Rubber Stamping - North Wales

Hi ladies Yes! I managed to do some stamping today as I had hoped.  Here is a photo of one of the cards I made; The stamps I used today came as a free gift on a recent magazine of the "Lets Get Crafting" series on Cards & Stamping.  The magazine was £7-99 (a bit pricey), but the free stamps were on an A4 sheet.  Most of the stamps were quite small but layered up or used more than once gave good designs. The garland above is one of the larger stamps & the 2 individual flowers were on there too.  I coloured the flowers with Promarkers. The cards I made were very simple but enjoyable to do - so tomorrow when I get some more stamping in I am hoping to be more adventurous.  Mind you I fell in love with a butterfly & a rather funky cat. If you are interested in seeing the other cards I have put them on my personal blog & you can get to it by clicking HERE I also managed a few domestic duties, before settling down to start on my task for HSNW - I h...

Its 31 March & a Mold II RS member has a birthday Happy Birthday Elma have a lovely day 

Hi ladies Today has been one of my not so good days - so I have not achieved the stamping I had wished to do. As I didn't feel very creative I knuckled down & sorted out designs for future workshops, drafted the instructions & started tidying them up.  Then I also sorted samples for April club meeting & draft notes, tidying them up.  All that paperwork will have to be checked over then put ready for printing. I also have a task for HSNW towards the festival of making 35 basket/boxes.  So I have had a good search amongst templates & patterns I have, because I am trying to merge two designs to come up with what I want.  I am hoping that now I know where I am going on that I will be able to produce the base item with the Hougie board which will be very time saving. These little baskets will also need the HSNW logo on them so tomorrow I will be stamping & then I intend to cut them out with a small Nestabilitie die, which will be attached to the s...

Good evening ladies This morning I had the last session on my latest rubber stamping course workshop.  I had ordered the topics being covered over the weeks so that this last session could be used for recaps & answering any queries along with the opportunity to retry things that perhaps did not go well at home. Topics that we covered again were stamping on shrink plastic - getting a better shape; ultra thick embossing - getting better coverage; the right inks to use Copic markers with. It was a really good session. Talking of Copic markers I have a request - which also includes Promarkers, please.  Is there anywhere that has a chart or list of the right inks to use with each of these markers.  Also any hints & tips sheets.  I have read quite a bit about them on the web - but usually that is someone showing how they coloured in a particular image, especially describing blending. I am quite happy with the basics but I just want to make su...

Hi everyone What a beautiful day it has been - I do hope we are not going to have all these lovely days at the expense of a nice summer.  Come to that Easter & several bank holidays are on the way we don't want to run out of nice weather before then, do we. So! did you all have a nice weekend? I do hope so. This morning I spent a couple of hours with 2 ladies who had been on my first crochet workshop - did I tell you I was going to be doing that?  Honestly - my head.  We had decided to meet up every couple of weeks so I could see how they were getting on & help with any problems, but also to just have a good natter.  It was very pleasant indeed. Then this afternoon I finally took the pictures of the 3 cards I had created from the tags I made a little while back.  I do remember mentioning those, because I recall saying I wasn't too happy with one of them.  Anyway just before starting the blog I went into "my pictures" folder to load the pictur...

Good evening ladies A crafty session of two halves for me today.  Bit like a football game - & I won both halves.  Does anyone know what that statement actually means? I finally completed the cards using the 3 tags with the lady design on them that I had created a few weeks ago.  One of them I am not happy with I think I forgot when to stop doing things.  The other two I am OK with.  Whilst looking for small embellishments just to finish the cards off - I ended up tidying a box & sorting its contents.  I had used it as a "dumping" box - so the contents are now sorted into their proper boxes. I also sorted a few more items to give to Clare from the Mold club to help raise money for MS.  I really do not see the point of having them just laying around in boxes in my craft room if I am not using them.  By giving them to Clare - they are getting used by people who can think of something to do with them & the money is hel...

Wow! a milestone reached.  This is the 200th blog since I started this "new" website. Today I joined in one of the challenges that I enjoy doing.  It is the one for the CD Sunday Challenge where the theme is Wild Theme.  I used a Joanna Sheen -  Jayne Netley Mayhew image of a beautiful owl.  If you click HERE you can pop over to my website & take a peek - if you wish. As it says on that blog - I am now off upstairs to do some more crafting. Chat again later.

Its 26 March & a Mold II RS member has a birthday Happy Birthday Rita have a lovely day 

Hi everyone I had a great day at Caroline's today.  We spent some time talking about the workshop we will be running for CSNW & coming up with ideas.  These discussions gave me ideas for my half of the Mold & Mold II workshop with Sue, & also some ideas for Show & Tell sessions during the year.  So all in all a great brainstorming session.  I think I had my brain with me!  Shows how bad I get now though - I had to write myself a list of what I had decided I would try out, so that I didn't forget what those decisions were.  Sad, isn't it? I have a new sort of card to work on & some new techniques to try out - so all I need now is to shut myself away & play.  Now! will that be before I finish off what I was doing yesterday or after.  Yes, yes - I do know the answer - finish one job before starting another. Oh before I forget - although I am sure I have made this statement quite a few times.  I talk about CSNW w...

Hi everyone It has been a good day today, craft wise. I had a really good workshop this morning with six ladies - I mentioned it some time back - it was "Using the Hougie Board".  a good mixture - all but one lady already had a board; one had unpacked hers this morning & the others had "dabbled" in using it.  Although I say "dabbled" one lady had worked out how to do the multi-easel card. Again it was a time to set me thinking - here I was showing people how to use a piece of equipment that they had bought, as had I.  But I had not used mine much.  Once again I come away from a workshop thinking - why have I told those ladies what to do yet not do it myself.  So! this afternoon I put that to rights & had a play - a serious one.  I already had some images stamped & coloured so the playtime created some layering sheets for them.  Next stage would be to spend some time tomorrow putting it all together - but I am visiting my friend Caroline ...

It's 24 March & a Mold RS Member has a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Pauline Have a great day

Good evening ladies It was a little late last night for me to upload the pictures from the Mold II meeting, there are several stages to doing this & if I am tired I stand a chance of messing it up.  So it is best I leave it till the next day. We had a good evening - a small group, as there were several ladies missing, a couple of whom we have not seen this year, so I must write & check they are alright.  The project for the evening was a multi-fold card with interesting optional cutouts in it.  I say optional cutouts - I think the option was not having the cutouts.  Carolyn brought along lots of samples & very kindly made us all a template for the base card & one of the shapes, which she laminated for us, so they are going to last. A couple of the samples are show on the Mold II Club page. I didn't get to photograph any completed cards as I think most ladies concentrated on trying out the different shapes.  Thank you Carolyn it was a good...

Hi - it's me again The project for Mold last Thursday was returning to Friendly Plastic, which we had played with a long long time ago.  I did a very brief demonstration of a couple of techniques & then left the ladies to play. When the pieces of work were being brought up to be photographed if someone had tried something different I told everyone what had been done.  One member - Lynne, had used it quite a bit before & she showed how to make some little flowers from square pieces.  Someone else had softened some small pieces together patchwork style & the stamped into the piece.  Very interesting finish. Here is the slide show;  Amazing the things that can be produced with this product & this is only scratching the surface of what can be done. I noticed when looking back on the posts that I didn't mention, when CSNW had this as their project - that one member actually embedded a small piece of FP into the base piece the stamped into it with ...

Hello everyone I am sorry I haven't chatted for a couple of days.  On Friday I was in Brecon all day & by the time I got home I was somewhat tired.  Unfortunately such a long day had a knock on affect & it left me pretty tired all weekend.  So all I managed to do was prepare the photos from the Mold meeting on Thursday.  For the show & tell the theme was a colour one - coffee, cream & aqua.  I must say that everyone did really well with the colours - some of the photos don't show that to their best advantage.  I have tried to adjust colour a little to help.  So, here is the slide show & I will be back with photos from the evenings project; 

Good afternoon ladies Well, as I said yesterday I have uploaded the pictures of Sheelagh's journal.  I have not "touched up" the photos, or cropped them, although a couple I did brighten a little. One of the pages shows that Sheelagh included this journal in the WI Show & won 3rd prize - well done to you Sheelagh. Hopefully more pictures tomorrow after tonights meeting.  Although, I am out all day tomorrow so it will depend on me not being too tired when I get home.  If I am then I will add them on Saturday. Bye for now 

Animations provided by MySpaceAnimations.com  Whether you are Irish or not have a lovely day.  I have a favourite Irish blessing & I wish it for all of you; An Old Irish Blessing May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours! Yes indeed. 

Hi everyone Just popping in for a quick chat.  I really don't have a lot to report on today.  I had a very enjoyable meeting with the festival committee ladies as I mentioned yesterday.  We met down at Daleside Garden Centre & chatted over a couple of cups of coffee. Earlier in the day I took the photographs of the journal (last years project) made by Sheelagh of Mold club. I hope to put the slide show up tomorrow morning.  Then I prepared everything for the Mold club night tomorrow night, which reminds me I didn't do everything - I haven't cut up the Friendly Plastic - must do that first thing. More tomorrow which may include the photos from the club evening as well.

Good evening everyone I really enjoyed trying that watercolour technique with my workshop ladies today.  It was very well received.  I have to now do a proper sample.  As it will not be something that we can do in an evening I will make up a sample then write up some notes which I will put on the tutorial page. It has been a while since my stamping included water colouring - so again it is time I did something about it. Today's session was part of a 5-lesson course - but I think this particular session will make a stand alone workshops as well.  So Lesley is going to include it in the April programme. We also used distress inks & alcohol inks this morning too, but rather briefly, so I hope they too will become separate sessions. Tomorrow I am meeting with Caroline, Karen & Liz (the festival committee), for a chat about the festival.  The website will have the booking form soon & the letters to those of you who have attended recently are on their w...

Good evening everyone Well! I have done it again - made a card & then forgotten to photograph it to show you.  It was the card for our grand-daughter.  I used an image I have on a CD (My Craft Studio) called Mystical Wonders.  It contains some really beautiful fairy images - not cute - but elegant, & I added some blink by putting some flat backed jewels on it.  I have one of the images left over to use on another card - but none of the background papers etc - so I might just photograph that to show you. I have another rubber stamping course workshop tomorrow & we will be doing some watercolour work with the inks.  Did you see Barbara Grey on Create & Craft yesterday?  She did a very neat watercolour background - so I think I will show them that as one of the ideas, it will be nice to sue something that has just beenn seen. Over the weekend I had a good look round the Internet for ideas to build in to the club programme & a...

I have today added the dates that Caroline is available to do a workshop for you.  The information is on the events page.

It's 14 March & a CSNW RS Member has a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Pat Have a great day 

Hi everyone - I hope you are having a pleasant weekend. Yesterday I told you about my stamping session - so here are some of the pictures as promised; On this tag I used Tattered Rose & Milled Lavender.  As I stated yesterday I start with the lighter colour, then go to the darker colour & often go back to the lighter colour again to complete the blending. This tag was made with Fired Brick & Wild Honey.  I often use FB with Vintage Photo but that would have been too dark for this image. Here is the piece of resist technique that I also did - I used Crushed Olive & Wild Honey for this; Whilst stamping the tags I made one using the same colours as this resist piece & the two go together well of course, so that is what I will be putting together today, but not until I have made a birthday card for our grand-daughter who will be 15 on Wednesday. That is it for today.  'Bye for now. 

No! I'm distress(ed) Hi everyone This afternoon I managed to play for a while.  I had quite a few labels left over from the last club nights at Mold & Mold II - so I thought I would start using them.  So! out came the "Distress" inks & one of my favourite stamps. I stamped the image & embossed with clear EP, then coloured the tag with the distress inks.  I like to work with 2 colours & as is standard practice I start with the palest colour first, then come in with the darker complimentary colour.  I also sometimes go back over with the lighter colour to tone things down if I feel it is too dark.  I forgot to take a note of the colours for each tag.  I have taken photos & will blog them tomorrow, by which time I will sort out which colours I used. Following my rubber stamping workshop yesterday I realised that these days I don't do a lot of resist work - so thought I would round today's play session off with some resist.  A...

It's 10 March & a Mold II RS Member has a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Carol Have a great day

Hi again Just realised I put a title of  "2011 challenge project" on the last blog, then didn't say anything about it. I have finally decided what it will be.  I was going to announce it at the next club nights, but as CSNW has already had their March meeting I thought I would mention it here now. The challenge is to make one card for every letter of the alphabet - that is the letter will decided the theme of each card.  Now that means making 26 cards & we have already got through 2 months of the year, but I know you will meet this challenge.  Cards can be any size, shape & colour - but each must include the letter it is for & the theme should be reasonably obvious.  For exanple if you choose Apple for A we would expect to see an apple theme.  But do please stretch your imagination.  Oh yes nearly forgot - there must be some stamping somewhere on the card.  I do realise that some of the letters will prove a test of crea...

Hi everyone I am sorry I didn't pop back yesterday for a blog - but had a visit from my brother who was staying for the night, before returning to the Isle of Man.  So! once again craft room had to be cleared for use as a bedroom.  It only meant clearing stuff off the bed & making sure boxes weren't in the way of him being able to close the door.  I really must try to avoid putting stash on the bed & be more tidier behind myself.  I wish! Now I have to get everything ready for my rubber stamping workshop tomorrow morning - I am going to tell them about resist techniques, bleach, & mica products.  Some backgrounds created with household items - salt, cling film etc. Might get to take some photos for you to see. 'Bye for now.

It's 9 March & a Mold RS Member has a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Rhiannon Have a great day

CHANGE OF DATE FOR WORKSHOP Hello everyone Sue & I have made a decision to change the date of the workshop for Mold & Mold II.  It had been decided to hold it on Saturday 30 April - we did think it would be nice after the Friday (Royal Wedding!?!) - but then of course the Monday is a bank holiday too.  So on the basis that it is the first bank holiday of the year & people might want to get out & about we have decided to move it. Sue is checking with the hall for availability so we are now looking at Saturday 21 May.  I will update you all at the meetings.

Hi ladies Just popping in to let you know that Caroline is having a sale - so I thought I would put the link  HERE  just click for  a chance to get yourself a bargain!  There is also a link to her websit in the side bar. Hopefully back later

Hi again everyone Today I have spent quite a bit of time sorting & tidying my photos in the "My Pictures" folder on my new laptop - that came across from my old laptop.  Where I had created some folders for a specific purpose I found I had duplicate photos which is a bit silly.  So I decided that I should sort them more logically.  Also I copied photos over from my netbook (which is the computer that I use for my family history & for blogging) that were not to do with these 2 subjects.  Plus copying photo folders from my laptop to my netbook that were to do with blogging & family history.  I think it has worked ok. In the process I found a couple of folders that I had not looked at for some time & one of them contained pictures that I had taken at a workshop that CSNW had a long time back with a lady called Fiona using the material Tyvek.  I think that Fiona did visit each of the clubs but it was CSNW that got a days workshop.  ...

Good evening ladies Last night I opened an email from Joanna of Mold club telling me about a card she has made that has been featured on someone else's website. The website is owned by a lady called Eileen  & you can look at her blog by clicking on her name.  Joanna's card is featured in the blog for yesterday (Friday 4 March).  I too have been visiting Eileen's blog fairly frequently after a Googling session for "embossing folders"  included her blog in the list.  She has quite a lot of information about their use. To see Joanna's card you can click on the link above for Eileens blog, or go to Joanna's own blog which you will find listed on the side panel. 'Bye for now

Hi, I'm back again Here is the slide show for the project at CSNW meeting on Wednesday evening.  Re-Introducing Friendly Plastic.  Sorry a couple are a bit fuzzy - but great fun was had, & the beauty is it is great for toppers on cards because it is so light.  The card won't fall over.  Then of course there are lots of things that can be made. Right I am off to bed, got to an interesting point in my book on my Kindle. Have a great weekend & I hope to talk to you again tomorrow. Night night.

Good evening everyone Sorry I didn't pop back again yesterday as I said I would - other things took over. I have 2 lots of photos for you from the CSNW meeting on Wednesday - their Show & Tell, plus their project for the evening. So I am going to put the slide show here of their Show & Tell  - which was the sketch - plus a couple of pictures of the toilet roll album made by one of the ladies - Verena.  Then I will do a second post for the slide show of their project. Here is their Show & Tell;  There were quite a few ladies missing on Wednesday so just a short slide show on this one.  Now for the photos of Verena's toilet roll inner album; These albums really turned out well.  I must sit down & make another one myself. That's it for this blog - I'm off to sort out the next one.  The CSNW project. 

It's 4 March & a Mold RS Member has a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Jo    (Joan B) Have a great day 

Good morning ladies Well! my forgetting head was on again last night. I was very organised with everything for the evening's project & with the programmes for the meetings for April through to June.  BUT - I forgot to take along the pegs for the April Show & Tell - altered pegs.  I think my head was still in February thinking I didn't need them yet. So! this is the outcome - the Show & Tell that is listed for April will take place in May & the May Show & Tell will move to April.  I am going to put a note on the  CSNW club page as well. Members of Mold & Mold II needn't panic - the pegs for you are now in your club boxes - so they won't get forgotten. My apologies CSNW ladies - but we had a good night didn't we? I will be back later with photos from last nights meeting.

It's 3 MARCH & a Mold II RS Member has a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Carolyn Have a great day

Hello everyone Yesterday was very quiet so there wasn't really anything to blog about. But today I have some photos to share with you of a toilet roll inner album that Dot from Mold II club made following the play with them at club night. Dot has taken the album a little further & has added mount board covers & she also made a beautiful box to put it in.  Just shows what you can do with something we just throw away. I had a workshop this morning down at PBC - the second session in a rubber stamping course.  We did some Ultra thick embossing which was fun.  I realised when I got home that I rarely do any of that these days.  Must rectify that situation soon. More tomorrow, when I hope to get some stamping done & also it is the March meeting for CSNW - so hopefully some photos from there too, Here is Dot's album - I have deliberately blurred the writing on the label, as this was personal to Dot;