That's a pretty substanssl stamp collection! Me and Mum aren't stampers - it just has never appealed to us. We like to "recycle" old cards etc. We have a "craft room" now devoted to craft stuff. We usually start getting the "Christmas bug" in about August, Septeber

Card making for me was a natural offshoot of scrapbooking. I made my first card at about 4 o'clock Christmas morning when I realised I hadn't bought one for my brother-in-law! Came out not too badly, either.

Right now I'm working with card kits, usually inserting an appropriate photo for whatever the occasion is. Still making them one at a time (and usually at the last moment) so far.

I started with a card kit and have progressed to non-kits.

I must admit I prefer to make larger cards. The main problem with many of the handmade cards is that they are heavy so cost quite a lot to post to overseas destinations.

I have just bought a couple of new CDs from ebay, one is my beloved iris folding, I really love doing that, another is pyramid cards and I am really looking forward to trying that. For those of you who do not know what I mean, it is like decoupage except instead of bits of the image being built up you have a pile of identical pictures with each being trimmed smaller than the one below. The CD will have the images ready to cut out so you don't need to print lots of identical images yourself and trim them down. They are still going to be heavy though.

Yesterday I received a couple of navy blue card blanks I had ordered which have a fan shape cut from the front for iris folding. They didn't come with a pattern so I experimented, the white was a piece of blank card and I used the navy one as a template.

On the white one I used a fairly standard triangular pattern, on the other as you will see, I tried the fan direction. On the white one I think the iris would need changing perhaps to green holographic card. I think I prefer the one on dark blue best EXCEPT that the thickness at the point of the fan.

Your opinions please for the other card blank and any that I might make in future.

Fan cards in progress

Sorry Sue I cant open that

How strange, it is in Photobucket and opens fine for me. Thanks, I will go and look.

Edited to say I have moved it to another album to see if that works for you. it works fine for me.

It is fine now
It just appeared as a string and not a clickable link before. They are both nice.

Oooer, the postman just arrived and brought me a couple of new CDs from ebay, one is of iris folding patterns, the other is a new one for me, pyramid toppers. Pyamid toppers are like decoupage except instead of cutting out certain parts the whole image is just cropped a little on each layer so it forms a pyramid. I can't wait to try it, and some of the iris folding patterns.

I just went to the craft shop to buy some clear embossing powder and ended up with buying all manner of bits, again.

Looking at the adhesives I realised they do wide double sided tape as well as 6mm and 1cm. It was expensive but I decided to buy some so now have some 25mm and some 50mm.

What sort of adhesives do you use?

Usually I use double sided tape, Francheville brand. It's quite strong and will even hold down bulkier things like chipboard. If I need something stronger I'll use dimensional magic - it's mostly used for giving a glossy look to things but is as strong as steel when used for glue!

I have all manner of adhesives but mostly use double-sided tape. Today I made a iris folding 'topper' and just used two strips of the 50mm tape instead of rows and rows of 1cm tape, marvellous.

I used the doublesided tape - I have 6 mm and 8 mm. I usually use 6 mm but one of my friends buys her craft supplies wholesale and she bought a box of 8 mm rolls and is selling them to her friends at her cost - $1!

Wow that is cheap. I have tried several brands and so far prefer Sellotape even though it is probably more expensive than some. I did buy a pack of assorted rolls without a brand name which appeared to be a bargain but found it very difficult to peel off the top layer so won't be buying from that company again.

When I was watching Create and Craft the other day I saw a CD for sale which was for creating kaleidoscopes from jpg images, it looked interesting but was £19.99 plus hefty postage and packing - they charge me £10 as I am not in the UK per se. True I would have got a £2 discount for being a member but it was still a lot of money. I then looked on ebay and found the identical CD, sealed, for £19.99 including P&P. It is on its way.

I have just printed out some more iris folding patterns including one for the 'Sorting Hat'.

Die cutting machines - I know you have one Jillian, does anyone else?

I am thinking of buying the sort you attach to a computer, and in particular the Graphtec CraftROBO. Today there was a demonstration on C&C so I went to the internet to find someone with a better price and found one. I emailed to ask if they remove VAT for Jersey and they do so that is a good sign. They said I can order by 'phone and pay by credit card or can use PayPal - whichever I preferred.

As I am 'heavily' into iris folding I thought life would be easier if I could cut the images out by machine instead of using a craft knife.

Anyone have any experience of this type of die cutter, that is the 'printer' style ones?

I have been very busy. My daughter (and her husband) are arriving on Thursday of next week and to put it simply, I am scared of her! She bosses me about and tells me off, especially about my untidiness and also my spending habits (shopaholic).

The dining area of my lounge/diner has been gradually getting more and more piled high with crafting materials and equipment, she would go mad and really have a go at me. It has really got to a silly stage, I keep knocking stuff off the table when looking for something else.

This is all very silly really, my house is not small as I have eleven rooms including the huge bunker which has large desks, tables, cupboards, shelves etc. If I didn't live alone then I would use the bunker for crafting but I don't like to be down there when I am alone as if anything happened to me I could rot!

Just off my kitchen is my glory hole. Its official name is my sewing room. I have my sewing machine in its cabinet plus a six foot by three foot office style cupboard which is supposed to be for my knitting wool and fabric but ended up filled with rubbish. The whole room was a dumping ground for software boxes, old bills and all manner of other rubbish.

I have spent the last week or so gradually making some space in there, it isn't perfect yet, still more to go, but it is at a stage when I could start filling it with my cardmaking stuff.

I can't find the panel from the top of my sewing machine cabinet, I hope it might turn up at some stage but in the meantime I have found something which is perfect for crafting on, it used to be a folding desk but I threw the legs away by mistake. I have brought up a shelving unit from the bunker and have started moving my stuff in, sorting it as I go - card on one shelf, paper on another and so on.

I will be able to put my new CraftROBO on the work surface when it arrives, I can link it up to my laptop and use it in there.

It is getting quite exciting - soon I will be able to vacuum my dining area carpet!

I will take photos when it is finished - then I will sort the remainder of the junk later.

The best thing about having house guests is it forces you to do the things that never get done. Last September my brother, his wife and family came to stay for a weekend. We managed to paint 3 bedrooms and the passage in time for their visit. Since then NOTHING!
Keep going Sue, your daughter will be impressed.

Ohhhhhh, you got a craftrobo!! And now I've seen the pics in the photo a day thread - nice cleaning up! Feel free to pop in and do the same here!
I did mean to reply here before and forgot

Have you got it yet? Is it brilliant? Mine is just an manual one and doesn't have half the scope of the robo. Without asking too much but was it expensive? They retail here for $700+ .. about the same or less?

Good grief no. It hasn't arrived yet but it is the latest model and was about $453 Australian which includes $24 postage - if I lived in the UK it would have been free shipping.

I am just hoping I can cut apertures in card so I can do my iris folding, it will be much easier with neatly cut shapes.

What I also have on order is a Xyron Design Runner Handheld Digital Printer with 2 Design Discs, that is $150 including shipping. That looks like fun.

And I have no idea WHAT you are talking about. LOL Enjoy your new toys Sue.

A Craft ROBO is a machine which looks like a printer, you attach it to a computer. Then instead of printing on paper it cuts out shapes. If you want a card with a hole cut in the front this machine can do it for you. For instance, I cut this fan shape out by hand but hopefully this machine will cut them for me in future. Iris folding is the technique I have used for making the fan, it involves cutting strips of paper or ribbon and sticking them down.

The tidying goes on, I have now got my needlepoint on the top shelf and above the table I have my craft magazines, books, CDs etc.

The Xyron is a hand held printer which is used to print messages and patterns on paper, for instance the greeting inside a card.

Oh that sounds realy interesting. When I lived in the USA I bought cards with the holes ready cut in them. Used them for cross-stitch cards. How nice to be able to make your own.
Iris folding does look lovely and so does your top shelf. Keep it up.

Anyone who read the pound shop bargains thread in Funtrivia Lounge will have seen that I have bought masses of holographic card at a rock bottom price, 25 sheets of A4 for £1 which is $2.5 AUS, $2 US, $2.14 CAN or 1.48 euros.

I went in again today and bought the remainder of the stock, five more packs, and the woman serving remembered me from yesterday when I bought 20 packs. She said she would be interested in seeing some of my cards nearer Christmas as she might want to buy some.

The holographic card is in red, green, blue and gold so very Christmassy except for the gold which has hearts but even that can be used for matting.

I have now ordered lots of card blanks with envelopes from ebay so I can start mass producing.

These are some I made today.

Card 1

Card 2

Card 3

They are really nice indeed! I hope you do well, mass producing!
Me and Mum are late starting our Christmas Cards this year - usually start in the beginning of August - but we started last week. Pictures of the cards we have made, eventually. Hologram card is really good

They're great - love the second one.

How's the Robo going?

I love the third one Sue. Can I PM you my adress?

Robo - ah, need to set it up. I was distracted by having to prepare for the daughter's arrival. Now she has gone I will try to work it out. Yesterday I used a craft knife to cut out the apertures - silly me.

Right Jillian. I managed to get the ROBO to cut something. Now I need to decide what to use a 18cm by 8cm pink pop-up card for! I just used a template in there and the first piece of card that came to hand.

Now I need to work out how to cut something I actually want.

Sue, the cards are darling! I especially love the trees. Is a ROBO like a Skizzix? Like, a small personal die-cutter? I so wish I had a skizzix!

Nevermind, I just looked it up. Is it computer operated, sort of? That looks like it would rock!