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!

The winners...

...of the Christmas Decoration Competition and our 2012 "Crafts" awards!

So as you can see Kay B won 1st prize in the decoration competition and Carol S was runner-up. A big thank you to Sheena Douglass for judging our competition, and an especially big thank you for all her valuable feedback on all the entries. Very much appreciated.

Our Annual awards this year have been inspired by our "Crafty Chums" article (p73 Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, December issue) and the "Crufts" dog show (sounds a bit like "Crafts" when said in a southern accent?!!) Anyway - long story, but you will see from the pictures that all the awards and prizes have a canine connection!! Awards are as follows:

Crafty Chums Award - Claire and Michelle for being in a Crafty magazine this month.
Agility Award for Active Support and Jumping Through Hoops - Karen
Walkies Award for Active Support - Linda A
Fetch Award for Active Support - Kay B
Puppy Training Award for Best Newcomer - Sally-Anne
Well Groomed Award for High Standard of Work - Kay P
Man's Best Friend Award for Loyalty and Attendance - Vanessa
Freestyle Award for Creativity - Linda B
Best in Show for All Round Support and Involvement - Sarah

Well done to all our winners!

Our Charity Raffle this year will be split between a dog charity (appropriately!), nominated by Mandy, and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

So we have one more All-day Workshop (8th Dec) this year and then our Christmas meal on 12th Dec.

Don't forget to look out for projects for next year. Your current challenge is to let us know what techniques you would like to cover or revisit in 2013.

Best Wishes for Christmas to those of you not able to attend the workshop or meal. And see you soon to those of you that can!!

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

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.

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!!

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

Christmas Crafting in 3D!!

And you won't even need your funny 3D specs, because these cards really are 3D, but fold flat for posting! At our October workshop there will be a choice of 3D designs to make - Christmas trees in several varieties, presents and pop up snowflakes.

Don't forget to keep your kitchen roll tubes and also another request for glass jars - the smaller Gu or creme brulee style ones - for our Christmas decoration workshops coming soon!!