Making an Origami Box In Craft group Warrington

Hi Everyone

 Just a quick post to say thank you to all the lovely ladies who came along to the crafty friends craft meetup in Lowton, Warrington today.
We all had a lovely morning ,chatting,crafting and swapping ideas.
Our group is for all sorts of crafts from papercafts to knitting,quilting,jewellery making and so much more.

This morning I did a CRAFT ALONG showing how to make origami paper boxes which I just love making. You can do so much with a box, dress it, and decorate it in 1001 ways.

The ladies who joined in where really pleased with their end result, and no doubt there home will have many boxes in different rooms.
Come on ladies let me have some phtographs of all the boxes you will now be making..................

Below are the boxes I made as samples for this mornings session ,and do hope you like them.They are perfect for all sorts of storage, from favours, to keeping you earings or small crafty bits and pieces in.

 Below are the boxes in close up ,the white box has beem embossed using embossing folders, and the top has been decorated with faux pearls and paper spiral roses, and edged in irridescent glitter.
The sides have been finished off with sheer oranza ribbon, and a co ordinating green faux mini buckle.

 The next 3 boxes I have decorated using the STAMPIN UP SECRET GARDEN STAMP SET which I usesd in a variation of ways from stamping with my stampin up ink pads in a selction of the most up to date colours.I have heat embossed the silver and pink box ,but it is the same flower that is in the set.

This stamp set is such a useful set, and you can do so much with it.
You can even get the matching dies  which cut out the stamped images for you which is fantastic if you stuggle with cutting out small bits.

If you come along to the group and would like to see these stamps please just ask and of course you can have a try out with them.I know you will be so impressed withese stamps.

Hope to put another post up within the next couple of days so don't forget visit us again in the near future.
Take care and speak soon.

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

 

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

Mothers Day-Cards & Boxes

Hi All


Hope everyone has enjoyed the bit of sunshine we have had in the north west of England today.
Doesn't it cheer you up to see the sun shining in the sky.
Perhaps we actually do have spring on its way ,so keep your fingers crossed.

While out shopping I noticed the shops full of mothers day cards ,and all of a sudden I remembered that I had promised my son that I would make a card and gift for his partner.They have just had there first baby,my first granchild and he wanted a special card made from her.

So once I was home I got to making them for him .I decided on a 5 x7 card  as I wanted to personalised it using my new Stampin Up lovely letters alphabet and needed quite a bit of space.To this I added a cute owl ribbon which was from my craft stash.I have been using a lot of the embossing folders especially with the white card as it gives such a clean look to projects and used this on my background of the card.

I wanted the card to have a special feel to it so made a co odinating box.I used the Stampin up stamp field of flowers  to decorate the box, which is one of my favourites.I further embellished the box with a full fluffy satin ribbon bow.Do hope he likes it ,but he likes anything that is handcrafted so that is a big bonus.
I have a picture below and do hope you like it.

Do hope that you have been joining me on my blogging journey,I would love you to leave a comment just so I know I am not waffling to myself.

Take Care and speak soon.

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

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.

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..........