Jacqueline Ford Fine Art (Look What Jacq Made)
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Birthday Crafting at Steph's

11/11/2012

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Picture of a heart shaped black board saying HAppy Birthday Jacqueline
What a lovely surprise!
Entry from 26 October:

If you have read earlier posts you will know that Steph and I have been busy making cards for a craft event in Gerrards Cross in mid November and this meant, that for the first time EVER I arrived for my favourite Friday of the quarter ' Crafting at Steph's' with just two bags of crafting stash and a clear idea of what had to be made – Xmas cards!

Annabelle opened the door and blew one of those party streamer hooter things in my face which really made me jump (and as I had been stuck in traffic because of an accident and needed the little girls room - it nearly caused an accident of a different kind too!). There were balloons all over the hall floor and I assumed that Annabelle had had some chums around, what with it being half term.

Little did I know that the party paraphernalia was in aid of an early birthday party for me!  The kitchen had been transformed into party central as you can see in the photos and Steph and Annabelle had spent the afternoon preparing all sorts of goodies.  I was so touched by the efforts made that I shed a little tear.  After dinner we had the most amazing chocolate cake that Tamsin had bought – I can highly recommend a Thornton’s celebration cake to anyone!

We cleared the food away to make way for the crafting stash. It was lovely that Karen could join us as she had other commitments last time.  Tamsin spent the evening making some more map covered brooches which she crackled glazed, although for some bizarre reason it took a long time to dry.  She also made up some really pretty bracelets. Karen, Steph and I concentrated on making made cards.

Tamsin has recently been elected as the Area Chairman for the Ladies Circle and was deliberating about what frock she should wear for a lunch in Reading the next day – she has a large Chain to pin onto her frock now. She did make us laugh explaining the ‘claustrophobic effect’ that her frock from Monsoon has on her!

The topic of pricing handmade cards and jewellery came up in conversation – a bit of a perennial question and we decided that in the year ahead we should do some proper ‘market research’ at events to see what the standard charge is (if any).  You don’t want to over price your work and sell nothing but then again you don’t want to under value it either and set a precedent for future sales.

Sadly the evening had to come to an end and why is it that although everything fitted in my two bags when I left home that morning, there was in no way they were going to contain all my stash going home! I managed to share out the remainder of the cake among everyone to save me eating it all and left with cards and gifts that were strictly NOT to be opened before Wednesday!

Thanks to my crafting chums for making the evening so special – I really appreciated it and count myself lucky to have such lovely friends.
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Christmas Crafting

23/9/2012

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Picture
What a treat - a day of Chrsitmas card making at Steph's!
22 September 2012

Yes, there it is in the title, the C word . . . but given that the shops have festive wares already I don't think I'm the first to mention it!

I had a lovely day yesterday at Steph’s making cards in readiness for both the Windsor Emporium in October and a Craft Fair that Emerald Gallery are taking part in November and that Cath kindly asked me to supply some cards for. I know I won’t be able to produce enough cards on my own for the November Fair so asked my chum Steph, who you will know from previous blog entries is a 'card making extraordinaire' to take part too.

I filled the back of my Smart car up (again) with a selection of crafting stash as you never know what you may need!  Steph had raided her Craft Room (deeply envious) and bought out everything Christmas related into the kitchen already. Between us we had soooo much stuff it was a bit overwhelming and difficult to decide where to start.

Steph decided that we needed some Xmas music playing in the background to get us ‘in the mood’, much to her daughter Annabelle's amusement, but we had to turn this off in the end as it got quite depressing.  Steph is the quickest card maker I know and while I was faffing about trying to decide what to do she had made four cards in the time it took me to make just one!

That said, Steph spent a while trying out new techniques and ideas afterwards (involving Flitter Glu and Charles Dickens) and by the end of the day I managed to overtake her on the production front (10 v 4) – something that will never be achieved again believe me! In fact Steph worked through her ideas on Sunday and produced another seven cards at last count so my lead is overtaken already.

We had a break for lunch and a trip to Hobby Craft in Aylesbury to get some more ideas and inspiration and I was really proud that we both managed to resist buying more Xmas themed stash and stick to using what we already had.

The cards that I produced were a bit fiddly to construct with the threads and buttons but I was pleased with the finished result. When you need to produce a lot of cards I find it easiest to pick a few designs and then do variations on a theme so that you can get a little production line going.  Ten is a good start but I'll need to get a wiggle on and produce a few more!

The products I used for the cards on the slideshow below are:

1. Miniature Christmas themed post cards (Blade Rubber Stamps, London: http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/ )
2. ‘I believe’ 12 inch glitter card stack by Mindy Terasawa (Hobby Craft)
3. Vintage sheet music (Charity Shop)
4. Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads (peeled paint; worn lipstick and festive berries)
5. Stickles Glitter glues (fruit punch; lime green and icicle)
6. Sakura Gelly Roll and Metallic pens (clear star; gold and silver)
7. Bakers twine (The Ribbon Girl: http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/catalog/ and Blade Rubber Stamps)
8. Thread off cuts (Oliver Twists Threads)
9. Vintage buttons from my Grandma’s Button Tin
10. 6 x 6 inch card blanks

It was lovely to spend a day crafting with Steph as weekends get booked up so quickly. To able to spend a day in good company, chatting, laughing, putting the world to right, drinking tea, eating chocolate and crafting is a rare treat.
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    My name's Jacqueline and I invite you to join me on my adventure in mixed media 'arting and crafting'.

    I craft from my kitchen table at my home in Marlow-on-Thames in Buckinghamshire in England and want to use this blog to share my latest ideas and work.

    If something you have seen inspires you to have a go please do share the result with me.

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