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

Tuesday 28 August 2012

A few samples

Bank holiday Monday was the usual wash out wasn't it. I only popped outside to take out some rubbish, but otherwise Tara, Thomas and I battened down the hatches and kept dry. It's been a total contrast here today.....glorious sunshine and really warm.
So, I've had the doors and windows open all day while I've been working. Lovely, but now I'm regretting it as there are so many mosquitoes inside that I've lost count. The lemon oil is having no deterrent effect whatsoever obviously! I've just spent half an hour going round with my insect repellent and squirting the little demons which dispatches them very quickly if I get my aim right. I do feel awful doing it, but I know I'll end up being bitten all night if I let my soft hearted side take over. At least I have an excuse for the cobwebs now.....I need plenty of spiders around to eat the midges!
I've been busy making samples for this weekend's demonstration at Cutting Edge Crafts in Skegness as well as completing a magazine project. I had a die cutting afternoon yesterday so I had plenty of bits ready to work with today. I enjoyed making this tag, though I'm looking at the photo now and seeing things that I'd do differently! I used the negative from cutting the "25" and dabbed Snow Cap acrylic paint through it as well as stroking a little around the tag generally. I blended Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers and Pine Needles Distress inks over the tag, then wiped off the excess with a damp tissue before stamping the trees in a mix of Pine Needles and Walnut Stain and wiping the excess off again. I like the effect of the number looking both behind and in front of the trees. The deer is cut from Grungeboard inked with various red and brown tones and I added a few swirls with an Inkssentials white pen.
I really liked the way the colours came together on this card - not my usual first choice but I think they work well. The focal images are made using a Sizzlits long die called Festive Greenery which has so many delicate elements. I used Snow Cap again to add the snowy details. The greeting is from one of my last season's Christmas stamp sets called Silent Night which has fourteen assorted styles of Christmas words and messages. I got really caught up making this tag! The background is embossed though you might not be able to tell here. I may well change the ribbon as it turned out a little more red than I wanted, so I might try for a more plummy colour....I'll see how my time pans out tomorrow. Well, after being such a warm day it's gone really chilly now, so I think it's time to go to bed, snuggle under the duvet and hope I can avoid the pesky biters tonight! Oh, if you want to see a little video clip of Tara just click on my You Tube link near the top of my left sidebar.

5 comments:

Lynn said...

I've been reading about your losing battle with mosquitoes and it reminded me of summer holidays spent in Greece a number of years ago. We bought a plug in 'thingy' for the bedroom so that we wouldn't get eaten alive during the night. As I recall it had some active ingredient/part that was replaceable/refillable. Don't know if things like this are available in the UK but it might be worth checking out, or even getting someone to bring you one back from abroad.

Lynn x

Redanne said...

Sorry to hear about the plague of mozzies you have, I just wonder if cintronella might work? Or maybe that's what you use already.

Your tags are gorgeous, I have that die you used on the second one but I could never get it to look as good as yours. The third is my favourite, beautiful colours and love the embossing.

Hoping you will soon be mozzie free! A x

Paul B said...

Excellent samples, very festive and wonderfully arty. Sounds like you're winning the battle against the midges lol. Enjoy your demo this weekend :) Pxx

SusieJ said...

Those tags are all wonderful Lindsay but I love the third one most of all.
Sorry to have no advice re mozzies...they love me too!
Hugs xx

Joanne said...

These tags are just heaven to me because for you to get Tim's dies was top of my wish list. Can't wait for the new ones which start to ship in October because there is a fab on the edge tree one that I need, sorry would like. We still have dozens of SwiftySwallowMartins here, so I'll ask them to pop by yours and feast on those mozzies.
Hugs Joanne xx