Scrapbooking With Helen

How great is this photo of Roberta? Can't remember what we were all laughing about but it made for a fantastic pic. The point of the pic is the hat and scarf that Roberta is modelling. She knitted this whilst travelling on the train that day and has given the set to Linda for her shoebox charity. I just love those colours.

A while back I had given Helen some scrapbook supplies that I wasn't going to use anymore. As a thank you she made this lovely card. I love how it all comes together.  This definitely has pride of place.

Anthea has been working on a crochet blanket for a few weeks now and she has just finished it. It's for her girls when they snuggle up to watch TV. It's made entirely out of scrap yarn from her own yarn basket and donated from family members. The colours truly go well together and I love the border. She has even lined it.

More finishes from craft day. These Sashiko coasters were made by Alison. Two of them have been photographed before but she has now finished the full set. They look amazing. I am sure that Val will be proud.

The second of the craft day finishes is this doily crocheted by Donna. Magdalena was so excited to see someone else had finished something from her class. This is the same pattern that others have done but looks stunning in white. More delicate somehow.

Helen also gave Roberta a scrapbook lesson. Roberta has thousands of photo's at home and after the craft day lesson she wanted more on how to put together simple pages. Helen volunteered and brought in one of her own albums as an example. It was a way for Roberta to see different ways of putting more than one photo on a page.

Here Helen is describing different ways that her page could be layed out after chosing her colours and frames for the photograph.

Alison watches on as she also plans to have another shot at scrapbooking.

This is Roberta's final page. A simple layout but very effective.

Teddy Bears and New Members!

We have quite a few finishes to show off. First of all Freya has been busy. She brought along this beautiful card that she made after seeing a demonstration at the craft fair. I would have thought she had been making cards for years looking at it. She also brought along two decoupage dogs. They were very much admired with the group, particularly the Scotty. She actually has several finished projects but is only going to bring a few along every week. Can't wait to see what else she has been up to.

Her mum, Rhona, has also been busy. She finished this beautiful stripey jumper The yarn is cotton and it only went onto the pins a couple of weeks ago.

 Remember this?

Rhona has up-sized Izzi's original pattern. Makes for a fabulous knitting bag. She even lined it with a towel.

We also have a few new members. Kathleen is one of the newest who came along for the first time on Tuesday. She has just begun to learn to crochet. She crocheted these two lovely hats just from watching youtube videos. I thought that was impressive.

After some nagging Stephanie finally brought along a cushion she finished a while back (she brought it along the one week I wasn't there). She has been learning to do Japanese folded patchwork from Val and this is her first piece. I love the pattern created by the squares. She is now working on a bag with the same method.

Alison was working on this on Tuesday as it was a Mothers day present (her mum is visiting this weekend). The material of the scarf is lovely. The scarf is actually being held together by what is meant to be a belt buckle. Donna had brought them along on the off chance that someone might use them. Alison did but not in the way she was expecting. Works perfectly though.

I told you that we would have more finishes from the craft day. It's all been Sashiko kits just now. The first one was by Alison and the second by me. The red was stitched by Margaret. Although she wasn't there on Saturday I was able to show her how to do it Saturday night.

Margaret also finished some more of the Easter Chicks. I wonder how many others will be knitting them before Easter.

Last but not least she also managed to knit four teddy bears in the space of a week. She bought the book initially to knit the second bear, the knitter. In the end though she also knitted the Christmas bear for herself, the bumble bea for her youngest daughter and the strawberry bear for me.

Gartmore at Home the Final - crochet with Magdalena

Remember this? This beautifully, delicate crochet was done by Magdalena and she offered to teach us how to do something similar.

Magdalena's class was more relaxed which was just what we needed at the end of a busy day of crafting. She had made up lots of samples and with each one contained copies of the pattern. That way whichever one we chose to work on we would be able to see what it should look like in the end. As all the patterns were done in the form of charts she also had sheets describing what each of the symbols meant. She also brought along a basket filled with crochet cotton. Each ball was just enough to do one of the samples and came in spring colours.

On each of the info sheets describing the samples there was also an indication of difficult of the piece. As a result many of us chose this one which was listed as easiest (although Magdalena was very encouraging in getting us to try some of the more difficult ones).

You can see Elaine here working on the easier pattern (it turns out it is easier because there is less counting involved).

None of us finished by the time we left although a large number had started an attempt. I was able to finish mine when I got home and I think Elaine has just about finished hers too. It has certainly made me think that maybe I could try more complex crochet. Thanks Magda!

I am sure there will be more photo's of people having tried some of the craft day lessons. So watch out for that. Also there will more than likely be another craft day later in the year. In the meantime we have actual Gartmore to look forward to followed by Donna's baby shower.

Gartmore at Home Part 4 - Scrapbooking Memories With Anthea

The first class after lunch was a scrapbooking class from Anthea (told you it didn't involve needles). There are a few scrapbookers in the group but Anthea is a rep for a stamping company and often teaches cardmaking workshops. Anthea started off by showing everyone how to use various equipment.

She then showed everyone how to layer the papers that she had given out in the kits and then how to decorate those pages. She talked about position of the photography and how you can place objects on top of the photograph. She also suggested that you could create a space to write a little about the photo.

Anthea had brought along one of her own scrapbooks so that everyone had something to get inspiration from. You can see Helen, Elaine, Alison, Caroline and Donna looking through it.

Everyone was asked to bring along a 6x4 black and white photo to use. The reason being that it is easier for the kits to match the black and white images than if everyone had brought along colour. You can see Zuzanna here trying to decide which papers to use with the help of her mum.

Helen isn't new to scrapbooking as many of you probably know and she was straight in to cutting the papers.

Isabel lays her kit out and decides where to begin.

Zuzanna has already put hers together and is onto using stamps to create lettering. Helen is giving her a hand.

Magdalena had a fantastic photo which she shoes to Roberta's sister, Mary.

Anthea talks to Elaine and Linda on how to use some of the equipment.

Roberta layering up her photo.

Zuzanna was the first to finish. She knew exactly what she wanted to do with the papers and the end result looks fantastic. The lovely photo had been taken that very morning.

Linda also soon had a finish. A lovely mother-daughter page (ideal since it was mothers day the next day). The photo was from some professional photo's Linda had taken with her daughter.

Helen is very keen on her family history and has created a scrapbook for investigating it. This is going to be one of those pages. She has even left a space to write a little bit about Aunt Nellie.

Alison used a photo of her little friend Alix, Roberta's great granddaughter. She created this lovely page which has a lacy effect thanks to some punches. She didn't have a black and white photo but the colours in this one fits in perfectly.

A completely different take on the kit from Caroline. She brought in a photo of some elephants from when she was in India. The colours fit into the theme perfectly and so does the punch cut outs.

Isabel had forgotten to bring along some photo's. Luckily she always carries some photo's around with her of her grandchildren. These particular images were from the youngest's 1st birthday. Again the colours matched perfectly. Love the use of layering with the punches.

Last but not least we have teachers finished page. Anthea had used a photo of her daughter baking with her gran. She was the only one brave enough to layer the letters on top of the photo. Looks very effective.

Hopefully we will get some more photo's of finishes from others. I know Magdalena took hers home to finish and she plans on using the rest of the papers in her kit to make another page.

Tomorrow will be the last update from our craft day. This one will involve hooks with the lovely Magdalena.