Stampin Up Christmas Wreath Class

So, the date has been set for my next class and this one is a morning where you will be able to make your own gorgeous Christmas wreath to display in your home.

The wreaths you will make will vary slightly from the one in the photos below but they will still feature the vintage feel, the snowflakes and the jingle bells, which finish the whole thing off perfectly.

This will be held at my house in Brentwood on Saturday 7th December and will cost £8. It will run from 10am until about 12.30, or when we have finished. Places for this are very limited and will need to be booked in advance so please contact me if you would like to attend.

If you would like to take part in making this wreath but are not local to Brentwood then I can post you the things you will need to make it along with the instructions. If you would like this option then please contact me.

Claire

Stampin' Up Demonstrator News

So, I have not blogged on here for months and months but I wanted to share the news that I am now an official Stampin' Up Demonstrator for the Brentwood and surrounding area.

I have been doing it for about a month now and held my first workshop a couple of weeks ago. The workshop involved making Christmas cards and we used both the Snow Days stamp set and also the Festive Flurries stamp and die set - which I have to say, is my favourite set to use so far.

Here are some of the cards that we made:

I also have an online shop which makes it easier for anyone who wants to order anything - they don't have to even contact me, They can just pop the items into the basket and pay for them! Simple as that. http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/clairewolfe/

I will be holding more workshops at my house in Brentwood and I'm looking at launching some virtual workshops and parties as well so make sure you watch this space. I will keep everyone posted about the goings on.

Claire

Mothers Day Crafting - The Gifts

There were two things that I made my Mum this year - a case for her tablet computer and an apron.

Tablet Case

I found a pattern to make tablet cases which I had to try. I experimented first making one for my Kindle Fire HD which worked quite well and was fairly easy to do so I decided I could make Mum one.

This is the finished product. It was made with some Cath Kidston style material and lined with pink. It's slightly padded as well, which was created by sandwiching some wadding in between the two layers of material.

It was only my second time making button holes (the first being for the case I made) and I think I got the hang of it quite quickly. It was a perfect fit as well and she really liked it.

Apron

I fell in love with this black and pink flowered material when I saw it on the market stall and knew I had to make an apron for Mum with it. She has a lot of aprons that my nan used to make, but they are all wearing out so I adapted a few patterns and made her a new one.

I lined it with black material to make it more sturdy and give it a more professional finish:

There is a large pocket on the front as well which I divided into two by sewing a zig zag stitch down the middle of it.

The apron is then edged with some pink bias binding tape and finished with the straps. The straps were made by cutting out the material, folding it in half and sewing it with right sides together. I turned them inside out with the help of a large safety pin and ironed them flat. I then sewed the straps on and carried on with the sewing to decorate the edges.

I was very pleased with the results, even though the apron was a little bit too long and the pockets too deep, but it fitted around the waist and was the perfect gift!

Claire

Mothers Day Crafting - The Card

So, it was Mother's Day in the UK last Sunday - 10th March, and as usual I had to think up some new ideas of things to make my mother.

First came the card. I wanted to experiment with double embossing, based on an article that I'd seen in the latest issue of Craft Stamper magazine.

This was the first attempt. I inked the raised edge of the embossing folder with versamark ink before running it through the machine. I then sprinkled clear embossing powder on and melted it to create a resist surface.

I then took 3 co-ordinating Tim Holtz distress stains in peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade and shaded lilac, and dabbed some of the ink to a resist mat surface, being careful not to mix the inks together. I then swiped the card through the ink so it stuck to the parts that weren't covered with the clear powder.

I wasn't overly pleased with the result, so I decided I would cut out the good butterflies and use them as individual embellishments on the card.

I then had another idea to try the double embossing the other way round! This time, I swiped the distress stain straight from the bottle onto the card, in rainbow stripes.

Then I put it in the embossing folder and ran it through the machine. Then I took the versamark ink and gently swiped it over the raised parts and covered these with white embossing powder. After shaking off the excess, I touched up and parts that had been missed with a versamark pen. This left a piece of card which looked like this:

I trimmed off the edges and used this piece as a backing to the card. I embellished the rest of the card with matching flowers, buttons and the butterfly I had cut out and here is the perfect spring time mothers day card:

Read my other post to find out what I made my mum as her present....

Claire

60 years memory album

At the end of January, my aunty reached the big 60 and as a special present for her, I decided to make her a memory album with some carefully selected pictures from hundreds of photo albums. It was hard to choose which ones to use as I couldn't fit them all in, but I was pleased with the results.

I decided to group it into chronological order and I used quite a lot of the new products from the new Papermania Vintage Notes collection. I bought some of the 12x12 paper and was pleased to find that it had a linen finish to it, giving it that high quality feel.

For the cover I bought some of the adhesive material that Papermania have started doing. It was quite hard to punch through with the bind it all machine and I had to carefully trim some of the excess bits with my craft knife:

The doily was die-cut into vellum with one of the new Xcut dies and I had to spend ages poking all the intricate holes out. I used chipboard letters which I painted with pearlescent pink paint, and some adhesive numbers from the Papermania birthday range. The extra large flowers were layered together and finished with a pink button in the middle.

I won't put all the pages on here just in case there are some pictures that she doesn't like! But some of my favourite pages are these:

I had lots of black and white pictures of when her and my mum were young which worked very well together on a double page spread:

I had some mini banner stamps which I used to date each picture. For an extra special finish I heat embossed them with black powder.

My next favourite is the garden double page spread. I found some film strip embellishments from Crafty Individuals and the colours in the strip matched the colours in the garden perfectly.

Which is then followed by this page. I searched everywhere for some sewing themed paper to match the cross stitch pictures I had, and I found a lovely 12x12 glittered sheet which worked so well. Unfortunately, the pictures themselves took up quite a bit of space so I couldn't use as much of the paper as I would have liked to.

The album was presented to my aunty a few weeks ago and she loved it - which I'm very glad about as it did take quite a long time to do.

Now I've got the buzz for making memory albums I need to find some more pictures from the many photo albums!

Valentines Day Jewellery

I've just realised that my blog has reached over 1000 views - a great milestone to reach.

It's been snowing for over 4 hours now and doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon so a perfect chance to make some lovely necklaces and write a blog post about them.

With valentines day just around the corner, why not buy a lovely unique handmade necklace for your loved one. You won't find anything similar as they are all one of a kind.

This leaf necklace is currently my favourite - I really love these unusual beads.

 

 

And my next favourite are these pearl necklace and earing sets. There is one with dark purple beads and another with mint green beads interspersed with pale pink crystals.

They are all reasonably priced and would make any girl happy! Why not visit my Etsy shop and have a look for yourself:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ClairesCrafts1

New Year and Christmas Crafting

I know, I am probably the last person to write their New Year's blog post, but it's been quite a busy few weeks getting back into the swing of things.

Over Christmas I was very busy making presents for people.

The main present was a recipe book for my Mum, which I forgot to take pictures of so I can't post anything. I will need to try and take some next time I see her to show you. It featured 10 recipes from my childhood which me and my sister dug out of her recipe box and compiled into a fancy, decorated recipe book. She loved it.

I also made my mum a small cross stitch featuring a country cottage. It was a kit that she bought me to make, but I framed it in one of my Grandma's old embroidery hoops with some co-ordinating ribbon:

I also had to make a special Christmas card for my crafty friend and had seen an idea using Clarity stamps and shrink plastic.

My previous experience with shrink plastic wasn't great but it actually worked first time for this card. I die-cut the shrink plastic before I stamped it and then added a bit of colour. Instead of putting it in the oven, I heated it with my heat tool in a baking tray. This didn't work brilliantly and I think putting it in the oven would have been better.

For the background I had a brainwave as I couldn't find any backing paper that would match.

I stamped my snowflake stamp with versamark and embossed it with tinsel embossing powder. I then coloured the card with purple distress stain, leaving the embossed areas clear and visible.

I then layed purple ribbon across the card, segmenting it into 4. I layered up each bit of plastic onto gold card and stuck one in each segment. On the fourth segment I put a sentiment onto the gold card.

I have also listed all my jewellery on my Etsy shop. None of it has sold so far but lots of people have looked so fingers crossed someone will buy it soon!

That's all for now, time to get on with my projects for January. More posts soon.