Hello folks - here is my news!

Michelle and I formed Lovin' Ink almost 2 years ago. Our overall aim was to get out "there" encouraging folks to experiment and play with their crafting tools and products and get the most out of them.

Our plan for the first year was to get our retreats working well. We love coming together with folks who love to craft and spending a whole weekend at play is what we love to do so we wanted to share and make new friends. The retreats have been really successful - the do it yourself ones as well as the workshop based ones. Our workshop based retreats are full of experimentation with a theme which we have loved putting together.

The March retreat is now full and provisional bookings are being made for the September retreat.

So phase one - box ticked.

Next was to run a few workshops and a regular stamping club to encourage folks to experiment and play with their stamps. Both Michelle and I have a passion for stamps of all kinds and both have our favourite and very different tastes in brands and what we like to do with them.

We even have different tastes in inks we like to stamp with mostly because our early crafting experiences have been so vastly different but it still does not stop us sharing what we love most and that's crafting in all its forms.

In 2010 we were approached by the local day services to provide a card making class for adults with learning disabilities. Despite many hurdles we managed to do this and have so enjoyed seeing those adults gain pleasure and confidence from their achievements. Our dream for this group was for it to be in the community alongside other crafters and in July 2011 this also became a reality. Now our adults travel to our stamping club and join in the projects alongside our regular stampers. Their delight and pride in their achievements is wonderful to see and our ladies who come along to this group so enjoy seeing and being part of their crafting journey.

So fortnightly stamping and the day services group have joined together and are now a regular group of 14 people crafting once a fortnight.

Another box ticked.

Michelle and I have been so proud to pull these things together and have a planned next stage for 2012 which is :-

Once a month workshops at Samuel Taylors at Embsay Mills

and also at The Craft range at Hapton, Burnley .

Both these shops have very much played a part in our love of craft and to be asked to join their team of tutors is a great honour.

All the classes will be based around a love of stamping, moving from one stage to the next for both the new and experienced crafter. The classes at each venue will be different although similar as they are based around each shops stock which is very very different in style.

Each session will build on skills, encouraging experimentation and even mistakes so participants can learn to work around those happy accidents and enjoy the whole experience as well as make gorgeous cards and a small gift. The classes will be progressive aimed at building confidence in your knowledge of products but can also be a stand alone experience.

To aid learning and provide recap when you are at home you will be given a technique book to bring along to each session - you will build your own reference tool, with this book, for use in the class and out of it - a great way to record what you like and have enjoyed and make step by step instructions for it.

Our first session at each shop will be a craft clinic

Bring along things you are unsure how to use, bought but cant remember why or just come along and ask us questions. You will see us playing all day!

The session at Samuel Taylors in Embsay is Saturday 7th January 10-4

The session at Craft Range, Hapton, Burnley is January 21st 10-4

Samples for the first workshops will be at each of these venues on the day to view.

All bookings will be taken through each individual shop and a list of workshops will be available there too as well as our Lovin Ink blog.

So you can see why I have been very excited and also why I have not been around very much - lots of plans to arrange and samples being made.

Hope you can join us for inky fun!

Janet x