Meet Nibbles and Pip

21 March 2023

Yes, It's been a long time again...21 March 2023

There's a reason there's been no blog posting, besides me not having any creative mojo to get creating.  Sadly my father had been really ill. He went into hospital again in January for a week then came home. He was only home a week and had to go back.

One thing after another kept happening to my  poor daddy and in the end his body couldn't handle it any longer.  John Ellington Philip Hiscott left us on the night of 21st February 2023. His body had finally had enough. 

I made the long two day drive by myself up to be with him. My brother, niece & nephew rushed up as well.  We believe what the doctors said that the last sense to go is hearing because we were all in his room for hours. Including Miaa my niece's little 1yr old.  We think Dad was hanging on to see Miaa one last time.His only great grandchild.  Sadly he never woke up but we recon he heard us all because it was only hours after I finally left the hospital to get some much needed sleep when the doctors called us to say he'd passed on. 

Dad's funeral was held that Friday with just us immediate family there.  It's what he would have wanted. We managed to pull together some beautiful photos for a power point to one of his favourite songs.  As I was driving all the way up from country Victoria I kept hearing this beautiful song called How to I say Goodbye by Dean Lewis. I believe that was a message. I played it for my brother & sister who agreed we should have it during the funeral as well. 

We also had a bit of humour because what would it have been with out some.  Our father was always the happiest easy go lucky man.  He always made us laugh and smile so how fitting we should send him off to Always look on the Bright Side of Life by Eric Idol of Monty Python fame. 

We all went out for dinner that night to celebrate Dad's life and it was a long one of 89 years.  Though the last couple were spent mostly in hospital, his sense of humor never left him. We shall always miss you Daddy. I hate that I can't pick the phone up any more and hear your voice or pick you brains for cooking ideas. I have stored away in my mind and heart all the love and caring and advice you've given me and will always be grateful you were my Daddy, my JohnBoy! 

 
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30 December 2022

Long time no blog post! 30th December 2022!

 Hi folks, well it's been such a long time between blog posts but there's been so much happen in my neck of the woods, I'm sure you'll forgive me.

My hubby got a new job and to do that job ment we  had to move. Soooo rather than move twice, we decided to take our "sea change" now rather than when hubby gets closer to retirement. Yes he's younger than me so he's never going to catch up to me being retired LOL.

So come August we started packing, it was a long haul as we had to sell our house and find a new home in our new location.  Where did we buy a new house?  A little country town called Grantville on the Bass coast of Victoria! Think Phillip Island and come north by about 1/2 an hour's drive and yup you got it we've relocated to country Victoria from the hustle and bustle of busy Sydney!

To say the change is startling would be an understatement but we love it. Our new home is just that, practically brand new compared the the Hampson's little Hovel we lived in in Sydney. That place was built in the early 1970s so you can imagine it's age.

I have my own crafting room/studio now and hubby has a home office too!  Our kitties made the treck about a month after I did. We flew them down and they are loving their new home as well. We've had a lot done like a new cat enclosure, airconditioning, new furniture, a shed will be built soon out the back and hubby has almost finished landscaping part of the front yard today too.  I will share some photos but have been reluctant to til now as I felt I overshared at our last home but I'll get over that.  

Grantville is not a new town but much of the housing is now new and new estates are going in in the future too.  We have been so blessed to find our home and buy it and doubly blessed that our Sydney home sold so well and fast too.  It's been a bit of a blur since September but now the new year is nearly here, things are settling down and we are enjoying the more relaxed life style in a home that is so beautiul to us we are still pinching ourselves that we got it! 

Yes I'm still an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator but that had to take a back seat for a little while whilst we were selling up and relocating.  I've been living down here by myself for a bit as hubby has to see out his Sydney contract. He's here for Christmas & new year but has to go back for the last 5 weeks of the programme then he'll be back down here permanently from mid February when he starts work at HMAS Cerberus.  Yes he's going back onto a naval base. Good times!

I'll leave you with some photos of our new place and will try and be back more regularly in 2023

HAPPY NEW YEAR!










sea view from our back door!



15 March 2022

Tutu Tuesday & a Tutorial 15 March 2022!

 Welcome back and happy Tutu Tuesday!

How's this gorgeous little number! It's no secret that I love Tutus and there's nothing more fun finding great little numbers that make a many of you smile!

Having selected this little cutie and those gorgeous colours this week, I've created a tutorial using alcohol Blends and 100% Isopropyl & a heat gun onto vellum. Once I had filled the sheet and it was all dry, I added some very fine lines of glue and adhered gold gilding flakes. Glued onto a sheet of basic white card stock so you can really see the results and tada, what a gorgeous background!

PLEASE NOTE: ordinary Isocol does NOT work this technique, you need 100% isopropyl. I bought mine from Bunnings. It is the Diggers brand, 500ml bottle. It comes with a spray top however, as it's a large bottle, I transferred some into a smaller bottle using a pippet.  The air puffer I have I have had for many years. I do believe it's still on the market but you can also get something similar from your local chemist which I think is used for cleaning out ears.  Basically you need something you can easily pump quickly with your hand to blow the isopropyl around your page to help spread the Blends' ink!



 

https://youtu.be/sa0vy7y_RoE 

Here are the finished pieces after the video was completed. One more Thanks card and 2 pieces left to create more cards. I added a bit of Magenta Madness to this 2nd background, gorgeous!
 

 
 
So, til next time, remember
happy stamping, colouring & creating!!
 


Product List

Heat Tool
[129056]
$50.00

11 March 2022

Colouring Ribbon Tutorial 11 March 2022

Hello and welcome to a new tutorial at last! I know, it's taken me ages to get back into the swing of things but I hope to have more newer tutorials soon and a bit more regularly too.

This Fabulous Friday at 5'o'clock (FFAF'ish!) shows you how you can change plain white ribbon into a colourful piece to be used on handmade cards and scrapbooking pages.   

 

In the past I have shown you all how I dye ribbons using rubbing alcohol mixed with reinkers then heat set with my heat gun. 

You'll find that tutorial here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad7QV46RLGg

These next photos show previously hand coloured ribbons and a finished card using them.  PLEASE NOTE: items used in this card are retired therefore no longer available to purchase but there are many other products available you can substitued what I've used to create with!




This time I'm using Stampin' Write markers which are dye based markers. 

Years ago I showed on an old blog how I did this however we no longer have that same width ribbon so I'm using the 1/4"/6.4mm wide crinkled white seam binding. If you have wider white ribbon, give it a go using it. I know some of us still have some that width though it's been retired by Stampin' Up! for some time now.

All you will need are the ribbon, a water brush or mini spritzer with water in it, a few colours of Stampin' Write markers that will blend well together.  A heat tool if you want to dry your ribbon faster as well. Yup, that simple.  Sit back and watch me blunder through my first video demo in ages.  Bare with me as I've new software as well so am also getting use to that too.


And here's a creation made using Basic White Note cards for the base & envelope, Basic White layer stamped using Blushing Bride, Gray Granite & Cinnamon Cider ink pads, Stampin'Write markers and stamp sets Artfully Layered & Hello Ladybug (sentiment stamp). 


Don't forget to decorate your envelopes & inside your cards!

til next time, remember,

happy stamping, colouring & creating!


Product List