Getting ready for the NEC in November

Now, I know that it's a couple of weeks away, but you can never be too ready and the Hobbycrafts fair at the NEC is so big that it needs a lot of thought.

So.... if you can think of ways that I can make things better for the fair and your experience better too then leave a comment.

Port Sunlight and the Happy Stampers

Craft Fairy is off to Liverpool to set up at the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight. This is one of the best shows of the year as it is attended by such dedicated stampers and organised so well by such lovely people. I really can't wait!

See you all there.

A break from the norm

Cards for men are always so difficult to find so this should really help you all out. It's not the usual pretty card that I bring to you today, but a real bruiser of a card with a clear man sized message.






Don't you think that this will make a perfect card for the man in your life?

If you want to make it then you will need a 140mm x 140mm base card
Some man coloured paper
The Hypertension Harold Unmounted rubber stamp
Stazon in Stone Grey
Kuretake Art and Graphic pens Nos 260, 71, 8, 82.
Water pen.

The rest is up to you.

Who's Going to Ally Pally

Hands up if you're going to go to Ally Pally.

If you are, why not come along and visit us at the Craft Fairy stand.

We'll have lots of fantastic ribbons, buttons and bows as well as our huge range of paper flowers at knock down prices.

See you there.

Join me at the Art Stamps Fair at Newbury

Join me at the Art Stamps Fair at Newbury this wekend where I will be holding lots of Make and Take sessions on the Craft Fairy stand. What I will show everyone is how to make gift bags without needing to measure anything.

This is just an example of what you can make. I'll add more if I have the time today or tomorrow.

Lots of New Flowers Have Arrived

After months of negotiating with a company in Thailand the first of our own, Craft Fairy, brand of paper flowers have arrived.

These three packets are just three of the nine new colours that we have in stock.

Now, I chose the colour combinations myself. Did I make good choices? You tell me in your comments.

Back at Last

I must admit that I've not blogged for quite a while as the shows have taken me away from the computer. I do miss it though and so I am getting on with creating again. This is today's effort which uses the fantastic hydrangea stamp from Time To Stamp that is made by I Brake for Stamps.

To make it:

1. Colour the hydrangea stamp with the Art and Graphic Pens from Kuretake and stamp it twice, colouring up between stamping. Use the H2O water brush to move the paint a little and added some extra colour where the shadows should be.I cut the images out and then got on with the rest of the card.
2. Cut a base card 10.5cm x 28cm. Score this at the 14cm point to make a card 10.5cm x 14cm when folded.
3. Cut a piece of pink card and scored it and then cut it to fit over the join in the base card.
4. Stamp the message, which is from the Inspirational sayings plate, on a piece of card and cut it out to leavea a small border. Mounted this on to a piece of pink card. This was then stuck to the base card.
5. Stick the hydrangea images slightly overlapping on to the card with a mixture of adhesive and foam pade. The adhesive was for the bottom hydrangea and the foam pads for the upper image.
6. Decorated the lower part of the card with a broken line of green, use one of the greens that used on the stamp for colour continuity.

New Header

Have you noticed that we've got a new header? Don't you just love the fairy.? She's also the new logo on the Craft Fairy site so you'll see a lot more of her in the future.

I'd love to hear what you have to say about her so leave your comments for me to read.

A Corsage from Paper Flowers

Recently I've taken delivery of a large number of fantastic paper flowers and they are too wonderful to leave untouched in boxes until they sell. So I've decided to put my floristry training into practice and show everyone how to use the flowers to make a corsge.

You will need to set out what you need to start with:

On my table I had small yellow (it said yellow on the packet but they really are cream!) rose buds.

Small open tea roses in cream.

Medium open tea roses in fuchsia.

Large curly roses in Cream.

A couple of green hydrangea petals and some tacky glue.

First of all I cut the green flower in four as seen below.

Then I layered the smaller roses as shown below. Start with the smallest flower at the top and gradually wor down to the largest of the three.

Now twist the stems together.

Add some glue to the base of the leaf .

Glue behind the flowers as seen below.

Repeat the same steps with flowers and leaves for the other side. Lay them on the table and cross over at the centre point.


Put the large rose in the centre and then twist the wires together at the back of the corsage so that they lie flat. At this point, this is what you'll end up with.

However, I decided that it looked a little empty in the middle so I glued some green petals behind the central flower and I was happy with the way that it looked.

Challenge 82 - Kids Kardz!

I know that I don't very often make cards for boys but this time I'm making the exception because it lets me use this great stamp from the Kids Collection by The Merry Stamper.

This card was made for

Challenge 82 - Kids Kardz!

on My Time to Craft.
This fab boy stamp is from the set of Sketch kids stamps from The Merry Stamper.
I also used some of our highly desired dinosaur ribbon.
Some Kuretake Art and Graphic, double ended pens for the colouring and a waterbrush for the shading.

I do hope that you like this effort as I know what a pain it is to make cards for boys and I hope that any slug hunter that gets it will love it too.