Well, as our confidence gre, we decided to be a bit more adventurous. In April, we used wire and beads to make embellishments. I was useless at this, but Amanda was much better. I had found some patterns for butterflies/dragonflies and Amanda had made flowers before. I had not realised how difficult this would be for some of my ladies who had some difficulty with dexterity. And my poor efforts looked rather deformed....
Being brave, and following a botched attempt and a brainwave, we decided to make exploding boxes in May. I found it hard to cut the 'cross shapes' which make up the body of the box, but used Colossal Card strips in varying shades, to make the outers - using 6 strips of card - 3 pairs of gradiating size (largest 9 x 3 inches, scored at every 3 inches, then 8.25 x 2.75 inches scored every 2.75 inches, and the smallest 7.5 x 2.5 inches scored every 2.5 inches). The sample I made for my Mum (for Mothers Day) she still has today. Much much easier than cutting out all those straight lines that I could not do with my cutting systems. Then, its a case of sticking the corresponding strips together at the central square point with DS tape (to the bottom of each one, except the very bottom one) and making the lid. This project went down very well - I got it out of the Docrafts Creativity mag, and just utilised my ideas to save time and money - the strips were on offer and only cost me £3 for the pack of 100.
For June, we went back to using shaped card blanks - this time using butterflies, shoes, bags and fans as well as shirts for the Men. Not as good as the last one we did (where the Craftwork blanks were a treat) but still a very pleasant evening.
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
The next Year - 2007 - and our Birthday!!
Fresh from Christmas, we were trying to sort out a plan for the next few months. What did we have a lot of, that we could utilise. As we meet at the end of the month, in January we decided to have an Oriental themed card session, using peel-offs and Sakura pens. We made some gorgeous sample cards that we lost. They were found, about 3 months later, in a bag in the boot of Amanda's car... not a good start. So we had to make some more that were not quite as good. I had bought a lovely stamp of a kimono made by Personal Impressions, as well as a small coin image from Anitas for those people who did not do peel-offs. Using various different techniques (stamping/embossing, chalks, colouring with Sakura pens and Pearlescent inks) we had a great evening. I found at Hobbycraft some Daler Rowney Pearlescent Inks, in the most gorgeous colours, that we used to paint images with. They give off a shimmer which is just divine, and they do not take ages to dry, either. They cost £4.50ish, but I still have them now and will continue to do so for quite a while. Expensive, but well worth it. I have bought 8 colours, all bold and bright and just so lovely. I also found from The Works some pearlescent paints, for £2.99 with 12 colours. More watery in effect but still lovely to work with.
In February, we made cards using a Block Decoupage kit I got from QVC. Not the most exciting, but again surprising what others make of what we think is not the best.
In March, we used the afore-mentioned paints to colour in stamped images - showing watercolouring techniques (with pencils, and Marvy Le Plume pens) and the pearly paints for a different effect.
All this time the members are slowly growing, so much so we struggled to get around the new people as much as we would have liked. Indeed, some people only came for one or two meets and then left as quickle as they came. A great shame, but sadly there are only so many ways we can spread ourselves around. I now use my Mother (also pictured) as a host, and salesperson, whilst Amanda and I mingle.
In February, we made cards using a Block Decoupage kit I got from QVC. Not the most exciting, but again surprising what others make of what we think is not the best.
In March, we used the afore-mentioned paints to colour in stamped images - showing watercolouring techniques (with pencils, and Marvy Le Plume pens) and the pearly paints for a different effect.
All this time the members are slowly growing, so much so we struggled to get around the new people as much as we would have liked. Indeed, some people only came for one or two meets and then left as quickle as they came. A great shame, but sadly there are only so many ways we can spread ourselves around. I now use my Mother (also pictured) as a host, and salesperson, whilst Amanda and I mingle.
The next few months.
So, our little club had been up and running for a few months, and we felt under pressure to keep hunting for projects each month. Following on from the very popular handbags, we used acetate. Shaker cards was the next project, followed by glittered acetate. I do like to revisit some core items used in the club, to show everyone that some items are not one-trick-ponies. So we used acetate for shaker cards, with magic motifs and glitter, and also using stamped images, and glitter. Amanda and I had such fun one night really annoying the hell out of my OH, as we laugheed and made such mess. But her gorgeous teddy bear stamp with heart was crying out for chocolate/copper glitter for him, and red/purple glitter for the decorations. Just gorgeous. We have made so many of that design.
Spurred on by our success, and heading towards Christmas, we planned our October and November regular meets, as well as a Funday in November, where we charged £10 for a days crafting. For October we used Dufex toppers - with adhesive stones as accents and permanent pens to colour the image. Our November Funday was a lot of hard work - but only 10 people turned up. Never again. For all the hard work it was not worth it. We did 4 projects - using fabric squares (again decorating with glitter, adhesive stones), Shrink plastic, friendly plastic and a shaped Christmas Card to finish. Very popular with those who did it, but too much work for very little return. Our November project was 'Secret Santa' - where we asked everyone to bring in something wrapped up as a present and we swapped presents. Some people just did not get the idea behind this, and it was not a great success - some people used this as a dumping ground for their unwanted items whereas some others went out and bought cheap little stamps, and embellishments.
The end of our first year - we always have December off (people have much better things to do than to meet up on the last Thursday of December...) and despite me asking, nobody wants to organise a Christmas get-together.
We use November to go to the NEC for the Crafts for Christmas show - always a good day out. It is normally Amanda, her Mum Sheila and me who get up early and make a packed lunch and head off to the NEC to get there for opening at 9.30. It is quite scary to think about what we buy - we sadly now have been making a book of all the things we have so we don't duplicate anything (but we still manage to...).
Spurred on by our success, and heading towards Christmas, we planned our October and November regular meets, as well as a Funday in November, where we charged £10 for a days crafting. For October we used Dufex toppers - with adhesive stones as accents and permanent pens to colour the image. Our November Funday was a lot of hard work - but only 10 people turned up. Never again. For all the hard work it was not worth it. We did 4 projects - using fabric squares (again decorating with glitter, adhesive stones), Shrink plastic, friendly plastic and a shaped Christmas Card to finish. Very popular with those who did it, but too much work for very little return. Our November project was 'Secret Santa' - where we asked everyone to bring in something wrapped up as a present and we swapped presents. Some people just did not get the idea behind this, and it was not a great success - some people used this as a dumping ground for their unwanted items whereas some others went out and bought cheap little stamps, and embellishments.
The end of our first year - we always have December off (people have much better things to do than to meet up on the last Thursday of December...) and despite me asking, nobody wants to organise a Christmas get-together.
We use November to go to the NEC for the Crafts for Christmas show - always a good day out. It is normally Amanda, her Mum Sheila and me who get up early and make a packed lunch and head off to the NEC to get there for opening at 9.30. It is quite scary to think about what we buy - we sadly now have been making a book of all the things we have so we don't duplicate anything (but we still manage to...).
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Craft Club projects - aperture cards, magic motifs and shaped cards
Well, feeling high on the first successful few meets, we then started to plan for the rest of the year. We joined the craftwork cards club, and got inspiration from the gorgeous range and quality of their card blanks. We decided to utilise things that we did not use alot of, in order to use up our leftover things as well as forcing ourselves to look outside of our comfort zone. My style of cardmaking is quite simplistic - an image, matted and layered. So we bought some aperture cards and acetate squares (from eBay) and played with making shaker cards, and also just simply using stickers on the window. I loved the baby boy card (pictured). So simple and quick to make. The shaker cards were quite difficult for the beginners to make, but they got there.
The next month, we used magic motifs with glitter, flock, foils and micro-beads. Great fun. But we had to find the hoover!!!!! I love using magic motifs - they are so detailed, and look super with the different materials - I just love using foils - I had bought the tonertex foil set from QVC and NOT used it in 3 years so this gave me an opportunity to play!!!! Some examples of these cards are shown in the blog!
The craftwork cards handbag blanks gave us the idea to use them one month, but the cost was too much - so we gave out one craftwork card blank, and a handmade handbag blank which we took from a Hobbycraft leaflet (basically, from an ordinary card crease at the top, mark two cms in both sides and cut the card so that the folded length was 4 cms shorter than the bottom - then round off the corners at the bottom and add on top a shaped piece of card to act as a flap (DS tape at top, 3d foam at bottom) same top length, and with bottom corners rounded - you could use a length of pearls, or wire, or fibres/ribbons as a handle). This project was extremely popular - everyone loves their bags, and the handmade blank was not too bad - it enabled the ladies to customise it with papers, and stamped images, jewels and ribbons. We used the DCWV floral stack to complement the cards.
The next month, we used magic motifs with glitter, flock, foils and micro-beads. Great fun. But we had to find the hoover!!!!! I love using magic motifs - they are so detailed, and look super with the different materials - I just love using foils - I had bought the tonertex foil set from QVC and NOT used it in 3 years so this gave me an opportunity to play!!!! Some examples of these cards are shown in the blog!
The craftwork cards handbag blanks gave us the idea to use them one month, but the cost was too much - so we gave out one craftwork card blank, and a handmade handbag blank which we took from a Hobbycraft leaflet (basically, from an ordinary card crease at the top, mark two cms in both sides and cut the card so that the folded length was 4 cms shorter than the bottom - then round off the corners at the bottom and add on top a shaped piece of card to act as a flap (DS tape at top, 3d foam at bottom) same top length, and with bottom corners rounded - you could use a length of pearls, or wire, or fibres/ribbons as a handle). This project was extremely popular - everyone loves their bags, and the handmade blank was not too bad - it enabled the ladies to customise it with papers, and stamped images, jewels and ribbons. We used the DCWV floral stack to complement the cards.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Projects for Craft Club - first 3 months
So, for the first project, everyone was given white and yellow card, floral embellishments and daisy ribbon. Everyone had the same stuff given to them - it was up to them what they made with it - it was amazing to see what everyone had done with it. As that happened 2 years ago, it will have to be left to your imagination as to what they had and what they made. It wa suggested to me to get everyone to bring in a favourite card, or one they had made using their favourite technique. As we had some complete beginners that was not an option.
After that meeting, we had the NEC Hobbycrafts show, so Amanda and I trawled the stands to find goodies for projects - and with so many people there, it needed to be something that did not require everyone wanting to use one piece of equipment and having queues everywhere. So we bought some fabric squares from pinflair, with glue and cardboard. There was musical material, and also seaside material, so we could make cards for Father's Day. Again, people's imagination was fantastic to see and someone always managed to do something we had never thought of. From having frayed edges to separating the golden threads to layer on top of the design it was just inspiring (and we were supposed to be the ones doing the inspiring!). If I find the samples or some spare material I will post it on here but again, don't hold your breath.
We then found whilst trawling through some websites that there were some free downloads of templates for stitching cards - well spirelli was something I had done before but I had not thought it would take up a whole evening so we used stitching card templates - bought metallic threads and needles for everyone (and plasters!) and this went down not quite as well, as the hole pricking was quite time consuming - but I had after that someone who was a spirelli-lover from not having done it before and the templates were very pretty (though not used since.....).....
After that meeting, we had the NEC Hobbycrafts show, so Amanda and I trawled the stands to find goodies for projects - and with so many people there, it needed to be something that did not require everyone wanting to use one piece of equipment and having queues everywhere. So we bought some fabric squares from pinflair, with glue and cardboard. There was musical material, and also seaside material, so we could make cards for Father's Day. Again, people's imagination was fantastic to see and someone always managed to do something we had never thought of. From having frayed edges to separating the golden threads to layer on top of the design it was just inspiring (and we were supposed to be the ones doing the inspiring!). If I find the samples or some spare material I will post it on here but again, don't hold your breath.
We then found whilst trawling through some websites that there were some free downloads of templates for stitching cards - well spirelli was something I had done before but I had not thought it would take up a whole evening so we used stitching card templates - bought metallic threads and needles for everyone (and plasters!) and this went down not quite as well, as the hole pricking was quite time consuming - but I had after that someone who was a spirelli-lover from not having done it before and the templates were very pretty (though not used since.....).....
Starting craft club
I can't believe it is 2 whole years since our first craft club meet... I started to organize this with my best friend Amanda, who lives next door - she is a mega keen crafter (verging on obsessive but hey, who isn't). As Amanda has had her garage converted to a craft studio, we normally meet up in there, with a bottle of wine (or two) and by the end of the evening nothing is on straight and we are normally in fits of giggles. We listen to Late Night Love on local radio, and if nothing is done by 9 o'clock we are stuffed. Well, Amanda makes cards and had done for a few years, whereas I was still a beginner, having only started whilst off work for a few months. We decided, as selling cards at school fairs was not doing too well, to start a local club - as on the docrafts forum and topaz crafts forum I had noticed some local ladies who had asked if there was any clubs in the area. So we started one. Luckily, my OH was Chairman of the local Cricket Club, so we had a cheap venue - all we needed was to advertise and plan the first few meetings. We were expecting about 10-12 ladies to turn up, but were amazed when we had nearer 20 ladies, of mixed abilities. Some total beginners who turned up to support me (and still come now!) and lots of now very good friends. I will post on here some of the projects that we have done - some easier than others. Do feel free to use the ideas if you run a club - and contact me if you want to.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Blogarama
Wow... can't believe I have started my very own blog! I will start by talking about me for a mo, I am Julie (known as Julie G or Jools to my friends) - aged mid 30's (and I mean mid, not late!) and I live with Ian, and we have 2 boys, Matthew aged 8 and Elliott who is 6 and a half. I am slightly mad, and craft for a hobby as well as running a local craft club. I thought I would pu ton here some of the previous projects that we have tackled to help other people who might want to start a club, or just play with papercrafting. Please talk to me, I am not scary (a tad scared, maybe, of all this).
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