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

Art Journalling - A First Step!

Hello Friends

Happy Wednesday to y'all.  Nearly the weekend! 

Last weekend Hubby and I took a little meander up to Hereford for a wander in my usual haunts (Laura Ashley, Monsoon, M&S, Doughtys) and I found myself in the middle of The Works with a sketch pad in my hand and a little voice saying "Buy it you must - Sandra says so she does"! So bought it I did!

Monday I then found myself in my craft room with my Colourwash inks in my hand, having taken the cellophane wrapping off the book (what a PITA that was! The sticky label on the front didn't take the schticky!)

So here is the first ever Art Journal page from Yours Truly!

I used Stream, Lettuce and ???? Colourwashes. A swirly stencil which I sprayed through then flipped so that the ink got transferred too - can't waste it now can we?  Precious it is.

Next was what to stamp on there....Out came my NBUS mushroom stamps.  No idea why I had not used them but I LOVE em I do!  I painted the tops using my NBUS Pebeo acrylic paints and then to try and lighten the stalks I put some cream paint in the pallet, added some water and then washed the stalks, wiping it back off with a kitchen towel. Did not know where the idea came from, only I did not want cream/white stalks per se, I wanted the fine details to come out.

Out came my fairies and poppy pods from Lavinia, some wordy stamps from Tim Holtz and the flowers and stamp used around the edge are both Hero Arts.  Most of the inks used were Archival and I did add some Peacock Feathers and Peeled Paint DIs in a few places.

Love this metallic green lettuce kinda colour of the Pebeo paint.  I shall be using that very soon.

Will I try Art Journalling again?  You betchya!

Hugs

Hettie

Scrapbooking Tuesday - Live in the Moment...

Hello there Friends

I am afraid due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to share a Layout/scrapbook page with you last Tuesday, but I hope you will forgive me when you see what I have brewed up for you today!  You may want a cuppa as it is a bit of a heavy post.....

I am using my lovely new "the Sweetest Thing" papers and stamps by MME.  Awesome papers and I was sensible enough to buy the 12x12", 6x6" and stamps that all co-ordinate bootifully!  

So I started with a fairly plain sheet which I sprayed with a mix of Colourwash (Cranberry and Plum), Perfect Pearls Mist (Forever red) and Glimmer mist (Gold).  

I took another piece which has a pinky damask background and my honeycomb mask and Distress Inks (Festive Berries and Picked Raspberry) and adhered it to the centre of the background piece.

Then came the fun part..... I die cut, electronic cut and "fiddle-farted" with flowers to my heart's content.  I used some of the pieces left from the centre panel, some of the 6x6" paperstock, plain white card stock and some Snippets to make flowers, leaves and more flowers!  I cut some of the flowers out on the Silhouette using plain white cardstock as well as some print 'n' cut flowers and the pink rose picture.  The flowers I put together with my glue gun and then sprayed them with the same mix of colourwash and glimmer mists that I used on the background.  

I die cut lots of the flowers and leaves using printed papers from the collection and also my Snippets box.  Dies used ranged from Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, Sizzix and Paperartsy.  The cream doily pieces were cut from Snippets which my friend Kim thought would be funny to send to me at Christmas with a whole pile of other Snippets!  See! They do get used!!

I used very few bought embellishments other than four teeny tiny paper flowers by Hero Arts, the metal TH embellishment, two TH buttons (very stingy with those buttons!) and the pearl brads.  

The bees were stamped using the stamps from this range with Momento ink, embossed with clear embossing powder, coloured yellow with a Copic pen and then washed with pearl PP.  I then cut them out and added them on to the layout with foam pads to (hopefully) make them look like they had just landed.

Here you can see the depth of the flowers.  This one at the bottom right was made with a die I bartered for at the Crop with Debs!!  It is my newest die and I Love it!!!

Here is another view so you can see the depth of the layout.  Let me tell you, I will not be crushing this into an album!  I shall be taking a trek to a well known Hobby shop to buy a frame.  The colours match our bedroom and this is one of my favourite Photographer photos (scanned and converted into black and white).  Megan broke free from the Bridesmaids and wanted Uncle Simon to pick her up!!  Of course he obliged!  (She is 25 this year!!  Scary!!)

The centres of the flowers were glued and then red and gold micro beads were sprinkled liberally inside.  

And isn't this lace divine?  I bought it a little while ago from HERE and I have not used it until now as it is soo gorgeous!  I don't want to use it all up too quickly now do I?

Well, sorry this is a bit of a long post and thanks for staying with me thus far.  I hope you have enjoyed it and if you wish to know anything about what I have done, please feel free to ask.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges.....

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Snippets

Frilly and Funkie - Sunday Share - Lace (go check out the shop - I dare you not to buy anything!)

Fashionable Stamping - Something new

Hugs

Hettie

xxx

Pivo O'Clock - Scrapbooking Tuesday

Hello Friends

Well would you believe, I was having a tidy up in my room, when I came across a photograph of Hubby on our first Christmas trip to Prague?  Should I put it back in a box, (not with all the other photos of the same trip as it would take too long), but in a box with mixed photos?  Or should I scrapbook it?  Well I think you can guess which option I chose, or you wouldn't be seeing a layout below!!

So I started with a sheet of plain cardstock and I took some acrylic paints and various paintbrushes and even a toothbrush and flicked some black and gold paint over the card.  Leaving this to dry I carried on with the rest of the elements.  The swirly piece is half of a shaped page being used as a template, cut out of Kaisercraft and then mounted on a piece of green co-ordinations cardstock and trimmed to about 1/4-1/8th inch. I then took some Technique Tuesday stamps and stamped with Black Soot DI.

The large rectangular piece was made one evening when I had a video clip of Donna Arkle playing with spray inks and a glass of wine on the go!  I created several sheets of sprayed paper and this is one of them.  I did not have any plain white/cream 12x12 at the time so I followed Donna and used the backs of some papers I did not particularly like! I have mounted this on to more of the green cardstock.   The clock is one of my new stamps which I won on the FB CC101 challenge.  Love those TPC Studios stamps!  The rosette was left over from my Christmas Tree projects.

The layered piece was made using a mixture of EK Success punchouts and Tim Holtz Lace die cuts.  The text was cut using my Cricut (not sure what font but if you want to know I can tell you - though there was chocolate involved!).  

The clock is a Tim Holtz of course!  Die cut using a scrap of chipboard, painted and then waxed with Treasure Gold.  A little TH embellishment and the Remember is another TPC Stamp.  The Ironwork stamps are all Technique Tuesday stamps and the large corners were double stamped with Black Soot DI and bronze Distress Stain . 

The top part of the layered square was stamped with Wendy Vecchi stamp with a mixture of TT and TH stamps.  

Look at those glasses - they look huge now but were all the rage back in 2000!!  Tee Hee! 

Hope you like and thanks for popping over.  If there is anything else you want to know please do not hesitate to ask.

Hettie

PS  Why Pivo O'clock?  In Prague it is always time for a beer!  It is one of our little sayings! As well as "It is 5 o'clock somewhere!" or my favourite "Is it Baileys time?"

Nature is Unique..

Hello Friends

For those of you who visited my desk this week you will know that I had a layout on there that I was working on so without further ado here it is.....

The photo is of one of Hubby's Bees who was out for a beautiful early February day two years ago enjoying the sweet nectar of Snowdrops.

I started this layout with a sheet of plain creamy yellow cardstock which I sprayed with Ranger Colourwash in Lettuce, Terracotta and Pesto whilst using Heidi Swap, Tim Holtz and Crafters Workshop masks.  I sprayed the colourwash in sections and then unscrewed the spray part, removed the tube and then flicked the ink to get some small splodges.  Well, gotta get inkey haven't we?  The flourish stamp here is from Crafty Individuals and most papers used are 6x6" My Mind's Eye - Tangerine. 

I stamped up a new stamp which I bought from Ebay and unfortunately there is no makers name on it.  I inked it with Archival, embossed with embossing powder and coloured it in with Copics.  The bakers twine is Stampin Up and finished with a little button from my jar. 

I cut the "Nature" letters using my Cricut and Quickutz self adhesive paper (cuts like a dream, glad I rediscovered it).  I went around the edge of the letters with Forest Moss Distress Marker to make them pop as well as stamping them with Stayzon Forest using a Hero Arts flourish stamp.  The word "Is" was made using Grungeboard letters adhered onto a grungeboard block which I adhered then painted with Paperartsy Fresco in Snowdrop,  with colourwash and flicked again then a little Adirondak Lettuce.

The Unique was stamped with A Lettuce again and embossed with embossing powder and trimmed then flicked with Colourwash and edged with A L.    The Stampotique Bees were stamped with Archival ink and embossed with embossing powder.  They were coloured with Wild Honey Distress Marker and an embossing pen was applied to the wings along with some Pearl Perfect Pearls.

I used the lace mask from TH which has given the effect of a crown at the bottom of the page. I will have to remember that for future projects!  I added some lace and Stamping Up bunting below the photo too. On the pink strip of paper you can see a little of a Pink Paislee stamp and the shimmer of the bee's wings.

The layout came a sketch from Liz Chidester of thescrappiest blogspot - so thanks Liz.  I really liked this one and hope you do too. I am linking this up with Simon Says Stamp - Lace, Facebook CC101 - spray ink, as well as the Snippets Playground.  Here is the Sketch....

Thanks for reading all the way to the end and hope you like.  I look forward to receiving your comments.

Have a great snowy weekend and please be careful.  Do heed the advice of the Police and other bodies of only going out if necessary.  

Hugs

Hettie

First Day at School....Scrapbook Layout

Hello Friends

A week or so ago I watched a video by Donna Arkle where she demonstrated the use of spray inks to transform plain white paper into beautiful multicoloured papers.  Donna used the backs of papers in her stash and Dylusions inks.  Not (yet) having Dylusions inks why not use my Colourwash sprays?  So armed with some music in my player, some paper stash which I have had for eons and never use, my Colourwash sprays, a spray bottle of water  and all the mini  mister sprays with all sorts of colours used for previous projects....oh! and a glass of wine, I set about spending a happy evening spraying.  

Oh what fun it was and totally liberating.  I highly recommend it as some of the results are gorgeous and I am really pleased with.  This one screamed school photo at me.  Possibly because my school badge was blue and red, and my uniform was navy blue with red, yellow, white or pale blue shirts or jumpers.  

I used my white embossing powder and a new Papermania ruler stamp to stamp the background. Then removing the stamp from the block I inked it again with Black Soot and "rolled" the stamp in order to get little bits of stamping on there (no idea what the technical term is but I am sure you get my drift).  These two photos hopefully show you what I mean.

I also splattered some yellow acrylic paint on the background before adding the papers and other elements.

I added some Papermania sheets from Boofle collection and the Portobello Road collections along with a yellow mat for the photo. 

Using the Silhouette I printed and cut the Boy, Girl and School Flashcards, the First Day bingo card and the Listening Watching Learning tab.

Some rub-ons with red brads were the final touch and that meant quite a few bits have been used up!  

I hope you like what I have shown you today and feel inspired to give your spray inks a new lease of life.  

Thanks for popping by and please don't forget to sign in the Visitors Book

TTFN

Hettie

P.S. This is my niece and nephew - twins!!

TIO Challenge - Die to Stamp!

Hello Peeps

Just a quick posting before the Jubilee Concert comes on tonight!  Looking forward to seeing Sir Paul McCartney take to the stage!! 

I have promised Helen for ages that I will join in the Tag It On Challenge and so today I have made a tag and hopefully her and the Team will like....

This tag has been embossed, sprayed with Colourwash, ironed, stamped on, distressed, inked and here it is now.

I was trying to show the shimmer of the tag here but not sure it has come out very well on camera. 

Hope you like. Why not join in.  Click HERE for instructions.

Please do not forget to leave me a comment so I know you have been.  Enjoy the Concert those of you who are watching it. 

Hugs

Hettie

Happy Birthday to my Darling Hubby!

Good Evening Peeps

I will warn you now this is a picture heavy post so if you wish to go and make a cuppa before you start reading, I will not be offended in the slightest!

Today xxx (put in your own figure here) years ago, my lovely Hubby was born.  And long before I met him he was involved in local Hospital Radio.  Unfortunately due to working committments he is no longer involved but whilst he was involved he, and ultimately I, have had some very funny and memorable moments. So with this in mind I set about making Hubby a birthday present. 

It all started when I first went to Cornwall on a Scrapbooking Retreat with Just Scrapbooking and I saw a layout which Linda had done using an LP.  Little bell started dingelinelinging (is that a word? It is now).  So one day I happened to be selling at a car boot sale and someone was selling LPs and coloured ones to boot.  So I offered him £1 for a red LP.  He refused.  I went away.  Later I passed the seller, he came down in price.  I offered him £1.  I went away.  Then he came to me at the end of the day and asked me if I still wanted it and I offered him the same £1.  He relented.  Then he asked me why I wanted a red one.  So I told him.  His face was a picture and he told me it was a mint LP, never played and was worth more than £1.  I politely told him that the LP was now mine, having paid him £1, and that I could now do whatever I chose to do with it!

So the LP sat in my craft room calling to me. 

I have recently started taking my photos out of photograph albums as some of them are starting to deteriorate and moving them into a storage system which I bought HERE.  However, all the photos connected with PYF Hospital Radio I stashed elsewhere.  Until about 10 days ago.  A little plan formulated in my head and hey presto, this is what has happened to those photographs and the LP....

If you want to skip to the end and leave me a comment so I know you have been to see me, please feel free to do so as I thought I might show you some close ups of my favourite bits. 

Thanks for bearing with me (that is a little more than I can say for Blogger!    I hope my little bit of craziness has inspired you to do something of your own.  Please let me know as I would love to see what you come up with.

Don't forget to leave me a message so I know you have been.

Hugs

Hettie

Ingredients:  Dies - Tim Holtz, Sizzix, Silhouette; Inks - Distress, Colourwash, Archival - all Ranger; Masks - Creative (loaned from Penny - thanks!); Punch - Stampin' Up; Cardstock - Bazzill; Patterned papers - Rouge de Garance, DCWV, Snippets; Stamps - Tim Holtz, Stampin' Up, All Night Media, Jo Capper Sandon; Stickers - no idea - they have been in my stash that long!; Sparkles - Do Crafts; Tissue tape - Ranger; Ribbons - East of India and assorted; Grungeboard - Ranger; Chipboard - recycled from paper pads at work!; Anything else you are interested in please ask!