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.

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.

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.

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