Carers Leeds October Demo

This wednesday I managed to sneak out of work to go to the Carers Leeds afternoon cafe. This months project was christmas using Craftwork Cards Christmas Warren collection. The cafe was very busy this time with lots of people ready and raring to get some crafting done. As it wasn't myself that had brought the project I had to spend a bit of time setting up some demos to show which gave me a chance to have a chat with some of the carers there. I then showed 3 different demos using the kits. I was a bit of a challenge as I could only use what was in the kit where as at home I've got lots of little bits and bobs to use to finish the cards off and a lot more time! They seemed pleased with the inspiration and a lot of cards got made which was wonderful. Its amazing what you can cram into an hour and a half when its something your passionate about it. One of the volunteers has taken some photographs of the events so hopefully they will be in the newsletter and on their Facebook page soon. After having a discussion with one of the staff there they have asked me to become an official Carers Leeds volunteer which is brilliant. It means that I will be involved in the cafes for the whole of 2013, work depending, which is great. 

Busy Weekend Crafting

Ive spent most of the weekend up in the craft room making christmas cards this weekend after having no time at all during the week to even bob my head round the door. I don't normally put my cards on until the end of the month when I also update onto Docrafts but I thought I would share one or two of this weeks creations with you. There seems to be a reindeer theme going on here hmmmm...

Humphreys Corner

This week I've been using the free gift from Simply Cards and Papercraft to make some much needed christmas cards. The gift was a Humphreys Corner decoupage and paper pad with clear gemstones. Its not very often that I buy kits, or that I have time to sit down with them for long enough to make more than a couple of cards, but I decided that I would use the whole kit. It came with 2 copies of  2 designs. As I don't like making cards that are very bulky if I can I only use half of the decoupage layers when I make cards. Usually layer 1,3 and 5 will go on one card and 2,4 and 6 on another. This doesnt work with all images as I have found out in the past due to how they have printed each layer but its a good rule of thumb especially if you dont use expanding envelopes. I now have 8 lovely elephant christmas cards to go towards my card a day challenge and towards the christmas card stash that I have in my cupboard. I have entered the cards into the magazine in the hopes they will print some of the cards and maybe even get a free crafty gift out of it. See what you think.

21st Birthday Card

Well my sore throat has become full blow cold so Ive not been in the craft room much this week. I did however get a chance to make my sister in laws 21st birthday card, mainly because I had to. She had requested that the card had shoes on it for some unknown reason and I knew that I definitely wanted it to say 'Happy 21st'. I used my new shiny pearlised cards that I got from last weekends craft show and used some Louis Vuitton style embellishments to make a very posh looking card. I was worried it maybe a little too grown up and that she might of wanted something abit more fun but she seemed to love it when she opened it up and liked the colours so all was good. I told her she now needs to get her boyfriend to buy the handbag, purse and shoes to match the card which made her laugh. 

Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza

Julie Hickey at the Craftwork Cards stand

Today I have been to The Great Yorkshire Showground at Harrogate for the GNPE organised by Craftwork Cards. I've been looking forward to this event since I walked out the doors of the last one. There are two held a year, usually in March and September/ October, and they really are the highlight of the year. The hall is filled with stalls upon stalls of crafting goodies some of which are at reduced or 'show' prices. As you wander around mesmerised by all the colour, glitter and wonder of it all you will often see familiar faces. Some are faces of demonstrators you have met previously, or seen on television or in the craft magazines, where some are just people who you recognise their face as they attend similar events to yourself. Often I am left scratching my head thinking 'where do I know that person from?' but often it's just that they was at a demo I went to or was perusing the same craft shop. It would be great if I could meet up with some of these people to discuss what is obviously a shared hobby. I've been going for around 4 years now and love it. This time in particular some of the stalls had new companies that I had not seen before so it was nice to have some fresh ideas and some great bargains. Most stalls don't mind you taking photos of their samples but I usually ask first just to be polite. Unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures as I was planning to because as soon as I got in there I just wanted to shop. Well my first stop actually was straight to the loo as its a running joke with my best friend that I always need the loo when we are queuing to get in. I think it must be all the excitement. This morning at about 1.30am I turned to my boyfriend and said 'I cants sleep...it's like christmas'. It really is. I struggle to find what I want and need for my crafting at local shops and have travelled quite some distance to visit shops which have different stock to my locals. I am not an online shopper so I have to visit the bricks and mortar stores which is why the shows so great as they are all in one place. For those that know me... no I didn't buy any candi... but yes I did buy promarkers. I also bit the bullet and bought some Tim Holtz Distress inks and a brayer. I have had a try before and it went ok but not as good as I had hoped. Now I have the right tools I'm hoping with a little practice I can get the results I want. I will put some pictures on when I get to have a play with these. All good fun. xxx

Happy World Cardmaking Day

Today is World Cardmaking Day. It is an event which occurs every 1st saturday in october and has been going on for 7 years now. This is a day for card makers all over the world to celebrate the creativity of handmade cards and to share with others this fantastic hobby. My intention was to enjoy a full day of crafting and surfing the net for inspiration as I knew there would be alot of events on through out the crafting community to celebrate the day. What happened instead is this......

My craft room was completely emptied and the carpet stripped out of it for a different one. I say different as its new to the room but not brand new. The reason being that my chair has been damaging the carpet underneath and had started to come away so I needed a better surface as it is where I craft.

This in turn created this in my bedroom .....

Complete chaos. You can tell your self time and time again 'I dont have that much craft stuff' but trust me when you have to empty the entire contents of your craft room into your sleeping quarters its alittle hard to deny that there really is alot of stuff there. I was alittle worried what my partner might think as he would get a clearer picture of exactly what stuff I do have so I did as much loading and unloading as I could to keep the true picture of my obsession under wraps.

The end result has been that I have not managed to make any cards today :-(. However....tomorrow is GNPE; Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza so I am super excited for that. I cant wait to see all the stands, take pictures of the amazing inspiration, chat with fellow crafters, stroke the gorgeous papers and buy copious amounts of card candi which I dont need. I do however after todays experience wonder exactly where any of these new purchases may go as the room is full to bursting now I have put everything back in but hey ho thats half the fun.

September Cards

After realising on wednesday that I had only made one card this month I realised I needed to step it up. Using the last few days of my work leave I have been crafting away frantically in my little craft room trying to churn out as many cards as I can. My main goal was to increase the amount of christmas cards I had in stock as I hadn't managed to make all the cards that I will need yet and my partners mum is wanting me to make most of hers this year as well. With the shops kicking into christmas mode I need to get some made and show her so she's not tempted by the high street. It's so hard to compete with the ridiculously low prices of the christmas multipacks. I was in a wholesalers the other day and looking at the images on the cards to replicate it would of cost a couple of pounds per card and they were wanting £2 for a pack of 10! I have managed to up my monthly total from 1 to a massive 28 which I am very pleased with. This also goes towards my challenge of a card a day. Due to illness I am still massively behind but this has helped me catch up a little. At last count I have made 207 cards so far this year. There's still a long way to go but it is still possible. I'm pleased to say that not one of the cards have felt like a chore either. Sometimes if I am working to a target or deadline it can take a bit of the fun out of it but I have thoroughly enjoyed myself this week. I have started uploading the cards onto Docrafts under lexon5 and below are a few of my favourites.

Gorgeous Gorjuss girl christmas card using Santoro toppers. 

This has got to be the most grown up and posh card I have ever made. I almost cried as I cut into the seasons greetings backing card. It is pearlised, embossed and expensive. The kind of thing I have lots of but never use and instead keep it all nice and neat in a pretty folder for the sole purpose of drooling over. Yes I am a self confessed paper stroker but I am very pleased with the outcome of this card. 

This is a selection of Lili Of The Valley christmas cards that I have made. I absolutely love the James Bear character as you can see I have both the toppers and stamps for this cute little guy.