A BREAK BEFORE THE MADNESS OF CHRISTMAS CRAFTING EVENTS

Hello everyone

I am so sorry to mention the word 'Christmas', but as we know the shops start promoting it once August Bank Holiday has bitten the dust and in the craft world, we start making for it just after the last one.

Plans are going well for the Christmas Pie Crafts & Gifts shop in The Village Guildford.  Despite looking forward to it, I feel nervous as there is so much to arrange: my stock, promotion, a sign for the shop, staff rota, tables, chairs, display material and everything else we will need.  I hope it will be very successful for all of us and it will certainly be a challenge.

However, we took a few days out of the crazy world of Christmas Pie Crafts and went to Alderney.  We love the Channel Islands and although we had been to Alderney many years ago, we couldn't really remember much about it.  The weather wasn't too bad, but we did experience the very strange low dust cloud and bright orange sun on Monday that everyone in the UK seemed to share.  It is a very quiet island and we assume the tourist season finishes quite early as many restaurants were closed, our hotel had very few guests and some of the trips we had been hoping to do had finished in September.  The beaches are beautiful and so clean and here are some photographs of the island:

Braye Beach - we stayed in the Braye Beach Hotel

How clean and well looked after the beaches are

You can see from the sky and waves in this one that the weather was a little grim

The view from our hotel room

We had spent some time recently listening the the local radio, Quay FM, and it was nice to put 'faces 'to names and places.  We arrived home to thick fog and the news of more bad weather to come, but it was a lovely break and we will certainly go back again, but plan to do so in the summer when sea trips to the smaller islands are available.

It's now back to making, organising, making and more organising.  Four events and the Christmas shop to plan for mean some pretty intensive weeks in the run-up to Christmas.

Have a great weekend everyone and I will 'see' you soon.

Jill

A WISLEY WANDER

Hi everyone

We survived last night's wind and rain - everything in the garden remained where it should be.  I had visions of getting up this morning to find the new pebble area have been 'moved' to the other side of the garden.  It is still very windy, but the sun is shining and it is warm, so it's rather nice to be outside.

A friend and I went to Wisley yesterday for a wander around the Sculpture Trail and we saw some weird and wonderful pieces.  We do pottery together and feel confident we can add our work next year - as if.  One item that we both wanted to take home with us was not part of the Sculpture Trail - the gorgeous dandelion heads.  Really beautiful work and if you live near to Wisley, you must make sure you see this sculpture (as well as all of the others):

As my life is full of cats and my friend is a fellow cat-lover, we were both pleased to find a statue of one:

In typical cat pose - asleep.

My new pebble area is going to be home to a range of small grasses and I bought some in the Wisley Plant shop yesterday and placed an order for some more when I got home.  Arriving tomorrow, and I will leave them in their pots and put them in various places before I plant them to make sure the area looks how I want it to.  Pics to follow when all the work has been completed.

It's back to work now and and plans for my Christmas shop are moving forward - I have two of my A Fair to Remember stallholders joining me and I am planning to ask another two.  It's important that I have a variety of work in the shop and there is method in my madness, I will need cover for the times when two people are a must and/or I cannot be there.  Exciting times, but a lot of work as I am approaching my autumn /winter events, making stock for them and my shop and organising everything the shop needs.  Roll on January - sorry, didn't mean that really.

Have a great week everyone, enjoy what is left of summer and hope you haven;t suffered from the wind, rain and other weather horrors being thrown at the world at the moment.

Jill

NOW, WHERE WAS I?

Hello everyone

I love blogging, I really enjoy it as it is a great way to keep in touch with followers, visitors and friends and family who I may not see as often as I would like to.  Recently it seems to be getting harder and harder to blog regularly.  I feel guilty because there are the occasional (very, very rare) days when I look back and can't see what I have done - although I feel I am on the go all of the time.  I was chatting with a friend yesterday about this and we both agreed that despite having so many 'time-saving' gadgets, wonderful technology, etc there really is no time saved, just more time spent on pressing all of the buttons to make the gadgets work!

It is hard to believe that we are approaching the last Bank Holiday of the year before Christmas - frightening and judging by the weather and the state of the trees around here, autumn is well and truly here!  Friends of ours flew off to Australia a couple of weeks ago and are missing this wonderful wet weather - I am sure they are so disappointed.  However, looking at the forecast, I have sneaky feeling that they might just be lucky enough to experience some wet weather when they arrive back in September.

So what have I been doing recently?  Working on my events – lots to do and the first one is less than two months away.  I am still looking for Event Assistants.  I have one person signed up, but really want a team so that I have back-ups if someone is unwell on the day of an event.  I find it very hard to believe that nobody wants or needs work around here – no commitment, just one day (or event) at a time.  I know Surrey is an affluent area, but on social media sites there are people asking for work in this locality, just not interested in my work - perhaps because they have to be self-employed?  Oh well, perhpas nearer the time of the events, people will being to think some extra money would be welcome.

I recently helped my pottery tutor create her website and someone contacted her asking if they could be put in touch with the website designer (er, me?).  Could this be a whole new career?  I don’t think so, but it is proving interesting recommending/agreeing designs, photographs, etc, but not really something I would like to do on a permanent basis - adding another string to my already buckling bow is not on my To-Do list.

Not quite up-to-date in my blog-land, but sort of-ish.  Have a good Bank Holiday weekend everyone, fingers crossed the sun shines for some of the time.

Jill

IT'S GETTING BUSY HERE IN PIE LAND

Hello everyone

It's a gorgeous day here and possibly the last warm one for a while.  We recently had our 'green sacks' replaced with big brown wheelie bins.   A pain for storage, but as we are doing some heavy heavy pruning of

our fruit and other trees at the moment, it is very welcome - in fact we could do with two at this time of the year.  We shred and compost as much as we can and over the years our soil has benefited from the addition of our shreddings.  Today is also likely to be the last chance we have of cutting the lawn (well we like to think of it as a lawn, more a big patch of moss, weeds and some grass) because it takes ages to dry out and for most of the day it is wet from a very heavy dew and partially in shade.

As for everyone in the handmade world, it is a very busy time of year for me.  Making what we think will sell as well as what we enjoy making - do you find that very often they don't go together?  Something you were glad you had finished proved very popular and you had to make more.

This week was spent making cards, more gift tags, sample wedding invitations and I found time to decorate another jute bag; this time for Halloween.  I don't really 'do' Halloween crafts, but felt it was about time I made something and as the colours of black and orange are ones I like, I couldn't resist the opportunity to use them.  I am taking part in an Autumn Fayre on Friday at the Normandy Therapy Garden and think this might be a popular item, and here is a photograph of my make:

This week, time permitting, I will have a go at making a ribbon or fabric wreath in Halloween colours.  I have four events I am taking part in this month, one of which is a wedding fayre, plus a fifth one that a friend is covering for me/sharing with me.  This coming week is going to be hectic and I think I had better get back to work now - but I will do some gardening first as it is very relaxing and the sun is shining.

Don't forget to visit the Handmade Monday bloggers this week - as we move towards Christmas, they are blogging about lovely Christmas makes.  Thank you to everyone who visited and commented on my last week's post and I am so pleased my cat-decorated jute bag was liked by so many.  Using the feedback as a gauge of popularity, I think I had better make some more for stock.

Have a great week everyone - see you next Sunday (Milly will be here on Wednesday with her purrs of wisdom).

Jill

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

Hi everyone

I am sure we all have days (weeks?) where we wonder what we have done with our time - very little to show for it, but every hour has been jam-packed with work.  I think I mentioned in an earlier email that a friend of mine writes down everything she has carried out each day - she feels it is satisfying to look back at the work she has accomplished rather than as with a To-Do List reviewing what has not been completed.  I think I should do that.

However, despite feeling I don't have a lot of work to show for my week, I have made oodles of gift tags and am really pleased that I will have a large stock for the Ripley Nurseries event this month (31 August).  Now in the craft world (rather as in the fashion world) we know we have to be months ahead of real time and just in case there are any keen early Christmas shoppers at the event, I have made quite a few Christmas tags.

Here are some photographs of the newest sets and last week's ones which have now been ribboned and bagged:

We have also spent a lot of time working in the garden.  Pruning, planting, moving and general tidying up.  We have a big family get-together here at the end of the month, so want to make sure everything is looking good.  We moved a wooden-framed pond from one side of the garden to the other - it was empty, thank goodness.  We replanted it and not sure if the move was a good idea as the newest members of our cat family, Coco and Poppy, think it is a new water bowl for them!

We have a bumper crop of apples on our Worcester Pearmain tree this year - it is one of the late ripeners and is usually just right for picking in late October:

We didn't prune it at the end of the last season, something we regret given the very heavy crop.  Interestingly we had very little June drop this year, not sure if it was because of the weather or some other reason.  It is some natural pruning that is always welcome although at the time it happens it seems disappointing.  Nature's way of sorting out the duff apples from the good ones.

Among the many favourite plants in my garden is the Acanthus (Bear's Breeches).  It is a lovely plant and the flower stems are magnificent.  Here is a photograph of one of the flower heads after the white flowers have finished.  I want to split this at the end of the season as I have several other places in the garden where it would look good.

One last photograph, this time of Coco who has spent today dodging the rain and the garden sprayer.  She is relaxing here in the conservatory.  It is a hard life being a cat:

I have just had a quick look at this week's Handmade Monday post.  Wendy has chosen her Digi-Stamp Design Team and I already know that each team member's work is lovely and I am looking forward to seeing more of it.  Wendy has a mid-week paper-craft challenge - certainly looking forward to that too.  So, don't forget to nip over and have a read of this week's post and catch up with the other bloggers taking part.

Have a great week everyone.  Hard to believe it is nearly the last Bank holiday before Christmas, but hot though it may have been at times, it has been a great summer with hopefully lots more sunny days to come.

A friend and I (Lesley (the lovely Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford)) are trying to arrange a Macmillan Coffee Morning to take place on 27 September so watch this space as I hope to have some information about it next Sunday.

See you next week and don't forget to call in here on Wednesday to catch up with Milly's tails.

Jill

JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS

Hi everyone

A little late with my main post this weekend, and realised Milly also forgot her mid-week post.  You just cannot get the right staff these days!  However, this is my 200th post and a brief one.

My time at Secretts over the last month has been a great success and, although it is thankfully a long way off, I am looking forward to and already planning for next year's event.  What did sell, what didn't sell - always very hard as the non-sellers could fly off the shelves next year - who knows.  Certainly my decorated gift bags are very popular.  I had one customer who called in on Saturday wanting to buy four medium sized bags, I only had one left in stock and agreed to make them for him to collect on Sunday.  I made five and he was so pleased he bought all of them.

Had a lovely lunch last Friday with the Twitter Gals - it was great to see Dawn and Lesley again, but a shame Michelle couldn't join us.  Next time, fingers crossed.  Nice to meet a couple of Lesley's friends too.  Thank you for arranging the lunch Lesley.

It is time to sign off now.  Our presents have been posted, delivered, handed out or are waiting to be given out tomorrow.  Tomorrow's lunch is all prepared and ready for cooking - thank goodness I have got out of the habit of the mad Christmas morning peeling session - it used to be a family ritual when I was growing up.  The friend who is spending Christmas with us arrives tomorrow morning and we are planning on having a relaxing day.

A very happy Christmas to all of my blog followers, Handmade Monday bloggers and friends (and family) who visit regularly.  Have a great day - I will be back next weekend.

Jill

SANTA IS ON HIS WAY

Hi everyone

It's a crazy time of year for crafters isn't it?  Rushing to keep up with orders and replace stock, while trying to make sure you have everything for your own Christmas.

I am about to go into a full week at Secretts - not every day as I am sharing the cover with my cake-making friend.  Good really as I am finding it hard to keep on top of orders, etc, so need some free time to make stock.  We are both stall-holding on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and really hoping for some great days sales-wise.

It has been a good week so far and in particular the sales my golfing friend managed for me at her club's Christmas Lunch.  A great success and lots of lovely compliments, which are always very welcome in our business, aren't they?

Lots of makes this week, lots of forgetting to photograph them, as always, but took some pics today of bags I have made - again poor quality as it is rather dark in the tent where I am selling:

I was disappointed, and a little hurt, at the comment I came across on a crafts forum this week from a fellow crafter - in fact someone I know.  As those of you who read my post regularly know, in addition to the extra days I am in the Christmas Tent at Secretts Farm Shop, I also took part in their three-day Christmas Fair in November.  The comment made was attributed to someone else, but I wonder about this and it included this: 'the craft stalls at Secrets are a load of tat ........ the garden centre has such lovely stuff to buy why would anyone buy that stuff'.  Not only do I think this is grossly unfair and completely wrong, but I am surprised that a fellow crafter would be so harsh in print, particularly if as they say someone else said this and the writer may not have actually checked out the stalls for them self.  Oh well, it is Christmas - a time to be charitable and forgiving?

I hope you read week one of Milly's diary?  She is settling in very well and it is almost as though she has been with us for ever.  I think she and Daisy have signed the first page of a truce, but there are still several chapters to work through before the final sign-off.

I went for Christmas lunch with my pottery group on Friday and we all had a lovely time.  Nice to see everyone in clothing that is not covered in smudges, paint spots and bits of clay.  We had Christmas crackers and I collected all the 'left-over' bits to use on cards and bags.  Beautiful silvery patterned paper that will look lovely when recycled into Christmas cards and bags.

We had a family Christmas meal yesterday with my sister and her husband.  They are away for Christmas and we always try to spend a day together before they go that is as near to Christmas as is possible and is a good excuse to begin early the Christmas celebrations.  However, it wasn't roast turkey, but beef with pickled walnuts.  I know it may sound unusual, but it was gorgeous - even if I do say so myself.  We did have crackers and all the other normal Christmassy things.

That's it for today, I have to get back to the grind-stone of making (not really a grind-stone) as I need stock for tomorrow.  I hope you all have a good week and don't forget to come back on Wednesday to read Milly's diary, but equally as important is for you to nip over to read the other bloggers taking part in this week's Handmade Monday round - great blogs, great makes and good fun to read and it is the last one before Christmas so a 'must not miss' event.

Jill

IS IT REALLY ONLY 65 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS?

Hello everyone

65 days left to get everything ready for events, orders and our own Christmas!  Am I panicking?  Of course not!!  Calm, collected and running around like a headless chicken not sure what job to start first, and often not starting any because of dithering too long about which one is the most urgent.

A hectic week - seems to be the norm at the moment.  I spent Monday helping a friend set up/sort out her spreadsheets for her business - not long in business and wanted to ensure she had the break-even calculations set up correctly.

Around numerous other non-crafty activities, I managed to make lots and lots of mini-cards.  I now have two ranges: 3" x 3" and 4" x 4".  Very easy to make and a whole variety covering Christmas and all other events that occur throughout the year, including birthdays. They always sell well at events and I want to ensure that I have plenty of stock for the ones I am taking part in in November - especially the 3-day event I am doing when I want to be able to move stock around so it looks as though each day has a brand new basket-full of mini-cards.

As well as mini-cards, my makes these week have involved ribbon.  I love ribbon, I can never have enough of it and buy it even if I don't have a use in mind - yes, I am a ribbon addict!  This addiction is not helped by my ribbon supplier often having offers of a discount of 25% off all stock and that means more ribbon arrives at Christmas Pie Crafts.  Lovely great big 50 metre rolls of the stuff.  However, I am not a complete nut-case, I am making inroads into my stock and this week I decided on a different type of wreath/wall-hanging made of Black Watch tartan ribbon and here it is in it's nearly finished state (unfortunately, I discovered my camera's battery is as flat as a pancake so I used my iPhone, which seems to have turned the Black Watch tartan blue!):

I bound the ring with the ribbon and I am in the process of making red velvet roses to attach to it - guess what they are made of? Yep, that's it, ribbon!

That's my confession over for the week, but I bet that if you visit the other participants in this week's Handmade Harbour blogging event you will find more addicts - craft addicts that is creating beautiful things and writing great blog posts.

Before I leave my crafty bit of blogging, don't forget to read this week's guest post from Claire of Lady Luck Jewellery - it's all about the good, the bad and the ugly of craft fairs.   It is a great insight into craft fairs from both an organiser's viewpoint as well as that of a stall holder.  Many thanks for being a guest blogger Claire, I really enjoyed your post.

The Other Me

As well as the crafting me, the other me has been busy this week with kittens.  Monkey and Damon went to their new home on Thursday.  As always, it was hard to see them go, but more so this time because Monkey was such an affectionate kitten; you sat down, and so did he - on your lap, neck, shoulder, anywhere he could get to.  I know they will have lovely lives and that is the important thing.

I now have Jasper and Wallace, two little ginger boy kittens aged 7 weeks.  They are very nervous, Wallace more so and although you can stroke them, picking them up to cuddle is not easy - they wriggle a lot.  I feel this is going to be a challenge and I will let you know how things go over the next week or so.  Here is a photograph off them; they are not as keen on having their picture taken as Monkey and Damon were:

Jazz, as always, is fascinated by them and what is very interesting is that Jasper appears to like Jazz as he purrs when he is near by.  Daisy looks at them with a 'oh, no, not another lot' look on her face.

In my pottery sessions I have added ears and hair to my mask.  I have decided it is going to be as you saw last week, not blending the features into the face.  Perhaps this can be my practice mask and the next one will be the 'real' thing.  The hair is not quite hair, but looks (to me) like the top of an acorn, so Mr Acorn it could well be.  I made another pendant this week, but no earrings; I planning on using a shiny black glaze this time, with some 'rubbed out areas to give depth'.  I do enjoy the course and I am really glad I made the decision to join last term and book both morning and afternoon sessions this term.  Hard to believe we are already half-way through this term and I know the weeks after the half-term break will whizz by even faster than the first half.

Time to get back to my ribbons - so many ribbons, so little time to enjoy them.  Before I forget, this week's funny keyword search terms are 'tellero' (er, how did the searcher end up on my blog??) and 'christmas wrapping ribbon'.

Have a great week, don't forget to come back on Wednesday for my mid-week post and Friday for my guest blogger.  I haven't forgotten that I mentioned I will be starting a cat-related blog post on Thursdays, but will be leaving that for a week or so.

Jill

CHILLY NIGHTS, FROSTY MORNINGS, BUT GORGEOUS SUNSHINE IN THE DAY

Hello everyone

It's a little bit nippy now (sounds very similar to the opening words of an Elton John song) - the sunshine is very welcome, but the cold isn't and this is just the start of the chilly season.  The good thing about this time of year, rather like spring, is that the colours in the garden are beautiful.  Reds, browns, bronzes - quite spectacular and the complete opposite of spring with its yellows and whites.  I have a lot of bulbs still to plant - got behind with them - and have some big pots I want to put them in today so a few hours in the sunshine beckons.

The crafting flip-side of me

I am hoping that by now the winners of my World Card-Making Day competition have received their prizes - I know one has.  I hope you are all pleased with them.  Again, a big thank you to everyone who took part, whether as a maker or a voter and thank you to Make and Craft for sponsoring the competition - I hope your launch day was a great success.  My digital copy of the magazine is excellent and has lots of lovely things to make.  I have had two suggestions for the next competition: 'anything but cards' and, of course, cats.  Any other ideas?  I will put the suggestions into a hat and let one of my cats choose the theme.

Still on the subject of cards, did you read Ally's guest blog post on Friday?  Ally's cards are beautiful and make me realise that I must get into stamping - I have loads of stamps and as with lots of my craft 'things' they are in a box waiting to be used.  I think that in my stack of craft materials there is a 'I must do this' list.  If you would like to join Ally and everyone else who has been a guest blogger, it would be lovely to have you  on board.  Please get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

My photographed 'makes' for this week's post are not for my business, but for me from my pottery course.  The first photograph is of the pendant and earrings I made last term, glazed this term and fired last week.  The pendant has a loop at the back and I may just add ribbon or a chain, not sure yet.  The earrings are ready to have hooks added.  I am pleased with the effect the wallpaper and rubbing off some of the glaze has created and glad they are not too heavy.

The second photograph is of one of this term's main projects - a mask.  I haven't yet decided whether to blend the features into the mask, but I am pleased with the nose which I learnt how to create last week.  The lips presented a problem in that I just couldn't get a good shape to them and they still do not match what my mind's eye wants.  I am going to add hair and ears to the mask, so there may be more photographs on the way.

In between various other things this week, I have been busy making stock for my events - mainly concentrating on two ranges of mini-cards.  They sell well and although I have two weeks between the first and second event, the second event is a three-day outing and is followed closely by my last event of the year and I want to have plenty to be able to ring the changes, particular for the three-day event.  I also need to make stock for my wall at Bourne Mill which, despite the high street shops already having them, doesn't have any of my Christmas range for sale yet.  I have to say that I am beginning to be rather concerned at how little time I have left and how very far behind I am.

don;t forget to checkout the other blogs taking part in this week's Handmade Monday.  Always lots of beautiful makes to see and great blog posts to read.  

I had a card order to make for a birthday at the end of this month.  The brief was the recipient likes pink, purple, spiritual things and cats.  I love these challenges, made the card and forgot to photograph it - again!  My customer was very pleased with it, so hard though it was to match the brief it was a success.

The other flip-side of me

I have two new residents who arrived yesterday morning - Monkey (how can you call a kitten that?) and Damon (equally poorly named).  They are ten weeks old; Damon is the little black kitten and Monkey is the grey one.  almost needless to say they are gorgeous, very playful and friendly and purr at the drop of a whisker.  I am not to sure how long they will be with me - they haven't yet been homed but there is a possibility that someone is interested in them.  As you can see, they are quite happy to have their picture taken - or probably fascinated by the camera.

Jazz is fascinated by them, Daisy definitely isn't.  She is not a very sociable cat; loves her home and us and Jazz (most of the time), and that it all she needs in her life - as well as food of course.  Everyone who enters our home (two-legged or four-legged) is a potential friend for Jazz - he bounces up to them and wants to be their best friend.  He is, however, a little concerned by Damon (black kitten) - we feel that he looks at him and thinks he could be a miniature Shadow (the cat who frightens him).  The joys of cat-owning and kitten-fostering are great fun - and exhausting.

I am thinking of adding another mini blog post on Thursdays, specifically in support of Woking Cats Protection.  I plan to feature one (or a pair if they are to be homed in pairs) kittens each week, so watch this space.  I hope you read my post last Wednesday about the gorgeous Simba?

On Friday I went with a couple of friends for my second day trip this year to the Isle of Wight.  The weather was gorgeous - sunny all day (despite the forecast), slightly chilly wind, but a great day.  We did a walking tour of Bembridge - started in the main street and made our way  down various side roads to the beach, then all they way along the beach (great big pebbles, stones and rocks everywhere - so hard going) and then back up some steep steps (no exaggeration here) which came out just to where we had left the car (thank goodness as my legs felt in need of a rest).  We then went off to Old Shanklin for a late lunch (gorgeous crab salad), wandered around the village and then slowly made our way back to the ferry, via Ventnor for a brief look around.  Everywhere was very quiet, which was nice - the ferry crossing was also quiet both ways, which meant speedy loading and unloading.  We are now planning our next trip and considering a Christmas market in Bruges.

I am helping a friend with her spreadsheets tomorrow.  She is not a great computer fan to say the least, and starting spreadsheets from scratch is daunting for her.  Lunch is included, so how could I refuse?  Yes, I know I should be stock making, but..............

I am off  now to work in the garden as this gorgeous weather is too good to miss and my daffodil bulbs are crying out to be planted.  I also have some pansies and polyanthus plants to go in - so may top the daffodil pots off with them - a nice display for most of the winter with the pansies.  I had meant to pot them on, but didn't get around to it, so think it is straight into their final growing place today.

I hope you all have a great day, don't forget to come back on Wednesday for my mid-week post and also on Friday for another great guest blog post.

And finally a couple of gems from this week's searches stats (apart from being intrigued as to how they landed on my blog, I am so curious as to what they were originally looking for):

crafts with bricks and toilet rolls crafts

Jill

TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS......

Hi All,

It’s Madeleine from Craftsite again.

With budgets being squeezed all round as prices rise I thought that today I would write about money saving tips for card making. This article is aimed not only at individual card makers but the vast army of those who make and sell cards for charity and really need to keep their costs down.

First, I never buy cheap materials if cheap means compromising on quality – it’s false economy. A card must be able to stand up and I would recommend a card weight minimum of 225 gsm for card making or an even heavier for those larger cards, such as A5 and 8 x 8 – Craftsite’s creased card packs for larger size cards are made with 300 gsm card. It’s the same with embellishments, especially if you are selling cards, as a card made with quality card embellishments will be more likely to sell. The card below uses 240 gsm cardstock, a pretty backing paper and embellishment but costs only 63p to make.

 Look out for genuine value for money bargains and this is the best time of the year to do it. Right now the new Christmas stock is coming in to retailers and most retailers just don’t have the space for it all. Some of our suppliers are in the same boat when it comes to available space so many of our special offers at the moment are at way below wholesale prices. The card below was made with holographic card (30% off RRP) and a bauble die cut topper (35p for an A4 sheet of 8 die cut toppers). The glitter card and coloured card were left over from previous projects so this card cost just a few pence to make.

Look around the house for items that you can recycle into your card making. – buttons, old beads, pearl envelopes (these sometimes come with junk mail in them – throw away the junk mail but keep the envelope for punching shapes). Just be imaginative. This card was made using an aperture card and florist’s ribbon. If you have a die cutting machine you don’t even have to buy the aperture card. Cut your own shape on a piece of oblong scrap card, add the ribbon or whatever else you’ve found, and mount it onto a card blank.

Save the gift wrapping after opening your presents. This card was made using cut Christmas wrapping paper.

Just be careful when recycling, especially recycling old cards, that you are not breaching copyright. Use bits and pieces from cards, e.g. bows, rather than the designs themselves.

Have a go at making your own backing papers with stamps. Pick a background stamp that you’ll use over and over again – Craftsite has nearly 90 ink colours so you should always be able to get a matching colour for your project and it can save hours of searching craft shops for the right shade of backing paper that you need.

The stamp wasn’t large enough to cover the whole of the paper so I stamped the top and bottom and used ribbon to hide the gap.

Stamps in general are a good investment as they can be used over and over again. Look at the stamps you have and ask if they can be used in a different way, e.g. a stamp of a country cottage could be used for new home; birthday card; or add snow to the roof with crystal glitter or stickles and you have a Christmas card. It’s amazing the different looks that can be obtained using the same stamp. These 2 cards use the Prima En Francais stamp but glitter has been applied to one of them and the other coloured using Tim Holtz distress markers.

If you like decoupage take a look at the pictures and see if the design can be split into 2 – many of them can. If you can get 2 cards from the same decoupage design then a sheet of 4 step by step decoupage prints can make 8 cards. Splitting a design also means that your finished card is thinner and if you use 1mm thick instead of 3mm thick foam pads your card could squeeze into Royal Mail’s letter rather than large letter category resulting in a saving on postage too. Both the cards below were made using the same decoupage picture and each card cost just under £1 to make.

Some of the cards used in this article are available along with step by step instructions on how to make them in the Craftsite Gallery and you’ll find more ideas for making budget cards in our Card Making Ideas – Economical Cards section.

If you’d like to keep up to date with new card projects please like my Facebook page .

Have a good weekend.

Madeleine

THE LAST BANK HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR

Hi everyone

I know it isn't the last one, but the next one is Christmas and it seems a long way off - I'll forget the fact that at the moment I am surrounded by material for making Christmas cards, gift boxes, etc.

1 Crafty Tales

I haven't done a lot of craft work this week as I have tried to concentrate on my website - yes, I know I have probably written those words at least ten times in my blog, but it is getting to the point where I know I really do need to get a move on and get it published.  As you know from my blog, I love bright colours and originally my website was black (text mainly and some accents), white and lime green - the lime green was rather prominent.  I liked the colour scheme but have come to the conclusion over the last week that it really needs softening.  I therefore decided to introduce purple, well lilac really, into the colour scheme.  I have used lilac as the background side-strip colour and also in some of the accents.  I decided to use dark purple for the text, but still kept some lime green as I think it is a fresh bright colour.  I may still go for a lighter shade of lilac on the side strips, but am playing around with that at the moment.

I am ploughing through adding items, but the dilemma is that a lot of my card stock is at Bourne Mill - it is my bricks and mortar selling point, so I keep very little stock is at home.  This means I need to make stock that only goes on my website, not something that I am relishing really as it means working twice as hard (oh dear, sounds pathetic).  However, with long winter nights on their way (sorry to mention winter, almost as bad as mentioning Christmas) I should have more free time to work on stock production.  My big problem at the moment is that when the weather is good, I really want to be outside either working in or enjoying my garden.

In the meantime, this is my home page - so far.  What do you think of it?  Do you think the lilac should be a shade or a few shades lighter?  I have had some feedback that the green doesn't go well with the lilac, but the green is 'me'.  It's one of my original colours and I don't really want to lose it - plus a lot of my promotional material uses this shade of lime green.

I plan to 'go live' on 1 September, even though not all of my sections will have stock, but I think I have dragged my heels long enough and a small presence (growing regularly) on the internet is better than no presence at all.  I really cannot attend any events this year and to the many people who ask if I have a website, reply 'it's nearly ready' - especially if they asked me the same question last year!

It's time for the Handmade Monday bloggers to visit the other participants to catch up on their makes and 'doings' for the past week, but before you go, it would be great if you would consider being a guest blogger here on the Christmas Pie Crafts blog.  If you are a regular Friday visitor you will know the posts have been really great and just as good are the ones I have ready to be published.  It's a great chance for you to increase traffic to your blog and website as well as other social networking that you are involved in.  Interested?  Email me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com - it would be great to have some more Handmade Monday-ers take part.  A bit of free promotion for your new Christmas stock?

Did you read Krissy's guest post on Friday?  I really recommend you visit while you are here to read about how Krissy decided to open up her boutique.  Many thanks Krissy for being one my guest bloggers - I really enjoy reading about how people came to the 'today' stage of their life.

2 The chitter, chatter bit

News of the day: Trio broke out of my neighbour's home!  Smashed her way through the cat flap, wandered around the garden, jumped up and landed on a 6' high piece of trellis and miaowed to be rescued!  This is the cat with one hind-leg missing who has only been 'in residence' for about two weeks!  She has been exploring in sheds and garage, brought out many cobwebs (better than a duster) and seems very happy to be free.  Shadow is completely confused by her, but Jazz is interested as he likes the 'older woman' cat.  Another one of our neighbours had a very elderly lady cat and Jazz would follow her everywhere - she was a bit grumpy (Holly by name and by nature) and this irritated her very much.

I met up with Caroline on Tuesday and over large cups of coffee we attempted to solve the crafting riddle of the day; we didn't find a solution, and after lots of coffee think we had forgotten what the original question was, but it was great to take time out and catch up with what each of us has been working on.

I had a call from Cats Protection last week asking if I would be able to feed some kittens next week.  A cat-fosterer who lives near to me is going on holiday for a few days and I am the nearest CP person to her home.  I went to meet my charges on Thursday and they are so cute: one long-haired ginger girl called Fifi (18 months old) and two long-haired black kittens aged 4.5 months.  I also met some of the fosterer's own cats - three tabbies, and all gorgeous.  Not sure I can do this work without increasing the size of my own cat population.  My biggest concern, apart from wanting to take all stray cats and kittens home with me, is how I will cope with a case where the kittens or cats are not as healthy as those I have met so far.

I don't know if any of you have come across BlogFlash2012?  It is a blog-post-a-day event organised by Terri G Long (Terri's blog is about the Art and Craft of Writing Creatively).  Terri has provided a topic for each day of August and as you can imagine it must be hard work writing something new every day.  I haven't had a chance to read all of the posts, but particularly wanted to dray your attention to those created by Lesley Beeton (one of my favourite guest bloggers).  She has written some very interesting posts and I feel that most of them (all really) have a chapter 2 waiting to be produced.

I read a post on Twitter a short while ago with a link to a YouTube video about the Follow Friday (#FF) activity.  Like a lot of people who use Twitter, I take part in this and have tended to follow the crowd with a group FF tweet.  I am embarrassed to say I cannot remember who produced the YouTube (I am sure someone here will), but their recommendation was that if you want to encourage people to follow, just FF tweet one person at a time with a reason why they should be followed.  It was suggested that group tweeting can sometimes be viewed as spamming, so I decided to keep with the single FF tweet and I will continue this in future.  I did this on Friday and limited time meant I only managed two, and thank you to those same two who included me in their individual Follow Friday tweets.

The garden beckons as my neighbour has given me some lovely Primula Denticulata to plant - the garden is also the best place to be as Richard is removing the fireplace from the dining room!  The noise of the chisel and hammer are bearable, the moans and groans are not.

I hope you have a good Bank Holiday Monday - sadly I think the weather is going to be pretty grim.  I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week catch-up and don't forget to visit on Friday to read this week's great guest post.

Jill

TIME PASSING

Hi everyone

Another week has whizzed by and although I have been busy I feel as though I have been standing still and have accomplished little.  Age or the time of year when the days are long and you feel you have plenty of time to do lots and actually do little?  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.....

Part 1: Crafty Tales

Up until a few weeks ago, I had been working hard on producing my mini-cards for my Christmas events.  I then stopped, moved onto wedding invitations and Christmas (sorry, a rude word at this time of year) got left behind.  It struck me this week that I am no further forward with my stock and therefore need to get a move on, or my stall will look rather empty.  However, I decided that Christmas might have to wait a little longer and as I had lots of orange ribbon (I bought some narrow ribbon when I bought the wedding stock) and some black material, I thought, hey, how about a Halloween fabric wreath.  So, here it is - it is a work in progress as you can see, but it should be ready in a couple of days time and I will then add it to my Etsy shop:

I think black and bright colours look so good together.  I am looking for a template for a bat as think I will add one to the centre just to finish this wreath off, or I may pin it to the wreath itself as perhaps the centre isn't big enough to do justice to an embellishment.

It has been a week of catching up on everything that was put aside for the invitations.  Not much progress on the Orders of Service as need information from the bride and groom.  However, there is plenty of time to work on them and they are nowhere nearly as complicated as the invitations.  It's time for to visit the other crafters who take part in Handmade Monday - I know you will enjoy the blogs and the work the other HMs have been creating during the past week so don't forget to check them out.

Part 2: Chitter, Chatter

Phew!  It is HOT.  Great weather for lazing around outside reading and doing very little and that's just what we did for most of yesterday and today.  We had a meal with a friend yesterday evening and sat outside until very late. Hedgehogs visit her garden every evening, but only one last night - think the rest of the family probably had a take-away and didn't need to come out for supper, feet up and glued to Hedgehog Street or possible Hedgehog-Enders.

I hope you have been able to read my guest post from Lesley Beeton?  Thank you Lesley, it is a great post and I think it is well summed up by Hannah's comment '....I love to hear stories of how people use their creativity in difficult times as I believe it helps others to find that part of hope that creativity brings'.  A lovely comment, thank you Hannah.  I know Lesley would like feedback on her post, so please do visit.

Did you also visit my mid-week blog post about Trio?  A must-read 'tail'.

This week is an odd combination: good weather and Richard on leave!  Those two happening at the same time have been unheard of this year.  He has two weeks leave and the first week is work (not that he is fully aware of the long list he has to tackle) and the second week is leisure.  However, as most of the work is outside, think the heat might prevent some of it being carried out and it may be a case of reversing the weeks.  However, no matter what the weather is like time off from work is always welcome.

We have an interesting situation that has developed over the last few weeks involving our cat, Jazz, and Shadow, the 3-legged cat who now lives with our neighbour.  Up to the time of Shadow's operation, they were friends. OK, they didn't go to the pub or play football, but they were quite happy to lay on the patio together in the sun fairly close to each other.  Despite being a big cat, Jazz is a softy and he wants to be friends with everyone (two legs or four, he doesn't mind), but he is one of the original 'scaredy-cats'.  His 'hello, I'm Jazz, can we be friends' attitude doesn't always work and often he gets cuff around the ear from cats who don't want to be his best pal.  When this happens, he never retaliates - in fact a few months ago a neighbour walked by with his small dog, Jazz began walking towards him (the 'be my friend' behaviour kicked in) and the dog started barking.  What did Jazz do?  Nothing, just sat there - possibly wondering why this particular 'cat' was on a lead and making sounds that didn't seem to be cat-like.

My apologies, I have wandered off of the plot.  When Shadow walks towards Jazz, he lurches because of his missing left front leg - this seems to frighten Jazz and he cowers and hisses.  They don't fight - thank goodness - but some pretty blood-curdling screams have been heard.  On top of this Daisy (who is clearly reincarnated from the women who watched with glee as heads were chopped off in the French Revolution) rushes out to grab a ringside seat!  This morning, hearing a cat scream, I went into the garden to find Jazz underneath one of our loungers and Shadow standing guard over him!  I managed to move Shadow away, lift up the lounger and rescue Jazz and carry him indoors - that's his street-cred blown to bits!  A difficult situation, and I am hoping that eventually they will get fed-up with the constant 'arguing' and become pals again.

I am off to enjoy some more sunshine - and do some more work on my Halloween.  I hope you enjoy this week and don't forget to come back on Wednesday for my mid-week post and Friday to 'meet' my guest blogger.

Jill

IT HAS BEEN A HECTIC WEEK

Hi everyone

Did you watch the Olympics Opening Ceremony?  What did you think of it?  Wasn't the lighting of the fire pit spectacular?  I had wondered what all of those brass bed pans (sorry copper kettles) were going to be used for.  I think it was a very good choice to have Sir Steve Redgrave deliver the Olympic Torch to the Stadium and how about the Queen and James Bond?  Both very game jumping out of the helicopter - thank goodness the fire pit hadn't been lit - all in a day's work for Mr Bond.  David Beckham looked good - as always - and very proud too.  Like all sporting events, there will be shock wins and losses, great races run, silly comments by the commentators, but I hope everyone enjoys it.

Have you had a chance to read my latest guest blogger's post?  Thank you Zofia for a great post.  What do you think - are women better blogger's than men?  Zofia's post may be my last guest post for a while - unless any of my followers or fellow Handmade Mondayers (or new visitors?) would like to contribute?  I have been really pleased how successful the Guest Blog spot has been and hope everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have.  Hard to believe it has been running for six months and every post has been brilliant.  Contrary to a recent comment, I feel the guest blog spot did 'take-off' and I am looking forward to posting and reading many more guest blog posts in the future.  So, if anyone would like to join in, please do get in touch on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  Remember your post doesn't have to be craft-related, it could be about marketing, blogging, event organisation, a hobby you have, travel, or how about a book you have read - or even better one that you have written.

Last week was pretty hectic.  Had a meal in Ripley with friends on Wednesday evening.  The weather was great and we dined outside - sadly the staff seemed to forget the outside diners and service was a bit hit-and-miss at times.  Not too much of a problem really as it was a mostly non-stop talking get-together.  One of the friends I met up with is looking into starting a business making chutneys, relishes and jams - something she is very good at and feels she is ready for the next stage.  Our next group get-together is going to be a tasting of her range - yum, yum.

A couple of weeks ago I volunteered to assist the Woking Cats Protection Group with catching and helping abandoned, unwell and feral cats.  Although we live in the Guildford CP area, I chose Woking because we adopted Daisy from them.  My 'job' will be to set up cages/pens to catch cats and kittens.  I did my first trip on Thursday afternoon with a fellow CP volunteer and we did a return visit on Saturday morning.  My biggest problem will be resisting taking them all home with me!  I know Daisy wouldn't mind as she will be a mum to the kittens, not too sure Jazz will welcome another cat or kitten with open paws though.

After my Thursday cat visit, I met with my bride and groom to discuss their wedding invitations and they signed off on their order.  Although they had a design already (having gone through the process of designing an invitation with another wedding stationer who sadly let them down) they were very pleased with my interpretation of this.  All systems go now and some intensive invitation-making days and nights ahead of me.  Once they have been completed I will ask the couple if I can post pictures on my blog as I would love you to see them.  A little taster: the card and paper are pearlised pale ivory with orange and purple trims, ribbons, etc.  Here are a couple of sample invitations I made recently, but the couple's design is completely different to both of these.

Still on Thursday, a friend and I went to RHS Wisley for the evening.  Wisley rarely opens after 5.30 pm - sometimes they have musical or special events, but it is rare that the gardens are open.  During July, the gardens were open until 8.00 pm on four Thursdays and we had arranged to go to the last one.  It was a gorgeous evening, hot, still very sunny and everywhere looked good.  Surprisingly, it wasn't very busy and on arrival we discovered that a member's only Wine Tasting Event was taking place - not too sure how we missed out on that.  Despite tickets still being available, we were both driving so unable to take part - but we did.  We decided some sit-down and people-watching time was the way to take part.  Surprising how many people think wine-tasting is to get as many glasses of wine drunk in as short a space of time as possible.  Oh, well, they looked happy.  Up to a few years ago, Richard was a professional wine taster, so I took home a set of the tasting notes for him.

The next couple of weeks will be very busy as in addition to the wedding invitations, I have jewellery to make, birthday cards, wedding anniversary cards and a thank you card to do as well.  I am trying to set aside time to make Christmas stock because I am getting concerned that I may not have enough for the events I have booked.  Although the main ones are not until November, my stock boxes are telling me that I need to get a move on.

We have had heavy rain, thunder-storms and a little hail so far today - just like summer really.  I hope it doesn't last too long as I am sure there are many sports that will not benefit from wet weather.  However, there are some very dry parts in my garden that are crying our for rain - tap water doesn't really do anything other than keep plants alive.

It's Handmade Monday time again, so don't forget to visit the other blogs and see what everyone has been working on during the past week.  Don't forget to contact me if you want to give guest blogging a go.  Enjoy the Olympics - I will be back on Wednesday.

Jill