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Daisy Daisy give me your answer do

Daisy Daisy give me your answer do.

I’m half crazy all for the love of you……………

Do you remember that song ? Well never mind if you don’t it was just a little ditty from my youth.

Oh dear .. I do sound old don’t I ?

Well never mind all that. It was sparked by the superb news that the lovely stamp set “Daisy Lane” is continuing into the new catalogue from the current one along with the lovely matching punches too. Hoorah! Another fab choice Stampin’ Up! I totally love punches they make life so wasy and everything turns out just perfectly.

Here’s a blast from the past a few hundred boxes I made using the lovely Daisy Punch for swapping at an international event I attended back before lockdown. I love crafting in the garden and it was especially fun crafting amongst the real daisies. If you are one of my lovely subscriber to my you tube channel you will know I’ve just done a video showing how to make these mini folded boxes just perfect for gifting a single Green and Blacks chocolate. Yummy ! To find my You Tube video click this link. Please when you find it click the subscribe button all it does is allow me to email you once each time a new video is posted to my channel so you need never miss out again. It also helps me get better noticed so if not for you maybe pretty please add it for my sake. Thanks x

The new catalogue is coming soon

Hurrah! The new catalogue launches in just under a month. Earlier this year as Stampin’ Up! are reshuffling their seasonal catalogues to be meet our needs. So earlier than usual, it begins in May this year, not the usual June start. Today I am busy sorting my shelves to make way for the lovely new stamp sets.

Every year the new annual catalogue refreshes and introduces wonderful new stock. However it also features retained favourites which transfer from the current catalogues into the new one. I’m really happy this year it seems like the new catalogue will still be featuring many of my top choices. This shelf alone has 6 stamp sets that will be carrying forward. So go on have a guess which 6 will be staying.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter. How’s this for a pretty Magnolia. I just had to share these lovely photos of our home. This huge magnolia is just wonderful right to create a n Easter vibe. Here it is this Easter weekend wrapping the house in a pink haze. It’s so very pretty. It looks fab with all the yellow daffodils. My craft room is the window behind the tree and while at other times of the year I love watching the birds while crafting right now the room simply glows pink as the sun shines through the flowers.

The tree is superb every year but has just hit it’s very best for this Happy Easter weekend. The rooms with front facing windows all glow pink even inside. How lucky are we to have this beauty.

Easter Chicks that lay chocolate eggs

How fab! These fun little paper hens are the perfect Easter gift. Chicks that lay mini chocolate eggs.

You know you want to make one of these super chicks. What fun! Perfect for decorating your Easter table or hanging on a pretty twig.

Only takes a few minutes to make and easy enough for the kids to make their own. A few bits to decorate and two scraps 4″x4″ of good quality paper that’s all you need. Stampin’ Up! demonstrator Gilly Hunt show you how in this short easy to follow video. Perfect to add to any Easter party and for hiding round the garden. Go for it make the Easter egg hunt extra fun this year.

Mother’s Day Folding Cards

Yes, I know it’s a touch late to show these. There is no time to replicate them yourselves but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise for my mum or Jan. Now we have delivered Mother’s Day goodies and cards and they have had their special days it’s fine to show you these, my recent makes.

Using a traditional well loved fold that I have done many times over many years of crafting. I created this pop up card where the middle section pushes forward and out as you open the card. A fab zig zag out and twist movement created very simply makes this a great year round favourite.

Inspiration to use this style of card for Mother’s day came from Lin Gosling. She presented at the same event I blogged about recently when I showcased my baskets. I must say she did a calmer more controlled facebook live than I did. I was impressed with her presentation and thought it was time to try again this style. Lin used a different stamp set to work with and showed us a couple of other options including a fab dinosaur card she was making for her grandson Monty.

If you fancy trying this fold keep your eyes open as I plan to You Tube this style soon. Hope you like them.

Baskets for every occasion

Baskets in a huge range to inspire you this Easter and through the year. I’ve been considering being brave and doing Facebook Live craft classes for a little while. My excuse is that our wifi speed is very slow, the quality might not be good enough or the line might drop. So when asked to contribute to an online class, for a big get together of UK wide crafters this weekend, I was tempted to make excuses. I had a talk to myself. I decided not to be “chicken” and take the challenge as my way of getting started in the strange new world of Facebook lives.

Here is my sample table of pretty baskets I made to share. The project prep went well and happy to be presenting. I love teaching and am very happy with the samples. I had really enjoyed creating all these fab baskets. Totally happy I had said yes. What could go wrong ?

Still a little scared of the techie stuff I read up lots. You Tube “how to” videos where watched and I took advice from friends who I really trust. Finally I felt well prepared baskets ready in line on the table. I did a practice try out using my own channel in private and all went well. I knew moving the camera, from face view talking to camera to table and hand only demo shots, might cause problems with orientation so I tried this out too. All in all I felt well briefed. Completely ready for my first step into the magical world of Facebook live action. Here goes baskets simple to make and easy for everyone.

What I hadn’t consider was that the night before I had used my husbands log in profile to send family photos and messages. I had not returned the profile to my own on my phone. BIG mistake!

With plenty of time I switched over to ready the live connection…… BUT…….My well prepared session sunk into chaos even before starting. As minutes ticked away faster than I can tell you I desperately tried to connect to the private crafting group. Not realising I was not doing so in my name but still logged in to my husbands profile which of course, wasn’t signed up to the private group I needed to be in. I tried to link using every option. No change I still had no idea how to start the live. I was trying it using the wrong log in profile switching on and off, pressing what felt like a thousand buttons ….. ..nothing…………realising I wasn’t ready my lovely friends sent lots of helpful private messages to no avail. I can tell you I got in quite a tizzy.

Then lightening struck and I realised what I had done. Phew! I rushed to place the phone camera back on the stand. I was concerned not to let people down. Time had slipped away faster than I could have imagined and I was eager to let people know I was ready. Off I went into my session rushed and hassled but gradually feeling fine again as I got into the teaching confident that I was back in my element again.

Phew ! ………….Relaxing at last my brain began to refocus and started thinking ahead again. Then a little niggle started to tap me on the shoulder, Oh no ! I had put the camera in my panic onto the stand in such a way that my stand holder clip would cover the camera lens as I flipped the phone to show the hand demo views. I would have to swap it over very carefully not to lose the orientation. People with more experience than me had warned me about losing the orientation when changing over. HELP !!

Change over time came ….. moving the camera and having to do a strange twist motion to prevent problems with orientation. It was all going well and I began feeling back on top of the world only for my phone to slip a little. Gripping it quickly to prevent dropping it my silly thumb hit the side of the screen. I pressed something which brought up a list of all participants and my other images vanished. NOW ! AHHH! No longer having the film images in the view finder and no comments to read just a long list of group members and a stark reminder of all those watching and no idea if they could see or hear me.

Much pressing of buttons later and I was back in action and happy to present my samples and ideas. Finally relaxed I enjoyed the last few minutes of the session. What a lovely audience. All through the chaos they were full of forgivingness and encouragment, cheering me on with hearts and thumbs up and positive comments. It’s fab to have crafters in my life, such positive people and so supportive. Thanks to them I can now proudly say I’ve done a Facebook live and survived it! Onwards and upwards. It really is simple just not when you’re in panic mode.

What a learning curve it was. Chaos aside I presented OK and now feel like I’ve cracked it. Lot’s of lovely people went on to make little baskets for themselves and proudly showed them off at the end of the event. Happy Days.

I know what went wrong so I can put that right. I am no longer afraid as I realise it may take time but I do know how to correct things if they go wrong. I do need to find out why it was a touch pixelated at times but all in all I’ve taken a giant leap for me. The moral of the story is JUST DO IT . Life’s full of challenges and it’s all to easy to put things off and not take the bull by the horns. I remind myself that only 5 years ago I didn’t even know the difference between a blog and a Facebook post. I had never read either. NOW …. Here I am writing on my blog about my Facebook live filming…… well how clever am I? No don’t answer that…….. leave me thinking I’m a super star!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. I hope you like the samples of my baskets made for this session. Coming soon to my You Tube channel will be a refilmed version of that workshop so I can offer it less pixelated and also another featuring the lovely paper chick that lays eggs as featured in the first picture above.

Darling Donkeys FREE stamp set

It’s Sale-a-Bration time of the year. Spend in the catalogue and get something for FREE. For more detail email me hi@gillyhunt.com.

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Amongst the lovely items available for Free is the wonderful Darling Donkey Stamp Set. Isn’t this a stunner.

I love a stamp set that is good for lots of different occasions and the Darling Donkeys is just that. Ideal for a quick note card or a simple thanks it also works well for Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentines day and is perfectly lovely for baby cards.

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Each donkey has it’s own character and works so well in so many styles too. Here’s just a few of my cards to demonstrate it’s versatility. Don’t forget it’s almost Valentines Day Feb 14th why not send a cheeky HEE HAW !

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Look out for my You tube videos showing how these 3 different sets of cards are made. Go to You Tube put Gilly Hunt in the search bar then choose any video I’ve made and hit the subscribe button underneath the video to add yourself to my subscribed list which allows me to notify you when a new video comes out.

Bows and Knots

Bows and Knots an easy guide

Eagerly awaited series of 10 guides to tying a bow or a knot now available on Gilly Hunt’s You Tube.

Here’s a sneeky peek at the card samples I have made. All feature in my videos. This series includes 10 top tips for tying a Bow or a fancy knot.  I’ve shown a sample of each using the Feels like Frost Designer Papers. The first introduces the products so is a bit longer but the rest of the series are snappy short videos perfect for a quick watch while you eat your breakfast or when your waiting to pick up the kids after school. Lots of tricks for cheating if you really can’t tie a bow but hey after videos 3 and 4 you will be fine perfect bows everytime.

Crafting with Friends

I love crafting with friends and am really looking forward to an up coming weekend on-line retreat with my friends. Today Ziggy is tucked up in her envelope bed with just a little tiny nose poking out. She looks so snuggly I’m very tempted to crawl in too. I know I probably am too fat but hey it’s a huge bed!

I love making swaps it’s a great way to get inspired as we make a set of cards and swap it with others during the event. Although we will all be working on the same theme I’m always amazed at how differently we all interpret the brief.

Sorry I can’t show you my swap right now as it would spoil the fun for the others attending the event but but I can tell you it features the lovely deer from the Nature’s beauty set. The theme for the swaps is animals and I’ve chosen this to make a Christmas / Winter inspired card. I’ll try and remember to show it to you after the event in late November. Happy crafting everyone. x

September Sunshine

Here we are the garden is finally fully fenced now to enable our new Grand Puppy Ziggy to visit and stay over without escaping! Although I don’t think escape is on her mind as she has just been having a ball sunning herself on the lawn.

So why talk about Ziggy on my craft page? Well she is the star of the last in my A-Z product guides. Go look me up on You Tube under Gilly Hunt Z for Ziggy. Please consider helping me to get better noticed on Facebook by subscribing to the videos. Thanks