New Year, New Ideas...

Hello and Happy New Year to you all! It's been a while but the crafting hasn't stopped even if the blogging has halted for a while! Michelle and I have been busy sorting out the schedule for the year ahead. We have had ideas and input from some of you and hopefully will manage to incorporate most of your requests into the forthcoming year's schedule. But it's not too late if you have a burning desire to revisit a technique or try something new, so please do bring any further ideas with you on Wednesday.

And talking of Wednesday...

... the focus will be "Envelopes". We always find we have lots left over with no card blanks and spares on top of that too. So we thought we would look at envelopes in general. Your choice of projects for Wednesday evening will be:

• Create a crimped envelope and notecard (a useful project to recycle envelopes that have sealed themselves!)
• Create a coordinated envelope and card (and even go back to basics creating your own card blank too)
• Make heart shaped gift bags and envelopes
• Create your own envelopes from scratch using templates and your own choice of patterned paper
• Begin your first challenge of 2013...more details on Wednesday!

We also have new ideas regarding membership and competitions, and rather than a membership pack this year, you will get a "Project kit" that you can work on throughout the year. You will then be able to enter your finished work of art into our competition at Christmas. We will still run the Summer competition too, although it will obviously not be a membership pack competition this year. 

Don't forget to bring your Membership subscription money this month too if your membership is due to run out. 

And finally just to let you know that Kay is now online too. She has recently started her own blog to share some of her ideas and tips. You can link to it here and on the side bar - it is called Ink, Paint and Me. Check it out - she has only just launched but already has three posts and several crafty photos on there.

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!!