NBUS Christmas Stamp....Yippee!! and Rudolph Day

Greetings!

It is Santa's Head Elf here sharing with you a NBUS Christmas Stamp on this auspicious day.  Why auspicious?  Because it is the last Rudolph Day before the Big One!!!!  

So to kick this Rudolph Day off here is my first card....

Isn't that stamp just gorgeous!! My lovely friend from over the water sent it to me.  You know who you are.  MWAH!!  It is by Stampenduous and is called Fireside Ivy.  I actually got the inspiration to Viv and I hope I have done her card justice!

So what I did was to stamp it on a background card with Versamark and embossed it with white WOW embossing powder.  I did the same again on some vellum.  Then I took my oval die and cut out the middle of the vellum piece before placing it over the top of the background card and securing it with brads.  I then mounted the whole thing onto the card, added some faux stitching with my Sharpies white chalk pen and added some ribbon with a little stamped tag (Hero Arts stamp).

Now what do you suppose I did with the vellum centres that were cut out?  Yep, like a good little Santa Elf I cut some more ovals from plain card and tied them together to make tags for my parcels.  How is that for recycling my Snippets?

Right that is all from me.  I must get busy as the Chief Elf (i.e. the chap in the red suit) keeps going on about deadlines etc.  He is a bit tetchy right now!!

Off to share this with my buddy Mo and of course my other buddy Parsnip down at the Snippets Playground.  

Thanks for calling by.  Will pop over later once I have done my dance class.

Hettie

Funkie Junkie Christmas Jumpers...

Hello My Friends!!

It is about time I joined in with the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas again.  I have jumped to Tag 4.  Well! I am behind so I can choose which one I want to play with next.  Jump HERE and you can see Linda's Tag.

I don't know if it is just me, but when I see these dies/stamps I always think of Christmas jumpers.  So I decided why not make some in cardstock.  

I took a Snippet piece of white card out of my crapalanche and some NBUS stamps of hats, scarfs and mittens mounted on a block, my Versamark and red glitter embossing powder and stamped a background panel.  

Next the jumper.  I turned on my Silhouette and went to the design store to find some jumpers.  I cut two out of cardstock then cut the arms off, laid all three pieces side by side and stamped the Tim Holtz stamp and embossed it with WOW white embossing powder.  I then joined the sleeves back on with some tissue tape.  If you are wondering why I bothered to cut the sleeves off, I am also a knitter and fair isle is knitted in straight lines and then joined to the body, hence just stamping the whole jumper in one go would not look right.

When I put the jumper onto the background, I felt the background was far too "busy" but I really wanted to use it, so I stamped a sentiment on to some vellum with Versamark and WOW powder and placed it over the top of the background securing it with brads then a quick tag, well Linda's is a tag, some ribbon and a wooden embellishment, inspired by Linda's tag, finished the card off.

Oh, I said I made two jumpers so here is the second card.   

I made this a portrait style card this time.  

I really like these cards and may make a few more.  

If you want any of the Tim Holtz stamps, they are available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  

Thanks for calling by.  There is still time to join in the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas with some fun prizes to win if you complete all 12.

Off to join in with the Snippets Playground as I did use some Snippets, just as soon as the gates have been opened.

Hettie

From Tags to Cards and Breakfast on Tuesday...

Hello there

Another chilly one in the UK today with snow in some parts.  We have had a few flurries but nothing much to report.

I have been a bit remiss about joining in with Elizabeth for Tea on Tuesday this year, for no other reason than it has been a little tricky since MIL came out of hospital.  I seem to have developed a routine whereby I visit on a Monday and/or Tuesday evening which makes it tricky for me to post and comment until later in the week.  However, I took the photos this morning and have this evening free so I can join.

So here it the card I wanted to share with you...

I made the tag for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas in 2013 I think.  But now I have taken them all down and put them in a basket to use on cards.  No need to keep them for reference as I have put them on my blog so I just as well use them and let someone else enjoy them (or bin them!).  When I was looking at mounting it on a card I decided it did not need anything fussy behind it so opted for some leftovers from a layout I did last year of my niece and nephew.

Now for my tea... or indeed breakfast!  I stayed at Debs' house on Friday night and she offered me some home made Granola for breakfast.  Now I have tried Granola in the past but either end up with aching jaws, an overload of sugar or I have to spit out the coconut.  I had none of these problems with Debs (she had used honey...mmmmmmm.) so I set about looking for a recipe and making my own. So I made some last night, having slightly adapted the recipe (only made half up in case I did not like it) and both Hubby and I LOVE it.  No coconut either!!  We even had some last night after tea! Here is the link if you are interested!

Thanks for calling by.  Nice to chat and share my breakfast with you.  Off to join Elizabeth (though not sure she is up to eating right now - poor thing)and also the Snippets Playground...Must use Snippets.

Have a great Tuesday and keep warm.

Hugs

Hettie

On the First Day of December......A New Christmas Album for 2014

Hello there!

Happy 1st December to you all.  Can you believe we are here already?  Where did the last 11 months go then?

As my lovely Friends and Followers may remember, for the last few years I have made Christmas Albums into which I post either a photograph or journalling for each day of December.  This year is no exception....

Here are the front covers of my 2014 Christmas Album.  I have used a pattern from Paper Phenomonon which I purchased around 3 years ago with the intention of making up into an album and so this year this is what I used.  The metal corners are Tim Holtz.

The main papers are MME which I had at a bargain price from Hobbycraft some time last year.  There was a pack and a few odd sheets with no price on.  I asked the assistant how much they were and surprisingly she asked me how much I would be willing to pay.  I told her £5 off the cuff and the Supervisor agreed to my offer!  There were around 12 sheets of doublesided, glittered card, a sheet of tags etc and previously I had paid around £1.50 a sheet!  Tee Hee!

Next I had to think about a closure.  Whilst racking my brain and looking around I remembered I had some clasps from Zutter.  I sprayed the leather with a mix of Red Pepper and Plum Ranger Colourwash, inked around it with some Vintage Stain DI and run it through my B/S with a Tonic embossing folder.  Job done!

The ribbon I bought some time ago from a store in my local town.  It is straight and even only every time I open and shut the album it moves.  I didn't want it stuck down until the front is finished, when I know it will not move!

Now for the inside....

This is the centre of the front with six flap pockets which hold tags.  You will notice that they are not overly decorated yet.  This is because I want to embellish as I go along depending on the photographs/journalling that occur.

Left front inside cover.  A flap which when opened there is another set of pockets.

Right side inside front cover.

Left flap opened which shows the pockets.  Also you can see some of the other papers I have used such as Stampin Up, Basic Gray and Bazzill.  Some of which are Snippets from previous albums.

And here is the central panel...

Punched around with a Martha Stewart punch.  I do hope we get some snow.  The 2014 is a decoration which I have bought and hope to incorporate, but not sure how yet.

And with the flap lifted, more space on which to journal and add photographs on.  

With the tags...

And here is the reverse of the whole album,..I love how shimmery this paper is.  I have also used some Treasure Gold but will add more as I work on this album.

I have used an absolute plethora of papers both new and Snippets from previous years.  I can see some Bo Bunny paper in there too.  Punches used are EK Success (the smaller brown one is NBUS from US), Martha Stewart, Some of the MME paper is from two years ago and was 6x6 paper.  I do like the mix of sizes of the same papers. Corner chomper by We R Memory Keepers.Tan cardstock from The Art Shop and also the chipboard.  The only new thing I bought for this album are the little owl embellishments and the reindeer ones too, which I have not actually used yet, but no doubt will very soon!

Off to share this with the Playground folk as there are a plethora of Snippets used on this album.  I permanently keep a basket of Christmas Snippets so they are easy to find and ready to use.

I thank you for coming over and look forward to reading your comments.

Hettie

x

Latest Journal...T stands for AdvenTure Journal!

Hello there.  I', baaaaaaaaaack!  What do you mean you hadn't noticed I was away?  Hubster and I took a little holiday over the large pond to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary.   May I just say a huge Thank You to those kind folks who sent us a card to celebrate.  They were very well received and appreciated.  

Those who follow me will know that when I am going on a journey I like to make a journal in order that I can make notes as we go along, and put in photos off my phone, using a Pogo Printer.  Well, this trip was no exception. This time however, not only were we to celebrate a special Anniversary we were also going to meet up and stay with my Blogging Buddy who visited last year.  Gotta love WOYWW and Blogging!

So I thought you might like to see my journal, pre holiday....Before you start reading, I would go and grab a cuppa as this is a photo heavy post.

The spine was pretty devoid of charms as I didn't want to to be clunking around and also, I was hoping to pick some more up whilst we were there.

Here are the inside pages....Doesn't that pen clip well on there?  A design feature (cough) of course!!

This is one I wanted to show Debs. What I am holding is a square of paper, folded in such a way that it has two outside flap pockets and as I have stitched through the centre, I have joined it to add another journalling spot inside.  Tricky to explain this one!

This one on the left was made using a TH trellis die cut, adding embossing paste through it and pulling the trellis away.  It has a really lovely shimmer to it.

This is a giant TH tag turned on it's side, the rest of it forms a pocket.

Lots of tags and pockets!!

This took me quite some time to make but I thoroughly enjoyed making it.  I used a tonne of hints and inspirations from Pinterest, Laura Denison, Ashmita Roy (you tube) as well as ideas of my own.  The papers used are a plethora of papers I have collected including Papermania, Tim Holtz Destinations (been stroking the paper pad for quite some time so time to use it), Stampin Up, K&Co, Cosmo Cricket, as well as others with no name on it.  I also used some printouts and cuts from Silhouette, and the paper clips came from Ikea!

If you enlarge this one you can see where we went during our trip.  The pocket on the left also had the paste treatment but this time with Ferro.  After it had dried I popped another die cut out in there to give the contrast.

There are multitudes of Snippets used and I had a ball making this.   We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and over the next few weeks I will no doubt share some photos through scrapbook layouts and journal.  This journal did weigh a bit but and it was carried in my hand luggage so hey ho!  It measures 5" x 9" x 4".

As it is nearly Tuesday, I am going to share a cuppa with you while you read my post, after all I drunk a fair few during it's construction and link on up to my friend Elizabeth and Bleubeard, who I know likes books!

Thanks for calling by.  Please let me know if it was worth the visit.  I have some blogs to catch up with now so please bear with me.

Hettie