Christmas Cards II - Look No Ink!!

Hello There Friends

Can you believe it is December on Sunday?  No, me neither!  I get to start my Christmas Album - yeay!  I am looking forward to filling it in.  If you haven't seen it and would like to, take a peek HERE.

I am going to share with you some.....wait for it......Christmas cards with NO INK used on them!  Brave or what?!  I was trying to create my first WOW but my Secret Critic told me that as I had used silver then it didn't count as a WOW card!  

I have used my TH embossing folders, TH doiley die and of course my MB dies.  All the card used is from my White Snippets box and the silver likewise.

I do love the way the sun catches the MB candle die.  I have also rubbed some Schtickles over the embossing, but with the current lack of daylight except in the middle of the day I cannot quite capture the sparkle.

I do love this tartan embossing folder.  I carefully punched an embossed snowflake using my MS die and a snippet of embossed card.  My other favourite MB die in use again.  The ribbon was bought in Prague.  So pretty.

I am taking this over to the Snippets Playground.  Hopefully Miss is well on her way to 100 entries in the 100th week of Miss having the keys. 

See ya later and thanks for calling by.  

Hettie

Friday Funny

Love the fact he/she got A+!!

Christmas Cards

Hello There

I am ba-a-a-a-a-ck!  Did ya miss me?  Did you even notice I have not been around for the last few days? No?  Don't worry about it.

I had a few days off from the grindstone of life (work) and without any intention, I managed to tear myself away from the computer screen too.

Monday Hubby and I had a very enjoyable preamble around Beautiful Bath which was lovely.  There was a flurry of work going on as they prepare for the Christmas Market which starts today!   I am going there with Fergus on Saturday.  I was going to meet some buddies but alas they are not well enough to go.  Never mind ey?  Hubby and I had a beautiful meal HERE, our favourite restaurant in Bath (as well as around the country) - other restaurants are available too!

Tuesday my Buddy Lesley came up for a bit of Christmas Crafting.  I also had two visits from Mr BT as we lost our internet and telephone line during the course of the morning.  Luckily they were visiting the area so could be diverted to our lane.  All the houses had been cut when some workmen managed to cut the line!

Yesterday Hubby and I cut, pulled, dragged, rolled and chopped wood ready for the winter.  My job was to barrow it to the storage place and neatly stack it.  Hubby is hopeless at stacking as the pile collapses as soon as you take a few logs off.  This was the first pile.  Doesn't that look lovely?

Right, I think I had better show you a few cards I have made recently.....

Made using a cut up envelope from the Christmas Album I made two years ago.  Unfortunately it was getting too thick so I had to double up on cards inside.  Well, it seemed a shame to waste them so I carefully cut the flap off the envelope and peeled off the paper from there and trimmed a little, adhered them to the card and added some extra bits including a stamping from my new AO stamps which was stamped onto Spellbinders die cuts and also a MB die cut.

This was made from a VOS card which came in a kit many moons ago, layered a piece of white embossed card which was left over from the wedding invitations I did some time ago, a snippet of Christmas paper and a piece of cardstock from inside the envelope as well as another stamping from my AO, ribbon and button.

Hey presto!  Two cards out of one envelope and some bits from my Snippets box.  There is also another card to make from the card that was on the back of the envelope.  Not bad recycling eh?

Off to the Snippets Playground to see if anyone wants to play hopscotch now!  Or whether I play alone with Fergus?

TTFN

Hettie

Rudolph Day - Last one of 2013!

Hello there Folks

Gosh today is the last Rudolph Day of 2013!!  It doesn't seem long ago that it was the first RD of 2013!

Before I start, you may want to get yourself a large coffee or something stronger as this is a loooong picture heavy post!  As promised I am sharing with you my little project I have been working on ready for December 2013.  Here goes....

Cover....Not very interesting as I decorate it at the end.  I am hoping to pick up a nice charm to dangle off the rings when I go to Bath with Miss and the Troublemaker on Saturday!

Inside cover..

Page 1....

Front cover of page one lifted....

Bottom flap of page 1 pulled down....

Back of page 1 and page 2....

Page 2 flap lifted.....

Back of page 2 and page 3....

Back of page 2 opened....

Page 3 lifted....

Behind the Silent Night and in other places there are gaps so that extra tags may be popped in later if needed.

Page 3 pulled down...

All the papers used are either a DCWV VOS mat pad, some of which I have struggled with using before as they are landscape and I tend to use portrait for my cards so they are perfick!  I have also used papers from the basket of Christmas Snippets and include papers used in previous Christmas Albums.  Also, like the Christmas trees and the flourish on page 3, they have been sent to me by kind bloggers.

Back of page 3 and Page 4.

Page 4 lifted.....

Page 4 second flap lifted....

Back of page 4 and page 5....

Page 5 lifted....

Back of page 5 and page 6....

Page 6 lifted....

Back of page 6 and back cover....

Can you see I have a new toy?  A We R MK envelope board.   Love it!

So there you have it.  This year's Christmas Album from me, all ready and waiting to go on Sunday 1st December.  Lots of punching, folding, snippets, VOS, stamping, die cutting and generally having fun making this year's Christmas Album.  I got the idea from a video I came across on YouTube but alas cannot now find it.  If you would like me to show you how to make it I will do a tutorial for you.  Let me know in the comments.  It is quite simple to do the basic page and then engineer it to your whim.  

Off to link this up to the last Rudolph Day of 2013 with my Buddy Sandra and also the Snippets Playground as this certainly used up a lot of Snippets in the making.  I am also linking this with Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes.

Alison has kindly suggested I also enter this into the Artistic Stamper Challenge - Christmas so that I am doing.  There are still a few days so why not enter a Christmas card in too?

Thanks for bearing with me.

Hugs

Hettie

x

Friday Funny

Funkie Junkie - 12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 4

Hello There!

We have now discovered why our internet is so slow at home, it is because there is a line fault between us and the exchange!  Like we didn't know that one!  So our internet/phone is likely to be down for the next five working days until they come and fix it.  Hence my postings and visits will have to be done in my lunch breaks!  

So without further ado, I am today sharing my take on Linda's Tag 4 of the 12 Tags of Christmas 2013 challenge.  Click HERE if you wish to see Linda's Tag 4 or HERE if you wish to go to the start of the Challenge and join in!  You still have plenty of time and it is great fun and a fabulous way of picking up hints and tints from Linda and other participants!  The challenge is being sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique, from where incidentally the red hessian came from I have used today and my Artistic Outpost love affair began!

Ok on to tag.  Here it is.......

I took a tag cut from TH die and some manilla card (Recycled from files in work!) and inked it with Frayed Burlap DI.  I then ran it through the TH Tartan embossing folder and then inked it again with Pine Needles DI.  

I took a piece of the Czech book I bought a while ago to alter, trimmed it to size, and stamped with the pine branch of the AO Midwinter stamp set and then instead of running the tag through my sewing machine, I stamped it with a sewing stamp with Archival.  I distressed the edges with Gathered Twigs DI and a distresser and promptly covered it up with gold rick rack which must be ancient!

I took a red rose and inked the edges with embossing ink and then brushed over some perfect pearls.  It looks much better IRL but the photo doesn't pick it up.  Then I rummaged through my Snippets drawer and die cut the poinsettia die from TH, inking the edge with embossing ink and gold embossing powder.  I also used the pinecone die, also from TH to diecut some leaves which I inked with PN DI.  It is all held together with a VOS brad.  

Then for the letters.  First of all I planned to use some grungeboard letters that I knew I had, but got diverted on the way and found myself opening the drawer in which I keep scrabble tiles.  Idea struck and so I used these.  Trimmed some hessian (burlap) and made some small spotty bows and added some gingham ribbon to the top to hang it and hey presto my tag was born.  

Thanks for calling by.  I do hope you like my take on Linda's tag.  I think this is my favourite so far for me!

I am going to see if my buddies in the Snippets Playground like it too!

Hettie

Scrapbook Tuesday - Oh Deer!

Hello there!

Sorry for being late with my posting today, but the internet is sooooo slooooow round here I could not load the photos up!

Before I start I wish to say Hi to Julie Ann, my latest follower.  Thank you.

Never mind, here is this week's Scrapbook post.....

 Excuse the pun of the title, but I could not resist it!!  These photos were taken from the car as we drove around Longleat earlier this year.  They really are beautiful creatures and are pretty nosey!

MME papers and Bazzill cardstock as well as a few Snippets.  I placed a piece of hessian (burlap) in the ripped section just to add some dimension and layers.  It kinda reminds me of feed sacks.  Or even Santa's sack!!

The flourishes were cut using my Tonic dies which I purchased recently.  I had a credit on my account and needed to use it up quick or lose it.  These were £12.99 with free postage at the time and I love them.  I have used Tonic punches for years but these were my first dies.  They are so fine and cut with ease.

 A little Snippet of cream cardstock to cut a TH deer and stamped with SU stamp with Gathered Twigs DI, and the words tab was made eons ago on my Silhouette.  When you print and cut these you usually get four different coloured tabs and it seems a shame to waste the others!  The stripey parentheses was on the border edge of another MME paper so I cut it out by hand.  Waste not want not!

 This wooden flourish was from Kaisercraft which I have not used before NBUS, again I stamped it with DI.  In fact all the stamping was done with the same SU stamp.  I had a nice surprise with this.  I only ordered one, but when I opened the cellophane packet, there were two in there!  I like those surprises!

A little tag on the bottom recycled (made a mistake on the back ages ago!) and a VOS brad holding down the strip of TH film.  The words were cut on the Cricut.  

Right then, off to the Snippets Playground to share this as there are Snippets included.  Why not join in?  You get to play on the virtual swings and roundabouts!  Just link up HERE for any projects in which you have used Snippets.  Wow!  I just realised this is the 100th Snippets week - seems like yesterday that Miss was given the keys!

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

Penny Black Snippets Cards...

Hello there Friends

Gosh that weekend went fast - did you hear it as it shot by?  It was a fun fun fun weekend too, which always go quicker! Quilting, Dancing, Crafting and Cooking!  Don't get many of those!

I came across some photos of cards that I have forgotten to share with you, so I thought I would do so now.  The first is for a friend of mine who was having some nasty surgery recently.  He is a dancing friend of many many years and when I saw this stamp it reminde me of a dance called Shepherd's Crook, so I thought it was apt to send to Graham.  I saw him at the Dance on Saturday, still not A1 but getting there, which was lovely to hear.

The second card was a birthday card to a dear friend of mine.  She does not have chickens of her own any more, though she loves all my chicken cards I make and demanded that she had one for her birthday!  Well, her wish was my command.

All papers and trimmings are either Snippets or VOS - or even both.   No idea how long I have had that flower trim - probably out of my Mum's sewing box!  Shhhh!  Don't tell her.

Right, I am off to throw my hat in over at the Snippets Playground. I haven't been there in a few days, nor did I even switch a computer on over the weekend other than to play DVDs in my craft room and print photos for tomorrow's layout.  It is good to get away from the screen now and again!

See ya soon and have a good week.  You'd better wrap up warm as I hear rumours of the four-letter white stuff hitting the UK this week!  Yikes!

Hettie 

Friday Funnies

A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy

one carton of milk and if they have avocados, get 6.

A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.

The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?"

He replied, "They had avocados."

If you're a woman, I'm sure you're going back to read it again! Men

will get it the first time.

My work is done here.

===========================================

Water in the carburetor

WIFE: "There is trouble with the car. It has water in the carburetor."

HUSBAND: "Water in the carburetor? That's ridiculous "

WIFE: "I tell you the car has water in the carburetor."

HUSBAND: "You don't even know what a carburetor is. I'll check it out.

Where's the car?

WIFE: "In the pool"

===========================================

THIS IS A FRIGHTENING STATISTIC, PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST WORRYSOME IN

RECENT YEARS.

25% of the women in this country are on medication for mental illness.

That's scary.

It means 75% are running around untreated.

===========================================

HE MUST PAY

Husband and wife had a tiff. Wife called up her mom and said, "He

fought with me again, I am coming to live with you."

Mom said, "No darling, he must pay for his mistake. I am coming to

live with you.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Today's Short Reading from the Bible...

From Genesis: "And God promised men that good and obedient wives would

be found in all corners of the earth."

Then He made the earth round...and He laughed and laughed and laughed!

====================================

Jumping for Joy...

Hello Friends

Just popping by to share a card I made a little while ago but not posted it yet.  Well, I posted it to the recipient but didn't post it on here.  You know what I mean!

I just love this stamp and get it out to use any time I can.  I love to spend a happy hour colouring in with my Copics - reminds me of old times!  Snippets galore have been used as well as some VOS being the flowers and buttons.  The buttons were given to me by someone I work with in a very old tin just like my Grandmother used to have.  

I am taking this down to the Snippets Playground.  Hopefully the weather has dried up enough to have a play on the twampoline before it gets packed away for winter!

Have a good day!

Hettie

WOYWW 232 - Look Away Now Sandra!

Hello Folks

It's me.  I am ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-ck!  I don't have to play Dancing Teacher tonight - something about the Guides booking the hall out twice so I get an evening off so I can come and play Desk Hopping with the Lovely Julia.

If you are easily shocked, look away now......

Yep it is a mess.  This is how I left it last night.  You cannot see the left hand side, nor my computer chair, thankfully!

You see I finished off my Christmas Album on Sunday so there are Christmas Snippets all over the place and I am NOT putting them away unless they are attached to cards and then they can go in the tin.  I also finished off my Mum's Christmas pressie last night so there are papers etc on my desk from them too.

Here is a peek of my Christmas Album, but you will have to come back on Rudolph Day for the full reveal....

I see I even left my huge coffee mug there too.  I shall pop that downstairs in the dishwasher now.

Right.  Now you have been to see my desk, why not whizz off to Julia's desk HERE and join in the biggest Blog Hop in the world!

See y'all later when I come home from work.

Hettie

Scrapbook Tuesday - Debbie's Leaving Book...

Hello Friends

Before I start I would like to say Hi to my two latest followers - Kathy K and I believe Kathleen Schofield. Thank you for choosing to fly with Hettiecraft! 

You will recall the other day I showed you a card I made for my good friend Debbie on the occasion of leaving the firm I work for. Click HERE if you haven't seen it. Well, as is the newly found "tradition" of our company, I made a leaving book for her for everyone to sign. I did get told by Debbie, under no uncertain terms, that she wanted a book! So here it is.....

The firm's colours are purple and orange so I could not resist using this as the colour basis to this little book. I used a mixture of TH dies and McGill punches to create the flowers and clock, adding a little rock candy stickles to them. The paper is from one of TH's collections (cannot remember which one though).

As you may see I have used TH, 7 Gypsies, Artistic Outpost, Cavallini, Pink Paisley, Catslife and another make of stamps which I cannot remember. I will edit that in later! 

Some little charms to hang off the spine, including TH, a necklace from Primark and an angel charm which my friend brought back from US for me.

All pages were stamped and inked with DI before stamping with Archival.

Back cover.  The covers were cut from a Sizzix die which I have had forever and was a good buy I can tell you!

The book was well received both by colleagues and Debbie herself.  

I am entering this into the Artistic Outpost Referral Program as there are lots of AO stamps on this book.

As there are a fair number of Snippets on the front, I shall take this over to the Snippets Playground.  There is a great prize on offer from Miss this week.  Why not join in?

Hettie