Weekend event & a new book!

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I have just packed everything up ready for the weekend at Oswaldtwistle which promises to be great fun as usual. There will be things going on at the Design Studio and at the Mill itself where I shall be. Lots of new products to tempt everyone of course! I have been working away to get samples made up and seem to have been losing the battle against time - just for a change! - but still have lots of ideas to share with everyone. So, hope to see some of you there and do say hello and make yourself known if we haven't met before. And don't forget your ATC's.

I had word today that I can finally "announce" what I have been working on during these last months, and it's something that I have been really excited about. In conjunction with Magmaker, who are the publishers behind Making Cards magazine, I have a book on rubber stamping coming out very soon. It is a step by step guide with lots of photographs and various projects such as watercolour stamping, masking and distressing etc. There will be four books coming out together including one on Beadwork by my (incredible talented!) sister, Heather Fenn-Edwards, whose work has to be seen to be believed. Punching, by Julie Taylor and Decoupage, by Amanda Fowler complete this first set of releases. I shall keep you posted as to release dates of course!

Well, after another long day of stamping, sticking, colouring and cutting, I am going to relax for a bit now! I shall post pictures from the weekend on monday of course. Lindsay

Another great weekend...and new stamps!

I got back last night from a lovely weekend at Crafts U Love near Horley in Surrey. As I was arriving on the friday there was an almighty thunderstorm with very dramatic fork lightning and hailstones...typical July weather I suppose! On saturday I was demonstrating in the morning and teaching in the afternoon - one workshop was about using alcohol inks with metallic film and stamps and the second was using Cherry the cat stamps. Sunday was demonstrations again and then a workshop on making a box of delights with a butterfly theme. It was great to meet lots of new people as well as catching up with familiar faces.

I caught up with Jennette and her mum who I haven't seen for a couple of years - Jennette has lost over nine stone since I last saw her, so I did a double take! They were staying at the same hotel as me, so we had a lovely couple of hours with Paula and Geoff (on the right), the lovely couple who run Crafts U Love...nice to have time to talk as we rarely get a chance to.

Next is a picture of my, as usual, messy table, filled with alcohol inks which I was using on peel offs, with stamps, on metallic film, acetate and gloss card...messy but fun! Lastly you can see Paula's mum having a root about in my suitcase....with my permission! I had samples of new stamps in there and everyone was having a look. Check out Crafts U Love website and blog for more pictures.

My journey home was slightly fraught as the underground had a lot of line closures because of weekend engineering works. I was given all sorts of conflicting directions, and went on several tube trains before I finally got to Euston....I was the mad woman careering through the station, bags flying everywhere and muttering "get out of the way" as I ran through the crowds and just caught my train! I didn't want a repeat of the last incident at Euston!

So, as you will have gathered, Personal Impressions have new stamp designs about to be released. The ladies this weekend had a sneaky peek, but I will be demonstrating some of my designs for the first time at the weekend extravaganza at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio and Oswaldtwistle Mill...I'm usually up at the Mill along with Leonie and Sarah as well as Amy,Brenda, Jayne and Mary. If you would like a sneaky peek though, pop onto the Personal Impressions website (on my links at the side) and check them out. There are loads of new designs, but if you did want to know which are mine, just put my name into the search bar and all my stamps will come up. I have done a larger Cherry design as so many people had asked for one - hope you like it! As well as penguins, snowmen, owls etc. I am working on card samples this week, so, for those of you who can't get up to see us I shall pop photos on next week of course.

For those of you who are coming along, please remember to bring ATC's to swap! I'll post again before the weekend, Lindsay

Thank you Artyjen

Artyjen kindly included me in this cute Circle of Friends award - very elegant ladies aren't they, although they look mischievous to me too! I alwaysfind the passing on part of these difficult, as choosing five people means you miss out lots of others....so please feel included even if you aren't on my "hit list" of five! Here goes then....Sarah, who is a warm hearted friend, Hazel who is supportive and brave, Joanne who is a kindred spirit, Doodles who makes me smile and Paul B who has a great sense of humour and a great talent. (Yes I know that they are all ladies in the picture but what the heck!)

I'm all packed and ready to go down to Horley tomorrow, going through the London underground which is never my favourite thing to do....I always think I'll get lost but never have so far! (Fingers crossed!). I'm taking my camera, so hope to have some good pictures to show you next week. I am still furious about being ripped off by Virgin trains last week for a second ticket and, despite all my best attempts, they will not give me any kind of refund. Nice.

Hope to see some of you on saturday or Sunday...do say hello if you are coming along, so I can put faces to names. Have a great weekend everyone, Lindsay

A slightly less manic week!

After all the excitement of last week it has been a little calmer here over the last few days. I can hardly believe that a whole week has passed since I was at QVC, where does the time go? I had a bit of a relax on Thursday, catching up with emails and calls and proof reading something that I'm working on, so, relaxing and working all in one go! Friday was back to work, making samples for this weekend's trip to Crafts U Love in Horley. Saturday we went over to my mum and dad's for a visit - overdue because of the silly deadlines of the past few weeks! Sunday was my birthday, so David took me out for a lovely lunch and then we had a relaxing evening with a bottle of red wine (makes a change from my usual tipple of lime and soda!). The last three days have been tied up with more sample making, more proof reading and coming up with some new design ideas. So, my week in a nutshell!

Below is a picture of me waving through the window of the restaurant on my birthday...it was pouring down, and David raced outside to take a quick snap! And yes, there in my hand is a lime and soda! Shame the weather was so bad, but it was a lovely day nontheless.

Thanks again for all the lovely comments, emails and phone calls that I've had this week, they have been great. I'm looking forward to meeting new people this weekend, especially Julie, as well as some familiar faces. It should be a fun packed weekend with lots going on.

For those of you further north, remember that it's Dawn's big demonstration weekend on the 1st and 2nd of August. I'll be using new stamp designs (fingers crossed as we are trying to get them all ready in time!) with a Christmas theme. My friend Sarah will be there and Leonie is coming up specially, so I know there will be lots of fun!

To finish, here are just a couple more card samples from last week. Below is "Cherry Dreaming" - a simple card for a cat lover. I just used a diamante buckle on some sheer ribbon to add an extra accent to a very simple card.The card below is for all you dog lovers (me included!). The background was just the Heritage ink pads and water onto fairly strong white card. I simply stamped and embosed the dogs onto this and added some touches of colour with my Le Plume pens and the white Inkssentials pen, which is fabulous by the way, before a little matting to complete. Easy Peasy! Take care everyone, Lindsay

Back from London

Hello everyone and thank you for all the lovely calls, emails, texts and comments which you left for me before and after my debut on QVC - they have all been really appreciated. Your good wishes certainly helped to quell any nerves!

Wednesday started with me travelling down to Euston where Jj met me and drove me to the hotel in Chelsea Harbour where Dawn and Leonie were busy making some extra cards for that night's show. I went to my room first to freshen up a bit...lovely room with fabulous views over the harbour and city as you can see. I then went down to join Dawn and Leonie amidst the all the stamps, papers and inks. We had a quick snack in the room and very soon it was time to get ready to go along to QVC. A double quick shower and change and we were off! Poor Jj has two slipped discs, so he felt a bit helpless as we loaded boxes and bags into the car. Arriving at QVC Leonie had to say cheerio as she had to be elsewhere, so we loaded a large trolley and wheeled all the kits and samples up to the studio which looked quite dark and gloomy at this stage as you can see. All the kits had to be unloaded and put into order on the "pods" as they are called. The clock was now counting down but with two hours to go it seemed as if there would be lots of time to get organised....or maybe not! The time was flying by and there were so many things to put out, that it was 7.30pm before I knew it! The producer chatted to me about general things that I needed to know and very soon I was being miked up. All my nerves had left me by now, as there was just so much going on and everyone was so friendly. The bright studio lights came on, Dale Franklin arrived and very quickly it was the ten second countdown.

The whole two hour show just flew by and was so much fun. I really didn't get chance to show half the techniques that I had prepared because everything was selling out so quickly. The funniest moment for me was when I answered Dawn's question about how much Perfect Pearls powder to add to black embossing powder and I said "the tip of a Starbuck's coffee stirrer is about right".....Dale had to jump in and say "or any other coffee house of course" and...ooops....I realised what I had said!!! Everyone laughed though, so I didn't get thrown off the set! Dale Franklin was absolutely lovely, very calm and relaxed and Dawn and I just chatted together as we normally would.

Very soon the show had ended and it was time to clear away. My table looked like an absolute tip as I had been going from one thing to another with no time to clear up as I went. The photo below is of my previously well packed case after I threw everything in as my tables were needed in another studio. Dawn, Dale and the QVC crew all said that they were delighted with how the show had gone, and how natural I had been - phew! So, once we had packed away it was back to the htel where Dawn Jj and I had a strawberry champagne cocktail each (and I forgot to take a picture!) in celebration of my debut! Delicious! We chatted for a couple of hours and, of course, there were a few phone calls to make and take. David had told me to remember to smile and, apparently I looked very serious! I think it was because the studio is so full of cameras, monitors and people that it is quite hard to know where to look or whether you are on screen or not. I'm sure that it all comes with experience.

I was happy to see when I got back that Joanne and Jilly had both spotted their cards behind me on screen! I didn't get chance to show them, so I'd hoped they would be noticed.

So, it was a great experience and Dawn and Jj really looked after me - the only downer was that Jj ran me back to Euston and despite setting off an hour before my train was due out we got there with just a few minutes to spare, only to be told that my train had gone....apparently they won't let passengers on if there are only minutes before departure....first time I have heard this one! I wasn't allowed to travel with my ticket on another train, so had to pay out almost £45 on a new one - I was livid and I will be complaining!

To finish my post, here are just a few of the card samples that I made for the show.....this one was using Perfect Pearl powders over black card and then inking the silhouette stamps with Perfect Pearls medium and stamping them onto the card which removes the powder. The swirls were drawn with a Versamark pen and then powdered over.Next is a background made using Distress inks and water. The bird and swirls were stamped over the top and I stamped a second bird, coloured it, cut it out and stuck it over the first bird.

Below is a card that was made using Personal Impressions canvas which I coloured with Heritage ink pads and then made the frame from. The rest of the card was just layers decorated with birds and swirls.

Lastly, this is the card whch I made to show the masking technique using some of the cats from my clear stamp set. I thought it would be fun to colour them in pastel shades to match the cardstock.

Well, I must sign off now, but thanks to everyone who wished me luck, watched, or bought my stamps! Lindsay

Thank you Joanne

I haven't had chance to take a picture of it yet, but wanted to thank Joanne (My Toby Jug) on here for the wonderful card that she sent me this week - it's beautiful and much appreciated. The words on the front are "have fun" and allude to me being on QVC next week.....hopefully I will! I've been very busy making samples and have around forty now, so am pretty well sorted I think - I hope!

Well, we have both had very busy days and are feeling shattered, so it will be a nice meal and a bit of relaxation this evening for us. Hope you all have a great weekend, Lindsay

The Hermit......

Well...that's what I have felt like for the last couple of weeks or so anyway! Emails, phone calls and my blog have all been on hold and I have more or less been at home beavering away on all the new designs and samples that had to be done in silly time. Thankfully, the majority of the work is now done except for more samples and some more designs which aren't quite as urgently needed. I've been designing new Christmas stamps....quite funny when there has been a tropical heatwave going on!....as well as a collection of non-stamp based designs which will, I think, be coming out in August. Proof reading has also been on the list of things that had to be done, so, although it has been manic, at least it has been varied! Anyway, apologies for leaving it so long since my last post, but I hope to get back to some kind of normality now.

I have just a couple of photos to share tonight....on the right are the ladies who were at my workshop at Top Barn Crafts in Wrexham. They had a go at various techniques and, although we were all sweltering, it was great fun. On the left you can see Sarah, Dawn and Paula doing their Vamp impressions at Dawn's residential weekend - very exotic!

On the wildlife watching front, I saw a whole family of foxes, including four or five cubs, at the side of the railway tracks near Huddersfield which absolutely made my day! On a sad note, David found one of "our" squirrels dead at the back of the house on the same day - there were no marks on him, so we think that he may have fallen from the tree as several of them have been racing across the boughs at the speed of light recently. Two extremes in one day.

My QVC date is next wednesday at 8pm so I'm busy getting everyting ready for that. It will be an interesting experience, so I shall report back after the event!

Well, I shall sign off for now but shall be posting again soon! Take care everyone, Lindsay