Fundraising for Children with Cancer Fund - Blogtoberfest #2

Yesterday saw me doing the first of the two fundraisers that I do every year.  I do some secretarial work for a local charity Children with Cancer Fund where I am secretary to the Friends of CWCF, so I like to raise some money each year for them by selling the cards that I make.

My parents live in a private sheltered housing complex and the residents kindly let me come to one of their weekly coffee mornings to sell my cards and other things in aid of CWCF.  We always run a raffle and my Mum makes lots of lovely knitted baby clothes and toys to sell.  We also sell second hand books and bric-a-brac too.  This year I also had my earrings and bracelets to sell as well.

Mr P waiting to start selling raffle tickets

After the doors had opened we didn't get a chance to take a photograph until much later when the rush had died down

As always the residents were very generous and we made £195 from the stall and raffle.  We were also given over £100 in donations -so it was a brilliant day.  I now have 30 days until my next fundraiser so need to get busy making more Christmas cards and jewellery.

Blogtoberfest!!!!!!

 

Blogtoberfest has come at just the right time for me.  Usually I am very good at updating my blog two to three times a week,  but recently due to getting ready for my fundraisers' things have not always gone to plan and the last thing on my mind has been blogging.  So this kick up my blogging bum is just what I need and hopefully I will manage to post something everyday.  It may not always be something crafty, but I am sure I can come up with something daily as I have a backlog of stuff to share here.

Thank you Fiona for sharing about Blogtoberfest!!!

Non-traditional Christmas Card

Those birdies had better get wearing their protective gear as I am back to killing them two at a time again as I double up or even treble up on challenges!!

The monthly card challenge at the Scrapology blog is to make an unconventional Christmas Card and Enfys's challenge on Going Buggy is to make a Christmas Card in non-traditional colours.

I recently purchased the Tim Holtz Limited Edition Summer set of distress inks and thought they would be great to use for both of these challenges - you don't often see raspberry, turquoise blue and lime green on Christmas cards.  I used a Kanban stamp, stamping it it with Versamark ink and embossing with clear powder before sponging over the three colours randomly.  I then cut out the centre panel and mounted the greeting using Pinflair gel in the middle.  I finished it off with some hot pink organza ribbon and pearls.

I am also entering this card into Penny Black & More at Allsorts, their September challenge is Early Christmas Makes and this is also my card for week 25 of the 52 cards challenge using this sketch.

Amethyst & Pearl Bracelet - September's Monthly Make

Sorry I haven't been doing many blog posts recently - I am a bit bogged down with getting ready for my first fundraiser of the year for Children with Cancer Fund next Monday.  So very little crafting has been happening here apart from making stuff to sell on the stall. 

I did last week take a little break from the fundraiser stuff to make something for the Monthly Make Challenge.  I had a couple of broken amethyst chip bracelets that have been languishing in the bottom of a jewellery box for years.  I decided to give them a new lease of life by turning them into a memory wire bracelet and a pair of earrings - I just needed to add some seed beads and freshwater pearls.

I just love it when you can breathe new life into something old - these are currently my favourite bracelet and earrings at the moment.  And now to think of what to make for October - I might just surprise you all and do something other than jewellery!!

Amanda - Anita's September Class

As always Anita had a really lovely page for our monthly class - this one involved making net flowers, setting light to organza for flowers, misting a doily and using acrylic paint with UTEE.  You can see Anita's class page here and this is my version of it - I left off the rosebuds as I didn't want my page too bulky.

I think the patterned paper used is My Mind's Eye and I used some Cheery Lynn dies for the butterflies.  The title was cut using the BigShot.  Once everything was in place, liberal doses of pink dovecraft glitter glue was added!!

Some close ups of the embellishments -

Thank you Anita for another beautiful class xx

Penny Black Minis

Last weekend the Penny Black blog had a challenge to make mini cards, I quite enjoy working in a smaller size and these are what I made.

I used the Tim Holtz Summer distress inks and Penny Black Social Butterfly, the sentiment is by Personal Impressions.  I am still getting the hang of using these inks.

I also made a quick Christmas card too as I am woefully behind with my cards at the moment.

Happy 49th Wedding Anniversary Mum & Dad

The card challenge for August over at the Scrapology blog is Two's Company - use images of couples, doubles or pairs.  This fitted perfectly with the card that I wanted to make for my parents for their wedding anniversary today.

I used an image from Penny Black T for Transparent set - Touch of Love.  The card was cut with a Go Kreate die and the centre circle was embossed with a Crafts Too heart folder.  The ribbon is seam binding from The Ribbon Girl and the roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

This card is also my week 28 card for the 52 card challenge -the theme was Extravagance.

I coloured the images with Promarkers and added some Glossy Accents to the hearts.