Christmas Doone

Welcome back to a Christmas creation on my blog. The nights are certainly drawing in now and by the time I get home from work it is pitch black, so no evening allotmenting for me now! However, I have been working late anyway, so I am not actually getting home any earlier to get extra crafting one either yet lol.

I did have a play with an unusual Christmas colour scheme last night though and came up with this card:

I used Core d'inations card, pearlescent paper and glitter card for the elements on this card. The Stocking die is a Marianne Creatables, the tag die came free with a magazine, the snowflake circle die is from Sizzix and the embossing folder is a partridge in a pear tree, and I think is a papermania one. Both the ribbon and the bow are papermania also. The little bells were just in my stash.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

countryview #32 Add some texture

The Card Concept #42 Colour Inspiration: (Freestyle Collage?)

polkadoodles Add sparkle, bling or glitter
Simply Create Too #97 Baby it's cold outside
atlantic hearts sketch #131 - Tag for the sentiment area

SOS #225 Go Paperless!
creative corner No stamp
Winter WonderlandJingle Bells

Audio Book Review

Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore

This is a very long romance novel based in between Somerset and Devon in the 17^th Century. Although this is a long story, there are several side-stories other than the main romance. The story is written from the perspective of the main male of the story; a farmer called John Ridd, and is a story about his love for Lorna Doone and the things that happened to the pair of them, separately and together.

The Doone’s are a local gang of thieves who come from blue-bloodstock and so are looked up to by the people they steal from. They are also feared by most people due to their size and aggression, and the fact that they have killed many people, including John’s father. So when John falls in love with their ‘queen’ it all seems doomed to failure. However, John manages to rescue Lorna, and angers the Captain of the Doones, with some consequences. Along the way we see what farm-life was like, meet another highwayman of good repute who is close to the Ridd family, discover a gold mine, and meet high society in London.

A very good story that has the potential to get bogged down in the romance, but prevents this by the use of several side-stories, with plenty of action and drama. Well worth listening to!

Mardi Gras - maybe a little late?

Hi there,

As I mentioned previously we were having a Mardi Gras themed meal at work on Friday and home-made masks were required. So here is what I came up with:

I used these Christmas stamps - holly heat embossed with sea green WOW, and festive flourish with a bright blue embossing powder:

I was going to use the reindeer from the lower stamp set, but it was part of the bauble and I couldn't be bothered messing with it so went with two from the top set instead. I then added gold glitter glue around the eyes (after dropping the new and large bottle on the floor and splitting it right the way across!!!), before adding the feathers - which are from my pet birds (yes I realised this was the wrong way round to do things when I kept putting my fingers in the glitter glue - it was only because I dropped the bottle that I added the glue so soon!!). It went down well at the meal :)

I would like to enter this mask into the following challenges:

country view #32 Add some texture

crafting by designs - Anything Goes

papertake weeky All about the base

modsquad Flip Flop

Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoy laughing at my misfortune with this creation :D

Hugz Tinz

Zombination!

I have made a poster for Halloween tonight, with the old fashioned horror of a zombie creation - I was thinking Framkenstein's monster more than modern zombies - and I had this lovely lady offering an apple - the real old fashioned horror of the fairy tales!

The sentiment was found online but I cannot find the site I got it from currently! The zombie image is from The Stamping Chef and was coloured with promarkers in Cool Grey 1 and 3, Winter Ltd Ed and Spring Ltd Edition packs.

I would like to enter this poster for the following challenges:

LOC #100 Old-fashioned Halloween
vs sweet ideas #39 Spooktacular
crafty calender Halloween
abc challenge  T-Two
deep ocean #115 Halloween
scrapbook stamp society #77 Halloween
artistic inspirations #142 Halloween
Glitter n sparkle#159 Halloween
digi chooseday Feeling sentimental
cute card Thursday 396 Anything Goes
CASology 169 Zombie

simon says monday Monster Mash
always playing with paper #47 Inspiration Picture - I went for Halloween (pumpkins etc)

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Mardis Gras mask to come.....

Hugz Tinz

Height chart update and tomatillos

Hi there,

I have been busy making apple and pear jam this week and now have several jars to give as gifts. I am also busy adding a new zip to a pair of biker trousers - without undoing the seams - which is great fun (NOT).

However, this is what you want to see - now at 17.5 hours:

I think this may take quite a while - definitely not going to be completed by Christmas unless I book the rest of the time off work!

I also thought that anybody that was interested in viewing my little dino guy, might also like to see my tomatillo harvest:

 Compared to my tomato harvest so far (I do still have a large plant covered in large green tomatoes with no signs of blight so far).

However, I do now have t find ways to use the tomatillos - I am thinking salsa, maybe a green tomato chutney recipe and I have already had some raw on my sandwiches. A very unusual flavour, but really easy to grow. Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatillo if you would like more information about these!

Finally my chillies, which I also need to figure out a use for lol.

Sorry there are no challenge entries today, but I have to make a Mardi Gras mask tomorrow lol.

Have a great evening,
Hugz Tinz

Christmas in the Pink

Hi there,

I have been down the allotment and managed to get the rest of the grass cut! I also collected my first Parsnips for the stew tomorrow - two long and thin from the top of the bed and one stumpy one from the opposite end of the bed - about 50cm between them! I do have pictures but they are on my phone so I will add them to the computer later at some point.

I have started to crochet an amigurumi blue bird, so will hopefully have something to show you in the next couple of weeks. The pattern was a little confusing at first as I have only knitted animals rather than crochet, which is quite different, but I think I have got it sorted now.

Anyway, onto the Christmas card for this week:

I took a plain white card blank and covered it with a free Jennifer Ellory stripy deep pink paper. I then used another paper from this pack and created an aperture using the second largest Xcut frame die. Then I wrapped a red Christmas ribbon around this panel before layering over the base. The digi stamp is from Bugaboo and was coloured using both Papermania dual brush watercolour pens and Promarkers in Satin, Primrose, Lemon and Pale Pink. This was layered onto the base according to the sketch below. Finally a wreath was cut from the free pack which the papers were taken from, and the centre cut with another die, and a papermania bauble embellishment topped with a pink ribbon bow. Pink glitter glue was added around the edge of the digi's die.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

glitter n sparkle #158 Use some pink

crafty hazelnut Christmas 251 For a child/Use a child (Cherub style angel)

Winter Wonderland Ribbons

creative corner 3 embellishments - wreath/bauble/ribbon

crafty catz #297 Anything Goes

CRAFT 333 Christmas
Sweet Sketch Wednesday #71

ilovepromarkers #290 Anything Goes
polkadoodle Use a die-cut
jingle belles Deck the halls...in PINK
alphabet challenge R for Ribbon
crafty ribbons #130 Christmas to die for
creative moments 79 Spots or Stripes
abc-christmas U for Unusual Christmas colours
deep ocean #114 Fairies/Angels
creative card crew 98 Ribbon
OLL #191 Pretty in Pink
card mania #73 1 digi, 2 patterned papers, 3 embellishments

Thank you for looking :)

Hugz Tinz

Stitching Wings

Well I have a few completed cross stitches to share with you today - and an audio book review too. This was a long one - hence the gap between reviews - 25CDs!

So first up is my Calender piece for September:

This cute little owl took 17.5 hours! I used some satin threads in the butterflies wings too to make them shimmer nicely.
I would like to enter this owl for the suzy bee Something beginning with S challenge - Stitching and School.

Second are my Christmas decorations:

The stitching for these was already complete, but I have now finished making the baubles themselves up. I am missing a button for the final one though :(.
I would lie to enter these decorations for the crafting by designs Anything Goes and Country View Add some texture (felt backing and stitching) challenges.

Finally is my recent RR design - Queen Bee and her subjects:

This took 4.5hours to complete and will be posted back to its owner at the weekend.

I would like to enter this piece of work for the papertake weekly two by two challenge - for the two worker bees.


Audio Book Review

Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres

This is a fictional story based around the very real happenings in small villages during the first world war and subsequent Turkish war of independence. The story is based around the inhabitants of a small village, and parts of the story are told by these inhabitants, so that the reader/listener gets an idea of how people thought and reacted during these difficult times. It also follows the life of a main character in the war of independence for Turkey, and how his actions affected the little people, and also history in general.

This is a very good book. I like the way it gives an overview of the proceedings, but then also gives the account of the happenings from the people who lived them, making it much more personal. You really get to know the main characters and feel for them during their difficulties. There is a lot of quite detailed information about the terrors of the war which may not suit some people, but it does not tell of these things being carried out, just of seeing the aftermath. They are also recounted through memories rather than told as if presently happening, which softens the blow a little, but makes the compassion for the person doing the recounting greater. It would be very easy to believe that this was on the whole a true story, rather than just based around actual events. The fact that it also has a focus on a routine engagement that goes wrong also makes it seem more real.

Definitely one to listen to – or read indeed.

Thank you for looking at my post

Hugz Tinz

Spooky ATC's (and Dinos too)

Hello there,

It is starting to get dark early now, which means tat it is not so easy to get things tidied up down on the allotment. The cold does not help either lol. Hopefully it will mean that I get more time to craft before too long though :)

Anyway, I have made some spooky ATCs for my exchange group:

 As you can see I used two different pumpkin styles and three different layouts. However they all use either black or orange cardstock from my stash, papermania patterned papers, a oriental scene paper, which looks very spooky when cut down, some pearlescent paper and metallic promarkers. The die-cut pumpkins were cut using Sizzix dies (I think) and backed with pearlescent paper.
The collection is to be entered for the following challenges:

MMM Black and Orange

modsquad Get your 'FALL' on

crafting by designs All about Autumn

CRAFT 332 Autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving/Bonfire

creative corner Halloween
catch the bug Fall
artistic inspirations #142 Halloween
audsentiments 142 Halloween
Fussy and Fancy #149 Autumn colours
polkadoodle Use a die-cut
simply create too #96 Halloween colour
craftcalender Halloween
vs sweet ideas #39 Spooktacular

These two were based on sketch #129 at Atlantic Hearts:

These two followed the SSS #315:

And these two followed a magazine example :)


Here is my dino so far - about 16 hours

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

Vets, fish and ducks

Hehehe - I managed to make the title all about animals!

The weather has been pretty wet here at the start of the week, although it is brightening up now, but it does mean I have been struggling to get down on the allotment. However it didn't stop me taking the poor kitty to the vets for her T4 blood test. She is not very happy with me now lol.

I have now put my fish tank down for a little while to try and get the height chart completed. It is currently at 108 hours:

I will post regular updates on the height chart :)

Now onto my recent creation - a weather themed, one-layer card:

I took a yellow card blank from the Works and stamped Jemima Puddleduck, from Crafter's Companion onto the front. Jemima was coloured with Tequila Sunrise (beak and feet), Summer Sun (bonnet), Tawy Owl and Grey Squirrel (feathers) and March Hare and Budding Rose (shawl). This is obviously a duller colour scheme than Jemima is used to, but it brings a subtle element to the card. I masked off areas of the card and then used a snowflake from a free Popcorn Bear stamp set, and Enamel embossing powder onto the unmasked strip. Using Dovecraft Hot Pink ink and baby wipes I covered the panel in the ink, creating a marble-like effect - wiping the ink from the snowflakes. I also finished the circle around Jemima with this baby wipe. The snowflakes have not come out as well as I had hoped and I am not sure if a paler pink would have looked better for the strip?

Anyway this card was made with the following challenges in mind:

liveandlove crafts #40 Pink again

OLS #21 whatever the weather

sketchy colours #256 Pink, Yellow and Brown

always playing with paper #45 Sketch

cute card thursday 394 One Layer

suzy bee 100 Embossing

catch the bug Anything Goes

613 avenue create #144 Pink

Thank you for looking

Hugz Tinz

Hiss Monster Insects

Hi there,

What a lovely day we have had today. I have been doing lots of crafting, along with allotment and sorting some stuff around the house - busy busy.

Firstly - crafting. I set myself a task to make a necklace this week, as I have not made a lot of jewellery recently - mainly because it doesn't sell so sits around accumulating dust lol. So this is the necklace I made today:

It does need an extension chain to allow it to fit a variety of neck sizes snugly.

I would like to enter this necklace creation for the following group challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Anything Goes

Glitter n Sparkle Anything Goes
crafting by designs Anything Goes

I also made a 'Monster Insects' card. The empty lower right of the card will have a sentiment, but I thought I would wait until I know what I am going to use it for. I do not have many monsters in amongst my stash, so decided that a spider would count, as many people will inform you that these are the most common monster out there, and then a couple of pretty butterflies, with a monster butterfly in the middle. (Besides, some people do not like butterflies either lol.) So here is my card creation:

I used a card blank with a de-bossed edge and inked this using Distress Ink in Moss Green and water, with the idea of looking out through a wooden doorway. The spider is a peel off, as in the centre butterfly, and the two pretty butterflies were from Creative Stamping magazine, inked with Pretty Colour ink, and heat embossed with Black Heat it up embossing powder. I was debating whether to add some blood red to the centre butterfly, but decided it may just be a little too much so have left it blank. What do you think?

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Take Your Pick - Product (Distress Ink) and Technique (Embossing)

Modsquad Anything with wings

creative corner BOOO

LOC #98 Monsters

suzy bee #100 Embossing

allsorts Nature

addicted-to-stamps #110 Butterflies

the stamping boutique No designer paper
alphabet challenge Q-Quick and Simple
digi chooseday Use something new (butterfly stamp) - ok not digi but still a stamp
artistic inspirations #141 Black

I have also been down on the allotment today and worked over the path where I am hoping to have herbs next year (as it is fenced off from the rabbits). Here is a photo sequence from what it was, to it being covered ready for next year:

And on the topic of monsters - here is Lanstrums new terrarium (it hasn't encouraged her to eat though!)

I cannot even find her now without spending 10 mins routing, as she burrows right down into the substrate. For those of you wondering, she is a western hognose:

Which leads us nicely onto the Book Review (not audio this time) - Hiss and Hers by M.C. Beaton

This is an Agatha Raisin detective story, and the first one of these that I have read. After falling for the gardener Agatha organises a charity ball to try and catch his attention. When he does not turn up, after promising Agatha the first dance, Agatha goes looking for him. Unfortunately he is found buried in his compost heap, and Agatha is a suspect from the perspective of the police. However, Georges sister hires Agatha and her agency to take on the case. It becomes rather tangled once the detectives realise how much of a womaniser George was, and also difficult when a big star is added to the list of suspects.

This is a fun detective story for adults, and is for adults what the Famous Five stories are for teens. I will definitely be reading more of these books.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog, and I hope to see you again soon.

Hugz Tinz

To play Festive Decor

Hello again everybody,

It is the beginning of October already - and that means a new challenge over on my facebook group - Monthly Themes for Crafting. The new theme this month is OTT - so I want to see anything that is a little bit extreme lol. With lots of different colours these gloves could certainly be classed as being slightly OTT:

They were rather fun to make, using knitting and crochet techniques. The colour scheme on these is definitely reminiscent of autumn too - Deep Ocean Challenge Blog and Creative Moments and Simply Create Too! Eventually I will have time to figure out how to allow people to link to my blog for these challenges, but for now if you are interested in joining in, do pop over to the facebook group. There will be a buttons prize for the top voted entry this month :). Now what do I want to knit next?......

As it is the beginning of the month, there is also a new technique in focus in the Crafting Techniques facebook group - this time we are looking at Amigurumi. I know there are many people dabbling in this, and I have recently seen many parrot characters being crocheted and knitted - please do feel free to pop along and show us your work. This is a group for learning new techniques and teaching others if you are already proficient at the technique, so there are no prizes, just a chance to broaden your skills :).

Anyway, back to what you want to see - my Christmas card creation. Hopefully I will also have some stitched decorations to show you soon, but here is my Festive Decor card:

I cut a piece of A4 card lengthways and folded horizontally to make a tall card base. The patterned papers are from the Papermania Noel collection and Helz Cuppleditch glitter paper stack. Te design was manually embossed onto vellum using the ball tools. The stamped images are from an Adam Pescott Winter Wonders free stamp set. The image was coloured with papermania watercolour dual tip pens,and the greeting was also written in these. Finally a couple of peel-offs were used to finish the card. This took about 45mins.

I wish to enter this card into the following challenges:

Country View Challenges #32 Add some texture

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' Festive Decor

aud sentiments 141 Let's get started on Christmas

Jingle Belles The Hannukah song (Winter Solstice in this case)

Audio Book Review

To Play the Fox by Frank Barnard

This is a novel about two fighter pilots in World War II. They both meet in battle, on the same side, but have different views about what the war entails and how it should be conducted. After fighting together in France, they last see each other at the headquarters in Calais, where Germany is currently focusing on invasion. Here they both go their separate ways in completely different areas of the battle – Kit goes into photo reconnaissance (PR) due to an injury that leaves him feeling unable to fly a fighter plane – Ozzy ends up on a top secret mission, if he can behave. They meet once again when disaster hits them both.

This story takes you through the present, whilst allow glimpses into the past to bring the reader (or listener in this case) up to date. Both of the main characters have strong personalities and both strengths and weaknesses for the reader to relate to. The chapters alternate between the main characters and are almost parallel with each other, so that you can see what each of them is doing at one moment in time, which is quite an achievement. The narrator for this book portrays the characters very well. This is a very good book to listen to.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. Hugz Tinz