WOYWW 109 - Year half gone already!!

Hello there Peeps.

Wow!  I cannot believe how fast these weeks are going.  Over half the year has gone already and I don’t have one Christmas card made yet – despite my intention to make 10 per month. 

Well, as is now traditional on a Wednesday, it is time I showed you my desk…….

As you can see, I have set my desk up ready to start waxing my tea box which I started some time ago.  I even have a new project pan and wax as I haven't tried waxing before (well, not the type of waxing that I would share with anyone!!!).  As you may have read on THIS post earlier on this week, I have deemed July the month I get things finished.  Incidentally, you may recall my quilt I was making, the top is now finished and in THIS post too!

I just have to show you my lovely tin.  Isn’t it lush?!!

 It is an old tin which was used in my firm’s safe many years ago.  I rescued it from being put out in the rubbish one day.  It was one of those “noooooaaaaaw” moments when I discovered they were at the top of the stairs waiting to be thrown out.  I actually ended up with four of them and as you can see it holds my melting pot (aka my cauldron) and other paraphernalia lovely.  I was very kind and gave one to my sister, keep my lace in another and my scraps in another.  They are all different sizes and one day I will get around to decorating them!!

If you are not sure what the ‘eck I am waffling about if you pop along to the Lovely Julia’s desk you will see a lot of other like minded (mad!) crafters who all share in this phenomenon which is the WOYWW. 

Thanks for looking and please be kind enough to leave me a comment.  I do love to read them and treasure every one.

One more thing before I sign off, I just want to say a huge Thank You to all my lovely Followers old and new - without your encouragement things just wouldn't be the same!!

Another one more thing before I sign off a huge "Happy Birthday" to my PiF friend Kim!!  I hope your day is fabbey and in no way pants!!! 

Yours

Hettie

Grungy Monday 14 - Just go with the Flow!

Good evening Peeps!

Well, what a shame that the British Summer is not up to much this year so far.  Raining again!!!  But at least Hubby does not have to go out to water the garden tonight!!  Always trying to see the silver lining but sometimes it is soooo hard.

Last night in between ironing, cooking tea, helping Hubby draw off some more honey and hunting the naughty chooks, I did manage to squeeze in my Grungy Monday tag.  The lovely LINDA sent us HERE where we to to see a technique by the lovely TIM HOLTZ

I really liked the tag which Tim made and wanted to recreate something similar and in some way using my new Papillion stamps.  So I gathered together my stamps, white paint dabber (I only have the one - so a big "aw" now" please!), my reinkers (again not got that many so was a little limited as to colours!), perfect pearls (now I have a good few of those) and decided I would use a Kraft card from Papermania which had a 5mm square grid printed on it.  I thought if I didn't like it I could just use the reverse side.

I printed the background stamp with the dabber and loved how it turned out, sprayed the reinker with perfect pearls in the mini misters and then dried with my heat gun.  I was extremely pleased with the grid showing through and it kinda reminded me of privacy windows and those of bars you sometimes see or dont'!!   I wish you could see the effect as the pictures never do the perfect pearls justice!  The colours I used were Fired Brick with Perfect Rust, Antique Linen with Perfect Bronze and Forest Moss with Heirloom Gold.

Well after the tag was dry things went in a new direction.  I pushed the stamps I was originally intending to work with and got out my TH Paris stamps and decided to make a Parisian themed tag, having been to Paris in 2008 for our wedding anniversary (no, I am not telling you how many years!!)

After I stamped the Eiffel Tower with Forest Green DI I did not think it showed too well so dug out some black embossing powder which I have had for absolute yonks which does make the stamping pop.  I stamped the Memories across it on the wonk and stamped Post Card at the top.  Made a little tag from the excess cardstock but on the reverse, which I had swooshed across the craft mat after I had sprayed the tag - waste not, want not!

I distressed the edges with a distresser (well I never!) and Walnut Stain DI, and drew freehand around the edges of both tags.  I added some danglers (which were on a pair of earrings from Claire's until last Friday - the girls in there must think I like wearing lots of jewellery with charms on!), a little ribbon, including red for lurrve and hey presto my tag was complete. 

As my title says sometimes it is best to "just go with the flow"!

I hope you like my tag and please leave me a comment so that I know you have been.

Crafting Hugs

Hettie

P.S.  Just to let you know the chooks are all tucked up safely in their coup tonight and no antics up a tree have happened again!!  The wheelbarrow now has a new home at the base of the tree to crush any further ideas they may have of sleeping in the Walnut Tree!!!   Please read the post below to see what I am talking about!!

Tarrraaaah! I have finished my quilt top!!

Evening Peeps

I am afraid I am a little later posting this tonight but Hubby and I were somewhat distracted. I will tell you more later.

I wanted to show you how my quilt top that I have been working on over the past few months (since September if truth be known)!!

First I showed you this......

Then I showed you this.......



Well now I can show you this.......

And this.....



And this.......

Oh! I am sooo happy that I have finished this top!!  I actually completed it on Friday night/Saturday morning after deciding that July was going to be my finishing month.  Finishing projects I have made but not shown you yet, projects that I have started and not finished yet and of projects that I have got the idea/want to make but haven't got round to doing yet. Why?  Because if I don't get them done pretty soon then I will be hard pushed to get everything done that I want done by the end of November so that I can join in all the Christmas challenges and fun without having put them off to finish something needed before Christmas!!  I have also been asked by the local Cancer Research group to have a craft stall at their Fete at the local Church at the beginning of December so have to make goodies for that too!!!

Now why am I late?  One word.  Chickens!!!

When I come home from work I let the chickens out of their run so that they can have some freedom in the garden and eat up any garden gremlins for me.  They never go further than the path and the area immediately surrounding the run. At about 9 o'clock I went to get my washing off the line and there were 3 chickens in the run and 3 running up and down the path.  I told them that they had until sunset at 9.16pm and I would be coming out to shut them into the run for the night.

At 9.20pm I went out, checked inside the coup and there were 3 chickens, the other 3 were nowhere to be seen.  I started looking in their usual haunts, hiding behind the potato plants, behind the compost bin, underneath the trees, around the back of the house (they keep looking but have not gone yet).  Then I came back into the house to put the wellies on (I only had my flip flops on initially) then went up the footpath at the back of the house, down the bottom of the garden, then Hubby stirred himself and helped, having realising that something was not right.  By 10 o'clock we had decided that there was nothing else we could do but go in and hope they would find their way back home by the morning.  What happened next was hilarious.

I was fretting by now and don't ask me why but I looked above where my husband was standing, him being on a lower level of the garden, and looked up.  Up into the Walnut tree to be precise.  And then burst out laughing!!!  Hubby did not know what had possessed me.  In amongst the ivy growing up the tree were the 3 chooks quite happily snuggled down for the night.  We tried throwing some corn and then some gentle watering up there in the hope they would think it was raining but to no avail!

So, I am now going to pop out with wellies and torch to see if they are still up the tree or if they have seen sense and fancy a warm cosy bunk for the night.

I will let you know tomorrow what happens!!

Edit:  Just to let you know that the Naughty Chooks are safe and sound and back in their run this morning with the other three chooks!!  A little corn and coaxing and they went back in quite happily. 

Night Night

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment!

Hettie

P.S.  Yes I did take some photos so will post one tomorrow too.  

The Versatile Blogger - Could this be me?

Hello again Peeps

Two posts in one day ey!!  Please do not feint - I know I am a bit like the buses - no, not my back end but the fact that I don't do anything for ages and then twice in one day. 

A little while ago Polly Polkadot e-mailed me to let me know that she has awarded me "The Versatile Blogger" award.  Wow!  I was impressed and also a little amused.  Am I really "versatile"?  I looked it up in the dictionary and this is what it says:-

"...capable of or adapted to many different uses, skills etc, liable to change..".

OK "different skills or uses".... I will just keep this related to my crafting skills shall I?  Well I do Scrapbooking....

I dabble in altered art...

I make cards....

I like to join in on challenges....

I love to make mini albums.....

I also do sewing....

(This quilt top has all been put together, I will post it tomorrow!)

My Hubby is a Bee Keeper ...

And who can forget this picture of him......

I have a little mascot called Fergus and we have both met Tim Holtz...

Hubby and I also share our home with a dog called Dobby...

And especially for Polly,  I have chickens...

"...liable to change..?"  Let's just say that I am a Gemini!!

So maybe I am a little versatile!!!

Now the Rules of accepting this award.

• In accepting my award I must place a link back to the person who awarded it - done
• Share 7 random things about myself (OMG!) - done
• Award 7 recently discovered bloggers and contact them to let them know - will do.

So my 7 random things:
1. I cycled from Hoi An to Saigon including up and down the Muc Pas in 2005 and raised £2,601 for RNIB by way of completing three of my 40 things to do before I was 40.

2. I once completed a car restoration course and changed a complete exhaust on our Volvo 240 Estate amongst other things.

3. I have a longing to undertake an HGV course and wish to drive an HGV lorry - just once!!

4. I once held Princess Anne's hand whilst she helped me find my family at the Highland Games when I was 4.  Bless her!!

5. I have wing walked!!  It was fantastic!!

6. I was born with my heart and other organs on the wrong side!! Honest!!!

7. I have a penchant for boots and often go to work in tartan Doc Martins under my suits!!

And the 7 bloggers I wish to award are:-

1. Shaz In Oz - her calligaphy is out of this world and inspires me to give it a go one day
2. Karen - does beautiful work and her Gnomes are exquisite
3. Brian - a fabulous stamper and so wonderful to see a man's perspective of things
4. Kim - she and I got together because of WOYWW and I taught her the use of the word "Pants" when describing your day!!
5. Lisa - often photographs flowers which I love and also makes fabulous cards too
6. Wispo - wonderful sewing and keeps me inspired not to forget my sewing
7. Nicola - as she does some fab scrapbooking layouts

A lot of these lovely peeps I have "met" through either Paperartsy, WOYWW or Grungy Monday but however I met you thank you for your inspirations, your ideas and your humour and remindng me not to take things too seriously even when I cannot find either my mojo, crafting bits or time to complete things.

Thank you all for reading my blog and leaving me comments.  They keep me going and keep me smiling!!  

Happy Crafting to you all and to all a good week!!  (Now, how do I put that logo on my sidebar again?!!!)

Hugs to you Polly.

Hettie

xxx

 

Grungy Monday 13 - Taking inspiration from nature

Good morning Crafters.

I do hope you are having a lovely and sunny weekend. 

I hope you don't mind the fact that I have not been blogging an awful lot lately but when the weather is good I like to make the most of it and craft in the garden with plants and weeds!

This week's challenge set by the Lovely Linda for Grungy Monday is to use alcohol inks - one of my favourite products though I don't seem to use them an awful lot for some reason.  We were sent HERE where we saw the Master Tim Holtz at work in a video showing us how to use alcohol inks.  Being out in the garden so much it seems I was influenced by nature.  I looked at my collection of tags which are on the purling in my room and thought there was not much orange up there so hence my tag.

When I went to take the pictures I thought why not take the tag out in the garden to photograph it as the sun was currently hiding behind a cloud so that it was not glaring on the patio.

Instead of cutting into a 12x12" piece of glossy cardstock I cut a 7x5" pescored card in half, inked the whole piece and then ran it through the Big Shot using my Tag die.  Then I stamped some individual flowers and cut them out in order to have a 3D effect.  That lovely Nature sticker is one which was in a set of alphabet stickers that my kind non-crafting friend brought back from South Africa when she went home for a visit last year.  I realised that I did not have a Nature stamp and remembered these stickers.  Thanks Debbie.  Note to self - Look for nature stamp.  The charm is from a pair of earrings I bought from Claires on Friday.  I bought the earrings purely for the charms as they had Bee charms on them too.  Expect to see them pop up over the coming weeks!!

I also realise making these tags that I do not have many sentiment stamps so will have to track some more down!  Any hints?  I love that when you look at the tag in a slightly different angle it takes on a whole new look.

Well, off to do some more gardening now and will be back later to have a look at some of the other wonderful tags I can see on the linkey bit. 

TTFN and enjoy the wonderful weather.  However, don't forget to slap the sun tan lotion on before you go out!!

Please do not forget to leave a comment on my blog if you are passing.  They do cheer me up sooo much.

Hettie

Ingredients:  Glossy paper, alcohol inks- silver, sunshine yellow, red pepper, terracotta, blending solution, enamal accents - all Ranger, Stamp Autumn leaves, Sticker - don't know. Stayzon, black.

WOYWW 108 - Different Desk This Week!!

Good Evening Crafters

Woo Hoo it's Wednesday!!  What does Wednesday mean to a bunch of Crafters?  It is "offical nosey round other's desks" aka WOYWW via the wonderful Julia Dunnit.  This week though Julia's Buddy Jan is hosting while Julia is sunning herself in a foreign country!!

Not my usual desk this week, but the desk I am sitting here typing this and most postings!  If you look carefully you can see my PiF sitting proudly under the (dirty!!) screen!  (Gosh my screen needs a clean!!)

I am trying to make an order to go to a famous supermarket chain where "every little thing helps" for photographs.  I do have a fab printer to print my photographs but when you can upload them and receive them back for only 5p each (4"x6" when you have 200 prints) then what is the point?  Also, the ink and paper has gone up a fair bit and the last lot of ink I bought was "pants" and not good enough to print photographs with.  That is what I get for not buying the kosha ones!!!

However, trying to find all the photos I want printing has been tricky so I am carrying out a little "housekeeping".  Some piccies are on my laptop, some are on the main computer but they SHOULD all be on the external hard drive.  Also, some old piccies I have scanned have been filed under the month and not subject - so tricky to find.  By the time I went to bed last night, after being in work all day and sorting all evening, I was more than a little "square/rectangle eyed"!. 

Why an external hard drive?  First we were burgled and all my photos on my then laptop went with it and then last year my big computer went "poof" one evening!!!  So I try to make it a priority at the end of the  month to file them on the external hard drive which is kept well away from any computer just in case!  I used to put them on CD but they do deteriorate after time - as I have learnt!  Grrrrrr!  Sometimes I think films were not that bad!!!

Well, enough of my waffling.  Off to look at some other desks now.  No cooking tea tonight as my lovely Man is doing bangers and mash! Gravy on the laptop is not a good idea!! 

TTFN

Please do not forget to leave me a comment so that I know you have been to see me!!

Hettie

P.S.  The Jelly Bean tin is empty!!

Scrapbooking my Favourite Place

Good evening Crafters

I don't know about you, but today we are encountering some crazy weather from hot and humid to monsoon and now a terrific thunderstorm which is a cracker!!  In case you don't know I love a good thunderstorm and it might just clear this fuzziness I have had in my head for a while now - or is that the fairies that my Hubby thinks live in there?

I was sorting out some of my pictures tonight and came across some of a layout that I completed a little while ago and had not yet shown you on my bloggie so I thought I wouls share it with you. 

For those of you who have not been here before or who have not known me for long, Hubby and I absolutely love Prague or Praha.  We love the beauty of the architecture,  the quaint little streets with beautiful fresco painting and of course, the food.  So much so that we have booked a little break in the New Year but more of that later!!

The photographs were taken on our first visit to Praha at Christmas in 2000 which was wonderful as it gave us a chance to see more of the city which we had been to twice before but only for a few hours on each visit.  Little did we realise then that we would be visiting again many many times in the future.  We are really quite smitten with the City.  Long may it be before it gets to look like any other European city!!

The photograph was taken by a lovely local man who had seen us taking individual pictures of each other and beckoned to let him have my camera.  After hearing horror stories of people having their cameras taken off them in other cities I will tell you I was a little apprehensive about seeing it again, and he took one of my favourite photographs of us that has been taken.  Thank you whoever you were!

Seriously though, if you have ever fancied popping over to Praha please contact me and I can give you some hints as to good places to stay and things to see and do while you are there., as well as some good eateries.  In my opinion, Paris has nothing on the beauty and romanticism of Praha, and I have been to Paris now too!!!

Well, off to watch the rest of the thunderstorm in the comfort of my bed with the curtains open.  I am just relieved that the electricity hasn't gone off whilst I am typing this posting.

Thanks for reading and a huge thank you and welcome to my new followers!  I love both new followers as well as comments so please leave me a comment!!

Night Night

Hettie

Ingredients:  Stamps - Dark Room Door and Tim Holtz; Papers My Minds Eye and K&Co; Silhouette die cutter; Embellishments - assorted.