WOYWW - Happy Birthday - 3 today

Hello Peeps

Welcome to this week's WOYWW which is the lovely Julia's third birthday so we are having a bit of a party this week. Though I do understand our host is living it up in Turkey at the moment (not jealous at all Julia!)

Here is my desk and as you can see it is ready for a stamping and colouring session using my Penny Black Christmas stamps.  I know!  I blame it all on my buddy Sandra and her Rudolph Day.  So far I have only used the Piper and French Hen stamps and I plan to make a complete set for a raffle prize next month. 

The scalloped circles I cut out on my trusty Silhouette and the remaining piece of card will be used to cut tags out so very little gets wasted in this craft room.  Monkey is still loving his booster seat and won't give up wearing his (note it is not "my") WOYWW badge!!

Right then.  I have shown you my desk now let's see yours.  Link it up with the lovely Julia and join in the biggest blog hop in the world that is WOYWW.  This week to celebrate the third anniversary of this desk hopping madness we are having a PIF day and we are having a massive ATC swap.  Mine is all ready to go once I have an address to send it to.

TTFN and I shall be along to see you later once I have done my day job!  I might even have a cake and some vino to celebrate!

Hugs and Happy Birthday Julia!

Hettie

CC2C 7 - Already??

Evening Peeps

I am so loving this weather we are having right now and hopefully it will be here all this Jubilee weekend too!  Hope you are having nice weather too wherever you are in the world.

Tonight I am showing you my Challenge piece for the CC2C with the lovely Linda.  I am shocked we are up to no. 7 already!  

I am not allowed to tell you what I have done but what I can tell you is that the technique is on page 49 of the new Compendium of Curiosities II by the lovely Mr Tim Holtz and that this week the Challenge is being sponsored by Eclectic Paperie.  

For a change I am not making a tag (though there is some purple in there!).  It is a birthday card for my good friend Emma who celebrates her 40th birthday on Saturday.  When we went for dinner last week she made absolutely no mention of it being her 40th, so I have refrained from referring to it on the outside of the card.  However, there is a big 40 on the inside!  Hee Hee!

I have also tried out my new embossing powder from Stampin' Up for the sentiments.  It is vanilla scented!  When I asked Hubby to sniff it his reply was "trust you to create sniff and scratch art"!!  Made me chuckle!  

Thanks for visiting and please leave me a comment.  Gotta love comments!

Hugs

Hettie

Rudolph Day - Round 2 - 3 French Hens

Hello Peeps

As you may know, my Buddy over at Stamping for Pleasure hosts a bit of a Christmas Challenge known as "Rudolph Day".  The idea being is we make a Christmas card for the 25th of each month so we have a nice little stock pile when the season comes.  If you saw my posting on 25th May you will have seen my gift bows which I made, following on from my tags last month.  Well, I couldn't not make a card so here is one I made yesterday in the heat! 

Whilst making this card I hit upon a great idea.  As you may know I belong to a quilting group and each year we have our annual Summer Lunch and the Committee each make or buy a raffle prize.  Well for the last few years I have made some sort of book and on Saturday I was asked what I was going to make for this year's lunch raffle prize.  Here's where my idea has come in. Why not make a set of Christmas cards and put them in a decorated bag ready for someone to win.  I just need to figure out how exactly that comes under "Quilting"!!

Anyways, the card itself has been made using Snippets so it is eligible to go into the Playground with Auntie Di.  I could just do with a drop of that Chicken's vino but I guess he won't share it with me.  Will have to make do with this cup of funny herbal tea which has no label any more! 

Don't forget, there is still a few more days to join in with a Rudolph Day card and this month there has been a set of stamps donated so you could win those as well as have Christmas card/s ready!

Woo Hoo!

TTFN and thanks for looking!

Hettie

Friday Snippets - Six Little Snippets Cards All in a Row!

Hello there Peeps

I know it is not exactly Friday but I did need to do my Rudolph Day posting yesterday!  So I am only a few hours late for today's posting I know.

As the title suggests I have six Snippets cards to show you tonight, made partly because I made this one for a friend in work and she asked me to make some for her to purchase as she liked it soo much.

So here they are.....

All made with Snippets which were hanging around on my desk and in my Snippets box.  I am still loving the pop up design.

Feel free to join in the Snippets Playground with the Lovely Di!  You will meet lots of like minded crafters and we have a lovely virtual playground to play in.  Though I should imagine the paddling pool is going to be a bit of a tight squeeze today!  

Hope you are all having a fun weekend of crafting and enjoying this lovely weather.  And I would also like to say Hi to Lisa who has become a follower this week.  Thank you Lisa.

Hugs

Hettie

Happy Rudolph Day

Happy Rudolph Day Peeps

Well what a day it has been today!  One of the warmest days of the year and we are playing with - dare I say it - Winter Festival papers (avoiding the "C" word here).  If you are of a nervous disposition look away now as what I am about to tell you and show you may shock some of you.

Over at my Buddy's blog HERE some of us (mad) crafters take part in Rudolph Day, which is where we make something in readiness the BIG day in the Christian calender which takes place on 25 December - hence the title Rudolph Day - being the 25th day of each month up until 25 December.  

Well last month you saw me making Tags and this month continuing on that theme I have made some bows to go on the packages with the tags.  And the shocking part is.......I have NOT used snippets/scraps or parts of papers.  I have cut up WHOLE sheets of 12x12 patterned paper to make the bows.  You see I cannot make them with snippets unless I make them multi-pieced!  Some of the papers I have used I bought some years ago and the purple/grey papers came from a Papermania set and I have used as many as I will for scrapbooking.  

The big thing that happened in Abergavenny today is that the Olympic Torch came through and I and some other work colleagues were able to go out this morning and watch it go through town.  I know there has been a lot of hype and controversy about the whole procession thing but I wholeheartedly support it.  I will not be going to the Olympic event and so really and  truly this is the only chance I have of seeing any part of the whole event.  I can tell you that have never seen Abergavenny town look like it did today.  There is bunting everywhere, shops and businesses have joined in the spirit by displaying stock in patriotic colours as well as bunting, and the crowds lined the street the likes of which I have never seen before.  There was a really good feeling of Britishness that I have not seen for some time. And with the Jubilee following shortly I hope this tide of good feeling will last for a good while longer!

Right, I am off my soap box now!  Off to play with quilts tomorrow!!!  Then I will be back in my Craft Room possibly to make some more Rudolph Day cards to enter into the fun and have some cards ready so I am not rushing in November.  Why don't you join in - you have a week and there are some lovely stamps for a lucky entrant this month.

TTFN

Patriotic Hugs

Hettie

Finished at Last - Christmas Album

Hello Peeps

I know today is one of the hottest days we have had in the UK this year so far, but guess what?  I have finally finished my Christmas Album.  Yeah!  Only a few months late, but never mind!  Very appropriate on the Eve of Rudolph Day!  Hee Hee!  This is a very photo heavy posting so feel free to go and get yourself a Baileys so you can view at your leisure!

I have based the book on a video I saw of Laura Denison of Following the Paper Trail but with my own ingredients popped into the pot.  Love that Lady and Thank you Laura for the inspiration!

For a start I made a gatefold type of cover which is held together with TH hitches and a leather thong which I bought in Prague recently and corners from TH, and Martha Stewart

The leaves and flowers on the front cover were made using TH pinecones and tattered flower dies, Silhouette cutter and Stampin' Up punch, and all of which were edged using Ranger acrylic paint dabber to give a snowy effect.  The large maple type leaves were cut with the Silhouette with cream card, inked, scrumpled, reinked and then adhered.  

The calender is a Jenny Bowlin card, again the flowers are made the same way as the ones on the left hand side. Oh yes, as throughout the book I have added buttons/brads to the centre of the flowers. You can also see the TH doiley.  The glitter papers are K&Co.  

Loving these flowers!

A close up of the danglies on the ring.  These are TH and Avon!  The left hand side has a penguin hanging on there (Primark) the photo was not brilliant.

Here is what you see when you open the covers.  Using Martha Stewart punches, TH dies and XCut punches.  

The numbers were cut from a sheet of numbers on Pink Paisley card called Daily Junque - quite appropriate really as it is a Daily Journal! The numbers were cut out, distressed and inked then adhered to an assortment of tags which were made by die cutting or Silhouette machine.  Lots of stamping too.  

In Laura's album she had individual pages, but when I tried to do this it was far too fat so I opted for two pages to an envelope.  So here I decorated the back of the envelope which helped balance out the thickness of the overall book.

Not all pages have quite so much journalling as the photographs tell the tale.

I even include a piece of the wallpaper which Hubby was using in our Dining Room!

As well as including "events" which took place over December!

Even applying for my passport with a copy of the photo! Not my best shot.  I had to tell Hubby to go away as he kept making me laugh which is not allowed on your passport photo!  

Christmas Day had two pages all to itself!

Challenges were included!

My Christmas Cake was a proud project and I can see a layout coming when I get some larger photos of it!  These photos are printed out using a Poloroid Pogo which prints at 2"x3"!  Great for making journals whilst on holiday.  (Prague album to follow soon!)

Well, that is the end of my photos of this album and I hope you have gathered some ideas for future projects.  There are a plethora of papers used in this including an awful lot of Snippets, K&Co, Pink Paisley, Basic Grey, Bazzill, Bo Bunny, MME Christmas 6"x6", Laura Ashley wallpaper! Distress Inks used throughout in Walnut Stain, Crushed Olive, Vintage Photo, Brushed Corduroy, Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge. Tim Holtz dies, Stampin Up, Martha Stewart and X Cut punches. Brads, buttons, ribbons, distresser.

Thanks for reading this if you are still with me.  Off to bed now!

TTFN.

Hettie.

WOYWW 155 - Tidy Desk

Hello Peeps

Happy Wednesday, Happy Hump Day, Happy Half-Way-Through-The-Week Day and of course, Happy WOYWW Day!  Yeay!  It is that time of the week when a bunch of Bloggers take a picture of their desk, link it up with the lovely Julia Dunnit and then take part in the biggest blog hop of the week! 

Here is my desk, but before you look, if you are of nervous disposition, look away.  And Sandra, sit down!  My desk is tidy!  

You will see Monkey has a new "seat".  This started out as the "naughty pot" but he actually likes it on top of my Christine Helmuth multi medium pot as he can see more goings on on the desk!  Those brown file type things hold some photos of my Hubby when he was a young man, which I am planning to scrap next (probably Saturday as I understand it is Eurovision!) Those pretty pink ribbons are from Waitrose Di (just to save you asking me).  Oops, you can see an empty wine glass and Yes I was drinking on a school night.  Who can blame me as we actually sat on the patio to eat our tea and it seemed right to have a glass of grape juice with our fish stew!  

And not only is my main desk tidy.... but the second desk is tidy too!!  Woooo Hoooo!

I have my little Buddy coming up tonight to do some more work on an album we started a few weeks ago, based on a Laura Denison type book, but using paper carrier bags which we get free!  We have even claimed two large books to make the covers before they go off to the great library in the sky!  I will show you more when we are ready for a show'n'tell!  

So.  You know what to do.  Leave me a comment (if you are over the shock of not one but two tidy desks) then hop on over to Julia and have a good nosey at some other bloggee's desks.

I will be over to see you later, once I have finished my day job, and only when I know I don't have mod podge on my sticky mitts! 

Hello to Gay too, my latest Follower.  Nice to have you along!  

TTFN

Hugs

Hettie

CC2C - Challenge 6! Tissue Dummy

Hello Peeps

Wow!  On the CC2C with the Lovely Linda we are on number 6!  Wow!  Hadn't realised we were that far on!    

This week we are sponsored by The Funkie Junkie who are new sponsors to this Challenge.  They have lots to buy on their website and I may just have to treat myself VERY soon! (As if I need encouragement to buy new stash!)

This week we are on Page 38 of the new Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities and we are playing with tissue.  I cannot reveal exactly what I did but I can show you.....

You will notice that I did not use Tim Holtz tissue as I do not have any and know that I wouldn't be able to order it and have it arrive in time.  However, not to miss out on the Challenge I found some old sewing patterns and used parts which I know I won't use.  This particular piece was for a Ra-Ra skirt which I know I will not have the urge to make one let alone wear one!  I have not worn one of those since I was about 16 - yes, two years ago (I wish!).

So as I was using sewing patterns then I just HAD to use my favourite die (still not bored with it yet) and corresponding stamps.  To add my little flair I finally cut into some honeycomb paper which I bought a little while ago.  Love it!  A little gold wax and pink fluff to finish and hey presto one tag.  Hope you like.  There is still time for you to join in as the new Challenge comes up on Friday.  

Please leave me a comment so I know you have been.

Hugs 

Hettie

Diamond Anniversary Cards Snippets

Hello Peeps

I know.  I have been a bad blogger lately.  I haven't been keeping up with things.  However, that does not mean I have not been "doing" things.  I have been a bit of a busy Bunny finishing things off and I will show you one of those projects tomorrow evening, all being well, i.e. we actually have internet! 

In the meantime, I thought I would share some Diamond Anniversary cards which a friend of mine asked me to make for her Aunt and Uncle who celebrated 60 years of marriage last week.  I haven't seen my friend yet as she is on holiday so do not know whether they were liked. There are two cards because one was to be from my friend (and Hubby) and the other to be from her Mum.  It is quite tricky doing this I think because you have to make them completely different, i.e. different images and different stamps.   Also, I couldn't find a diamond anniversary stamp and quite frankly, it is not a stamp I would use enough to warrant the pennies.  

Well here is card 1......

A mixture of Penny Black and Stampin Up stamps, Echo Park papers (from the snippets box :-)), ribbon, premade flowers (Kaisercraft), Nesties and two diamonds in the flowers (holding the mini tag on).

And here is card 2.....

Again papers from my Snippets box (I WILL get that empty some time soon). These were left over from the layout I showed you last week.   Flowers cut from Sizzix die. embossed with my embossing folders and curled petals, layered and diamonds adhered in the centres.  Tim Holtz "lace" and brads (forgot I had those - oops! )

Some more of the Echo Park paper in there - gotta love those papers.  

Here are those layers in close up.

My friend who ordered them was very pleased with them and agreed the "diamonds" were nicer than "60"s on the cards! Phew!

Right, off to link these with the lovely Pixie as they are mainly made from my Snippets box.  As the weather is sooo nice at the moment and the playground is just about stiffening up after all that rain, I will see if there are any pogo sticks left in the shed.  Why not join us in the Snippets Playground?  Just make something, anything using snippets and link up with the Keeper of the Keys.

Thanks for looking and please lave me a comment.

Hettie

Scrappy Tuesday on a Thursday

Hello there Lovely Crafting Peeps

Well, if you came by my blog on Tuesday expecting to see my Scrappy Tuesday post here it is now on a Thursday.  Hope you don't mind, but I wanted to post my Bees in My Garden canvas.   

Here is this week's layout.  Yet another of one of the layouts I completed at the Penally Retreat back in March.  We were playing at doodling.  The photo was taken at the Churchyard at the Church where Hubby and I were married, and where Hubby's Daddy is buried.  I just love the way the sun is peeking through the snow on the branch.

Some punched out flowers with a little bit of stickles in the centres, some stamping on the ribbon and some doodling with the Inkessentials white pen.

Afraid I don't know the make of the patterned papers, but it was rather lovely with a pearlised reverse side. 

Hugs

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.

Friday Snippets - I see a trend...

Hello Peeps

It is Friday so that means I (usually) post my latest Snippets cards.  I missed last week's posting (so sowwy folks) due to life and stuff getting in the way but I have saved them for you to see this week.  So grab a coffee/tea/wine/Baileys (wish I could join you but I am on antibiotics *sad face) and then I shall begin! 

I don't know if you know my blogging buddy Sandra of Stamping for Pleasure, well a few weeks ago she posted instructions to make a pop up card HERE.  Well, I couldn't resist being able to make something just that little bit different than an ordinary rectangular/square card, not that I have any objection to those, but I am known for being different! Or is that eccentric?  

Well, I made this one for my friend who was poorly whilst she was on holiday in the Bahamas and during the flight home.....

(I don't know why the "Get Well Soon" on the front does not show up well, it did in real life!)

Then I made this one for my Mummy for her birthday.

And this one for my lovely friend Sandra (love that bunting punch, which you can buy through Sandra as she is Stampin Up agent - see her blog for details).

Oh! And this one for my dancing teacher and her hubby on the celebration of their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

You cannot see but it has a gold shimmer of perfect pearls mist on there!

I managed to get some bigger envelopes from eBay so I could use a larger base (6"x12") or (4"x8") or (5"x10"), depending on what size envelope I have handy.  Sorry Sandra, I don't do centimetres!

Well, you know me, I rarely cut into a whole fresh new sheet of paper to make a card so these all qualify for the Snippets Challenge over at Di's Playground.  Feel free to make something using snippets and join with us.  

The sun was shining today and the forecast for the weekend is good, so if I am well enough to play tomorrow I shall see you there, but nothing too spinny or up and down-ey or I am liable to fall off at the moment!  So the go-karts better stay in their sheds!

See you for a gentle game of hide n seek!!

Hettie