Greetings from Denman College

Good morning!

I have woken up early, with little sound except the birds singing. Living in a terraced house in Leeds, I'm more used to traffic and sirens from the fire station at the top of the road! I'm currently at Denman College in Marcham, Oxfordshire, the Women's Institute venue which hosts a huge range of cookery, craft, and lifestyle classes. I was lucky enough to win £200 worth of vouchers a few years ago from my WI Buns & Roses in Leeds City Centre, and I found a course on Free Machine Embroidery that I'd always fancied trying, but never plucked up the courage to try at home! I booked myself and my friend Kylie Henshaw on the course as a nice treat! 

We arrived yesterday at 12:00 and we shown to a room where we could drink tea, and was stocked full of craft magazines. Perfect! We then went for lunch, which we chose Paprika Chicken, potato wedges and roast vegetables. It was lovely! We realised at lunch that we were the youngest two at Denman, but all the older ladies made us feel very welcome, and were thrilled we were there, and loved hearing about what Buns & Roses was like. We then had a wander around, and then went to our welcome talk, and met our tutor Claire Muir.

Off we went to the textiles block, and found our spots. Claire explained what we would be doing, and we all marvelled at her samples, thinking we'd never be able to make our work like hers! Here's my sewing machine, in the bright sunshine all ready to go.

The difference with free machine stitching is that the feed dogs or teeth are dropped, or on some machines they come with a little plate that sits on top of them. A special foot also has to be used.

After a quick demonstration, Claire made sure all our machines were ready and then off we went. It felt very strange at first, being able to sew in all different directions, and my first attempts were a bit clunky!

We kept practicing for a while, and it was great to see what the other 11 ladies on the course were producing with their machines.

We then had coffee and of course cake! We were realising that food was a big part of the stay at Denman! At the welcome talk, we'd also been informed that the bar would be open before dinner, and that all the profits from the bar went straight into the carpet cleaning! Sounds like a perfect excuse for a tipple or two.

We then were given a piece of fabric with a stamped image of a butterfly, to decorate as we wished. This is what I came up with. 

It was great fun, and everyone in the room ended up with unique designs. 

I cannot wait to get home to see what Stampin' Up! stamps I can use on material to stitch over!

Next we tried adding some texture using Merino tops wool. This was quite tricky but I think I mastered it! I'll be raiding my sisters felting box when I get home!

We then stopped for drinks and dinner, which was lovely. I sat on a table of 8 and everyone chatted away about their WI's and where they were from and we heard about their previous visits to Denman. I had come with a friend, but I felt very sure that if I'd come by myself, I'd have made friends very quickly.

After dinner, we had another hour or so on the machines, and we did a bit or ironing! We chopped up small pieces of silk onto our material, and then stitched over the top.

Claire practically had to throw us out of the room at 21:30, I'm sure we could have kept on going for hours! We headed back to the bar, chatted and got to know each other a bit more, and then headed to our rooms.

Right, it's nearly time for me to get up, shower and then head to breakfast (more food!) I'll take some more pictures today, and will be back with another blog post about my stay soon.

If you don't already "Like" my Stampin' Up! page on Facebook, head over to http://www.facebook.com/mycardsandcrafts as I'll be posting pictures throughout the day on there.

Hip Hip Hooray Card Class - Saturday 3rd May 2014

Hip Hip Hooray Card Class 

Saturday 3rd May 2014, 14:30-16:30

Beeston Parish Centre, Town Street, Beeston, Leeds, LS11 8PN

At this class you will create 20 cards for a variety of occasions using the Hip Hip Hooray kit from Stampin' Up!, which contains everything (minus scissors!) that you'll need.

The class costs just £25 and you'll receive everything you need to make the cards, plus an ink pad and stamps that you'll be able to use again and again. 

The kit contains:

• Card stock and envelopes for 20 cards
• Twine, clips, and adhesive die cut embellishments
• Three piece Hip Hip Hooray stamp set and clear stamp block
• Stampin' Dimensionals
• Basic Gray Stampin' Spot ink pad
• Full colour instructional booklet
• You'll also receive a full pack of Rhinestone Jewels which contains 150 sparkly adhesive jewels that will add bling to your cards.

No experience is necessary, and refreshments will be provided.

Please confirm your attendance by Saturday 26th April 2014.  You can confirm your attendance by signing up here

Convention Team Swaps

Evening all!

Remember me? I used to write this blog! Life has been a bit busy recently, and I've not had much time to keep in touch on here.  I'm due to start a new job soon too, so that will take a bit of getting used to after working where I currently work for the last ten years. It's all exciting stuff though, I'll let you know how I'm getting on.

This evening, I'm in Manchester for the 2013 European Stampin' Up! Convention, and it's my first one ever! I've been a demo for about two and a half years now and I've not managed to go to convention yet.  I was a couple of places short of booking on last year, and left it too late and it was full.  Living in Leeds, I had no excuse not to be the first in the queue this year as it's just a train ride away. I can't wait to share some pictures with you, and tell you all about what I get up to.

There was a few things we had to make to bring with us.  Team swaps, general swaps and a gift for our room mate if we're sharing a room.  I'm sharing with my friend and downline Kylie.  Today I'll be sharing pictures of the team swaps I made.

It's always tricky deciding what the perfect swap will be, and it took me ages to decide what to do.  I decided to make candles, with a Christmas image from My Digital Studio (MDS).  This seemed like a great idea, and I made the first one.  It looked great.  Off I went to Ikea, to buy enough for the 32 ladies who have opted in to the team swaps.   I realised then, that my idea may not have been such a good one after all!  I bought the 32 I needed, as well as a few extra, and by the time I had lifted all 50 candles on to the till, I was bright red and wondered what all the people in the queue behind me thought I was doing with all these candles! The man right behind me congratulated me on my dedication to lifting them all.  Then I realised I had to transport them all to Manchester! Oh well, it was too late to change my mind.

I printed the image from MDS onto normal printer paper, to make sure I had the size right.  After a few adjustments, I was happy with my image, and I then printed the image onto tissue paper which had been taped onto a piece of card with masking tape.  I then cut out the image and used a tiny bit of glue on each corner to stick it lightly to the candle.

 I then wrapped a piece of tissue paper around the candle and gently heated the image using a heat gun.  The heat melts the candle just enough to melt the tissue paper into the wax giving a smooth finish.

 I love this technique and it can be done with any stamped image or printed image. I then wrapped the candle in cellophane and tied a small length of Linen Thread to secure the cellophane then tied a length of the lovely Cherry Cobbler 1" (2.5cm) Stitched Edge Grosgrain Ribbon around into a bow. 

 

I really hope my team like their gifts, and I can't wait to see what lovely things they have made.  It's been fun seeing everyone's updates on our Facebook page, seeing the hours they have spent crafting away, and the excitement building!

Here's a picture of the swaps altogether...see why I realised how heavy they were going to be! The next picture of the candles in the box is just over half of the full lot! My suitcase was very heavy, and one of the wheels broke as I got off the bus in Manchester, and had to drag it down the street to the hotel.  Thankfully I don't have to take them back with me to Leeds!

My Digital Studio Library App

Have you downloaded My Digital Studio yet?  I hope you have, because it's so exciting, there's so much content on there for all your digital crafting.  Now there's an easy way to keep track of what you have purchased, with the new My Library for My Digital Studio app.  At the moment, it's only available for iPads, but they are hoping to release the software for iPhones and Android phones very soon.  You can easily see what is new each week, as new content is added all the time.  You can also add items you own to your collection, you can set up wish lists (mine will be huge!!), you can sort your lists to easily find your downloads, search for new downloads, and can link to the online Stampin' Up! store to make purchases.  What more could you want!  Now I just have to hope Santa brings me something shiny in my Christmas stocking this year (hint hint, nudge nudge if Santa is a follower of my blog!)

If you haven't yet downloaded the software, you can get a free 30 day trial by clicking this link here, and if you simply can't wait and want the full version (it contains loads more content) click here, it costs only £13.95.  

Book your party now - extra £25 of hostess benefits during October!

You may be aware that this year is Stampin' Up!'s 25 anniversary. As a result, they are offering loads of promotions and special offers. The latest offer is too good to miss. If you host a workshop with sales reaching £250, you'll get an extra £25 worth of hostess benefits! That's £65 instead of £40! Contact me now to book your workshop during October.

Best Of...Sale-A-Bration

Morning

Here's the latest Best Of 25 Years stamp sets, and this time it's the best of Sale-a-bration.  There's 5 stamps in the set, 4 from previous sale-a-bration sets so you may recognise a few of them.  The set costs £13.95 and comes in clear mount only.  The set is available until the 31st March 2014, or until stocks last.

All that glitters!

Morning!

I went to a 40th birthday party last Saturday, it was fancy dress in the style of 80s glam, Studio 54 and New Romantic. After much browsing, I ended up with a costume that was designed to be a buccaneer which I thought looked a bit Adam Ant. 

I wanted to do a fancy card for the occasion, and what better design than the Wow card that I've made for a few special occasions. I knew the party was going to be glitzy, and I wanted the card to match. Off I went to my local craft shop, and found the perfect papers.  I used a sheet of 12" x 12" Basic Black card stock, and using the Simply Scored Board I scored the lines to make the folds in the card.  I cut out various triangles of the glitter paper, and stuck them onto the front of the card.  

I used the Curly Cute stamp set for the Happy Birthday sentiment, and the numbers are from the Memorable Moments stamp set, stamped with Melon Mambo ink.  I used the Petite Pennants Builder Punch to make the bunting across the top of the card.

Here's the card all tied up with the band around the middle. The Large Oval Punch was used to punch out the numbers, and the Decorative Label Punch was used for the label.

Items Used

All the items (except the glitter paper) can be bought from my online shop.  Click on the links below.