March Rudolph Day....just...

Hello There!

I am very nearly out of time to join in with the March Rudolph Day and am getting in there with a sideways slide and crash!!  Things have been a bit hectic at Chez Hettie and wonderfully topped off with our internet failing us.  Apparantly BT think it is quite acceptable for the internet to be dropped and out of action up to 5 times in a day with the result that our internet is unavailable for 23 out of 24 hours!!!!  So I hope they don’t mind if I reduce their payment to 23/24^ths this month!!  I think not!

So here we go. 

Last week I received this NBUS stamp from Lawn Fawn.  It “fell into my basket” whilst I was buying another die and stamp set that my friend Darnell MADE me buy.  These are my first Lawn Fawn products and so far I likie.  I have not found many retailers in the UK and the one I did find only had the stamps I wanted…no die.  So I wandered to their site and discovered you can order direct and what’s more I could use Paypal so no setting up an account for which I will forget which email I have used and what password.  Result! They were very quick and I was able to make three cards to join in with the Challenge. 

I can see this die being use a lot this year. 

All the papers came out of my Christmas Snippets basket so that is a little less stuff in there! It also means I can join in with the Easter Egg Hunt at the Snippets Playground this week.

Stamps used are Tim Holtz and Hero Arts and I used WOW Sparkling Snow embossing powder with Versamark.  The Bakers Twine is Papermania and so is the paper - VOS.   Punch is EK Success.

Phew!  Glad I got that in in time.  Thanks for calling by.  Don’t forget to stick some lead in your shoes to stop you from blowing away.  It is very windy in the UK right now.  My Girls are not happy about the wind, I can tell you!

Be safe!

Hettie

Friday Funny

I’m off to Specsavers for my appointment.  By the way
 you haven't shaved very well and your tie is crooked!

Off to share this with Annie.

Happy Friday xx

Happy Birthday Patti

Hello there

 

Thank you all for your kind comments on Tracey 's passing. I appreciated them all. A farmer friend of mine told me that Warren hens usually average four years so I guess nearly six was very good😊

 

Onto my post today which is a card I made for my friend Patti's Birthday.

I  made my own card so that it could be top folding and perfectly fitted one of the plethora of envelopes I seem to have. Then I took a snippet of white card and stamped it using my SU stamp and Versamark and embossed with white WOW embossing powder. I then used Distress Inks and inked the background.  I took a Snippet of black cardstock and ran it through the B/S with SU embossing folder. I trimmed the papers to fit the card, diecut several Smiles using Penny Black die and stacked them but needed something else. I remembered a video I had seen and pinned to make bows using the Memory Keepers envelope board so set to. A button on top of a punched circle SU punch NBUS and I was happy.

 

So with Snippets and two NBU S (punch and bow technique) I am off to join the parties at the Playground and Playhouse.

 

 

 

Thanks for calling by.

 

Hettie

Happy Mothering Sunday

Hello There! 

Hasn't today been a glorious day weatherwise?  I was lucky enough to spend some time with my Girls today sitting on the bench whilst they had a roam around.  It was lovely to see them enjoying the Spring sunshine and having a rootle around looking for fresh worms.  Mr Hettie kindly cleaned the coup out and just let me enjoy my time with the Girls.  We noticed that Tracey was a little slower than normal and not her usual self, although she did come to me for a cwtch and we had a long chat.  So glad we did as when I went out a little later she had toddled off over the Rainbow Bridge.  She was the last of the first set of rescue hens that we had and we are guessing 5 or 6 years old.  We had her nearly 4 years. Bon voyage Tracey.  We will miss your wonky tail feather and I will miss our cwtches.

Right onto today's post.  I wanted to share with you the Mothering Sunday cards I made for both mine and Mr Hettie's mothers last week...

I made the card using some Bazzill cardstock and then cut the filigree piece using my Silhouette.  This was a NBUS design that I downloaded.   It took me a few attempts as the cardstock was quite thick.  However, persaver is my middle name (amongst others!) and I set the cutter to double cut and it cut it perfick.  

Then I looked to find some patterned paper to cut the butterfly with...I did not want to use the one that was cut with the filigree background.  I managed to find a Snippet of Crafty Individuals card and just about squeezed two butterflies out.  I then took my NBUS Martha Stewart Butterfly punch and punched an extra butterfly for the centre.  Once it was all assembled I took the Liquid Perfect Pearls and applied liberally. 

My Mum loved it so much she asked me if I would make something similar as invitations to their BIG Anniversary later this year.  However, she wants to embroider some butterflies to add in the centre.  I will share those with you when the time comes. 

Now the sharp eyed among you will realise that I have used the same butterfly punch before, however, the punch was totally knackered dull and not cutting properly.  So I hunted around for a while trying to get a good price.  Eventually I found a brand new one on a famous auction site at a bargain price so Paypal helped me out.  I haven't got rid of the old one yet.  Thinking it would make a good paperweight.  Incidentally I have tried every possible remedy to sharpen it.  

Right, one more think I need to do now is to welcome Twinkle Toes as my latest Follower.  Thank you so much.

Off to join in the fun and frolics at the Snippets Playground as well as Darnell's Playhouse and Mrs A's Butterfly Farm.  Cor that is going to be a busy half hour!!

Thanks for calling by.  Please leave me a message so I know you have been.

Hettie

Friday Funny

A man and woman were sitting beside each other in the first class section of the plane.

Suddenly, the woman sneezed, took out a tissue, gently wiped her nose, and then shuddered quite violently for 10 or 15 seconds.

The man went back to his reading. A few minutes later, the woman sneezed again, took out a tissue, gently wiped her nose, and shuddered quite violently; as before.

The man was becoming curious and concerned about the shuddering. A few more minutes passed and the woman sneezed one more time. Again she took a tissue, gently wiped her nose, and shuddered violently.

The man couldn't restrain his curiosity. He turned to the woman and said, "You've sneezed three times and this has resulted in noticeable shuddering spasms. Are you all right?"

I'm sorry if I disturbed you," the woman replied, "I have a rare condition; when I sneeze, I have an orgasm."

The man was a little embarrassed, but even more curious and said, "I've never heard of that before. What are you taking for it?"

The woman looked at him and said, " Pepper"

Thanks Kath for this one!!  

I am sharing this with Annie.

Happy Anniversary...

Hello there

I am just about up and able now after the last 2 weeks or so of feeling quite feeble and poorly.  I finally went in my craft room on the weekend and just gasped at the mess in there!!  I have quite literally in the last month been going in, doing what I have to and then leaving all the mess and debris there!  Tonight I will don apron and duster to give it a bit of a spruce up!

So today I thought I would share an Anniversary card I made for a very loving couple that I know.  The anniversary was last month but I am only just sharing.  

I made the tent style card to fit some envelopes I was given.  Then I took a Snippet of card, stamped it with clear versamark and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I then took Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Stormy Sea DIs and smooshed over the top until I liked the colour.  

I then took the iron out and ironed off the embossing powder.  This is one of the only times I actually like ironing!!  I trimmed the card to fit and adhered to the background.  I stamped a NBUS Hero Arts HA sentiment (I should have stamped it with Archival first on a scrap piece to prime the stamp!) The M&B sentiment is part of a SU set I acquired recently.

Then it was a case of attaching some ribbon, which is much more silvery IRL and was attached to a Christmas present that the recipient of this card gave me!!  A little bit of silver twine and some hearts, chomp the corners and hey presto the card was done.

The couple loved it.  

Off to share this with the Snippets Playground (card and ribbon).  I am hoping the fire is lit as I could do with a warm up!

Thank you Sue for becoming my latest Follower.  

Thanks for calling by.   Hopefully now that I am feeling a bit better I will feel up to a little more blogging now.  Oh, and if BT gives us our internet back!  Grrr!

Hugs

Friday Funny

An Australian stopped  at a local restaurant following a day roaming around in  Madrid. While sipping his wine, he noticed a sizzling, scrumptious  looking platter being served at the next table. Not only did  it look good, the smell was wonderful.

He asked the waiter, "What is that you just  served?"

The waiter replied, "Si Senor, you have excellent taste!  Those are called Cojones de Toro, bull's testicles from  the bull fight this morning. A delicacy!"

The Australian said, "I will have the same please."

The waiter replied, "I am so sorry senor. There is only one serving per day because there is only one bull fight each morning.  If you come early and place your order, we will be sure to  save you this delicacy."

The following day he returned, placed his order, and that evening was served the  one and only special delicacy of the day.

After a few  bites, inspecting his platter, he called to the waiter and  said, "These are delicious, but they are much, much  smaller than the ones I saw you serve yesterday.'"

The waiter shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Si, Señor. Sometimes the bull wins."

One for Kate I think!!

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

Thank you for the Invite...

Hello there

I haven't been up to playing in my craft room of late but I have a few projects in the draft section that I have not shared with you before.  It is similar to the card I made for my friend Ann, that is because I made it around the same time.  I used my Tonic dies but a different set this time.  This was its first outing so an NBUS.

I covered the card base with the lilac card, chomped the corners and stamped them with Archival ink using my SU set. 

I took the pale blue card and run it through with the Tonic dies and then inked around the edges and layered it up.

I added some ribbon to the bottom....

Some butterflies and some pearls...

and a matching envelope!

I know the recipient liked it...phew!  

Sorry I have not been around much...still coughing for Wales and our internet is flaky these days.  

Simon Says Stamp is looking for things that fly this week so I am fluttering by with the butterflies.

Hettie

Friday Funny

How it all began

In ancient Israel , it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a healthy young wife by the name of Dorothy.

Dot Com was a comely woman, large of breast, broad of shoulder and long of leg.

Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?"

Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. The sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums.

The drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.

To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was known as Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP).

And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung.

They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. Indeed he did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel , or eBay as it came to be known.

He said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."  "YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.

Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside.

It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).

That is how it all began. And that's the truth!

As usual on a Friday I am linking this up with Annie for Friday Smiles. 

Sealed with a Kiss....Layout

Hello there

I have to apologise to my blog for neglecting it for the last few days.  I have been a little under the weather with the lurgy after someone very kindly coughed and sneezed on me last week.  I came home from my Quilting Group on Saturday feeling dreadful and got generally worse.  I am not going into details ok, but I did not get out of bed much until today.  Though I did have a shock when the person concerned phoned me yesterday to apologise!!! 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I promised to share with you a little layout I had done so here it is...

 This is most probably the last layout of my Wedding Album, but note I only said "probably"!!  I have so many photos left still!

 

 

So where do I start?  The background piece is a piece of black cardstock and I took some of my stencils, my old white ink pad and an inkie paddie thing (can't remember what you call them now...made by that Tim chappie!) and swooshed some ink through the stencils, one of which is a NBUS bought from US by Memory Box...the one with butterflies on.

The die cuts are a mixture of some that were kindly sent to me by my Buddy over the water and some from my Tin of Shame.  The TH clock one was originally a wishy washy beige colour when I started.  I smooshed some TH DIs Tea Dye, Gathered Twigs, Brushed Cord, and then rubbed some Treasured gold wax on top.  

The PPs are bits left over from previous layouts so Snippets...yeay!!  The corrugated card is from a package that had arrived a few days before (again inked with some DIs as above.

I put the little birdies on top as a nod to the pair of seagulls we kept seeing on Guernsey where we got engaged.  Now THAT is another story and why there are two seagulls in our bathroom!!

Now the flowers.  The one at the bottom of the clock and the others like it are NBUS and by Prima.  I only used a few as they are soooo nice.  Can you see the little seeds popping out from behind the flower towards my arm?  There are a few of these dotted around and they came out of my Happy Post I received just before Christmas, along with the sparkly heart...Thanks again my Friend.

The other flowers were made up from flowers in my stash, brads in the middle, some of which are years old, sprayed with Glimmer Mists, Perfect Pearls, layered and scrunched up. 

The MS Monarch butterflies came out of the Tin of Shame and there are others that I made using old books and my SU die.  

I wanted a little bit of watch parts in there and I saw a key somewhere when I was gathering things up so thought I would throw that into the mix too along with a NBUS TH card.  I tied the ribbon with a little bit of silver grey ribbon that was actually adorning a present my friend gave me at Christmas.  Waste not and you will want not.  Lace came from Funkie Junkie.  Only a little piece as it is too nice to use all in one go!

The leaves you can see were punched out of Snippet using my MacGill punch and inked up with DIs.

Finally I used my Cricut to die cut the  title which I cut twice to give it a bit of oomph!  Then I smooshed some more wax around and spritzed a little perfect pearls on there. 

Love the layers you can see in these last two photos.  

Hurrah!  You have made it through to the end.  Well done you.  Unless of course you skipped and just looked at the photos!  I don't mind but please leave me a comment to let me know you have been.

I am taking this over to the Playground for a ride on the swings and then cosy in front of the fire.  I am also entering this into Shopping our Stash as they are looking for old brads...mine certainly count as they are ancient!  And I will flutter past the Butterfly Challenge as there are some hexagons on my layout.   Not very often I get to link up with a few challenges!!  Woo hoo!!

Thanks for being patient.  See you all soon.

Hettie