Hello - This Is Me! My Mojo Monthly Challenge

Hello Peeps

If you pop over to the lovely Sarah La De Dah's blog at the moment, you will find that this month she has interviewed herself and is talking about her background and what has inspired her.  A very interesting lady indeed with a beautiful beautiful baby girl Ruby who was born recently.

Sarah has asked us this month to make something that reflects "Your style".  Well, I had to think hard about this Challenge.  What is my style?  Regular followers to my blog will know that I am a bit like a butterfly going from project to project.  I scrapbook, I love to make mini albums, I make cards.  But when I questioned Hubby for ideas, he pointed out that I also like to take the usual and turn them into something unusual.  So he brought home a wooden artist's model and said "do your stuff to this"!!  Now! that was a challenge if ever there was one!!

I named her Catriona.  Here is Catriona with her tights, pink shoes and pants on!  I wasn't going to show her naked now was I?!!  Funny enough, I was recently at a talk by the lovely Ann Rippon, who said you should always dress your doll starting at her pants, because everyone who picks the dolls up always look up their skirts.  She wasn't wrong!

And here she is fully dressed.   She is the Me I would like to be.  Tall, perfectly proportioned, wears pink and white, does tea with her friends, sews, gardens, sings, talks to the animals, is never seen without her pearls.  Not really me at all  (unless you count me talking to my chickens!).  

Here she is from the side.  You can see spools of ribbon on her base and some of those birdies she likes to talk to.  You can also see her flower (Tim Holtz and brad) in her hair.  

And here is the right side of her with more spools of ribbon.

And the back of her, more birdies and her lovely lacey top she is wearing today.

The base from the back.

The back of her close up.

The beady eyed amongst you may have spotted that her pinnie-on is three Tim Holtz bird cages cut, joined together and inverted.  The ribbons are woven through the holes at the base of the cage. I trimmed the top piece of the bird cages and die cut (Sizzix) hearts and attached.

And here are Catriona's beads and now you can see her lacey top.  A single piece of lace which I wrapped around her torso.  I then cut two more pieces, stitched together into tubes (by hand) and then attached these to the body of the top.  The heart pearl necklace came from a charm on a Primark necklace and the chain was the safety chain section of the same chain.  I often find some of Primark's necklaces do have some lovely charms for crafting with!

And here you can see how I made her skirt and pettiecoat.  I cut a piece of Bo Bunny double sides patterned paper and punched one edge with a Martha Stewart punch.  Then using my Score-it scorer, I scored at every 1/4", folded with valleys and mountains and then punched each flap with my Crop-a-dile to thread the ribbon through.  I turned the remaining paper over and cut another piece, again scoring it at 1/4" and I then cut a lace piece from a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die, attached this to the pink pettiecoat and then attached the pettiecoat to the skirt.  That red tape has really done a great job of keeping these together.  I also inked the pleats of the skirt to add a little definition.

Here you can see the flower, which is a Tim Holtz metal one, painted with white Acrylic Dabber (Ranger) and a brad popped in to the centre and adhered to Catriona's head.  You can also see the ribbons which are holding the skirt and pettiecoat on.  

And now you can see a close up of the base with some more spools of ribbon and Prima flowers.  

I thank you for being so patient in reading all the way to this point, but I wanted you to see as much of Catriona as I could show.  She was soo much fun to dress with paper and lace and Tim Holtz products.  

As the Simon Says Stamp Challenge is "Hey Girl" and they are offering $50 of goodies to the winner, I shall be entering Catriona there too!

I will also be bringing Catriona down to the Snippets Playground today as her lace, ribbon and paper lace are all from the Snippets box.  Please do not take her to the Duck Pond as I would hate for her dress to become ruined!

I would also like to thank Eileen for becoming my newest Follower.  Thank you.  

TTFN

Hettie

P.S.  My friend Nicola of Sunshine Reflections has a Blog Hop on Wednesday in which I will be taking part.  Please pop over to Nicola's blog and see the talented peeps that are taking part.  Oh yes, and me!! 

CC2c- Bees in My Garden!!

Good Evening Peeps

For anyone who has popped over here to see what I am showing you in my Scrappy Tuesday session, well I am afraid that for this week it will be a Scrappy Tuesday on Thursday!  The reason being is I have been working (albeit slowly) on my latest lickle project for my CC2C with the Lovely Linda.  Also, I wanted to try and tie in this week's piece with Sarah over at Mojo Monthly, as well as  Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes as it has Snippets in there I can join in on  Di's Snippets Challenge.  So for once you have a four for one on this piece.   

I cannot tell you exactly what the challenge is with the CC2C Challenge, week 5, other than it involves Shattered Stains and can be found on page 48 in the new Compendium of Curiosities.  You may remember I had a go at this technique when I undertook the Creative Chemistry Course recently and absolutely LOVED this technique.  So when Linda announced on Friday that this was this week's challenge I put my thinking cap on and decided to try out a little theory which popped into my mind a few weeks after the Creative Chemistry course.  This was that I if I stamped an image using Archival ink I could maybe use a wash made with Perfect Pearls and water to colour an image in, to make a flimsy wing type colour for Bee wings.  Well, I have tried it and I like the effect.  Let me know what you think please. I should also mention that this week's Challenge for CC2C is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!

The background to this piece is a canvas base which I have coloured using Mustard Seed DSs, and Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey DIs.  Edged with black and then the edges covered with papers stamped with my small Bee stamp and grunged using a piece of metal mesh which I "acquired" when I was in the shed some time ago.  Not sure if Hubby notices it has gone yet!  Shhh!  

I cut a piece of cardstock to size and used the Wrinkle Free Distress technique with the spritz and flick (love doing this too!) to obtain colour and depth to the piece.  Using Black Soot DI to stamp various flowers and flourishes and Archival to stamp the Dragonflies (first outing for them!).  I then adhered the background piece to the canvas.  

Using various different pieces of patterned paper (mainly snippets left over from the layout I showed you last Tuesday), cardstock and book pages, I used punches and dies to create (loads and loads of) flowers and leaves in order to make flowers with layers.  I inked most of them (when don't I ink ey?) and I scrunched, frilled and generally manipulated them until I got them in the shapes I wanted.  I then adhered them together using glossy accents and finished them off by adding a bottle cap with a punched middle, adding glossy accents before adding micro beads to the centres.  

To make the bees look like they are hovering I cut up small pieces of wood (you know those little pieces of wood you get with the canvas to wedge it?  well I sawed those up into little pieces), adhered them together with glossy accents and attached them to the canvas and adhered the bee to the wood using foam dots.  

To make the quotation, I inked up a piece of A4 cardstock about 3" and typed up the verse on my computer and printed on top of the coloured paper.  The reason I did it this way is I have learnt (the hard way) that if you print a sentiment and then ink it with DIs it smudges, even when I have tried heat setting it first.  Therefore, I colour first and print second.  It might not be the case for everyone but it is for my printer (HP)!

Well, I can honestly say I have had a few fun filled hours of learning and playing with this piece and have had a lovely piece to give to my Bee Keeping Husband to go in the porch.  

Please leave me a comment so I know you have Bee-n!  Why don't you join in the Challenges too!  

Hugs

Hettie

Ingredients:- Papers - Authentique, MME, Bazzill, Old books; Ranger/Tim Holtz - black Archival ink, pearl Perfect Pearls, Rock Candy Distress Crackle, Stamps, Glossy Accents, Distress Stains; Mustard Seed, Peeled paint, Distress Inks; Black soot, Wild honey, Rusty hinge, Vintage photo, Spiced marmalade, Mustard seed, Crushed olive (my latest favourite!), Antique Linen; Stamps - Paperartsy, Jo Capper-Sandon Stampotique, Autumn Leaves; Micro beads - Art van Go; Beer bottle caps; Recycled chipboard; Punches - Stampin Up, Martha Stewart; Dies - Tim Holtz, Paperartsy, Sizzix.

Mojo Monthly - Make mine a Tag!

Hello Peeps

My lovely friend Sarah over at La-De-Dah runs a Mojo Monthly which I frequently take part in and this month the theme is Tags and Tagology.  If you click on the link in my sidebar or HERE you can read her interview with Dan and see some of his and her lovely work in her Mojo Monthly post. 

So in true Blue Peter fashion, here are some tags which I have made into money envelopes in readiness for Christmas using the humble tag. This also means that I can join in with Sandra and here Rudolph Day Challenge too!  

The tags are all decorated the same yet different.  I have used the same layout but different background colours. 

They hold money in nicely!  A lot of people prefer to give/receive money at Christmas and these tags make them more of a present rather than putting the money into an envelope.

I really like this Walton style truck image into which I have popped some Christmas trees in the boot. 

Some ribbon attached to tie the flap down and that is the present complete. Oh!  Don't forget to put the money in.  You could also put small items of jewellery wrapped in tissue paper in there too.  

Hope you like and don't forget there is still time (just) to join in on either Challenge!

Hugs 

Hettie

Ingredients:-  Stamps - Tim Holtz, Penny Black, Papermania, Banana Frog, Craft Stamper Freebie; Distress Stain; Bundled Sage: Distress Inks - Forest Moss, Antique Linen, Peeled Paint, Barn Door, Fired Brick, Walnut Stain, Crushed Olive; Ribbon; Tim Holtz Tag Die; Cardstock; Ring reinforcer - Tim Holtz.

Mojo Monthly - Heartstrings - S is for Sewing

Ahoy Peeps

I am sure most of you are aware that I am a bit of a fan of Sarah of La-De-Dah and her Mojo Monthly and I think so far I have taken part in every Mojo Monthly and have indeed won twice.  I feel very honoured.   I have learnt a lot from Sarah and her guests and it is because of Sarah I found my new passion ATCs.  Thanks Sarah.  If you have not seen Mojo Monthly please click HERE to see what I am on about and why not join in.  If not this month, then a new one comes out on Thursday.  Yikes - the start of a new month AGAIN??!!

Well then.  Down to this post.  This month Sarah interviewed the lovely Tracey Evans and the challenge is entitled Heartstrings and Sarah asked us to "plunder the stash you DO have and also discover the potential in cheap, everyday materials".  So here is my take on the Challenge.  Hope you like it....

Yes it is a heart.  A cooking tin no less which measures about 3" x 3".  But it is a heart.  Next, what to do with it.  If you came into my kitchen you will see there are a lot of hearts hanging around in the kitchen, so when I saw this tin in my local Cook Shop I just had to buy it.  That was over a year ago!!  So Sarah thanks for making me do something with it.  

The tin has been sitting on my computer desk since before I went away on holiday (did I mention I have been to Prague recently?  No?  Where have you been?!!)  Anyways.  The other evening I had a brain fart  storm (maybe having looked up the definition it should read "brain storm"!) - again!!!  and a little thought came into being.  

Buttons.  They were in a tin bucket having been given them by someone in work.  Thimble.  It was either Hubby's Great Aunt's or his Grandmother's.  Too big for me to use but I could not throw it away so now it has been used.  The snippets of fabric were left over from the Sunbonnet Sue and Sam project before Christmas. Wooden Bobbins.  The one on the left is from a Dolly kit which is very old, and the dolly now has no legs, poor thing.  The one on the right (purple thread) I bought last year at the Tim Holtz/Paperartsy event.  One was recycled anyway.  Sewing bobbin (top right) was given to me by the lovely Kate recently.  I will post up what came with it in tomorrow's post.  Flower.  Prima and had it for ages.  Typewriter key.  Tim Holtz and had them for ages and not many left.

Feathers (on the left) I have had forever. Cotton reel paper (behind the sewing machine) was in amongst sewing ephemera I have from Hubby's Great Aunts. Sewing Machine. Was originally black and was sprayed silver to make a "tiara" for our Quilting Group's 25th Anniversary in 2009. Diamond pins. I bought recently from the flower arrangement section of the local garden centre. Measuring tape. Tim Holtz from stash. Paper lace. Snippet from a previous project. Background. Crowded Attic snippet from previous project. Silk ribbon. From stash and coloured with Mustard Seed and Dusty Concord distress stains.

So there you have it.  A heart with a mixture of old and new parts to make a sewing piece.  I do hope you like it and please leave me a comment, as well as pop over to see Sarah and other projects.

I am now thinking of taking the S out and replacing it with a B for my Mum for Mother's Day next month.  Or maybe I will pop back to the Cook Shop to see if I can make another one.  Any idea where I bought the sewing machine from?  Hmmn.  

TTFN 

Hettie

Mojo Monthly - In a Reflective kinda mood!

Hello Peeps

How are you all on this lovely weekend.  The last full weekend in January.  Nearly the first month of 2012 over with.  I had planned to show you some more of my Snippets cards in the last couple of days, but internet was not playing and was very flaky! It was too slow for me to access my e-mails and no chance of loading any photographs up to Blogger.  Grrr!

It appears to be better this evening so as I made my Mojo Monthly piece today I am going to attempt to upload it on here for you to see.  Fingers crossed ey!

This month Sarah got down to talking to Anneliese Bates.  Click HERE to see the post.  It really is worth reading about Anneliese's work and wandering around her blog.  Some stunning work on there.

Sarah asked us to make an ATC for our piece this month.  Up until this month I had only ever made one ATC which was at a make and take in Warwick at a Craft Fair.  Not my best piece of work I must say.  So I made an ATC for my Grungy Monday Challenge and now I have made a piece for my MOJO Monthly piece and do you know what?  I think I might make some more!  I really like the challenge of getting everything onto a smaller piece of art.  I hope you like what I have made.......

I have used a piece of canvas board which I had cut down to to size, I tore a page out of an old book and coloured it with Distress Stain - Peeled Paint, and adhered it to the board using Golden Gel.  I tore another piece of the book and coloured it using Mustard Seed Distress Stain and adhered it using the gel and another page using Bundled Sage.  I then adhered some masking tape to the board before puling the masking tape back off quickly so that it took the surface of the top layer off.  I did this several times so that the different layers would show.  I then added some Distress Stain over the board - Chipped Sapphire and Picket Fence as well as Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I distressed the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  

I stamped the background and then added gold wax to give it a light shimmer.  Then I set to work on the various elements.  First off I stamped a little birdie, coloured him in, layered it and then decided it would be better suited on a landscape piece.  So.  Which stamp then?  I  stamped the tree instead using Archival Ink in Coffee, stamped the background text using Antique Linen.  I coloured in parts of the tree with my watercolour pencils, distressed the edges and layered it with Basic Grey paper and I did the same with the word Reminisce.   I stamped up a small flower and grunged it, threaded some twine in the buttons, tied some more twine around the board and then started to adhere all the elements to the board.  

Some Sepia Glossy Accents on the tree and flower and that was me finished.  I am now contemplating having a go at framing it using my mitre block, but that will have to wait until another day as Hubby is getting me a G Clamp in order that it can be fastened to a desk. It moves too much if it isn't strapped down as I found out the other day!!

Don't forget to pop over to Sarah's blog to see some of the other wonderful work that is there.  And of course don't forget to pop over to Anneliese's blog too!

TTFN and have a great remainder of the weekend.  I have a day of scrapbooking with my Buddy tomorrow - really looking forward to it.  Expect to see some stuff soon!

Hettie

WOYWW 137 - I'm Late, I'm Late, for a very Important Date!!

Hello Peeps

As the title suggests I am a little late in joining the WOYWW Gang today.  I am having a bit of a topsy turvey day as Hubby started his new employment, yesterday being an induction day and today he started his proper work.  I have kinda got used to him being home for the last two weeks and found it strange getting back into the routine this morning!  Hence I couldn't post this morning before I went to work, the photos were on my camera which my computer in work doesn't like very much (soooo slow uploading to Blogger from work, in my lunch break of course!) and as I am determined to get to my target weight by the time I go on holiday I am upping the anti on my Wii so knew that if I sat down to do this post, my Wii would go by the wayside.  Anyhoooos I am here now!

Happy Hump Day!!  Yeay!! 

For anyone who has suddenly landed on this planet and does not know what WOYWW is then click HERE and you will be transported by Cadbury's Finger magic over to the desk of the beloved leader of the Gang, Julia!

So what is on my desk today I hear you cry..

It is a bit of a fabric kinda desk today.  I decided a few weeks ago that one week every month I would dedicate my crafting to my quilting/sewing.  And it is THIS week!  Over at the quilting group the theme for the Challenge Quilt is Triangles. 

I have been holding onto this magazine for absolutely eons of years (at least 1996 as they are advertising for tours to America to take place in 1996) because of this pattern.   And now I have the opportunity to drag out all the check fabrics I have saved over the years and the calico and start cutting.  Watch this space. 

And as a special treat for all of you who were disappointed to find my Cadburys Finger tins empty the other week, guess what I bought for you so please tuck in!  Leave the plate behind though I will be watching!!

Before I go, can I show you what my darling Hubby bought for me on the weekend?  Flowers? No. Chocolates? No.  Spa Day? No.  But this.........

Complete with panel pins too. True love ey!  I received a lovely book from the Sweet Sarah for winning the Mojo Monthly for December and it is full of wonderful ideas for playing with canvases.  So as I was reading it I asked Hubby if he had a mitre block/box so I could saw wooden frames for the canvases I am going to create (being positive here you see!).  He said Yes but that I wasn't using it.  So he bought me my own.  Who said love isn't practical ey?  Me thinks I am going to have to use my Distress Stains on it!!

TTFN

Hettie

Mojo Monthly - Just in the Nick of Tin!! (Sorry about the pun!)

Well Hello there Peeps!

I spent a jolly lovely day in my Craft Room yesterday making my lickle piece for the MOJO Monthly with the lovely Sarah.  I know I am a little late but things were a little on the hectic side before Christmas and I would not have enjoyed doing anything.  This lickle project I did enjoy doing.  NO pressure, no deadline (well only until tomorrow at midnight) and no products you must use other than a tin!!

Well, here it is....

Yes!  How predictable of me.  A mini book.  BUT a mini book IN A TIN! That is not totally predictable ey!

My motivation for this little piece was to use the lovely 7 Gypsies stamps that I won a few months ago from Sarah with THIS piece.  I have been so engrossed lately with Christmas and Craft Fairs etc, that I didn't really have chance to "play" with these stamps.  Now that I have I Lurve them and they will be popping up in many other projects.

The tin?  It started life as one of those tins for ladies to carry their "lady things" in their handbags (Bodyform and please do not sing the awful song!).  I will admit that this particular brand is not one which I use regularly but like any good crafter, I knew the tin would come in handy at some point so I bought the packet complete with tin.  (In my best BBC voice, there are other brands available!)

Then I sanded it and painted it with alcohol inks (terracotta, picket fence, gold, cranberry (I think!)).  Then painted it a little more.  As I couldn't seem to get the felt to take inside (even without applicator) I used a gold pen to colour around the inside edges of the tin.

I cut out six squares which then needed trimming to rectangles as the tin is not quite square!  and I then made hinges using a Sizzix die and attached all the hinges with brads.  Then came the fun bit.  Making the stamped panels to go on the pages!

Then i had a not particularly fun job as I had to take all the brads back out and the hinges came off, then poke holes into the panels and then reattach the hinges with the brads.  Why wasn't it fun?  Firstly the little legs do not want to go back through the card and the panel and secondly, the little beggars go missing on the desk whilst you are attaching them!!  I did get my own back by hitting all the brads with my Timmy Holtz hammer!!  Haa Haa Haa!!

Here are some closeups of the individual panels for you to see.. (I am afraid no. 5 didn't save for some reason!)

Here it is in all it's glory standing how I actually want it to do!!



Well, this is probably my last posting this year and most certainly my last project for 2011.  I have spent a happy few hours today clearing, cleaning and disposing of unnecessary stuff from my room today.  Hubby did ask if I needed a lie down as I cleared out a Really Useful Box of scrap papers which have not been touched for sooo long!  Some of those papers were nearly 12 x 12"!  I did go through them and kept a few essential ones (mainly Basic Grey Christmas and plain green cardstock) back before bagging up the rest to go to the local Brownies group for their next crafting session!  Phew!  Feeling better now!! 

Don't forget to pop over to the lovely Sarah to see the other projects that have been entered for this challenge!

Well only one more thing to say to all my friends and followers and that is Happy New Year to you all and may 2012 be a Healthy, Prosperous and above all Crafty year for you all and may your mojo never fail you!

Keeeeeeeeep Crafting!!

Hettie

Mojo Monthly!! Changing Faces

Good Evening Peeps

Now do not feint!  I know it is only the 7th day of the month, but I, yes I, have completed my Mojo Monthly nice and early!!  I actually completed it yesterday but it was far too late to take photographs unless I used a flash, and as you will see from the last two photographs, I really prefer not to use a flash where I can.

The theme of the lovely Sarah's Mojo Monthly is "Changing Faces".  You can read the post HERE.  Please do go along as this month Sarah is interviewing Jo Capper-Sandon and it is a great read.

Sarah was talking about how you can create totally different results by the way you use different inks or backgrounds, but using the same stamps.  Or at least I think that is what Sarah is trying to say!!  (Sorry if I have gone off on a tangent Sarah!!)  So here is my take on the subject.

Here I have used a background of canvas board, which I have inked with DIs (what else ey!).  Then using more DIs I have stamped some of my favourite images in varying layers and styles.  I have also used Distress Embossing Powder with the clock image. 

For the piece with the sentiment on I firstly used clear embossing powder with a clear image, then used DI to colour the piece in before ironing the embossing powder off (this is the only time I will happily use an iron!).  I then stamped the sentiment over the top using Archival ink.

For my second version.....

I used alcohol inks for the background and then stamped the same images again.  As I only have two Archival inks (Coffee and Black) I was a little limited to the colours I could stamp the images, however, I am still happy with the results.  The Umbrella Man was inked using Espresso AI with Gold.  (Note to self order some black AI as well as another colour of Archival ink - oops I did last night!!  Shhh - our secret!)

For the sentiment piece, I splashed inks onto my craft mat and then swooshed the piece through it.  Two of the colours were the same as the background piece.

The reason I have put little eyelets on the bottom edge is so that I can attach calenders to them.  I did not want to permanently adhere them, because once 2012 is over, I did not want the piece to be thrown away.  All that has to be done is to untie the ribbon holding the calender and hey presto - a piece of artwork instead.  It just shows that my work is hopefully not just for Christmas!!

(Sorry about the top picture, but the photo was taken in the evening with flash!)

I hope you like what you see.  Please leave me a comment and don't forget to pop over to Sarah's blog to see more work and maybe you will have a go!! 

TTFN

Hettie

Ingredients:- Ranger/Tim Holtz - DI Dusky Concord, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Mustard Seed, Fired Brick, Forest Moss, Walnut Stain; Dies - Altered Edge, Umbrella Man, Tattered Florals; Stamps; Distress Embossing Powder - Peeled Paint; AI Red Pepper, Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, Terracotta, Copper, Gold; Stamps - Hero Arts, Penny Black, Pink Paislee; Embossing Powder, wire, fibres, brads.