Christmas Create & Take's

This August Create & Take is going to start helping you get ready for Christmas. We will be kick starting the festive fun with a great Winter card and to follow for the next few weeks will be a range of cards, gift bags, gift wrap ideas and so on.

Create & Take costs £3 and is a great way to sample some of the new products. We also throw in a free cup of tea or coffee so hurry down this August to start getting organised for Christmas. If you can't make it down to the shop then don't fear as we will be blogging each Create & Take with full instructions on the blog the following week.

Here's a sneak peek of the first Create & Take, kicking off this Friday....

Happy 8th Birthday Crafts U Love!

 

Yesterday was a perfect day for a birthday celebration and what a celebration it was with demos, lucky dips, charity auction, goodie bags and more! If you were able to attend the event we all hope you had a great time and walked away with some fabulous ideas and crafting goodies. The shop is celebrating 8 years since it opened its doors and we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your custom over these past years.

So without further ado lets delve into the festivities of the day.........

 

This year we decided to celebrate with a fiesta/carnival theme with bright colours, bunting and pom pom style decorations. Lots on the schedule for the day, with demos starting at 10am and the charity auction and raffle to follow on later in the day. The Carnival Cafe was on hand to keep keen crafters refreshed throughout the day.

 

Every year we like to get customers involved by participating in a birthday competition. To match the theme this year, we decided to ask customers to make a masquerade mask, using whatever materials they wanted. We had 10 amazing entrants for the competition but there could only be one winner of the £50 voucher, and the winning mask was......

 

Connie's halloween inspired mask

And now onto the exciting crafting inspiration from our fabulous demonstrators.....

 

Sue M

As usual Sue M kept to her vintage trend using a beautiful arrangement of products including mica powders, ink sprays from Lindy's Stamp Gang, silhouette stamps and embossing powders.

 

Alex

Alex produced some beautiful cards and embellishments using gilding flakes which give a lovely sheen to any texture. I even found out that these flakes work well on nails as Alex treated me to a gilding flake manicure, just pop on a little clear nail polish to seal it and your good to go!

 

 Jo

New to the demonstrating team is Jo Wojwic who was demonstrating how to make these fabulous flowers using clear sheets of printed flowers and heat from a candle to manipulate the petals to create layers of flowers. These products will soon be available online. We also hope to have Jo teach a class with these products and techniques so be sure to check the new class schedule for the Autumn.

 

Karen

Christmas has come early this year with Karen demonstrating new christmas Memory Box die cuts with a beautiful range of Christmas papers from Maja Design. Karen also demonstrated how to make snow using white embossing enamel from Stampendous.

 

Caz

Caz was very excited to be using the new Elizabeth Craft dies including new Pop It Ups from Karen Burniston, now available online. These dies include new accordian card dies, frogs, owls, a holiday house and so much more!

Kim

Kim Fee was also demoing at the event, using some Penny Black dies and these examples really do show them at their best, using a combination of bright papers, perfect for the summer season.

So as you can see there was so many demos to get your creative juices flowing. Time for a break, well at the strike of midday, the charity auction was on its way....

 

The charity auction definitely drew in a crowd with some excellent products up for auction including a Cricut Cuttlebug, Sizzix BigShot, Taylored Expressions set, a signed Marianne storage folder and more! All monies raised from the auction are being donated to St Catherine's Hospice and with the help of our customers we managed to raise £300!

Well I think that has rounded up the day rather well and we hope that this eighth year for us at the shop is going to be the best yet. Once again thank you for all your support and we look forward to seeing you in the shop soon!

This Saturday - Amazing Goody Bags

Our suppliers have been very generous with donations for our goody bags this year. They contain over £30 worth of craft goodies!!! These bags will be given to every customer spending over £5 at our Shop Birthday Event on Saturday. One bag per customer while stock last   

Die Cuts Galore

Hi bloggers, its nearly the end of the week and I wanted to share some new die cuts that have come into store this week, including Memory Box, Ultimate Crafts, Hot Off the Press and the new launches from Marianne Design.

First up Memory Box....

Here is just a glimpse of the festive Christmas dies we now have in stock and now is the perfect time to start making that large stash of Christmas cards we all have to send out at the end of the year. It may seem too soon to get into the festive mood but it definitely helps knowing that you've got organised and can relax when the season is upon you. Click here to see the full range of Memory Box dies. (Oh and don't forget to check out some of their new stencils as well!)

Ultimate Crafts.....

These brand new dies by Ultimate Crafts Ltd includes a stunning range of versatile dies you could use for any occasion. Dies include butterflies, vintage keys, pocket watches, flowers and more. You can cut, emboss and stencil with these dies and can be used in most die cutting machines across a range of materials. Their website is currently under construction but I'm sure there will be plenty of tips and techniques to be found on there. when it launches. To view the full range on our website, click here.

Hot Off the Press....

These beautiful new dies from Hot Off the Press are stunning, from doilies to bicycles, these die sets are ideal to use alongside your scrapbooking and cardmaking projects. The intricacy of the doily designs will make for a fantastic die cut and there is an element of something vintage about them. To view the full range click here and be sure to check out the videos below each product as well which will give you further insight into these beautiful dies.

New from Marianne Design.....

A new range of Creatables, Craftables and Collectables are now in stock at Crafts U Love, ranging from vintage elegance in the new Creatables dies to festive decoration and fun with the new Craftables and Collectables. Build your own snowglobe scene with the new Collectables layering dies which will be perfect for Christmas cards or scrapbook pages! To view the new range of Marianne dies, click here.

So lots of new dies to keep you going, so don't sit back and wait, order yours today while stocks last!

Happy crafting for the weekend!

Create & Take: Live Life in the Fast Lane

Hi bloggers, its been a while since we've shared one of our Create & Take's so I thought I would enlighten your Tuesday with a Create & Take tutorial. This card would be perfect for anyone who's just passed their driving test but is also versatile for most occasions, including birthdays.

So what are your eesentials to make this card....

• Penny Black You're Retro Clear Stamp Set
• Kaisercraft Edges Textures Clear Stamp Set
• Bazzill Basics Grey Smoothie Cardstock
• Bazzill Basics White Smoothie Cardstock
• Watercolour Pencils
• Versafine Inkpad
• Simple Stories The Story of Us Collection - Heart to Heart Paper
• Crafts Too Step Card Die Set

And now for the instructions:

1. Start by cutting your grey cardstock with the Step Card Die
2. Then carefully fold your card to make the step card shape.
3. Cut a piece of white smoothie cardstock with the biggest scalloped rectangle die (included in the step card die set) . Stamp your image from the You're Retro stamp set with the Versafine Inkpad. Using the tyre marks stamp from the Kaisercraft set, stamp these alongside your image. Finish off with a sentiment of your choice. 
4. Colour the image in with watercolour pencils and then stick onto your card base.
5. Die cut the Heart to Heart paper using the longest scalloped rectangle die and stick to card base.
6. Finish off by cutting the scalloped rectangle strips in black stripy cardstock (reverse side of the Heart to Heart paper) and stick to card base.

And thats all there is to it. This step card die by Crafts Too is such an effective way to make your cards more interesting and with all the different die pieces included, there's no way you can go wrong.

All these products can be found at Crafts U Love, so check them out today!