At last...my second blog post!

Hi. Welcome to my (second) blog post. Stampin'Up! changed over all of it's demonstrators' websites - (check mine out - https//craftinghotelier.stampinup.net - it looks fab!) but we lost the blog facility. It took me way too long to realise this but when I did I set about setting up a new blog. So will be about my creative stuff and a little bit about hotelier-ing. I hope you'll enjoy it...do let me know (gently please, I'm new to this).

So we had our first Stampin'Up! workshop at the beginning of September. I was wondering (as you do...) if anyone would show up and we had 12 of us (including me) around the table at The Fawley (our guest house, in case you didn't read the first blog post) . I was blown away. Some of the guests had heard via word of mouth, one had come because I'd posted on local facebook selling groups and my step-mum (bless her) had spread the word at the apartment block where she lives.

All of the ladies had done some crafty stuff of one description or another over the years and some were already quite accomplished at card making. They all listened very patiently to me telling them about Stampin'Up! and going through the catalogues so they could see all the wonderful products and samples of what they could achieve with them. I then did my card demonstration for them (pictures further down). Then I let them loose with the paper, stamps, ink, punches and glue...It was all going very well until the crisis moment when I realised I'd left all my stamping blocks except one at home. For the uninitiated, Stamping'Up!'s range of rubber and photopolymer stamps come unmounted. They are sticky on the back and we use a clear plastic block, which means you can position them easily because you can see through them. Thankfully I don't live too far away from The Fawley so I dashed home and collected them. Of course, that could have meant coming back to people awkwardly twiddling their fingers and wondering what to do, but they were all stuck in and either sharing the one block or improvising and stamping merrily away.

Made using the Daisy Lane Stamp Set from Stampin'Up!

I was going to demonstrate the card above that I had made. (There will be a lot of blue in my blogs; it's my favourite colour!) However, when I was getting ready I changed my mind and demo'd this one instead:

Made with Floral Essence Stamp Set from Stampin'Up!

We had a whale of a time and almost all of the group are coming back in the second week of October to do it all again. This will become a monthly stamping group. If you're local and are interested in joining us please contact me. We can probably squeeze one or two more in and can possible set up another group (in a different area of the island if that works better). Again, if this is your first time visiting my blog, The Fawley Guest House is in Shanklin in the beautiful Isle of Wight.

I'm planning another stamping event soon. October 5th is World Card Making Day,so it seemed rude not to celebrate with some card making. It will be an open house event where you can make 3 cards for £5.00 or 5 cards for £8.00, plus I'm sure tea, coffee and cake will also feature.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Like I said, please let me know what you think.

Have fun and keeeeep crafting x