Get to Know our Creative Team - Lolly's Crafting Goals 2017

Hello Crafty Friends....... and welcome to a new series on our blog... Get to Know Our Creative Team where we ask our Team some crafty questions each month and let them give you an insight into their worlds. Today we continue our look at 2017 resolutions.... CRAFTY resolutions that is ;)
Yesterday Lolly shared her first January project with so now let's take a peek into her craft room and see what she's planing for the year ahead....

With so many people making New Year's resolutions, it seems a great time to reflect on what my goals are for my crafting in 2017.  We plan and set goals in other areas of our lives, so why not in our crafting?  I find that when I set goals, I tend to work on (and reach) about half of them.  That may sound like a high failure rate, but if I hadn't set the goals, I wouldn't have reached any of them!  So what am I reaching for in 2017?

First, I will take more time to plan my crafts instead of hurriedly rushing about to get that next video out.

Second, I will make time to create something for myself at least every other month.   I made this journal for myself yesterday, and it was a delight to work on a project that didn't have to fit any pre-conceived notion of what a journal is "supposed" to be.

Third, I will plan to pay for at least one crafting class this year -- I want to keep learning and growing and never think I have "arrived."

Fourth, I will mail out more finished projects as random acts of kindness.

Fifth, I will plan every trip to the craft store and focus on my list of necessities rather than the new "cool" and popular craft. 

2017 will be great, and I look forward to the challenges!

~ Crafty hugs from Lolly

Best Year Ever: Lolly's January Project - Functional Art for 2017

Hello Crafty Friends!

Are you ready to be amazed at another of our Creative Team's projects?
Today Lolly shows us her creations using parts of our January Kit.
So grab a cuppa, sit down and enjoy.......

Welcome to a new year, full of new dreams and hopefully a new outlook.  Let's CELEBRATE!

I wanted to make a project that I could see throughout the year, so I knew it needed to be up on a wall.  However, I also wanted it to be slightly flexible and changeable, so that I could update it in upcoming years. I'm so happy with how this turned out, and it will be perfect for me to display my word for each year.  This year my word is BELIEVE!  

But I have the flexibility of using a calendar instead of my word for each year:

And I'm loving the flexibility of the fireworks and confetti die!  I used all silver this time around:

The flowers from the kit work well together, along with items from my stash, to embellish the clip on the board:

I added some super fun fringe ribbon to the top and bottom:

It all came together for a fun and festive outlook on the BEST YEAR EVER!

I used Mod Podge to glue the Simple Stories paper to a clipboard, then embellished the clipboard with the Kaisercraft die cut fireworks (cut out on sparkly silver card stock), the Prima flowers, the Nuvo drops, and some items from my stash.

Come join in the fun and watch the entire process HERE. 

BUY Aunty Vera's MONTHLY BOXES HERE

Info:
January Monthly kit is available in different flower/spray colour combos and is $65 which is a saving of 20% on buying the items separately.
Postage is $8.50 anywhere in Aus.
For internationals, please email for accurate prices.

So I embellished a clipboard for my design, using the Simple Stories paper pack in the creative team kit.

I also used the fireworks and confetti die from Kaisercraft -- how FUN!  You can't help but feel festive when using that die!


The flowers used on the clipboard clip are from Prima and Michaels brand and can be found here.

The Crystal Nuvo drops can be found here.

Thank you for joining me today!
Lolly xx

New Year, Feeling Great... Julie Nutting My Prima Planners are here!

Hello Crafty Friends!

The year may be well under way but it's never too late to start organising your days, your weeks... your entire year! And we crafty folks... well, we like a planner that we can PLAY in too, not just write dates and appointments. Am I right?

So we are very excited here in Aunty Vera Land to have unpacked a box of My Prima Planners and accessories. We ordered mainly from the Julie Nutting line because... well, you know why! lol
Unfortunately not ALL the accessories we ordered made it here in the current Big Box but how's this for a great start.......

THE planner......... Julie Nutting's A5 Planner "Today I Shall Create Something Beautiful" (and as a special treat we've reduced the price on this one.... simply because we get it! Spending $100 on a planner feels a little ummm... extravagant to say the least!)

Two sets of clear stamps - Holiday Bliss and Make Kindness Happen.

(We expect the other 2 sets - Craft Day and Calendar - to arrive in a couple of weeks time)

Sticker packs!
These 4x4" packs feature 4 sheets in the themes: Party Girls; Lots of Love; Sunny Days and Holidays.

And Washi Stickers! 

These are 6x6" packs of washi strips and die-cut gold-foiled stickers in 4 themes - Winter Time; Paper Dolls; Art Play and Summer Fun.

We are also expecting the monthly themed sticker sets to start arriving soon :)

How's that for a brilliant start to the year?

Are you a planner or diary girl? Let us know in the comments below!

Gotta run now..... coffee date needs to be added to MY planner!

Aunty Vera :) 

Aunty Vera's Kitchen - Mary Berry's Black Forest Cake

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's the weekend.... and that means it's time for.........

It was my son JD's 21st birthday this week and he requested a homemade Black Forest cake. One with layers! So I thought - yipee!! - what a great opportunity to try out Mary Berry's Black Forest cake...... you can find the recipe HERE :)

The recipe calls for chocolate dipped cherries to decorate so I made 21 of them... perfect for the occasion, yes?

I have a confession to make........ I had a bit of help this time ;)

Making a thick syrup with the canned cherry juice was just genius! It made for yummy squishy cherry goodness between all the layers!

The whole cake is covered in whipped cream, and the sides decorated with piped chocolate trees,,,,,, great for those who don't like chocolate overload (like my JD)

Here is the top..... I wanted to add sparklers but got told "NO! No sparklers!!!!!"...... my boys don't appreciate my love of decorating all foods with sparklers!

And the verdict? Well, the morning after speaks for itself.....

I totally recommend this recipe friends...... it's a lovely light sponge and the cherries in thick syrup is amazing!

And you don't really need an excuse - it's always someone's birthday SOMEWHERE in the world, right?

Aunty Vera :)

Road Test Friday - Ken Oliver Best Ever Craft Mat

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Friday Road Test! We'll be giving our Road Testers new products to try out and reporting back the results and (hopefully) great experiences.

Today I thought I would join in the fun myself and test out a product that a few crafters have asked me about..... the Ken Oliver Best Ever Craft Mat.

The mat measures 16.5 x 15 inches, so it covers a fairly big surface. I THINK it's silicone (??) - feels like it anyway. But it is very soft and bendy, but still has quite a strong heavy duty feel. And it is skid-proof.... if that's a real term.... you put it on your desk and is sits there. No moving and sliding around. I love that!

Up till now I have been using a great big sheet of cardboard as my 'drop sheet' when messy crafting..... so I don't really have any other craft mats to compare it to and say whether or not it's "the best"...... but I thought I would put it through some messy craft torture and see how well it survived.......

So I sponged gesso on it.......

And I sprayed it.........

Then I inked it...... EEK!... with ARCHIVAL ink!

Forgive me only inking a small area of the mat.... I had NO IDEA at this point how well it would clean up.... if at all!!!!!

Then I thought well.... in for a pound and all that....... I'll let it dry. For a COUPLE OF DAYS!!!!!!!
Still not sure if this is going to be a good idea or not!

So after a couple of days of sitting and drying... and drying... and drying some more..... out came the baby wipes (nothing special here folks, just Coles brand)

And oh my goodness! My mess is washing right off!

It took a couple of wipes.......

But wowee.... good as new!!!!!

I then tested out the heat resistance....... with some over zealous heat embossing. Brilliant - no matter how I tried, I just couldn't melt that sucker. Blowing my heat tool directly onto the mat and then touching it...... it barely feels warm. So heat resistance - big tic!

So ok, best ever craft mat? Comes pretty close. The only negative (and I'm nit picking here) would be that I would love it to be slightly bigger. Cause when it comes to sprays, I have the same 'spray the entire world' problem that Amira had with the Fireworks sprays.....lol. 

Otherwise I give it a big Aunty Vera Thumbs Up....... a great surface for multi crafting.

Do you have a favourite craft mat or DIY crafting surface? We'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Have a brilliant Friday!

Aunty Vera :) 

Aunty Vera January Kit Reveal - New Year, Feeling Great!

Hello Crafty Friends

We have some very exciting news to share with you today!

Introducing - Aunty Vera Monthly Kits!!

Every month during 2017, we will be releasing a themed Monthly Kit. A lovely pizza box filled with enough goodies to get you busy crafting and creating for that month. Each month we will feature a full kit - for those who want to play with EVERYTHING...... as well as mini kits - perfect if you like certain aspects of our themed kit but already have an extensive stash of your own (but that's nobody, right? LOL). Plus - we will also be selling all the parts of the kit individually..... all in the one place where you can easily find them :)
And to give you a good look at what's in the kit, our Creative Team will film special Box Openings just for you....... showing you what's in the kit as well as sharing their favourite products!

So without further ado, introducing our January Kit -  New Year, Feeling Great!

Our January Kit comes in different flower / spray colour combos, Please scroll down to our CT box openings for a fun look through the box!

Aunty Vera :)

Dear Readers,

Don't you just love it when you get something in the mail that isn't just bills, bills and more bills?
This is what happened when a pizza box arrived on the door step of 3 crafty ladies!!
Watch and share their excitement and perhaps get yourself a little excitement too :)

Introducing Aunty Vera's January Kit Unboxings by the 2017 Creative Team:


Lolly's Box Opening is HERE

Donna's Box Opening is HERE

Amira's Box Opening is HERE


Best pizza ever!!
xx Lolly, Donna & Amira - CT

New Year - Feeling Great! - Sneak Peeks

Hello Happy Crafters and Happy New Year!!

The Aunty Vera Land Team would like to wish all our friends a happy, healthy and crafty 2017.
We have a huge year planned and really hope that you will all join us in our crafty journeys.

We have something very exciting coming to the store, and our Creative Team are already having such fun in the background preparing to dazzle you. But for today, we thought we'd be sneaky little fairies and give you just a peek at what we're up to ;)

SO - from myself - Aunty Vera - I have this to show you......

What's in the box???? hehehe...... tune in tomorrow to find out.

But to tide you over until then.... here's a little peek at what our Creative Team has been up to. Oh my goodness! I can't wait to see their full projects! Prepare to be blown away!!

Wow, we can not believe it's January already eek. What happened to 2016??   Well the great news is: we are the brand new Creative Team Members at Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft and we are soooo excited with all the goodies she sent us....

Wow and I mean WOW, how gorgeous is this mystery product!! ????? Our heads were bursting with ideas!

SO without further yakking, we give you a sneak peek of our 1st CT projects.......

**SUPER EXCITED** can you guess what we are creating !!!

We can tell you that it is colourful, with interesting bits and bobs and we are having so much fun doing it.

Well, then I reckon you will just have to come back and see what it is when we are finished lol..

Hugs,

Donna, Amira and Lolly - CT xx