Latest Journal...T stands for AdvenTure Journal!

Hello there.  I', baaaaaaaaaack!  What do you mean you hadn't noticed I was away?  Hubster and I took a little holiday over the large pond to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary.   May I just say a huge Thank You to those kind folks who sent us a card to celebrate.  They were very well received and appreciated.  

Those who follow me will know that when I am going on a journey I like to make a journal in order that I can make notes as we go along, and put in photos off my phone, using a Pogo Printer.  Well, this trip was no exception. This time however, not only were we to celebrate a special Anniversary we were also going to meet up and stay with my Blogging Buddy who visited last year.  Gotta love WOYWW and Blogging!

So I thought you might like to see my journal, pre holiday....Before you start reading, I would go and grab a cuppa as this is a photo heavy post.

The spine was pretty devoid of charms as I didn't want to to be clunking around and also, I was hoping to pick some more up whilst we were there.

Here are the inside pages....Doesn't that pen clip well on there?  A design feature (cough) of course!!

This is one I wanted to show Debs. What I am holding is a square of paper, folded in such a way that it has two outside flap pockets and as I have stitched through the centre, I have joined it to add another journalling spot inside.  Tricky to explain this one!

This one on the left was made using a TH trellis die cut, adding embossing paste through it and pulling the trellis away.  It has a really lovely shimmer to it.

This is a giant TH tag turned on it's side, the rest of it forms a pocket.

Lots of tags and pockets!!

This took me quite some time to make but I thoroughly enjoyed making it.  I used a tonne of hints and inspirations from Pinterest, Laura Denison, Ashmita Roy (you tube) as well as ideas of my own.  The papers used are a plethora of papers I have collected including Papermania, Tim Holtz Destinations (been stroking the paper pad for quite some time so time to use it), Stampin Up, K&Co, Cosmo Cricket, as well as others with no name on it.  I also used some printouts and cuts from Silhouette, and the paper clips came from Ikea!

If you enlarge this one you can see where we went during our trip.  The pocket on the left also had the paste treatment but this time with Ferro.  After it had dried I popped another die cut out in there to give the contrast.

There are multitudes of Snippets used and I had a ball making this.   We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and over the next few weeks I will no doubt share some photos through scrapbook layouts and journal.  This journal did weigh a bit but and it was carried in my hand luggage so hey ho!  It measures 5" x 9" x 4".

As it is nearly Tuesday, I am going to share a cuppa with you while you read my post, after all I drunk a fair few during it's construction and link on up to my friend Elizabeth and Bleubeard, who I know likes books!

Thanks for calling by.  Please let me know if it was worth the visit.  I have some blogs to catch up with now so please bear with me.

Hettie

Tea on Tuesday....T stands for PoeTry!

Hello There

It is Tuesday and, as I am inclined to do on a Tuesday, I am sharing a drink over with Elizabeth.  Traditionally it is supposed to be a cuppa tea but when I took my photo in readiness to share with you I had a glass of South African Vino at the ready so I thought I would share it anyway.   

If you happen to have read my previous post, you will know that I mentioned that I went on a Creative Writing/Journalling course on Saturday.  To be honest I was not sure what the day would entail but it was a really good day.  I had to engage my brain in a way that I haven't done in a while and also write more than I have done for a long while but I felt very good (and shattered) when the day was finished.  

The general theme of the day was Spring.  We were all asked, around the table, what Spring meant to each of us.   We were then split into groups of 2/3 and we were given a set sense (taste, sight etc) and time (3 mins) in which to talk to the other/s in the group, listing down any ideas.  The next 4 mins were spent in writing down our lists then picking out two items that stood out and write some words about each.  Bear with me here!  Rebecca then picked each of us at random and asked us to read out our words.  She then wrote all of them down and a Group Poem was born.....

Rebecca has kindly allowed me to share this poem with you and I would just like to share this with you know, whilst we are still in Spring.  I hope you like it...

Spring

Spring is when wet petals cling to you,

Rain heavying petals and wisps and making

Them earthbound.

Spring is the excitement of the new,

Inspiring an energy surge.

Spring is the bees buzzing,

Blue skies and sunshine,

Swifts screeching over the river,

Bringing back memories of

Warm Italian evenings.

Sniff and recognise the hedgerow smell

As a compot of the flavours of spring,

Forming an olfactory soup,

And let the smells inform your appetite.

Spring is the real New Year,

A time of new thoughts and new beginnings.

It is the sun warming, creaking, waking things up.

Watch the vast lawns of bluebells

Swaying in the wind.

Spring is the smell of the earth after rain,

A sense of awakening,

The bleating of new lambs,

And voices longer into the evening.

Group Poem

Spring Creative Writing Workshop, May 10^th 2014.

Arts Alive, with writer Rebecca Loncraine

I hope you like it.  Off now to see what other cuppas folks are up to and drinking over at Elizabeth's.  Hic!

Hettie

A Special Journal for a Special Friend!

Hello There

I recently made a very special friend of mine a little RAK and sent it to her in the post as a surprise.  I know she liked it and hope you do too!

I took a piece of leather, backed it with some paper.  Made some signatures and stitched them in by hand with a slight twist.

Yep!  I stitched beads on the spine.

Finished it all off with a leather cord to close the Journal up.

I know my friend liked it and I hope you do.

Have a great weekend.

Hettie

Book Binding...

Hello Folks

I hope you have all had a good weekend and have battened down the hatches ready for this pending storm.  I have shut the Girls in so that they don't get blown away!

I want to share with you a little project I have been working on.  Ever since I made THIS  book with Neil Burley I have wanted to make another journal type book.  So here it is....

I bought some leather from Ebay, cut it to size and rounded the corners.  Then I adhered some paper to the inside.  I cut out some watercolour paper, folded it, marked out the holes in both the paper and leather and then sewed the paper signatures to the cover using waxed linen thread.

The inside paper was bought for me by a non-crafting friend.  Gorgeous isn't it?  It has a lovely shimmer to it.

Here are the inside of each signature of paper.

At the end I threaded some leather cord to tie the book closed.

I have not used my book yet but I am sure I soon will.  This is on I am DEFINITELY keeping!

Have a good week everyone and I truly hope the storm St Jude soon passes without too much upheaval for you all.

Hettie 

Scrapbook Tuesday - Ruby Ruby...

Hellooooo

Happy Tuesday to y'all!  I am secretly hoping this is going to be a quick week.  For one last week was sooooo long and this week I have a nice weekend lined up.  More on that later!

As is customary on this here blog, I aim to put up a scrapbooking project of somekind on a Tuesday.  I have to say I am pretty chuffed with myself that half way through September I am still managing to keep it going with only a small number of minor not happenings!  I shall try and run it through for the rest of the year.  However, despite my efforts, my photo piles/albums/boxes/tins have not gone down.

Talking about storage for photos, I have a large tin which holds A LOT of photos in, semi in order too.  You may recall that I recently lost my Aunt unexpectedly.  Well blow me, the week after her funeral I decided that whatever photo/s I put my hand on when I dipped it into the tin, I would scrapbook.  They fell on these piccies I am showing you today.  They were taken at my Aunt and Uncle's 40th Wedding Anniversary some 8/9 years ago.  (Need to check on the date for journalling purposes.)

I bought this Prima paper some 4 years ago and knew that it was perfect for a Ruby Wedding type layout and am so glad I hung onto it for just such an occasion.  So a VOS used again!  Layers of ribbon and lace (lace from Funkie Junkie Boutique and used veeeeery sparingly).  The flowers and flourishes were all made from raiding my Snippets box.  

I see some Bo Bunny Snippets in there as well as various pieces of plain cardstock. I also tried out my new punches from McGills so NBUS in here too.

The lettering was cut with my Cricut and then I used my embossing pen and added two different shades of pearls - one Cosmic Shimmer and the other TH.  You can see the tag which is tucked in the side of the larger photo.  The mounts for the photo have been stamped with TH stamp and embossed with gold.

You remember the cupcake sleeves that were on my desk, from my Nephew's wedding?  I painstakingly cut the butterflies out, edged them with TH DI in Aged Mahogany and manipulated them to shape before adding some ruby blings on.  Only used one so I can repeat this idea again, or maybe use it for a stencil?

Some more detail of the paper, flourish and flowers.  I can see I am going to love this punch set! I have also used my trusty SU flower punch too - my other favourite! st BTW the "cake" is a pyramid of profiteroles!!  Yummy!!

I am taking this over to the Playground as there are lots and I mean LOTS of Snippets included.

I am also taking this over to Mema's Crafts September Challenge which is Ribon/lace and/or flowers I got the lot in this layout!

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

Vietnam Scrapbook Album Part 2

Hello Friends

Another weekend and another damp one for us in the UK.  Looks like the weather is back to normal now and aren't the nights drawing in quickly now or is it just me?

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my showing of my Vietnam Album last week.  So today I thought I would give you another instalment with the next four pages.  

We stayed two nights at Hoi An and this really is a beautiful and very old city.  This river ran straight through the middle of it and I got to see lots of dragonflies in the evening light.  Beautiful.

This Japenese Bridge was a wonderful old footbridge (and the odd cyclist) under which lives a dragon who's tail is in Japan.  It is alleged that if the Dragon is happy everything is ok, but if not, Japan gets an earthquake.

There are four monkeys which guard the bridge and the candles are lit all day.

Here we are at 5 am preparing for our first cycle ride of the trip.  We cycled to My Son which is a sacred place full of temples and burial places.  Unfortunately, during the conflict, it was used as a base for the US Army and was left in a pretty sorry state.  However, it still had an air about it of a sacred place and the carvings were spectacular.   "Xin Chao" is what children would shout to us when we passed through towns and villages!  It means "hello"!

One of our group photos which proved tricky at times as we would wander in all directions, but fun anyway.

I apologise for the reflection of the pages in the album, but the pages are pretty tricky to remove due to all the embellishments.  

Thanks for calling by.  Please leave a comment so I know you have been. Have a great crafty weekend.

Hettie

Scrapbook Tuesday - Family Love

Hello Friends

Gosh!  What has happened to the heating?  After a few warmish days, we suddenly woke up to a "brisk" morning!  Please no more snow for a while!

On to today's layout.  One of my Mother-in-Law on Christmas Day.  I chose not to do a Christmas layout but picked the colours and designs of Joan's jumper out as they reminded me of the Boofle papers I have.  I was most surprised Joan let me take a photo of her as she usually shys away!

I used black cardstock and flicked various paints (including some Paperartsy Fresco paints) using various brushes (I wonder if Hubby notices the paint in his toothbrush??  Only JOKING!).  

I cut the fonts on my Cricut.  The flowers are from my SU stamp and punch set.  The stamping on the little pink Snippet is from another SU set. 

Tags are Tim Holtz die and above you can just see the new Spellbinders die in use.  Bakers Twine from Papermania.

I do love those wooden buttons, bought from a local Wool shop.

The word background paper has had some words glossy accented (is that a word?) to highlight some of Joan's attributes.

Love the splish splashy background on this paper.  Hope you do too!  Lots of Snippets in this so I will be sharing with the girls in the Playground.  Must see how the straw animals are looking!  I wonder if Mrs A has done her donkey yet!

Thanks for popping over.  Let me know what you think.  I love to read your comments!

Hettie

Holiday in Rome

Hello Peeps

My blogging friend Victoria mentioned a Scrapbooking Challenge on Addicted to Stamps blog on a recent post so I just had to pop along to see what it is all about.  This is a monthly challenge and this month the theme is "Holiday".  

This particular photograph has been waiting desperately to be scrapbooked and it is one of my favourite photos of our trip to Rome last year.  Let's see what you think....

It is one of the most complete buildings left at the Forum and is the Basilica of Antoninus and Faustina and was built about 141 (presume AD but I couldn't find out precisely.  What is 282 years when it is that old!)

An olive branch across the bottom of the page.  We actually saw some olive trees growing on the hill at the Forum, as well as orange trees fruiting!  The Life sentiment is from my Darkroom Door Prague 2 set, cut with Labels 4 Nestie and stamped with SU flourish in Faded Jeans DI.

Some Tim Holtz tissue tape over the top of a stamping of a tile stamp, also by Tim Holtz, which stamping was sprinkled with some Pewter Perfect Pearls. as were all tile stamping.  The scalloped circle is from my latest Nesties set and the small label is cut with a Quickutz die. Rome was stamped with stamps, but I cannot remember what make as I have had them that long!  The camera stamp was sent by my lovely friend Karen in Canada.  Thanks again! I knew it would be used soon!

The stripey paper is Pink Paislee and was already edged like this.  The background paper is Wild Asparagus which I stamped with my favourite flourish stamp and Walnut Stain.  I gutted the centre of the brown background paper in order to make the mount of the photo.  The large label is Tim Holtz die, Tim Holtz Postcard stamp, date stamp from Ryman and the same stamps used for Perfect as Rome.  

Ribbon is by East of India bought only on Saturday!  Both the globe and the vine were made with my Silhouette cutter.  The globe was printed then cut while the vine was cut, sprayed with a mixture of Colourwash and reinker with perfect pearls.  The Olives were coloured with a mix of Aged Mahogany and Black Soot DI.  The heart was cut with Sizzix die and stamped with SU flourish.

Thanks for staying with me.  I hadn't realised how much "stuff" I had used on this layout!  It is no wonder my desk ends up in soo much of a mess when I am creating a layout!! No chance of me ever being able to scrapbook at any of my super tidy friends' desks is there?

Why not join in the Challenge.  Link your layout HERE.  You have until 19 August to join in.  And Big Thanks to Victoria for introducing me to this Challenge!  Even if you do not like scrapbooking there are other challenges on the site which you may like to join in with!

Please don't forget to sign in to the Visitor's Book so I know you have been.

Hugs

Hettie