All sorts....

Hello folks, lots of pictures to share this evening I'm happy to say. Just taken me ages to upload them all - my least favourite part of blogging! It's been a really busy week for me, so I have plenty to post about tonight. Have some great news for those of you who have been asking about future workshops too....so do read on!

First of all, I got an exciting parcel delivery this week! The first thing that I took out of the box were these beauties by my friend Andy Skinner. These are A5 sized stamp sets designed by Andy for Personal Impressions. I'll be using some of these on my demonstrations this weekend - they are really great designs with an artsy feel but very user friendly too.Next out of the box were my new stamp designs.....it's always exciting to get the new stamps, especially when they have brand new packaging! The stamps are available in shops now, so, should you wish to get your hands on them, you will be able to get them from Personal Impressions stockists. The stamps in the packs at the back are all A6 clear sets whilst the ones at the front are ATC sized unmounted rubber (these will normally have packaging as well of course!). I'll be using a selection of these at my demonstrations tomorrow at Reams, in Derby, and on Sunday, at The Craft Room in Garners Garden Centre in Newcatle Under Lyne.Talking of my new designs, here is a picture of the prize which is winging its way to Carole for her brilliant cryptic quiz skills! Hope you enjoy using them Carole. I'll be posting a new quiz after the weekend. So back to this last week, and starting with the workshops at Dawn's studio last Sunday. It was a hoot as usual! David decided to revert to being my assistant and official photographer this time, as opposed to joining in. Lots of concentration going on here as you can see from Sheila, Jolene, Elaine and Kath.In the morning we were making cards using Andy Skinner's new stamps, Distress Stains and the new Tim Holtz Kraft Resist stash. As soon as I brought a few stashes through to show everyone they were immediately grabbed and popped into baskets! Here are two of the cards that I made as samples for the class. Both the same design but showing how it could be varied...everyone loved the sentiment on the blue card! The one hour break between classes reduced to half an hour for a quick sandwich as we overran somewhat as usual! In the afternoon we were making mini Grungeboard albums which involved staining, cutting pages and stitching. This led to lots of hilarity, especially from Sheila who is showing what she thinks of me making her sew pages into her book in the picture below.....she enjoyed it really!!! As you can see, everyone's books looked quite different and I hope that they'll be inspired to make more of them. Here's a picture of the one that I had made....I kept my cover fairly simple but may possibly add some more embellishments to it at some point. After the classes had finished we had a real treat as David, Sheila and I went to Kath's house, along with her daughter Elaine of course. You may recall my post a few months ago when I showed you pictures of the amazing fairy egg which Kath surprised me with as a much appreciated gift. Kath makes the most incredible creations and had invited us to go along to see her collection of no less than 72 eggs of various sizes and a huge range of styles. As you can see they are just fantastic......carriages, fairies, swans, flowers, so much variety of style, colour and theme. Here's Kath (well, you can just see her!) with one of the largest...check out the beaded detail on the velvet upholstery of the carriage interior! We were quite lost for words at the work and patience involved. What a treat, and it makes us even more honoured to have received one of them as a gift that will be treasured. Well, onto Tuesday then, when I set off down to Norwich. I had good train journeys there and back you will be pleased to know, after the unwanted dramas of my last journey there. The beautiful weather helped and I was able to enjoy the changing landscapes at their Springtime best. I saw so many rabbits, I think they must have been enjoying the sunshine too! Lots of oh so cute lambs gambolling about or resting next to their mums, great fields full of pigsties with huge sows snuffling in the dirt with little piglets dashing around them and lots of birds of assorted varieties! It was better than any telly programme!

I had a lovely afternoon in Norwich, which is fast becoming my favourite place to visit. Did some window shopping and bought David a few little treats of course. Then a lovely night's sleep in my favourite guest house (called No 17 Colegate) before a busy day at Jarrolds on Wednesday. I was demonstrating mainly Configurations boxes with some inky techniques as well. I love using the single boxes that I've removed from the larger Configurations. Here's one that I had made before I went down, complete with Grungeboard wings, Corked Vial, Timepiece, Key etc etc. Really good fun to make and reasonably quick to do too. This is a feminine version of a full box that I prepared in advance too. Notice that I turned one of the inner boxes around where the heart and wings are - this would be nice to attach a photo to if you were making a wedding memento for instance. This box has the acetate front in place though you can't really see it here - thankfully! Here's a second single box which I decorated on the day....can't tell you what fun these are to do!So, after getting back late on Wednesday, I have spent the last two days preparing things for demonstrations tomorrow and Sunday. Here's a card that I've made using Andy's Back to Nature set stamped onto alcohol inked card. Don't tell anyone, but I stamped the birds the wrong way, so they are flying sideways on!!! Do you think anyone will notice if I don't tell them?! The fab ribbon is from the new Tim Holtz pack - I used Distress stains and water on it and scrunched it up before drying it lightly with the heat tool which lightens the colours somewhat. So, hope to see some of you this weekend for inspiration, tips and new stamps! So, on to the news for those who are wanting to know about future workshops. The good news is that myself and Amy Shaw are going to be running workshop days together and the first of these will be on Sunday 15th May. So, if you are interested, please do contact Amy or myself as soon as possible as places will be limited. I can't tell you what the actual workshops are going to be at this stage as we have only just sorted out this first date, but do watch this space. I can guarantee it will be a fun filled day though! We'll post more details as soon as we have them.

Lastly, if you go onto the Personal Impressions website ( http://www.personalimpressions.com/ ) you will see that they now have a Facebook page, as well as a Twitter site. There are links to some detailed instructions on there for some of my projects and others, so do check it out.

Well, it's now 8.50pm and we've still not eaten because I have been busy on here as well as loads of phone calls, so I shall sign off now as it's an early start tomorrow to go over to Derby. Have a great weekend everyone!