Craft4Crafters Show 2018 in Exeter

Yesterday I went to the Craft4Crafters Show at Westpoint in Exeter. I was thrilled to be taken by a friend and her mother, and another lady came too, and along with my wheelchair and a box for purchases, it was a good thing they had a big car!

This was the first time I’d been to a craft show for several years. Last year I was ill, ditto 2015, and during other years I was reluctant to ask my hubby to drive me because he was already doing so much for Mum and looking after me, and hardly had time to enjoy his retirement after he stopped being so busy with work. This year he would have driven me, except he’s still not driving after breaking his leg. Anyway, thanks to my lovely friend, I got there this year, and I had the most wonderful time. After the previous couple of months being so horrendous, this was a real treat for me, and my credit card had a real outing too!!

Now I’ve got my mojo back, I was keen to find things to help with current projects, in particular my mystery project – and I was looking specifically for dies, stencils, papers… Before we went, I had been on the show website and made a list of the stands I definitely wanted to visit, and also a list of things I wanted to buy – alongside this, I made a list of things I’d already got, so I didn’t inadvertently buy any duplicates; for instance, I wanted to stock up on some of the new Distress Oxides I hadn’t yet got. I went armed with my little notebook with the lists, and this was a great help, because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything and lose track of what you went for!

The first stand I visited, I found a Hunkydory scoring board (in glorious purple!) which I simply had to have – for years I’ve been using a Score Pal one but it hasn’t got enough lines on it and they are always in the wrong place for what I want. This new board has inches on one side, with divisions every 1/8 in. and on the reverse, centimetres, so everything is covered.

It is quite thin, and has a handle on top, and I think I may store it vertically which will take up less space. I’m thinking of having some sort of rack to store my various boards – envelope punch board, cutting mat, paper trimmer etc. so that I can pick them out as I need them, rather than having them floating around on the work surface, with the one I want at any given moment always being at the bottom of the heap. I need to do some serious studio reorganising, I’m thinking.

I stocked up on loads of double-sided tape (very cheap in bulk, three different widths) – I’ve been getting through loads of that recently, especially with my mystery project. I also got some more plain heavy white cardstock for card bases.

On the website I’d seen an intriguing tool I was very keen to look at – a Gyro-Cut, which is a craft knife with a rotating blade and an erganomic handle. I was able to try it out and loved it! After trying some basic cuts, I attempted cutting around a more complex stamped image, and the man said I’d done a very good job for a first attempt! So in my bag it went.

In the discount package I got with this tool, I got a bottle of glue for making the cutting mat tacky, to hold the paper in place while you cut. He said one coating was good for many repeated uses, and it could also be used on the back of stencils to hold them in place, and it would leave no residue on the unglued surface. I asked if this would be suitable for electronic cutting machine mats and he said yes – many people asked him this. It is water-based, and easy to apply. I have always used 3M spray photo mount for this and it’s horrible to use – really smelly, and hard not to get it on the surrounding area, and initially it makes the mat much too sticky, which damages the work when you try to remove it. I think this new glue will be very useful indeed, and he said that the bottle would last for ages, but I could always get more from their website.

Blendy Pens – these amazing water-based pens can be attached together so their colours blend, and as you use them, the colour gradually changes. I’m not quite sure how I am going to use these yet, but they were so intriguing, especially as in the kit was a little bulb-operated air brush which can be used with other pens as well, and he threw in a pack of stencils too. I shall have fun playing with those. Exploring online, they seem to be directed exclusively at children, and I can’t find any info or videos showing adults using them for serious artwork, but I think they have potential.

I got another Really Useful Box (4 litre size) to store my growing collection of Distress Oxides – it will fit nicely on the shelf with the other two that I keep my Distress Inks and Archival Inks in.

On the left-hand side, stacked up, are the Distress Oxides I already had (the complete set of the initial launch), and laid out are the new Distress Oxides I got yesterday. I didn’t want to get others in the range because several seemed very similar, but I think I have now got a good representative collection colour-wise.

I got some very nice mixed media stencils.

Leaf dies, frames, backgrounds, doilies, edges etc.

I particularly like the two doily ones, because they are made up of several dies that can be used together, or separately, or in different combinations, giving you lots of options for different borders etc. I’ve not had a lot of experience dealing with this sort of thing and I’m looking forward to experimenting.

I found some gorgeous quilling dies – something I hadn’t come across before – you cut them out and roll the pieces up with a quilling tool to make really quick flowers. I want to make a lot of these for my mystery project.

I didn’t buy the only stamen die they had left – the pretty ones were old out, and anyway, I can use something different. One option is just to roll up a plain strip, giving a flat surface onto which you can attach a gem or other suitable flower centre. The lady on the stand gave me a personal demonstration of how the flowers are constructed.

They also had dies for making easel cards, but the dies can be used for other purposes as well. Like the doily dies above, there are several in the set, and you can mix and match, and create mats, borders, windows, delicate frames, etc. etc. Again, I can’t wait to experiment with these. Leann Chivers, who designed them for Crafters’ Companion, and whose Facebook video I’ve linked to above, produces so many variations with stunning results.

I got an absolutely gorgeous 8 x 8 paper stack by Trimcraft (who I’d never heard of before) called “Gilded Winter” – all very subtle beige and cream with gold, glitter and embossing, and some double-sided. Fabulous patterns.

Here are some examples of the papers.

I bought a few separate sheets of 12 x 12 papers with a weathered wood plank design which will make fabulous backgrounds for projects. They are double-sided with a surf wave pattern on the back which I’m not so interested in but it’s very pretty. These are by Kaiser Craft and they are from a collection called Sandy Toes! They were produced in Australia, where they certainly know all about sand and surf.

I bought a mixed pack of Wendy Vecchi’s Clearly for Art which I’ve wanted to get my hands on for years, and a small pack of vellum. The pack of silvery glitter card was a freebie thrown in with some of the Distress Oxides that I bought.

Finally, a few oddments – I only bought one stamp, a peacock feather one which I really liked. Some stencil glue (bought before I saw the sticky mat glue) and some fabric glue, some gold embossing powder and a set of fine tip applicator bottles. That about wraps it up!

One thing I’d been looking out for, and which seemed in very short supply, was punches. Last time I went to a craft show there were lots to choose from. I am missing a few in my series of incremental circles and was hoping to fill these gaps, but I can always find them online, I expect.

I am going to have So Much Fun playing with this lot!

As for the rest of the show, there were quite a few demonstrations going on but I didn’t spend too much time on them because there was so much to see and we didn’t have much time. Also, especially at the beginning, there were so many people crowding around and I couldn’t see anything at all from a sitting position. I did stop at one a bit later when the crowds had thinned out somewhat – this lady was creating tiny miniature canvases with a paint pouring method that looked like marbling, using thinned-down gesso into which she poured different colours of fluid iridescent paint, and after minimal stirring she poured this over the canvas with beautiful results.

On her table she had lots of pieces that she had made, not just with this technique but mixed media, and she was happy for me to photograph them.

Gorgeous, aren’t they.

This was a beautiful altered book she’d done.

I didn’t take as many photos as I’ve done at previous shows, but several stands caught my eye – mostly textile ones, although I didn’t buy anything in that line this time. There were some stunning quilts.

These juicy colourful trims caught my eye.

Aren’t those Paisleys just delicious? There was also quite a bit going on with Indian textiles – braids and trims, sari fabric, etc. I photographed some beautiful embroidered panels. Lots of gorgeous bright colours!

Other interesting textile pieces included some smaller items made from patchwork.

You can see that it was mostly vibrant bright colours that caught my eye!

The same felt makers were there that I’d seen at the County Show – as usual they had their stunning Lion and Lamb hanging which I’d seen several times before (I took this photo on a previous occasion):

This year they had a new one – St. George and the Dragon!

I took a photo from the side as well, so that you could see just how 3-dimensional this is:

It’s huge, as well! A fantastic piece of work. Is there anything people can’t create?

There was a stand dedicated to MosaiCraft – what the man described as miniature Lego – you press tiny cubes of plastic onto a spiked grid and make a mosaic following a chart rather like cross stitch. While this wasn’t something I was interested in doing, their stand was quite impressive:

Apparently you can submit a photo and they will pixilate it, and create a chart for you, and make up a kit with all the tiny pieces you will need to make it.

I loved their disclaimer – also made with this method:

Nice Celtic knot panel above it, too, and how about that amazing tiger?

I had to photograph the sign for this stand, simply because I loved the lettering.

One one of the papercrafting stands, there were lots of stunning cards that people had made from the various products – so inspirational! When I see stuff like this I think that I could actually enjoy card making more than I do…

(The card in this photo, like the white one in the photo above, had a window – when I edited this photo I removed what you could see through the window (part of the wall behind, which was distracting) and replaced it with black. I love how the flowers and leaves trail across the aperture.)

One of the cards (which I didn’t photograph) had a piece of embossed acetate over the aperture, which caught the light and sparkled. Beautiful! Soooo many ideas…

It was all laid out pretty well, with most of the papercrafting stuff near the entrance, and the textile stuff (quilting, embroidery, sewing, knitting and yarns etc.) towards the back of the hall, so that people could concentrate on their particular areas of interest without having to search high and low for the stands they wanted to visit. There were other stands dotted around, with miscellaneous things not necessarily related to craft – Cats’ Protection was there, and Bicton College (agricultural), the RSPB, and a man demonstrating a knife-sharpening tool; there were herbs and spices, and sweets, and some beautiful clothes, and kitchen ware. I recognised the man on that stand because a couple of years ago I bought a set of kitchen knives from him at the Devon County Show – I proudly showed him the scar where his amazing bread knife nearly took my finger off in September 2016!! I told him that I used three or four of the knives at least once a day, and how pleased I was with them.

The four of us split up so we could do our own thing, and arranged to meet for our sandwich lunch, and again at the end, but we did keep bumping into each other along the way!

I was impressed how many disabled people there were at the show. It’s great to know that however limited one’s mobility may be, one can still be creative, and often one has more time for it when more active pursuits are out of the question. Before I was ill I hardly had any time for it. They had buggies that you could hire for the day but I was happy with my wheelchair which is more compact. So many people came up to me and complimented me on my wheelchair decorations and quite a few wanted to know how I’d done them. I get a lot of comments every time I go out, but at a craft show or an art exhibition, the comments tend to be more informed, and there is more appreciation of the amount of work involved.

After having such a rough time recently, today has been a real treat. It was so great being amongst all those lovely folks too, all with a common interest, and we had some nice chats with various people. Altogether a really good day out.

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These photos of my desk were taken last night, after I’d had a short session working on the tags for my Infusions Mini-Album.

The first is taken from further back than usual, to show the stuff spread out on either side – my two Really Useful Boxes (RUBs) of Distress Inks on the left, and the larger RUB on the right, which contains all my Infusions, Brushos, Dylusions sprays and paints, with their applicators. The central area of the desk is fairly clear because the picture was taken just after I’d finished a tag and inserted it into the page of the mini-album – you can see the pages to the left of the craft sheet.

Here’s a closer view. You can see my Inkylicious Ink Dusters all out on the desk as well – I am using these for applying Distress Inks to the tags to create the backgrounds.

The big box of Infusions etc. on the pull-out unit to the right of the main work area. Beyond, you can see a bit of my little gallery (including a Zentangle picture I did) and my sewing machine in the corner.

Tucked behind the Cuttlebug is my new Tim Holtz/Tonic Stamping Platform, and beyond that, in the red magazine racks, lots of large envelopes with all sorts of bits and pieces in them such as recycled waxed paper and shiny paper, die-cuts etc. The white box and the cardboard box on top of that both contain ribbons, and the red unit underneath with the drawers contains sandpaper and various other bit and pieces. The dark green tubular metal thing is my little stepladder propped up against the further side of the pull-out unit. Also on the pull-out unit is an ice cream box containing all my ink blenders.

For more information on the tags, please see the previous post.

Kittens

Very exciting news – we have found some kittens! They are a pair of sisters, silver tabby BSH-cross (father is a pedigree silver tabby, mother tabby and white). They are very similar in appearance – silver tabby like little tigers, with white bibs, mits and socks. They live near Yeovil in Somerset, about two hours’ drive from here, and I found them on the Pre-Loved site online. They are extreeeemely dinky and pretty and we can’t wait to see them! We are going up on Thursday to view them but we are absolutely sure that these are the ones for us. They are only about 4 weeks old so won’t be ready to come to us till the end of July. They have two little brothers and another little sister too. I spoke to their owner this evening and she says one of the two girls is quite feisty and lively and was the first out of the box. I hope to take lots of photos of them on Thursday.

Knowing we’ve got a bit of time, we have been preparing for the New Arrivals. The other night my hubby sat down with me and we watched some Youtube videos together of various systems for kitty-proofing the perimeter of your garden. We have had various attempts at this in the past, none of which have been very successful. I found a UK-based company which does a very good job, and you can either get them to come and do it, or buy the kit to do it yourself, but my hubby said he could reduce the cost to at least a third by making it up himself, so he’s been doing a lot of drawing and planning, and experimenting with a few samples. He’s also been very busy clearing the back of the garden of a huge amount of ivy, so that he can block up any holes in the fence and start preparing to put up the brackets that he is making, which will hold the stiff plastic mesh. It will only look like Colditz if we put search lights up!!

As for me, I’ve ordered a few things on Ebay, and yesterday, the first of these arrived – a massive kitty tree!

I spent about 1 1/2 hours putting it together, and I can’t wait to see our new babies having fun on it! For full details, see here.

I’m finding it hard to think of anything other than kittens at the moment!

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I suddenly remembered it was Wednesday, and I actually did have something on my desk for once, so I thought I’d better join in, even if a bit late in the day.

Actually, What is On [My] Workdesk (this) Wednesday is… chaos!

Here’s a general view of that side of the room.

I’m not a tidy worker once I get In the Zone and also my ARTHaven does tend to end up a bit of a dumping ground! Let’s zoom in and see what the chaos consists of.

The above picture shows the plastic tray full of the lavender sachets I am making for my fellow chemo-ites, together with the little one-piece folded boxes I’ve been making to contain them. Also in the tray is most of what I need to sew the sachets, and odd bits of fabric and other bits and pieces.

Moving on round, this is the box of gorgeous stash my friend Marlene sent me yesterday – she’s having a bit of a clear-out and being ruthless about things she thinks she will never use – if that were me, I know that as soon as I gave them away, I’d find a use for them!! Anyway, this is the second parcel she’s sent me, and so far all I’ve done with this one is have a quick look through it, and then put everything back in the box ready to sort and store away.

Lots of lovely embellishments, charms, ribbons, papers, pens… all sorts!

Moving a bit further around, completely hiding my computer keyboard, is some of the original parcel Marlene sent me, which I have not yet stored away. I have made a start, and have used some of this parcel already, in the making of my lavender sachets.

Now to my main work area. On the left at the front, you can see the lavender sachets I made from calico, onto which I stamped with archival ink. I am now working on boxes for these, and you can see the pieces on the craft mat, which have been inked with Old Paper distress ink. To the left you can see my Stampotique Originals Medium Bee stamp which I am going to use. Beside the box cut-outs is my leaf stamp from Designs by Ryn, which I am going to use on the box I am currently working on, which you can see I have coloured with various shades of green distress inks. My Versamark pad is ready beside the stamps. I am going to stamp the other side of the box piece with clear embossing. More details of this in a future blog post. You can also see my water spritzing bottle beside my archival ink pads, and beside that, my water jar which for once has clean water in it!! (Sometimes it gets left dirty for so long that I almost expect it to be growing mushrooms.) Lots of Distress Inks on the right, and a piece of kitchen paper I’ve been using to mop up ink – it’s maturing nicely into a useable piece for backgrounds.

Moving on again, this is my pull-out unit, which is used for dumping stuff on while I work.

Today it’s got two Really Useful Boxes on it. The smaller one on the left has my stamping stuff in it, and the one on the right contains my Dylusions and other sprays.Dumped on top is the lid of the stamping box, and underneath you can just make out my pan pastels, and the bag of makeup sponges. Beyond is my Cuttlebug. The pull-out unit’s shelves are for storing various papers and cardstock.

I am hoping to continue working on the boxes tonight. I have very little time to complete this project as I want to take them in to the chemo unit on Friday when I go for my second treatment.

This morning I was there having blood taken from the port in my chest, which wasn’t too pleasant (but I’m such a wimp!). It will get easier! This past week I have been feeling a lot better and have very few side effects from the first treatment, but I am not anticipating feeling so well on Friday evening! The effects are cumulative. I saw the oncologist last Thursday and she was pleased with how I was getting on. They are monitoring my progress carefully.

I am determined to do as much creative stuff as I can during this six months of chemotherapy, even if it does mean the sitting room looks as if World War Three has hit it, with boxes and fabrics and other creative detritus covering every surface! Our cleaning lady was here today and I asked her to clean around everything as usual, and she said, “I can’t polish the table” to which my hubby replied, “What table?” “What cheek!” I say!! Lol!

Happy WOYWW everybody.