Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 09:43 PM GMT [General]
Have ordered a sewing machine - finally took the plunge as have been dying to have my own machine.
It's a Brother BC2100, which most importantly has a drop feed for freestyle stitching (and getting it half-price as an ex-display model left some pennies for more fabric!). There's a sewing machine shop in town where I'm going to enquire about lessons, as it sounds as if some practical help at the start is a good idea. Can't wait to start getting to grips with all those fabulous fabrics - I love the Amy Butler range I saw at CHA (see her website for her funky free sewing patterns), but will also be scouring the many thrift stores in my town for retro and vintage-style fabrics.
Back from CHA, and will be writing up my notes in full soon, before I forget. In the meantime, thought I'd put my 'make + takes' up for you to see.
I had to try some of the fab papercrafting that was around, and as you can see was pretty pleased with my first cute little ATC (Maya Road).
Also made a gorgeous Valentines Card at Basic Grey (tried their new roller pen that makes rubbing down transfers really easy), and an acrylic scrapbook page I'll be hanging over my desk, at Little Yellow Bicycle (probably my favourite make - see below).
Mosaic Mercantile had such gorgeous shimmering Italian tiles that I couldn't resist making a fridge magnet. EK Success offered tins that we could paint with pens and embellish with pretty felt flowers (brought out my inner hippy!). It was great to try these things out - I didn't get it all perfect, and ended up 'freestyling' sometimes rather than following the exact design. But it was all great fun and I really enjoyed working with the product, especially the gorgeous papers and embellishments.
Thursday, February 7, 2008, 09:41 AM GMT [General]
I was offered the unexpected chance on Monday of visiting CHA in Anaheim next week, and have siezed it with both hands! I leave tomorrow, flying to LA where I'll get to have a sneaky peek around Hollywood before embarking on three full-on days of craft, craft craft. I'll take a big suitcase to leave space for the ideas, product samples and make + takes I'm sure to collect along the way. I'm bracing myself for my first long-haul flight - got my neck pillow and ipod packed, so should be OK. If anyone else is going, or has any survivial tips, let me know!
Hello there - a quick first blog on this brilliant new website! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone out there is up to, and finding out what you're all crafting. It's really cool to have such a global site - especially as so many fab trends start in the US as well as the UK. So I'll be keeping up to date with that, as well as having a general nosy around the site and other people's blogs 'n' stuff.
Hope to see mycraftivity.com go from strength to strength!
