Deep breath and ready to craft.

As well as being a crafter I'm also a florist and have my own shop which I also sell my crafts (and Mums) in. In early August my shop got flooded so I had to be closed while the building was dried out and cleaned. I decided to use this time wisely and get some crafting done. I started with making cards. I've made them in sets based on style or particular stamp set. I found this worked well of me as I felt productive achieving a good number of cards made and think they will look good on display in the shop. Because of this I've split them in to several blog posts.
So just so this first post has some pictures here's three cards I made using a tilda card background pad I'd picked up at hobbycraft. I added some patterned luggage tags and die cut bunting pendants from my stash and stamped on them in a complimenting blue.

More posts to follow soon about the other cards I've been making.

Partney Summer Fair

On the 9th of August we attended Partney summer fair. This was a very pleasant fair with quite a few stalls, some vintage farm machinery, games, refreshments and dog show.
It was abit windy so we ended up tying the gazebo to the car but with this and a wind break we managed to not fly away.

I kept my stall looking abit like I did at the Langton fair with the gingham cloths and rustic crates and dried articles, as I think this works well.

New additions to this stall as well as the crochet bunting (which will have its own post soon) were felt owl decorations and Mums tatted bookmarks 

 We hope to attend this fair again next year as the organizers are keen to expand on the craft fair side of it.

Langton Summer fete

Had a stall at a local summer fete, I've done a couple of Christmas ones here but not tried a summer one, was looking forward to it as the Christmas ones had always been nice and the people who run them very friendly.
We set off in the morning car packed with gazebo, tables and plenty of lovely stock in the pouring rain.

Picked a spot on the field and started to set up, not long after getting the tables arranged realized the gazebo was not as waterproof as we may have liked. So everything back in the car and wait for it to stop. Luckily it did and we managed to set up the stall with a mixture of crafts and rustic items from the shop.

I was rather please with the layout I like how the wood crates gave height and interest while adding to the look. I'm hoping to add another table to the layout next time I do a gazebo stall. I think this will help bring people in as I can put it at right angles to the main table and stop everything seeming so far back.








At the fete there was also something I hadn't seem before, chicken racing, they have five chickens each with a colour and people bet on which one would win all the names of the people who bet on the winning chicken were then placed in a draw for the prize. It was rather fun and exciting even if my chosen chuck went backwards.

One of the new items on my stall this time was my crochet flower brooches which I displayed on luggage tags. Which I think worked well.

Looking forward to the next one I'm doing Partney Fair on Saturday the 9th of July.

Latest craftstyle samples.

Craft style products have expanded their cut and create range here are the samples I made with the new designs.

 I decided to be more creative with the shape of my cards for this set of samples.
So here is the first one for this I stuck together two square cards the cut away slanting portions of two sections to create the zigzag. I then layered them with backing paper in this red industrial look, (which I think is great for boys cards) and topped it with one of the new dinosaur designs and sentiment.

The next card was a card in a box which is becoming a popular style of card. I found instructions for this here a very clear and comprehensive tutorial. This card featured one of the new robot designs and I felt the style of card went well with it. I enjoyed making this style of card and look forward to doing more like it in future.

 The next card is a style I've been wanting to try for a while, a lever card. It has taken me quite a while to find clear instructions I have found some here they are no in English but the pictures are easy to follow. I used two square card blanks to make this and covered them in different backing papers and added an assembled topper and sentiment.   I have added a couple more photos of this card so you can see how it folds.

For change from just cards I created this cute door hanger. I stuck together two pieces of the backing paper, (which is quite thick so is sturdy enough) and then decorated is with monkey toppers and stamped my own cheeky sentiment. I think its all rather cute and shows that you don't just have to make cards with this products your and expand and do home decor bits too.

My last two cards are abit more normal this purple dinosaur is put on an easel card. With backing paper and sentiment creating a stopper.

And this one showing the other robot design is on a normal card blank, I will say that these designs do make quite large toppers, and are very bold and bright, excellent for children. The photograph doesn't show it very well but some of the white patches on this card are a complimenting embossed card with a zigzag pattern on.






So there you go samples done and sent back to craftstyle.
More crafting coming soon and not too but longer before the bumper blog about all the crafting I have been doing to help with my sisters wedding.

Say hello to spot

Sorry for not blogging for a while been busy with work, wedding stuff for my sister and changing computers.
                                                                                                                   

So still busy crocheting I picked up this brilliant set in Hobby Craft to crochet a giraffe.
The kit was brilliant can with full clear instructions, a crochet hook, large plastic needle and more than enough wool and stuffing.

 I got cracking on him, you make four individual legs first and sew them together you then crochet the rest of the body and neck on to them stuff as you go along.

The head is then made and stuffed and the ears and horns made separately and sewn on before the head is attached to the neck .

And here is the finished chap we called him spot.

Since making spot I've also created another giraffe in DK cotton in yellow, brown ,white and green stripes for my sister. I found the cotton makes him abit stiffer which helps with the standing up.

Hoping to create more of these in different colors to have on craft stalls at events.

The one I love.

With the rush of Valentines day now over in the shop I've got time to do a blog post about the card I made for my beloved.

The large Love in the bottom right corner is done using some free stamps I got with an issue of Simply Homemade, its a Kirstie Allsopp clear stamp set and I like how the four letters are all separate so I can place them vertically like on this card or horizontally or in a square.
The banner part of the card is make using some products from my latest Stampin up haul. The Banner blast stamp set and coordinating punch are both part of the Sale-A-Bration  promotion I placed the punched out flags on foam pads over some bakers twine which is stick with a bow at each end.
The card is stamped using my new  stampin up ink pads in Strawberry Slush, Baked Brown Sugar and Pistachio Pudding. I like the colour scheme it says valentine without being the traditional red giving it more a quirky fresh feel.
All in all I'm pleased with this card and it was well received.

Craftstyle Occasions Samples

I've done a few more Craft style products samples which may be part of show going out on Create and craft on the 1st of February.
This range is called Occasions and is a selection of die cut toppers and coordinating backing sheets. The range includes, Valentines day, Mothers day, Easter, Fathers day, Wedding, Sympathy and Get well soon. Its nice to see a kit that give you these different themes, there's a lot of Birthday stuff out there already.

So on to the samples I made,The first one is from the wedding theme, I created a side stepper card from a piece of dot embossed card then used the backing sheet to cover the front section and across the back step, I also ran a thin strip of the embossed card across the front. Toppers were added to the large front section and the middle step and the card was finished off with some little hearts, also from the die cut sheet. I like the colours of this theme and think the bird motifs are right on trend, the foiling also gives it just the right amount of sparkle.

For this card I used one of the bases I was supplied with one side of which was purposely smaller than the other. (I'm personally not sure why so going to see if they are on the show and explained). I made the two sides the same size by adding a piece of striped backing paper from the sympathy theme to the back of the front side I then added another smaller piece to the front to create a layered look. On the topper sheet there is several sizes so I drew around one of the bigger ones on to white card and cut it out so it could frame the topper I had chosen to use. The corners were adorned with little flower embellishments.
The muted cool colour pallet of this theme works well for sympathy I think.

Another unusual shaped card this time a double easel card. Again I have used embossed card to make this base this time with a star theme to be in-keeping with the Fathers day theme. One side of the easel has a large topper on and the other a smaller topper with dot embellishments, which I added sliver stars to. the bas of the card has some of the backing sheet which matches up well with the larger topper, the stop for the easels is created using some of the boarder strip that comes on the backing sheet and more stars are added to the corners to keep up the red and blue theme. This is a fun theme with strong male colours and on trend moustache graphic.          

With the Fathers day theme there is also a Mothers day sheet, which was used to create this card.  For this I used some of the back sheet, a crisp bright pink polka dot. I placed strips paper shaped at the bottom to play on the bunting trend this also has the added benefit of filling a lot of the card while using the patterned paper economically (everyone wants to get the most out of everything.)  The sentiment topper is added to the bottom corner and a strip of boarder from the backing sheet is placed across the banners. I added a circle of mirror card and a paper flower to one of the die cut flowers off the sheet to finish off this card.

The last sample I did in this set was a simple Easter card. I took one of the larger topper and cut out the bunny on another so with some foam pads could create some depth to the topper. I also added some gold card to the back of the sentiment so it ties in with the gold foiling on the other elements.This sheet also has some cute chicks on it.

So look out for my cards of the show.