December 2011

This year I made the largest amount of festive cards that I have ever made (over 70).  My handmade cards were created using either acrylic ink and fluorescent paint or drawing with glue and glitter.  I also designed and printed a series of cards with a geometric tree pattern on.  These were posted out to friends and family and some of the remainder were sold at a market and to friends.  I have a small stash of some Bah Humbug cards and a few printed ones left for next year.  Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to send the Bah Humbugs out to anyone (although the MerryFC was fine!)  Once you open the pot, glitter really does get everywhere.

Before Christmas I had the opportunity of volunteering at the Cultural choice HUB workshop festival for a charity called Arcadia who work with Learning Disabled People.  These workshops were based at the Welford Centre in Gosforth and I got to meet and work with the wonderful Yve Ngoo.  I had bumped into Yve a couple of times before at Make and Mend markets and in the Made in Newcastle shop (Yve is an artist/maker and a member of MiN).  Yve was the artist leading the workshops and with the group we made snow globes with glitter, coloured water and miniature animal ornaments.  The other workshop was Christmas card making and Yve kindly allowed me to lead this session.  I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and the group seemed to enjoy themselves and were proud of their creations.  I was able to take home my cat snow globe and it became a gift for a cat loving friend.