Ross Papercraft Show

Ross Papercraft Show Meadowbank Sports Centre Edinburgh

The craft group went adventuring over to Scotland's capital to explore the Ross Papercraft Show. We were well impressed. Free parking, cheap entry, reasonably-priced teas, coffees and snacks - interesting well-stocked stalls with friendly exhibitors, demos - we had fun!

There was more buzz than there had been at the ICHF craft fair in the SECC, so we hope this fair expands to Glasgow! We had conserved our spending so still found things to purchase...no surprise there!

Alice's stash

Ruth's stash

I was entranced to find a small Hougie board - just right for carrying in my craft bag. It has centimetre score measurements on one side and inches on the other. I took green as I just knew that craftywhippet would go for pink! Mc Oyster from Cupar, Fife sold them and we had a great chat with Adrian.

We stocked up on decopatch papers for our next craft night. There was a lot of excitement over new rubber stamp designs and Jeanette went straight home and made a card with them! Hopefully, more details will follow. Lovely wee stencil dies for stringing on ribbon were so cute, how could we resist!

Ribbon Buttons

There were templates from Crafting Buddies for placing gemstones or pearls on - see the blog post coming up soon showing a couple of baby cards I've made.

Pearls

We've also been busy with We R Memory Keepers Candy Box Punch Board and hope to have a new video on YouTube soon. It let us make wonderful cracker-type boxes for little Easter eggs! Loads of other possibilities abound...

Tasty Taster for video

 Have a joyful Easter yourselves.

There'll be Bluebirds Over...

Ruth's set of Marianne Creatables

Plans can go awry. The craft group had in mind to decorate the second mask, but as one member was ill, we postponed that, and an on-the-wing card was churned out for us by Jeanette on her Grand Calibur using dies.

Beautiful glitzy paper was tried but proved very fibrous to cut. However, perseverance paid off and we got a result, though foil card was easier to work with.

Using Marianne Creatables dies, the birdcage and bird on branch were put through the machine and, with slender pieces of foam pad, laid on embossed backgrounds. The door on the cage actually opens, which is a nice touch. Looks like the bird flew free!

Bluebird

Yes, that did take all evening! We did an inordinate amount of talking compared with crafting, but hey, it was fun, and Ruth and I are known as Craft & Chat!

Tatty Teddy Easter

We got on with our filming yesterday, having prepared all week with waterfall, stepper cards, and digital cards from Spring Chic CD-rom. Now to film the introduction and ending...
Guess what? I forgot to check the battery for the remote control! However, that only required one of us to get off our seat and manually start/stop the video camera. Giggling together as usual, afterwards my brain suddenly kicked into gear and remembered I had a spare battery, where? In the camera case, of course. So we just filmed a little extra bit for the end of the video. We hope you enjoy Tatty Teddy Easter and look forward to your comments. What will we film next?

Here are some of the cards we made:

Tatty Teddy Easter sample card for Hospice

Tatty Teddy Easter card packs for assembling at Hospice

Tatty Teddy Baby Dedication card

Tatty Teddy Easter Waterfall cards

Tatty Teddy Spring Chic Digital cards

Tatty Teddy Easter mini Gatefold card

Tatty Teddy Engagement card

Tatty Teddy Ruby 40th Anniversary Stepper card

Tatty Teddy Birthday card for a crafter

Going with the Flow

Hi,

We are finally getting organised and back into crafting demos and blog posts plus a quick tip on YouTube for removing dies from card. There may be other tips that we can add as we go along as I am always eager to find an "easier way", especially regarding measuring!

In the very near future we plan to have some cards on display giving different ideas and we will talk through how they were made. The theme is Tatty Teddy. Alice and I have both been busy with ideas so that we can have different cards to show you plus quick and easy for new crafters. 

Packaging Tatty Teddy

When we got products like our Tatty Teddy card kits, I used the packaging pictures for other cards by running them through the Big Shot or Cuttlebug with the likes of a Spellbinders die circle, oval, square or rectangle, depending on the shape. To release the die easily you can use greaseproof paper between the die and the card. But Ruth has another little Tip which you can see on our one minute video on YouTube.

Tatty Teddy With Love A5 Decoupage Card Kit

Tatty Teddy packaging shapes

Resting Ted

The craft group met last night for the first time since November! My project was a birthday card using the Funstamps "Resting Ted" rubber stamp.  Start off by stamping the whole thing onto coloured card for the chair colour wanted; stamp again for the teddy colour; again for the cushion colour; again for a newspaper or book/ Bible. These images are then cut out and built up decoupage-style with silicone or foam pads.

Funstamps F-Q100

Using A5/ half-fold or A6/ quarter-fold size card, decorate the card with wallpaper, flooring and skirting board, using whatever decorative card or paper you like. Source simple images for a sidetable/ lamp or standard lamp, cut out and foam pad onto your card beside the armchair; draw in a power socket for the lamp. A wee rug can be added at the front, but I forgot about that and laid a pile of birthday presents and cards on the floor instead as a birthday card for my husband!

Using cutting dies like spellbinders can make a frame for a mirror (with shiny card) or picture or words; or cut out acetate for a window with a scene behind it. My new home card for a friend shows framed words.

Happy Birthday

New Home

The group enjoyed getting back into creative mode as some of us had wound down over the holidays and thought all creativity had gone!

Back again!

We had another ink dusting evening at our craft group. Ruth had previously shown us how to make little ink-dusted pictures on Spellbinders shapes so I thought 'Christmas'! and devised Romantic Rectangle shapes with ink dusting right across both pieces and the card to give a one piece pinky-toned night sky. Sheena Douglass Christmas tree stamp fitted one shape and Inkylicious Night Before Christmas on the other. Both were glitter-stickled and lo! one card completed.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Some of my recent cards:

To mark my Son's 1st Father's Day

My Son and Daughter-in-law's 3rd Anniversary

My Special Daughter-in-law's Birthday

Ruby Wedding

Next up is Hobbycrafts and Crafts for Christmas at the SECC down by the Clyde! This weekend! We're off, and hope our energy holds out...

Ruby Baby Summertime

Well, where has the time gone since I last blogged? I can't say it's been because I've been out sunning myself, because there has been tremendous rain throughout the "summer" (and I use the word loosely!) here in the UK.

First of all on 13 July, the Great Normano and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We went out for a meal with our family, including Evan on his first big outing since his birth event!

The girls from the craft group produced lovely ruby cards for us, which were greatly appreciated.

Then we went on holiday to our old haunt of Scarborough, North Yorkshire on England's east coast. Amazingly we had a lovely sunny, dry week!

While we were away Ruth had her big event of becoming a Grandmother to baby Leo!

 I didn't do any crafting while on holiday but just look at this sculpture on Marine Drive...

I did however visit a craft shop in Scarborough: Craft Inspiration and bought some nice Marianne dies.

Home to the Olympics, which mostly took place in London, though there was some football in Scotland's National Stadium, Hampden, which is right by where Ruth lives.

Wenlock Mascot in Glasgow Central Station

Hopefully, that brings us up to date with Craft & Chat. The Craft group hasn't got going yet after the summer break, but I'll keep you posted. We finished last time by doing Inkylicious pictures.

3 Die-Cutting Machines

Ooh, it's here! It was delivered today - how fast was that from Card Craft UK
Now to check where not to cut! - and get my tree die back from Jane to try.

Big Shot

As you know, the tree die was left to Jane's tender ministrations.
She emailed me and said,

Alice. Your tree die cut like a dream on the big shot.

I used one shim about 200grm and ran it through twice, turning the die on the 2nd run through. Then tried the die again just putting it through the machine once with the shim and it cut out no problem. Just needed a wee bit more wiggling to get the bits out.

I just might be investing in this die now.

So guess what? Yup, I've ordered a Big Shot machine, because I would like to buy more of these lovely Memory Box dies.