Acetate

Acetate stamped with SU snowflake stamps
Sentiment by Craftwork Cards
Hard to photograph with the reflection of the acetate but the card blank itself is pearlescent gold and the other layer is a dark red-brown.

Vintage Christmas

Specially for my Aunt who loves anything vintage or antique
Image is by Marianne, card is Kanban
Sentiment from very old stash

Reindeer

Paper is Tilda, I've added some Glamour Dust
Sentiment is by Craftwork Cards

Holly

I'm struggling a bit at the moment with regards photographs and blog posts due to a new computer. It's a completely different set-up to what I'm used to so everything is taking twice as long as I'm trying to get to grips with the changes in photo-editing etc.

My blog itself looks different to me; sizes, colours, brightness...not sure how it looks to everyone else, so apologies if everything is weird at the moment!

Embossing folder is Cuttlebug, I've used DCWV card and sanded it down with an emery board, then added some red glitter.
Sentiment is by Woodware.

Mum & Dad

This is an 8 x 8 inch card, background paper is by Phill Martin and I've added some Stickles to the edge.
Sentiment is Sizzix Script alphabet layered using Sue Wilson dies, poinsettia dies by Spellbinders, foliage die is also Sizzix.

Time Out

Due to a family bereavement I'm having a few days break from crafting/ blogging.

Back soon.x.

Hope, Love

Cuttlebug embossing folder, Sizzix holly die.

Peace

Bit hard to photograph this as it's part acetate.
Papermill Direct are currently running a tag competition, here.

I edged a piece of acetate with white Stazon ink and then stamped it with a stamp from SU Gorgeous Grunge set.
The sentiment is a PTI die and I cut it twice, layered it, then covered with glitter.

The 'peace' part was glued to the front of the tag, then three pieces of card layered and glued to the back.

Pine-cone Tag

Another tag for the Papermill Direct challenge.

This time I've used Whispers markers to directly colour on to a Hero Arts stamp. I scattered some chunky embossing enamel over the tag and heated (from underneath to stop it blowing away) to create 'snow'.

The sentiment is a Papertrey Ink die that has been cut twice and layered for a shadow effect, and then glazed with Glossy Accents.
Faux stitching and a little distress ink round the edges of the tag to finish.

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Christmas tags

There's a challenge on Papermill Direct's website to create Christmas tags.
I've made a few different ones, here's the first and probably the most simple; I don't always want the tag to compete with the wrapping paper!

Using a Nestabilities die I cut one circle from brown card that I had first embossed with a folder and then one from shimmery white card. I used a scalloped circle die at the top of the white circle to make the 'icing'.
An old Sizzix die cut the holly from glitter card and then a smidge of Glamour Dust to finish.

I've attached a piece of cord at the back and cut a smaller circle of white card to hide this and give a nice writing surface.

Thanks

We had a lovely time recently at a friends' house so I wanted to make a thank you card. During our stay one of our friends wore a very bright shirt absolutely covered with butterflies (he's quite a big bloke as well so lots of butterflies!)

Butterfly paper is SEI
Sentiment stamps are Waltzingmouse, I've heat embossed with SU pewter powder.

Merry Christmas

Embossing folder is by Docrafts
Sentiment dies by Spellbinders

Thanks

It's so dull here at the moment, nightmare for trying to take photos!

Anyway, sentiment stamp is by Waltzingmouse. Card it's stamped on has been spritzed with mint and gold inks.

Poinsettia

Poinsettia stamp is a recent magazine freebie
Sentiment stamp by Woodware
I've used Versamark and white embossing powder with both

Animals

Dies are old Cuttlebug
Stamp is Jane's Script by Woodware

Season's Greetings

As previous post; stamps by Waltzingmouse (three separate ones).
In real life the silk crush ribbon matches the patterned paper, the paper looks washed out here.

I'm unsure whether to keep the card as it is so it's flat enough for cheaper postage or to add something else; maybe a bow or some gems or something...

Gift Boxes

Someone recently asked me if I could make boxes for these Christmas sweets.
Rolo tube is 100g, M&Ms is 90g, box-wise they are about the same size.

I started with a piece of A4, cut down to 21.5 x 21cm
I scored at 5, 10, 15, and 20cm along the longest side and then 3cm up from the bottom.

The box is slightly too short but by the time the lid is on you can't tell, it just makes it easier with the measurements as A4 is 21cm.

The lid is a fraction over 13cm square, 13.1 or thereabouts, and scored at 4cm each side.

I used SU white ink which gives a nice strong white, I tried Brilliance ink initially but it hardly showed against the kraft card.
All stamps used are Waltzingmouse, I really like that some of their sets are designed to coordinate with Nestabilities.

Chocolate Orange Box

Terry's Chocolate Oranges are a real sign of Christmas to me. Currently £1 each at Tesco, I couldn't resist buying a couple, purely to use them in my crafting, not for me to eat oh no.

Frustratingly they are slightly too large in their packaging to make a one-piece box, just by a fraction. Instead I've made a box with lid, the alternative is obviously to remove from the packaging first, maybe next time I'll do that.

So for the base of the box I used a piece of plain green card 7. 7/8 inches and scored it each side at 2.5 inches (working in inches at the request of my craft club ladies, they don't get on with cm).

I stamped all over with three HOTP stamps using Versamark and clear embossing powder. If I'm stamping a random pattern with clear stamps I put them all on the acrylic block together, no need to stamp one at a time.

Same with the lid, a piece of gold card stamped pretty much all over; the corners are going to be hidden so I wasn't too bothered about stamping those bits.
Gold card is 7" square and scored each side at 2"

Corners cut up one side, a slice trimmed off, and ultra-strong tape to adhere the box.

That gives something a little like the above photo (I didn't stamp this one first, was a prototype)
By the time the chocolate orange is inside the lid is then raised by the size of the original packaging.

Some sparkly cord tied round the box

Spellbinders poinsettia die set to make the topper

Very simple to make and no one guessed what was inside so a good way of disguising a stocking-filler present.

Merry Christmas

Snowflake die -  Memory Box
Sentiment -  Simon Says Stamp
Scallop die -  Spellbinders
Patterned paper - Papermania

Birthday Wishes

Playing with some spritzing ink.
I've heat-embossed Personal Impressions stamps, the sentiment is by Waltzingmouse.

Let It Snow

I've been busy clearing out my old craft club's stash pile. We won't have as many spare tables at the new room so it's been a good excuse to thin out the supplies.
Whilst doing so I found this stamped image, no idea where it came from because it's not one of my stamps, no idea where the sentiment sticker came from either!

I've coloured with distress inks and added a wee bit of glitter.
The bow die is by Memory Box.

Craft Club

No cards today but a bit of a story instead, feel free to skip it:

For over ten years now I've run a craft club, 99% card-making because that's what my members wanted to do. At one point I had two clubs plus a healthy waiting list.

Fast forward a few years and we had people leave, once the novelty had worn off I guess, unfortunately some others left due to ill health; their own or their spouses.

I made the difficult decision to close my evening club, members did not want to come out once the nights started pulling in or the weather turned. The biggest issue I faced was that members usually came with their friends or relatives or neighbours; if one of them decided not to attend one week then more often than not their 'pack' did not come with them. One member down is not a problem on a week-to-week basis but five or six at a time means a real struggle to cover costs.

So, I had one daytime club, we had a lovely venue and a really nice bunch of ladies attending every week. The venue was seven miles from where I live and they appreciated I wasn't making profit as such, the fact that I was providing something for their community, and so the care-taker let us pay a very reduced rent.

Two years ago, with hardly any notice, we were told the venue was closing down completely, I was on holiday at the time so it was all a bit of a panic.

I needed somewhere close to the old venue but it's not an area I am familiar with really. Anyway we found a community centre and agreed to rent it every Thursday for two hours.

Our rent had now trebled and also within weeks a couple of members stopped coming. A few more months in and we lost a couple more, then another two.

What I was facing was that if every member came every week, or thereabouts, I could cover the running costs, I think that only happened about twice in two years! I advertised in the community centre, the local media, and on-line. We just couldn't get anyone else to join.

At the start of this month, after another phone call; "Sorry I'm not coming to club this week" I sat down and properly looked at the problem. Covering the rent was hard but not impossible but the price of materials has gone up year on year, then there was the refreshments and a few smaller costs. I calculated that just driving the seven miles there and back every week was costing me £100 annually in fuel, there's nothing else for me in that part of town so the only reason I was going there was the club.

Having people tell you they aren't coming next week, then another, then another...anyone who runs any kind of group or club or class will tell you; it is soul destroying. The only thing that kept me plodding on with it for at least the last year was the thought of disappointing my ladies, but realistically it could not carry on.

Because so many community centres have lost their government funding it is a real problem finding somewhere suitable with affordable rents. You can't keep putting up your weekly subs because people will just stop coming if it's too expensive.

A couple of weeks ago I was told about a new venue, a mile from my house, plenty of free car-parking, even free tea and coffee. And the best bit? no rent to pay!

How amazing is that?

There is a cost and that is you have to pay for and organise your own Public Liability Insurance. I've just paid that and it's less than one-tenth of the annual rent we paid at the previous place. 

Organising the new venue felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders :)

The only (big) downside is that some of my ladies are unwilling to travel to the new place which is fair enough. I know how much hassle it's been for me driving across town for the last nine years so I don't blame them for not wanting to do the same in reverse on public transport.

The thing was it was either move to somewhere nearer my home or just shut the club permanently. I will just have to advertise the new one and fingers crossed we get a few newbies.

The name of my new venue?
Tesco.
As in the supermarket.

There are around fifty (I think) Tesco stores across the country that provide a community room for not-for-profit groups just like mine. Not surprisingly they are very popular and we are so lucky to have grabbed one of the last weekly daytime slots in ours.
Free rent, free car-parking, free tea and coffee, we don't even have to carry our equipment in; just put it all in a shopping trolley and wheel it through the store!
I am so grateful to Tesco for providing us with this fabulous opportunity. If anyone has a group like mine and your local superstore is being renovated get in there quick and get your name down.

The pile of ribbon and glitter card here? that's actually from Tesco, children's craft section.
Ten sheets of A4 glitter card £3, twenty lengths of bright satin ribbon £1.20
No need for us to run out of stash, we can just nip out of the room and buy some :)

Now I just need a couple more ladies (or gents) to come along and craft with us, fingers crossed, our first session this week...