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

Beautiful Butterflies-Stampin Up Style

Hi All

Sorry I have not been in blog land for a while,but hopefully you will love what I have to show you today.

Well we have to start with the wheather,thats what us Brits are known for.
It wouldn't be a conversation if the wheather wasn't mentioned.
This morning was lovely and bright, and it really stopped me feeling down in the dumps,but alas this did not continue.This afternoon we saw grey clouds appear ,and it has now started raining.
My little Westy dog has just poked his nose out of the patio doors ,felt the rain reversed,sighed and went to his bed.He does look rather sad now.......Poor Westy dog.......

You may well be wondering why I am mentioning butterflies in the title,well I thought with spring close by, we may well be seeing butterflies in the next couple of weeks.With this being a couple of weeks away my next best thing was to show you the not quite so real butterfly stamps which come from STAMPIN UP.

Although these are not real,they look truly amazing  and are perfect for all your crafty needs The styles are perfect for all sorts of papercrafting ,and with the with the stunning collections of the Stampin Up inks they look amazing in whatever colour they are stamped in.

Below are a number of stamps that are from the main STAMPIN UP  Catalogue page 115,this set has 7 stamps,excellent value for money,great versatlity.
I have used various STAMPIN UP ink colours to give you an idea what they look like when stamped.

A BIG BONUS is that the stamps also have a matching punch which are so easy to use, and they cut out the butterflies perfectly.I personally struggle cutting out perfectly ,but the punches save me having messy edges.

Stampin Ups Swallowtail super large stamp  has the WOW factor,you literally only need this stamp and it fills a card.Decorate with all sorts of mediums from chalks ,water paints ,glitters this stamp gives you great value for money.

If you like the look of these stamps and are close to Warrington why not pop into our crafty friends Craft group this coming Wednesday.The stamps will be out for you to have a look at and for you to have  give them a go.You can see the full address at the top of this page including times.

BELOW is the large Stampin Up SWALLOWTAIL STAMP which is stunning and is a favourite order of many people.I used the Stampin Up ink pad as my water colour palette and I was so pleased with how it turned out.
This stamp is on page 18 of the mini summer STAMPIN UP catalogue and well worth every penny at only £12.95.

Do hope you have enjoyed looking at these beautiful butterflies,they may not be real,but they are gorgeous little beauties and well worth adding to your crafty stash.Butterflies are a crafters dream and I know they are part of many peoples crafty stashes.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend ,and hopefully I will be back mid week to show your the makes from the CRAFTY FRIENDS group this coming Wednesday.

Take care and speak soon.
TTFN

Neil Wittaker-Flowers and More Flowers

Hi All

Sorry I have not updated my blog for quite some time,but you now how it is with life!
As I have said before there never seems enough hours in the day, and just how do you mange the time you do have?

Well today I had some time to myself, and had a brilliant day out with my friend Lynn.
As some of you may know I have been into floristry for many years now.

I love updating my ideas and I find that watching live demonstrations the best way to do this.
I am a visual learner so I was in my element watching all the demonstrations.
I noticed that my local floristry wholesalers where having a floral demonstration on today, and the very talented award winning florist Neil Wittaker was showing off his amazing talents.

Well what a show it was,it didn't go with a bang ,but more of a gust of wind ,and my word horrifc gusts of wind...........
We both arrived expecting the demonstration to be held in the wholesalers itself ,but "OH NO", low and behold, a large Marquee was set up outside.We ventured inside and there where just 5 of us, and lots of empty seats,we where shivering,there was a small heater ,but it was not doing anything as the flaps of the marquee kept on opening up.I think our cold, and snowy, icy weather had put many people off attending as they are usually so well attended.

We all looked like eskimos, all done up in our boots,hats scaves and gloves ,and what made me giggle when Neil had completed a demonstration  we all applauded ,yes, the 5 of us ,but we where all laughing as we all had gloves on ,and you could just hear a faint echo of a clap due to our gloves muffling the sound.

The demonstrations where fantastic, and we both learnt so much from Neil ,lots of hints and tips.We watched for 2 lots of one hour sessions and after that we where just too cold to watch the last demonstration.

We bought a number of bits and pieces to make displays ,we where both really very good and did not spend too much.You could spend ,spend and spend in there.They have such a fantastic assortment of floristry items as well as a full array of of crafting items,including ribbons and more ribbons and stunning home decor items. 

By this time we where cold,hungry and thirsty,so off we went to the family pub across the road to treat ourselves to lunch.We talked and talked and talked as we always do,my other half says when I start talking I can speak forever.Slight exageration ,but I do know what he means haaa haaa.........

So thank you to my friend Lynn for such a lovely day ,and cannot wait for our next meetup.

Below are some pictures for you all of the demonstrations with Neil Wittaker.

As you can see the arrangements where focused on the Easter theme ,but of course the tecniques could easliy be adapted for all sorts of occasions.

Well I am off to get my hot chocolate and to watch the tv in bed, as I am so tired and maybe read some of my new crafting magazines,thats of course if I can keep my eyes open long enough......


Hope you all have a wonderful week, and if you are local to Warrington,don't forget the craft meetup is this Wednesday the 27th March.
Even if you are not local ,you would be most welcome to come along you would be made very welcome.

Take Care
Jackie

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

Anyone For Tea And Paper Roses

Hi All (Jackie Here)

Have you ever typed your little heart out, and then all your writing diasappears ,well that has just happened to me ARGHHH ....... so frustrating.

Think I will definately need a cup of tea, and a bit of relaxing music to destress me now,take a deep breath Jackie and count to ten ...uhmmmmm.

Well our second CRAFTY FRIENDS MEETUP is nearly upon us ,yes, it is this WEDNESDAY 27 TH FEB 2013 .How the last ten days have flown, where have they gone to?
If you know, would you please let me know.

I have had so many new enquiries about our group so it looks like we will have an expanding group this Wednesday.Both Sue and myself  are so happy that there are so many people out there who would like to join us, and we are really looking forward to putting faces to emails and phone calls.

May I say a big thank to Sue for the lovely parchment card she made for myself and family on becoming a grandma to Evie-Grace my first grand child.It was beautiful and I may frame it as it is too lovely to put away in a box somewhere.Below is the card she made and you can see it is beautiful,it was graciously recieved.

This week I will ge giving a mini demo on how to make floral embellishments which do not cost the earth,but at the same time can be so effective, and can be used on so many projetcs.

I will bring along SAMPLES on how I have used them, and this perhaps will give some ideas on how to use them yourselves.
Below is a GENUINE VINTAGE TEACUP SET which I have made into a sweet pincushion, and have embellished with the paper roses which I will be making for you at our next meetup.

In the coming weeks I will be making this TEACUP(see below) as a "CRAFT A LONG SESSION" which I will tell you all about at the meeting and in the blog in the week.

If anyone is interested in making this just let me know, or remind at the group so I can let you have all the information about it.

Our newsletter will hopefully be put together for the 13th March Session,so if anyone knows of any good crafting type shops including wool,materials etc just let us know.
This could also be any good websites, as so many people shop on line these days.
If you could email them over ,or jot them down on a piece of paper for our next meetup we will make sure they are added to the newsletter.

Off to have my lunch now so will speak again soon,but please come back and visit us.
Why not add a comment at the end of this post just so we know we are not talking to ourselves.
 If you would like to add a comment, but are struggling just drop us a line and of course we will always help you.

Take Care

Jackie x

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..........