I don’t do a whole lot of paper crafting, but have been really inspired by the ScrapHappy cards that Alys makes (check out her blog here). It is rather nice, therefore, that the pre-loved craft supplies I have acquired for the shop include dies and embossing folders as well as a “Big Shot” machine in which to use these (all things I’ve seen Alys mention). Being a complete novice in this respect, I drafted in my friend Annette to have a play and show me the ropes, and we were joined by Judith (owner of the sadly missed Red Apple Yarn).
I rummaged through boxes, whilst Annette set up the Big Shot and refreshed her memory of how to use it with a quick online tutorial. A few interesting dies were extracted and we had a little play.
We loved those elephants – that’s a die that I’m definitely going to keep to use in classes. We had a go with some embossing too, but I couldn’t quickly put my hand on all the folders, so that’s a game for another day.
Now I’ve seen some of what is possible, I have lots of ideas for themed card-making workshops. Hopefully we can encourage people to bring “scraps” along to make their cards unique and to encourage the whole ethos of beauty from waste.
The Snail of Happiness 
elizariddell
/ February 18, 2022Those are so cute! They would make lovely notebooks.
Ooh – have you ever heard of disc binding? I was really into it a few years back. All you need is a special hole punch (they’re often on ebay for cheap) and then binding discs (available in pretty much all materials), and then you can make your own notebooks with…pages that are removable and repositionable! If you’re a stationery geek like me, then this is very exciting 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 18, 2022No, I’ve never heard of those… another thing to investigate
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katechiconi
/ February 18, 2022Those elephants are impossibly cute! It would be all to easy to fall down the rabbit hole of all the wonderful crafts, and never be seen again….
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 18, 2022so true… what I’m hoping is that I will get a chance to enjoy playing without committing!
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katechiconi
/ February 18, 2022We’ll call it ‘demonstrating’, shall we? On that basis, you really *need* to dive in!
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Going Batty in Wales
/ February 19, 2022I’m glad the shop is providing opportunities for fun as well as work on the refurbishment. I shall look forward to seeing your paper supplies properly. I did a bookmaking course at Studio 3 so if you want to play at that I have the spiral binding tool.
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nanacathy2
/ February 20, 2022Love the lions too. Soon going to be a hive of activity.
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Rainbow Junkie
/ February 21, 2022Such cute animals. I presume the dies mean they are cut by machine. I have seen lovely design you can cut with a scalpel but no way I could do those. These look fun.
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