Candy redrawn

Hello everyone, as the original winner of the Candy hasn't contacted me I have, as mentioned last week, re drawn the Candy using the random number generator again and this time it came up with the number 8. This corresponds to Kokoclowie (Karen) so hopefully you'll read this and claim your prize before next Monday!

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

8 

Timestamp: 2012-04-30 17:44:28 UTC

Hope you enjoy the goodies Karen and well done!

I had a very busy weekend in Leeds and Northwich though yesterday's weather convinced me that nobody would turn up! However, lots of brave souls came to see me, so hello to all of you who ignored the torrential rain and icy winds. Bbbbbrrrr, makes me feel cold just thinking about sitting on shiver inducing platforms and unheated trains! I will share photos soon, though David will be cracking the whip to make sure that I get everything done before my trip up to Aberdeen (trip? It's a seven hour journey!) on Friday.

So, until then, make the best of the sunshine!

How calm am I now?!

Well, at least for the time being, as I'm being told that I will have to face up to the new blogger look pretty soon. Still, at least I can post without getting blue in the face for the moment!

So, first of all, I must share this rather odd picture with you as I promised somebody that I would! I mentioned in a previous post that there was another way of using Glue n Seal and here it is....doesn't look very exciting I know, but I haven't had a chance to do anything but this little test piece that I did at Sir Stampalot last weekend. As I said, this came about because of a question, by Debbie Maybank who had come to my demonstration. Debbie asked if the Glue n Seal could be applied to a stamp and I had to admit that I hadn't tried it.
I was doubtful that it would sit well on the stamp surface, so I use my finger tip to very gently tap the medium onto the image so that it wouldn't go into the recesses. I picked a pretty small stamp! It's the number 4 from my Alpadigit block in case you can't figure it out! Anyway, as you can, hopefully, see, it did work. I wouldn't think it would be great for a very detailed image, but for things like swirls, or more abstract stamps it's fine. Simply dip your finger into the Glue n Seal, tap it lightly over the stamp then print onto card. Heat set the image and blend over the card with Distress inks to create a "ghost" effect. Pretty good and I'll post pics of any more samples I make using this technique.

Now Heather has beaten me to showing you these cards! That's okay though. They are two of the cards that I made for this weekend's demonstrations. SPritzing with Distress ReInkers and Perfect Pearl Mists through Crafter's Workshop stencils created the backgrounds and I used my Emily & Steampunk Sarah stamp set (PICSA6285) as well as the poster from Andy Skinner's Circus set (ASCSA5013) as well as some TH Idealogy pieces. Hope you like! It's been a lots nicer here today - no rain and a decent amount of sunshine but I couldn't get out into the garden as there was work to be done indoors, mostly typing things up...not my favourite job! I will sign off now as it's time to relax before an early night and a 6.00 am start to my day getting to Samuel Taylor's in Leeds tomorrow. Hope to see some of you there. For anyone in Lancaster tomorrow, do call at Card Craft for the opportunity to see Andy Skinner on one of his rare visits to the North West...well worth the effort to go along I can promise you.
Have a great weekend whatever you are up to and it's another shout out to Jenny R to claim her Candy!

Hallelujah!!!

Wey hey, Whoopie Dooh and smack me in the face with a wet kipper!!!! I am back to normality, back to feeling sane again and feeling the waves of frustration turning into calming ripples. Yes....I have managed to revert to my user friendly, comfy as a pair of old slippers blogger "interface" (whatever the heck that means). Everything is lovely once more.
I was meandering round the internet to see what others thought of the new way of doing things around here in Blogland and, no surprise to me, there are a lot of very unhappy posters out there. I chanced upon one chappie's blog who, like me, was utterly fed up...until someone explained to him how to revert to comfyland. I took a look, clicked a button or too and...shazzam!! New, scary, impossible to use bloggy man was banished into the ether!
So, if you too have furrowed brows due to this "upgrade" simply go onto the dashboard, click onto the little cog symbol (settings) which, on my dashboard, was somewhere in the upper right area and choose the option to revert to the old style (or words to that effect). I clicked it and it immediately took me back to my usual posting system - right size text, colours, layout etc. I'm going to see if I can change the font size on that last post after I complete this one.

Ooooh, it does feel good!!!

Events & a Candy reminder

Just a pictureless post tonight as there is still much gnashing of teeth here and I just don't want to spend half my evening messing about with photos that have a mind of their own.

Heather came round today and took a few pictures that she may post if she manages to do it! So check out her blog over the next few days to see what we were up to!

So, on Saturday I'll be at Samuel Taylor's in Leeds where I'll be demonstrating lots of new stamps, My Mind's Eye papers and inks.

On Sunday I'll be at Strikes Weavervale Garden Centre in Winnington, Northwich. As well as new stamps I will be using stencils, Perfect Pearl Mists, Distress ink pads and re-inkers. I'll be there from 10.30am - 4pm.

Next Friday I'll be trekking up to Aberdeen for my weekend at The Papeterie in Stoneywood Mill. On the Saturday I'll be demonstrating all day, using stamps, alcohol and Distress inks, Graphic 45 papers and more. On the Sunday I'll be teaching two workshops, which can be booked singly or at a discounted price for both sessions - they are different of course! We'll be stamping, masking, watercolouring, alcohol inking, making shaker cards and more. For more information please visit www.thepapeterie.com where you can check out dates, times and costs.

Now for the Candy reminder......Jenny R please contact me with your delivery details so I can send you your prize! If Jenny hasn't contacted me by Monday 30th April then I will draw another name, so please do check back in case you are a surprise winner. Fingers crossed that Jenny does contact me though.

Well, it's been pouring down relentlessly for the second day in a row, so let's hope it's a somewhat drier day tomorrow. One minute there are hosepipe bans and the next there are flood warnings! I saw lots of flooded fields from the train last weekend - it's all there, just in the wrong places!

Hope to see some of you over the weekend.

PS great.....now the text size has gone stupid - either too small (like this) or huuge! So, apologies for the rather small words....get your specs on!

Bloomin' Blogger!

Well, I'm trying again but have already lost two photos that I tried to upload, not to mention that my font and the text size keep reverting to the standard one every time I start a new line. The photos that are still on  here are moving around where I don't want them to go and my text is not sitting where I want it to....apart from that, it's great! Not.

Again, I'd like to know whose genious idea this was and why there is this obsession with changing things that are straightforward into something that is very user unfriendly. I had planned to do some more step by steps on here quite soon, but think I'll have to shelve them for the moment as I have no desire to get myself into a total nervous meltdown!

So, I'll have to make this a fairly short post just to share the few pictures that are still left here! This is a really simple card that I made on Saturday using my Steampunk Sarah stamp set - I made one of my easy frames using paper from the Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe - which is almost unusable....ie so good it's hard to cut up! I made it into a shaker card but used TH sprockets inside instead of the usual glitter and beads etc. 

Well it just gets worse really.  I gave up last night as I was at screaming point with this darned post...pictures moving around and completely unable to place them where I wanted, which was always a doddle with the old system. So I decided to leave it and have another go this morning. I then find that my draft post has been published (good thing I didn't type what I was thinking at the time!!!) and in the wrong typeface, pictures all over the place etc. Makes it worse that there isn't (is there?) anyone to complain to. Nightmare. Maybe someone can tell me how I'm supposed to control the pics once I've uploaded them as they just have a mind of their own.

Anyway, my last remaining photos (that blogger didn't chew up and spit out) are from the Sunday at Sir Stampalot when I was teaching an all day workshop. It was great fun and we got lots done. Lots of concentration........

and here are some of the ladies with their finished cards...

    I have more things to share, such as another technique with Glue n Seal which I tried on Saturday after a question from one of the ladies at my demonstration...I will post details next time because I just don't have the time or the computer wizardry to let me figure this out before my day is completely gone. I think I'll be posting a lot less if it stays like this...bad for the blood pressure!

Please do call back though and I'll do my best to conquer this! Meanwhile, apologies for the wonky look of this post and for the lack of much information.

The Candy winner is....

Hello everyone, well, I had been going to put a nice "Winning" picture up here, plus some photos from the weekend etc, but Blogger have, in their wisdom (!) decided to muck about with everything and I am now at screaming point just trying to put this post together. What is it with these companies deciding, for no apparent reason, to change everything with no warning and under the guise of improving things, when they actually make things so complicated and different from what we are used to that it becomes uncomfortable and difficult for users? 

Virgin email has done just the same thing and is hideous to use now with a superbright screen and horrible layout. This is worse though as I am finding it really hard to work with. Aaaaarrrgggghhh!!! I hate change! Anyone else struggling with this unlovely surprise?

Okay, rant over and on to the blog candy. I used a random number picker and it came up with.... 

 

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 11 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

......number 11 which corrulates to Jenny R. Well done Jenny! Please send me an email with your details so that I can post your prize out to you. 

I'll be putting another candy on here before too long, so please check back regularly for another chance to win something nice!

So, I'll sign off for now as I am getting very hot, bothered and exasperated now! That was not a pleasurable experience!

Sir Stampalot

Just a short post today before I get down to some drawing. I'm off to Peterborough tomorrow for my weekend at Sir Stampalot - bags all packed and samples made! On Saturday I'll be demonstrating at the shop...have lots of stamps by myself and Andy Skinner as well as new Graphic 45 and My Mind's Eye papers. Then, on Sunday it's a full day's workshop where we'll be making cards and tags and using all sorts of things from alcohol inks to stamps, papers to mediums and Distress inks. Should be a busy, but fun day!
I'll take some photos to post here next week and don't forget to leave a comment after my Candy post (further down) before 7pm on Monday to make sure that you're in the draw.
Meanwhile, we've had some torrential rain here over the last few days which, thankfully, has not disturbed the freshly planted seedlings outside...however, somebody has been scraping away at the Sweet Peas despite my sticking a defensive barrage of canes in the soil! Don't know who the culprit is but have my suspicions Thomas, so, once I've reinstated the poor plants it will be time for chicken wire. Let battle commence!
Well, I had better crack on with those drawings now, as the hours just seem to be flying by lately. Hope to see some of you this weekend and, if you want to check if there are any places available for Sunday's workshop, just contact Sir Stampalot directly. A bit previous I know, but have a great weekend everyone.

All change & a National disgrace

Hello, yes, this is still my blog...I decided it was time for a change of background and, after trying lots of different ones, plumped for this one - well, it's got purple in it and some blingy bits too, so I couldn't resist!
The other change is to the blog candy - I've added some extra bits and a new picture to show what is included. Don't forget to leave a comment if you haven't already done so - make sure you leave it on the actual candy post though, or you won't be included in the random number generator. Hope you like the extras - the card is made using Martha Stewart paints and stencils and is in the this month's Crafts Beautiful magazine.
Hello to everyone who came to see me at Card Crafts in Lancaster yesterday - it was a really busy day and a lot of fun too. Hope you all enjoy the stamps and the Glue n Seal of course. Welcome to new blog followers too. Hello to Sally and hope you feel better soon. I'll do a step by step tutorial on the Stazon spray cleaner and alcohol ink technique for you as soon as time allows me to.
Today has been spent doing horrible jobs that start with H and end with K - yuck! We've also been in the garden, in the glorious sunshine - shifting more gravel and I've been transplanting seedlings and planting bulbs and Geraniums. My Sweet Peas have done quite well - 70 seeds sown and 52 have grown which is a decent percentage I think.
I only saw this morning that two horses were killed again in this year's Grand National yesterday. Even though they have supposedly made safety improvements since last year it was still an appalling scenario with only fifteen horses completing the course out of a starting number of forty. Those that did get to the end were being whipped to wring every last drop of energy out of them.
The usual things were said of course, including the fact that a lot of the horses carried on running when they had lost their riders. Well, obviously, they're herd animals and are trained to race...interesting that most had the wit to run around the fences rather than over them though. A few jockeys were injured too, but, let's face it, they make the decision to take part in the race unlike the horses.
I think it's time the event was consigned to history. If it wasn't such a money spinner would the horses be expected to jump those nightmare fences at risk of terrible injury and death at every turn? I don't think so. What do you think?
Okay, I'll sign off for now and will sign in again before my trip to Sir Stampalot in Peterborough on Friday.

A little UK blog Candy

Hello folks, I have a little Candy on offer tonight, courtesy of Personal Impressions. I was mistakenly sent two sets of the London Sights stamps by Jill Taylor and, rather than me returning one, I was given the okay to pop them on here along with three sheets of PI's Vintage Union Jack 12" x 12" paper. Update! I've just amended the candy as it looked a bit stingy! So, it is now the stamp set, 3 sheets of the PI Vintage Union Jack paper, 3 x sheets of A4 Artisan 300 gsm card from PI, 2 x London Photostrips and 1 x London Wordstrips from Darkroom Door, 2 x metal London charms and one of my cards that is featured in this month's (May) issue of Crafts Beautiful. That seems a little better to me!So, if you'd like a chance to grab them, just leave a comment on this post by Monday 23rd April. I'll pick a random winner on that date after 7pm.

The new 300 gsm white card that many of you have been asking me about is now back in stock - hoorah! Our original card became unavailable and I have been testing lots of possible replacements for quite a while now. Finally, one passed my tests! It's very easy to spot in this bright, colourful packaging, and available from Personal Impressions stockists...if your nearest store doesn't have it, just ask them to order it for you. It's perfect for using with Distress ink techniques including my favourite faux bleaching. This is the one included in the candy. I've no pictures of my latest creations to share as I've been working on magazine projects as well as working with new Darkroom Door stamps for another project that I have to keep under wraps for the moment.
Tomorrow I'll be in Card Craft, Lancaster which I'm looking forward to as there is always a really fun crowd there. I'll be using my new stamps, including the Off the Wall collection, Build a Scene range and alphabets.
If you're coming along please ignore the scratches & grazes, not down to Tara this time, but the result of gardening! I look like I've been through a thorn bush and I more or less have!
Don't forget to leave a comment to go in the draw for the Candy!

A quiet time - except for the music!

The Easter break is almost over and, as I heard someone say, the reason that Bank Holidays are so good is that we can really enjoy having some sheer relaxation without feeling guilty because we're all off work! Well, not quite all I realise, but I agree with the sentiment. Hope everyone's been able to have a good break.

So, the last couple of days have been spent at home and very quietly, partly due to the horrid bug that grabbed me on Friday but seems to be on its way now thank goodness. Partly due to the fact that it's been raining all day, so the gardening had to be shelved except for planting out a few things that I've been growing indoors. Not that this is craft related, but I hope that this piccie of Tara helping me to gen up on some plant knowledge will be acceptable for Joanne's Crafting Buddies ......yes, I know it's really meant to show our furry friends helping us to craft, but seeing as I wasn't either, I think it will count! I think Tara was looking for the section on Catnip! I did say it had been a quiet couple of days, but this afternoon was anything but really. David happened upon Channel 5 where they were showing the 25th Anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera from the Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately it had been on for an hour or so, and I completely forgot about Channel 5 plus one! However, it was just fantastic and I enjoyed every second. The tenor in the Phantom role was Ramin Karimloo who, coincidentally, was on Songs of Praise last night and who we first saw in the anniversary concert of Les Mis that Heather got us at Christmas. At the end of the opera Andrew Lloyd Webber came onto the stage and welcomed the original cast. Sarah Brightman sang along with four Phantoms as well as the current one. I get so caught up in musicals/operas that I was in tears most of the way through, even during the curtain calls! If you get chance to see this then do......if you don't like the music, watch it with the sound off because the stage sets and costumes were out of this world....quite staggering really.

It also brought to mind something that I seem to come across more and more these days. So many "comedians", or guests on panel shows etc seem to find it clever and funny to make so called jokes and jibes about people purely on their looks. I'm sometimes surprised at the people who are guilty of this as they are often those who I'd thought of as quite intelligent. No matter how talented the target may be, if they happen to be less than handsome or beautiful then they become "fair game". I was reminded by the Phantom story of course, and then when Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared who must be one of the most picked upon people in this way, despite his tremendous talent. Camilla Parker Bowles is forever being compared to a horse (I think she's very attractive), Susan Boyle will, apparently, never be appreciated for her voice alone, but will always find herself being sniggered at on comedic quiz shows. The list goes on. It's a horrible side to people that I really hate. The fact that everyone looks different (remarkable when you think how few features we have!) should be accepted and celebrated, not made into the subject for cruel "humour". Why do people do it? What do you think?
Anyway, having just watched the last half hour of Phantom again, on plus one, it is time to settle down for the evening now! The rain has stopped but it's a bit late to go outside now really. I had better go as I can hear lots of hissing coming from behind the door and may need to seperate two fur balls if I don't break things up now!

Saturday

Just a very quick post to say that I'll be in Warrington tomorrow, at Windsor Cake Crafts who are now in the Gemini Business Park on Europa Boulevard. I'll be there with some of my new stamps as well as Darkroom Door sets, MME papers and a range of inks, stains and sprays - so you can imagine I'll be getting quite messy!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Easter break. That's all for today as we have been in the garden, shifting gravel, and are completely cream crackered!!!

Easy frame instructions - no ruler, no knife!

Crikey two step by steps in one day! I'll need a lie down after this - Lol! This is the second tutorial that I promised to post specially for the ladies that I saw this weekend. It's a very simple way of making a frame that you can use for shaker cards or just to simply make a picture on a card look more finished - even just as a simple frame for a photo that you may be sending through the post (don't get me started on the postage increases!). Hope you find it useful anyway.
You'll need just a few things....card to make the frame (this can be old scrap card so long as it's not creased), decorative paper to cover it with, scissors, trimmer or guillotine, pencil and adhesive. Firstly, just cut the base card to the size that you want the frame to be. I made a 5" x 5" frame in this instance. Now decide how wide you want the frame sides to be. I chose 2 cms for mine. Cut a strip of stiff card to the chosen width. A little tip here...it's quite tricky to cut narrow strips of card without them going awry on your trimmer. I always cut a piece to, say, 10 cms and then pop it back in the guillotine and measure 8cms before cutting. This leaves me with a neatly cut 2 cms strip. Much easier! Take the strip and lay it along one outside edge of the first piece of card ie the piece for the frame. Draw along the edge with a pencil. Repeat around the remaining three sides. This is so much easier, and quicker, than measuring each edge laboriously. By the way, I do usually hold my strips in place but was using my left hand to take the pictures! A tip here is to cut an assortment of strips of 1 cm, 1,5 cms, 2 cms and so on. Cut them from stiff card and write the width on each one before storing in a wallet - you will now have a set of ready made "rulers" for creating the required widths. Using scissors, cut into the centre of the card and cut to each inner corner. Now cut along each line from corner to corner to cut out the aperture. This doesn't have to be done terribly carefully - remember, this is a no craft knife frame, so it's meant to be simple! Even if your cut lines are a bit wobbly at this stage it will be fine. Now place the frame onto the back of the decorative paper, tacking it down with your chosen adhesive. I recommend a dry adhesive to avoid cockling the paper, so DST or a tape runner is best. Trim the paper to leave a 1 cm (approx!) border all round. Cut into the aperture again, corner to corner, and then trim the points off to leave about 1 cm excess paper on each side. Mitre the outside corners of paper - rather than cutting straight across I usually cut my mitres at an angle as you can see. If the paper is very thin then you might wish to fold the corners in instead of cutting them off. Fold each paper edge over and stick down onto the frame. If your paper is thick you may need to score the folds before adhering. This is why it isn't vital that your cut edges are dead straight as the folded over paper creates the neat line. Turn over to reveal a very neat and simple frame! You can use Distress ink around the edges to further enhance the frame, wrap cords or ribbon around the edges, stamp onto it etc. You can even make a padded frame by sticking strips of wadding onto the edges before covering with paper. If you are using a paper that has stripes or checks, do be sure to line them up or you may end up with something that looks a bit skew wiff (?!). And here's a very simple shaker card made with a rectangular frame around a Gorjuss topper image. Hope that helps to remind everyone that I showed this technique to last week! I'll try and post some more step by steps soon.

Arachnaphobes....look away now!!!

Hello folks, here is the first of my two promised step by step tutorials. This one focusses on the little spiders that I like to add to cards, canvasses, tags etc. They work perfectly for Halloween of course, but also anything featuring, or for, little boys, teens or grown men!
Here's a close up of three that I added to the canvas featuring my "Humbert & Spider Boy" stamped images. The one on the right looks like it has two little white eyes but it's just the camera flash reflection! You could add little eyes if you wished though with a touch of permanent white pen. You can see the whole canvas in one of my earlier posts back in February. So, to create these quick and easy critters you will need a fine black pen (I usually use a 0.1 Micron pen, but the fine end of a Marvy Le Plume would also work), black gems and whatever surface you are adding them to. I am just using white card here so that you can see things more clearly. Using the pen, draw a stuttery line coming down from where you want the spider to hang and stopping where you want him to actually be. Make sure that you don't draw a solid line as you are trying to get the effect of the fine spider silk, so the more hit and miss the better it will look. Next, draw four legs coming out from the line and to the left. Start them close together and try to make each of them go off in a slightly different direction to simulate those creepy spider legs! Repeat to the right of the line. Now stick a black gem to the bottom of the line so that it covers the inner ends of the legs. Tweezers can be very helpful for accurately placing the gems. Eh voila! A row of dimensional spiders created in just a few minutes! If you don't have any black gems you can use any others and just colour them with a black Promarker or alcohol ink. I prefer using the rounded gems but had run out and used faceted ones - but you can see that they look just fine. Remember that you can always add white dots for eyes if you want to go the extra mile on detail. Well, that's one step by step as promised at the weekend, so I will get on with the next one now. Hope you will find the spiders useful - they are great for adding that certain something extra to lots of projects. Let me know what you think and I'd love to see anything you make with them on!

Craft, a cab and a cat!

Well, I meant to add this post yesterday but my day off got in the way! It was a really lazy day of sitting on the sofa and having a few ambles round the garden to see what, if anything, was coming up.
A big hello to everyone who came to The Paper Warehouse in Kendal and High Legh garden centre. Here's my table at Kendal, complete with the stand of the first batch of new stamps - this was the first time they had been on show, complete with the new packaging for the "Off the Wall" collection. You can just see my boards of tags in the background and look at all that lovely Glue n Seal on the table! There were lots of demonstrations going on so there was lots to see - though shortly after I took this picture I was rooted to the spot so to speak, and didn't get to see much of anything myself! I must mention Sandra, who I saw at a demo in Lancaster before Christmas and mentioned that one of my cards was in Crafts Beautiful magazine with instructions if she wanted to make it. Well, not only did she do that but she entered the prize giveaway competition - and won! Absolutely loads of goodies. Well done Sandra! I did ask where my bit of the prize was but........only joking! Always great to know that somebody really does win these things.
In the afternoon the lovely Chris came to see us all - here she is with our mutual pal, Esther, who was on the table near me, die cutting like mad all day. It's always great to see familiar and friendly faces at these events. I did take a pic of Sarah at her table too, but, as she was in front of a window, all that came out was a silhouette! Here's Esther with me...we keep meeting up on trains on the way to events as we are both dedicated rail travellers, lugging our kit around the country! On Sunday I went to High Legh, which is only a few miles from Knutsford station...though the taxi driver who took me there evidently thought it was much further and charged me £20!!! I was furious but very little I could do as my bags were in the boot of the cab so I had to pay up. What a rip off! I have since rung the firm and complained but spoke to a very rude man who eventually put the phone down on me. Nice customer service. It became a talking point for the day, with everyone agreeing that it was a disgrace. Just to show that most people are kind, thoughtful and caring though, I was offered a lift back to station - thank you Lynne, it really was appreciated. I mean "thank you Pauline", not Lynne! Don't know where that came from! Apologies Pauline - and after you helped me out too - how rude of me!!! Sorry! And Mo, who runs the craft department, bought me some seeds and seed trays to make up for my rip off ride - so thank you Mo, and I will be sure to post piccies when the flowers bloom!
A warm welcome to the newest blog followers and those who haven't figured out following but who tell me they regularly read my ramblings! Thanks for all the positive feedback I got over the weekend which makes all the work worthwhile.
Finally, here's a snap of Thomas for the cat watchers out there. He had been a dirty stop out and decided to take advantage of the warm night, refusing to come in. Next morning he looked bleary eyed and I later found him on his special blanket at the end of the bed having somehow pulled my nightdress over himself! Talk about making yourself comfy! As promised this weekend, I will be posting a couple of step by step ideas as soon as possible - one will be my "no ruler, no craft knife" frame and the other will be spiders! So, do check back as I will try and get them on here very soon.