Wedding Card for Alex and Steve...

Hello Friends

Just a quickie to share a card I made for friends of mine that got married recently.  We were invited to the wedding, but unfortunately due to the MIL being poorly.  We missed a fabulous day judging by the photographs we saw.  So here is their card...

This is the nearest I could get to a white on white card.  I just could not do it...needed some colour even if it was just gold.

I finally remembered to use my StickIt and die cut a new Spellbinders die as well as my SU flutterbies die.  I added some VOS gold aurora spots that I bought from QVC back in the day.  The stamp is one I always use and I used gold from Delicata.  This really is a beautiful ink and is worth tracking down if you are looking for a gold.  It took me a while to find it.  

I mounted this onto some gold holographic card before mounting it onto the card.

I did manage to use some of my Snippets up like a good little smartie so am off to the Snippets Playground to play with the mischievous bunch while Miss is out on teacher training!!! 

My lovely friend Mrs A has reminded me that I can join in with the Butterfly Challenge with this card as it has stamping and butterflies on it!!!

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Ann

Hello there

I had snow this morning on the way to work!  What was THAT all about.  I knew it was forecast for the guys up north but since when has South Wales been in the northern part of the country.  Pretty cold it is too today!

Never mine ey.  It is always warm in blogland!

I wanted to share a birthday card I made for a dear friend of mine.  So often she asks for me to make cards for her to send (remember my cows wedding card)  and it was nice to make her one and a 70th one at that!  

It is quite a trick colour for the camera to get right, as with a lot of purple shades.  It was more of a purple grey and some of these cards are more blue.  The photo below is the nearest I think, though the pale blue is not quite right.  You get the drift though.

I seem to be into flowers right now and making my own.  These are quite simply Tonic petal pairs punches (some of the first punches I owned) which I then poked a brad through several layers, then spritzed them and scrunched them over to make them as compact as possible.  Once they had dried off I just pulled them out a bit to created the buds.  Simples.

The dies and embossing folder are all from a set I had before Christmas that I hadn't used so were NBUS.  I kid you not, the embossing folder is a PITA if you have not got an A4 die cutter as it is designed so that you have one background sheet.  Maybe a nice fairy will be kind and deliver the new Sizzix one that is coming out!  Yeah right!!

To compensate for the not being able to use one sheet I added some silver behind, as well as some silver Ivy and Sizzix letters.  My favourite (and only) Memory Box butterflies, a ribbon bow and a spritz of Shimmer Mist and hey presto Ann's card was done.  

I used a plethora of Snippets on here and butterflies with ribbon so I am fluttering by the Snippets Playground and Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge.

See you later folks.  Keep warm and safe.

Hettie

Happy Birthday Rachel...

Hello there

What a windy weekend weather we have had!  We have still to find the Girls' poop bucket, though I have seen bits of straw around which were in there!!  Ho Hum!!  I hope everyone is ok and not lost anything worse than a poop bucket!

I was having a look at my draft posts and I came across this one which I have not shared with you. It was for my good buddy Rachel.  I renewed my membership of a certain Craft TV site and received the tartan papers so this was their first outing.  With my money back I bought the Tonic die set and this was their first outing also. 

The pink background is some star paper which I inked around the edges with some DI to make it deeper.  Some TH tissue tape, a sheet of my Czech book and some torn tartan paper.  I then cut the Tonic border die which I layered on some Vanilla SU card.  I used a frame which was in my Snippets tin as well as the centre piece which I stamped using SU stamps.

The flower is a SU stamp and punch which I embossed with clear embossing powder.  A Snippet of ribbon stamped with HB stamp and tied with gold thread.  .

The Penny Black Smile die was cut several times and layered up then smooshed with some DI., some SU flutterbies and hey presto Rachel's card was complete.

Off to take this over to the Snippets Playground and also Darnell's NBUS Challenge as there are both Snippets and NBUS involved in the making of this card.

Have a great week and wrap up warm with heavy shoes on..I hear we have cold wind coming our way!

Hugs

xx

Wedding Card

Hello there!

Gosh that weekend went quick and what a beautiful weekend, weatherwise, too!  I hope this sunshine keeps up, though I do despair of the watering.  It eats into crafting time!

Today I wanted to share a card which I made for one of my work colleagues to give to a friend who was getting married in Greece.  All I got told was that it needed to include turquoise.   So out came my faithfuls...Tonic and Memory Box...

I had to cut into my last piece of my pearlised turquoise card to make this, as well as use up any Snippet I could in order to keep as much of the uncut I could.  Must find more as it was rather nice and I have no idea where I picked it up from either.  This first pic looks a bit too bluey but I was having difficulty with the lighting.

Ahh!  This is better and shows you all the layers.  The Congratulations embelly is ancient and because that was gold I decided to make the butterfly and cord gold too (didn't have the cord in silver).  I just love how the vellum worked to soften the background but allowed the background to peek through.  Those little hearts are ancient too!

Here is the verse on the inside flap, stamped in Archival with another butterfly.

And on the other side.  No idea why there is a yellow tinge...it was brown!   If you want to know what makes these stamps are please let me know.

And lastly the envelope which I printed using a Hero Arts stamp.  One of my old faithful stamps with the hearts on the wings.  

My colleague loved it and so did the Bride I understand.  

I am sharing this with the Snippets Playground...must use Snippets, as well as the Butterfly Challenge...sentiment and butterfly...as well as Darnell's 2nd NBUS - Option 4...the sentiment pack was still unopened despite the age!

Thanks for calling by.  See you over by the chicken run as they need cleaning out!  Miss Di is poorly so someone's gotta do it!  Hopefully my Mate Sandra will help me.

Hettie

One Stamp...Four Ways...

Hello there

Is it me or does it seem rather "Autumney" today?  We now have lovely warm sunshine outside, but I notice that we now have blackberries and some of the leaves are changing and it just feels like Autumn.  No problem as it is my favourite season anyhoo.

Right then, onto today's post.

Last year whilst on a Playground outing at a Craft Show, I was looking at some goodies on a stall when I overheard a conversation that went like this...

"So then Mavis, are you going to buy that die?  It is so you and I know you will do a great job of it".

"Well Agnes.  Whenever I buy a die or stamp, I try to think of three ways in which I might use it.   If I can't I don't buy it.  I am just thinking as so far I only have two."

I turned and nodded my approval on Mavis' method of thinking and since I have tried to do the same...mostly.  

Well the other day I was rummaging through my drawers looking for something or other and I happened upon this stamp Elegant Butterfly by Stampington and Company which was a kinda impulse purchase...it was sitting on a table just over from where I was working at a scrapbooking retreat...however, I don't very often use it as it does not really lend itself to being played with.  Or so I thought.  I then thought about Mavis' conversation and set about finding three alternative ways to use it.

So here is Option 1...

 I stamped it as it was onto white cardstock with Archival ink in Cobalt.  Once it had dried I scored around the edge of the cut piece and then carefully with my sharp knife, cut around the butterfly and then mounted it onto a piece of navy cardstock.  I then scored around a square card and mounted the navy onto the card.  Hey presto one method.

Option 2...

 For this option I stamped the image as above then sliced horizontally at 1/2 cm (or thereabouts), making sure that you keep each slice in the right order, then cutting horizontally at 1" sections, starting the second row at 1/2", again keeping each piece lined up so they don't get mixed.  (Yes I know I changed increments between cms and inches, but the size I cut the image wasn't divisible in inches!)  After inking around each piece using Pumice Stone DI I then attached each piece to a navy background.  I don't worry about the pieces not being exactly straight as I live in a 16th Century cottage and so have not got one straight wall or corner!  That is MY excuse and it is MY card!!

Option 3...

I inked the stamp with versamark and white WOW embossing powder which I heated.  I then inked the background with Peacock Feathers and Faded Jeans DIs.  I spritzed and flicked and distressed the edges.  Once it was dry I mounted it on white card and then navy before mounting this onto some woodgrain card (NBUS and very old).

And now for Option 4...

Here I tried the chalkboard effect.  Not something I have ever had good results with before but this one kinda turned out how I like it.   I used a really old, not very good white ink pad to stamp the stamp.  Then I added WOW white embossing powder and heated.  I then took the same white ink pad and dipped the corner of a cloth in it, but not too much, and then gently rubbed around the image to make it look like an old board.  I then drew around the edge with lines and kisses and mounted it onto a tan card (handmade).  I scorred the card top and bottom, added some TH tissue tape, some Maya Arts string and a button.  This is currently winging its way to a special friend.

Well, I hope you like my take on Mavis' idea.  I cannot actually remember what their names were, only the gist of the conversation, but I am so glad I had overheard it.  I shall have a rummage and try doing this with some other underused stamps.  I hope this post inspires you to try the same too.

I am going to take these cards down to the Snippets Playground as they do contain some Snippets.  I am also going to take it down to my friend Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge as it contains Summer  Butterflies.

Thanks for calling by.  Don't forget tomorrow I will be joining in the Blog Hop and so I will be pleased if you call by then.

Hettie

Something I made earlier...

Hello there

Gosh 3 July already.  How did that happen?  I am sure this summer is trying to whizz past us in a hurry to winter again.  NOOOOooooooooo!  Let us enjoy the summer!

I was having a little rummage through my blog posts and I came across this post in draft and had never published so I thought I had better rectify the situation...

I made all these cards when my new Memory Box dies arrived.  I was sent a vulture for Christmas by a very kind crafty friend and by about May I decided it was about time I used them or else risk losing them.  So I bought the flower, border and top butterfly die (I already had the base butterfly die) and had a jolly old play with them using bits and pieces out of the Snippets drawers.

As you may gather from recent posts, I very much like these Memory Box dies.  In fact I have not seen a MB die I don't like!  Papers include Boofle and Crate Paper (I think).

We must have been short of sunshine at the time as I have left in the shadows through the window!  I normally like to keep the shadows off.

Some of these papers and embellies are VOS too.  Those sparkly spots are positively ancient!  And the Best Wishes stamps were free with something.  The Thank U is a SU stamp.

Well that is all from me Folks!  Thanks for calling by.  See you by the swings as I am popping over to the Snippets Playground as these were all made using Snippets, even the ribbons were from the basket.  Anything less than 1/2 yard go in the basket as they don't stay on the pegs very well.

Hugs

Hettie

Happy Birthday to my Buddy!

Hello there

Gosh this last weekend has flown by quickly!  I hope it was a good one for you all.  I went to a workshop yesterday with my Buddy.  Creative Journalling with Rebecca Loncraine.  I will tell you more about that in a later post.

Today I want to share with you the card I made for my Buddy Mandy for her 50th Birthday....

The background was a piece of Crafty Individuals paper, part of a pad I won some time ago.  The doily was made using my new Tonic die set that I fell in love with and could not resist buying when I saw it in my local craft shop.  I used my "crafty" money.  

I also used my Joanna Sheen Ivy die, Tonic petals dies manipulated into flowers, McGill tiny flowers and my Martha Stewart butterfly.  Some pearls and ribbon and a small discreet 50 cut from some silver cardstock using my Quickutz die cutter.

I am entering this into Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge as well as the Snippets Playground, plenty of Snippets used in here.    I am also entering it into the SOS Challenge.

Thanks for calling by and I hope you ahve a good week.

Hettie

At it again...

Hello there

I do hope, wherever you are, you are enjoying this wonderful weather that we are having right now.  

Sorry I have not been around much but I was away in Portsmouth this weekend for the QGBI AGM (Quilters Guild of the British Isles) and saw lots of beautiful quilts, attended some lectures, bought some new fabrics as well as a book, ate lots of food and had a glass or two of vino!  

Whilst I was playing the other two I also made another card, which I could not share as it was for someone.  So here it is now.....

I used Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Broken China and Peacock Feathers DIs to make the strip.  An unnamed stamp for the sentiment and my TH stamp for the flourishes.  Some bling and chomp of the corners and another card was born.

I hear that our Platypus has been causing trouble - something with needing constant feeding.  I can take over again now as I am back!

Thanks for calling by. I am off over to the Playground now to share this.  I did wonder if Miss actually heard me when I passed by her stomping ground to and from the weekend?

Hettie