November 2020 - AGM and Christmas Party |
We finally had our, much belated, AGM. Sue was re-elected as Chairlady
and all the rest of the current committee were also re-elected. We then had
our Christmas Social event. Members had a glass of their favourite tipple
to hand and Anne set us a food-themed quiz which was great fun! Who knew
how many calories there were in a Big Mac? Well Sue obviously did as she
won with a magnificent 24 points out of 30. We had a nice chat before
signing off Zoom.
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October 2020 |
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Our scheduled professional demonstrator for this month had to cancel, so we
arranged for one of our members to go to Christine's house (a member who
has a camera set-up) and do a demo. Then we went into Tier 2 so no mixing
of households! Fortunately, Christine was able to do a demo at short
notice. Christine give a demonstration of cocoa butter painting. She did
an 'illuminated letter' C and showed how effective this can be and how
quickly a good result can be obtained.
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September 2020 |
Picture to come |
Sarah Thomas of The Cupcake
Oven made her debut with us on a Zoom meeting. Sarah demonstrated her
lovely bauble cakes. She showed us how to form them and then she
decorated each one differently giving us lots of ideas. They are perfect
for lots of occasions though I think many will be made by our members for
Christmas.
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August 2020 |
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We don't usually have a meeting in August but as we have missed a couple
of sessions and we couldn't have our usual Summer Bash, we thought that we
would have one — by Zoom of course. Christine showed us three
methods of making lavender. The first is a good lockdown project as it
takes a lot of patience but can give very good results. The second method
is much faster using a pointed petal flower cutter. The final method is
very quick and can be useful for a filler flower.
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July 2020 |
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We were very grateful to Justine Talbot for doing our first zoom meeting
with a 'professional' demonstrator. Justine showed us how to make a very
elegant high-heeled shoe. It is probably the nearest we will get to
having a Louboutin style shoe. A lovely idea for a lady's cake.
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June 2020 |
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Our first meeting by zoom! It was really nice to catch up with everyone
and hear their news. Christine gave a demo on how to make a cute pig
model. Instructions had been emailed out beforehand and a number of
members made the model along with her, so lots of cute pigs were made.
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March, April, May 2020 |
Unfortunately, there were no meetings due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The
committee worked hard to keep in touch with members and investigated
online meetings.
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February 2020 |
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We sugarcrafters like to see trends in fresh flower displays so that we
can be inspired for our sugarcraft flower arrangements. So every couple
of years we invite a florist to come and give us a demonstration. Our
invited florist this time was Georgina Daley, who works locally, and was
new to us. She worked on a spring theme and showed us how to arrange a
welcoming door wreath and make a very dainty arrangement in a small
teacup, so pretty.
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January 2020 |
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Graeme Weare from the Outrageous Cake
Company kicked off our new decade with a demonstration on how to make
chocolate roses and leaves. He showed us an ingenious method for making
very effective leaves and the roses are actually quite easy to make, but
you have to be patient in letting the shapes dry sufficiently.
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November 2019 |
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The November meeting is our party night with lots of lovely food brought
by our members. We had a 'blindfold challenge' which Linda and Loretta
won and our 'bitch raffle' which created lots of laughter. We also had
our Christmas cake competition for which
the standard was very high especially among the Novices.
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October 2019 |
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Justine Talbot braved a long Halloween Night drive to be with us; and it
was lovely to see her again. Justine showed us how to make
a quite stunning large poinsettia, holly, and fern spray from cold
porcelain. Cold porcelain isn't a material that many of us have worked
with, so it was good to see how to use it so effectively. Justine
gave lots of advice on how to avoid any pitfalls.
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September 2019 |
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It was lovely to be able to welcome Linda Garnham back to our club.
Linda showed us how to make her exquisite pastillage boxes. She gave us
her pastillage paste recipe and she had so many ideas on how to make the
boxes look really special.
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August 2019 |
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Our summer bash this year was a Tea Party organized by our Chairlady,
Sue, and held at her home. It was a lovely afternoon. The sun shone and
the food was fabulous. Many thanks, Sue.
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July 2019 |
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This month Graeme Weare of the Outrageous Cake
Company came to show us how to do brush embroidery. He showed us how
to prepare designs and transfer them to the cake or to use embossers to
give outlines. He then impressed us by putting a design onto a cake
freehand! The result is really so effective.
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June 2019 |
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Unfortunately, our scheduled demonstrator, Glenda, was unable to come. We
wish her well and hope to see her again soon. Fortunately, Liz Ungless
was able to step in at the last minute. We are very grateful to Liz.
Liz gave a really interesting demonstration on how to make anthuriums and
lupins. They were really stunning. She introduced us to a new type of
paste too and gave lots of advise on flower making.
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May 2019 |
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We were very pleased to welcome back Barry Fermor to our club. He showed
us how to make a robot using a wire frame. He gave us very detailed
instructions on how best to wire the figure and make it stable. He also
had some great tips on getting even amounts of paste for arms/legs etc.
He demonstrated a really good way of doing hands, which we often find
difficult.
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April 2019 |
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Our meeting began with our AGM. Sue Albins was re-elected as Chairlady
and the Committee was elected. Following the AGM, Anne Reynolds, one of
our members showed us how to make a large rose. She demonstrated how to
make the petals curl so realistically.
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March 2019 |
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It was a while since we had seen Carolyn Harvey but it was lovely to
welcome her back. She hadn't forgotten the awful traffic problems she had
when she visited us last time! Carolyn showed us five Easter-themed
ideas based on models and decorated cupcakes. We all loved her child in
an Easter fancy-dress costume. She also had some good tips on making
daffodils in royal icing and how to make realistic hands.
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February 2019 |
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While we were very happy to have Georgie Godbold as our demonstrator
this month, it was tinged with sadness as it was her first demonstration to
us without Beryl Puffett, who passed away recently. They had been such a
delightful double act. Georgie showed us how to make a lovely standing
figure with such pretty curly hair.
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January 2019 |
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We all braved the freezing weather for our first meeting of the new year.
Graeme and Tina Weare from the Outrageous Cake
Company came to tell us about chocolate modelling paste. Tina made
two model dogs, a Labrador and a dachshund. The later at the special
request from one our members who currently has 6 dachshund puppies!
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November 2018 |
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We had our Christmas party this month. We had lovely food, provided by
the members, followed by a 'cake drive' (our version of a beetle drive).
As usual for this month we had our Christmas cake competition with lots of
lovely entries. Lorraine then ran a 'bitch raffle' which was an absolute
hoot, we all had a really good laugh.
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October 2018 |
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Wendy Wright made her first visit to us and she came a very long way to do
so. We are very grateful to her for her effort. Wendy showed us how to
use wafer paper (not rice paper) to make various decorations. She made a
lovely poinsettia arrangement which she donated to our raffle.
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September 2018 |
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Linda Garnham made a welcome return visit to us. Many of us make
Christmas cakes for charity events, which are usually held in November, so
we need to make Christmas cakes well in advance. Hence it was good to have
some new, early ideas and Linda certainly gave us a different take
with her lovely Santa sculpture.
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August 2018 - Summer Bash |
Our summer bash venue this year was The Princess Charlotte, Stanway where
a number of us met up on 23rd August for a nice meal. The ice cream cones
for dessert where quite a hit, pity we forgot to take a photo of us all
eating them!
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July 2018 |
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It was Barry Fermor's first visit to us and he made a big impact with his
'Gravity water feature'. Really amazing. He explained his methods
clearly and talked about his life in sugarcraft. He also coped with the
heat of the evening really well.
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June 2018 |
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Glenda Price was asked to return to give her 'One Cutter Wonder'
demonstration. Using just a rose and calyx cutter she showed us
how to make a rose, two types of orchid, stephanotis, sweet pea, pansy and
eucalyptus. Each flower had a bud and an immature flower to go with it.
Glenda then wired up a lovey spray with some of the flowers. It just goes
to show that you don't need a lot of equipment to produce stunning results.
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May 2018 |
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It has been a while since we last had the pleasure of welcoming Frances
McNaughton to our club; it was lovely to see her again. Frances showed
us how to make an exquisite fairy. She had such good tips on how to make
the model so striking. We were all amazed at the result.
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April 2018 |
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The meeting started with our AGM. Sue was re-elected as
Chairlady. Kimberley stepped down from the Committee but Brenda Lambert
joined. The other Committee members were re-elected.
Anne Reynolds then gave a demonstration on how to make stock. It's a job
that needs patience but the result was really good. She also showed us
how to use roses and gypsophila as filler flowers.
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March 2018 |
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It was very nice to welcome back Liz Ungless. Liz showed us how to make
very striking hibiscus flowers. She also showed us how to make simple
orchids as filler flowers which would go very nicely in any flower spray.
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February 2018 |
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We were extremely grateful to Justine Talbot for stepping in at the last
moment when our scheduled demonstrator was unable to come. She hadn't
been to us before and she came a good distance too. Justine showed
us how to make a stunning waterlily. We particularly liked the way she
dusted it to bring the flower to life.
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January 2018 |
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Anuradha Bhogaita made her first visit to our club and gave a
demonstration on how to make a lovely orchid. She explained the process
very clearly and had some really nice visual aids to help us to see the
components of the flower. She had some good tips on inserting a wire and
making our own veiners too.
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November 2017 |
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It was party time this meeting. We had a cupcake challenge, where we all
decorated a cupcake using limited material and equipment. We had a quiz
and a drawing competition with a difference. All great fun! The food,
brought by the members, was lovely. The Christmas cake competition was
well supported and there were beautiful cakes in all categories. We
finished with our raffle (see picture). To make it feel more Christmassy,
it was snowing when we left!
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October 2017 |
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It was a delight to welcome back Georgie Godbold and Beryl Puffett. They
always give a very entertaining demo with lots of laughter. Georgie made a
cute wobbly mince pie fairy and Beryl made some sea holly. Beryl showed
us the pitfalls of some methods to make sea holly and come up with her own
unique method.
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September 2017 |
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Glenda Price was due to come to us in June but she was ill. So it was
good to have her back with us restored to good health. She gave a demo on
an autumn theme. She showed us a new way to make pine cones as well as
blackberries, rose hips, honesty and old-man's beard. She also showed us
a quick way to make acorns. She made autumn leaves and then produced a
lovely arrangement with what she had made.
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August 2017 - Summer Bash |
A number of us met up at The Harvester, Stanway on 23rd August for a nice
meal with lots of good chat.
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July 2017 |
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We were really delighted to welcome Debbie Brown for her first visit to
our club. She gave a fantastic demonstration on how to make a model
spaniel cake. We all fell in love with her creation, which was so cute.
One lucky member did get to take the model home as Debbie donated the cake
to our raffle, we wonder if she will have the heart to cut it.
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June 2017 |
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Unfortunately our scheduled demonstrator was ill but Estelle Man stood in
at very short notice and gave us a demonstration on snow globes. Her snow
globes were really wonderful. We were all taken by them and went away
wanting to have a go at making them.
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May 2017 |
For only the second time ever, our demonstrator failed to come. We took
the opportunity to discuss how the NSA AGM, which we hosted last Saturday,
had gone and talked about the issues raised there.
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April 2017 |
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Our meeting started with our AGM. Sue was re-elected as Chairlady and all
the existing committee members were re-elected. Tosin was also elected as
a new committee member. There was quite a lot of discussion on the future
of the club. After the AGM Christine ran a little workshop where we
all had a go at making a cute little sugarpaste dog.
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March 2017 |
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We were very pleased to welcome Claire Webb to our club for the first
time. Claire gave a demonstration on how to make magnolia flowers and
Japanese painted ferns. The results were stunning and we were all very
impressed with her use of colour to make the pieces look so realistic.
Claire also judged our March competition of shortbread.
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February 2017 |
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This month we were delighted to welcome, for the first time, Dawn Blunden
to our club. Dawn is a cake-maker to royalty: she made Prince Charles's
and Camilla's wedding cake and has a number of celebreties as clients.
Dawn braved storm Doris to get to us and she gave a very entertaining
demonstration on how to make fabulous boots.
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January 2017 |
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We started 2017 with a demonstration by Tina Weare from the Outrageous Cake
Company. Tina showed us how to make a hunky fireman model. She gave
lots of insights in to how to make the model look special and had lots of
tips on making realistic faces.
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November 2016 |
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This being our last meeting of the year, we welcomed back Brenda Eyers to
show us how to create lovely Christmas flower arrangements. This was
followed by our Christmas party. We had lovely food, supplied by members,
and Christine set us a tricky quiz. We had an extra-special celebration
for Stella's 90th birthday: Malyn made a delicious chocolate birthday
cake. Our Christmas cake competition was
also judged by our members and we had a large 'secret raffle'. A good
time was had by all.
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October 2016 |
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It is always nice to be able to welcome back Graham Weare from the Outrageous Cake
Company. Graeme showed us how to make swags, tails, bows, frills
and so much more. He demonstrated how to use these elements to produce
modern trends in cake decorating, designs we hadn't thought of.
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September 2016 |
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Georgie Godbold and Beryl Puffett were very welcome demonstrators this
month. Georgie showed us how to make a delightful standing wobbly fairy.
This model was on a decorated box which could be removed from the cake and
kept as a memento. Beryl showed us how to make a lovely passion flower.
She kept it as simple as she could and didn't use specialised cutters.
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August 2016 - Summer Bash |
A very goodly number of us had a lovely evening at The Harvester, Stanway
on 25th August. Lots of laughter, good conversation, nice food and good
service. We were having such a good time we forgot to take a photo!
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July 2016 |
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A good friend of our club, Glenda Price, gave our July demonstration.
Glenda is so full of good ideas and uses techniques that don't need a lot
of equipment. This month she showed us how to make lovely fairies/angels,
babies and a dove.
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June 2016 |
For the first time ever our demonstrator forgot to come! So we had a more
social evening with a general discussion and questions/answers on
sugarcraft. Brenda Parker set us a little quiz too. Hence, after our
worry and frantic phone calling at the start in the end it turned out to be
a nice evening.
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May 2016 |
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Cheryl Brighty of Artistry in
Cocoa made her first visit to us. She talked about cocoa and chocolate
in general and showed us how to temper and work with chocolate. It can be
messy but she showed us how we could make some impressive pieces easily.
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April 2016 |
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Our meeting started with our AGM which showed that we had a very
successful year. Sue Fleming and Anita Rafferty joined the committee
while Sue was re-elected as Chairlady. After the AGM conclusion Malyn
demonstrated two spring flowers, pretty pansies and violas, while Stella
demonstrated how to make lovely filler flowers without cutters.
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March 2016 |
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It was lovely to welcome back Jacqui Kelly who gave a superb demonstration
on cupcake decoration. She gave us lots of ideas as well as hints and
tips to make our cupcakes look really special. We also thank her for
judging our March challenge, a chocolate cake.
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February 2016 |
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We were delighted to welcome for the first time to our club Celanie
(Sally) Browne. Sally is expert in making exotic flowers and she brought
some of her work to show us. She then demonstrated how to make a Bat
Lily, a very strange flower with lots of elements to it. Sally had lots
of tips on flower-making in general too.
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January 2016 |
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Every so often we like to have demonstrations of trends in fresh flower
arranging to inspire our sugarcraft flower arrangements. It was Brenda
Eyers' first visit to our club and she gave a demonstration of arrangements
with a Valentine theme. She produced five stunning arrangements
which she donated to our raffle, so some lucky members got to take them
home!
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November 2015 |
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One of our members, Brenda Lambert, gave us a demonstration on Christmas
stencilling. She showed us how we could produce lovely last-minute
decorations quickly using stencils. After the demonstration we had our
Christmas party with lots of lovely food — provided by our members
— music and chat. Brenda Parker set us a Christmas quiz which was a
lot of fun — who knew that Jingle Bells was a Thanksgiving song?!
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October 2015 |
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Georgie Godbold and Beryl Puffett gave a very good and very entertaining
demonstration — they had us in stitches of laughter. Georgie made a
delightful Christmas mouse and Beryl made some lovely poppies.
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September 2015 |
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We were very pleased to welcome back Graham Weare from the Outrageous Cake
Company, who showed us how to do pressure piping. He completed a
lovely plaque in just an hour, showing us that it doesn't have to be a long
job if tackled correctly. Graham said that he finds pressure piping a
relaxing task and we could appreciate why that was the case.
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August 2015 |
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This year we held our Summer Bash at Roman Circus House. Adrian Clark
was on hand to show members around the outside artefacts and answer any
questions. Members could then look around the inside exhibits. The
delicious, and plentiful, buffet was supplied by Sarah who is in charge of
the cafe there. We had a short fun quiz on cakes and Roman Colchester
and three teams shared the winning glory.
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July 2015 |
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Glenda Price, always a very welcome visitor to our club, showed us how to
make full-sized flowers. Using techniques she has developed herself, she
showed us how to make lovely full-sized carnations, cosmos and shasta
daisies.
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June 2015 |
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It was Tina Weare's first ever sugarcraft demonstration and what a
delightful demonstrator she turned out to be. Tina is well known for her
sugarcraft modelling work at the Outrageous Cake Company
and she showed us how to make a lovely glamorous, Ascot, lady.
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May 2015 |
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It is always lovely to welcome Fay Barrett back to our club. Fay showed
us how to make a beautiful clematis spray. She captured the wispiness and
flow of the plant so well.
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April 2015 |
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The meeting started with our AGM. Sue Albins was re-elected as our
Chairlady. The current Committee was also re-elected.
After the AGM there were three 20 minute demonstrations:
- Stella demonstrated some simple, but very effective, models.
- Sue demonstrated using edible lace to give lovely decorations.
- Christine demonstrated buttercream skills showing the different
effects that can be produced with a single star nozzle.
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March 2015 |
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We were very grateful to Helen Cruickshank for giving a demonstration at
short notice. Helen demonstrated how to create lovely flower and
leaf patterns using polymer clay. She showed us how these can be used to
create jewellery and to cover items such as spoon handles. There was also a
quick demonstration on how polymer clay can be used to create models, here
a sweet little teddy was made.
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February 2015 |
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Liz Ungless made her first visit to us and showed us how to make beautiful
nasturtiums. She made a lovely bouquet of them as a raffle prize. She
also described how we can make our own veiners cheaply and easily.
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January 2015 |
Our year did not have the start we would have liked. For the first time
ever we had to cancel our meeting as the heating in the hall broke down.
None of the other nearby halls were available and we couldn't get another
venue at such short notice. Apologies to everyone.
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November 2014 |
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We had three in-house demos at our November party meeting.
- Jenny showed us how to use patchwork cutters to make a variety of
decorations.
- Sue was using fresh flowers to demonstrate how to make a table
decoration.
- Christine demonstrated how to make simple sugarpaste snowmen,
christmas trees and penguins.
The demonstrations were by followed lovely homemade seasonal refreshments
which were provided by the members.
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October 2014 |
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Fay Barrett showed us how to make lovely poppies along with
buds and seed heads. With Remembrance Sunday coming up and the WW1
centenary commemorations this was a very timely demonstration. Fay
travelled a long distance to be with us and we are very grateful for all
her efforts.
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September 2014 |
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It is always nice to have Georgie and Beryl with us. Georgie showed us
how to make a spooky wobbly witch for Halloween and Beryl demonstrated how
to make Chinese lanterns and honesty.
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August 2014 - Garden party |
Although the weather was dry, it was a bit too chilly to sit
outside. However, we all had a nice time with very good conversation (the
events at the Great British Bake Off was a hot topic) and nice food, which
the members brought to share. There was also a raffle with lots of
prizes. Many thanks to Anne Reynolds for her hospitality and for
providing the drinks.
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July 2014 |
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Graham Weare, of The Outrageous Cake Company, made his first visit to us
this month. Graham demonstrated brush embroidery. He told us how to form
our designs and transfer them to a plaque or cake as well as telling us
what sort of icing to use and how to build up a striking picture. Graham
produced a lovely, contemporary, designed plaque as demonstration.
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June 2014 |
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Glenda Price gave a very good demonstration, full of hints and tips, and
delighted us with her final product of a beautiful head dress and posy.
Really stunning!
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May 2014 |
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Jacqui Kelly visited our club for the first time and proved to be a
delightful demonstrator, so enthusiastic about her art. She not only
demonstrated how to model in chocolate but also showed us how to make the
various chocolate pastes and gave lots of advice and tips on how to
overcome any problems.
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April 2014 |
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The meeting started with our AGM. Sue Albins was elected as our new
Chairlady. Flowers and a gift were given to our outgoing Chairlady, Anne
Reynolds, in thanks for her many years of service to the club.
After the AGM there were three demonstrations;
- Anne demonstrated how to make roses and members had a chance to have
a go themselves.
- Stella demonstrated brush embroidery.
- Christine demonstrated various types of lettering.
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March 2014 |
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Fay Barrett showed us how to make beautiful Ladies shoes. These were
about one third full size and were very striking. She had so many
ideas for different designs and demonstrated a lot of fancy ornamentation
for them.
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February 2014 |
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Our chairlady, Anne, showed us how to make various filler foliages
including fern, maidenhair fern and string of pearls. She also
showed us how to make some flowers such as lily-of-the-valley, pelagonium, fantasy
orchids, and akebia that can be used as a main or filler flower.
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January 2014 |
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Georgie showed us a new aspect of her 'wobbly' modelling with a
ballerina bunny standing on one leg. While the model looks very
delicate, she showed us how to make it stable and robust. Beryl
demonstrated how to make a lovely bougainvillaea spray. This
isn't a flower we had seen modelled before and was of great
interest to us all.
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November 2013 |
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We had three mini demonstrations at our November party meeting.
- Malyn showed us how to decorate biscuits for Christmas.
- Stella showed us how to make cute Christmas figures based on
walnut whips.
- Christine demonstrated a Christmas plaque without using any cutters.
It was a fun evening, enjoyed by all, and the demonstrations were
by followed seasonal refreshments which were provided by the members.
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October 2013 |
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We were extremely grateful to Glenda Price for stepping in, at
short notice, to replace our scheduled demonstrator who was ill.
Glenda showed us how to make Christmas flowers. Firstly
she demonstrated a lovely poinsettia and then a beautiful
Christmas rose and seasonal foliage bouquet. As always, she gave
us lots of hints and tips as she went along.
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September 2013 |
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Ann Fox, a new demonstrator for us, showed us how to make lovely
autumn poppies and wheat stalks. We all thought that this would
be very appropriate for a gentleman's cake.
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July 2013 |
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Anne, Jenny and Stella led a workshop on how to make the lovely
tulips Glenda Price demonstrated to us last month. Members were
helped to produce some very nice work.
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June 2013 |
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We always look forward to having Glenda Price as our
demonstrator. This time she showed us how to make lovely tulips.
She also demonstrated other flowers and, as always, gave us lots
of tips and hints and showed us how to make the most of what
cutters/equipment we have.
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May 2013 |
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Chris Kerrigan came all the way from Sheffield to demonstrate rice
paper decorations. She made some lovely pieces, including some
beautiful flowers, and she inspired us to have a go ourselves.
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April 2013 |
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The meeting began with our AGM. After the business, our
chairwoman, Anne Reynolds, demonstrated how to make lovely camellias.
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March 2013 |
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We were delighted to welcome back, the highly entertaining, Peter
Ward who showed us how to cover and decorate gateaux sponges.
What's more we all got to sample the lovely gateaux with our cup
of tea/coffee, delicious!
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February 2013 |
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Creating a 'wonky' cake had seemed to be quite daunting to most
of us but Alison Lane showed us how easily it can be achieved.
Her instructions were so clever, we all felt that we could have a
go and get a good result. Alison gave us lots of ideas on how to
decorate the cake using cutters and moulds and she finished off by
showing us how to make a delightful teddy.
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January 2013 |
Sorry no picture |
Due to traffic problems on the M25, Carolyn Harvey arrived late.
However, she was not flustered and we were really impressed how
quickly she got herself organized and she gave a fantastic
demonstration of handbags without cutters.
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November 2012 |
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It is always lovely to welcome back Georgie Godbold and Beryl
Puffett. Georgie showed us how to make a delightful Rudolph
complete with sleigh, presents and trees. Beryl demonstrated an elegant
Christmas floral display with stencilled greeting.
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October 2012 |
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We were delighted to welcome back Deborah Buckles who demonstrated
contemporary flower arranging. She did seven stunning
arrangements with Christmas and Halloween themes. As she worked
on her arrangements she also entertained us with tales from the
time when she owned a florist shop.
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September 2012 |
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As a change to our normal demonstrations Cicely Kentish Sawyer, one of
our members, gave us a cookery class on Caribbean
savouries. Our hall was filled with lovely spicey aromas as she
prepared the food. She introduced us to new ways of combining
flavours and cooking the perfect rice. Best of all, we all got a
good helping of her delicious food!
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August 2012 - Garden party |
We weren't very lucky with the weather again and we had to have an
indoor party. However, we all had a nice time with very good
conversation and excellent food, which the members brought to
share. There was also a raffle with lots of prizes. Many thanks
to Anne Reynolds for letting us invade her home and for providing
the drinks.
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July 2012 |
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Sylvia Kidby travelled a long distance to give us a demonstration
on how to make beautiful lisianthus and aquilegias. She gave us
lots of hints and tips during the evening and described everything
in detail for the benefit of our new members.
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June 2012 |
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It is always a pleasure to welcome back Glenda Price. By creating
a lovely teddy bear cake she demonstrated how to ice a sponge
cake. She gave lots of hints and tips along the way and we all
learned a lot. She also made a cute little sugarpaste teddy model.
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May 2012 |
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Unfortunately our scheduled demonstrator took ill at the last
minute. However, Anne Reynolds and Malyn Stone swung into action
and managed to save the day. Malyn gave a demonstration on how to
make a very nice rose and Anne showed us how to make lovely anemones.
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April 2012 |
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After our AGM, we had a stencilling workshop. Anne, Barbara, Jenny
and Beryl gave demonstrations to small groups of members and then
helped them to have a go. A lot of members found that stencilling
is strangely therapeutic and we came away with some nice pieces.
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March 2012 |
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We were delighted to welcome back Stephen Orbell who gave us a
very good demonstration on creative stencilling. He gave us a lot of
useful tips and we were very impressed with the pieces he made.
Stencils can be bought from Lindys Cakes
Stencils and Laser Cutting Services
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February 2012 |
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Peter Ward gaves us a very entertaining demonstration on modelling
with marzipan. He amazed us as he made two types of dog, an
elephant, a frog, a bear, a lion, a bird, a mouse, a cow, a
chimpanzee, a donkey, a rabbit and a dragon in 1½ hours!
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January 2012 - Foliage |
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Our chairman, Anne Reynolds, showed a wide range of foliage and
filler flowers and ways to use them in arrangements. She
demonstrated a few of her favourites including akebia, string of
pearls and succulents
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November 2011 - Ideas for Christmas workshop |
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Members made an amaryllis to go into a seasonal arrangement.
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October 2011 - Ideas for Christmas |
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Anne, Malyn and Stella demonstrated some seasonal ideas including
a seasonal amaryllis, poinsettia, holly and ivy. Next month
members will be able to make the amaryllis.
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September 2011 - My Wobblies |
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Georgie Godbold gave a demonstration on her `wobblies' making a
`wobby' rabbit. She also shared ideas for other `wobblies'.
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August 2011 - Garden party |
The weather wasn't too kind to us so we had to go indoors but
that didn't dampen our spirits and a good time was had by all.
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July 2011 - Briar rose workshop |
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The members had a chance to make the briar rose demonstrated last
month. Members were supervised by the more experienced members
of the club.
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June 2011 - Briar roses and honeysuckle |
Sorry no picture |
Glenda Price demonstrated a beautiful spray of briar roses,
honeysuckle and sweet peas. Lots of tips were also given, such as:
- using cotton to make stamens,
- PME do a glaze spray which makes glazing leaves much quicker,
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May 2011 - FMM |
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Carol Haycox gave a very good demonstration on how some FMM
products should be used. Lots of members had a go with the
products especially the daisy cutter which is often problematic
but Carol had the answer.
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April 2011 - AGM and demonstrations |
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The AGM was held. This was followed by three
demonstrations. Mayln demonstrated some fun ways to decorate
biscuits. Janet did a lovely royal icing demonstration and
Anne demonstrated the ever popular rose which she does so well.
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March 2011 - Spring flowers |
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Janet Carpenter demonstrated spring flowers using cold
porcelain. It was good to see the use of more unusual media for flowers.
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February 2011 - Flower arranging |
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The club likes to have a bit of variation and this month Deborah
Buckles gave us a wonderful modern twist on how to arrange fresh
flowers.
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January 2011 - Patchwork cutters |
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Stella demonstrated the use of Patchwork Cutters as embossers and
then showed how they should be painted. Members where then able
to choose from a selection of ready dried embossed plaques and
then decorate them as they liked.
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November 2010 - Ideas for Christmas |
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Linda Garnham demonstrated a season flower spray with a gerbera
and mixed foliage.
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October 2010 - Truffles and marzipan fruits |
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Anne gave a superb demonstration on how to make some delicious
truffles; which we all got to sample! She then demonstrated how
to make marzipan fruits and we had a go at making them.
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September 2010 - Shoes |
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Frances McNaughton demonstrated how to make tiny shoes. Frances
sold items after the demonstration so that we could all have a go
at making the shoes at home.
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August 2010 - Garden party |
The weather was very poor so we were inside but that didn't spoil
the evening. The food, drink and company were very good.
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July 2010 - See and do: open rose |
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The open rose, created by Glenda Price, back June was
demonstrated again for us by club members allowing us to see more
clearly how to assemble the flower and ask questions. We then had
a go at making rose buds and small single-stemmed roses.
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June 2010 - Back to basics: rose cake with garrett
frill |
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Glenda Price's demonstration was very informative with basic
skills aimed at our less experience members. However, having said
that with her hints and tips everyone learnt a little something
extra. The open rose she made was very well received.
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May 2010 - Trinket boxes |
Sorry no picture |
Anne Brooker demonstrated making small trinket boxes and side
panel decorations from pastillage and petal paste. She gave lots
of inspiration and top tips including making glue. Rather than
throw away excess bits of sugar or petal paste, instead put them in
some water in a small container and let them dissolve. The
result can then be used as a glue.
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