Hunkydory

Hunkydory

If you are a follower of my Instagram you will see my love for Hunkydory. They have “topper” sets which are brilliant for quick makes and also if you are just starting out in card making. The sets have different images and sentiments on them and can be used just as they are or used with other makes. There is also card inserts which I find brilliant for cards that are going around an office with lots of signatures in as it creates more room. They also do “box magazines” which includes free papers, quite often stamp set and die set and a magazine with some designs in and how to make them.

In this blog post I am going to attempt a quick “tutorial” for how easy a card can be made. Although my husband said “you didn’t really make those though – you just stuck some things together!”

I have used Hunkydory Design Collection Box Magazine Issue 7 which includes the Spring Time Meadow Collection Papercraft Kit. All you need is a card blank some glue, some form of cutting equipment, and the Kit from the magazine. Card blanks and glue are available from all craft shops and even some supermarkets now (crafting is definitely becoming more popular), I’ve used the crafter companions double sided tape roller as I find it easier and quicker than normal doubled sided tape but the tape roll would be fine too. I’ve also used some sticky foam pads which are good for making images stand out from your card but again you can just use the double sided tape and it would stay flat on the card.

Firstly pick a piece of the patterned paper from your kit and cut it to just a bit smaller than your card blank. I use a guillotine which has measurements down the side so it makes it a lot easier but you can use pencil to draw lines with a ruler on your piece. Use your double sided tape to stick that to the front of your card blank.

Next select the image you want from your kit, I chose the cute little duckling and the “ribbon band” which I cut to size to go down the one side of the image. Pop it out from the card and put either your glue or your foam pads on the back and put on the card front just to the left of the centre. Then add glue to the back of your ribbon band and stick that to the right of your image.

Then da-dah! You have a card. You can add a sentiment to it but I quite like cards that are for all occasions.

Supplies: Double sided glue 

                Sticky foam squares

                Card blanks

                Hunkydory kit 

Crochet Workshop

Crochet Course

My mother-in-law is one of my biggest “fans” and is always in awe of everything I create for her. Last year I told her I was attending an evening crochet course and she mentioned to me she wouldn’t mind learning a new hobby. Now, if you tell me something like that I WILL find a way to make this happen!

The crochet course I did last year was with the wonderful Vicki from Miss Gregory’s GorgeousGifts and was over a few weeks in an evening. It was a brilliant way of learning the basics of crochet and gives you a good grounding to go out in to the world of crochet! I found it so beneficial to have somebody there to show you what to do and look at your work finding out where you have gone wrong – you don’t get that with a YouTube video.

So early this year Vicki announced she was running a serious of day workshops in our local town of Rhayader as well as her evening courses. Mother’s day was fastly approaching and my husband always struggles with thinking of good gifts to give her. So I suggested paying for her to go on a beginner’s workshop as an early mother’s day present. The husband thought this was a nice idea and of course I had to go for support! I saw Vicki post about it on Instagram which led to my friend seeing it so she came along with her mum too.

The day workshop was “Treble Crochet and Granny Squares” and was held in Quillies in Rhayader. The room was perfect, really bright and a good amount of space for the eight of us on the course. They also provided tea, coffee and home-made biscuits! The owner of the shop even arranged lunch for us at the local café.

Vicki began by teaching everybody how to hold their hook and about tensioning. We then learnt how to make a chain and then proceeded into the granny square learning about treble crochet. Vicki went around everybody and ensured that they were doing it right and giving words of encouragement. In the afternoon we were also shown about joining squares and blocking.

Vicki knew that I was confident in being able to complete the Granny Square so she showed me a book of granny squares (now waiting to be purchased on Amazon!!) and told me to pick one and try to make it. I picked one with a flower in the middle that the petals were raised up upon as I was always curious how this was done. I also made a little flower from the book – which I forgot to take a photo of

I loved seeing complete beginners find the love of crochet and smiled as they purchased hooks from the shop and some yarn from Vicki. I can see why she does the workshops!! I spent a lot of the day supporting my mother in law and I think I need to work on my teaching skills as I just wanted to take over and correct her mistakes for her but its something to work on if I want to do workshops in cross stitch or card marking in the future.

If you are within driving distance of Rhayader or Builth Wells and are a little bit curious about crochet have a look at Miss Gregory’s Gorgeous Gifts as she has all her workshop dates on there.

There is one problem with the workshop……………I want to crochet everything now and have a lot of Cross Stitch to complete amongst other things before July. I started another C2C blanket with some soft yarn I had and last night had to fight with myself to pick up the cross stitch not the crochet!!