Over a week......

Since I posted on here.....how naughty of me! Hope you'll let me off though...I was working, honestly! Well, I did take Sunday off. So, since I was last here I have been to Crafty By Nature in Kearsley last Thursday where I demonstrated and hosted two make n take sessions. Hello to all the ladies who came along - hope you all got the ink off your fingers okay!
Then, the next day I headed up to Darlington, well, I was meant to be going to Chester-Le-Street, but, due to a certain pop group doing concerts in adjacent Sunderland, there was nowhere to stay within thirty miles! I didn't know this until I was up there and was wondering why there was no room at the inn, or hotel, or guest house...anywhere! So, I stayed over in Darlington and then got the local train on Saturday to be at Dainty Supplies. Hello to all the ladies up there, and apologies for making you spend so much money...well, not really! Hope you enjoying your new stamps, Stains and punches.
On Sunday we went to the car boot as we haven't been for aaages and it's always good fun. It began to drizzle with rain as soon as we set off, but we were undeterred. Unfortunately there wasn't much of interest, though I did spot my favourite lipstick at a bargain price, so stocked up. Poor David got absolutely nothing!
After that we drove over to Redesmere to feed the birds. The lake was crowded with ducks, coots, geese etc and more swans than we've ever seen there before. We had two loaves of bread with us and they scoffed the lot! Not that they ever go unfed of course, as visitors appear on a regular basis to top them up. There's a catering van there with a great sign..."I don't do fast food, I do good food as fast as I can"...and he does too. I bought a homemade soup, Steak sandwich with onion and mushroom and two hot chocolates for the grand sum of £5! Can't be bad, and it wasn't, it was delicious! So it was a lovely day out and a real change.
Back to work on Monday and I worked on a project for Crafts Beautiful magazine. In the current issue I have a project featuring Andy Skinner's stamps which I've used to make a memory box and matching card. Hope you like them - the memory box idea is a great way of using those sturdy boxes that gifts often come in and are too good to throw away!
Myself, Andy and Paula Pascual will be at The Craft Barn "Best of British" extravaganza (along with around twenty other designers and demonstrators) down in Lingfield this weekend, so I've been busily getting samples made. More details about the event can be found on the Personal Impressions website as well as their facebook page. I'll be using my latest stamp designs and here's a card using my Keep on Smiling and Hoist the Flags stamp sets. The background is made with Distress inks blended softly over PIP300CWH card...I used Broken China and Worn Lipstick in the sky and Peeled paint for the grass. There should be instructions for this card, as well as the butterfly one further down, on the PI website before long. Here are a few small pieces that I've made using dominoes and a Facet. The left piece is now attached to a chain. I stamped my ATC Jolly Jester onto the domino using Stazon ink, coloured him and then varnished with Glossy Accents. Not having a mini drill, I made twisted wire loops and attached them to the back of the domino with good old Glossy Accents. I added some accents of a bauble and Fleur de Lys (both Time Holtz) and the word "Fly" from another of my sets which was stamped onto Grungeboard and covered with Crackle Accents.
The top left domino was simply swooshed into alcohol inks and details added with fine black and white pens. The lower image is the stamped Jester again, covered with a TH Facet and some of the Baubles added which I tinted with alcohol ink filled pens. These last two pieces have brooch pins attached. Whilst I was making some cards yesterday I had a little "help" from Thomas. He was checking out a work in progress as you can see....... ........but he wasn't happy with how I'd adhered the squares to my card and decided that he needed to make sure they were properly stuck by sitting on them! I'm not sure why he found this experience so drool worthy, but, thankfully, he didn't dribble on the card! His bottom did the trick anyway, and here is the finished card, which features images and words from my Tattered Butterflies set along with paper from Tim's Shabby Vintage paper stash. I had a bit of fun with the next little piece...I do enjoy filling these little boxes taken out of the Configurations. This one has the quirky girl from the Keep on Smiling stamp set and the wings are from my Fly, Soar, Soul, Dream set, which features a heart made from two folded wings. I stamped it onto Grungeboard, coloured and cut it out as two seperate wings, leaving little tabs at the top of each one. I used a combination of craft knife and pricking tool to scrape out two slots in the side of the box (I didn't want to go all the way through to the inside) into which I pushed the wing slots, held in with....ooh, what could I have used? Glossy Accents by any chance?! I added all sorts of bits and bobs to complete it. I'll have all these pieces, plus more besides of course, at the Craft Barn weekend, so please do say hello if you are a follower, or reader of my blog - it's always good to put names to faces.
I'm updating my demonstration list on the left, so do check out if I'll be in your area anytime soon...also, look out soon for news about new workshops that I'll be doing!
I'll post again after the weekend and hope to see lots of you there!