Pigsty

Oh dear. I cannot craft at all, in any shape or form (especially attempt to use a sewing machine), because my craft space looks like it's experienced an earthquake. I had no room before Christmas presents arrived, now it's filled. I am trying to put off the task of sorting out every box, so as to actually achieve decent, craft storage. Then I might no longer live in a pigsty :)

I write this post because I am intrigued: what do everybody else's craft spaces look like????

x x x

Get your skates on

The snow in Preston is slithering away, and today, all the pavements that were days ago filled with compact pretty snow have now turned to ice. The whole place is like glass. Very winter wonderland, but horrendously dangerous. Take care everybody who lives here.
I own a pair of ice skates, but they often live in a box in my wardrobe, but today got them out ;)
Ice skated in the street...well, with help (otherwise would have done some damage due to falling in the snowy bits).

A very crafty affair

The whole of December, as is for many crafters (although, alot of other crafters are more organised and have sorted by November), has been spent making Christmas cards. Since July, we have been making Christmas cards as samples in the shop, but by the end of November I decided I really must start with my own. T'was hard at first, all Christmassed out from doing shop samples, but then I was off. I've only just uploaded snaps of cards, gifts and the shop, and there are still more to upload. But thought I ought to add some piccies. After all, this is a craft blog! Hmm, New Year's resolution, do more regular blogging!I tried a bit of knitting on a card, my newly found skill :) Next stop a jumper! I love this stamp, so elegant - one of our main Christmas stamps in the shop this year. It looks good in so many colours, my favourite was Adirondack Cranberry (above).I used quite a bit of Blonde Moments Colour-Yourself Christmas paper, where these trees came from. I inked them with Mustard Seed and Peeled Paint Distress Ink Pads to get nice aged trees.

Starting to have a go at making my own backgrounds, and experiment with aging and distressing, plenty of ink and paint! Above, I used Cut'n'Dry foam and baby wipes to rub lots of different inks onto the card, the last being Fired Brick Distress ink. Then, I used the Hero Arts Giving Tree stamp over the top - not always re-inking the stamp, so that some of the trees fade into the background.

Did a few cards involving figure stamps - stamp the figure several times on different patterned paper, and cut out different parts, to get patterned dress, socks, etc.

Happy Christmas to you all

We'd just like to wish you all a lovely Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We're putting together a list of classes, which will be sent out at the weekend, and I'll put a list of them on here (down the side of the blog) and on our website. The website will also be having a revamp, as it's been put aside amidst all the preparations for our birthday in November and then Christmas!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year. But before I leave you, just got to add a few piccies of the snow! Cannot remember a time, ever in my lifetime, when it's snowed this much in Preston, and actually STAYED for days! It's a miracle, and we might just have a white Christmas..hope you do too.

Open Day and Happy Birthday to us....

Just a quick note to say that tomorrow (Saturday 21st November) our little shop will have been open exactly one year. So, to celebrate, we are having an open day (to follow the great success of our first open evening, in September). There'll be free tea and cake, some demos and new products, including some new products from Prima Marketing Inc, a brand new to our little shop. Oh and there'll be 10% off all product purchases. A nice community gathering :) So feel free everybody to come see! I shall be back soon to do some proper blogging ;)
x x x

P.S We haven't sorted out our Class dates in cardmaking and altered art and craft gatherings for January-February yet - both of us and teachers are buried in Christmassyness still. But for anybody that would like a class list the moment we sort one out, just email your details or ring the shop and I can email a list, or pop one in the post no probs.
Shop number is 01772 739563
Email: craftyhearts.shop@btinternet.com

Merci beaucoup X

Prompt #21 Negative Space

A tad last minute, but here is my entry for Creative Type's current prompt, Number 21: Negative Space. Mine is entitled 'Time to Detox', and is within my little 7 and half inch square journal. How it got to be 7 and half and not 8 inches, I'm still not so sure. Anyways, the photos (one main one, one on a tag which you pull out from under the main one) are of me, falling asleep on arty, crafty work. At the moment my health isn't quite up to normal levels, I keep feeling drowsy and tired in the day. So this week I decided twas 'Time to Detox', and so am eating more rabbity (green veg and berries) and doing lots of stuff so I can actually get to sleep early. It's slowly working, and I've not fallen asleep at work, yay!

Normally the negative space is filled with writing on my layouts, then I get annoyed that my writing doesn't look pretty and match the pretty paper. So this time, I left the outside blank and hid the writing on the tag that pulls out :) Thanks for reading! Now, off to attempt to knit....

I think let's tinker with ink!

Wow what a busy day! The Graphic 45 Mini Journal class was today, and thank you to all the ladies who attended. Twas fab, and every one went out with inky fingers, so they must have done plenty of work! I didn't get to see everyone's work, but the ones I did see were all different, all lovely - all this creativeness is inspiring me to get out some ink and make something! But first, pizza and relaxxxx.

First Birthday Party ;D

On Saturday 21st November 2009 we're having a birthday party here at Crafty Hearts, because we will have been open for one year :) The party will be all day, in the shop, from 10am till 4.30pm. There'll be tea and plenty of cake,and demonstrations (free of course), and details of upcoming classes, and 10% off all product purchases. And the theme around the shop will be cake, and sweet treats, so there'll be new samples to give ideas and inspiration. Come join us!

P.S Next class (after tomorrow's Graphic 45 mini journal class) is
Christmas Tree Advent Calendar Workshop. Saturday 28th November 2009
£25 all materials included, plus tea/coffee/biscuits, just need to bring lunch.

x x x

Fifth of November part deux

Also today I made a Blonde Moments card sample in the shop :) A Christmassy one, which feels odd, seeing as it's Bonfire Night, but haven't found an excuse yet to make Bonfire Night cards!

I have used quite a few items to make it, but they're the sort of items you could experiment with and make lots of other different items out of, as well as a card like this. We have just got Blonde Moments Ultra Thick Embossing powders in, nine types to be precise, plus some extra pearl pigments that are a bit Christmassy. I don't normally do pink Christmas cards (a red and green fan I am), but the shade of Ultra Thick in my stash is Plum, so I decided to be a 'rebel' and try pink.

So take three rectangles of card, one large and two small. With each one, ink the card with Versamark, slap on some Plum Ultra Thick

Embossing Powder, and melt it with a heat tool. While powder's still hot, add another powder layer, heat and melt again, add another layer (triple's the plan), and while this is still hot, press a pre-inked (with Versamark) stamp into the melted layers. Hold the stamp into it for a little while. Release, and you should have a debossed image. If your layers are a bit bubbly and not so smooth, reheat, and add more powder, and melt it. The stamp I've used on all three rectangles is the tree from Papermania Floral & Fauna stamp duo. Now that you have three funky pink rectangles, take a Blonde Moments Spring Grass Lustre Pearl Pigment. It's like powder eye shadow (only, don't put it on your eyelids!). Take a thin brush and brush a little bit of powder onto the stamped images. Then you get a green tree :)

On an A6 card, add a rectangle of patterned paper from the Blonde Moments 6x6 Sugar Dumpling paper pad. Stick your large debossed rectangle onto this, with the smaller rectangles at the side. Take a little rectangle of Sugar Dumpling Paper, stamp onto it 'Season's Greetings' (this stamp is from Papermania Home For Christmas stamp set) using a black ink pad, and then make snips around this rectangle using scissors. So it looks frilly. Stick on, job done, pink Christmas!

Fifth of November

It's such a shame that over the last few days there's been virtually no fireworks to be heard! Maybe it's because of the naff weather, maybe there's going to be loads of displays at the weekend. I hope so. All week I have spent journeys to and from work splashing in big puddles (or being splashed, o car-drivers aren't you lovely?!). But today was the icing on the cake: the clouds just couldn't keep themselves to themselves and they let rip on the way to work. Enter shop, a drowned rat. And so many people have visited our shop this week despite the weather - I admire you all, as it feels like the sort of weather you'd rather avoid and stay by the fire!

Anyway, thank you for braving the weather, and here's some more piccies of pumpkins - thank you cousin Ryan, and Jordan, for sending them,they're fab! The first two are their masterpieces from this year's Halloween and the two after are last year's pieces de resistances. I know that pumpkins aren't crafty, and this is a crafty blog, but, well, they're creative, and that's what crafters are :)

Treat :)

You can't have Halloween without some Pumpkin innovation...























And this is the Hero Arts Big Owl stamp, once it's had a bit of jujjing up. You can layer up the eyes, and stamp his feathers up a few times, and he comes out a treat :)

Trick or Treat!

Ok, so it was Halloween two days ago, and I really should have added this post several days before that, but my excuse is my little laptop has been with our website designer all week. And all my photos are on it, so no blogging without laptop. Can't believe how lost I've been without laptop, how sad is that?! Just shows how much of daily life can easily be spent on checking emails (junk emails are realllllly starting to drive me maddd), sorting website, sorting photographs, blogging, f-booking....
So now I have little laptop back, and I can add piccies of Halloween projects that have been completed recently....
These little kraft gift bags have been in the shop a little while now, and I've been itching to make samples with them, but haven't had any ideas. Then a Halloween idea came along. Its wording is taken from 'THe Owl and the Pussycat' poem - hence I've added an Owl and a Pussycat! The Cat is chipboard, they live in one of the jars in our shop's pick-and-mix section. Versafine black ink on it, then triple-embossed with clear powder, and stamped in while still hot. The Owl is from a Papermania stamp set called Secret Garden. The 'moons' are cut from Pink Paislee Moon Pie paper (I'm addicted to cutting moons outta that paper and sticking them on everything lol). The tree- I drew it, cut it out, and got carried away with Distress-inking it. Weathered Wood then Peeled Paint ink, I think.

This is one of my Halloween cards - it is made using the reverse side of My Mind's Eye Frightful Friends paper. The star is embossed chipboard (stamped in, whilst still hot), and the poem is an Ian McMillan poem: Ten Things Found in a Wizard's Pocket.

Another card, this time made from the front side of the My Mind's Eye Frightful Friends paper.Such cute paper :) Oh, and the background was created with the help of some Cut-and-Dry foam, used to rub on Kaleidacolor Orange ink, Red Brick Distress ink and Weathered Wood Distress ink. All on top of each other, makes a dirty orange.

I Love Halloween!

Thank you card

First card of the week: a thank you card. I am really into cutting shapes out of cards and artwork using a craft knife. Maybe you could describe it as stencil-like, or a doily effect. Lots of scrapbooking brands seem to be making paper that is laser die-cut in the same way, but I like to do some myself, as you can choose your own pattern. Here, I have drawn the word 'thanks', then carefully cut it out with a craft knife. 'Tis fiddly, but worth it. The edge of each cut letter is coloured with an orange ink marker, just to draw your attention from any 'fuzzy' cut edges. I then stuck a piece of Nutmeg paper from the Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice collection beneath the word, and hand stitched sheer chocolate ribbon onto the card. The flower/leaf embellishment is cut from Moon Pie paper (Pink Paislee's Vintage Moon collection), and is raised on foam pads. On the other side of the card, I stuck another piece of the (check) Nutmeg paper behind the word 'thanks', but on foam pads, so that you can see the word is cut out.

And now back to work mode!

I have only just got round to putting a few piccies on here of Cambridge - we took a much-awaited
week off in September to aforementioned place, and only this week, 3 weeks after our holiday, have we finally got a little back into work mode :P So it's serious card-making and sample-making and kit-making and wedsite-updating week this week!

We were on these a lot a lot! And couldn't resist taking a photo of this lily - so pretty, never seen one that colour before!

And finally, there were a lot of these vehicles in Cambridge - so many times we had reassured ourselves that there were no buses, cars, vans coming along, then as we stepped out we nearly had our faces whipped off by bicyclists :)

Graphic 45 Mini Book Class

We're having a Graphic 45 Journal Mini Book Workshop on Saturday 7th November 2009!

Where: Crafty Hearts papercrafts shop, upstairs classroom

Time: 11am - 3pm

Price: £15

Includes: All materials, tea,coffee, biscuits. Just need to bring yourself and lunch!

Ring 01772 739563 (our shop number) between 10am and 4.30pm Tuesday to Saturday if you want to book a place!

WARNING: ONLY A FEW PLACES LEFT

Item of The Week

Have just added to the website an item of the week (tis an item I reaally want, and in my head have justified its purchase, as I'm doing a travel journal lol!).

It's a set of K and Company clear stamps, called Happy Trails.

Apologies for the blurredness; a couple of mins prior to taking the photo I dropped my camera! Well really!

Anyhow, click here if you would like to purchase this stamp set for yourself :)

Thank-you-ness

First things first (and second things second):
Last night was our open evening here at Crafty Hearts in Preston and we just wanted to say a BIG thank you to everyone who came: thank you for all of your support, twas much appreciated and the night went really well, it put big smiles on our faces :D
I've realised that I have not added a post for over a month, how depressing - I did try a couple of times to add one, but the useful post icons like 'add image' disappear from time to time, so i had to wait. But no excuses after that: I need to blog more! To be honest, August was very unorganised for me, I normally journal (in a minibook) about my days, and I haven't managed that either. And so many images to add on here, and things to mention! My autumn resolution: learn how to be organised.
This week we have been so occupied with getting the shop ready for open evening (a lot of moving stock around - now I haven't a clue where anything is, even though I helped move it), that I didn't really get chance to look at all our new products properly. So today I did: and there's quite a few items I realllly want! A disadvantage of assisting running a craft shop, there's so many items to tempt....
Thank you again to everybody!
x x

Altered Art class 22nd Aug

Good Evening, just a quick note to say this is the sample for the next Altered Art workshop. Giant jigsaw piece hanging, with Banana Frog stamps, textures, Blonde Moments pearly paints and powders, and flowery layering. Apologies for the bad pictures; the light wasn't too good, the jigsaw piece backgrounds are actually black, not the brown that my camera came up with!















P.S If you want to book on this class, email
craftyhearts.shop@btinternet.com asap!
The class is £15 all materials included (except lunch) and it starts at 11am, sat 22nd aug.

x x

Our Online shop is up and running!

Shock horror, pinch myself, at last our website is all shipshape and Bristol fashion, you can order from it and everything! It has taken much faffing, and altering, and avoiding (making cards and scrapbooking is much easier than figuring out a website, call me old-fashioned), but at last it is up...phew.
It hasn't got nearly so much items in it as our physical shop in Preston, Lancs, has, but bare with me: I shall add a little bit each day! So keep looking, you never know what you might find.

Happy shopping,

Leanne......a Craftybirrrd
x

Dust off that sewing machine

My photos for last Sunday were of a card I made for my cousin, for his birthday.

I haven't used my sewing machine in ages, such a shame.

But it came out from its hiding place this week. For my cousin I stitched a bike and made a little newspaper bag (as he delivers these :P). Also, I used my machine to make Fabric ATCs for the swap I joined on UKScrappers. But I won't put a piccie on yet of those, I'll wait a tad longer and put a post up next week :)

Hello Hello

Wow, can't believe how long it has been since my last post! I have been so disorganised, and what with classes, then general hecticness, lots of hot weather (I feel bad being on computer on sunny days as British sun seems so elusive!), lots of birthdays, and last week I was ill ; blog seems to have been neglected!

Lots of projects that are unfinished I do not post, as I think they ought to be finished before I take a piccie of them, but finally decided to do the 365 photo-a-day challenge that so many UKScrappers members seem to be doing. I love taking photos, even though many are rather amateurish, but at least now I have an excuse for the photos I take of my journey to work, new goodies that arrive at work, and all my UFO's i.e. unfinished objects!

I have been doing this photo challenge for 2 weeks now, and some are not brilliant, and sometimes I forget, so aim is to have taken at least 7 by end of each week :)

So here goes, here are bits from my first week of photos.

I bought a red vintage suitcase from Oxfam Vintage. So excited by it, probably sounds quite sad, but I like vintage things :) I had to then carry it round as I went shopping, but proudly carried it.

An unknown flower that has sprung up at my family's allotment. The flowers look so pretty; maybe would like nice in stitch.

I keep taking photos of the daisies in the back garden, before they suffer the weekly mow.

In the week I started this photo-taking promise, twas my birthday. Guess my age, can you guess?!