Christmas is around the corner...

...ninety-one days to go in fact! So we will be beginning our Christmas crafting with a decorations workshop. On offer this month will be a selection of activities including Christmas mini canvases - decorate them using acrylic paints, a sprinkle of glitter and decorative papers or a combination of all. Make a mini picture, a hanging canvas for the tree or a Countdown to Christmas decoration.

As well as canvases we have a selection of wooden trees, stars and reindeer blanks for you to decorate. They come with a base so they are fee standing. If you really like bling and glitter then you can really go to town on these!

We also have some air drying Fimo clay so you can have a go at making some tree decorations. Try making an impression with natural materials, embossing folders or rubber stamps. The clay is very lightweight when dry, so you could also use your creations to embellish your cards.

Don't forget your Heat It challenge cards and if you were the person who made this card please let us know so you can have your free workshop!

Ink and Paper Collages

It's the end of the month already and the next workshop is fast approaching. As it is half term please let us know if you are not able to attend this month as we know a few of you may be away (have to put my hand up here too!) Michelle and Kay will be demoing two different types of collage this month.

Michelle will be showing you how to do a collage inking technique to create a background, known as "bokeh". Originally a photography term, Wikipedia defines "bokeh" as follows:

1. In photography, bokeh (Originally /ˈboʊkɛ/, /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay — also sometimes pronounced as /ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə, Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light".

Kay will be showing you how to create paper collage designs using cut outs or torn paper from old magazines. (Be careful how you position your punches when cutting out from magazines though ;-) !!)

Don't forget that your 3D celebration card challenge entries are due in this month too. 

With regard to the Summer competition that we normally run and have judged at Village Day - don't panic! You haven't missed anything and you don't need to prepare this year. We have decided that we are going to do something a little different! Inspired by our "Great British Make-off Awards" we have decided to do our own version of a "Technical Challenge". So you will receive your instructions (demo) and your competition entry will be made and judged during our June workshop so we can look at the whole process and see how you interpret the techniques. We also want to encourage everyone to participate. The winner will still win back their membership and the runners up will win crafty prizes. More details will be revealed soon...