New Creative Journey Weekend Workshop

This is not a painting and drawing class! This is a workshop to help unleash the creativity inside you. This workshop will take you on a journey to reconnent and discover your creativity in a fun, practical and respectful environment.This course will not only benefit your creativity skills but enhance other areas in your life such as goal setting, problem solving and interpersonal skills. This course will include activities such as mind mapping, collage, art journaling, altered art and creative writing but no prior skills are needed to participate in this course.

Place - The Crafty Alley Shop (workshop room) Killarney
Weekend Course


Sat 24th and 25th April


10am to 5.30pm both days
Cost - €140 including materials
Places limited to 8 participants.


For any enquiries please email cathy@craftyalley.com or phone 0646630800

New Clearence Section

NEW CLEARENCE SECTION ON WEB

Hey all check out our new Clearence section on the website. There is 50% off everything in it at the moment including some brand new Paper Cellar Products, Maya Road and more!

Cathy

Kids Crafty Easter Camp

Keep your Easter Bunnies busy next week with our Crafty Easter Camp.

Runs over three days from Tues 6th April to Thurs 8th April

12pm to 1.15pm Each Day

Book one day for €7.50 per child or all three days for €20

Book your place by calling 0646630800

Tea in Miss Courtneys Tea Rooms

So life can be quite busy working in the shop so Felicia and I took a well deserved break for tea and cakes last week at Miss Courtneys Tea Rooms in Killarney. This is the cutest tea shop you have ever seen and is just around the corner for us. Well worth a visit!

Thought you might enjoy the pics. Can you spot their delectable cake stands and their really sweet fabergé egg tree?

They serve the most gorgeous cup cakes too.....

Cathy

Altered Board Book

Hi all,

This is a board book I created as an example for the Craft Club workshop I gave in the shop last week. It was made from a spiralling childrens book about wiggly snakes are something and I could not resist them. The ladies actually created recipe books with theirs (send me pics girls if you have any). Great fun and nice to try something different too!

I used alot of felt and had great fun distressing and diecutting it.

My kids books will never be safe again......

Cathy

My First Mini TP Album

Hi all - well thanks to Felicia I have finished my first TP album! Felicia had been telling me about the TP albums for ages but  had never seen them and was a bit dubious (shame on me...). But they are totally gorgeous so thanks Felicia for convincing me!

I am using it as a place to store my First Design Team Members contact details, projects etc. Like a little Design Team Memory book!

I have used coin envelopes as the inserts this time instead of tags (as they are sooo cute) and I can fill the little envelopes with pictures and notes.

If you haven't tried one yet give them a go as they are too cute not to!

Cathy x

Handmade Brooches

Hi all, just thought I would share the first few brooches I have made for the Bee for Battens Campaign.

Felt Die Cut Brooches

Foam Die Cut Brooches

Crochet Flower Brooches

Still loads more to do but thought these might give people some inspiration to make their own and send them to us for the campaign. If you can even make one it could make a difference!

Thanks

Cathy x

Patterns for Bee for Battens

Hi all,

Below is a list of link to free patterns for the Bee for Battens "B is for Brooch, Bee is for Battens" project.

Also if you come across any other suitable patterns please leave the link in the comments section and I will add them in.

We welcome all handmade flowers from across the crafts.

Bumble Bee Crochet Patterns

http://www.coatsandclark.com/NR/rdonlyres/7525B518-229A-47D3-84D2-7424FD995730/100991/WR1729.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20071013231235/http://hometown.aol.com/wahnoma/BumbleBeePursePouch.html

http://skamama.blogspot.com/2006/06/picot-flower.html

http://mycrochetstuff.blogspot.com/2008/05/little-flowers-with-leaves-free-crochet.html

http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/faq-search.cgi?store=/stores/eyarn&faqKey=492&language=

http://renjet.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/pretty-little-flowers-all-in-a-row/


Knitted Flower Patterns for Brooch
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/homegarden/homemaking/crafts/articles/0,,695942_710695,00.html

http://www.knitonthenet.com/issue6/patterns/flowerpower/

http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTpetals.html

I will add more but these are just a few to get you started. By the way I highly recommend you signup to Ravelry which has an amazing database of free flower patterns perfect for the brooches and we have our own group on there too so pop by and say hello!

Thanks for your support and I look forward to seeing your creations for the Bee for Battens campaign

Cathy

B is for Brooches, Bee is for Battens

Hi all,

If any of you watched the Late Late show last Friday evening you may have saw Tony and Mary Heffernan talking about their two beautiful children who are diagnosed with Battens Disease. This is a heart wrencing story and I urge you visit the interview if you have not already seen it here on RTE Player. Please note the interview is towards the end of the programme.

The Heffernan family actually live in the same village as me in Kerry and their two beautiful children are of similar ages to my own and I am amazed by their strength and devotion as parents. Their children are the only two diagnosed people in the South of Ireland with Battens Disease and they have formed a strong friendship with a family up North Alan and Shauna Bates, mother of 9 year old Rhiannon who is also battling Battens.

To understand the struggle these families are facing dealing with Battens, I took this excerpt from the website

"Over time, affected children suffer mental impairment, worsening seizures, and progressive loss of sight and motor skills. Children become totally disabled and eventually die.

Batten disease is not contagious nor, at this time, preventable. To date it has always been fatal."

I put my thinking cap on for what I and we can do as creative people to help raise awareness and support for the Heffernan family and other families who are dealing with Battens and came up with the idea

"B is for Brooches, Bee is for Battens".

First of all I will explain that the symbol of a Bee is used as the emblem on their website and logo http://www.beeforbattens.org/ and I got thinking of Bees and flowers....

What I am asking people to do is knit, crochet or handmake a flower (papercrafters can die cut felt etc.) and send them to me. I will add pins to the flowers and sell them as brooches in the shop and online. I will add a tag to the brooch with the Battens web address on one side and "Handmade by..." on the other.All proceeds will go to the Saoirse foundation to help raise awareness and create support. Its important to note that I have been in contact with The Heffernans and they were very supportive of this idea.

Also on Good Friday (Friday 2nd March) I will host a very special edition of our regular knitting group which will be dedicate to making the flowers for the brooches. The yarn will be supplies so all you need are your skills and support!

So what can you do?

1. Make and send a flower to me (or more if you have the time)

2. Come to the knitting group in the shop next Friday and make some more (10am to 12pm)

3. Spread the word and link to this article and more importantly the Bee for Battens website http://www.beeforbattens.org/

Please post your flowers to The Crafty Alley Shop, 6B Scotts Street, Killarney, Co. Kerry.

Thanks guys

Cathy x

B is for Brooch, Bee is for Battens

Hi all,

If any of you watched the Late Late show last Friday evening you may have saw Tony and Mary Heffernan talking about their two beautiful children who are diagnosed with Battens Disease. This is a heart wrencing story and I urge you visit the interview here on RTE Player. Please note the interview is towards the end of the programme.

The Heffernan family actually live in the same village as me in Kerry and their two beautiful children are of similar ages to my own and I am amazed by their strength and devotion as parents. Their children are the only two diagnosed people in the South of Ireland with Battens Disease and they have formed a strong friendship with a family up North Alan and Shauna Bates, mother of 9 year old Rhiannon who is also battling Battens.

To understand the struggle these families are facing dealing with Battens, I took this excerpt from the website

"Over time, affected children suffer mental impairment, worsening seizures, and progressive loss of sight and motor skills. Children become totally disabled and eventually die.

Batten disease is not contagious nor, at this time, preventable. To date it has always been fatal."

I put my thinking cap on for what I and we can do as creative people to help raise awareness and support for the Heffernan family and other families who are dealing with Battens and came up with the idea

"B is for Brooches, Bee is for Battens".

First of all I will explain that the symbol of a Bee is used as the emblem on their website and logo http://www.beeforbattens.org/ and I got thinking of Bees and flowers....

What I am asking people to do is knit, crochet or handmake a flower (papercrafters can die cut felt etc.) and send them to me. I will add pins to the flowers and sell them as brooches in the shop and online. I will add a tag to the brooch with the Battens web address on one side and "Handmade by..." on the other.All proceeds will go to the Saoirse foundation to help raise awareness and create support. Its important to note that I have been in contact with The Heffernans and they were very supportive of this idea.

Also on Good Friday (Friday 2nd APRIL) I will host a very special edition of our regular knitting group which will be dedicate to making the flowers for the brooches. The yarn will be supplies so all you need are your skills and support!

So what can you do?

1. Make and send a flower to me (or more if you have the time)
2. Come to the knitting group in the shop next Friday and make some more (10am to 12pm)
3. Spread the word and link to this article and more importantly the Bee for Battens website http://www.beeforbattens.org/

Please post your flowers to The Crafty Alley Shop, 6B Scotts Street, Killarney, Co. Kerry.

Thanks guys

Cathy x

New Stamps!

We have had a huge delivery of new stamps for you to check out with vintage images, easter themes, sentiments and much more. Click here to see our new stamps.

Happy Stamping!

New Basic Grey At The Crafty Alley Shop

Visit The Crafty Alley Shop to see our new Basic Grey Collections. More items to follow too!

New Books at The Crafty Alley Shop

Just a selection of some our new books which have just arrived...need some inspiration then take a look at these!

www.craftyalley.com

Time to make some changes....

Hi all,

I don't normally like to share too much of my personal head space because although I love the world of blogging I think it is important in all aspects of your life to keep some of you just for you! However, I have been talking to lots of people recently who I think may feel the same way too so I thought I would share this.

I am a girl who thrives on change and challenge but lately I am craving a bit of space - for family, friends, creativity and health. It is good to be busy but there has to be a line drawn when busy becomes too busy that you really are not at your best and I have been feeling that way recently.

So I have decided that I am going to start working smarter and not harder in ALL aspects of my life. I won't bore you with the details of my day to day challenges but in terms of my creativity. I am a person who loves to create and try lots of new things but also fine tune existing things. There are too many books on my shelves waiting to be read, there are too many canvases waiting to be filled, there are too many fabrics still in one piece, there are too many knitting projects still on the needles and there are too many hours which I don't seem to catch in a day.

So I have decided that I am going to knuckle down a bit and concentrate on a few neglected areas and try and not start new projects until I have finished what I need to. So when I started this blog, I started with a list and I think it is time to revisit the list.

To Make List

This is the list I have either started or committed too. If it has a line through it has been completed. If it has a star next to it it means I have not started it at all. If it has a percent beside it thats how comple it is.

1. One sister's minibook gift
2. One little girl's cardigan 50%
3. One Mother's cardigan 10%
4. One little boy's jumper 90%
5. One mini book swap book
6. One mosaic mirror 60%
7. Two mosaic side tables *
8. One Oil Painting 10%
9. One Christmas Mini Book Swap
10. One knitted purse
11. One New Year Mini Book Swap
12. Scrapzville Feb Swap (redo) *
13. TWS Feb Swap
14. Feb Tag Swap
15. March Tag Swap
16. March Scrapzville Swap *
17. One Sister in Laws Hen Night Album *

This is the list which I want to get cracking on and I am going to give myself a month for each project. I am going to try my hardest not to start any of the below until I have finished all of the above.

1. Finish one craft book and complete all projects (even the ones I dont like to fine tune my skills)
2. Finish one project in crochet
3. Finish another painting
4. Knit a home accessory
5. One April Scrapzville Swap

Ok, there are at least another hundred projects I could add but in the name of positive change and sanity they will not get on the list until I have made good progress on the above.

So guys - thats where I am with my projects - where are you? Do you want to do a similar list and link back here and we can all encourage each other and share each others creative schedule?

Cathy xxx

Butterfly Canvas For My Daughter

Hi all,

Just enjoying a lovely Sunday with hubby and the kids and felt inspired to use a grey linen canvas I have had hanging around my art room for a while.

I made the butterflies in cotton fabrics and fused on the canvas with some distress stickles around a couple of them. The flower is a petaloo mulberry flower which I have added some Marabu glitter liner to. The swirls are Tim Holtz grungeboard which I have painted with an adirondack dabber, distress with dusty concord distress ink pad and also added some Marabu glitter liner is places. This was a really fun project and I found in refreshing to try something new by using fabric on canvas.

Happy Sunday everybody

Cathy x

Its our Birthday!!!

10% off everything on the website today and tomorrow to celebrate our Birthday!

Remember free delivery in Ireland for order €50 and over

Free delivery in Europe for €120 and over.

For international deliveries please email me

Design Team Announced over on Crafty Alley Blog

Happy St Patrick's Day everybody!

Just announced the design team over on The Crafty Alley Shop Blog - very exciting!

Cathy x

Introducing The Crafty Alley Shop Design Team!

Hi ladies,

First of all I wanted to say that I was truely overwhelmed and delighted with the amount of design team applications and the quality of the work and blogs were amazing! Thank you so much for applying and remember that you can reapply for the next design team in six months time. It was a very hard decision but we took many factors into consideration to choose the first design team and if you were not chosen this time you may be chosen in the future.

After all that - we are delighted to be able to announce our very first design team!

So drumroll please.......

Our first team will include the following members

Robyn
Louise
Katie
Michele

You can see the ladies works on their own blogs and Youtube channels but they will have a permanent home for the six months over on our new network so sign up and get chatting and creating with the ladies.

We will also be making the designer team kits available for sale but these will be limited. I will let you know in a few days more about the kits.

So welcome ladies and I cannot wait to start working with you all!

Cathy

Macroom Purlies Visit Us In Killarney

We had a fabulous morning when Patricia and the rest of the Macroom Purlies visited The Crafty Knit and Stitchers here in the shop in Killarney. Everyone was working on very versatile projects from delicate Irish Lace Flowers to contribution squares for the urban project in Limerick which will see a building covered in yarn. Mairead brought her beautiful wheel and it was great to see such a wonderful group of talented ladies getting to know eachother.

Now it is our turn to plan our trip to Macroom!

Cathy

A Tim Holtz View

I know many of our web customers never get a chance to see what the shops looks like so I wanted to show you peep of our new Tim Holtz section which Ebony who works for me here in the shop put together! We will making more space soon to add the Tim Holtz papers (arriving early next week) and the Tim Holtz dies arriving in April.

Cathy x