Rosettes and Pinwheels

A select gathering at Tadworth today which meant more time to take a few piccies of your latest creations. The theme for today was rosettes and pinwheels. Our rosettes were made from scratch, but there are dies available that will cut and score your paper. For a tutorial on how to make the rosettes from scratch click here.

We also made use of the Little Claire's "Dictionary Definitions" and "Save the Date" stamp sets to create centres for our rosettes.

And as an alternative, or as an added extra, we also made pinwheel cards.

Pearls of wisdom...

...or distraction?! Got so carried away with it all that we forgot to take photos at the last workshop. Duh! Anyway thanks to Sally who emailed us a photo of her finished card. And also to Billy Jane - one of the new faces at Card Club on Wednesday - for putting her finished cards on her blog. She also has lots of other projects on the go, so check out her Ccraftcorner blog for further inspiration.

Here's one of the demo cards I made earlier as a reminder of the faux mother of pearl technique. A tutorial can be found here.

And here are a couple of Michelle's demo cards that she made earlier.

Pearl techniques...

Hopefully you are all getting on well with your humorous card challenge for next month (May workshop). If you didn't pick up a stamped image last month and would like one just ask us at this week's workshop as we have some spare. And don't forget to check on our link to Pinterest for inspiration with funny quotes.

We are getting closer to our deadline for the Pearl/30th Card competition, which is also due in at the May workshop, in time for judging at Village Day. So in order to give you a little helping hand towards the deadline, this week's workshop will be based around different pearl techniques.

We will have pearl card available, stick on pearls in a range of colours and we will be doing demos using Liquid Pearls and Cosmic Shimmer pearly powders. So if you have an idea already, you can use the available resources to get on with your card or you can get further inspiration from our demos.

See you there!

Stamping workshop photos

Well here are some of the results of our "Stamping with a twist" workshop last week. Below are the masking tape technique cards. (Click here for step by step instructions). I love the way different colour combinations have been explored with these designs.

With the stamping through a paper mask technique (step by step coming soon!) lots of different floral designs were experimented with on the Easter Eggs, and other finishing touches such as embossing and glossy accents were added. Kay P also used the reverse masking technique with her heart design.

Michelle and I had a very difficult job indeed with judging the Envelope Memory Book Challenge. The entries were all very different, personal and very impressive! In the end we chose two worthy winners.

Rachael B for her two entries (one for each of her sons as she couldn't do one without the other!)...gorgeous mementoes of days out with her boys with good use of bright colours, photos, tickets, embellishments etc.

And Carol S for her "Garden Memories" book. She made good use of the pockets too with photos, quotes, memoirs etc documenting her feelings, thoughts and memories of her grandparents' garden. Even a photo of herself aged 2 or 3 - we could tell it was you when you pointed it out Carol!

Well done to both of you - one free workshop entry for each of you. And well done to everyone else who took part. 

Our next challenge is due in May. If you didn't pick up a stamped image and would like one to make a "Humorous Caption Card" then please let me know before the next workshop so we can stamp some out ready. You don't have to use those images, but the card must be humorous. Can be as cheeky as you like!

You will notice there are now links to Pinterest in two places on our blog. (below the Challenge posting and below the Crafty Inspiration listing) If you follow either of these links you will see a pin board with some examples of humorous quotes. Feel free to use any of these that you feel are appropriate or just use them for inspiration for your own.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Stamping techniques with a twist...

This month's workshop is dedicated to slightly more advanced stamping techniques, but don't worry if you feel you haven't mastered the basics, as most of the demos will help to reinforce the basic skills, whilst at the same time extending your expertise and allowing you to think about stamping in a different way.

I will be demonstrating stamping through paper stencils, using regular stamps, distress inks and the See D's Morsels sets that we haven't used for a while.

Kay is also on hand to demo collage stamping (see also first photo in this blog entry), using masking tape to mask sections of your card while you stamp. She will show you how to create backgrounds and embellishments using this technique.

And for those of you who want to become more expert in stamping and heat embossing, Michelle will be showing you tips and tricks with this technique.

Envelope book challenge

I promised I would upload the pictures of my envelope memory book now it is finished. I used mine as a birthday card for my daughter. She turned 11 last week so I included pictures from all her previous birthdays and added a sentiment to go with each photo. I still have to add one on the back from her 11th birthday to complete it. She loved having the photos in the pockets and has said she will "keep it for ever!"

Hopefully your books are all well under way. If not don't forget you can see demo notes on the side bar or click here for instructions on how to set up a basic envelope book. You can then mat and layer in papers of your choice. What you then use it for is up to you but if you are stuck for ideas here are a few starting points:

• Memory book - birthdays, special days, anniversaries, wedding photos etc.
• Scrapbook/souvenir book - keep tickets or special memories in the pockets
• Baby book - keep locks of hair, hospital birth tags etc in the pockets
• Journal - add diary entries or memories in the pockets
• School trip memento book for kids
• Gift for a teacher with notes from the children...

Lots more ideas I am sure!! Don't worry about adding personal photos. It doesn't matter if we can identify who made each book. We always try to be as objective as possible when choosing the challenge winner. We will look at layout, choice of colours, the overall finish etc.

Look forward to seeing your creations at the March workshop on Wednesday 27th.

Bright as a button...

We got the button card techniques all sewn up on Wednesday as you can see with all the different cards that were made below! 

We used buttons as accents/embellishments:

 We got creative with buttons:

Button balloons...

Button birds...

...and Button Bugs.

And we created sewing theme cards with different colour and pattern variations.

Well done to all. Another productive and enjoyable evening!