Thank you

Lindsay would like to thank everyone for their kind and thoughtful wishes at this most difficult time. David

Message from David

Just to inform you that the listed demonstration in Doncaster and all workshops have been cancelled due to the sudden death of Lindsay and Heather's father this weekend. David

The day today

Evenin' all.....said in my best Jack Warner voice! It's been a busy old week again but, for once, I am at home tomorrow as opposed to trotting about the country with my faithful case in tow. It's an unusual occurrence but I shan't be lounging around as I've got a final push to finish new designs along with prepping samples for two workshops and a demonstration for next week. Still, it will be nice to be at home.
Today I was teaching a full day of workshops at Crafts 4 U 2 Do where the ladies were very busy making cards, a tag and a Christmas shadow box. This is a (not great) picture of the morning session - though the central card did spill over into the afternoon slightly!
The first card of the day was the bird one on the left. Everyone's looked slightly different with their own colour choices. We used Kraft Resist paper, Distress inks, Tissue Tape and Darkroom Door "Love Birds" stamp set. The circle in the corner is a Muse token (coloured with alcohol inks) which is encapsulated in one of the plastic bubbles that are part of their packaging.
The central card features Distress Stained Kraft Resist Christmas paper and an ATC collage stamp from Tim Holtz. The red rose is just a handcut spiral of card rolled up and twinkled with a few dabs of Ice Stickles.The tag was great fun, with Snowcap alcohol ink swept across a foil covered and embossed tag. Other colours were added and then we used Blending Solution to remove ink from the raised snowflakes. The white edging was done using the Picket Fence Distress Stain...brilliant product and I love the way it stayed on the metal surface with no problem. The image is from the Dear Santa Darkroom Door set of stamps.
Here are Carol, Marie and Janet working on their tags....don't think they even noticed me taking the picture as they were so engrossed! In the afternoon the ladies were kept busy making the shadow box. Here's my sample one.... ....I pre cut the house shapes from mount card, along with seperate roof pieces and used the new Tim Holtz Tissue wrap to cover the main shape. Everyone loved using the tissue - it has a unique feel to it and it's really easy to work with....rather like non sticky Tissue Tape but bigger! Once stuck down decorated matchbox trays were attached to the back with another piece of mountboard to keep everything together and to attach a ribbon hanger to. Snowtex is the finishing touch for that really Christmassy feel. Everyone really loved making the shadow box and everyone also said that they wouldn't be giving them away as a gift! Lol!
Last Sunday's workshops were a mixture of cute and not cute! One card that everyone took home part finished was this explosive snowman pop up (I mean explosive pop up, not exploding snowmen!). My sample card was deliberately over the top to show just how much can be added to one of these tiered pop ups. It's a really fun card to make and one that I've taught several times over the years as it's such a great one to make for children or the young at heart. The other card last weekend was a "secret message" card and you can see the delight when anyone makes this and finds that it actually works! Nobody seems to be able to explain how these cards work, but it's enough that they do! This was the inside of my sample.... ......and here is the "secret" area that it opened into. I kept the card simply decorated but, today, Frances brought her finished card back to show me and wow....it looked incredible! This is the joy of teaching workshops - it's not exactly about what you go home with on the day, rather it's about ideas and inspiration to take it a step further. The above shows the opened front of Frances' card and here is the inside...... .....even wowier! The only downside was that Frances added so much to her card that the secret part doesn't work now as the panels are stuck together! Not that it matters with such a wonderful piece of art. Everyone was thoroughly impressed!
I am going to be teaching an extra workshop at Crafts 4 U 2 Do on Thursday, from 1.30pm - 3.30pm. There is one place available, so if you fancy joining us, please contact the shop on 01774 611940 to book. I'll then be at Karacter Krafts in Doncaster, to demonstrate new MS punches, stamps and inks.
Whew! Right, time for a last cuppa and then a shower and bedtime. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I'll be back next week to share more.

Just touching base

Hello folks. Just a fairly quick post tonight. Thank you for the many suggestions, crossed fingers and, even, mantras that I have received to help me find my Journal. Sadly, it has not materialised and I can only think that my worst fears were right, and it was in one of the boxes that got stolen. The fact that I have so little time to create pages makes the loss much worse. Still, in the scheme of things, it isn't life or death, so I won't dwell on it. As Heather suggested, the best I can do is to try to print out the photos I took of some of my pages to journal page size and paste them into a new book. Not the same, but better than nothing.
I have to say a big thank you to my friend Joanne who sent me a very much appreciated envelope that contained swatches of Distress and Alcohol inks as well as labels for my Distress ink pads.....I have been putting off labelling them for so long, but now I have no excuse! Thank you Joanne, you're a treasure. You may have seen Joanne's scary Halloween cat on her blog recently and I'm very happy to say that it was given to me recently...looks even better in real life! Talking of cats, Thomas has been "helping" again today as I prepped things for Saturday's workshops. If it had been a Monday I could have linked these pics to Joanne's Crafting Buddies blog, but pop over there anyway if you get chance.
As per usual, Thomas gave my efforts a good check over, made sure all the lines were straight, everything glued down properly.... ...and then decided that he could do much better. Check out that disdainful expression (and the lopsided mouth!)! For those of you who are joining me on Saturday's workshops, you can see a sneaky peek of what we're doing in the afternoon....I'll post pictures of the finished items next week. Meanwhile, here are just a couple of snaps of some recent demonstration samples. This one features my Script Robin stamp (wooden) which I inked with Distress inks, spritzed with water and stamped onto white card before cutting out. The papers and embellishments are from the lovely MME Lost & Found Christmas range which I have found so easy to work with. I had to add a tissue paper frill! This tag features the same paper range, The Philosophy tag has been drizzled with a teeny drop of Snowcap alcohol ink which I then rubbed off to highlight the word and numbers. If you get the chance to buy the Snowcap ink - do! It's excellent and completely changes the look of all the other colours. I used Rock Candy crackle paint on the numbers, which were cut from the Lost & Found Tim Holtz paper stash. Well, I said this was a quick post, and it is! So I will sign off and return next week with more photos to share.

A mixed week

Hello all, especially to the ladies and gents that I met in Crewe and Fleetwood over the weekend. I did take my camera, but complete forgot to take photos as I was rather busy! Still, here's one picture of a tag which I made for a good friend of ours and which has now been received so I can show it! I used some Ice Stickles in Gold Ice, to edge the tissue tape flower and frill though you can't really see it here...shame as it is a really pretty, almost vintage looking shade. On the good side of the "mixed week" of my title, I received a small package today which contained the three Autumn (Fall) limited edition Distress ink pads, and, especially as one of them is a purple shade (Seedless Preserve) I am looking forward to using them!
As this has been a mixed week, you may gather that all has not gone smoothly, and I am feeling really sick at the moment. I have been too busy to work on my current Art Journal recently but, as I am working on new stamp designs for next Spring, I decided, on Monday, to have a look through it to get a little inspiration for some of the quirkier things I have in mind. That was when the bad part of the week started.....I cannot find my journal anywhere. I have an awful, sinking feeling that it has gone forever, as I just cannot recall when I last had it with me when I was out and about. I've been taxing my brain to visualise where it could be, all to no avail and I have looked in every bag, box and on every shelf that I can think of. We had some things stolen from the cellar a few weeks ago and I am beginning to think that it must have been in one of the boxes that was taken, either that or I have left it behind somewhere. My last hope is that David moved some of my things to make more room for me and that the journal is somewhere hidden, but neither of us can find it. You may imagine how upset I feel about this, so please send me some "finding lost things" vibrations in the hope that it will emerge from somewhere!
I don't want to dwell on miserable things though, so just a reminder that I'll be in St Helens this coming Saturday, at Crafts 4 U 2 Do and then will be back there on Sunday to teach two workshops. Both classes are the same and we'll be making cards "that surprise and delight". There are a few places still available, so, just send me an email or contact the shop directly if you fancy coming along.