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...).
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