ARC ANGEL CRAFT CLUB

Welcome to my blog for the Arc Angel Craft Club.

The club started six years ago from a class that my sister-in-law Rosemarie and I ran for those interested in card making. Being passionate crafters ourselves we often speculated on who were and where might we find like minded crafters of our own age group (mid thirties).

We tried joining ICA a wonderful organisation but the age profile of the local guilds was more "very mature" than mature and of course, many of the members had tried out the crafts we wanted to do years ago and were not so interested in repeating the experience.

So we crafted away on our own and went to England to Craft Fairs at the NEC in Birmingham always on the look out for others of our kind.

We talked endlessly about where we could meet and how we could start a group and decided that as we couldn't find one to go to we'd start one of our own. So we started with a children's Art and Craft Class on a Saturday and made a small amount of money from that. When we had enough money raised to start a card class, we took out a small but expensive advert in the local paper and the Arc Angel Craft Class was born!

12 women particpated in the 8 week class and at the end of the first 8 weeks six of us decided to continue on and for the rest of the year we contined to meet. As the last years passed the class evolved into a club and now has 37 members on the books with a regular attendance of about 24 on average.

There is a good cross generational feel to the club and a variety of skills to be proud of - card makers, cross stitchers, patchworkers, quillers, knitters and a sizeable number of scrappers (scrapbookers). Tips and tools are shared, skills are passed on and what is more important we have made so many new and wonderful friends.

The club operates from St. Gabriel's Parish Centre in Clontarf hence the name and we meet there every Tuesday night from 7.30 - 9.30 pm from the first Tuesday in September to the second last Tuesday in July. As a non-profit making venure we charge a small subscription to cover the public liability insurance, room rental, refreshments, occassional demonstrators and of course the luck dips and goodies for the Christmas and Summer parties.

Last year some of us travelled to Holland to take part in Scrapaganza and more members followed this year in June with a second group following to the up coming event in November.

It really is amazing, six years ago there was only one craft store in Dublin to buy craft materials but in the course of the last three years we now have several online stores and many more opoprtunities to take part in a variety of activities especially in relation to scrapbooking. I'll post up some of the layouts the members have created and some of the cards and other crafts club members have completed.

It also occurs to me that the age profile of the women who are attracted to this hobby range right across the board but certainly there are a lot more 30 year olds involved both inthe club and in online forums with other crafters than would be imagined.