Charms, candles and calendars...

...oh and of course Christmas Card Competition! Just a few of the things going on at our Wednesday workshop this week.

Our last workshop of the year is traditionally one where we present prizes to our card competition winners (and maybe a few other awards too - although no mice this year we promise!)

We also have the Charity raffle, so don't forget to bring your prize donations and some money to spend on tickets.

As well as all this we hope to make some time for quick demos on how to make your own calendars, wine charms and decorated candles. Some of you may have done the charms and candles before, but they proved to be popular so we are including them again. For those of you who want something different, Marilyn will be on hand to demonstrate how to make a calendar for 2011.

Finally, we will be giving out questionnaires for you to fill in for next year's workshops. For those of you that were not at the last meeting, we are changing venue next year, since the Peace Memorial Hall could not accommodate us on our regular last Wednesday of the month slot. We are only moving down the road to St Michael's Church Hall - thanks to Jan for arranging the bookings - but it does mean we can keep our last Wednesday of the month slot and it has its own car park, cups and dishwasher!! Dates and times will be confirmed in the New Year, but we would like your input as usual on workshop themes so please take the time to fill in the questionnaires.

See you on Wednesday.

Tags, Bags, Boxes and More

Christmas workshops are coming around thick and fast at the moment! No sooner have we finished one then another comes along i.e. next week! Our traditional two November workshops this year fall on Wed 10th and Wed 24th and we will also be celebrating our 4th birthday this month - Happy Birthday ACMC!! Having two workshops in November allows everyone the chance to go to their various work/family Christmas dos in December. And also it means we can fit in a Card Club Christmas party in December - date and venue currently under discussion, but likely to be a meal out similar to last year. Will let you know soon, so you can book the date in and choose your glad rags!!

Since we concentrated on getting up to date with our Christmas card making at last month's workshop, we thought we would do something a little bit different on Wednesday 10th. So we will be making our own gift tags, gift bags and/or gift boxes and embellishing them too. Karen W will be bringing her Cricut Expression machine and "Tags, Bags, Boxes and More" cartridge and there will also be opportunities to create your own tags, bags and boxes using our die cuts, templates and folding techniques.

Christmas Card competition entries need to be in by next week too, so please remember to bring them on Wednesday 10th. See the blog entry for October if you need a reminder of the theme.

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!