craft club party

What's the best way to while away a couple of hours whilst at work? Have a party with your craft club members that's what.
Food and non-alcoholic drink galore. Fabulous. A crafty gift swap and a craft swap of all those unloved craft items we all have. Either used and moved on or never loved in the first place!!!
We were asked to design a name badge and mine was one of four that won a wee prize.
Hope you like it.

We also received a little goody bag with goodies included. A very useful linen bag, a fineliner pen which will come in very handy, (also great for Zentangle), a colouring book, some wooden hearts, an owl charm, some very useful snips and an MDF stand.
I decided to decorate the stand to give it to the organiser as a thank you. I simply covered with some lovely floral paper, added some roses and punched flowers and a lovely sized Thank you die from Card Making Magic, which can only be purchased exclusively from Craft Stash

And of course I had to make a little bag to gift it in.

This one is courtesy of Mixed Up Crafts although I used ribbon instead of card for handles. And the mistake which I can live with is I fastened the ribbon on upside down. Duh! When you lift the handles up they cover over the fastener but hey ho.
As well as winning chocolates for my badge I also won a pass the parcel, which I so wanted someone else to win instead. I felt a tad greedy winning two things and tried to pass it on to no avail. Anyway I am the owner of a make it up yourself little bag. Make-up, pens, clutch bag, the choice is mine really but I am leaving that little project for another day, maybe when the nights draw in. I will show you (and surprise myself with) how that turns out later in the year.

We're very lucky to have a gym and swimming pool where I work (if you like that sort of thing) and a little cafeteria. It is open to certain external groups as well as staff. In the cafeteria today, as we were finishing off, were some ladies who run a group for disadvantaged families and once a month use the pool followed by a light lunch provided by the gentleman who runs the cafeteria.
A short talk later with our club organiser and I am doing a craft session on the 22nd of August for these ladies. Another crafty colleague was called upon to bake some of her rather delicious buns. Now what to get them to make I wonder. It will be different and something to write about in my little blog.
Hope you like these little makes today and come back again to see how I get on with the group.
Thanks for stopping by
Karen

Workshop

Remember I said I'm a member of a craft club at work? Well myself and another crafty lady were chosen to attend the summer festival at Warwick university. Amongst footballers, squash players, tennis players, anglers, runners and other sporty types we did our bit with a group of other like minded card makers.
Not having a clue what to expect we arrived with some basic (very basic) crafty tools and were left to do our thing with some pretty card. Christmas seemed to be the theme of the day but not exclusively as I'd taken some birthday type stamps with me.
I chose some card and along with my own stamps, a bit of bling  and imagination I managed to pull some cards together.
This one is as simple as the sentiment.

You can't really see the sentiment on this topper very well but it was an afterthought anyway. I was more interested in the poinsettia and holly leaves weaving in and out of the gold ribbon.

I chose to make this card as an Easel card. I particularly liked the punched out JOY and of course the little hedgehog with his holly berries.

I spent some time mingling with my fellow crafters and promoted the benefits of having a craft club at work. My colleague even brought along some newsletters of ours and they were well received.

There were some stunning creations, my favourite being a rather huge peacock with the coloured card feathers attached to the top of a card rather than on the card. So wish I'd taken some pics of other crafters makes. With their permission of course.
For the wreathe on this card I drew around the inner and outer sides of a ring of double sided tape, cut it out and then wrapped it in ribbon and decorated it with coloured beads. I love how it turned out.

Anyway, by the time we stopped for the day (the quarter final of the World Cup which of course England won was beckoning) I had five cards to take away. The last of which was a birthday card with these really cute teddies and a floating balloon.

I do hope you like them
Thank you for stopping by

Hot hot hot

Well isn't everyone hot just lately. This spell is particularly prolonged that any spare time I have I just want to sleep.
My little crafty space is like an oven so sitting there for any great length of time is a no-no.
So, I punched myself some circles and flowers using the Stampin' Up! pansy punch and along with my snips, wet glue and a couple of inks I found myself a cool spot in the lounge and set about making myself some embellishments to use in my crafting when the air cools a little.

This first flower has been going around for a lifetime so you probably have done this yourself at some point. And they are so pretty. Just in case this is new to you, this is how I made mine:
I punched three, 5 petal pansy punch flowers.

Flower 1 - make a snip between two petals to the centre of the flower (see picture)

Flower 2 - make a snip between two petals to the centre of the flower and repeat at the petal next to it so you cut this single petal off. You should now have four petals and one petal. (see picture)

Flower 3 - make a snip between two petals to the centre of the flower and repeat at the next but one petal so you cut of 2 petals. You should now have three petals and 2 petals. (see picture)

Take flower 1 and join the petals together where they were cut. This will make the petals curve in. (see picture)

Take flower 2 and do the same with the four petals. The single petal will join to itself and is a bit tricky. I use a cocktail stick. (see picture)

Take flower 3 and

do the same to these two sections. (see picture)

Now it's time to join these petals together.
Take flower 1 and add a little drop of glue to the centre.
Take the four petal section, snip and discard a small section off the base and insert the petals to the centre of flower 1, aligning it so the petals are slightly off. Add a drop of glue to the centre.
Take the three petal section, snip and discard a small section off the base and insert the petals to the centre of the forming flower.
Continue until you have joined up all the pieces. Your resulting flower should have a passing resemblance to a rose. (See picture.)

You can add the rose to the circle with some die cut leaves, which I will do when it's cool enough to stay in my crafty space for more than a few minutes!!!

You can leave the petals as they are, curl them, ink them or even add a bit of glitter. (see picture) Also very pretty with an added glaze. I use Ranger's Glossy Accents if doing this.

These are perfect for keeping for that very special card for that very special occasion. They are also ideal for decorating gift bags and boxes.

I'll come back to these again another day and show you how I used them.


TOP TIP - If you don't have the pansy punch a suitable die shape will do. Also this is a really simple flower shape and can be easily drawn and cut out. I used to draw round a 2p coin five times in a circle and then cut that out.

Hope you enjoyed this and thank you for stopping by.