Blackpool and Bolton

Just a reminder that I'll be at Burnside Garden centre in Thornton, near Blackpool tomorrow and at Crafty by Nature, 11 Bolton Rd, Kearsley, Bolton on Sunday. I know I'll be seeing some familiar faces so am really looking forward to both days.

I've been working with Ink Potion no 9 and dye based re-inkers for some really great background effects, combining them with stamps and Martha Stewart punches. This first card (above) is rather busy, but I like it! I do like the clever way the MS corner punches have been designed so that you can shape the inner corners as well as the outer ones which gives a very different look. I especially like this Deco Fan design.

The second card features K & Co Blossomwood paper and the Poppies are so vibrant that I thought it might be good to combine them with black and white as a contrast. The MS Edger punch I used here is the Doily Lace one and I stamped the butterflies with Midnight Black Versamagic ink then smudged it with some Cut n Dry foam to give some movement to them. I used the same ink to blend onto the punched strip too. I have lots more samples to share but they will ahave to wait until after my demonstrations!

I Alcohol inked some dominoes today (as you do!) - they can then be overstamped using Archival ink, or used as a base to add beads etc to. I thought you might like to see this one though.

The way the colours came together made me think about a wild, rainy sky, so I added the details of the cottage, tree and road using a fine nibbed drawing pen. I edged the domino by dipping it into Silver Mixative (alcohol ink) and when everything was bone dry I coated it with Glossy Accents to varnish it. These particular dominoes are quite large and thick, so I decided to just use this one as a brooch.....needless to say, I couldn't find any brooch backs (though I know I have some!) so I have improvised and "Glossy Accented" a large brad on the back and am hoping that this will work rather like a badge button. I think these might make a good combined project between me and my sister.....I could make the landscapes and Heather could bead them and turn them into pendants. I shall see what she says tomorrow as she will be coming along to Burnside!

Oh yes, Amy (Simplicity in Scrapping in my blogs link) will be offering some Blog Candy from monday, so I'm sure that will be worth checking out. I am hoping to have some new things to put up as Candy soon too, so watch this space! Well, it has been another long day, so I am going to sign off now and will be back after the weekend. Lindsay