Button up!

We had a successful AGM last week - thank you to Karen for hosting and to everyone who attended. I will be emailing the minutes out to you very soon, along with a draft copy of workshops for the year ahead.

Our workshop this week is based around buttons. My demo will be sewing-based cards (however, for both designs above you could get away with the bare minimum of sewing if it is really not your thing.) I will be bringing my sewing machine though, and needles and thread, so be warned!

If you really have a needle phobia, then Michelle will be doing a completely non-sewing option. She will be using buttons to create different designs on cards, using glue/glue dots to attach the buttons.

Feel free to bring any favourite buttons, sewing kits, relevant stamp sets etc.

And don't forget you could use buttons on your mirrors. Here are a couple of ideas for inspiration below...Click on the picture to take you to the relevant web sites.

See you on Wednesday.

Last post for Christmas...

...and 2012. Just wanted to show photos from our Christmas Speedcrafting workshop and our Christmas Gifts workshop. The Speedcrafting was a little more relaxed this time as most people knew what to expect! Techniques included Magic Motifs with foil or glitter, ready made toppers, Cuttlebug cutting and/or embossing and finally a Christmas Zentangle challenge. See below for some examples.

And a big thank you to Kay once again for her superb demo on how to make the Christmas wreaths and table decorations. They proved to be very popular and no doubt will now be brightening a few doorways in and around Ashtead! Here are a couple made at the Saturday workshop. For instructions on how to make the origami flowers click here.

The children had fun too making all sorts of gifts for friends (and for themselves!)

So that's all for 2012.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Looking forward to another crafty year in 2013.

Last minute gifts and decorations.

Just a reminder that our Christmas Gift workshop is happening this Saturday! We still have some spaces available in the morning so please contact us if you would like to come along. Projects include these lovely paper floral wreaths and table decorations, notelet sets, desk organisers with notepads or calendars, Christmas table mats and laminated planners.  The morning session runs from 10 - 1pm and costs £6 for members and £7 for non members. Project costs and lunch are in addition to the workshop costs, but tea, coffee and sweets/biscuits will be provided.

And after that we have a workshop at Tadworth on Monday 10th, then our meal on Wednesday 12th and that will bring 2012 to a crafty close!  

Looking forward to hearing your ideas for projects for 2013 - we have already had some ideas through so keep them coming!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Spring comes early to ACMC!

Well our February floral workshop seems to have worked a little magic on the weather this week - perhaps we are now starting to see signs of Spring after all!

It certainly looked that way in the Ralli Room last Wednesday with snowdrops, roses and chrysanthemums all in full bloom!

Michelle's rose demo (board pictured above) proved to be very popular and this time I remembered to take some piccies of the finished results. The roses featured below were handcrafted by Sheila H. and Sarah M.

For those of you who were not at the workshop, Michelle's PartiCraft friend and colleague Maria has a wonderful tutorial on her blog showing step by step how to make the roses, and she has kindly agreed that we can link to her blog. Click here to go to her tutorial. And do check out the rest of her blog for inspiration as she is a very talented lady!

Thanks also to Chris for her quilling demo. Everyone seemed really involved in what they were doing and some beautiful, delicate designs were produced. Jan especially enjoyed her one to one tuition with Chris (after first making a rose with Michelle!) and discovered she had hidden quilling talents!!

The final floral demo was using our new Nestabilities scalloped circle dies to make either handmade paper floral embellishments, chrysanthemums (see Kay P's card above) or folded 3D Nestie flowers. Apologies to Fenella here - I did take a photo of her completed card but my camera battery died and it didn't save!

One day I will get it right!!

We hope you are all thinking of ideas for cards for the Membership Pack competition. Again for those of you not at the last workshop, we have decided to make the criteria stricter this year. The card design can be on any theme using any techniques you like, but this year you must show that you have used at least three items out of your membership pack. As last year entries will need to be in by the May workshop in time for judging at Village Day. If you have any more questions on this ask us at the next meeting or drop us an email.