Charming...

At our March workshop we spent our time making charms and beaded items. We were also "charmed" by our youngest ever participant - 3 week old Martha - Katharine's new addition. Massive congratulations to Katharine and family!! Martha was very well behaved throughout and several of you enjoyed your cuddles!!

Whilst not holding the baby, here are some of the things you got up to!!

Jewellery mesh and beaded bracelet

Friendly plastic

Shrink plastic 

Stampbord

Beaded book mark and bag charms

Beaded bookmarks

Earrings

Lots of variety and not a bad evening's work really considering we were a bit distracted!

There were three entries in our "Fold It" challenge which you also found time to vote for on the night. The winner will be announced next month. Sue W (on holiday in the Isle of Wight this month!) was the winner of the Cut It challenge. Well done Sue!

Your new challenge, due in at the April workshop, is "Wear It", in keeping with our jewellery theme.

A

B

C

Marching on...

Can't believe it's the end of March already! Anyway tomorrow's workshop will be a jewellery/beading workshop.

We will be revisiting friendly plastic and shrink plastic techniques - creating brooches, charms or embellishments for your cards and jewellery.

We will also revisit beading techniques with a chance to create beaded bookmarks, bag charms, key rings, pendants and even earrings if you wish!

Looking forward to another productive evening.

Hedgehogs and Hearts

A little family of hedgehogs moved in on our workshop at the end of February! Here are a couple of close ups too...Click here for a video tutorial on folding your own recycled book hedgehog. There is another version here.

Lots of fast and furious folding going on! Here are some of our other projects...

For tree folding instructions click here.

And for this particular heart folding free pattern and tutorial click these links.

For the small heart, butterfly and star click here to link to the Fold Your Own Book ebay page and Facebook page.

And below are your entries for the "Cut It" challenge this month. Don't forget next month's is "Fold It" in keeping with our February demos.

Two new designs for Wednesday...

Mandy has been hard at work this week and has been trying out two other designs for book folding on Wednesday. So we now have the choice of hearts, stars, butterflies, hedgehogs or flowers.

Don't forget your books! (And sharp pencils and rulers if you have your own preferred ones.) And don't forget your "Cut It" challenge projects.

83 folds, minimum number of pages - 166

127 folds, minimum number of pages - 254

Folded book art

Our February workshop is coming up on Wed 24th Feb, so I know I am earlier than normal with the blog, but I want to give you chance to find your perfect books for our book folding demos! 

And yes I know this first project is hearts again, and I know we will be past Valentine's day, but this is a good starter project for following a book folding pattern. We have two alternatives available - the larger heart above or the more petite one below. Mandy and I will be on hand to show you how.

The books used came from Pound Land in Epsom. Also The Works is another possibility for new books. If you prefer to buy from charity shops make sure you check the quality of the pages as if they are too thin they may tear. The larger heart pattern needs a hardback book that has 216 pages minimum and minimum height of 21.5cm. (I used Justine Henin's Biography from the Pound Shop which was 250 pages and height 21cm and it was fine - 6 of these available on the night and you may find more in other Pound Lands) The smaller heart pattern needs a hardback book - minimum height 19cm and minimum 170 pages. The hearts are the more advanced project of the evening and do require measuring before folding. Rulers and sharp pencils will be available but if you prefer to bring your own then please do. We also have several bone folders available for use, but again if you have your own feel free to bring it along.

We do have a couple of alternatives if you don't fancy all the measuring. Karen will be showing you how to fold your paperback books into these cute little hedgehogs - no measuring required but a fair amount of folding. If you want to have a go at these little chaps then please bring a paperback book with at least 180 pages. Size of book will determine size of hedgehog, so no minimum book height. (If you can face it this early in the year she can also show you how to make book folded Christmas trees!)

If you don't want to destroy a whole book, but instead just tear out a few pages (!) then you can revisit some of the flower folding techniques that we have covered in previous years, but this time use book pages instead. You may even want to do this as well as a folded book as they make good embellishments to decorate your works of art. (we have some books left over from previous book page projects, but you may prefer to source your own for this too.)

And if you really can't bear to destroy books at all then have another go at iris folding with Michelle!

Paint charts, punches and paper piecing...

Looks like we are all ready for February 14th after last week's workshop! Lots of hearts in various styles. Here are the paint chart hearts using shades of the same colour tone.

And a couple of mosaic style hearts...

And a couple of cards exploring colour/tone in a different way...

The paper piecing demo explored the use of pattern as well as colour...first up paper strips, with a few hearts creeping in though!

Paper weaving...

And moving away from paper strips to incorporating torn paper, matting and layering and other shapes, oh and a few hearts!

Happy New Card Club Year...

...bit late but like Chinese New Year it starts a month in!!

Anyway the first workshop of the year will take place on Wednesday (27th) timing 7.45 - 9.45pm - dates now confirmed with the Church Hall. So the usual last Wednesday of the month apart - from our two in November.

Our first workshop of the year will feature paper mosaics and paper piecing - exploring colour and pattern choices. There is a slight Valentine's focus, but it doesn't have to be all hearts!

Shades of one colour - pastel pinks and red

Contrasting colours - brights

Shades of primary colours

Ombre effect using punches and paint chart chips

We will also be discussing the year ahead. I sent out invites before Christmas to everyone who is on Pinterest to post to our new board - Ideas for 2016 - but not sure everyone has accepted their invites. Please check your notifications so you can get pinning your ideas. (That includes you Michelle!!) If you use the Pinterest App I'm aware it is not always obvious that you have an invite. Let me know if you are having any problems and I can try to resend the invites.

See you on Wednesday.