Last weekend (Aug30 – Sep1) saw the Creative Craft Show back at Manchester Central (formally GMex). This was great news to me as travelling over to Event City at the Trafford Centre was a real hassle. Anyway, with a day free on August 30th, I dragged Alice to the show for the day.

We had a lovely trip over to Manchester. Making a day of it, we went on the bus and tram, saving the pain of parking in the city centre. Fortunately the weather held and we had a fairly warm and dry journey.

As I hadn’t been able to book in adviance, we queued up for tickets, and a very nice lady in front of me gave me a £1 off voucher from the Manchester Evening News! Bit of a bonus. Crafters really are very generous and friendly people you know. The vouchers had obviously been in the paper for a few nights and this lady had brought them all with her to give out to people – how lovely!

Inside the exhibition area there seemed to be a few more stands than there has been in recent years. There were plenty of crafts represented – knitting, sewing, cross-stitch, cardmaking, papercraft and pergamano to name a few. The extreme knitting stand was a particular favourite with Alice – watching someone knitting with enormous needles and 10 balls of wool at the same time is quite hypnotic! Bury Craft Club even had a stand showcasng all their crafts – they have a very long waiting list to join! There was plenty of break-out space too ready for perusing crafty purchases over a well earned cuppa.

I had a good look round all the stands before committing to purchases – it’s not easy browsing with Alice at your heals. I managed to find a few things I needed, an X-Cut guillotine, bowmaker and steel ruler, along with a great deal on some Papermania papers from their black and white collection that I’d been looking for. We also found some fabulous Craft Planet kits for kids. Alice chose the Rudolph and Santa Christmas decoration kit.

There were lots of demonstrations on the stands as well as workshops available for pre-booking. Unfortunately I was unable to try any of the workshops as Alice was not in the mood to sit still! However, we did watch a few of the demonstrations – Rachel John extreme knitting a rug was fun and very friendly, the lady there entertained Alice brilliantly; metallic mesh ribbon bows and accessories from Ribbonbox was amazing to watch, the demonstrator gave Alice a ribbon flower to takeaway.

The organisers had also put a competition in the programme to keep the children amused. Alice spent at least an hour hunting for bits of ‘granny’s knitting’ around the show stands. As all under 16s had free entry when accompanied by a paying adult, it’s quite a good day out! We did eventually finish the competition and Alice headed over to the organisers office to hand in her entry and was given a lolly in reward – a very happy 3 year old.

After 5 hours at the show, Alice (and I) were a little jaded so we headed off home on the tram and bus, for a relaxing feet up and cuppa. Alice immediately opened her Christmas decorations kit and proceeded to make most of the decorations. She only needed my help in putting the cradboard backings on! I was very impressed. She has all her Christms gifts for family made already – I wish I was that organised!

Even though we had a fun day out, the show itself was, for me, a little disappointing. There were plenty of stands and crafts represented, but I was hoping I think for more manufacturers, rather then retailers. It felt like the retailers on site were ones that sell specifically at craft shows or on-line. I would like to have seen some bigger name brands there – HunkyDory, Kanban, Create and Craft etc. It would have been nice to see some of the crafting ‘stars’ giving demos and running workshops. The last time I went to a show at GMex I attended a Debbie Moore workshop, but there was no sign of her this time. With so many of the crafting manufacturers and experts in the region, I find it disappointing that the only major craft show in Greater Manchester, hasn’t attracted the big names. Maybe this can be worked on for future events?

Happy crafting
xx

It was my Husband’s birthday last week and I set about doing some making and baking with Alice again. She loves scribbling on cards and I’ve put together a big crafty stash for her – some card blanks, pencils, papers with different textures and patterns, and loads of embellishments – her particular favourites at the moment are googly eyes and racing cars!!

To add to the lovely card Alice made and her expertly chosen present (a lego policeman on a motorbike), we did some baking. Well, you can’t have a birthday without some cake now can you?!

As usual I ended up doing all the weighing and mixing, whilst Alice decorated rich tea biscuits and gingerbread men.

I used a Delia Smith all-in-one sponge method and added some ‘extras’ from the baking cupboard. There were some vanilla sponge cakes with added walnuts and rasins, and some chocolate sponge cakes with some chewy chocolatey bits. They only took 15 minutes in the oven at 170. I was very impressed with the simplicity of these cakes. I topped the chocolate ones with chocolate spread and then Alice added some chocolate finishing touches.

It was a Happy Birthday all round!!

Happy crafting xx

Yesterday was the local Summer Fair, raising funds for our community group – Friends of Walmersley Village. I volunteered to stock up the home-baking stall, so spent the vast the majority of Friday baking scones, cakes and biscuits.

I had to add some last minute ginger biscuits to the selection on offer! I made too much vanilla butercream, so I thought, why not try some ginger biscuit / buttercream sandwiches!

If I do say so myself, that combination really works well. So my final inventory was: Vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, ginger biscuits, ginger biscuit/buttercream sandwiches, chocolate chip scones, cheese scones, Easter biscuits, chocolate sticks and cereal bars (actually my husband made those)! Phew.

We went over to the fair to set up on Saturday afternoon.

It was a lovely day. Even the sun made a very welcome appearance! Shame that we couldn’t really do the Teddy Bears picnic because the grass was just too wet. Over £1000 raised too, so a great result all round.

The day was brought to an amazing close, with a fly past by the Red Arrows! WOW!!

Here’s to the next one!

Happy crafting
xx

Unfortunately, the Margaret Haes family funday due for Sunday 26th August has had to be cancelled. Torrential rain over the last couple of days has collapsed the access road to the stables.

I shall be searching for another opportunity to bring my crafts to the public.

In the meantime, happy crafting
x

With the Olympics on the TV and a craft stall to stock, I have been knitting furiously. Knitting whilst nervously watching Team GB is very conducive to producing toys.

I have toy cats in various states around the house! The pattern is a well-loved one of my daughter and several friends, so it seems right to adapt it. Alice suggested making a black and white one like our cat, Guinness and I thought I’d make a patriotic red, white and blue one to fit with the Olympics and Team GB. So keep watching for pictures when they’re finished.

I think I should manage to finish a couple more this week and then I can concentrate on setting up my stall, and adding some more cards to the stock.

I hope you like them.

Happy crafting
xx

Breaking News

I shall have a stall at the Margaret Haes Riding Centre Family Funday on Sunday August 26th 12:30 – 4:00.

Come along and say hello for a great cause and a fun packed afternoon. It would be lovely to see you.

Margaret Haes Riding Centre, Higher House Stables,
Moor Road, Holcombe, Bury, BL8 4NX

Happy crafting
x

The Olympics have finally arrived in the UK and the country has gone sport-mad! Including me. What an amazing spectacle at the Opening ceremony and the team GB guys have started to get some medals on the board.

My tribute to the Oympics and Team GB has been a continuation of the bunting and red, white and blue. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of the bunting!

Congratulations to all the medal winners. Go Team GB!

Happy Olympics x

A few weeks ago I was delighted to receive an e-mail advising me I had won a crafty prize draw. The prize – some paper tapes! Not really having any idea what these were I was excited to see them and get crafting.

The prize arrived a few days later and I was surprised to see, not 1 roll, but 16! 4 rolls in each of 4 colour sets – red, blue, green and yellow. They are called Washi tapes and are a little like masking tape in that they are a sticky paper tape. Each tape has a pattern. What could I use them for?

With the current trend for bunting being high on my list of enjoyments at the moment, these tapes could not have arrived at a better time. I went bunting mad!

I have been trying to locate a supplier of these tapes in the UK, unsuccessfully, for some time. Until this week! I received an e-mail from fantasticribbons.com to say that Washi tapes are now here in the UK! Hoorah. And the colour options are lovely. Some really subtle patterns. I shall be placing an order very soon.

Happy crafting x

I was asked the other day to make a card by one of my neighbours. Nothing odd there. She needed a card for a wedding, again not that unusual. But it was for a cat wedding! I had to clarify this, was this a wedding for 2 cats then? No, phew! It was for a friend who would be wearing black and is mad about cats.

So where do you start? I went routing through all my crafty stash for anything remotely connected with weddings, cats, and as the dress was to be black, I thought a black and white theme might not be a bad idea. I then spent the best part of an hour thinking up ideas and hoping for divine inspiration.

I eventually hit upon my logo! My business card has 2 cats with heart tails, so why not use that. I drew the cats freehand on to white and black card blanks using black fineliners, then coloured them in using secura pens – black metallic and matt white. Inside I added inserts ‘with love’ and ‘on your special day’. Then added a freehand border using secura pens to the cards and the envelopes.









My neighbour bought the tall white card, so I have a couple of black ones left for the future!

I was quite pleased with how they all turned out. What do you think?

Happy crafting
x

It’s that time of year again when we start to cast our minds towards keeping warm in the Winter! With the Summer we’ve had so far in the UK, it feels pretty wintery anyway. Yet again Innocent are launching their ‘Big Knit’ to raise funds for Age UK.

If you are new to this concept, Innocent have asked people to knit little hats to go on their products to increase sales and they then give funds to Age UK for each one sold. I’ve made a dozen or so of the little hats for the Smoothie bottles in each of the last 2 years, and I will no doubt be making some more for this year.

Visit the Innocent Smoothie site for more information and patterns. http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknit

If you have a spare few minutes and some oddments of wool, why not knit a hat for a very good cause! I will post pics of mine when I have completed a few.

Happy crafting
x