Paper crafters – Leigh

Last Sunday my aunty Bernadette and I went along to Paper crafters show in Leigh. We had a great day, coming away with our bags full of goodies and are heads filled with new ideas.

Being a local show, Paper crafters in Leigh was not a big as the national shows but this only made the experience better, as the crowds were not as big and you could look at a stall without felling like you were in a ruby scrum, (some of these Ladies go shopping with their elbows! You know who you are).

Paper crafters in Leigh may have been smaller than shows that I have been too in the past but so was the prices, £1.50 advance payment with free tea or coffee or £2.00 on the door and you had to pay for your tea and coffee at £0.50. The great value did not stop there but also on the stalls, every stall priced their items to make you feel like it was too much of a bargain to pass up.

A service that was offered by many of the stalls selling heavy or bulky items was that you could pay for your goods and then pick them up later. The choice normally is to go later in the day before you go home and hope that the stall still has the selection you want or what usually happens to me is that we buy as we see it and I end up carrying around 100lb of Bernadette’s card and paper all day (this is the real reason she invites me). This not only helps my arms but everyone else is also not carrying heavy and bulky items so they are more relaxed and the show is less filled with bags  to get round.

Overall the show was very well organised, very friendly and well worth the visit. I will be going again next year, hope to see you there.

P.S. I still had the carry that 100lb of card and paper from the show to the car!

Scrapbooking: The Ultimate guide to Scrapbooking for Beginners

Scrapbooking:The Ultimate guide to Scrapbooking for Beginners in 30 Minutes or Less!(Scrapbooking - How to Scrapbook - Scrapbooking for Beginners -)

Turn Your Photos and Memories Into a Masterpiece! Learn everything you need to know about scrapbooking This book is for new scrapbookers who want to create their own masterpiece but do not know how to start, for beginners that keep on feeling frustrated on the outcome of their project and for everyone who is fond of cutting, gluing, decorating and journaling their memories. You will learn the basic of scrapbooking from supplies to layout to preserving your photos for years. You will also find out how to layout your photos and embellishments without making the page crowdy. Perhaps, you will also get to know common mistakes that a newbie scrapbooker like you tend to commit. By the time you finish reading this book you are going to be able to realize that making an awesome scrapbook doesn’t have to be time consuming, expensive and frustrating. You can use old buttons, loose ribbons, excess card stocks and patterned papers and other reusable embellishments to make your scrapbook unique and fabulous. Why You Must Have This Book! > In this book you will learn how to preserve newspaper clippings that you can use in your scrapbook that will stay for years. > This book will teach you the steps in creating titles that are catchy and witty that is sure to entice the viewers. > In this book you will learn how to organize your tools, materials and scrapbooking supplies so you will be more productive. > This book will guide you through proper layout of photos by using grids, collage or pockets to accommodate all your photos and mementos in a single page. > This book will teach you how to stay frugal and resist the urge to spend more on scrapbooking tools, supplies and embellishments. > In this book you will learn the dos and dont’s in making the layout page and title page. What You’ll Discover from the Book “Scrapbooking: The Ultimate Guide to Scrapbooking for Beginners in 30 Minutes or Less!” ** Why you have to select the best photos and embellishments for your scrapbook ** How to complement your scrapbook’s theme by using the right layout and decorations ** Step by step instructions on how to work with your scrapbook from choosing which photos to include to journaling your memories **The importance of page protectors, photo corners, background and borders to make your photo standout **What to do to avoid mistake in placing decorative stickers and how how to use photo mat **How to find inspirations for your future scrapbook projects. Let's Learn Together! Hurry! For a limited time you can download “Scrapbooking: The Ultimate Guide to Scrapbooking for Beginners in 30 Minutes or Less!” for a special discounted price of only $2.99 Download Your Copy Right Now Before It's Too Late! Just Scroll to the top of the page and select the Buy Button. ————— TAGS: scrapbooking for beginners, scrapbooking ideas, scrapbooking styles, scrapbooking how to, scrapbooking business, scrap booking for beginners, beginner scrapbooking, beginners scrapbooking book, beginner scrapbooking guide, how to scrapbook, how to make a scrapbook

Paper crafters – Leigh

My favourite aunty, Bernadette asked me if I would like to go to a craft fair next weekend, so. Next weekend, 27^th and 28^th August the craft fair Paper Crafters – Leigh is on and I will be going. This craft fair and many others are on Sincerely Yours, a site that is devoted to giving you information on local craft shows.

Craft fairs are a great place for inspiration, not only do you get to see and buy the latest products that are on offer but you also get to talk with like minded people and people in the business. The craft fairs also have talks showing you tips and tricks and sometimes they have workshops so that you can get hands on practice.

The crowds at a craft show can be a bit overwhelming, no matter how good the venue so taking it easy and having lots of refreshment breaks are a must. Sorry for the short notice but I am letting you know as soon as I found out. If you can not make Paper Crafters – Leigh this year, do not worry as it will be back next year and if you keep an eye on Sincerely yours, you may find another craft fair near you. 

Looking for inspiration

This time on my search for inspiration I have found for you a few sites and a book. The first is Designer Digitals it offers lots of tips and has a forum where you can ask questions and find help from other members. It also sells kits and supplies. The next one is Scrapbook Wonderland and as the name suggests the site is mainly about scrap booking but also covers things like greeting card making and sewing. The next two are Hookline and inker, and crafty Scrappy Mamas are both blogs, they have not been updated very often but are still a source of inspiration. The last site is Scrap inspired they have some free stuff and info but they also sell video classes.

Duct Tape Get WellSoon Card

Duct Tape Get Well Soon Card by Bro_Jones
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The book that I have come across has the intriguing title of TheBig-Ass Book of Crafts. Below is a brief extract from the book.

The Big-AssBook of Crafts is packed with ideas for sprucing up your living space; concocting fabulous, all-natural body products; designing your own unique stationery; and creating countless other crafts that will convince your friends and loved ones that you're the secret love child of Martha Stewart (only much, much cooler).

Forget crocheted doilies and itchy knit sweaters--TLC's While You Were Out top designer Mark Montano has created stylish and imaginative projects that range from a Warhol-esque Ultrasuede iPod case to photo-adorned boxer shorts to African mask patio chairs to wooden night-light boxes. Divided into sections that include Outdoorsy (ideas to enhance your backyard), Dishing It Out (decorating plates using different techniques), You've Been Framed (innovative picture framing ideas), and Can I Have a Light? (creating and decorating lamps, lanterns, and chandeliers), it's as entertaining to read as it is endlessly inspiring. 

With more than one hundred and fifty inventive and fun projects, The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is the perfect activity book for readers of every mood, budget, and skill level.

I hope that you find the above links useful and please be aware that some of the links in this blog are affiliate links that I may earn from.

This Journey that isLife Card

This Journey that is Life Card by martinspaperstore
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Learning how to

Sometimes I see a wonderful greeting card and think that I would like to use an element of that greeting card into my own greeting card designs. Some elements can be easily worked out on how to make them while others are a little trickier and only become obvious when the technique has been shown to you. For me, I like to see another person perform the technique and then correct me when I try it out. I usually get this when I attend craft shows, as there are no craft courses on offer local to me.

Although one to one training is great but unless you get it by the end of the class you could need something to refer back to, this is where books come into the mix. Some people can learn new techniques straight from a book and a little practice on their own, for others books can be a great asset for keeping skills up. With this in mind, here are four books that you might find useful and inspirational.

Crafting Calm: Projects and Practices for Creativity and Contemplation

By Maggie Oman Shannon

In this wired, wild world, it is harder than ever to shut out noise and busyness in order to truly calm yourself, but in Crafting Calm, a D.I.Y. guide to peace of mind, you'll find inspiring ideas for how to do exactly that through a wide range of creative exercises. In this book, author Maggie Oman Shannon explores crafts and creativity as a practice with enormous physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. By immersing ourselves in a craft with intention and mindfulness, we can quiet those voices around us and in us—we can enter sacred stillness. Through revealing interviews, personal stories, and forty suggested activities, the author shows how creative processes can become spiritual practices. Whether you're an aspiring artist, longtime craftsperson, or someone who has never set foot in a craft-store (yet!), you'll find something inCrafting Calm to inspire you.

Crafts and how-to ideas include contemplation candles, visual journals, prayer shawls, collage mandalas, intention beads, finger labyrinths, personal prayer flags, spiritual toolkits, and tabletop altars.
Features inspired craft ideas from luminaries such as Angeles Arrien, Mary Ann Radmcher, Shiloh Sophia McCloud, Sister Marianne Heib, May Ann Brussat, and many more.

The Encyclopedia of Greeting Card Tools & Techniques

by Susan Pickering Rothamel

This classic resource by Susan Pickering Rothamel belongs on every crafter's bookshelf. Featuring hundreds of handmade cards from leading artists, plus step-by-step photographs of key skills, The Encyclopedia of Greeting Card Tools & Techniques contains a treasure trove of information and projects. Sidebars on today's most creative card makers showcase their areas of expertise, from Dee Gruenig's rubber-stamp designs to Alli Bartkowski's quilling. This crafty celebration is sure to inspire.

How to Make Greeting Cards: step-by-step tips and techniques for card making

By Catherine Pooler

Making cards is an amazing creative outlet. It's also a great way to make someone's day! 
How to Make Greeting Cards will show you exactly how to make cards with easy, step-by-step tutorials starting with the basics with how to cut card stock, choosing supplies, then moving on to making simple cards. 
After the basics, we'll take it to the next level by showing you how to incorporate a few fun techniques with glitter, punches and sponges. 
You will also learn how to save time and money by making several cards at once. Great for gift sets and holiday cards! 
How to Make Greeting Cards will get you started with this great hobby and inspire you to take it even further! 

29 pages long. 
Photo and written tutorials. 
Video links are included! 
If you are having trouble viewing this e-book on your Kindle, there is a link to download the beautiful, full color PDF format. Questions? Please e-mail the author.

Starting Your Own Line of Greeting Cards

by Stephanie Laird

This kindle book will walk you through what I have done to create my own line of greeting cards and where I sell them. This is definitely a short and sweet book hence the 1.99 price tag. I could fill it with a lot of filler info and repeat information that is already available to you. I choose not to do that as I believe all our time is valuable. I did include what works for me and hope that you find some inspiration for what will work for you! Thank you for your interest!

I hope that you find some of these books useful, let me know if you have or if you have found any other books useful. 

Greeting Card Inspiration on Twitter

Cute Dazzled Bug Birthday Cards by borianag
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Following on from my last post this time I will be looking at finding inspiration on the social network site Twitter. At first look social network sites can be a bit overwhelming, from how you set up your account with followers or groups, circles of friends, family or others. Then there is how you interact on the site and what type of language is acceptable, even if upper case letters are classed as shouting. Once you have got past all the tech stuff they all break down the same way and that is the people using them.

Abstract Christmas Tree in light green with season Greeting Card by martinspaperstore
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The first type of people that use social network sites only want to interact with their friends, family and colleagues. Most of these people believe that the internet is for their own privet use and get quite upset even hostile when they find out that strangers can “listen in on their privet conversation posted on the internet!”. Avoid these people like the plague.

Happy 34th Birthday Flower Pansy Greeting Cards by martinspaperstore
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The next group of people take the social network sites on face value, they accumulate friends or followers and they like to share what they have found on the internet. These people can be a great resource of inspiration but are erratic in the subject matter that they deliver, be careful some of their friends or followers will fit into the category above.

Color Pencils Cards by hlehnerer
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The next group are companies that are hoping to grow their brand and interaction with customers. Some companies are a source of inspiration in of them self’s, while others share inspiration of others. Companies tend to have quite a narrow area of inspiration but a very rich one as they have lots of money and people to invest in it.

Card with Quote - Baby Grey Owl by PhotographyByPixie
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The last group of people are artists; some of them only share their own art which in its self can be a great source of inspiration but many of them not only share their own art but the art of others as well. This can be a great source of inspiration on a wide number of subjects and styles. Best of all, many of the artists below are willing to share your art with their followers if only you interact with them, once you have got your inspiration back that is.

Purple Spiral Fractal Art Pattern Greeting Card by hippygiftshop
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On twitter if people want others that are not following them to find their tweets (posts) they use an hash tag # like #Birthday, #art, #photo or #Christmas. If you want to find tweets on a subject then just type in what you are looking for. On twitter you only have 140 characters per tweet so the search results are targeted unlike some sites where you can add a thesaurus of tags that have nothing to do with the post.

Red and Black Swirl Hearts Birthday Card by PhotographyByPixie
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Below are some links to people on twitter. Their art work is awesome, they are grate to interact with and they are very generous in sharing other peoples work to their followers. 

@PhotoByPixie @FotosFred  @ztevetevans  @valleerose24 @martinmelia @countryfreshmus @AgentBertram @LitArtMagazine @ScottysPhotos @hlzazzle @Finkorzak  @TickleArt @HippyGiftShop @moscowmartin @DonnaSiggy @JustWhat0i0want @CreaturesStore @pipnbling @laurieshan @kumebryant @LuisaVenturoli @trendy_artist @JourneyProducti  @juanitamart47 @ZeanaRomanovna @fantasysite @charsfavorite 

WARNING! If you follow all of the above people you could lose months of your life viewing links to great art work.

Very Red Rose White Outline "Love" Cards by FloralbyFred
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Seriously if you want to know what Twitter can do for you then following the above people will give you a great insight as to what Twitter can do and the inspiration it can bring. Do not be mislead by how many followers the above accounts have, because of the power of Re-Tweets most of the above people have their tweets seen by hundreds of thousands of people every day and some of them number in the millions.

Sea at Night Card by PinkHurricane
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Unique Greeting Cards

Baby's First Christmas Cards by cheetahsgraphics
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Finding unique greeting cards to send to your loved ones can be hard; having looked long and hard for a greeting card that fits them and the occasion it would not be great to know that someone has sent them the exact same greeting card, the chance of this happening can increase for holidays where card giving is popular like “Thanks Giving” or “Charismas”.

Orange & Yellow Roses Birthday Card by PhotographyByPixie
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Many of the large greeting card manufactures that have stores on the high street or in shopping centres may have at what first seems like large selection of greeting cards which quickly drops down when you start to look at the individual categories. Some stores that sell lots of different goods as well as greeting cards may well have some unique greeting card produced only for their company along with a selection from a number of the large greeting card manufactures. Your next stop on your search for unique greeting cards would be small independent greeting card stores. By their very nature they will have the smallest selection of greeting cards but each one unique from the cards in the large branded stores. This is because they will be getting their greeting cards from the smaller manufactures that are unable to supply the lager branded stores and if you are lucky they will have greeting cards made by local artists.

XX- Dancing Ladybugs Wearing Santa Hats Greeting Card by tickleyourfunnybone
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To find the largest selection of unique greeting cards you need to venture onto the internet where you can find the work of tens of thousands of artists and designers from all over the globe. My first point of call would be Greeting Card Universe that only produces greeting cards, finding cards is easy by typing in “key words” or using their very logical categories that can be very specific “happy birthday estranged farther from daughter”. You can alter the inside verse on all the cards and on some of the cards you can alter the text on the front or even add your own photo to a section of the front of the card. You can even ask an artist to alter one of their designs for you or you can put in a request for a design you have in mind that will go out to all the artists on the site and you will get to see how artists with different styles interpret your request and all for no extra cost to you.

Beach background, card by PinkHurricane
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The next place to look would be the gift sites where you can find artists and designers work for sale on many items from clothing to clocks and puzzles to phone cases as well as greeting cards. Two of the biggest would be Zazzle and Cafepress press, the large number of products and designers on each of the sites can make it a little daunting in finding what you are looking for but is well worth the effort. Other sites are more tailored to the artists manly focusing on art prints and canvases but also include greeting cards, sites like “Red bubble” and “fine arts America”. Then there are the newer and smaller sites where the market place is not flooded with the designs of the more prolific artists like Mydoodle and Societ 6.

Renae Birthday Cavalier Spaniel Card by myshelle
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One thing that all the websites above have in common is that once you have found and purchased your unique greeting card that design is still there for any number of people to come along and buy it, even if you have had a design changed by an artist on greeting card universe, the artist will think “one person liked the changes enough they bought it, maybe others will buy it as well” so leave for all to see and buy. The next group of websites are where you can buy handmade products only. On sites like www.Etsy.com or www.Folksy.com  you can find beautifully hand crafted greeting cards that by their nature are only produced in small numbers.

Valentines Day Pink Flower Greeting Card by martinspaperstore
Create a card designs on Zazzle

To get truly unique greeting cards for you loved ones and friends is to make them yourself. STOP, before you click away from this site thinking that it is going to be too hard or fiddly and you have no artist talent in you give me a chance, after all you have read this far why not read the rest of it. Now, I am not talking about making your unique greeting cards from scratch though I am sure that in a short time and with a little practice that is exactly what you will be doing. I am not even talking about using the wonderful kits with easy to follow instructions that you can down load and print out over and over again from great sites like Crafts U Print or My Grafico.

Merry Christmas Greeting Card by FloralbyFred
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Embellishing greeting cards that you have acquired, I like to buy packs of holiday greeting cards from charities or thrift shops, these are not so expensive that you will worry about making mistakes and are a good starting point to hone your talents. When choosing your greeting cards try to pick a simple designs or pleasant images that have plenty of space to place you embellishments, the ideal card is one that you think is nice but just needs a little bit more decoration.

Birthday Butterflies Greeting Card by martinspaperstore
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Many of the tools that you will need you may already have around your home; pens, scissors, marker pens, paper glue and if you have children you may have a lot more like paints, glitter, colouring pens, paint brushes and more. A quick visit to your local craft store or the craft section of a department store will give you an idea or the range of embellishments that you can use to decorate your cards with. You will need to have self-control not to buy everything you see, I know that I do. Buying a few stock items to get you started will do today, as you get the bug for making greeting cards you can build up your stock of what you like and know how to use and what tools will be useful to you. To start, for the price of one or two greeting cards you can get a selection of rhinestones, glitter glue and foam pads.

Merry Christmas Snow and trees Greeting Card by martinspaperstore
Create card designs on Zazzle

Taking a perfectly pleasant greeting card like the one above by adding a little embellishment you can make it uniquely your own.

Above are some of the tools you might find useful when creating your greeting cards and below is a small selection of rhinestones, glitter glue and foam pads, this small selection is enough to make many cards.

By just adding a little glitter glue in different colours can make a big change to a greeting card. Using glitter glue is good for intricate work, if you want to cover larger areas it would be better to apply glue and then sprinkle on glitter, remember to put your card onto a large piece of paper or card so that you can collect the unused glitter.

Adding a few rhinestones to key points on your greeting card to finish off. Let the cards design or image speak to you as to where to add the glitter and rhinestones. When you first start it can be hard to know when to stop “less is more” after all you want to add to your card not overwhelm it.

Try different styles and effects, do not be worried about making mistakes as you can always start again on another card and above all have fun.

Now the before and after.

Merry Christmas Snow and trees Greeting Card by martinspaperstore
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snow and rhinestones by martinspaperstore
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make custom gifts at Zazzle