February Craft Market at Cuerden Valley Park

It’s the Cuerden Valley Farmers and Craft Market this Sunday, 28^th February.

Cuerden Valley Park is a beautiful park close to Bamber Bridge in Lancashire. We walk our dog, Harley, here most days. It is the perfect place to walk dogs, 650 acres of beautiful parkland. It’s run by an independent charity and doesn’t receive any funding from the Local Authority towards the upkeep, they rely on income from car parking and events such as the Farmers Market.

Click here to see some the events that they have during the year. 

If you haven’t visited Cuerden Valley Park then why not pop down on a Farmers Market day, parking is free and there is a small entrance charge to the Market. There are usually around 30 stalls selling fresh local foods and handcrafted gifts.  If you do visit please come and say hello to me, I will be in the Barn near the coffee shop!

This Sunday I have some special decorated boxes filled with tea lights, perfect for Mothers Day.

I’ll also have some Easter baskets which are filled with small Easter Eggs and a cute little chick. I had to go out and buy some new Easter eggs yesterday as I’d eaten the first lot I bought! So if you want to buy one of these I suggest you come early before I start eating my new stock of eggs!!

The market opens at 10am until 2pm. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Some special cards I’ve made

This was a birthday card for my Mother in Law last year.

Another of my favourite bloggers is Lea from The CraftySpark. She has me in stitches watching her You Tube channel – honestly it’s better than watching TV. She makes the most amazing things and is truly talented. I’ve CASE’d the card in a box from her.

I made this one for a special friend who turned 50 last year. I now have the bug for making these cards, they take a long time to make but I think they look stunning so are worth all the effort.

Gary's niece was 21 last month so I made a concertina card for her. 

I was commissioned to make a 40th birthday card based on the 21st birthday card.

I recently took an order through facebook for a card in a box for Mother’s Day. I was secretly pleased that they wanted pinks and purples!

Special boxes

It’s great making cards and boxes but it’s even nicer if you are making them for someone or something special.

My Dad had a few special birthdays last year so he commissioned me to make chocolates for him.

I go for reflexology every month with the very talented Jane Aitken. If you are in the Chorley area I would highly recommend Jane, she also does Reiki, Swedish massage and pregnancy massage. Click here for Jane’s website.

I was delighted when Jane asked me to make her some boxes for client gifts. Here they are, all 45 of them!

I was lucky enough to receive one filled with lovely goodies.

Crafty days with Pam

My friend Pam has been crafting for years so is a great source of inspiration and encouragement. We decided to get together on a regular basis to craft. These were my very first makes from our first craft day.

In actual fact it was on our last craft day that Pam helped me set up this blog!

Thanks Pam.

She has her own blog which I’d highly recommend. Here's the link Craftypam

Some of my early makes

After watching Sam aka Pootles on You Tube a few times, I made quite a few of the small boxes and then I discovered Papercraft with Crafty, also on You Tube. Linda made a beautiful chocolate box that I just had to CASE (Copy And Share Everywhere).

This was my version.

Whilst I really enjoyed making chocolates I was a little bit limited to how many I could make and was quickly running out of friends to gift them too. I didn’t really want to go down the food hygiene route to make them to sell. I do still make chocolates, although mainly at Christmas.

Here are some boxes all made up and ready for Christmas.

I decided to start making cards and boxes for other things. I also like make biscuits so when I saw a mug made by Papercraft with Crafty I knew I had to CASE that too.

They were absolutely perfect.

The handbags were CASE'd from another You Tube favourite of mine Papercraft Button. I just love making these.

Last year I decided to make all my own Christmas cards. Unsure how long it would take me I started in July! Yes it did feel strange sitting at my kitchen table with the back door open as we were having a mini heatwave, making Christmas cards. Although fairly basic I was really pleased with them.

I did make special cards for my Husband, Dad, Mother in Law and special crafty friend Pam. Both of these were CASE'd from Pinterest.

Welcome to my blog - my papercrafting story so far....

I have always been a practical person. As a kid I loved tapestry, cross stitch and knitting. My Mum used to sew and would make most of my clothes. Unfortunately I didn't inherit her sewing skills. I was banned from using a sewing machine at school as I was always breaking the needles because I went too fast! I had to make my gym skirt by hand, which is probably why I hate hand sewing now.

As I grew older I did start sewing and making my own clothes but that was out of necessity rather than enjoyment. I loved knitting though and always had at least one project on the go!

I’ve always loved paper and card but have never really taken that big step into papercrafting as I felt I didn’t have the time or the money to do it properly.

A few years ago I took my Dad on a chocolate truffle making course at The Chocolate Rooms in Tarleton. Dad is an absolute chocoholic so it was the perfect Christmas present for him.

Secretly I was hoping Dad would enjoy making chocolates but sadly he decided he was happier eating them. I, on the other hand got the chocolate making bug.

This was my first attempt

Once you start making chocolate you quickly realise that it’s not a good idea to eat them all so you start gifting them to people. The problem is what do you put them in? I trawled the internet for boxes, I could find boxes for 12 chocolates but not for six.

Whilst out with my friend Pam one day, I mentioned my frustration at not being able to find boxes that I liked. She very kindly offered to make some for me.

That’s our cat, Pickle, knocking them on the floor, no boxes were harmed! The boxes were beautiful but needed the ribbon threading through the tops in a certain way so Pam sent me a link to a You Tube video which showed how to make the boxes and also how to thread them up. Having watched the video I thought I could make the boxes myself so immediately ordered an envelope punch board.

And there started my passion for papercrafting.