Julie Hickey

I am blessed with good friends - ones who don't mind coming to collect me, taking me for a ride and even helping me across the road when I need it LOL!  That mean't that Zach and I had a chance to visit at YTOC for a couple of hours on Saturday - a big deal as Julie Hickey from Craftwork Cards fame was there for the day.

I may not have stayed long but Zach was most helpful (and very patient with me) as I sat drinking tea and also watched her demonstrating. 

I did manage to chat to Julie and even got Kay to take our picture together - sitting down tho' - uurrgghhh! - not my best side but I'm sharing anyway.   Life is too short to get hung up on these things.  And amazingly Julie shared that she is a fellow sufferer of Labyrinthitis having contracted it after flu same as I have so we had lots to talk about.  It was nice catching up with her and I guess you could say I picked up more than a few crafting tips on this visit.

I have seen Julie demonstrate several times before but never got a chance to really talk to her until last year at an all day workshop in Leeds.  She is such a lovely lady.  While she's not the owner of Craftwork Cards she is very much the face of the company and demonstrates at all the best shows and events and she was even teaching a class at YTOC later that afternoon.  Had I been better I might've booked onto it - especially when I saw the classroom revamp in her honour.  I am sooooooo jealous LOL!

I've never seen it looking like this before but I hope it stays this way.  I must remember to ask Kay how it worked - there seemed to be so many more spaces with this layout.  I could happily teach in a classroom with it looking like this.  It's amazing how many customers still don't realise this is above the store.

And since I wasn't sitting in on her class I also missed out on the prizes - I just know these were filled with lovely Craftwork goodies.

Julie had made some stunning samples as always and this 'oh so cute' bunny was ADORABLE!  For anyone who wants pretty images to colour without the mess of stamping these are great and perfectly timed for Easter.  They're printed on that lovely high quality pearlescent card that takes a host of inks and other mediums beautifully allowing you to colour them up any way you like.  And just as you would expect they have a lovely range of papers to go with them.

Craftwork Cards have even developed more card candy to include these cute polka dot designs (and even a daisy one too) - don't they look sweet on the round bunny card.  All these centiments and die-cut shapes just pop out making it quick and easy to produce beautiful cards in minutes.

And I especially loved the idea of making up a frame - how lovely would this look in a craft room and what a neat project idea.  This glamour paper range is so pretty - in fact I like several of their paper ranges.  I also love the little touches of 'bling' everywhere.

Julie has written several books now and during her visit she shared that she has passed her 'screen test' so to speak so we could be seeing her on the telly real soon - how exciting!  And it couldn't happen to a nicer lady so I for one am super chuffed for her.