Helix - Crafts

Throughout the Summer I have spent a lot of time in the sunshine crafting with my partner in craft crime Nigel May. We often get together at Nigel’s as his home is quite close to the Ideal World studios and so after a stressful day it’s great to sit back and craft. We often throw ideas and glitter around until we come up with something interesting. His pets Dolly and Diva are always about too and I wouldn’t like to say that they don’t get covered in glitter and peel offs too in the excitement.

By the way, Nigel and I will soon begin work as joint guest-editors of the “Create and Craft” Club magazine due out in September. I will fill you in on more over the coming weeks, so watch this space.

You can always be sure of a giggle when getting together with your crafty friends; I often find other crafters give you card making ideas you may not have thought about yourself. So many times they create you things you would never have thought of on your own.

We have been developing and extending our team of sample makers and I am sure if you have seen any of the shows on Create & Craft in the last few months you would agree they have such a range of different styles. The same Craft Room workstation can be sent out to 10 different people and the embossing results can be so dramatically unique; often Diane will shout me through when the samples land on the mat and we will be “oohing” and “aahing” for ages.

Happy crafting x

Well another mad week has whizzed by for me. Recently, I held my craft workshop for 20 people in my warehouse, it was great fun making spiral pop out cards, notebooks, embossing and more. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I am sure I did. Then I had to rush off to Ideal World for a Pick of the Day Saturday night so missed out on the cake brought in but there is always next time!

We then have the Hilton Create and Craft weekend coming up; last year we had the most amazing time, it was such fun and we have a special guest speaker this time. I can’t wait to meet 200 crazy crafters, its going to be fab. I love these kinds of events getting to meet everyone, we all have so many common interests in crafting, and it’s a great place to swap hints and tips. The majority of people come along on their own but I can guarantee they will leave having made firm friends for life.

Last year the furthest anyone travelled was from Texas! She came with her friend from Scotland in my workshop they presented me with a lovely hand painted candle, it’s got pride of place on my studio shelf, I keep all the things people have given me over the years in my studio. Crafters are so generous I always get a bit overwhelmed, I wish I could have put all amazing wedding cards I was sent out on display but there’s far too many, (I can’t believe it’s almost a year since I got married, where does the time go?). I have 100’s of them, one of my favourites is a card with 2 Dalmatians getting married. Every time I look at it I smile. Well back to crafting, I will be back again soon.

I have just taken my first workshop in many months for one of our open days at my warehouse in Clay Cross in Derbyshire. I have been looking forward to this since it was first suggested back in April, it’s nice to be doing something on my own turf. Most of the people coming to classes and open days have been coming for years, so we craft and had a good gossip as well.

Doing workshops reminds me of when I used to be the European Ambassador for an American company, my sister and I entered a competition to  see who taught the most workshops across Europe. It was only when we discovered the prize was an exotic cruise we realised how much fun it would be… guess what: we won!

When ensconced on the cruise (very nice it was too) we thought snorkelling would be a good idea but instead ended up becoming scuba divers, I can say it didn’t add anything to my paper crafting skills but it certainly has made for some great stories over the years!

Anyway back to the present, tune in next time when I will be catching up on all the gossip in my neck of the woods. Don’t forget if you have any questions or queries email me at craft@helixhq.com and I will be happy to help where I can.

Welcome to this my first crafty blog on the Helix website.

I remember my first dalliance with Helix, it was with my very first ruler and protractor set back in my school days, not that even after 5 years did I ever work the protractor out! Somewhere over the last 20 years and goodness knows how many moves as a child it got mislaid. But somehow the ruler has popped up again! I must say a little battered and careworn but then so am I!

So what does the next week hold in store for me. Well lots more hours on Ideal World for starters, we have craft every day for the whole month of June. WOW! I will be taking a break from that on Saturday 31st May so I can demo the Craft room at my warehouse sale in Clay Cross and catch up with some crafting mates, why don’t you come along and say Hi.

Email craft@helixhq.com for more details.