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 20 September 2012

Oh no!

Oh no, oh dear, darn it, blast and other mild expletives. Looks like the new look blogger reprieve is finally over and it's the end of normal service for us more technically challenged posters. I almost stopped blogging completely last time....couldn't position photos where I wanted them, couldn't space text as I normally do and even the smallest post took me forever.
Well, I am going to add two photos just to test out if anything has improved since last time. This first one is one of my "infamous" water bleached distress ink cards. I'm mainly adding this because I promised several people over the last few weeks that I would! This particular version was made using about five ink colours....honestly, you can use more or less any that you prefer. I generally use Broken China or Stormy Sky as a starting point. I'll add Worn Lipstick, Dusty Concorde, Faded Jeans and usually finish with Walnut Stain or Frayed Burlap.
Just blend them right over the card - the cardstock is important, as the faux bleaching won't work on every type of card. You need a heavy weight card with a good surface such as PI's Artisan cardstock. The snow drift is made using lots of water swooshed across the bottom of the card with a tissue dragged across it to lift the colour out. The trees are painted out with a water brush, as is the moon. The snowman is a circle and an oval bleached out with water and then the details added with the fine points of my pens. I added a stocking hanging from this chap's twiggy arm so that the message would tie in with the overall picture.
Well, woopie dooh! After lots of messing about, the picture has slotted into place...well, it seems to have...I'll see when the post is published!
This next card has a similarly made sky with the addition of a masked off area to create the snow. I lightly drew a big circle in pencil and used plenty of water to paint over it then dabbed with tissue to take the colour out. The Gorjuss image was stamped, coloured, cut out and added. The words are from a Dylusions stamp set called "The Right Words". 
 Well, experiment over and it certainly seems to have been a bit easier than the last time I tried the new blogger "interface" (I don't even know what that means). I am going to cross my fingers as I press the "publish post" button and just hope that it looks normal. If it doesn't then I shall just sulk.
PS I have published and looked at the results....not impressed! The font size choice means keeping the text as small as it now is, or having it the size normally reserved for young children's books! So, hope you're not squinting to read this! If anyone knows how I can alter the text size to my normal preference, please let me know.

11 comments:

misteejay said...

I'm with you all the way - I do not like this Blogger format and if I wanted my text as one big block that's how I would type it but as I've taken the time to add paragraphs, that's what I'd like to see in my posts GRRRRRR

Toni xx

misteejay said...

Ooops, sorry Lindsay...Blogger is winding me up so much I forgot to say how much I love your cards.

Toni xx

Jane Willis said...

I wish I had the answers for you - I almost wept when I logged in this morning and saw that old Blogger is no longer available. It takes me about 5 times as long to write a post with the new interface, and it keeps changing links and stopping me from resizing photos. Sometimes all the menu icons vanish from the top of the composition box. it's horrid, horrid HORRID!

But Blogger's foibles apart, your cards are gorgeous. Thanks for persevering and sharing them.

Paul B said...

I haven't been on blogger this morning but will put a brave face on and go check it out. Love your cards and the water technique. Pxx

Joanne said...

Just look at those cards, fabulous. No matter how hard I try the water technique, I always end up with a big mess. Practice again I reckon. Now then this Blogger, I've been using the new one on my DT for a while now and it works the same as the old one. All the tools are still there, some across the top and some down the side. Just click the 'f' for font and the numbers arrow for it's size. I'll have another look and make some notes - if I can. Whatever you do, please don't give up blogging, I couldn't bear to lose sight of your samples and your workshops.
Hugs Joanne xx

Elaine said...

Great cards. Takes a bit of getting used to the new blogger but at the top where you add photos etc towards the left there is a F button so you can choose your font and T button to change size. Hope it works for you!

Lindsay Mason said...

Thanks folks...I assumed last night that the "T" would give me a choice of font sizes with numbers, as usual. Unfortunately, there are now just "small, normal, large" etc. The size I have used is "normal", but looks very small to me. I tried the next size, "large", but it was way too big. Why don't they ever just leave anything alone?! Ggggrrrr! Lindsay

pearshapedcrafting said...

Really love your snowman, I definitely need more practice! Been using new blogger for a while now but....it did take some getting used to and I still grit my teeth sometimes when it won't let me do something I used to do so easily! BTW really looking forward to seeing you (and your new stamps) next week at Happy Stampers.Hugs, Chrisxx

Fliss said...

Fabulous cards Lindsay and I'm so sorry you're struggling with Blogger and all I can say is that it does get easier the more you use it.
Just popped over to say that I loved watching you demo at The Craft Barn in June and I finally managed to get something made up with your gorgeous Arabella set.
If you'd like to see what I made, you'll find it here:
http://stamperschef.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/she-was-born-to-dance.html

All the best,
Fliss x

Gez Butterworth said...

Fabulous, fabulous cards Lindsay, I never tire of seeing your beautiful technique. Was my first love of all things inky ♥

Have a great time at Port Sunny xxx

Sorry, it's been a while since I called my daughter left home for Uni last weekend & I don't know if I'm my head or my feet atm!!!!

Good Luck with the new Blogger I keep saying I'm moving to Typepad or something.. it's all the extra line spaces it likes to add even tho they don't exsist in draft!!!

annemarks said...

Lovely cards and thanks for the technique :)