WOYWW 291 and Happy New Year!

Hello there!!

Before I start I would just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year whether you be a regular to my little blog or a newbie!  I hope you all have a pleasant and healthy 2015.  I also wish to thank Desiree for becoming my latest follower.  It is lovely to have you following me.

Right now then onto my post.  I try and follow a little lady called Julia who does this weekly blog hop on Wednesdays called What's On Your Workdesk and even though it is New Year's Eve, like a trooper she is there for us to link up!  Hurrah!  The other day I shared on my Facebook page this.

Well some of my blogging friends have been teasing me about this picture as I said that it was my aim to clear my Craft Room today and a certain one said I should share before and after photos.  I can only share my befores because Mr Hettie and I went out after a bit of a lay in to Hereford (yes Jan I spent a small fortune in Doughtys!) and have not long come back.  So today I will share my before photos and then hopefully next week I will share my afters with you....

 Here is the desk I am typing to you on.

 My regular crafting desk.

 My sewing desk...but in my defence I am in the middle of working on a quilt right now which I started on Boxing Day!

My floor!  Considerably better than it has been...trust me!

Right then.  Now I have shared mine why not go HERE, after leaving me a comment, so that I may come and nose at your desk/s.

Have a lovely celebration tonight whether it is out with others or home with your loved ones!

Hettie

xxx

PS Just got Annie's comment so just for you Annie....oh and LLJ here is what I bought today in Doughtys!  Sorry Julia! (Grin!)

 

My Favourite Five Christmas Cards

Hello There!

I know I am a day or so late, but Seasons Greetings to you all.  I hope your Christmas has been  jolly and fun. 

I was just wandering around in Blogland and came across a certain Mistress of the Keys of the Snippets Playground's post where she shared five of her favourite cards with Debby of A Scrapjourney.  So I thought I would join in with this one as I have shared one or two Christmas cards with you over the year. (I have some more which are still on the camera but I will get to those in the next week or so).

So here they are in no particular order...

This owl is adorable and was stamped for me by Miss Di when we were at the WOYWW Crop all those months ago.

This was made using my Spellbinders Bauble die and matching stamps which I bought when I won a voucher from a certain Darnell Lady on her inaugural NBUS Challenge.

Made as part of the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge which were going so well until I fell victim to the nasty Sinus Infection and then horrid cold straight after!

This one was made using my lovely new Penny Black stamp I bought on my Jolly Holiday over the pond.  

And I could not resist popping this one in, again made using my bauble dies and Tim Holtz stamp which was a NBUS despite having it for several ahem! years!!

I do have another card which would also count as a favourite but I haven't shared it yet as I only finished it on Christmas Eve to give to my Honeybun but I will share that probably tomorrow.

Thanks Debby for hosting this one.  I have enjoyed looking back at my cards again.  No doubt I will pick some of these ideas and recreate for Christmas 2015!!

If I don't see you before may I wish all of you a Happy and Healthy 2015! (I have given up with the "prosperous" bit as we are all crafters who like to buy new toys!!)  Thank you for being a visitor whether it be regular or irregular, or as a Follower.  It has been lovely to read all your comments.  I greatly appreciate them.

Hugs

Hettie

Friday Funny

Smile for the day--Amazing Facts

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

(Hardly seems worth it.

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

(O.M.G.!)

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.

(O.M.G.!!!)

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy)

(I'm still not over the pig.)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Don't try this at home; maybe at work.)

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

(Honey, I'm home . What the...?)

 The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

(30 minutes. Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)

The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

(I still can't believe that pig ...quality over quantity.)

Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Something I always wanted to know.)

  

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

(No wonder women like man with strong muscles.......)

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

(Okay, so that would be a good thing.) 

A cat's urine glows under a black light.

(I wonder how much the government paid to figure that out.)

 

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

(I know some people like that.)

Starfish have no brains.

(I know some people like that, too.)

 

Polar bears are left-handed.

(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer.)

 

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(What about that pig? Do the dolphins know about the pig?)

 

  

Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread these crazy facts and share this with someone you want to bring a smile to, maybe even a chuckle.

 

 Linking this up with my mate Annie!

Friday Funny

A Christmas Tradition

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. 

When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the cider and hidden the rum. 

In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. 

He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day?

I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Not many people know this!

 

Choo Choo

Hello there

Not long now until the Jolly Fella in a red suit pays a visit to all of the good Girls and Boys in the World.  Guess I am getting coal again!  Yippee!!

I am so sorry I have not been around much the last few days.  I have been a little under the weather with a sinus infection and a little problem with my war wound so spent most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday in bed or on the settee in front of the fire!  Before you ask, yes Hubby was with me, but NO as he had flu also!  I also managed to burst a blood vessel in my eye which was a little irritating so was not wishing to look at laptop. 

Anyhoo we are both on the road to recovery helped by Mr Jack Daniels, antibiotics and good old paracetamol and rest!  I am finding that after finishing work I am only fit to collapse and my poor craft room is feeling a little cold and neglected right now.  Not to worry...Hubby's card hasn't been thought of yet alone made so it wont be long until I am back in there.

I thought I would share a few cards I made to send to family and friends...

All roughly the same but different.  Can you believe I bought that Stampenduous stamp in US for ....wait for it....$1.50!!!!!!  I had thought about buying the same one to take to my host Kim but figured she might have it as I knew she had a previous one.  It was in my basket at £13.50!!!  Bargain ey and I love it as it is great for men through the year if you don't colour the holly in!  BTW I used my green wink of stella pen, which I bought as an error....loving it now!  The red is stickles.  The little Santa and Snowman clay charms I have had for ever so are VOS.  I hope they have survived the post.

Right then.  Off to catch up in the antics of the Playground with these.  Hopefully my understudy in the Nativity play has not run away with the idea that she has my part for good. I shall just sneeze on her if she won't give it back!

Let me know if you want to know how or what I did to create these cards.

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

Friday Funny

Ideas if the weathermen have got it right!

Tee Hee!  I will expect to see some of your snowy sculptures in time!

I am linking this up with my buddy Annie!

Hettie

On the 11th Day of December....4th Tag of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style

Hello there

Is it me or is it getting colder right now?  Brrrr!  

Today I am sharing my latest card in my Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas...

Here is Linda's inspiration...

For my card I made myself another stencil using my Silhouette.  I am running out of stencil plastic which is not exactly easy to get hold of in this neck of the woods.  So I tried an alternative substance.  You know the dividers that you can get at the stationers that are made of thin plastic?  Well I found some in my drawer in work which the lower numbers had been used.  Well, the inner magpie in me said not to throw them away and an idea was born.   Other than the fact that they are a little thin and need handling carefully, but they do work!!  I sprayed the backgrounds with what was left over from my other spraying I did the other day for Tag 3.

The image does have holly but unfortunately I covered most of them up!  The Artistic Outpost border stamp was already stamped last year but I never got round to using it so I just stamped the other three stamps using Festive Berries and NBUS Evergreen Bough DIs and cut the edge using my pinking shears and then inked with FB DI.

As you may realise my "tag" is a little bigger than a normal tag.  I am making cards instead of tags.  So I added a little MB NBUS Woodland Deer which was cut out of Snippets, inked and embossed with clear embossing powder.

As always this challenge is being sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  

As I made a few backgrounds and I had more of the border stamps, I decided to make a few more cards - Yippee!!

I am taking this down the Snippets Playground as there are lots of Snippets used here.  I hear the Nativity Play is going well and there is a Tea afterwards with mince pies and goodies!!  I am guessing there is some pop going down behind the bike shed too with a certain Elf!

Thanks for calling by.  

Hettie

On the Ninth day of December....an Alteration for Bran Tub pressie!

Hello there

Is it me or is December just chomping along at a fast rate of knots?

On a previous post I mentioned that I was at our quilting Hope Lunch and that we traditionally have a Bran Tub.  Well, it has got around that I usually make something and so couldn't let them down this time.  I had bought some ribbon and some needle threader/cutters and now I just needed to "present" them some way...

 Take one tin that has been hanging around in your craft room for several years waiting for a project.

 Take some chipboard that has previously been on the back of a notepad in work.

 Take some VOS K&Company paper and cover said tin, find some Snippets and TH and Paperartsy stamps, half of a dummy torso that you had left over from a previous project, some buttons and flowers... jumble it up a bit and you get this...

 Do you like it?  I know Elaine did.  So glad she got it as she does love owls.

And the side didn't get ignored...

 Nor the base.  I was sent these stamps from a very kind blogging pal and this was their first time out.  Do you like my Handmade stamp too?  Only just received it from Etsy.  Love it!

 And here is inside the lid...

 Inside the box...

 Oh yes...I added some more ribbons.  The cards were also cut from the TH die and inked up with DI ink.  Some bells, buttons and pretty pins too.

Thanks for calling by and please let me know what you think.  Off to share this with the Pirate Cap'n Miss Di and her parrot called Parsnip as there are oodles of Snippets used in this project. ....last seen looking for another tin to make one for Mum for Christmas....

Hettie

On the Seventh Day of December...Third Tag of Christmas Funkie Junkie style.

Hello there

Sorry I missed posting yesterday but we had our last Quilt meeting of 2014 and the last in our current venue, so I was out early in order that I could help pack our cabinet up ready for it to be moved.  A lovely lunch was had and I will share the Bran Tub present I made shortly, now that the recipient has received it.

Now on to today's card which I am sharing.  As you will realise by now, I am following Linda of Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, but with cards instead using Linda's tags as inspiration.  So without further ado here is #3...

And now here is Linda's inspiration tag...

 

Isn't Linda's tag just beautiful?

So I guess you want to know what I did?  First off, I didn't have a stencil with snowflakes on so I resorted to my trusty Silhouette and found a snowflake background which I then cut using quilting stencil plastic.  I do love it when my hobbies collide!  I will say this cutting and picking all the plastic took quite some time, but it was well worth it as I know I will use this stencil A LOT!  Thanks Linda for making me look for this. 

Now next mission was to create a background.  I tried first off with some Pine Needles distress stain but this came out too heavy and darker than I wanted.  Hmmmn.  Next idea!  Ahhh Colourwash!  Now I still have the original set of these and there is a beautiful greeny colour called Bottle in the originals.  I poured some into a mini spray, added some Perfect Pearls and topped it up with water to lessen the density of colour and the pearls gave it a fabulous shimmer.  Once this was sorted I wanted some shimmer around the card so I stamped with my Hampton Arts speckled stamp and Versamark. First I used silver embossing powder and then Wow Sparkling Snow embossing powder.

Background sorted, now I needed to work on the rest of the card.  I wanted to add a little metal on there so found a small Snippet of Ranger foil tape, mounted it on to card and then used some Adirondack alcohol inks on there in Copper, Stream, Clover, Silver and and stream.  Once I was happy with the background I then ran it through the B/S with my TH showflake embossing folder and sanded it before trimming it to size.  

For the Snowflake I decided to use the TH snowflake die and a Snippet of white card to which I inked some Pine Needles DI before punching the last bit of embossed metal for the centre.  

Now just for a sentiment for which I reached for my current favourite TH stamps.  I used TH Archival ink and some clear embossing powder.  Once heated and dried I trimmed the card to size, mounted it onto some silver cardstock before placing this onto a blank white card which I had inked with Pine Needles DI.  

Thanks once again to Linda for the inspiration for this card, which so far is my favourite, but at only #3 this may be subject to change!!  Watch this space!!  And thank YOU for visiting my blog and please do let me know what you think of this card.  I do love to read your comments.  Why not give the challenge a go?  It is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique and well worth entering just to have a spend in Linda's store.

I am sharing this card with the Snippets Playground too as there are several Snippets used up here.  

Have a great week.

Hettie

Friday Funny

I may not be great at bird identification but I do know that there are four females and one male..

I am linking with my friend Annie for her Friday Smiles!