Funkie Junkie Poinsettia...

Hello there Peeps!!!

Long time no hear I know.  I have been such a bad blogger lately but I am hopefully more settled now and hope to get back into the swing of things.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend and that the Easter Bunny came to visit you.

Something I always try to keep up with is my making cards ready for Christmas and I usually join in with Mo's Rudolph Day.  There is still time and so I am sneaking this one in.  I had started to make it before Christmas but didn't finish it due to circumstances so I am sharing it now....

I was making it for the Funkie Junkie Challenge but missed it.  There are so many Snippets in there too so I am taking it to the Playground.  I hear Parsnip was dressed up as an Easter Bunny too and covered in choklit.  I had better take the wet wipes!!

To make the card I first of all stamped the background with versamark and my NBUS Stampendous poinsettia stamp and sprinkled it with gold embossing powder.  I die cut some card snippets with my TH die, inked the edge with versamark and again used gold embossing powder along the edges.  I used some hessian ribbon across the card, stamped a "label" sentiment and tag before adding some snowflakes both wooden and paper.

A peg to hold the label on and hey presto card was finished ready for sending.

Thanks for calling by.  I hope to visit you all very soon.

Hugs

Hettie

Rudolph Day June - Yikes

Hello there Peeps

Can you believe we are at the end of June already?  No, me neither!!!! Only five more to go until the Big One!!

I don't have cards to show you this month but I do have a Christmas project that I made for someone special.  I gave it to her now as I am not sure if I will see her before the Big Day as we don't get much chance to visit. 

Wanna see it?  Course you do....

And here is the back...

Not the best photos as the light was behind the candle. 

I took a piece of recycled tissue paper and stamped it using Ranger Archival in Potting Shed and my Inkadinkadoo and Tim Holtz stamps.  I then wrapped the tissue around the candle and gently warmed it and applied the paper very slowly and gently. 

Now all I need is a visit to Ikea and I will have a few more Christmas gifts ready!!

Thanks for calling by.  Off to join Maureen for the Rudolph Day Challenge. Better late than never ey!!

Hettie

WOYWW 316 - Sat at the Sewing Desk today....

Hello there!!

Now let us see if I have internet for more than five minutes today shall we?

Hello there and Welcome to One and All to my Humble desk today.  Today is Wednesday and I am joining in on WOYWW!!  Today I am viewing life from the Sewing Desk!!  

 What happened was....... I spotted a Pin on Pinterest...... I am having too many of those moments aren't you?  Well, going back to my story, I saw a Pin and Pinned it.  Then I had the opportunity to order more Sizzix dies for the quilting group I belong to and chose some that I wanted including a triangle.  Well, a week last Sunday (15th), when I had nothing better to do I decided to play with the triangle die so that I can show other members of the group a way of using the die and a quilt was born.

 Do you like my new mug?  I love it.  It was a birthday present from my buddie and it is perfect for preventing threads and pins landing in my tea!  For the eagle eyed among you, yes I am using Christmas fabrics!!

After just 9 days I have made 43 blocks!! This quilting malarky is addictive and FUN!!  Here are some of the blocks waiting to be sewn together.  I will share the finished quilt top when it is all stitched together which will hopefully be before Saturday (I want to take it to quilting).

Well that is it from my desk today except to show you a pic of the two WOYWWers I was lucky enough to meet up with on Monday....

Yes, our very own Wispo and Twiglet.  They are as lovely IRL as I hoped.  Can you believe they dragged me kicking and screaming into a fabric shop?  Yep, I really did not want to go in there!!  Thank you ladies.  

I have a photo of someone else at my desk from recent weeks, and fear not I will share that with you again....that camera is not handy and I am losing the will to live to download the photo to my computer and blog!!

Off to join the WOYWWers minus the Leader Julia as she is of on her jolly holidays.  You would think she would invite us wouldn't you!

Catch you later!!

Hettie

Rudolph Day - April Edition

Hello Peeps

Its the end of April already? Really? How did that happen?

Time I joined in with Mo for this month's Rudolph Day post. Sorry I am a little late, but I was away in Harrogate for a long weekend and unfortunately the WiFi at the hotel we stayed at wasn't up to the job, so I had to leave it til I came home. Great weekend though and Fergus had a great time too!

Right... onto my cards I am sharing ...

 First up is one of my Funkie Junkie Christmas tags, slightly modified so that it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to post, mounted onto a card which was stamped with my Tim Holtz stamp and embossed with WOW embossing powder. I added some Sue Wilson corner flourishes and stars.

 Number two is another FJ tag mounted onto a Snippet of black and white paper and I used another Snippet to cut a MB and Spellbinders die cut which I inked with Versamark and embossed with sparkly embossing powder.

And finally, this Bo Bunny piece was left over from my Christmas Album and I didn't want to cut it. I mounted it onto another piece left over from my C Album and adhered these onto a square card. I cu another MB border from a Snippet.

The piece of lace was taken off another tag, as was the K&Co sentiment and rosette so they all got adhered on this card. I inked the edges of the card, added some sparkly gems and card finished.

Three more cards for the box!

And seeing as I mentioned Fergus...here is a photo of the boy at Bettys Tea Room in Harrogate on Saturday...

Off to join Mo at the Rudolph Day and also my Playmates at the Snippets Playground.

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

From Tags to Cards and Breakfast on Tuesday...

Hello there

Another chilly one in the UK today with snow in some parts.  We have had a few flurries but nothing much to report.

I have been a bit remiss about joining in with Elizabeth for Tea on Tuesday this year, for no other reason than it has been a little tricky since MIL came out of hospital.  I seem to have developed a routine whereby I visit on a Monday and/or Tuesday evening which makes it tricky for me to post and comment until later in the week.  However, I took the photos this morning and have this evening free so I can join.

So here it the card I wanted to share with you...

I made the tag for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas in 2013 I think.  But now I have taken them all down and put them in a basket to use on cards.  No need to keep them for reference as I have put them on my blog so I just as well use them and let someone else enjoy them (or bin them!).  When I was looking at mounting it on a card I decided it did not need anything fussy behind it so opted for some leftovers from a layout I did last year of my niece and nephew.

Now for my tea... or indeed breakfast!  I stayed at Debs' house on Friday night and she offered me some home made Granola for breakfast.  Now I have tried Granola in the past but either end up with aching jaws, an overload of sugar or I have to spit out the coconut.  I had none of these problems with Debs (she had used honey...mmmmmmm.) so I set about looking for a recipe and making my own. So I made some last night, having slightly adapted the recipe (only made half up in case I did not like it) and both Hubby and I LOVE it.  No coconut either!!  We even had some last night after tea! Here is the link if you are interested!

Thanks for calling by.  Nice to chat and share my breakfast with you.  Off to join Elizabeth (though not sure she is up to eating right now - poor thing)and also the Snippets Playground...Must use Snippets.

Have a great Tuesday and keep warm.

Hugs

Hettie

First Rudolph Day of 2015 - And she is off....

Hello there

Welcome to my first Rudolph Day of 2015 and this year sees the challenge move over the pond to ScrappyMo's blog HERE while Stamping for Pleasure goes to the Elves Rest Home for a little while!

This month seems to have flown by and I had not had chance to sit down and make cards for Rudolph Day until yesterday.  So here they are...

I took a Snippet of cream card and stamped it with the Artistic Outpost Reindeer and my new favourite Archival ink - Wendy Vecchi's Potting Soil before cutting it with my NBUS Creative Expressions bauble die.  Once cut I inked around the edge with Brushed Cord DI and then decided to stamp some of the greenery from TH Christmas stamp set in Gathered Twigs DI.  I inked up a white, yes white, piece of card which was in my Snippets drawer with Brushed Cord, Frayed Burlap and GT DIs.  Once it was dry I stamped the TH stamp with PS and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  

I then set about inking the card itself with the same colours, though more GT I think.  I stamped the same greenery stamp too.  I wanted to cut the bauble top out and spotted a Dunkin Doughnuts coffee wrap sitting in my box and thought this the perfect medium to use.  I then strung it and needed a flash of colour and spotted a small Snippet of ribbon in the ribbon basket.  I then set to layer the card together and needed a little more colour along the bottom (they are closer IRL) so used some washi tape.

I decided to make a second, though I used different elements such as a buff colour Snippet for the Spellbinders bauble, adding a bauble top too, and different washi tape.

I hope you like my cards.  I am off now to link it to the RD challenge as well as take them down the Snippets Playground as they contain Snippets.  I did actually make a third card but I will share that another time as I could not photograph that one.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for calling by.

Hettie 

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

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 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

On the Fourth Day of December...Day Two of 12 Cards Funkie Junkie Style...

Hello there.

Brr it is mighty cold today in Santa's Workshop!  It is much more seasonal than it has been of late and a bit of a shock to the system after the warm Autumn we experienced.

So on to today's post.  Have you noticed I have a bit of a theme this month yet?  Maybe a big Christian celebration that is coming very soon?  Today I am sharing Tag 2 of Linda at the Funkie Junkie, only mine is a card.....

And this is Linda's tag.which I used for inspiration...

Isn't it gorgeous?  I loved the colours and the idea of a stencil background so I used my TH holly stencil and inked it with Pine Needles DI.  I then stamped a Fa La La La stamp from Hobbycraft (bargain at £3 for the set) with Festive Berries DI.  Rather than mask the berries on I added Liquid Pearls to make the berries 3D.

The bottom of the card was masked off from the stencil and I stamped my Wendi Vecchi stamp with FB DI (the only WV stamp set I own!).  I also used the star stamps from the same WV set.and embossed with gold. Then I had a bit of a dis-arster moment  The card was curling a little and so I decided to give it a little press, only had the iron too hot and the embossing powder melted onto the mat a little.  I quickly added more embossing powder only for it to smudge around the stamped image.  I was going to throw it away then had an Aha moment. I set to and die cut some SSS stars with some gold cardstock and scattered them around.  If I wasn't happy with this I was going to bin it but I actually liked this as it gave the card some depth and layers.  Happy Accidents - gotta love them.  Once this was done I then stamped around the edge with my TH snowflake stamp.  I can see this stamp is going to be well used!

 

I then set to  to finish the card off. I die cut a TH Poinsettia and a PB Believe word (I just used the inner leaves of the Poinsettia and two cut of the larger one).  I then inked with FB DI and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I adhered some holly ribbon where the two designs met, attached the Poinsettia and leaves, Believe and all the stars before deciding it needed something on the corners.

A Eureka moment arrived right on queue and I took some Snippets of the gold card and cut corners with my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper to make photo mounts. You can see the snowflakes here.  Love that stamp.

Right then that is all on this little post.  Thanks for calling by.  Remember that if you wish to join in with Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas click HERE for details.  You have until 21st to get them all complete and it is being sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I am sharing this with the Snippets Playground too as there are Snippety Snippets used here!

Hettie

On the Third Day of December.......WOYWW 287

Ahoy there!!

As regular visitors to my blog will know, there is a mad crazy lady called Julia who runs what must be the biggest blog hop in the world* called What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday aka WOYWW, that I occasionally join in on.  It gives bloggers a chance to legally snoop in on someone’s workdesk whether it be the shed, the dining room table, the floor or the garden (though I doubt it in this weather).  Due to working full time and teaching dancing on a Wednesday I am not as regular to this as I would like, but this week my class has been cancelled so here I am.

So without further ado, here is my desk…

Not my usual desk I know.  This is the desk opposite to the one I normally share on which I usually do my cutting of fabric, card and die cutting (mine is usually too full and covered in schtuff for the Big Shot) and of course, sewing.  This is my lovely brand-new-shiny-hardly-a-scratch-on-it Brother sewing machine.  Meet Timmy everyone!  He is my Brother and a bit geeky.  If you are an NCIS fan you will know who he is named after!

I did not realise how poorly sick my old trusty Janome was until I started playing with this beauty.  Timmy purrs instead of chunters!!

Can you see what I am working with right now?  Yep!  Christmas fabrics.  I am making Christmas Infinity scarves right now for Christmas presents.  They are so easy to make, thanks to Pinterest!! Also, a great way to using up those pesky Snippets!

Do you like my mug?  I had it from Laura Ashley years ago and it is huge and I love it!  

Here is mine.  The first thing I made for myself on my Timmy!  The first thing I made ever on my machine is something for my Mum which I shall share with you later.  Whilst I mention my Mum, she is poorly in hospital right now, as is my Mother in Law so if you could remember them in your prayers I would be grateful.  Unfortunately they are 25 miles apart which makes visiting tricky.

Right then.  Here’s what you do now.  You leave me a kind comment below then click HERE and whizz off by the magic of Pixie dust and go to Crazy Lady’s blog and have a good snoop at some other desks.  I cannot guarantee what you will see, (but I guess mine will not be the only one with a Christmas theme) but you will have fun and you are bound to see something that you need to put on your wishlist!

Thanks for your visit.

Hettie

(legal bit here….I don’t know of a bigger blog hop carried out on a regular basis so if you do, please let me know!)

On the Second Day of December....First Card of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style

Hello There

Thank you all so much for visiting me yesterday and leaving me kind comments on my Christmas Album.  Yesterday I got two photographs, one of myself decorating the Office Christmas Tree and one of a colleague putting the Star on top!  I printed them off but they were a little tacky for me to trim and put in the Album so I will do that later today.

Now for today's Christmas offering.  Those of you who have followed me in previous years will know that I usually follow Linda at Funkie Junkie with her 12 Tags of Christmas.  I LOVE doing these tags and often end up incorporating the ideas and techniques into cards.  This year I have decided to do just that...make cards for family members instead of tags.  So here is Tag/Card 1....

There is A LOT of NBUS goodies on here (I actually made this about two weeks ago, but wanted to share them all in December!).  

Here is the Inspiration Tag from Linda's post...

So as you see I have taken quite a few elements from Linda's tag.  The background is TH stencil.  I have also used the same stamp set.  I decided to use my TH Believe stamp.  I think this was the first TH wooden stamp I ever bought.  Believe is my favourite word!  I used a little washi tape around the bottom....you may notice I have a bit of a reindeer thing going on right now!!   You should see my house when it gets decorated up!

I embossed my reindeer and sleigh to make it pop out, after inking it with Archival ink.  I am hoping you can see that I also stamped on top of the card with the snowflake stamp and white twinkly embossing powder.  Believe me it is there!  This dull weather is not condusive to good photography right now.

Inks used are TH DIs Gathered Twigs, Festive berries, Rusty Hinge, Antique Linen and Scattered Straw as well as Archival.  Embossing powders are Wow and my old faithful clear which has been in a different pot so long I have forgotten who's it is!

Now then. Linda's Challenge is open until midnight 21st December.  It is sponsored by the Funky Junkie Boutique.  If you have never had a look at that store you will be in for a real treat let me tell you.  Click HERE and it will take you over to Linda's blog where you can see all the rules and how tos you require, but not before you have left me a comment please!  Just by reading Linda's how-tos you will learn a lot of new tricks and ideas for future projects.

Thank you all for calling by.  I just love reading your comments, so please let me know what you think.  Also, a big Thank You to Kathy for becoming my latest Follower.  I always love new followers too!

Tomorrow I have no dancing class so I shall be joining Julia and WOYWW with another Christmas themed post.

Hettie

On the First Day of December......A New Christmas Album for 2014

Hello there!

Happy 1st December to you all.  Can you believe we are here already?  Where did the last 11 months go then?

As my lovely Friends and Followers may remember, for the last few years I have made Christmas Albums into which I post either a photograph or journalling for each day of December.  This year is no exception....

Here are the front covers of my 2014 Christmas Album.  I have used a pattern from Paper Phenomonon which I purchased around 3 years ago with the intention of making up into an album and so this year this is what I used.  The metal corners are Tim Holtz.

The main papers are MME which I had at a bargain price from Hobbycraft some time last year.  There was a pack and a few odd sheets with no price on.  I asked the assistant how much they were and surprisingly she asked me how much I would be willing to pay.  I told her £5 off the cuff and the Supervisor agreed to my offer!  There were around 12 sheets of doublesided, glittered card, a sheet of tags etc and previously I had paid around £1.50 a sheet!  Tee Hee!

Next I had to think about a closure.  Whilst racking my brain and looking around I remembered I had some clasps from Zutter.  I sprayed the leather with a mix of Red Pepper and Plum Ranger Colourwash, inked around it with some Vintage Stain DI and run it through my B/S with a Tonic embossing folder.  Job done!

The ribbon I bought some time ago from a store in my local town.  It is straight and even only every time I open and shut the album it moves.  I didn't want it stuck down until the front is finished, when I know it will not move!

Now for the inside....

This is the centre of the front with six flap pockets which hold tags.  You will notice that they are not overly decorated yet.  This is because I want to embellish as I go along depending on the photographs/journalling that occur.

Left front inside cover.  A flap which when opened there is another set of pockets.

Right side inside front cover.

Left flap opened which shows the pockets.  Also you can see some of the other papers I have used such as Stampin Up, Basic Gray and Bazzill.  Some of which are Snippets from previous albums.

And here is the central panel...

Punched around with a Martha Stewart punch.  I do hope we get some snow.  The 2014 is a decoration which I have bought and hope to incorporate, but not sure how yet.

And with the flap lifted, more space on which to journal and add photographs on.  

With the tags...

And here is the reverse of the whole album,..I love how shimmery this paper is.  I have also used some Treasure Gold but will add more as I work on this album.

I have used an absolute plethora of papers both new and Snippets from previous years.  I can see some Bo Bunny paper in there too.  Punches used are EK Success (the smaller brown one is NBUS from US), Martha Stewart, Some of the MME paper is from two years ago and was 6x6 paper.  I do like the mix of sizes of the same papers. Corner chomper by We R Memory Keepers.Tan cardstock from The Art Shop and also the chipboard.  The only new thing I bought for this album are the little owl embellishments and the reindeer ones too, which I have not actually used yet, but no doubt will very soon!

Off to share this with the Playground folk as there are a plethora of Snippets used on this album.  I permanently keep a basket of Christmas Snippets so they are easy to find and ready to use.

I thank you for coming over and look forward to reading your comments.

Hettie

x