Just chatting

Good evening ladies
Quite a quiet day today - well after the workshop anyway.

Once again a good workshop - did I mention it was for the Hougie board?  Looking around craft shops you wonder if another gadget is required let alone another version of gadgets already created.  I thought that when I first saw the Hougie board - but I have to admit it is very handy & useful.  I have several printed "templates" of cards & you have to cut card to size then put markings all over the place before scoring & further cutting.  All that can get a bit confusing - on the card I mean.  Too many marks is not good.  This is where the Hougie board comes into its own. We had great fun this morning creating different patterns on standard card size pieces of card - putting it to the use as of an embossing folder in a Big Shot or similar machine.  OK you can't do the fancy swirly patterns but as one of the ladies said she wished she had had the board when doing some wedding invitations.  How elegant they would have looked with a few embossed lines.  It was interesting to watch them as they thought of ways to use the board & how it could change the look of their cards without having to buy lots of equipment.  By the way we didn't just try out embossing patterns for the fronts of cards - they made a very nice stepper card & the basis of a box to clearly show how easy the board makes those.

One of the main things I like the board for is concertina folding.  I don't know about you but in the past I have carefully measured the spacing for concertina folding, made sure (as I thought) that I was scoring the lines nice & straight & then finding that when the strip was folded it was on the slant. This was not good for - lets say - the spine of a book.  This would make the book sit crooked.  Now with the Hougie board my concertina folds are perfect, which helps me with something else I enjoy making - rosettes.  Mind you this morning - do you think I could get it to lay flat - it insisted staying in an upright ring.  But as I said to the ladies - you are in charge of paper & card - not it in charge of you.  So we won & all had beautiful rosettes.

After a little bit of lunch back home I took my neighbour for a little drive.  She had had quite a bad few weeks & was feeling very low.  We just drove through the country lanes out towards Holt & on, stopping at a very nice garden centre for a cup of coffee & a sticky bun.  A good old natter was had all the way there & all the way back.

So that was my day - very pleasant indeed.  I hope your day was enjoyable & satisfying too.

Tomorrow I am going to try & have another stamping day - so hope to have some news on that for you along with pictures.

Have a good night.