A craft fair

Last weekend I went to the Summer Crafting show in Doncaster with Alix and Helen.

It was a papercrafting extravaganza and we had a lovely day out, beginning with a cooked brekkie at the nice cafe on Kirkstall Road!

There were lots of free make and takes. We did two and made these ...

It did make me want to start creating cards again, but with all my stuff packed away and not enough hours in the day I don't see it happening anytime soon!

I managed to only buy a few bits: patterned paper, peacock embellies, ribbon pansies kit, sewing tidy kit, various iron-on motifs, a paper tree kit.

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Carr Manor Craft Fair

Sam and I had a lovely afternoon at the Carr Manor Primary School Craft Fair on Saturday, despite not selling very much.



Here's our stall, doesn't it look pretty? Sam brought the tablecloth and bunting, which is essential for any craft stall!



Here are some of mine and the Buns & Roses goodies - cards, owl bookmarks, bags for life, stitched pictures.



And here are Sam's items - her gorgeous bath products including salts, scrubs and bobmbs. Find out more about her crafty exploits on her Corsets, Crafts and Cupcakes blog.



Don't the jars look fab? Sam invested in a stash of Stampin' Up! goodies so she could make all her packaging. It looks so beautiful all together.

Today I'm at The WI office in Rodley - not on official business but just taking the opportunity to work in a different environment and see some of my best friends at the same time!

This evening I'm off to the Craft Club in Headingley to share something (as of Sunday afternoon when I scheduled this I have no idea what I will be crafting!), then it's a pretty usual week.

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Clearly For You and more business

It's still busy, busy, busy in the life of Gemma!

I was a very good girl yesterday and got a lot of work done (while also managing to watch the MotoGP, The Spy Who Loved Me and have a soak in a bubbly bath with my book for Buns & Roses WI Book Club). Productive or what?!

I needed to do this as today it was the Home Economics & Handicrafts Committee meeting at the West Yorkshire Federation of WIs. As always, we nattered and drank tea and got a lot planned. We have lots of great things to organise, including my own card making workshop next year and our slot at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate this November.

So I still could do with a few more hours in each day!

Unfortunately I've not had a lot of time to do much papercrafting recently. But I must get back on track as I have craft fairs and a market stall to prepare for!

PLEASE can I have more time?!

I do have a few photos stored up still though, so here's a card using the Clearly For You set.

This was one of my very first must-haves from the 2011 Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue as I love vintage things and the way you can mix up the different stamps within the set.



For this one, I cut out the squares and rolled half with the Sanded Wheel in Basic Grey ink to give texture and the other half I used the rectangle pattern image from Clearly For You.

I used the decorative elements in Melon Mambo and Old Olive on some of the squares, then scrunched them all up and distressed them by randomly inking in Basic Grey. Simply rubbing the ink pad gently over the card stock does the job.

This one has already come and gone as one of my fellow WI members bought it for a wedding card! I hope the happy couple liked it!

Time for another early night now so I have enough energy for all the things I have planned for tomorrow! The to do list includes work, stitching, card making ...

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Buns & Roses card class - pics!

No card today, but I want to share some pictures of the class I ran for Buns & Roses WI last month.

We made four cards, which you can see here, drank wine and had muchos fun!



Here is Hayley (far right) helping people do the monkey card.



The Paris card in progress.



Getting started. Note the wine!



Me and my mum, who came up specially!



Paper piercing!



Alex is a pro so she had time to stop and natter!



Georgie (far right), Buns & Roses president. I roped all the committee into helping me out!



Check out all the spacewe have in our venue!

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More quickies!

Here's another round-up of quick pics I've not shown yet! Some little cards for my important dates tin and another cover for a tin.



Really quick and easy - squares of the Celebrations DSP and stamps from Party This Way.



Good for blokes using Trendy Trees and Nursery Suite DSP.



A kids card with the Fox and Friends animals and Play Date DSP.



Another bloke one using Cheers To You and some In Color ribbon.



Finally, another of the cover labels for the tins.

I am feeling very summery today and enjoyed my lunch outside. I am solar powered so I always get a boost when spring arrives. Only problem is I couldn't sit and do my work out there because of the glare on my laptop screen. Ah well!

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The WI and vintage finds

Mondays aren't all bad! Today has been pretty good fun so far and a lovely start to the week.

I was up at the West Yorkshire Federation of Women's Institutes this morning for the membership committee meeting. I am all for getting involved and it's great to be able to help the WI grow. As usual, I came away with several tasks, so I will be busy doing my bit!

And on the way back I called into the antique shop on Armley Town Street. I keep meaning to go in and I'm glad I finally managed to visit today.

I bought a few books ...



The two little ones are for me. I will hopefully alter them and use them in scrapping and card making projects. The motorbike one is for my good friends Hayley and Flower as a bribe to get them to help me restore this ...



Mini sewing machine! I just had to have it! It does work but needs a bit of cleaning up and some oil. I keep meaning to use real stitching on my cards and scrapbook pages but it is such a faff getting out my big proper sewing machine. So once this is up and running I have no excuse!

And to top it all off, the sun is shining! Lovely!

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All-day training with Julie's Jems

yesterday, mummy Julie held her first all-day training so I got to spend a whole day crafting and nattering with great friends! I had a fantastic time and made lots of yummy projects, as well as gathering plenty of ideas!

Here are all the beautiful swaps I received ...



And this is me crafting away with Jules, mumm Jules and Allie.



Here is one of the projects I made - a quick and easy gift bag and a matching card!



Can't wait for the next one in April.

Now, I seem to have been bitten by the scrapbooking bug, so I will be spending the afternoon trawling through photographs and playing with layouts!

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