Hello all, sorry I have been absent for a few days. It was a very busy weekend as I was travelling a lot and had a demonstration on Monday too, so I had yesterday as a proper day off - I was banned from doing anything remotely to do with work! Did me good though, so it was back to making samples again today.
I had a lovely time at Sew Simple near Norfolk. It is a really great shop, very spacious and well stocked and in a lovely setting too. Lorraine and her staff had set out a great display area for me and I had plenty of room to work...though it didn't t
ake me long to use up all the space with my clutter of course! Here are copies of my book and you can see my favourite K&Co snowflake embellishments in the left hand basket.
There were lots of tables for me to display my samples on, so just as well that I had been busy and made plenty! I was using alcohol inks, amongst other things, and had a surprise when I came to use the blending solution as when I unscrewed the lid there was no nozzle on the bottle! Silly me had been decanting an almost empty bottle into an almost full one, and I had forgotten to replace the stopper....I said that I needed a rest! So I had to sprinkle the contents by putting my thumb over the bottle neck...had a nice clean thumb by the end of the day! Unfortunately I had little time to take photographs, but will definitely rectify that this coming weekend. Hello to all the lovely ladies who came along to see me.
My journey home on the Saturday evening was uneventful until the train got to Sheffield when a horde of Manchester United football "fans" boarded the train. There were lots of railway police on the platform and I thought they were going to leave us to the mercy of the chanting, swearing "fans". However, around ten burly policemen got on the train too, much to my relief. We were delayed for over fifteen minutes whilst they tried to settle the horde down, but with little effect. One guy ignored the instruction to stop swearing and chanting and was immediately grabbed by an officer. This set them all off again and there was quite a bit of scuffling. One policeman escorted me into the front carriage as they were trying to contain them in the rear one, but there was some overspill. If it wasn't so serious it would have been hilarious to hear all the yobs (no other word I'm afraid) complaining about the police behaviour whilst totally unconcerned about the disruption that they were causng to all and sundry. It would be good if the police were always in such high profile on weekend trains.
Sarah is drawing (well, her husband Ewan is) the winner of her blog candy tonight, so good luck to all who left comments for her. I hope whoever wins really enjoys their treasure. I must get organised and do another one myself.
On Monday I was at CJ Cardcrafts in Edgeley, Stockport, so hello to everyone who popped along to see me there - hope you can all remember how to use the different pens that you bought!
I'll be at Strikes (Burnside) Garden centre in Blackpool on saturday where I'll be showcasing Christmas stamps, Nestabilities and Distress inkpads amongst other things. Hope to see some of you there...if you are a blogger, do introduce yourself as it's always good to put faces to names. I am not even going to mention bringing ATC's with you for swapping this time....oh, I just did! My sister will be popping along at some point in the day too, so she may well have some for swapping too....there's an incentive!
Lindsay
Posts
ake me long to use up all the space with my clutter of course! Here are copies of my book and you can see my favourite K&Co snowflake embellishments in the left hand basket.
are some reflections. First is my new alcohol ink container. Since I got all the new colours I just can't fit them into my original tin, so I took a cardboard chest that I have had hanging around for a few years (!) now and covered it with aluminium tape. This is really easy, even for an awkward shape like this, because it can be cajoled into odd corners and curves and is quite flexible. Once I'd covered the chest I then piped on some dots and the words "alcohol inks" onto the lid using 3D paint. Once absolutely set I then covered the lid with more tape and then began to burnish it down. You can use a variety of tools for this - I usually use something large, like a bone folder, to begin with and then scale down to a medium sized embossing tool to add texture and to coax the foil around the letters and shapes. The tape has another bonus in that any overlapped, or untidy edges are made just about unnotic
able once it is all burnished down.
I made a paler moon by taking out the colour using blending solution on a cotton bud. I stamped the trees using Archival black ink and then added snow using the Inkssentials white pen. I cut away the section of card below the trees, stuck the image onto white card and trimmed it into a square. Some simple pale blue shading under the trees and a touch of clear silver sparkle from a glitter pen completed the look once it had been matted onto my card blank. So, a similar card to previous ones, but the sky looks very different using alcohol inks.
Cherry first came into our lives when she was "living rough" with a completely black tom cat in and around the gardens. At first I thought that she may belong to one of the houses nearby as there is quite an itinerant student population, so people and pets come and go. However, it soon became apparent that these two were, indeed, strays, and so, of course, I began to leave food for them. The big tom was very wary and also very pungent! His dainty white companion was more approachable and soon decided that the indoors looked more appealing to her. We were, as now, in the habit of feeding the birds and squirrels, and the latter would run up the tree and onto the window ledge to get peanuts from our first floor window. Cherry was so determined to move in that one day she did the same (obviously having observed all this!)...up the tree, onto the ledge and through the open window, much to our surprise! Thus she laid claim to us and our very special relationship began.
I should say here, that "Blackie" (I know, it's original!) remained an outdoor stray, who wouldn't let anyone near him except for me. I fed him and he even let me cuddle him, but he wouldn't come inside and he eventually stopped coming around sadly. 
Cherry was the gentlest of creatures, she would sit beside our open window with the birds feeding a few inches from her...she didn't try to hurt them and they became used to her. One of the pictures shows (if a little blurrily) a curious pigeon peering in at a sleeping Cherry! She was nervous of everyon
e except the two of us, yet David witnessed her standing her ground when two huge dogs were straining at their leads and barking to get at her in the garden! She never once showed annoyance, frustration or disinterest to us, and was always happiest being cuddled and stroked on one of our laps. Mind you, she could sulk if she felt that her dinner was late! 
Well, I hope that wasn't too sad a tale, as we shared fourteen years with our little friend and she gave us love and happy memories. The Cherry the Cat stamps are my way of celebrating her and all those happy memories. Lindsay
Next is are two cards using my Sitting Snowbaby stamp
. The first uses the "I Believe" Peppermint Twist paper which has a lovely Santa and Reindeer silhouette in one corner. I stamped my Tree Line silhouette image across the bottom twice and then cut the paper along the bottom edge of the trees. I mounted the paper onto white card and cut it to fit just inside the DL card matted onto silver. I used an Inkssentials white pen to create a snow effect on the trees and did a light blue colourwash below each tree. I stamped the Snowbaby onto frosted shrink plastic before colouring and miniaturising him and attaching him to the card. A clear silver glitter pen added a touch of sparkle. The third card features the Snowbaby again, but this time he is set into a frame made using Nestabilities scalloped circles. The gorgeous snowflakes are from the Spellbinders Snowflake Wonder set cut and embossed in plain white card. The sentiment is from the clear stamp set "Christmas Sparkle" by Sue Dix.
Above is a picture of my typically messy table! Well, half of it anyway, with a copy of my book near the corner. I had a lovely big area to work in at the Carlisle shop, but I still managed to create a bit of a tip! Thanks to the lovely girls there who looked after me and kept me supplied with fruit teas all day. Lastly is a picture of the ATC that I have created for Sarah's Blog Candy. Apologies that the image is not very sharp...I was being a little ambitious with my camera I think, and the light wasn't too good.
It does look better in "real life" so to speak! I decided to do a hand drawn one so that it would be an absolute one off. It's a simple, cutey cat with some sketchy lines for a bit of depth and a little dimension added with some 3D pearl accents. Just leave a comment on Sarah's blog to be in with a chance to get your paws on this, an ATC from Sarah and one from my sister (check their blogs to see them) all very different in style and technique. Plus there are paper and stamp goodies to win as well!
