Weekend catch up

Hello everyone, and welcome to the people I met on Sunday who are new to my blog. I travelled down in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday, ready for the Suffolk Papercraft show the following day. I haven't been in Bury on a Saturday before, so I was able to have a look round the open market. The fruit and vegetable stalls were fantastic, even selling Samphire which I would have loved to have bought, but it wouldn't have been very practical! I did, however, buy a big bag of cherries which were just delicious and not as expensive as here "up north" surprisingly. Yum!

Sunday morning was a beautifully warm and sunny...who would have thought the day would change so much! I think everywhere in Britain was covered by pouring rain by the late afternoon. Anyway, I was demonstrating on The Stamp Hut stand (who organised the show) and was soon very busy stamping and inking. Here's a view of my table whilst I was getting everything laid out. Look at all those lovely Marvy Le Plume pens! (they're not mine btw!) I could have done with some of those useful boxes too, but don't think I could have managed them on the train! It was a terrific show, and I really enjoyed meeting everyone there. Here's a photo of one card which I took in my hotel room. I combined Andy Skinner's tree and foliage, from his Back to Nature stamp set, with some of my silhouette fairies, all set against an alcohol inked and Stazon Cleaner spritzed background (whew!) I am really enjoying this technique. And here is another of my little decorated boxes taken from a Configurations box. I used the spritzy technique again and stuck two pieces of the resulting card together, back to back, then cut two wings. The little frill of tissue tape hangs just below the top of the box for a slightly theatrical look. I used the separate towers from my "I dreamed of Castles" stamp set, coloured, cut them out and curved each around a pen to shape them. To attach them I made piles of 3D foam that I stuck into the box so I could stick the towers against them for stability. The box is topped by one of the Idealogy baubles stuck to some Idealogy metal Foliage. I also used a couple of my Tattered Butterflies in there too. Next weekend I'll be in Derby on Saturday for a day at Reams. I have Colourwash dyes to work with as well as the usual Ranger products along with plenty of stamps. Then on Sunday I'll be at The Craft Room in Garner's Garden Centre in Newcastle Under Lyme. That's Newastle under Lyme as opposed to Ashton Under Lyne! (I do keep getting those mixed up!) I'll be using all sorts of goodies here, including Kraft Glassine paper! Hope to see you there, and do bring some ATC's to swap if you feel inclined.
Talking of ATC's, check out my sister Heather 's blog, as she is running another swap. The theme has yet to be announced, but do check back as it's sure to be something interesting. Heather's swaps are very informal and you only need to make three cards to receive three different ones back - great fun and much nicer than getting bills in the post! (well, you'll still get the bills, but the ATC's will help to soften the blow!)
Please be sure to check back here on Wednesday evening, as I will be posting details about new workshops that I'll be running. There are just some last minute things to sort out and then I'll be able to let you know all the details of where, when and what etc!