one of them.  I did not have any plain white/cream 12x12 at the time so I followed Donna and used the backs of some papers I did not particularly like! I have mounted this on to more of the green cardstock.   The clock is one of my new stamps which I won on the FB CC101 challenge.  Love those TPC Studios stamps!  The rosette was left over from my Christmas Tree projects.

The layered piece was made using a mixture of EK Success punchouts and Tim Holtz Lace die cuts.  The text was cut using my Cricut (not sure what font but if you want to know I can tell you - though there was chocolate involved!).  

The clock is a Tim Holtz of course!  Die cut using a scrap of chipboard, painted and then waxed with Treasure Gold.  A little TH embellishment and the Remember is another TPC Stamp.  The Ironwork stamps are all Technique Tuesday stamps and the large corners were double stamped with Black Soot DI and bronze Distress Stain . 

The top part of the layered square was stamped with Wendy Vecchi stamp with a mixture of TT and TH stamps.  

Look at those glasses - they look huge now but were all the rage back in 2000!!  Tee Hee! 

Hope you like and thanks for popping over.  If there is anything else you want to know please do not hesitate to ask.

Hettie

PS  Why Pivo O'clock?  In Prague it is always time for a beer!  It is one of our little sayings! As well as "It is 5 o'clock somewhere!" or my favourite "Is it Baileys time?"

Funkie Junkie 12 Tags - Tag 8

Hello Friends

Yeay!  I am up to number 8 of my 12 Tags of Christmas with The Funkie Junkie.  As I have previously mentioned, this Challenge is being sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

As I have done on all previous tags, here is Linda's tag.....

I just love the fun and red on this tag. 

I was on a bit of a roll last night and actually made 2 tags though I wanted to ensure this was all adhered securely before I moved it to take it downstairs and take some piccies.  So without further ado...

I took some SU Vanilla cardstock and cut it with my TH Tag die.  Then using an Inkadinkado stamp and Vermillion Archival Ink (AI) I stamped then clear embossed the Santa image, heat setting it with my heat tool.  I then made a mask for the stamped image and swooshed some Bundled Sage Distress Stain (DS) before adding some Vintage Photo and Pine Needles Distress Ink (DI).  I then splashed some water over the tag, just cos I like the look!  I masked off the the word Believe on TH Silhouettes stamp and inked with black AI.  I then stamped the background with Pine Needles DI and Black Soot DI using a mixture of TH and Barn Door Stamps. I inked the edges with Vintage Photo DI.

After drying with my heat tool I inked the TH Holly leaves with Pine Needles DI and clear embossed it.  I cut the Poinsettia using some felt (the snowflakes were already printed on there), using my TH Tattered Florals die.  I added some red jute which had been sent to to me in my package from The Funkie Junkie Boutique recently. The snowflake was also in the package and I thought looked it looked perfect on the Poinsettia along with a wooden star button tied with some burlap string.

Some ribbons, bells and another piece of burlap string and some TH Forever Red Perfect Pearls mist.  

Thanks for calling by.  Hopefully I shall be able to find time to make the other three tags this weekend.  Unfortunately our central heating pump has been playing up recently so we bought a new one last weekend and Hubby is fixing it tomorrow, but it involves removing half the bathroom wall of tongue and groove, a lot of swearing and cups of coffee.  No doubt the bathroom will need repainting then and all before Christmas!  

TTFN

Hettie

Funkie Junkie 12 Tags - No 7

Hello Friends

I am still beavering away working on my 12 Tags of Christmas with The Funkie Junkie, which is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique, and here I am going to show you No 7 (my eighth tag).  I have until midnight on Monday to finish the last four!!  Yikes!!

As usual I will show you Linda's tag first....

When I looked at this tag, and after I had said "Wow", I looked carefully at the elements Linda had used.  The cottage reminded me of my own home (except mine is not wooden and at the moment is not, sadly, covered in snow) and the word "Holidays" reminded me of somewhere that Hubby and I have spent holidays at Christmas where it does snow from now until the end of February.  Any regulars to my blog will know that this is Prague.

So here is my take on Linda's tag.....

I have used the kraft glassine with Ranger Ink Refresher technique, then swooshed with Bundled Sage DS and some Bronze DS and then inked with Vintage Photo DI.  I left it all to dry whilst I ate my tea and came back and finished drying it with my heat tool.  

The Charles Bridge scene is a Darkroom Door stamp as is Praha and the clock.  I stamped the scene and the Praha onto Snippets of SU Vanilla CS using Coffee Archival ink, heated them with the heat tool and on the Bridge scene, using an embossing pen I went over in places and added some schparkly embossing powder to give the feeling of crisp snow.  (I notice the lamppost on the Image looks squiffed but I assure you it isn't.  It may be the angle of the card underneath as it is only on the top edge??)  Then I edged both images with VP DI. 

Then I moved onto the background of the tag and stamped the clock image from DD, using firstly Bronze DS then secondly Black Archival ink.  I found another coffee cup protector and swooshed some Bronze DS over it, tore it to fit the image and then edged with VP DI and mounted the Bridge image on it.  

I then cut a TH Lamppost twice out of glitter cardstock, once with gold (to get the effect of light) and again in black for the post itself.  I cut the Holly out of K&Co cardstock, adhered the holly onto the lamppost and adhered some red beads onto the holly.  

The Christmas Memories embellishment is a K&Co one and the final touches were the TH Snow Tissue Tape and the ribbon, which incidentally I bought in Prague when we were there in February.

So that ends Tag 7.  Only 4 more to go, one of which I will post later (hopefully).  I am off out to a Christmas Party tonight with Scottish Dancing friends, so need to go and get showered and dressed up to go. 

Thanks for calling by. 

Hettie

Christmas Time...Tag 6...and a little of Bath

Hello There!

Gosh hasn't it got cold?  Almost too cold to play in the Playground so wrap up warm and try and keep warm and well.  

Onto today's crafting project.  Would you believe I have a tag to show you?  Surprised?  Yeah right!!

I am on Tag 6 now (yippee) of The Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, and still loving them.  (Let's face it, if I didn't I would have given up by now!)  If you are quick and have all your crafting jobs finished for Christmas you may still be able to get all 12 done before Monday, for the chance to win the prize as it is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  

As usual I will show you Linda's tag first.....

And here is mine....

I was trying to show you the schparkle on the background hence the wonky look!  I forgot to take a straight one but hey ho...I like this angle!

Here is a close up...

That is the top and here is the bottom.

I used a Snippet of a Czech book for the background and adhered it to the tag cut from cardstock with my TH die and once dried I used some packing tape to take off some of the print (distressing yeay!), then I inked the background with Pine Needles and Vintage Photo DIs.  I flicked some water and dried it with my heat gun. I stamped my TH snowflake stamp with clear schparkly embossing powder.  I cut a TH clock with a Snippet of chipboard then inked with Aged Mahogany DI and embossed it with several layers of UTEE before adhering it to the background.  The tree I stamped onto TH Cordinations cardstock using Forest Moss and Vintage Photo DI and edged with Bronze DS.  I then smooshed some Distress Stickles on there too.  

For the Snowflake, I was lucky enough to be given some small TH Snowflake die cuts (will be ordering that die very soon - I have the large one but it was way too big) and I swooshed it with Bronze DS before fixing it together and adhering it in the centre of the clock.  

The bow is stamped with a Sheena Douglas stamp, which I recently won from the Playground, and stamped with AM DI and clear embossing powder before painting it with AM DI and a water brush.  

The flower at the top left are some TH poinsettias that I have had forever, with a tag cut from the TH die and stamped with a SU stamp in AM DI.  The lace was out of my Snippets box too so more of my bits and pieces used up.  

I wanted to share some photos with you of Hubby and my trip to Bath on Sunday for the Christmas Market.  It was a lovely few hours that we spent there and all that was missing was a brass band, though there were lots of street buskers some of whom were fabulous.  (Jan can you be there next time for me!)

Right. That's all Folks for today.  Thanks for calling by and hope you like my tag and pictures. 

TTFN

Hettie

xx

Funkie Junkie Tag 3 - Hey Mr Frosty

On the Third Day of Christmas I will bring to you........

                                                                        .........Tag No. 3 of the Funkie Junkie Challenge......

Sorry I could not resist that!  I am indeed bringing you the Third Tag of the Funkie Junkie Challenge which is being hosted by Linda and sponsored by thefunkiejunkie.com

As usual I will show you Linda's tag first......

Now I have had to think a little laterally on this tag (big word I know) as I do not have the Pewter Distress Stain so I put my finkin' cap on and had a eureka moment!  I placed Picket Fence DS and Chipped Sapphire on my craft mat.  Then I sprinkled some Pewter Perfect Pearls into the mixture and then swooshed my tag made with the TH tag die and SU Vanilla cardstock.  Here is the effect I got which I love and can see me using again!  Whilst the ink was on the craft mat I also swooshed Mr Frosty and the snowflakes through too.

So a little jiggery pokery with the background and Mr Frosty next by stamping TH snowflakes using Ranger Medium and added more Pewter PP.  At the top right of the tag I placed a new mask and swooshed some silver Treasure Gold wax and then buffed it (love this stuff!).  

Mr Frosty and the snowflakes were die cuts that a friend of mine had given to me - Thank You! I cut a flourish out of a Snippet of kraft cardstock and I painted one of the wooden hearts with Liquid Pearls and when dry I adhered a Chit Chat word.  Mr Frosty had a smoosh of Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint.

I then added a little Tissue Tape, Making Memories Embellishment, snowflake charm and sparkles in the heart centres all topped of with some ribbon and fluffy fibres.  

Another chit chat word and some more sparkles on the flourish and now I have finished.  

If you wish to join in with this Challenge you have until 17th December so 14 days (yikes!).  There is a fabulous prize on offer and I know that this week's tag (the last one) is absolutely wonderful.  Click HERE to see it.

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

TTFN

Hettie

Funkie Junkie Tag 1 - SSS

Hello Friends

Do you remember a short while ago I told you about a challenge I had discovered by the lovely Linda Coughlin over at the Funkie Junkie Blog (click HERE for more deets)?  Well if you recall Linda was already up to Tag 9 so I had some catching up to do.  So where better to start but at Tag 1?  (Linda is up to Tag 11 so I need to get on with them!)  So here goes....

Here is Linda's piece first (a stunner if I might say so Linda!)...

Well here is my take on Linda's tag....

As I have mentioned before I don't do Stars but I do do Hearts.  

Some close ups and some details.  Tag was cut with SU Vanilla cardstock using my TH die.  The tag was swooshed with Picket Fence and Bronze Distress Stains.  I stamped my TH flourish stamp on the top right using some Ferro paint mixed with some puff paint, however, I think my stamp had mostly Ferro paint on it! Love the shimmer on it though.  

The Angel wings I have had for years and years and.....(you get the idea), the button came from a button stall at the NEC (I have the card somewhere if you really want to know the supplier.  Just add it in the comments and I will dig it out for you).  I could have spent hours and a small fortune at that stall as they were all wooden and in any shape or form you could think of.  Expect to see a few more as this wasn't the only one I bought!  The Burlap (string in the UK) came from Funkie Junkie shop (love it).  The "25" and the two larger hearts were cut using Sizzix and TH dies using a wrap from Coffee 1.   The two smaller hearts were cut from Snippets of card and covered with TH Tissue Tape. 

At the bottom left of the tag I used a stencil and the puffed paint and Ferro mixture, heated it with the heat gun, painted over the top with Fresco paint (Vintage Lace), then I stamped over the top with the bronze DS using my TH flourish stamp again, and I stamped over the two smaller hearts at the same time.  I got my Treasured Gold wax and brushed over the top of the raised parts as well as the 25 and hearts.  I distressed the edges, wrote out the sentiment on Snippets and added the lace, bells and burlap.

You have until 17th December to catch up with all 12 tags and there is a chance to win a prize  from the sponsor Funkie Junkie  Love their goodies and to be honest, postage was not an awful lot in the context of things and pretty quick to the UK (8 days from order to parcel!).

Hope you like!

I am now entering this into the following challenges:-

Funkie Junkie - Tag 1

Simon Says Stamp - Project with a Heart

Rudolph Day - Christmas 

Snippets - Using Snippets

Thanks for calling by and please leave me a comment.  Don't forget it is not too late to join in with these 12 Tags of Christmas with Linda.  There is a prize too, as well as some beautiful tags to look at.  Click HERE to get to Tag 1, from where you can view the others.

Hugs

Hettie

Musical Christmas - FSC

Hello Friends

At the end of last month I shared with you THIS post which had my altered Mail Box on and which I had entered into the Fashionable Stamping Challenge.  I was very pleased to learn that I had won the Challenge!  

I had not come across this Challenge blog before I was introduced to it by Terry, but I rather like it so I decided to enter the current Challenge which is Music and here is my card.....

The background of the card has been made using my Tim Holtz flourish stamp and gilded with Indigo Blu gilding flakes (first time of using!  Tip - don't sneeze when using these or else they will get everywhere!).  The next layer is a Snippet of SU Vanilla cardstock which has been inked with Brushed Corduroy DI, although you have to take my word for it as you cannot see it until you fold the music sheet back.

The music sheet was created using a WOW stamp, one of my buys on Thursday, on vellum using a technique shown by Mr Tim Holtz on his 12 Tags of Christmas 2009 (Day 9 I think).  I made the music notes with my new Memory Box die, again using a Snippet of SU cardstock, which I inked with Brushed Corduroy DI and brushed over with some gold Perfect Pearls.  

The Poinsettia was cut with very thin chipboard to which I had attached sheets I had cut out of a Czech book which I am using for another project yet to be completed.  I then inked the petals with DSs and DIs, edged with Black Soot DI and swooshed with my new favourite DS Antiqued Bronze. Once inked and dried  I then stamped over the petals with the music stamp.

I also added some smudges of my Treasure Gold wax to give it some sparkle.

Thanks for looking and why not pop over the FSC and join in as you still have a little time?

Let me know what you think!

Hettie

x

CC2C - Challenge 26 - 'Tis the Season

Hello Friends

Linda over at Studio L3 has asked us to turn to P 41 of the Compendium of Curiosities Boo II for this week's Challenge and this week the Challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique with a prize of a $25 shopping spree.  Now who wouldn't like a chance to win that with all the new goodies that Mr Tim Holtz and Ranger have released in recent months?

I am sneaking in by a cat's whisker as time seems to have passed me by this week for some reason!  As usual we are not able to share the technique in respect to Mr Holtz but you can, of course, buy the book and join in the last 10 challenges of Linda's.  

So without further ado...

Not done a tag recently for my challenges, but I do rather like this one. I think it will lend itself to going on a card for someone, but someone I am giving to as the post will be horrendous!  

I have used a few new goodies on this tag.  

(1) the product which we used for the challenge itself. 

(2) antiqued bronze distress stain - LOVE IT! 

(3) the Poinsettia die - LOVE THAT TOO!  I was lucky enough to have a little go of Helen's die at The Crop and fell in love with it instantly.

I wish you could see this up close as the shimmer from the bronze distress stain and the perfect pearls mist is gorgeous.  The poinsettia itself is made from some book pages which were adhered onto thin chipboard for previous projects and were in my Snippets box, hence the different types.  I can see a french novel and a dictionary page there.  

Thanks for popping by and please feel free to leave me a comment.  I love comments. 

TTFN

Hettie

Ingredients:-  Distress stains, distress inks, dies, stamps, ink refresher - all Ranger/Tim Holtz, lace, ribbon, kraft cardstock.