Dawn Bibby's weekend event

Hello everyone, I've just added details for this weekend's craft event at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio as you can see. It's going to be a fun weekend, so do come along if you possibly can. There will be plenty to see and do and it's a good chance to drop a few hints to the other halves in your life as to what you might like for Christmas!

I am busy working on new stamp designs for next Spring. Lots of people ask me where I get my ideas from and the answer is everywhere really. Sometimes an idea just pops into my head or it may be that something I've seen sets an idea in motion. Once I have some ideas I begin doodling and sketching with a pencil at first. This stage can be very vague to begin with as the initial ideas begin to take shape, some being discarded whilst others are worked on further. Once I have "worked up" a sketch till I'm happy with it, I then place it onto my light box (I use a large, flat lightbox which is very stable to avoid slip ups!) and use my ink pens to trace the design onto very smooth white card. This can often take a while as I sometimes alter things as I go along...the designs look very different in ink than in pencil, so I may have to amend certain elements. Once I am happy with a design I then make photocopies of it. The final stage is to hand colour one of the copies which will be used to make the "index" which goes on top of the stamp. The other copies are kept for reference and are "stand by's" in case of accidents when I'm colouring - sometimes the phone rings and my hand slips!

So, I'd better carry on! Time is gaining on me and deadlines are looming!

I hope to see some of you at the weekend and will post photos next week for those of you who cannot make it. I'll also be adding demonstration dates for the first part of next year.

Till then, enjoy the rest of the week, Lindsay