About Me

I'm a freelance artist, designer and demonstrator and have been involved in arts and craft my whole life in one way or another. I design stamps for top British company Personal Impressions, under the "Lindsay Mason Designs" brand, as well as papers, templates and other crafting products. I'm a certified Ranger Educator and my first book,"Stamping", was published in 2009. I also design regular projects for Crafts Beautiful magazine and have made guest appearances from time to time on QVC. I've recently joined You Tube under the name of LindsayMason1000 where I'm posting short technique videos and you can buy my paintings and hand crafted pieces from my Etsy shop. My work takes me all around the country demonstrating stamping, papercrafts and general inkiness! When I'm not working, I love gardening, church & community activities, nature watching, journalling, music and theatre and just relaxing at home. Email me at: ljm.design1@virginmedia.com

Thursday 19 July 2012

A different sort of day

Thank you to everyone who sent me emails, texts, cards and comments for my birthday today. It was a day of mixed emotions as this was my first one not spent with David since I was just eighteen years old. We always used to play Mario Lanza's music on our birthday mornings and David would serenade me whilst giving me a big hug...he had a really wonderful tenor voice.
Of course, I had to play Mario Lanza this morning which brought back so many memories and I did shed some tears. However, Heather arrived soon after, so I "pulled myself together" and we set out to have a good day.
After visiting our mum, we went on to Freeport which is an outlet centre where we did the round of all the shops and had a fish n chips lunch. We'd thought of going to the zoo but the weather's been so unpredictable that we decided to go shopping instead! We'll save the zoo for another day.
So, it turned out to be a fun day thanks to my lovely sister.
I've spent the evening trying to catch up with everyone by phone or email and am gradually getting there - if I still haven't got back to anyone, please be sure I haven't forgotten you!
Here's a piccie of some of the cards I was sent including one from Gez that made me smile...if you open the picture in a new window, you'll see Gez's card featuring a cycling frog! Brilliant!
On Tuesday, Joanne and her lovely husband "T" came to visit and brought me these lovely home grown flowers.... .....a beautifully coloured card, bookmark (which I just happened to be wanting!) and this great birdtable - wow! It's going to look brilliant in the garden and I'm going to put it where I'll be able to watch the birds from the conservatory. No excuses now - I'll have to get that weeding finished!
Heather gave me some lovely gifts including two charms for my bracelet which I tried to photograph but didn't manage - one is a silver owl and the other is a most beautiful Murano glass bead in aqua tones with delicate white flowers beneath the surface.
So, I had a rollercoaster of a day really.
I did promise to share some photos of a few things I've made this week for my day at Card-Io on Saturday. I have just a couple to share for now starting with this little collection....
.....the card features my "Inertia Starter" robot stamp set. I used stencils from Crafters Workshop and Dylusions to create the backgrounds on the robot panel and base card. The tags are made using stamps from my Off the Wall collection. I've used Dylusions ink sprays to colour the ribbons.
Below are a couple of tags, the one on the left features "Emily" who I stamped, coloured and coated with Glue n Seal (gloss version) before spritzing the tag with Dylusions ink sprays. I spritzed water through a stencil to give the bleached out dots effect and the edging is another stencil with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink blended over and then highlighted with a white pen. I wrote the words using black and white pens.
The right hand tag was made using some of the card that I prepped a few days ago and the rosette style flower is made from the paper towel that I used to roll across the wet inked surface. The bird images are from my "Arabella" stamp set and the quote from my "Creative Thoughts" set. I really like the bright shades of the Dylusions inks and found them very uplifting.
Talking of bright colours, one shop we called into today was the Pavers outlet and Heather talked me into getting these lovely shoes..... ....not that I took much convincing, and the clincher was when I turned them over and we saw the soles, complete with steampunk detailing! Heather suggested that I ink them up and literally "stamp" onto card with them!
Well, it's a bit of a mish mashed, mixed up sort of post tonight, but it's getting late and it's been a long day. Thank you again for the thoughtfulness that's been shown to me and I hope to see some of you on Saturday. I'll post more pictures after the weekend and let you know how things go in Wigan.
I know it's only Thursday, but have a great weekend everyone.

9 comments:

Gez Butterworth said...

Great post Lindsay. Glad my card brought a smile, as intended! :o))
Enjoy your new birdtable what a thoughtful gift and those shoes are AMAZING! As are all your tags and cards.. I need to watch you work your magic it's been wayyy too long. Have a great time in Wigan. We used to go through on the boat passed the pier! Gez xxx

Mel said...

What a lovely post. I just bought some more of your funny lady stamp sets today. they are so quirky they really crack me up! i checked out your blog a little bit ago and was truly so sorry to hear of your loss. How unbearably painful for you. You are very strong lady to venture out however hard for you. Your sisters got the right idea, what a tonic she will be for you. My thoughts are with you.
And to top it all you produce some amazing pieces of artwork - i so lov the tags. Looking forward to seeing more. Keep strong,and spend more time with your sister.
mel xxx

Clare said...

Oh Lindsay I'm so sorry I missed your Birthday hun (sorry not been well). What a day you have had. It must have been so terribly hard, the first of everything always is. Im so sure that your David has been with you all day though, even helping you to pick out those gorgeous shoes!!!. What a great Sister you have too. Looks like you have been spoilt and loving that bird table and also those beautiful cards.
Wow I am absolutely loving your creations Lindsay. I love those tags and the colours are amazing. You certainly are still on top with your artwork hun. You should be totally proud of yourself. Big hugs Clare xxx

Redanne said...

Hi Lindsay, well I will never forget your birthday now because it mine today! I really enjoyed reading this lovely post today, love your cards, the frog is brilliant and nice to see your lovely photo of you and David too. Your tags are gorgeous but most of all I love your new bird table (hope the cats don't like it too much), what a thoughtful gift from Joanne. Take care - those fab shoes will make you smile every time you wear them and I agree, take some stamped impressions first! Crafty hugs, Anne x

Joanne said...

I am having a good laugh here imagining you spaying the soles of your shoes then walking all over a roll of lining paper. Just waiting for the finished cards now. Enjoyed our little day out on Tuesday and glad you had 'in the most' a fab day yesterday.
Hugs Joanne xx

Hazel (Didos) said...

Oh Love your cards and gifts. WOW your new shoes are brilliant, I adore the colour of them,sending big hugs, Hxx

Gez Butterworth said...

Just wait til it snows Lindsay you will make AWESOME footprints!

Elaine said...

Glad you had a good birthday - love your new shoes!! I'm with Heather, ink the soles and do some stamping - they'll make great backgrounds!

annemarks said...

Love the dylusions cards and those shoes are fab. Amazing soles you could make a mould maybe or use that blue foam stuff that you heat up and press in?