Bit of a catch up

Sorry it's been a few days since I posted any photos so here are some from the last week or so. This is one from the dabble day at Samuel Taylors in Leeds where the ladies were doing a round robin of crafting in four different workshops. I took quite a few pics throughout the day but I picked this one for all the lovely smiles! Everyone had a great time making a variety of projects using different techniques and products. You can see more pictures of the day by visiting the Samuel Taylors facebook page...sorry I don't have a link for that. On Wednesday I was teaching another workshop, this time at Weavervale Garden Centre in Northwich. More smiley faces! The ladies each made three cards and were enjoying it so much that we overran by more than an hour! On Saturday I was at Astbury Meadows garden centre in Congleton where the demonstration table had been set up in the coffee shop...with the aroma of coffee all day which was nice! Here are a few of the cards that I made for the weekend. This one uses images from my Gwendoline stamp set as well as a quote from one of the Dylusions range of stamps. The background for this card is made using Liquid Pearls in Flamingo which has been randomly applied over card using scrunched up shrink wrap. Once dried, I inked over the card using Spiced Marmalade distress ink which, of course, resists the pearly paint. The effect is lovely and shimmery, though you can't really see the pearliness here.

I combined a couple of my stamp sets for this card and decided to make a DL one for a change. The cottage, trees and fence are from Build a Snowy Scene and the letterbox is from Christmas Post. I used White Opal Liquid Pearls to give dimension to the snow on the trees and roof etc before sprinkling with fine glitter. I used a white gel pen to add tiny snowy touches to the letterbox which give it more dimension.

This last card was great fun to make and features my Humbert & Spider Boy stamps. I used my Glue n Seal resist technique on the stamps before adding the blended distress ink background and stencilling the cog wheel using a Crafters Workshop template. I spritzed a little black Dylusions ink onto my craft sheet and spattered it onto the card with a paintbrush to create some inky blobs. Of course, I had to add three of my gem stone spiders to complete it!

When I got back on Saturday Heather met me at the station and we walked round to the church hall where we were the "Chalk and Cheese" team (Heather's idea!) in a quiz and curry night. I'm afraid we didn't win but we had a lot of fun trying. The curry came halfway through the quiz and then we all got to help ourselves to various components to decorate cupcakes with before carrying on with the questions. Here's Heather busy with her cake....

and this was my effort... ....as usual, I had to go over the top!

Yesterday we went to see mum and when I got home I had a "power nap" before cracking on with work. The nap was to get over the shock of having to get up in the dark twice for early morning trains during the week. There's something just wrong about getting out of bed before the sun is even peeking over the horizon! So, I've been virtually chained to the table since then, surrounded by pens and pencils and scary blank sheets of paper! I've got a nice pile of designs building now though.
Well, it's time for bed as I was up early again this morning and my eyes are really losing the fight to stay open now. I think a good night's sleep is coming my way...I even dropped off in the middle of watching Only Connect tonight, much to my annoyance! Night all.