Meet The Crafter: Karen Telfer

Posted on 21st May 2018 by Emily
Filed under Meet the Crafter

Who am I?

My name is Karen Telfer and I have been crafting ever since I can remember.  I have taught adults and children craft classes for many years both here in the UK and in Sydney.  

I have been involved in all kinds of crafts over the years such as silversmithing, patchwork and quilting, floristry, scrapbooking, crochet and cross stitch to name but a few.

My current craft focus is on card making, mixed media and art journaling. I love teaching and inspiring others and I love seeing the excitement and joy as they create something new or make something that they didn’t think they could.

I work as a Life Coach and Meditation teacher and I help people who are stressed to de-stress.  As many of us know, crafting is a great way to relax and leave our troubles behind – if only for an afternoon or a day – a great way to de-stress. I feel very fortunate to combine my work and my passion and the two work very well together.

I am very excited to have recently been invited to join the Lavinia stamps Design Team 😊.

My workshops

I started running my current workshops in Guildford, Surrey, soon after I returned to the UK a couple of years ago, as a way of making some like-minded friends.  I selected a large, light and airy hall so that I could grow the group to about 25-30 people.  At our first meet there were 6 ladies and within a year the group has grown to a regular group of around 15-20. Many of them have formed new friendships and their own crafting knowledge has developed significantly.  We usually meet on the last Saturday of each month and I teach two or more techniques; anything from stencilling, stamping, embossing to using brushos, distress inks and all nature of paints and inks.  We use stamps and stencils from many different companies.

I have also had 8 sets of my own clear sentiment stamps manufactured because I was struggling to find stamps with the words that I wanted, particularly for my art journaling pages. I am just about to start art journaling workshops so watch this space 😊. Because of my work as a Life Coach, my journaling pages have a ‘positive’ twist on them and my word stamps work well with them.

My creative space and process

When I want to create a new project I usually start with a colour in mind. As you will see I like vibrant colours.   The other way I start is with a shape or a particular stamp and go from there.  I start with the design in my head and then after a couple of hours in my craft room I find that my creativity just flows in all sorts of directions. I am fortunate to have a great space in which to craft, and to have collected a great stash of goodies, all of which are labelled and ordered so I know what I have.  I have been known to double up on a paint colour or two but I haven’t yet bought the same stamp twice as some of my friends have 😊. (‘she says smugly :0’)

I use a 300gsm robust cardstock to hold all the water and ink blends that I create.  Papermilldirect offers a fabulous range and I use it on nearly every single card I make.  My favourite is the white hemp card. I love it. I love the texture and it makes for such a fabulous backdrop to many of my cards. The white hopsack card is also amongst my favourites and we are really spoilt for choice with the vibrant colours of other card available.

Where am I going next?

My new craft website is under construction and I will load my videos, craft tutorials and stamps onto it soon.  I will also be creating a new Youtube channel in the next few months and aim to produce regular craft videos.

I want to increase my workshops whilst keeping the same personal and fun atmosphere that we have now.

After all, it is about creating, having fun, sharing and creating happy healthy relationships both with ourselves and others.

You can follow my crafty progress on…..

Facebook       https://www.facebook.com/KarenTelferCraft

Instagram       https://www.instagram.com/karentelf.craft/

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