More Pumpkin ideas

With just one day to go before Halloween I thought it might be useful to share a few more pumpkin ideas.  This is a super quick but really effective one that uses power tools!!
You prep your pumpkin as if you are going to carve it, remove the top and then scrape out the seeds and guts.  Then its time for the power tools.  You'll need a couple of drill bits of different sizes and then just get drilling.  Create designs, random holes or whatever you like - its so quick and easy and the finished effect when lit is fabulous.  Are you doing a pumpkin for tomorrow?

Pumpkin ideas

With two days to go until Halloween the pressure starts building to create something fabulous with a pumpkin. This year they seem to be super-cheap and pretty decent sizes. I found them for 2 for £2 in our local supermarket.
You can of course opt for the traditional carved pumpkin and we usually choose a pretty ornate design each year. We have a tradition if roasting the seeds and having them as a snack fresh from the oven and I make pumpkin pies with the flesh. But what if you're not keen on all the mess and fuss of carving? Here are a few ideas for no-carve pumpkins!
1. Glue buttons or flat backed gems onto your pumpkin. Clear or coloured gems will add a fab sparkle!
2. Paint a design onto a pumpkin using simple black and white paint. The ghostly contrast of colours can be used to create a funky modern decoration.
3. Add ribbon, trim or washi tape using pins or hot glue. You can create eclectic mixes of pattern and colour or simple stripes.
4. Use spray paint and a stencil to add colour and design. You could take this up a notch by switching the paint for spray adhesive and then add sparkle with glitter!!
Have fun with pumpkins this year and share your creations in the gallery in the Total Papercrafts forum!!

Exciting Prima project!!

Earlier this week Prima Marketing, the amazing company that creates stunning flowers and papercrafting products, announced a new project open to everyone. Called 'Life Journal', they were giving away six albums to six selected people to create the first pages in a journal that they would then pass on to creative friends. The fact that these would be physically passed would mean no postage cost or risk of them getting lost in the mail system. The response was incredible and do they decided to give away twelve journals. The idea is that these are eventually returned to Prima to form a part of their library.
Well guess what? I have been selected to start one of the journals!!! I was stunned to see my name listed as I never win or get picked for this sort of thing! I had to send in my details and am now waiting to receive the journal but my brain is already buzzing with ideas. From what I can gather, I will need to get a group of creative friends together who would all like to take part. It's a big commitment because there will be deadlines and criteria to meet. So my question is, are you interested?
I'd love to give some of my blog readers the chance to take part in this journal so if you're genuinely keen to join in please post a comment on this entry. If you have a blog or gallery online please share the address and let me know a bit about your creative
style, what products you like to use in your work etc. I'd really like this journal to show Prima just how much talent we have here in the UK!! If you feel the same way post here and let me know!!

Total Papercrafts Masterclass in North Kent

We are running a Masterclass in North Kent again this evening and the ladies asked specifically for a baby kit.  I don't really like to do specifically themed kits or classes as they have the tendency to instantly alienate those who don't directly see a link to their own lives.  If you don't have babies in the family then it can be tricky to find a photo that you want to scrapbook.  I tend to design a kit that is more flexible and can be used for lots of different themed photos so this 'baby' kit has nothing that says baby on it anywhere.
The soft yellow and pale green colours of the papers with little pops of blue and pink work really well with baby pics but would also look stunning with wedding, feminine, garden, floral or vintage photos.  Of course I had to use a photo of the newest member of our family - baby Nancy!  I chose a 6" x 4" landscape photo but a single portrait would also work, just rotate the whole design through 90 degrees and you're good! I opted for a black & white print as the colour version was purple and turquoise and was absolutely not a match for these gorgeous papers but if you have colour photos the main tones of the kit are buttery yellow and pale spring green.  If you don't have a photo ready, just cut a piece of white card to 6" x 4" and bring that along to use as a blank and help you to work out where to place things.
You'll need to bring along a yellow and a green inkpad - pale shades would be ideal.  The sample used Distress Inks in Scattered Straw and Shabby Shutters.  If you have any Martha Stewart Punch-around-the-page sets then you might want to bring them along, I'll be showing you a few ways to use these punches as after all, they are expensive and need to earn their keep!! I will be bringing a few different sets along to use if you don't own any so don't worry.
As usual you'll need loads of 3d foam, your trimmer, adhesives and scissors but if you have a heat gun I have a cool product in the kit that you can have fun with if you heat it up.  Again, I'll have mine with me so don't panic buy one just for the class.
The kit contains; cardstock, 3 sheets of double sided patterned paper, a pack of matching rub-ons, a pack of matching metal embellishments, ribbon, mouldable plastic, 3 brads

If you are coming along to the Masterclass tonight I'll see you there, its getting to be a very popular class!!

Thank you!!

One of the fab things about the Retreat weekends is the wonderful people who come together to form an amazing group crafting together. It's never the same group, it's a great mix of experience, age and background from widely different parts of the country. It never ceases to amaze me just how well these groups come together and how quickly new friendships are forged. I just want to say thank you to everyone who came to the Total Papercrafts retreat and made it so much fun.
It has become a bit of a regular feature for us to have Stampin Up demonstrators attending and offer free make & take sessions at the retreat. This was something started by Pauline and Sue and has become a hugely popular aspect of the weekends. This past weekend Pauline & Sue outdid themselves!! They put together 2 amazing classes that went above and beyond, a Christmas card and the Christmas bauble from the front of the SU catalogue. There was such a lot if work put into prepping each of the kits and I know that Sue spent hours stamping and die cutting baubles!! They had a fabulous display of products and tools plus gorgeous samples showing numerous ways that products could be used to create very different effects. It was inspirational and such fun. I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Pauline and to Sue for taking the time out of their weekend away to run these classes. I know I'm not alone in feeling very grateful to have had the chance to learn how to create these projects. You girls rock!!

A fabulous weekend!!

We've just got back home after running the Total Papercrafts retreat and had an absolutely fabulous weekend. Despite all the stress of changing venue at the last minute and a really horrendous 6 hours in the car before we even started, once we were up and running it was simply great!
We had a lovely large cropping room with plenty of space to spread out (some more than others eh Claire??!! Lol). Immediately outside we had a huge lounge area with unlimited hot and cold drinks and free use of an Internet cafe. It made a lovely space to move into if anyone needed a change of seat or scenery. The seats in the cropping room were fully adjustable so even I found it comfy to sit down for the classes without struggling!
One of the highlights of the weekend has to have been the food!! We had a great selection of dishes to choose from on the menu with starters, main and desserts. The portion sizes were ridiculously huge and we almost had to be rolled down the corridor to the cropping room after each meal!! There was something for everyone, it was hot and tasty and we certainly didn't go hungry - quite the opposite in fact. I'm afraid we've been we'll and truly spoiled for anywhere else now. It looks like we'll have to go again....
For probably the first time ever we had lots of finished class layouts, even the project was finished by quite a few. I obviously got something right (or need to up the degree of complexity?!). It really was great to see finished pages with a range of gorgeous photos on and ready to go into an album.
My only gripe was that there wasn't enough table space to set out all of the shop stock. We needed a few more tables but I'll make sure that we have them next time. I missed having a natter with my roomie at the end of each day as we all had rooms on our own but I know that suited most people. The shower in the room was so powerful it virtually had me pinned against the wall, it was heaven! I didn't get the chance to even pop in to the sauna or hot tub to take a look but as I didn't take my bathers there was no chance of me having a dip anyway. It's nice to have something to look forward to next time though! Perhaps I'll see you in March 2013 for the next one?

Inky fingers and full tummies!!

After the first full 24 hours of the Total Papercrafts retreat chimes we have lots of inky fingers in the cropping room! Very unusually classes are getting finished, going into albums and looking lovely.
The venue is fabulous, a good sized cropping room with a huge coffee lounge and Internet cafe just outside. The rooms are really comfy with everything you could ask for included -ironing board & iron, hair dryer etc!!
The huge talking point is the food! The portions are enormous and theres great choice. Check out this burger!!