Doncaster Summer Crafting workshop

Hello
I'm going to try to be positive and cheery in this post but it's pig miserable weather -wise; constant rain for the last two days and it's July!! This weather in November is one thing but not in July, come on!! Oops, slipped from my positive persona there - didn't take long did it?! :-)
Anyway, enough mutterings about the weather. I had a brilliant day on Friday July 15th at the Doncaster craft workshop. There were eight projects prepared apparently but we only made four, which is little wonder really with over 200 people making the same things at the same time. The women there were all friendly and I sat at a table at the edge of the group, so movement felt alot freer despite there being 10 people at each table. Chrissie, Geraldine, Sally, Judy and ....drat.. a lady from above Glasgow whose name escapes me at the minute and two other elderly ladies and two women from Portugal who are trying to get scrapbooking popular over there. People had travelled from all over the place to do one thing, so we all had a common interest. Nancy Watt and Stephanie Weightman led the workshops and were a great laugh.
The first card we made was the concertina flower one which is my favourite although mine didn't quite work the way it will when I make it again but I still like it. I've practised making those flowers recently, so I was pleased to see it in a project. All the papers were from a huge K&Co too pack, which I had almost bought last week in Hobbycraft, so I'm so glad I hadn't as they were £35.99 there. I bought the Mind's eye 'totally girl' pack instead which took me a very long time to choice as it was. I probably paid over the odds for it but hey ho it was there! :-) Before I go on anymore, here's the card to speak for itself.

I made all the boxes yesterday during some Chris and Maggie free time.
                                  -----------------------------------------------
The next one was the book card which was pretty easy other than tying the bow and working out how the feathers and bow were to be placed on. That might sound like I'm dafter than you thought but we were all the same, as we were too busy having a laugh and chatting, to be focussing as well as necessary on instructions. I love the swirly patterns they gave us to work with.

                 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
We then went on to make the windmill gift card, where we first used the button maker which is a great gadget to get buttons to match your project. You can make proper buttons too with material, so I'm really pleased that was in our goody bag. I love the windmill look. I made the tag in mine so that you could put cash in the middle of it but truth be told, I must've put too much glue around the edges, so it'll be a tight fit and whoever is given it, will have to fight for the money, which is a smiley thought really.

                           --------------------------------------------------------------------
The last one was the flowery flip easel card. I was pleased about this but I would've rather made our own flowers but don't suppose there was enough time and the die-cut flowers are a MyCraftStudio product, so they weren't going to do that. I think the flower on the inside is a bit daft; I think Chrissie suggested that it would've made more sense to put the Friends sentiment tag inside but I've just made that internal flower less 3D. The stamen was made with the Tonic snowflake punch they gave us; I would've rather had that more 3D but didn't have the time to faff enough to make that happen.

They supplied all the materials and tools to make these cards plus more and two Making Cards magazine and lunch, so I thought it was good value. The racecourse is a great venue as lovely views on a sunny day and the roadsigns make it easier to find.

Take care out there

Glossy, shiny, glittery, blingy all rolled into one

Hello
This entry is for a card I've made for Chris's daughter who's going to be 15 in July. She 'ordered' (yes, you're right 'cheeky mare' :-) ) a huge shiny over the top card but this is my version of that which is much more calmed down but still with the essential bling, shine and shimmer. The inspiration this time was from Tiffany at http://sparkledmemories.blogspot.com/. Of course you can never make an exact replica and who'd want to really or you wouldn't have any creative input and besides, it depends on what stock you've got or can find.

The shoe box on the front was a find in a 'offcuts/misprints' type box of card I got from the Manchester craft fair in February (not sure of exact month but it was something like then). The shoes were cut at 3.5" from the Forever Young cartridge. The other cuts were 8.5x11 for glossy basecard, 8x5 for the pink glitter card (Kanban) and 8x5 for the pearlescent paper layer. The pink part of the shoes was 'glossy accent'ed as were the lids of the shoe boxes. The ribbon was from Hobbycraft as were the pink flowers 'bling bling'. The message is a peel-off by Anita's glitterations which is part of the Docraft line.

I made the envelope with Centura Pearl card and embossed a shape on the seal tip from a Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro section, with the help of Crafter's Companion Spray and Slide. (Goodness me, the amount of products needed in the background is often way too many to mention without boring the pants off people). I also cut some glittery pink shoes to decorate the front as can be seen from the photo. Inside the card are two 2" shoes cut out of the pink pearlescent paper too.

I've been very clever with this post (well, I hope it works) as I've scheduled it not to appear until July 16th which is her birthday, just in the off-chance she has a nosey, as she mentioned the fact that I had a blog last week, so it's within her realm of knowledge :-)

Take care out there

Another 3D flower, more lilac and a yet another new technique for me

Hello there

This card is a variation on one I've shown on my blog before. Previously I just made a standard card but this time I've made a tea light card. I looked at several video tutorials and I'd seen it done on t.v. I needed it a specific size to fit the large flower on and after a few trial attempts, I am very happy with the way it turned out. Whilst I think about it, the flower on the envelope was made by embossing the design from one of my Crafter's Companion embossing boards and not from a cricut cartridge! Silly me had forgotten how I had made it so went trawling through all my cartridges trying to find the right flower - if only I'd looked at my first envelope properly to see the embossing, I would've known straight away.

The main measurements to make note of are the following:
On both the longest edges crease both a 1cm and a 3cm line all the way.
Turn your card to lay horizontally and crease 1cm away from the left edge, then 3cm, 7cm and 9cm. The rest of your chosen width will be divided into two with a crease line half way along from top to bottom. On the wrong side of the card, pencil mark the acetate window space by drawing a 1cm line away from the side of the space between the 3cm and 7cm crease lines- then cut that window out. On the wrong side of the card also lightly pencil mark a line from top to the bottom at 13 cm - this is where the box section will align to and be glued down when it is folded into place.



Score all the fold lines. Cut along the longest horizontal edge score line from the right hand side to the 9cm vertical score line on both the top and the bottom 3cm fold line.
On the wrong side of the card glue your acetate over the gap cut already between the 3cm and 7cm vertical lines.
On the 3cm fold line along the longest edge of top and bottom cut up to the 1cm vertical fold line (hopefully the picture will help explain that better). At the 1cm, 3cm, 7cm and 9cm crease lines cut a slight v-shape inwards from the longest edge - this will allow the flaps to fold away more neatly.
Fold the 1cm vertical line over and consequently bring the box over with it to the 13cm light pencil mark and glue it. That's it! Go for  your life and decorate as you like now.

Phew, those instructions were hard - it's much clearer to watch a video tutorial but these notes will help me remember exactly how I did it and they make sense to me - well, they do now; goodness only knows if I'll know what I mean in a year's time!

The person I've made it for loves making crafty things, so I put some little things in the box for her instead of tea light candles as I don't know if she would use those. I hope that she likes this.

Take care out there

p.s incase you're wondering why I've put Edwin Allen (one of my local craft shops) as a label for this post; it's because that's where I bought the gorgeous ribbons from to make that flower. 

Large 3D flowers and lilac colour - loverrly!

Hello there

I seem to be going through a fad of 3D flowers right now, so when I saw the card on page 16 of Making Cards, I had to make one, especially since the designer was Kathy Thomas from Edwin Allen here in Warrington. I went to one of Kathy's workshops last Christmas and really enjoyed it although the room is very cramped.  My phone is rubbish as a camera really but hey ho, it's quick and easy. I've done another version of this card but I can't show you that yet as it can't be revealed until after the date it's needed so I'll try to post it then schedule it for after the date I need it. Try to contain your excitement at the air of suspence I've created.

 I've done other stuff like fidding around practising colouring my own paper to make 3D flowers but there's nothing worth showing yet although the following photo shows that Rome wasn't built in a day!

I've made inroads into my mosaic step but well, this photo speaks louder than my words to show my 'progress'

Before you mock though you should try cracking tiles; it really hurts your thumb!
I've also lined my bedroom curtains lately but that really is not exciting in any way shape or form but it benefits me of course as it provides a darker room for me to wake up to. After saying that though, the amount of bright mornings we have are so few, I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.
Oh yes, I also had to make my daughter a quickie card during this week as I forgot to put money under her pillow when she lost a molar. The 'tooth fairy' gave her a card to apologise for not reaching her the night of the loss. A mother's role is open ended! The card was more of a pain than it was worth but then Maggie appreciated it, so there's all the worth wrapped up. She drew a little fairy inside it and 'posted' it under the door of my craft room with a thank you note; my daughter is pretty cool!

I have mixed success with printing on Centura Pearl- I think the word sorry looks more like soppy on this but I didn't have time to mess anymore, so had to leave it. Hopefully Maggie will remember the thought more than the detail. I got the topper and the backing paper from the My Craft Studio Wings and things cd rom.

Take care out there

Nikki Sivils new papers

Hello today

Just a little entry today to mention Nikki Sivils new papers. My favourite of her work is the Beatrice line but these new ones look good too. My favourite of the new lines is Gingerbread Land. Wish I could make layouts like she does and her DT, especially Katrina. Anyway, go and have a look for yourself with the chance to win the whole line as the blog candy. Nikki Sivils new paper lines