Saturday 29 May 2010

Pro Markers and Digital Stamping Info

The Pro Markers we tried out on Wednesday with our rubber stamped images proved to be a big hit with lots of you and Michelle will be placing an order very soon, for those of you who wanted your own. Don't forget to let us know if you have any swapsies!

For those of you who wanted the info on Digital Stamping websites, and for those of you who weren't there or didn't get the printed handout, I have managed, with the help of my techie hubby, to put the file online. Click here to access it, then you should be able to click on the web addresses to access the digi stamping sites. Don't forget to read the angel policies.

The funny greetings in text boxes did not come out with the correct formatting using this method, so I have decided it is easier to email this file to you and then you can save it to your own PC and re format it as you wish. I've included a few instructions on there for altering text boxes too.

We have started sorting cards for sale at Village Day so if you still plan to send us your cards for sale, please let us have them as soon as possible so we can be organised before the day. Hope to see as many of you as possible - Saturday 12th June!!!

Monday 24 May 2010

Funny Men

Lots of updates and reminders in this post, so here goes...

Firstly the focus for our workshop on Wednesday is Funny Men's Cards - at the request of Karen W. With Father's Day around the corner and football fever about to hit, we thought now would be a good time to fit this one in. We will have a whole range of rubber stamps available for you to try out, and we are also going to be going hi-tech and introducing you to Digital Stamping. We are planning to try colouring with Pro Markers and hopefully will have quite a range of colours if our latest order arrives before Wednesday!

On the Pro Markers note, there are now quite a few of us who own various sets and Michelle would like to set up a Swapsies Club, as she is finding she has a few colours doubled up. If you are interested, you might like to print yourself out a chart to keep a record of which colours you have and see how many more you need!! Click here to find a blank chart for colouring in your marker colours and let us know if you have Swapsies.

Other things to remember for Wednesday include:
  • Stamps and stamped images for the catalogue if you haven't already returned them.

  • Think about whether you need any more plastic boxes - any size as we are about to do a mixed order. Prices should be similar to last time but we will confirm on Wednesday.

  • Membership Pack Competition Cards - last chance to bring these before judging at Village Day.

  • Cards for sale on the stall at Village Day. Please make sure they are all in cello bags, with envelopes, and with your membership number clearly marked on a sticker. It also helps us a lot if they are already categorised by event. Cards will be sold for £2 or three for £5, unless otherwise priced.

  • Challenge cards - on an anniversary theme to be sold at Village Day. (If you need to know more about anniversaries, check out Linda Bradley's web site here.)

  • Cards to donate to Sarah M's son who is selling cards at Village Day to raise money for Scouts.

  • ...and obviously a very big bag if you are bringing all of the above!!

Just a couple more things. The raffle last month for Adam's Appeal raised £62, which Gabby will very kindly pass on to Adam's parents. Gabby and Carole have both been very active in their fundraising over the last couple of weeks. For more information and updates on Adam's Appeal click here.

And lastly on a celebrity crafting note, Michelle will be attending a PartiCraft all day workshop (run by Create and Craft Star, Sue Wilson) and she is happy to share lifts with anyone who would like to go. Visit the PartiCraft blog for more info.

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Busy, busy, busy.

Well it has been a jam-packed crafty couple of weeks for the two of us. Since the last post we have had our monthly meeting in Ashtead, one of our Saturday all day workshops, the Tadworth meeting on Monday and, that same day Michelle also ran a Brownie craft workshop (34 Brownies no less!) and a Girl Guide workshop! If we're not careful we might start getting crafty withdrawal symptoms before our next workshop!!

Anyway here are some piccies from the messy, inky Ashtead workshop in April. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and some fantastic backgrounds and cards were produced.

Chris and Mary's cards (above) were created using the Glimmer Mists technique, demonstrated expertly by Kay. Thank you Kay for being so creative and organised with your demo, as always!

Michelle brought along lots of her Particraft stamp sets and showed how to create your own amazing backgrounds using distress inks combined with the stamped images, in a collage effect. The backgrounds above were designed by Linda B. and Penny, and the wine card was created by Claire W. The stamp sets proved to be very popular and featured on some of the candles created at the Saturday workshop too.

Our third demo was using ink brayers and some of our background stamps in combination with Versamark/Perfect Medium stamp pads to create the resist, and Big and Juicy pads to add colour. Kay P. and Jackie's backgrounds are modelling this above! The ladies and gentleman at Tadworth also enjoyed this technique this month.

We had a few familiar faces attending our Saturday workshop as well as a few new faces and a sprinkling of junior crafters! The Fimo tea lights proved popular with all ages, as did the hand stamped candles. (see below)

Tea light designs by Grace, Sarah and Olly.

Candle designs by Monica and Linda W.

If you missed out on the Saturday workshop, then put the date of our second Saturday workshop in your diary now - Saturday September 11th.

Hope you are all busy getting your Competition cards ready and your cards for sale at Village Day. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to help already. It is a fun day out and we do always have a bit of giggle on the stall!!

Happy crafting!