Christmas Stamping Masterclass

Well another month has gone by and Michelle and I still feel we are behind on the Christmas card making. So we thought that this month we would give everyone a chance to get ahead by having a rubber stamping masterclass. We have lots of Christmas rubber stamps available for you to use. There will be opportunities to review basic stamping, embossing and colouring techniques or simply to stamp a load of different images ready to colour at home, plus a few different ways of using your stamps that you may not have tried before.

Should be a very productive evening!



Also just to remind you of this year's Christmas card competition theme - set this year by Pat T who was our winner last year. Pat has chosen a "Looking in, looking out" theme and made a sample card (outside and inside shown above) The idea is that you create a window card and either create an indoor scene looking out on to an outdoor Christmas scene (like Pat's example above) or vice versa. Pat said she would be on hand to give advice if anyone needed it, so if you are stuck for inspiration make sure you catch up with her. We will need your entries in by the first of our November workshops (10th) so that prizes can be awarded at the second November workshop (24th).

Clearly Christmas

Just a reminder that it is our September workshop this week (Wed 29th). We will be looking at lots of ways of using clear acetate on your Christmas cards (since there are now only 88 days till Christmas!) Come along and have a go at Cuttlebug embossing, stamping, alcohol inking, crystal lacquering and tissue papering on acetate!!

Also you might be interested to know that it is World Cardmaking Day on Saturday 2nd October so we thought that we would link our challenge to that this month.

Find out more on Wednesday!

See you then.

Altered Art Images

Well the creative juices were really flowing at the Altered Art workshop on Saturday 11th September. Kay led the demo and inspired everyone to create wonderful pieces of art - from canvases and coasters to photo albums, frames and mirrors. All were very different. I will let the photos speak for themselves this month!!

Kay's canvas

Elise's canvas

Sarah M's photo album

Ollie's photo album sampler pages

Natalie and Gill's holiday souvenir mirrors

Linda's autumnal coaster

Claire's coaster mini scrapbook

At our next Wednesday evening workshop (Sept 29th) we will be well and truly getting into Christmas using acetate with rubber stamps, to create cards and embellishments. Michelle has already been getting into the Christmas spirit with the new PartiCraft Christmas stamp sets as she prepares for Ally Pally next weekend (Sept 25th - 26th). She will be bringing the new stamp sets to our September workshop too.

Only 96 days till Christmas - apparently!!

They came from far and wide...

... Isle of Wight, Devon, Newcastle (and Denton) I believe!! It was a relatively quiet month for ACMC with lots of you off on holiday, but some of those who did make it there had travelled a long way to get back in time for Card Club - now that's dedication for you!! Lots of techniques with metal were explored and Kay's butterflies went down a treat.


It was also Chris's last club night. Chris has been with ACMC since the very early days, so it is with sadness that we say bye-bye & wish her well with her house move on September 8th. Her daughter Louise will still be coming to the club though, so we can keep in touch and I'm sure that if we give her plenty of notice, she may still appear at the occasional weekend workshop! We would like to thank Chris for everything she's done for the club, which includes her invaluable help at numerous Village Days as well as her more recent duties as 'Mug-monitor'!! Do come and join us on Friday night for a drink or two to see Chris on her way - the more the merrier! (see e-mail for details) And no, we couldn't let you go Chris without reminding everyone of one of your early card designs - see below!! (It was for a challenge - to incorporate black lace into a card). It's always the quiet ones you need to watch out for, but don't let that put you off joining us for a drink! We will miss you Chris!

We are now gearing up for our Saturday Altered Art workshop on the 11th. For those of you attending, don't forget to gather up your holiday souvenirs and mementoes such as postcards, tickets, maps, old coins, stamps etc. ready to bring along. We will have some available, but obviously your altered piece will be more personal if you include some of your own items. Kay will be on hand to get you started and then you will be able to ask us all questions or for advice about particular techniques, as you get stuck in!! Below is a link to an altered art website to give you a bit more insight and background into how it has developed.

Looking forward to getting messy!

Melt pot magic

Here are some piccies from last month's workshop - better late than never! (from top - embellishments by Penny, pig card by Linda B, butterfly card by Gabby and triple embossed seahorse by Carol E) Thanks to Kay and Penny for the loan of their melt pots - we are looking into getting our own for the Club as it proved very popular. Don't forget to let us know if there are any other resources or techniques that you would like us to investigate for next year.

This month's workshop - Wednesday 25th ie tomorrow!! - is on metal techniques. Kay is guest demoing again and will be using peel offs on metal to make butterflies (see below).

I will be demoing Cuttlebug and embossing board techniques with metal and Michelle will be exploring techniques with metal tape. If you have any suitable embossing tools - stylus, paper stub etc then please bring them along.

We will be taking names for the September Saturday 11th workshop this week too, so please bring your diaries along with you. And don't forget your photo challenge cards from last month.

Couple more items of interest - Hobbycraft in Croydon is now open - has anyone been? I haven't made it there yet, but hopefully can combine it with trip to Ikea soon! Also Ally Pally craft show is coming up on 25/26th September and Michelle will once again be helping to demo on the PartiCraft stall - lots of new yummy stamp sets apparently!

We're all going on a Summer Holiday...

...No more working for a week or two (or eight in my case!) In honour of the long, hot summer holiday period I've changed the blog background - actually the blog decided for me as our other background had disappeared when I logged on. Still gets us in the holiday mood!!

Michelle and I are not heading off on our respective family holidays till after the July workshop and will both be back in time for the August one, so business as usual with the Ashtead Card Club. We know there are a few people away this month, and expect that some of you will be away for the August workshop too, so please keep us up to date on that. We will also be starting to take bookings on Wednesday for the Saturday workshop on September 11th. We are planning to do an Altered Art session and have already begun discussing ideas with Kay. Please check your diaries on this one and let us know.

Kay is helping with demos this month too. We have arranged with her to bring along her melt pot and for her to show you some techniques with UTEE. (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder). Michelle will also be giving you some top tips on using UTEE without a melt pot. I will be demonstrating triple embossing techniques for those of you who prefer to work with the regular embossing powders and heat guns.

Well done to everyone who entered our Membership Pack Card Competition this year. We announced our winners last month, as chosen by Andrea McLean - big thank you to her for doing this for us. Kay won first prize with her elegant butterfly design.

Our second and third prize winners nearly didn't enter their cards, but I'm sure they are glad they did now! Linda B came second with her penny spinner design and Sarah P came third with her butterfly design easel card.

Well done to all our winners and all of our entrants.

These are not just handmade cards...

...these are ACMC handmade cards, and lots of other crafty items on sale too!! Ashtead Village Day was another success for us this year. We had a dedicated and hard-working set-up and sales team. In fact we were so efficient that this year we were all set up by 11am and had time for tea and cakes before the selling began! Thank you very much to Linda A, Kay B and Karen for helping set up and staying for the rest of the day and to Chris and Linda B for their help on the stall and dismantling it afterwards.

The weather was a little breezy at times, but fine and warm and at one point we had to move Claire W's candles out of the sun to stop them melting! Our takings were up slightly on last year and pretty much everyone who sent items to sell, sold something. Kay was especially pleased to sell two of her lovely altered metal mirrors. (see below)

Kay's Mirrors

Michelle's Gift Boxes

Michelle was on duty all day personalising gift tins to order (see below) and this proved to be popular, as did the Lucky Dip and children's craft activities as always.

Personalised Gift Tins

This year the Membership Pack Card Competition was not actually judged on the day, but Michelle did manage to arrange a TV personality to judge the competition for us later in the week. So you will find out the winners and the mystery judge on Wednesday - our lips are sealed!!

We met lots of new crafters interested in the group too, so a big hello to you if you are reading our blog for the first time! Please give either Michelle or Claire a ring first to check availability of places if you are interested in coming along to any of our meetings - dates on the side bar.

And talking of our next meeting - it's on Wednesday 30th June - this week. The theme this month is die cut machines and we thought we would have a slightly different format to the evening and launch our first "Bring your die cut machine to Card Club" evening. We will have a few show and tell sessions about some of the electronic die cut machines that we don't see in action very often - Cricut, Craft Robo Lite, Slice etc. Michelle is bringing her Wizard and obviously we have the Club Cuttlebug and Sidekick machines. But we thought it would be a good opportunity to share knowledge and borrow other people's dies or embossing folders etc. Don't worry if you don't have a die cut machine or if yours is too big to bring - there will be plenty of machines to go around I'm sure!

See you all on Wednesday for a cutting fest!