Blogger Templates

Pages

Sunday 15 January 2012

THE CARDS ARE ON THE TABLE

Hello everyone

Well, not on the table rather they are in a magazine, but 'the cards are in the magazine' didn't have the same ring to it as my chosen post title and there is a reason for the title.  In October 2011 the Popular Crafts magazine featured my Blog in one of the regular blog reviews.  As I am sure you read in the post when I mentioned this, I was very pleased and excited to see my Blog 'in print'.  Shortly after the magazine was published, Katherine Jewitt (the Editor) contacted me to ask if I would be interested in reviewing a card-making kit.  Even better was that the version recommended for me to 'test drive' was about cats!  A double whammy and as you can imagine I said yes very quickly.

The pack arrived not long before we were due to go on holiday in November and I knew that I would have problems completing it before then, so I took it with me.  Along with holiday gear went laptop, camera, cables, paper, crafting kit and the kitchen sink.  Once or twice while Richard was out climbing the million and one steps in and around Valletta, I was back at the apartment drawing and colouring while sitting on the balcony sipping something nice and fizzy.  Who had the better deal?  Me - those steps were many and steep.

Despite creating greetings cards, I haven't actually drawn anything for many, many years and this review required me to do that.  Initially I had some pretty strange shapes to the cats I drew and did think I would have been better taking photographs of Jazz and Daisy that I could have drawn from.  After some trial runs, I managed to get two cat-shape outlines onto card and off I went with the fun bit of drawing the patterns in and colouring - oh boy colouring-in is such fun and made me feel about 5 again.  OK, I know that is a looong time ago, but I can just about remember it and know it was great fun.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was very, very pleased when I had completed the project - particularly as we had a few hiccups with the Wifi in the apartment and I had visions of whizzing around Malta try to find an Internet cafe from which to send my final pictures.  The magazine is due out at the end of this week and apart from my review it is packed with lots of other great projects and articles, and I am really honoured to be in such great crafting company.  I really recommend you buy a copy of the magazine and once it has been published, I will put a couple of pics in my next blog - have you ever seen red, orange, green, yellow and blue cats?  Well, you are in for a treat.

I have been working on my new ranges this week, as well as building my website - takes a long while as have to photograph everything I make, change the size, make other alternations and ensure it looks good on the site, add information, and also think about the various pages that require setting up.  The hardest part so far has been the About Me page - I am sure this is the same for all website designers.  Too much detail about the things I do might not be interesting, but then again too little may make the site uninteresting.  Progress is slow but sure - although it has taken me absolute ages to get to this stage, I am still working slowly as I want to ensure the website is good when it first goes live.  No 'going live' date decided up on yet.

One of the areas I want to move into are card-making workshops and I prepared some handouts which I distributed at events prior to Christmas.  I have two people who want to sign up but really will need more to make it worth while and enjoyable for everyone involved.  If you know of anyone who wants to spend a fun couple of hours creating cards in or around the Guildford area, please ask them to get in touch with me.  With Valentine's Day and Mother's Day fast approaching, now is a good time to start making cards. I hope to have a Stampin Up demonstrator taking part as well.

It's Handmade Monday and for the second week running I don't have anything to actually 'show' as my makes this week have been for my website, and not yet ready for posting on my Blog.  Plus, having had a painful left arm for a couple of weeks, I went to the doc's and discovered it was the return of the tennis elbow that I had suffered from not so long ago!  It hadn't occurred to me that it had come back again, but it's very painful and the only consolation is that it is in my left arm and I am right-handed.  Rest, medication and some pain-relieving gel prescribed - the first one is very hard to manage though.  However, I am taking part in Handmade Monday this week as it is a great way to find out what other crafters are doing, so why not join me in checking out the other contributors' blogs and read what they have been up to during last week.  Believe me, you will see some pretty amazing work and read some great posts.

Have a great week - I will be back on Wednesday.

Jill

20 comments:

  1. Well done on the kit review and hope your arm improves with rest, these Inge are sent to try us and all part of getting old.!,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hope you feel better soon. Good luck with your new venture.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, how exciting to be asked to do a review... would have made me feel very grown up, which is doubtless why I am never asked, LOL!

    Do hope that your arm recovers very soon and does not delay the launch of your new venture for too long :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carmaking in Malta - that is dedication for you! Sounds enjoyable though! Hope the arm feels better soon x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Blimey you've been busy!
    Well done on getting a review in popular crafts x
    Looking forward to seeing the new website too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Despite being incapacitated you have been so busy! Well done on the review. (Rhus Tox is good for tennis elbow) Mich x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations on being in the magazine - it all sounds exciting! I hope your arm feels better though.
    -Laura

    ReplyDelete
  8. I admire your dedication to your art, taking it all on holiday, but it does sound like you had fun doing it. Hope your arm is better soon!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well done with the review! What a fab blog I can see why they chose you, a very entertaining read :) x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well, your post was still quite interesting, can't wait to see what you did!
    Sorry for your pain, I have a condition that comes and goes, so I know how you feel. Mine's been in the "comes" stage lately, and it gets old. Hope you feel better really soon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congratulations on the magazine!

    Hope your elbo gets better soon, how annoying!

    Kim xx

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Jill thanks for your lovely comment and superb news about the magazine- how exciting. You painted a lovely picture of sitting on the balcony creating - sounds idyllic

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well done on getting asked to do the magazine review and for the dedication of taking it on holiday with you! Hope your elbow gets better soon. x

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well done on the exposure and getting your blog in print. The card kit review sounds fun. I wanna try lol.

    Hope you feel better soon!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Congratulations on being asked to do a review,sounds lovely being on holiday and crafting.
    Good luck with the website, it's something I would like to do but haven't the first idea where to start.
    Hope your arm feels better soon, must be frustrating!

    LH
    x

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow you've been so busy, it all sounds very exciting. Great news on doing the reviews. Hope your arm is healing up nicely, take care.

    Jan x

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oooh, ouch - my Mum suffers from Tennis Elbow so I know how painful it is. Look after yourself...

    How lucky to have a kit to play with and review - hopefully you will get lots more. I admire your commitment taking it on holiday with you!

    Ali x

    ReplyDelete
  18. I really enjoyed reading your post and hearing about everything you've been up to. The holiday sounds bliss, and I'm looking forward to seing your website and cards. Get well soon.
    Jo x

    ReplyDelete
  19. How thrilling to be asked to make something for a magazine. I would rather be crafting than walking up a zillion steps as well!

    ReplyDelete
  20. How fantastic to be asked to do a review for a magazine. Hope you feel better soon and I agree you had the better deal crafting and sipping on fizzy stuff:)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment - it is always lovely to have feedback and I hope you enjoyed my post.