Nearly Vintage Craft Magazine (2004 Practical Crafts Mag)

Hello Friends new and old   (Jackie here)

Thought I would give you all a bit of a chuckle ,especially as it is nearly a new year.As you may have read I have been crafting for many years now, and have been seriously papercrafting from abput 2004.

This was the year that I thought I would have a go at stamping and heat embossing.Well how things have moved on since then,I used to heat set my powders over the gas ring as I had never heard of heat guns at that point.Where they around then ,I would love to know?

I suppose I am a bit of a hoarder,and have kept the very first craft magazine that I bought in 2004 ,all in tact even with the FREEBIE still attached to the front. I know I am a bit sad ,but I always keep anything to do with crafting.
Below is the magazine itself ,not too sure when it stopped being printed will have to do some research on that one in the next couple of days.

It was the November edition so I suppose I must have bought it for ideas,I am always on the look out for new ideas.How styles have changed from the decorations themselves to the style and the layout of the magazine.

I love the paper cut trees ,I know paper cuts are very much back in at the moment for all special occasions and are very popular for wedding invites.This would have been all done by hand,now all the new cutting cutting machines could do this in a minute or two.How times have moved on in eight years.

Hope you have enjoyed a little bit of nostalgia from the crafting world.I thought this was appropriate with the new year not many hours away.I wonder what the new year holds for the crafting year of 2013.
What do you think will be trendy ,I would love to hear your ideas so why not leave them in the comments box for us to have a look at.

TTFN
And all the very best for 2013 and look forward to chatting soon.

Off to have a go at one of my new cricut cartridges that I got for Christmas ,will post my makes once they are completed.

Sues New Baby(So Baby Crafts Are Needed.)

Hi All  (Jackie Here)

Where you all a bit curious about Sues news? Well the wonderful news is that Sue has a new baby in her family, and NO it is not Sue who has had the baby (I know Sue will be chuckling at this  thought heeee.......)

DAA DAA Sue is now a proud Nannie ,hope that it is what she said she was going to be called ,I am sure Sue will correct me If I am wrong.Sues daughter had a baby girl on Christmas day and weighed in just over 7 lbs sorry to too sure of the metric weight.I hope that Sue will send me over a photograph in the next week or so.
Sue is helping her daughter for a couple of weeeks, and I am sure her daughter will be most grateful for this as new  babies can be hard work.Sues daughter will appreciate mum taking care of new babe for a couple of hours so she can catch up on sleep.Everything always seems a little better when you are not sleep deprived doesn't it?

I have a relative whos birthday is on Christmas day and he has always hated it as he says he gets a raw deal when it comes to pressies ,as his are always the 2 in 1 presents,Christmas and birthday combined.
Mind you ,you just cannot choose when you are going to be born ,can you?

With our Wigan and Warrington craft group starting in the new year, we can now apply ourselves to learning new tecniques for personalised baby gifts.I will have to get my thinking head on for some of the demos which we could link into baby /children gift crafts.

Before I go may I just take this opportunity to congratulate both Sues daughter and partner on the birth of their new baby daughter, and to say congratulations to Sue in becoming a Nannie(check that one for you for next post)

The phone is ringing ,my little Westy is barking his head off at the phone ringing so will say good bye until tomorrow and I am off to answer the phone now.
I know its early,but night night to you all.

JUST A QUICK ONE....
Where you born on Christmas day or know somebody who was ,why not tell us how they feel about it as it would be so interesting to know their feelings about pressies etc..Tell us in the comment box below we would love to hear from you..

Now I am gone..........

Christmas & Handcrafted Decorations 2012

Hi All (Jackie here)

Hope you are all well and fit.Our wheather has been exceptionally rainy over the last couple of weeks,but no doubt we will still have a hosepipe on next summer.We are never happy are we? Either too much rain, or not enough,we cannot win can we?

Sorry for not posting earlier ,but had every intention to ,but you know what it is like in a family ,you always seem to get side tracked by something or other.If you celebrate Christmas I do hope you had a good one  and found some time for yourselves, as Christmas can be such a demanding time for everyone.

My freind came over yesterday and said she was fed up with Christmas already, and is going to take her Decorations down  as they where "doing her head in" her words not mine.She is very neat, and always extremely tidy.
My house always looks lived in with crafts on the dining table ,bits of knitting and crochet hidden under coffee tables ,but that is me.It would be a boring old world if everyone was the same.Saying that the middle of the room does look tidy so that has got to count for something hasn't it?

My decorations will be up until after Christmas and into the new year.I have more of a  reason to keep them up this year, as I decided to make as many of the decoration for the tree and walls  myself.To be honest I have said this for the last couple of years and never got around to it ,but I finally managed it this year.

Below are a sample of what my tree looked like, I made padded hearts,quilted baubles,felt decorations,crochet baubles, large rosette decorations,large centre bow with curled tails  and many more.
I was so pleased with how they turned out, and have had lots of comments how lovely it looks.
One of my friends said my tree looked like it came came from the GARDEN CENTRE CALLED " BENTS".Believe me this is a complement as the Christmas layout in BENTS is astounding , so If you are close to WARRINGTON why not pop in to see for yourself.

The tree with its centre topper on with a gorgeous glittery faux pointsetia and gold ribbon ringlettes.

Here you can see the rosettes ,the crochet bauble,fury pom poms large ribbon roses ,faux pacels with lace and ribbon and segmented card baubles which I stamped and embossed.

Well I am off to to tidy around as we have in laws coming over later, so need to find more places to tidy away all my crafts otherwise they will have to eat sitting on the rug on the living room floor.

Happy Saturday to you all, and will be back later to chat a little more. x

P.S.  Don't forget to call back later as I have a little news about Sue, and how her Christmas went,quite eventful from what I can gather.

Sues Stunning parchment projects

 Hi All (Jackie here)

Sorry for taking so long to get back to our blog ,but you know how it is when you have a family,  plus with the added bonus of all the Christmas preparations.
Today I was in the supermarket and peoples trollies where piled high  as though they where never going to be fed again,my other half said maybe they thought we where having a nucleur fall out.
Tons of loaves of bread  lots of cans of beer and tons of wine, what a combination .
Perhaps a party with just wine ,beer and a slice of bread.,very different or maybe they just likebread, wine and beer all at the same time......
I suppose it takes all sorts to make the world go around and it would be very dull if we where all the same don't you think?


As I mentioned earlier both Sue and I love our crafts, SUE is passionate about her parchment crafting and below above you can see a couple of her cards that she has made .I am sure you will agree they are stunning and the work that goes into them is amazing.Sue loves her parchment crafting and is still trying to get me to have a go ,you never know I may well do in the new so WATCH THIS SPACE..........

Hopefully I should get the hang of blogging in a week or two and would really love you to join us (both Sue and I)  on our crafty meetup journey.
As Vera Lynne once sang We'll meet again,but in our case in the next day or so......
Nighty night to you all and will chat about my crafty ways in the next day or so.... sleep tight. zzzzzzzzzzzz

Welcome To Wigan & Warringtons Crafty Friends

A Little Bit About Us:

The Crafty Friends meetups where set up by Myself Jackie, and my friend Sue.

Sue and I met on  Crafts Forum uk ,and much to our surprise found that we lived only 2 miles away from each other in Lowton,Cheshire,UK which is just down the road from Leigh and Wigan.
I wonder how many times we passed each other in our local supermarket over the years.......

We got chatting by emails to start off with, and then started to chat on the phone.
We  chatted about getting a little local craft group together which would benefit all sorts of crafters.We both new that there where a number of card making classes and groups in the local area ,but nothing for a good mixture of crafts.

So after a couple of weeks we decided to meet up in each others houses until we got a good little group of crafters together.We decided as we where a non profit making group we did not want to jump straight into finding a venue and , so the kitchen table is where we have been for the last six months.

A couple of members crafting and chatting together,Anne making her RAG RUGS and Sue making her collection of BOWS.

 ABOUT THE GROUP:

I (JACKIE) love all sorts of crafts and have been crafting since a was a small girl from making my Barbie dolls clothes, to making textile collages and my own clothes when I was a teenager.Over the years I have got interested in so many other crafts including knitting,crochet,felting,papercafting,floristry jewellery making especially crochet wired jewellery .My other passion is upcycling items from around the house, and from unused items of clothes.Carboot sales and charity shops are just heaven for these types of items.

SUE like myself learnt to craft at a very young age and loves various crafts.She has had a go at all sorts over the years from sewing,knitting,papercrafting and card making.

Sues passion is her Pergamono (parchmant) crafting ,which is absolutely stunning she has such a lot of patience to do this style of crafting as it is son intricate.She has been trying to persuade me to have a go ,but I like quicker projects and parchment crafting is definately not fast,you need so much patience for this craft.
Sues work is lovely and her cards make beautiful pictures to frame after your celebration.


ABOUT THE GROUP:

The group is all about socialising and chattting and crafting and usually a lot of chatting,we can be chatter boxes.There is nothing more rewarding than being in a group of like minded people .
We craft, chat, drink tea ,eat biscuits and then some more chat and a little more chat ,you can see where I am coming from ,can't you.VERY RELAXED AND INFORMAL.

YOU CAN BRING ALONG: 

Well of course yourself that is a must ........

We will be having mini demonstrations of various crafts,but of course you can just bring along your own projects to work on while you sit and chat.

Please could you bring along your essential kit if doing papercrafting .
We will have various  crafting items for you to use ,but we cannot provide things such as glue ,scissors etc  as we just do not have the funds to do this at this present time.

The craft equipment that we will be bringing along are all of our own, until we have enough funds to make up a group selection.We will be bringing along ,big shot ,cuttle bug,dies,fancy edge scissors,stamps ,inks and other bits of crafting equipment.

ABOUT OUR MEETUPS:

After a lot of searching, and a lot of let downs with regards to a venue for our craft group, we have finally secured a lovely venue.It is detailed below with times postcode etc.

The parking is great, and has full access and facilties for disabled people.

Church Lane (Lowton) Community Centre,
 243 Church Lane,
 Lowton,
 Warrington,
 WA3 2RZ

It is on the same row as the Co Op shop and just across the road from the Hare and Hounds Pub in Lowton.

TIME: 10.15 AM -12.30 PM 
 These times are just a guide and it does not matter if you can only make it for the first or last hour the choice is yours.

There is a donation charge of £3.50 per person which will help to cover the costs of the room and also for refreshments.This is a non profit making group, and we do not receive funding from anyone at all.

FIRST MEETUP DATE IN THE ABOVE VENUE :
Wednesday 13TH February 2013

If you would like to join us we would love to see you.
If you are planning on joining us for the session we would be really grateful if you could just let us know as we have to lay out the tables, and have enough refreshments available.

Please email either myself jackeanne@yahoo.co.uk or Sue at missdefied17@yahoo.co.uk 


We are really looking forward to making and meeting new friends so until we meeet ,happy crafty days to you all.
Jackie and Sue