Crafting Makes The World go Round

Hi My Crafty Friends

Just a short  sweet post ,just to let you know that I am still in blogland.After quite a few days of glorious sunshine in the North West of the UK we have woke up to such a gloomy day.

It didn't seem to both my little Westy dog, as he just sat in the garden looking up at the skies and watching the rain come down.He just loves loves the rain,but when I tempted him to come back in ,his treat won the day.

Here is my little westy waiting for his treat,doesn't he look so cute?

I haven't done an awful lot of crafting this last week as I am having major problems with my joints so have really had to watch what I am doing.Sleeping has been a nightmare and I have wished I could unscrew my arms ,take them off and put them on in the morning as they have been hurting so much in bed.

I love crafting ,but it can take over so much of your house.
Does anyone else have the same problem?My kitchen table should be called my crafting table as very rarely clear from crafty bits and peices.My other half sat down for his tea last night and said"which bit is my food".

I said don't exagerate your only sharing the table with a couple of my crafty bits.
Not quite true as it is rather full,so today I am going to try and tidy up ,so at least he does not have to share his food with trimmers,paper,punches ribbons and so much more.

Well, I am just waiting for my Stampin Up order to arrive,my little westy frightens the poor delivery guy to death. When my first delivery arrived he was petrified ,he thought I had a huge Alsation dog,but he started laughing when I told him it was a just a little small westy .


Hope you all have a wonderful day whatever you are doing and will speak to you all soon.
Take Care xxx

A Serious Stamping Week-Stampin Up Crafty Projects

Hi Everyone

Hope you are all having a wonderfully relaxing Sunday.I was awakened very early this morning by extremely loud chirping birds in my garden.Every year about this time the birds try their haredst to wake me up extremely early,well they definately did this morning.
I lay in bed wondering do birds speak to each other ,and wondering what language they speak to each other in?

You can see where I am coming from as they travel thousands upon thousands of miles in a year and probably meet birds from many other countries,"yes" I am having one of those deep and mindful mornings.............

Hope you have have managed to get a little crafting in,I know many people have struggled to do this .The reason being the children are still off school as part of the Easter Holidays  in the UK ,some children had two weeks off, and others just the one week off depending where you live in the country.

I have been doing a little crafting ,and have been enjoying using my new crafty STAMPIN UP STASH that was delivered to me last week.I have a had a great time experimenting and trying out new papercafting tecniques.Below are a couple of pictures of the bits I have been working on and do hope you like them.

I also love working with material, and have made a lovely 3D effect picure using LAUARA ASHLEY FABRICS which co ordinately perfectly, and where finished off a with a selection of upcycled buttons.
I love the shabby chic feel and these represent this feel perfectly,so much so that I have 2 similar ones in my bedroom which are lovely as the 3d gives a different look to wall decor.
Here is the one I have just completed.

Just a quick REMINDER out next CRAFTY MEETUP is this Wednesday in Lowton Warrington which is very close to Wigan,St.Helens and is close to the major motorway networks.If you fancy joing us for a morning of craftiness or just to sit and have a coffee and learn new crafting tecqniques ,you would be most welcome to join us.

Our members all love their own style of crafting from paper crafting, crochet,quilting,knitting,jewellery making and many more.

If you have been thinking of starting a new hobby or need to get out and socialise this may be perfect for you .By coming along you may be able to decide which is going to be the perfect craft for you to have a go at. 

CRAFT- A- LONG THIS WEDNESDAY 10TH APRIL

This session we will be looking at making very simple origami boxes which are perfect for all sorts of gifts or even storing small crafty bits and peices.
I have lots of these boxes for gems ,small flowers etc
We will be making origami boxes and if we have enough time going over the  spiral flower tecniques ,which can be used to decorate the boxes.
If you would like to join me in making these, here is you craft Ingredient list for this session.

INGREDIENTS:

*  Card(or substantial paper) cut into squares,not very thick card as we will be doing a lot of folding .

* Scissors,bone folder or ruler if you do not have one 
* A circle template for the spiral roses( I use a plastic cup so anything like this would be fine
* Pencils ,pens to mark the circle
*  Wet glue for the roses(i use tacky glue,but whatever wet glue you you like to work with)Pritt sticks are not ideal for this type of work

If you have a craft tool box you will probably have all these in it,so just bring this along with you and please do not forget to label your items as many craft items are the same and we would hate for them to go missing.

I HAD BEEN making a number of boxes and baskets for the Easter period, and below are a couple which I thought I would show you.They where decorated with a Spring feel to them and where all stamped with the new STAMPIN UP SECRET GARDEN STAMP SET.

If you like this stamp set I will be bringing it along with me so you will be very welcome to use  it as it may be something that you would like to add to your crafty stash.

STAMPIN UP CATALOGUES:

If you have one of my catalogues from the last craft session or have picked one up from me recently,just to let you know I will be placing my order next Thursday. 

***  STAMPIN UP APRIL/MAY SPRING SPECIAL OFFER***

Order items of £35.00 or over and receive 10% off the order

Below is a mini version of the origami boxes that we will be making at the craft meetup in Lowton Warrington.I am working on a display of boxes to bring along on Wednesday for our session so keep checking back as I will have them up by tomorrow evening.

 

Will speak to you all soon,just off to get my lunch and back to making my display boxes.

Do not forget of you have any questions/queries please just contact myself Jackie jackeanne@yahoo.co.uk

or Sue at missdefied17@yahoo.co.uk.

Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday,take care xx

 

Paper Roses And Flowers

Hi Everyone

Hope you are all well and are enjoying the start of the weekend.
Have you all decide to do a little crafting ?
 
Sometimes you need to sit down and have a couple of hoursto yourself crafting and creating ,it can be so de stressing.So if you have the opportunity,or maybe find the opportunity to sit for an hour to do something that you enjoy.
Have a full hour of stamping ,paper crafting jewellery making ,knitting ,crocheting or any other type of craft, and I will guarantee you will feel the benefit of it.

I just want to say what a lovely morning was had last Wednesday the 27th February at our Lowton,Warrington crafty meetup.It was so good to see so many lovely people turn up to enjoy a couple of hours crafting as a group.
The group is growing week by week, and many new friendships are being formed which is so lovely to see.

We are just getting used to the layout of the new venue, so both Sue and I had a little time to get a bit of crafting in before the session finished.

It is wonderful to see such a vast array of crafters joining us we have beaders,knitters crocheters card makers,paper crafters ,parchments crafters.

We also have a lovely young lady who has just started her her own wedding stationery business, which is so inspiring to see.The young lady is called Laura Owen and her business is called Peacock Blue,which is going from strength to strength.
Laura has informed us that she will be adding new products on a regular basis to her newly established website so don't forget to pay her a visit.

This week I did a mini demonstration on how to make paper flower embellishments which can be used for so many crafting projects.

Below is a card sample that I made, and just used one of the simple paper flowers which I demonstrated, and used it to embellish the card.
Very simple ,but very effective,don't you think?

I used the Stampin Up Lace embossing folder for a good proportion of the card, and also decorated the envelope with the same embossing folder .

A small verse was stamped in the corner which was from theSTAMPIN UP Pursuit Of Happiness Clear stamp set.
The rest of the embellishments where from my craty stash,ribbon,lace and diamontes.


 

Below are the samples which I made in all sorts of sizes and in various designs and colours.

 I think most people are generally  surprised as to how easy how easy these where to make.
These where the looped style flowers,but I also made the rolled roses which you can see below along with the rolled rosed with a slightly different way of rolling them up. 

                                  Below are the two lots of rolled paper roses flowers.

I would be interested to know what you think on the flowers, or have you made similar ones and how have they turned out?

A lovely member Kath made beautiful babies embroidered cushion cover for my new garnd daughter, and it was just perfect so a “BIG THANK YOU” to Kath and hope to see you in the our next session.


Well I am off to do my hour of paper crafting, and  sit and destress, and do hope you are all doing the same.

I am planning to do  STAMPIN UP Saturday Session which I will hopefully get to share with you all,so PLEASE WATCH THIS SPACE.

Bye for now 
Jackie

First Week Of Jan 1013 ,Some Of My Craft Projects

Hi Everyone (Jackie here)

Can you believe it ,we have nearly got through the first week January 2013.Doesn't time fly by,especially when you are having fun hee hee .......
Hope the new year has got off to a good start for all my blogg friends, and of course my real life friends.

Has anybody made a new years resolution ?
Perhaps you have, and you have alreay broken it.

I gave up many years ago having new years resolution as it put so much pressure on me ,especially as I had such high expectations of myself.I suppose I am a bit of a perfectionist at things, and if I never achieve the high standards I put on myself it gets me very frustrated, and I think I am a failure.
However since not having set myself such resolutions I seem to be able to get through Christmas and new year a little easier as I know I will not be making high expections every new year.

If you have made one, and you are sticking to it well done to you  all,I admire you all greatly.

Isn't it so dull and grey at the moment(in the uk) it really dampens my mood.Even when you are out shopping no one seems to be smiling ,they all look so glum and down in the dumps.You can probably tell ,I am not a winter person at all, and suffer from SAD .I am looking forward to spring as the days are lighter and maybe a little less grey and miserable.

Rain, Rain go away, was what I was thinking this morning.My little westy dog just doesn't seemed bothered by the rain ,he loves sitting in the garden watching all the birds and cats go by,only when I rattle the fridge door does he bolt in as he thinks it is a treat for him.Below is westy on the prowl when we had to have the drains sorted out in our garden last year.It had been raining non stop ,but he thought it was great fun and even tried to do a bit a digging himself.
HONESTLY does he think he is a dog or something mmmmmm..........?

 

 Well I have been crafting over Christmas and new year, and have been teaching myself new tecniques for paper crafting as well as little bits for many of my other crafty addictions.

I am trying to organise myself for the start of our NEW CRAFT GROUP which we will be starting very shortly.My friend Sue is still helping out her daughter who has just had a new baby baby on Christmas day so it will be good to chat to her again as I have missed our crafty meetups.We had been meeting up in her house for a number of months ,but now we hopefully have out new crafty venue sorted out. which we can all enjoy at the end of January 2013 .

(We now have a new venue sorted out for our meetups in Warrington /Wigan please see full details on top right hand corner of the home page)

Here are a couple of my handcrafted projects ,I did have a lot of photies,but we bought a new computer and I thought I had backed them all up.Alas I have not seemed to have done it correctly and cannot find them anywhere so will have to start all over once again.

I made this cake stand myself, drilled the holes into vintage plates and saucers and attached vintage style supports and handle in a gold colour.

Below is the same cake stand with various handcrafted decorations displayed on it.

The TOP TIER of the cakestand has handcrafted flowers which I made from a magazine that had some free papers with it.I used various colours and some have fancy edges and others have centre beads.They do look really cute on the top of the stand and everyone who comes to my house always has to pick them up as they are wondering how they are made.

The SECOND TIER are gorgeous cup cakes, but not the eating sort.They are scented bathbombs in the shapes of cakes ,they do look so life like you just have to pick them up to have a smell.They where bought for me as a Christmas present and where from a lady who makes handcrafted soaps.

The BOTTOM TIER  has four boxes made by myself in true origami style with no gluing just just folding and creasing.The toppers are little rosettes made on my hougie board and finished of with various embellishements from ribbon bows,stamping and glazing to sprinkled centre beads.

BELOW are pictures of the boxes and flowers in close up .

 

Do hope you have enjoyed a little glimpse of my handcrafted items that I make,they are not hard to make and using up scraps of crad and paper is the perfect way to make great embellishments like these.

I would Love To Hear Your COMMENTS about my blog so why not leave me a message so I don't feel as though I am the only one in blog world .

I will be DEMONSTRATING these type of items at our craft group so if you fancy seeing how they are made why not join us for an afternoon of crafty fun.

If you live in the WIGAN/WARRINGTON or surrounding areas why not join us on a Wednesday morning for a couple of hopurs crafting and socialising.(see where we meet on the top tight hand side of the home page)

If you need any further info just contact us at jackeanne@yahoo.co.uk or missdefied17@yahoo.co.uk and we will always get back to you.

Will chat again soon so nighty night everyone.