Thanks all round.

Sitting here surrounded by all the colourful cards just serves as a reminder that Christmas is all about friends and family. So thank you for your lovely cards and good wishes.

Thanks also to everyone who voted for Mountain Ash Crafts to win the Best Independent Craft Retailer, the results are out early in the New Year. And a big thank you for making our Compton Hospice campaign such a success as over £3000 has been raised for this worthwhile local charity. We plan to carry on into 2009 so please keep the cards coming.

For a totally fresh start we'll have it all for you in 2009. In the meantime, we open again as normal on Saturday 27th December with a real treat of the latest Forever Friends Decoupage packs, plus loads of great goodies from the new DoCrafts promotion. All the inspiration you need for your new crafting year.

  Don't miss the Bumper Creativity magazine.

Congratulations to our lucky customer, Jeanne Clark from Stourbridge who has won £50 worth of craft kit from DoCrafts. Her "Star Letter" is on page 69 of Creativity.  Also in Creativity this month, our very own Jackie and Dave Turner tell their story of how they got into crafting and Jackie became a demonstrator with Mountain Ash Crafts. 

And finally, thank you for your support throughout 2008, we wish you a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Have fun

Mountain Ash Crafts update

Only ten days 'til Christmas, the kids are doing their school plays and the great card exchange begins. For our part, we're working our way through the Vineyard Tearoom seasonal lunch menu. So far, it's all been delicious and we can highly recommend it with something for everyone. 

The Party goes on

If you missed our Christmas party weekend, don't worry, we had so much fun, we've decided to do it again for the next two weekends. So, if you can find time away from the shopping, pop in for wine, chocolates and a lucky dip, together with loads of seasonal reductions.   

New this week

We've just taken delivery of the January edition of Making Cards with a Flowers, Fairies and Fashion theme with some great 3D transformer cards.  

If you're still stuck for a crafty gift, or even to treat yourself, we have some gorgeous Create and Craft kits in Butterfly or Fairy designs. Think Dufex and you'll get the picture.  

Making way for all the great New Year goodies coming in, we've reduced the prices of loads of seasonal lines, so come and grab a bargain.  

Coming soon     

and finally, here's our Christmas opening times.

Have fun

Get Crafty! with Mountain Ash Crafts

www.macrafts.com

www.getcrafty.info

Stables Craft Centre, Halfpenny Green Vineyards, Tom Lane, Bobbington, DY7 5EP - 01384 221554

http://macrafts.com/MakingCardsforChildren.aspx

Do Crafts start your 2009 off with a BANG!. Lots and lots of new ideas, Do Crafts have an exciting new launch of Forever Friends Decoupage, new collections from Papermania, the new Creativity Clear Lamp, new We R Memory Keepers ‘Magnetic Anywhere Twist Trimmer’ and the much awaited new Anita’s Outline Stickers launch and so much more. At your no1 creativity store Mountain Ash Crafts! Coming 2009!

You can always tell what time of year it is when hairdressers start asking you if "you've done your Christmas shopping yet?" For us, it's more a case or "whether you've finished your cards". If you haven't, don't panic, it's not December 'til next week and we've still got loads of materials. If you have, well done you, we've also got some excellent crafty gifts and new products coming in all the time. 

Just in...

Nursery Rhymes from Flowersoft

Laura Ashley Season Two

Pin Flair silicone free decoupage glue

Forever Friends Teddies 

Coming soon...

Flippin Men from Remember when

New Dufex designs

New Jolly Nation A4 die cut decoupage

This weekend...

On Saturday 29th November Jackie will be demonstrating the delightful new Nursery Rhyme designs from Flowersoft

Next Weekend...

A thank you for your custom: Come and join in the fun:

Christmas Party!!!

Sat 6th & Sun 7th December 1pm to 4pm

Demo's

Wine & Chocs

Lucky Dip

and finally, have a sneak preview of the DoCrafts advent calendar with a new project every day.  

Have fun

Get Crafty! with Mountain Ash Crafts

www.macrafts.com

www.getcrafty.info

http://www.mountainashcrafts.blogspot.com/

Stables Craft Centre, Halfpenny Green Vineyards, Tom Lane, Bobbington, DY7 5EP - 01383 221554

This week sees a new delivery from Create and Craft with their latest die cut decoupage including some excellent men's card designs - trains, boats and planes plus various sports etc. There's also some really nice waterfall kits for the more adventurous. In addition we've managed to get hold of some cracking kit packs, as seen on TV but at much lower prices and when they're gone......... 

If you're looking for 12 x 12 scrapbook papers, you must see the new BasicGrey ranges just coming in with some really funky designs. 

Don't miss the refreshed range of Dufex sheets and also new Christmas Tea Bag papers from Jolly Nation. Make sure to ask for your free instruction sheets. 

We're pleased to have all the Remember When packs back in stock in advance of their new introductions - see below.

Coming Soon

It's all TV -

Crafter's Companion have just told us about their new Vintage Times CD's to be launched on Friday 7th November on TV, and this time they've promised we can have them on the same day! There are two new titles, Vintage Life and Vintage Florals. We've seen the designs and "there's a beautiful array of Vintage designs, with traditional characters from bygone years, beautifully detailed floral ephemera and lacy frames". 

On Sunday 9th November the new Nursery Rhyme collections from Flower Soft are revealed. New card topper designs based on classic nursery rhymes. A delightful addition to their range and we'll have them all in early next week.

Next Monday 10th November sees the launch of both series 5 and 6 of  Remember When on TV. They'll be on sale on Tuesday 11th. Can't wait to see what they've come up with this time.

Make a Date

Create a Card for Compton Hospice Event

Get Crafty! with Mountain Ash Crafts

www.macrafts.com

www.getcrafty.info

Stables Craft Centre, Halfpenny Green Vineyards, Tom Lane, Bobbington, DY7 5EP - 01383 221554

;-)There isn't a smilie available for exhausted but that's what we are. The first wave of products arrived a couple of weeks ago and have been selling really well. In preparation for our 1st Birthday Celebration this Weekend we ordered top up stock. At the same time we wanted to get the newly released phase 2 ready for the Trimcraft Demo on Saturday. Well, of course, it all arrived on the same day, yesterday. We spent the whole day opening endless boxes of delights to cram onto the shelves, between serving customers who couldn't wait to see the next box opened. A totally fun day seeing the new products but we are now -----ered.
You must see the whole Trimcraft Christmas Promotion, there's loads of great new designs, and products at sensible prices to satisfy all your crafting needs. Check out the embossing boards, we can't wait to try them out.
Get Crafty!

Like many people, this is the time of year when I feel most dismal. Whether it's withdrawal symptons from the recent festivities or just the lousy weather, I won't be really happy again until spring. At least that's what I expected, but then DoCrafts delivered the next promotion! 

Wow! what a lot of spring crafting delights, all ready for Valentines Day, Mother's Day and Easter and check out the great deals on offer.

We all remember Valentines which never changes, but Mother's Day and Easter are really early this year at 2nd March and 23rd March (Easter Sunday) respectively. Oh and don't forget, we get an extra day this year on 29th February.  I feel much better already :-)

We invited you to drop in and make a card for our appeal to give a real end of year Christmas boost.

Thanks to all who turned up to make a card, we hope you enjoyed the days as much as we did. 

We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of card makers and the quality of their work. It only goes to show what caring people our customers are and we thank them all for their kind donations to this worthwhile cause.

Message from Karen Bowyer at Compton Hospice

A Great Big thanks from Mountain Ash Crafts 

Isn't it frustrating how time catches up with you sometimes? When you're doing something you hate time really drags but when you enjoy yourself, it just flies by. On checking the blog, February has come and gone and not a word. Despite my best intentions and although there has been loads happening, I haven't had time to put pen to paper, well, finger to keyboard actually. I'll backtrack slightly and split the news over several posts to keep them short. 

A couple of days at a trade show in early February has brought us a number of exciting new products. We now have in stock the new Starform Stitching stickers which are proving very popular. These are clear peel offs, marked out in gold or silver, in various shapes that include pricking and stitching patterns. The new Ultimate Crafters Companion is a really neat package that includes card making, box making, envelope making, shape embossing  and a paper trimmer all in one. We'll be showing it off it at the next Get Crafty! weekend.  Also featured will be the delightful range from Flowersoft, we've had a great time making sample cards with this product which was runner up in the most innovative product for 2007. By next week, we should have the new Paper Nation Decoupage papers in from Crafthouse Press.   

We've had to shoehorn this lot into the shop as usual but the good news is we're expanding soon.  As we're suffering from lack of space here too, I'll have to tell you about it next time.

Have fun and Get Crafty!     

What an exhausting weekend. Our first Get Crafty! event for 2007 and our customers turned out in style to support us. *(Football? what football?)* It was really great to see so many of you and we hope you enjoyed the demo's. If we gave you just a little inspiration and some fresh ideas, then our job was done. If you couldn't make it, don't worry, we have plenty more lined up for you. Just check out the dates on the demo's pages. 

Our new Cricut machine has proved to be our favourite new "toy" and will be featuring regularly on our open days. We won't need much of an excuse to show it off, it's brilliant. 

Thanks to all who have responded to our call to Create a Card for Compton Hospice. We've already had over 300 lovely cards for the campaign and promises of more to come. Our aim is to raise £2000 so please keep them coming. Between us we can really make a difference for this important local charity.   

* We understand there was a Wolves v Albion match on the Sunday at the Molineux and hope our event did not effect their attendance figures too much.    

Well that's it, it's all over for another year. Everyone is back to their work and the kids are back to school. I'm sure some bright spark will have calculated how many shopping days 'til next Christmas but, frankly, I'm not interested. It will come round again soon enough. But doesn't it all look dismal now as the decorations come down. Don't forget, you can bring in your old commercial cards for recycling for the Woodlands Trust. This year my New Year's resolution is not to stop or start anything, but just to look forward positively to longer daylight and the gradual onset of Spring, my absolute favourite time of year.

Not that we've been idle over the last week or so, as we opened again the day after Boxing Day to get the sale underway. This week has seen the delivery of the latest special offers from Docafts so a mad shuffle round to fit it all in. How nice to see so many of our customers out for a post Christmas airing despite the wet and windy weather. It just shows how you can ward of the winter blues with a bit of New Year crafting.  

Happy New Year

Have fun.

I've just read in our local free paper about a recycling scheme for old Xmas cards in aid of the Woodland Trust. Although it's a little early to be throwing them away, some haven't even been sent yet, this strikes me as a great idea. The Woodland Trust do an excellent job of saving woodlands and planting new trees for the future. If you get a minute have a look at (www.woodland-trust.org.uk). As we are already members, this is something we will do ourselves. So when you are ready to dispose of your old Christmas cards, just bring them in to our shop and we'll make sure they get recycled.

I do occasionally have a rant about the amount of cardboard wasted in packaging, don't get me started, but we try to minimise this as far as possible by recycling every bit of excess cardboard at the local tip. I must admit, I'm there so often, they'll be allocating my own parking space soon. I'll certainly be there early in January when we take delivery of loads of goodies for the new crafting season.

Of course, the real beauty of handmade cards is that they don't get thrown away. All the love and creativity that goes into making them will be treasured by the recipient for years. In our house, there are cards we bring out every year as part of the Christmas decorations. They bring back happy memories and are far too good to throw away, even if we did recycle them for charity. Just a final thought, but its the preservation of treasured memories that makes scrapbooking a natural progression for cardmakers, and what a great time of year to start, just when the new Christmas cameras get clicking. 

Have fun.

Well, here it is, it's taken me most of the day (actually two days if I'm honest) but at last we have the new Get Crafty! website. The idea is to use this mini site to bring our customers the latest news and inspiration for projects. Our aim is to add and update content on a regular basis. As time allows we will be adding additional features including a chat room and projects library. Right now I'm going to have a well earned rest and a glass of wine left from the Get Crafty! weekend.

That reminds me. If you didn't manage to get to us over the last weekend for a glass of wine and a mince pie, don't worry. We do have the odd bottle left and we will be handing out a taste of Halfpenny Green wine (Black Country Gold and Penny Black) every weekend until Christmas. We'll also get some more mince pies in, just to say thanks for your custom. 

And finally, this blog has an RSS feed built in. Don't ask me how it works but if you click on subscibe the magic of the internet will tell you every time this blog is updated. You can also add your comments and we'd be interested to hear what you think of it so far!