Padgate Sunday Stampers Collective

Padgate Sunday Stampers is a fairly new group which meets monthly and, whilst most people are papercrafters and stampers, the group offers everyone the opportunity to do any craft they wish. It is a very friendly atmosphere and, not only do we have lots of fun, we share information and skills. There were more than 20 at the last session, some missing from the photo below, and many travelled quite a distance to be there.

Here's a selection of projects from the day........

Quite a few revisited and brushed up the resist techniques from Gill's last class for Victoria Stampers with some great results.

There was stamping and excellent techniques for colouring with Copics

Even a Christmas card or two was made!

A Tri Fold card....

Some background experiments

Box making

Sewing by hand

Sewing by machine

Beadwork

Producing beautiful bracelets

Lovely crocheted flowers

Here's the parts of the pull out card I made, before it was constructed.

Here's Jayne's ATG gun personalised with bling and BTW it is decorated both sides.

So much produced, great company and a great day was had by all and as a bonus we all enjoyed Jayne's yummy catering..... corned beef hash, leek and potato soup and fresh bread rolls along with continuous tea, coffee and bickies.

JOZARTY Apron & Lewes

   I started painting this apron on a booth at CHA... seems so long ago now.... but I decided to finish off a few things which are hanging around unfinished and this is one of them. The letters are a bit uneven as I had to work standing up leaning over quite a low table and there were so many other people waiting to have a go. I just did the basics in a rush and so now I have just tarted it up a little and added a few Stickles for a bit of bling. We also decorated a shopping bag which I named for and gave to my friend Jayne. I think I'd really like to make some more as it was quite therapeutic but I'll plan in advance and get them right next time!

The photos just don't show the sparkle very well.

Here's a cute decoration I made at CHA which might give you ideas for using die cuts and punched shapes.

When we were down South of England the other week we visited Lewes. Lovely buildings and lovely shops with lots of antique shops to mooch around.

This is Harveys Brewery Shop

Here's Bill's Greengrocers and Cafe... bit cold and wet to sit outside that day!

The Pet Shop

An Antique/gift shop

WOYWW Shaving Foam & Hand Gel

Life has been very hard this past week trying to deal with happenings we just don't want which will affect our family for a long time but I took refuge last Saturday, for a day, to attend a workshop at Victoria Stampers with a group of lovely friends. Caz of stampattack gave a fab, much appreciated and enjoyed, workshop despite the fact that she was unwell and had sadly suffered a recent bereavement. We made origami folded cards..... weeeell, I nearly made mine and still haven't managed to finish it but you can see it below with the front covers waiting to be attached. 

My desk isn't TOOOO bad, all things considered, in my opinion, (but I'm sure you'll give me your honest views PDQ!) and at least you can still see some of those famous strawberries, which is my personal guide to how messy it really is!  

There are some new fabric lengths to the left waiting to be made into Hangabouts. They will certainly hangabout for a while now!

 To spy on lots more of this weekly mayhem go over to WOYWW on the blog of our lovely leader Julia...at Stamping Ground.

We played and got wonderfully messy with the Shaving Foam technique giving lovely marbled effects and card which, I must add, smells gorgeous.

We also used Hand Gel to create more subtle backgrounds, much in the same way as the Shaving Foam, and these were used to make tags to insert into the folded book.

Here's a great idea which my friend Jayne acquired from a super blog which gives lots of storage hints and tips. I will get the blog name ASAP to give due credit. I bought the DVD storage unit for around £7 in Ikea and the shelves are cheap DVD cases which I glued in.

  Now I just need to collect a lot more Promarkers and Copics to fill it up but I keep forgetting to carry my list with me of which ones I already have!

So sorry I didn't get round very many of you last week with all that was going on here but hope to be back spying this week with a vengeance. Thanks to all you lovelies who visited my blog and I hope to get back into productive creativity to keep my mind body and spirit channelled.

WOYWW

A first birthday card for my teeny grandee is is the only crafting I have done over the last week and above it is pictured, not quite finished, before we headed off to Brighton.

I just couldn't manage to get time on line to take part in WOYWW and I really missed seeing what was going on.

This week I have to confess to a new mess but with good reason.

I had good excuse messing up last week's tidy desk as I needed it to use as a dumping ground whilst a new shelf unit was installed for me by DH. Here below is my old  one which was so slim that all my ink pads kept diving off.

It was replaced by this new deeper unit from Ikea. I still have to organise it and fill it with all the items to be stored, but there is so much more room.

If you are intrigued by snooping on crafty messes on crafty desks then hop over to our leader Julia's blog, Stamping Ground to see many more.

All together now... aaaah! Here is the lovely reason I have been craftily inactive recently and what a joy it has been to share precious time with two of my gorgeous little grandees. We stayed in Brighton best part of a week then brought them up North to stay with us and I will really miss them when they return home on Thursday. The good thing is that soon I will also visit Germany to see my DD2, her DH and my other gorgeous grandee.  

These are the cutie cakes, with little gnome candles, made for the special teeny girl's first birthday last week. 

Stand by your desks as I'll be spying on as many of you as possible this week!

Pull Out Card

I've been visiting my family in Brighton, and house hunting along the South Coast, this week so I missed WOYWW for the first time since I joined in the fun many months ago. I haven't had internet connection as the hotel's Wi-fi is limited to 20 minutes in their reception area.

I'm now linked up in my daughter's home whilst baby sitting so thought I'd post the card from last Sunday's fab fun workshop we had in Padgate organised by my friend Jayne. 

It was really great that Tracey, who I linked up with through WOYWW, came along to the workshop. Lovely to meet up and nice to get to know a WOYWW personally, face to face and we had such a lovely day together.

This card is an attempt of a pull out card that I did some year's ago in a workshop given by my lovely friend from Vicky Stampers....Lynne, aka Wacky Wilkie! I had to figure out for myself how to make another so I played around and finally cracked it. I was hoping Lynne would be there on Sunday to advise me but as she wasn't I just had a go and it didn't turn out too badly.

There is a rotating band inside which moves out the inner panels if a tab is pulled.

 First I made the background from Silkies. They didn't give the great marbled effect that the Smooches so I just dabbed them onto my non stick sheet, spritzed them a little then moved my card around over the colour. You can see the effect achieved in the photo below 

 The card front with the sides closed away.

I'll be back in a day or two to catch up on all I've missed in blogland so I hope you've all been busy making lots for me to see.

WOYWW 89 & Smooches

Shock and amazement!! Feeling proud and shouting out loud from the rooftops that my desk is clear, not just swiped aside but it has had a good tidying and putting away session before there was an utter collapse of all that I brought home and dumped on it, from CHA. I wanted to finish this project that I started at the Hampton Arts booth with the lovely Diana and, other half finished Make & Takes too, so the decks HAD to be cleared.

Here's the evidence... .completely clear ready to start. No Jayne it isn't an old photograph!

A few more pages to complete the mini album then I cleared away!!! Do I hear jaws dropping and do I spy mouths open... Quite right too. 

Call in on our Super Star Supervisor Julia's blog, Stamping Ground, if you'd like to see other extremely tidy desks like mine (and a few messy ones too just for the voyeurs out there). My tidy space won't last long I assure you and I'll have to admit it if it's a mess again as this WOYWW madness comes weekly!.

This mini album we made at Hampton Art was such fun and the pages were coloured with an effective but simple technique using Smooches and Smooch Spritzers. I now NEED some Smooches to try it all again.

We had a shallow dish of water big enough to fit the square pages of card stock. 

We dropped the colour from the tips of three colours (Pink, Orange, and Yellow) of Smooch pearly paint into the water then swirled it a little with the brush tip.

We then lightly laid down the card onto the water to pick up and create easy, fabulous, marbling as you'll see on these pages. The pages were then spritzed with the Smooch Spritzes, which I must add, sprayed beautifully, but the lovely iridescence doesn't show on the photos.

 

 

 OK .. I own up to the ink blot but it just proves it to be hand made!

Barmy Llamas and Cards etc.

This is a card I made for my DD2's birthday before I went to US which I couldn't post it until she had received it. I also decorated the envelope which you can see behind the card. 

I made her a post it note pad too, in the form of an easel card, to send along with a couple of little goodies and her main money gift. 

 

It's so hard to slot back into my normal life pattern after such a mind blowing holiday and I still have so many freebies and results of workshops to tidy away. I'm still trying to find time to make notes on techniques and ideas before I do box them all up.

Here, below, are some of the cards I made with the one and only amazing John at the Tsukineko booth at CHA. It's always hard for me to make a prescriptive card but it seems that is what happens in the workshops over there. Everyone makes exactly the same. Here we have more freedom to use the demonstrated techniques to express your our style and design of card. However, John made the classes such fun and gave lots of hints and tips for using Tsukineko's products and it was really relaxing to just go with the flow.

Some of these cards have a wonderful iridescence which doesn't show on the photos.

Yesterday DH and I spent a lovely day out in the Lancashire countryside, just an hour's drive North of where we live.

We visited my animal mates at the barmyllamafarm at Backridge Farm not far from Clitheroe. Backridge is a great set up of farm buildings recreated into units for artists and restaurants and in one building is Melt which sells the best candles I have ever used.They smell fantastic and I am never without stocks! I must admit that I buy the seconds/rejects at the farm shop much cheaper!

The llamas are so friendly, curious, and such characters..... BARMY!

Just look at those eyelashes!

Just for Neet... here are the earrings I got at the Melt shop. I wanted a simple solid silver pair to wear day to day and I couldn't have made these at the good price that they cost. I just liked them and they are so comfortable to wear. 

This is Waddington, a nearby village, and it often wins prizes for the best kept English Village. It is so quaint and really pretty and even better in the Summer when all the flowers are in bloom.

At least there are lots of snowdrops at the moment promising Spring won't be too far away.

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