Bean Sidhe

Because we've been busy with our fruit harvest and making all the preserves, I've not done much papercrafting.

This batch of plain cards is the most I've managed recently.

This is the new crochet shawl pattern I've made.  The photo's not too good tho'.

Zoë, our local Stampin' Up Demonstrator teamed up today with her colleage Emma to do another of their brilliant craft days.  We had a lovely lunch and made 6 items to take home.  I need to add a few gems and a bit of glitter here and there on mine still but even as they are, I'm very pleased with our days work and it was great fun too!

This is a domino pendant but the photo's got too much reflection to show it properly.

Noooooooooooooo, don't be silly, not THAT sort of kissing - but stamping kissing.

Last night, at Craft Club, Zoë did the project.  She had organised (and when I say ORGANISED I mean just that, wow girl, you really got your act together) a demo of different stamping techniques.

Zoe's a Stampin' Up demostrator - you can see the FULL catalogue and  MINI catalogues by using these links and on Zoe's own site.

We learnt how to kiss AND how to kiss with a twist - see her tutorial here.  You can find the stamps and materials used in the Stampin' Up main and mini catalogues - any queries or orders, go to Zoe's site.

KISSING

For this card she used the

Flower Accent Stamp (see mini catalogue page 22

and

flourish background stamp, mini catalgue page 23.

Here's my version - yes, ok, it's NOT like the sample Zoë made - but never mind.

Meet Fergal  (Fergal the Pheasant that is) - make your own ink pad

 This technique demonstrated using re-inkers and felt to make your own stamp - hence, Fergal is multicoloured (as any self respecting pheasant would be). 

Stamps used - Autumn Days, page 45 of the Main Catalogue.

 - again, it's not as per her demo piece.

Heat N Stick

This product overcomes the problem of trying to stick glitter onto your card so that it STAYS on the card.  You cover you image using an embossing pad (e.g. Versamark) or, if you just want to glitter detail, using an embossing pen.

You apply the Heat & Stick Powder which you heat using your heat gun (similar to using embossing powder) - it goes tacky (don't overheat tho').

Sprinkle fine glitter over the area on which you've used the embossing pad or ink and heat for a short time, this fixes the glitter onto your card.

Stamps used - Silent Night - page 20 of main catalogue.

 ...no surprises, it's not as per Zoe's demo!

Double Stamping

I didn't do this project (what do you mean, I was talking too much)? 

The stamp used for this was - A Rose is a Rose - page 44 of the main catalogue.  You will see there are two versions of the elements, which facilitate the double stamping.

Something Sweet

This is a really novel project which has a slider when, pulled out, releases little sweets!  I didn't do one of these myself but you can see it on Page 8 and 9 of the mini catalogue.

See Zoe's blog here.

So, a hearty THANK YOU to Zoe.

Charity Stall

Yes, I'm still doing stuff for the charity stall.

Firstly, I've done some wee trinket boxes.  They are very small, about 1.5 inches across but I thought they'd be nice for jewellery and other bits and bobs.  I've coloured them using Lumiere Paints, which give a lovely sheen.

They are pre-made, compressed cardboard boxes, so I can't take credit for making the base box.

Here are the finished ones.

Decorated Candles

I need to 'dress' these up with some nice cello paper and ribbons but these are the base candles.  I've applied the images by stamping onto tissue paper and then melting it onto the candle.

The stamps are from Crafty Individuals.

Cookery       

Some of the family visited for the day - part of the meal was a birthday cake (coffee and walnut) for our brother in law.

......... and the pudding (very easy to make) Mille Fueille (strawberry) YUM

Before and After

Well, harvest time is here and the redcurrants have cropped well again.  We bought a new piece of kit to speed up the juicing process and it's a great success.  The first thing we made was redcurrant cordial.

Before

After

Of course I had to make a pie as well!

Under the weather

I was out of action for a while with an upset tummy.

Here are some of the get wells I received

Rita sent this one  - very elegant

Sam sent this one

And Christa sent this one

I also got lovely flowers from the Art Group and Craft Club members.  Thank you all.

Craft Club

Barbara is having her craft room refurbished so last night we both worked on some charity cards for a stall next month.

We used a combination of Crafty Individuals images and some Stampin' Up stamps and punches and a Martha Stewart Punch plus other miscellaneous bits and bobs.

Here are the ones Barbara made

And hereare the ones I made

We were quite pleased with them.

On the Time for Crafting Forum we had a slide mailer swap.

Here is my entry.

You can see all the entries here.

We also had a tag/bookmark swap, themed cuisine.

Here's mine

I got this one from Jill in France (pity I can't read French!)

Did these cards today.  I've used my Stampin' up stamps for the images.  The blue on is all Stampin' up products.  Not my usual style but I'm quite pleased with them.  If you are interested in Stampin' Up products, you can get some here.  When I first saw the stamps, I thought they were a bit pricey but I have to say, now that I've used them, they are the best stamps I've used and the image comes out really well for me.  These were hostess gifts and the best price ever - free!

More hats

This one's similar to one I've already done but it's knitted - the other was crocheted and this one has a pom pom on the top as well as the long dangly bits, which seem to be in vogue just now.

This one reminds me of a night cap.

Craft Club

Last night Zoë did our project (thank you Zoë;).  She's a Stampin' Up demonstrator and brought us some lovely materials to work with.  Check out her blog to see some of her gorgeous stuff.

Of course mine looks nothing like the lovely sample she had brought.  Firstly, it's a bit wonky (well that's usual for me) and secondly, we were supposed to stamp the card BEFORE we stuck the elements together - I forgot that bit so my stamping's a bit haphazard.  I added flowers and leaves instead of cutting out stamped ones as per her example (I think the leaves I've used are a bit too big but never mind eh?)

The stamp set used is SU Greenhouse Garden Set.

Here's the sample.

Here's my effort.

Crochet

I've been looking at the baby hats that seem to be very 'in' just now and made a couple while I lounged about.  Pattern from here.

Golden Wedding Anniversary Card

I used Nestabilities to cut out the ovals (thanks for the loan Dorothy).  The vellum on which the verse is printed has been punched around the edge using a Martha Stewart punch (thanks Barbara).  Isn't it good to have crafty friends?:wink:

Altered Art

I took the topic at our local art group last week.  As I'm not able to do any actual 'art' I spoke about scrap books and memory books.  I took along several examples, one of which was this book in a tin which I'd made as a RAK for a cyber buddy.  I coloured the original silver tin using alcohol inks.  You can see the whole thing here.

Stampin' Up Craft Day

Today, Barbara took me to the Stampin' Up craft day (thank you Barbara).  The event was organised and run by Zoë and Emma (sorry Emma, I don't have a link to your blog as I type).

It was a lovely venue, plenty of room.  The display boards showed a wealth of inspiration for us all.  I was particularly impressed by the folder holding real samples of the papers and ribbons - so nice to see the actual item rather than just a picture.

We were given tea or coffee with home made (still warm would you believe!) biscuits.  The materials we worked with were from the Petal Party kit - plenty of supplies with which to make the day's three projects too!

We spent the morning session getting to know one another (a lovely group of ladies I have to say) and making our easel box.  I tried very hard to be careful and cut it out properly and was quite pleased to find it wasn't too wobbly at the end of the morning.

This is the result of the morning's work (I don't think they are all here but this is most of them).  Mine's front row, third from the left.

After lunch (which was delicious!) we made a mini-book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I finished this off at home as I'd added extra pages and although we'd been given ample card, paper, stickers etc, I was trying hard to preserve my last sheet of coloured card (how mean is that?) and I did the remaining pages using bits and bobs from my stash at home.

Afternoon brought more tea or coffee and the remaining biscuits (yes, there were some left over from the morning believe it or not) we made a little carry box/bag thingy which holds a selection of mini cards.  It would make a lovely gift but I'm not giving mine away - sorry about that folks!  This is one side of it - the other is with the group of three projects below.

And these are the cards I made to go inside.  Quite plain but effective, well I think so.

So, here are all my three projects together and you can see the mini book in full here.

To put the final polish on the day, I came home with a lovely wee stamp set which was part of the day and some gorgeous ribbon, which I won in the raffle. All who attended went home with a lovely gift and/or prize.

So, I've had a great day - many thanks to all concerned.

I have finally reinstalled my Craft Robo.  I haven't had it connected since last year when my machine crashed.

I used these lovely Robo cutting files from Sara's TIME FOR CRAFTING VIP area to which I subscribe - there's loads of stuff on there.

I did these for my son-outlaw's birthday.  I textured the card using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and used matt silver card for the blades.

This HUG for a friend who is in need.  Textured using another of my Cuttlebug Folders and coloured with distress inks and a sheen added using Glimmer Mists.

I've adapted this one (the original is actually a 21 which opens as a card on its own).  The font is gentle plum  from Lettering Delights.

I've made these stepper cards as demo pieces for our craft club for next month.  I've used Stampin' Up card and some odd bits and bobs from my craft stash.  The images are Crafty Individuals from one of their booklets. 

The words on this one are from a Crafty Individuals words stamp.

This is just a little 'get well' card I made for a friend.  I've used my Cuttlebug folders here again.  The colours look a bit odd on this scan but you get the general idea.

The Time for Crafting Forum have regular 'smile' swaps (what better to send out than a nice smile).  This month the theme was resolutions - I've put mine in a wee foldy out booklet.

This is the one I received in return, made by Jill - it's lovely and glistening - I think she's used something called BLINGZ (which I must investigate!)   Thank you Jill.

I was asked to make a child's  loopy cardi (well two actually) by one of the ladies at the craft club.  Now these cardis are lovely when done but they do take quite some time to make and I always seem to end up with sore fingers when I do them - maybe I'm doing it wrong?  This is the first one.  I'm quite pleased with it - I just hope it fits!

Tonight Dorothy hosted a Stampin' Up demo.  Our demonstrator was Monica who did a really good job again  -  thank you Dorothy and Monica.  Dorothy is awaiting eye surgery and so couldn't see as much of the demo as we did but I can promise you, when you get your op over with Dorothy (hope it's soon) you will REALLY enjoy what we did tonight.

We did this 'make 'n' take' which is a little invitation card with a pull out bit.  The scan doesn't really capture it but you get the idea.  I love that sentiment stamp.

Lindsey did the demo at our craft club (thanks Lindsey) and we made a favour box for Valentine's day.  Mine's not as fancy as the demo one and we had a little Magnolia girl to colour in but I'm not too good with the colouring so I used a Crafty Individuals image instead.  You can get the Magnolia stamps in the UK.