Monday 26 November 2012

The Results Are In...

...for the Christmas decoration competition. But you will have to wait till Wednesday to find out who has won and who is runner up!!  Also this week is our final Wednesday workshop of 2012 (Don't forget the Saturday workshop on Dec 8th) and as is traditional we will be giving out our Annual crafting awards.

We also need to celebrate our 6th Birthday as we didn't get chance with the move to the Scout Hut last workshop. And of course we will be running our Christmas Charity Raffle so don't forget your pennies and your prizes. If you would like to nominate a charity please also let us know otherwise we do have a couple in mind already.

Even with all that going on we still plan to make time for some last minute Christmas crafting. Yes you've guessed it - speedcrafting!! We started the year with it and we know you loved it so much we thought we would end the year with a festive version! Should be a good way to finish those last few hand crafted cards that you really must get sent out before the last posting dates.

See you all on Wednesday.

Claire

Friday 16 November 2012

Christmas Decorations galore


First of all a big well done to everyone who entered the Christmas decoration competition. It was fascinating to see what amazing creativity you all have. All the decorations below began life as a household object. They have had all manner of crafty bits added to them. They have been collaged, folded, painted, glittered, glued etc and now have a new lease of life as Christmas decorations!!

1. Angel - made using bubble bath container, pan scourer and bottle tops

2. Green decoration - made from plastic bowl

3. Red and green decoration - made from ribbon reel

 
4. Angel - made using a wooden spoon

5. Garland - made from toilet roll tubes and napkins
Close up of garland 5.(above)
6. Handprint Wreath - made on a polystyrene pizza base

7. Christmas tree - made out of pages from Sunday supplement magazine

We'll be announcing a winner and runner-up at the next workshop on 28th November.

Our temporary move to the Scout Hut on 14th November proved to be very successful and all went very smoothly. Thank you to everyone who helped us to set up and tidy away. Your support was really appreciated.


Thanks to our efficient set up and prompt start we got a lot done on Wednesday. Kay's kitchen roll snowflakes went down a treat, even if there were some messy "glitter girls" on her table! I still don't think it is possible to glitter without creating mess anyway. I just hope the floor wasn't too messy the following morning for polling day! I'm sure we had used all colours of glitter so we didn't favour any one candidate!! (even if it only looks like two were represented from the photo below!)


The paper Finnish stars and 3D snowflakes were less messy, but perhaps slightly more intricate. Some good results were achieved all round with these too.



For demo notes on Finnish star click here.



For demo notes on the 3D snowflake click here.


And one or two Gingerbread men sneaked in along the way too!

You might all be interested to know too that we are featured on the Christmas Pie Crafts blog today! You may remember some time ago I sent you a link to Jill's blog when she was running a competition for World Cardmaking Day. (I entered a couple of my floral design cards and won a prize!) After that Jill invited me to be a Friday guest blogger. So have a read and see if you recognise any of your handiwork on the photos!

Less than two weeks to our next workshop. Details will be revealed soon, but don't forget to bring your charity raffle prizes.

See you then.

Sunday 11 November 2012

Dib dib dib!!!

Well a change of venue and time for this week's extra November workshop - the Scout Hut in Ashtead 8.30 till 10.30pm (where we have done our Saturday workshops previously). We will be making Christmas decorations this week - three variations on a Christmas star/snowflake theme. Please bring any kitchen roll tubes you may have for Kay's demo.



Plus the Cuttlebug and dies will be available to make simple cut-out or 3D decorations.


Dob dob dob - till Wednesday!!


Wednesday 7 November 2012

Christmas Gift workshop and lots of Christmas Pop-up cards!!


Our next Saturday workshop is coming up soon - December 8th to be precise. This time we will be making crafty Christmas gifts and decorations. Christmas decoration projects available include wreaths, table decorations and tree decorations. Gift projects include notelet sets, coordinating notepad and pen sets, altered table mats and laminated organiser charts.

Workshop Cost: Half Day (10am-1pm or 1pm-4pm) - £6 Members, £7 Non-Members Full Day (10am-4pm) - £10 Members, £12 Non-members

As always, project costs vary and will be charged for in addition to the workshop costs above.

We are now taking bookings so please contact us for more information if you are interested.


Our last workshop was not so much a crafting session as a card engineering workshop with our pop-up Christmas cards! Some of the designs tested the old grey matter, but some very successful results were produced. For demo notes and reminders on the techniques, click on the links below.

By Penny
By Mary - front of card
By Mary - inside card
The presents in this card are made from strips of patterned card. For dimensions of card strips click here.

By Brenda
For notes on how to make this two tiered 3D tree click here.

By Rachael
To link to Robert Sabuda's template for this card click here.

And who is this mysterious green haired lady?!!
To link to instructions for creating this pop up card click here. (N.B. this link is for a pop up flower card but can be adapted as Michelle did for the snowflake version.)

And finally don't forget:
  • to bring your Christmas decoration entry to the workshop on 14th November
  • to start collecting items for our Charity Christmas Raffle on 28th November (you can bring them either on 14th or 28th)
  • to check your diaries for the Christmas meal at the Woodman on Wed. December 12th and bring £5 deposit to the next workshop