That was the week that was....

......a very busy one! In fact, I was joking today that demonstrating on Saturday will feel like a day off! It's been a juggling act to bring all the different strands together on time if that's not too much of a mixed metaphor! I haven't even seen a tennis match yet, just an odd five minutes here and there, although the match featuring Sharapova yesterday got switched off anyway when I could stand the outrageous shrieking from both ends of the court no longer! Time to get tough on the ladies who spoil the game with the ear splitting screaming in my opinion.

I had two days that were more or less set aside for making samples for my demo at the Coleman's Craft Warehouse event on Saturday. As well as my Doo Lally Pip range they have a good stock of lots of my other stamps, so it was fun to work with them for a change. This is one of the cards that I made using one of my wooden rubber stamps called "Fluffy Owl".......

 .....I used a DCWV paper to fold into the "frame", secured with brads and threaded with sheer ribbon that I coloured with Dylusions inks. I've used a few images of the owl, cut and layered to give him some dimension. I cut out a separate pair of his feet so that I could glue the branch across his body and then the feet on top of that so he looks as if he's gripping it.

Here's the card taken out of the paper frame - it's not as finished as it would be if I were making it to send to someone. And, yes, I know it's either a Bonsai tree or a bloomin' big owl....artistic license! 

I cut the tree freehand from really dark brown textured card stock and glued it down over the card and the owl panel. A little white card moon and some white gel pen stars just add a touch of brightness and I wrote a simple message with a fine pen...not very straight! Oh yes, I did put Glossy Accents on his eyes.

Back to Doo Lally Pip for this tag now, quite a bright tag at that! The birdcage is cut from Tim's Kraft Core card using one of his Sizzix dies and I then sanded it back a bit. 

The background of the tag is Tim's tissue wrap (Symphony) that I sprayed with inks and then dabbed with paper towel to blend them onto the slightly resistant surface. I added gold embossing powder over glue stick around the edges. The bird and word are from my "Squawk" set. Some TH pearls along the bottom of the cage, some inky ribbon and an inked Kraft Resist flower complete this quirky quacker!

I've been too busy to get into the garden at all this week, except for watering things in the evenings of the very hot days we had on and off. I got home this evening in the middle of a downpour and decided to take a few snaps whilst the rain was giving the colours an extra vibrancy. I can hardly believe how much everything's grown in the last few days.

This is the area at the back of the house that the side door of the conservatory opens onto. It's where I hang my washing, but it's much nicer to look at when there are no towels and sheets in the way....

  ....to think all this came from some tiny seeds that I planted a few months ago! Don't even ask about the tray and the plastic bowl part filled with soil...at least the bowl matches the Nasturtiums! There are Sweet Peas and Sunflowers against the fence and the troughs at the side have Sunflowers, courgettes and tomatoes in them.

More edible goodies are maturing now....

 ....though I'll be lucky to get any of these cherries if the birds have anything to do with it. Last year I put netting over the tree which did deter the birds but did nothing to protect the fruit from the aphids and ants which appeared like magic as soon as the cherries began to ripen. I might get the odd one anyway!

I'm chuffed to see the Clematis at the side of my bench is flowering now. It's a beautiful blue lilac colour and has plenty of buds, so I should be enjoying the blooms for quite a while I hope.

 

Well, that's tonight's garden tour over with!

The other big commitment this week has been in my new role as deputy Verger of course, and I set up two Communion services and helped with two funerals. Everything went okay and thankfully, I remembered all the various things that I had to do. Not the best picture, as I was standing in the subdued light at the back of the church, but this is me wearing the Verger's robe.....

 .....I did feel a bit of a fraud as it's emblazoned with the Guild of Verger's badge, which I'm not a member of, but I'm allowed to wear it when I'm on duty. You can see from the panelling behind me that St Chads is a very old, traditional church, a Grade II listed building with some parts dating back to the 11th century.

This evening I was in almost the exact same spot where this picture was taken, but in a very different role as a puppeteer! We were having our first rehearsal for an event in a few weeks time - I'll post some pictures after the show, but we had a lot of fun tonight!

My bags are packed for my trip tomorrow....Thomas doesn't like the way I have kept paying so much attention to my case - think he suspects! He won't be best pleased when he has to sleep on his own tomorrow night...he's a big bruiser but a real "mummy's boy" at heart!

So, hope to see some of you on Saturday and, though I'm a day early - have a great weekend everyone!

My next little trip

I'm off on another train journey tomorrow down to Thame in Oxfordshire where I'll be demonstrating and hosting make n takes at "A Maze of Memories" on Saturday. So if you're in the area, do pop along as it will be a fun and interesting day. I've been busy making samples so thought I'd share some with you. This first one features the Celtic Owl from my Swirly Birds set...this isn't a new design, but it's one that I use all the time as I do love owls and he suits lots of occasions and styles. I've stamped him onto the new PI 300gsm white card using Walnut Stain Distress ink and then waterbrushed the ink to colour him. The PI card is great for this as the ink stays wet for longer than on standard card. I added a touch of white to his eyes and beak. I then created the background using Distress inks in Worn Lipstick, Old Paper, Spiced Marmalade and Brushed Corduroy then spritzed with water and painted the moon with water before dabbing with tissue to remove the colour. I then added a large drop of Walnut Stain ReInker to the base of the card and blew it through a straw to create the tree....haven't done this technique for a while and I'd forgotten how woozy it makes you! I used a mix of ink colours to paint on some tatty leaves - just for the effect of those lingering, crumpled ones that hang on as long as possible. I covered a large card with paper from Tim's Retro paper stash and used another piece as a mat around the main image. I placed the owl onto a branch and cut the word from Tim's Seasonal stack. Three leaves from the Idealogy Foliage pack were enhanced with some alcohol inks and stuck down with silicone glue around the word. To complete the card I added a strip of Hobgoblin Tissue Tape once I had inked it lightly. Good to be able to use Halloween themed products after the event!

A fairy and toadstools from my Fairy Silhouettes stamp set are the focal points of this card. I made a monoprint of alcohol inks before stamping the images over it...I curved the toadstools slightly before stamping some of them to give more variety. This was matted onto silver and then a paper from Tim's Vintage Shabby stack which I smudged with a mucky foam pad to get a mix of colours! I punched the corners using the MS String Lace which I also used on the large card blank before smooching some more colour around it all. To finish I used some peel offs...I know...peel offs! These are glittered stars and I alcohol inked them first which I think raises them up a level (for you peel off snobs out there....I know who you are!). Oh, I did add some of my "grown up stars" to the main panel using an Inkssentials pen. This next piece was fun and simple to make. I squidged Glossy Accents over the back of a Tim Holtz Facet and stuck this to a piece from the Seasonal stash....I placed it with the drilled hole at the bottom. Once dry, I cut around the piece and pierced the hole from the back, threaded a jump ring through and hung an Idealogy Bauble from this. I dyed some ribbon with alcohol ink and made a loop with a double knot which I stuck to the back of a metal Corner before sticking the Corner to the top of the Facet using good old Glossy Accents. I tied a bow around the hanging loop with a second piece of ribbon and added a little Gesso and glitter to complete. Next is Mr Twit Too Whoo again! Told you I use this stamp a lot! This time I stamped him with Archival ink and coloured him with Memento pens. He's on a Distress ink background with a tree stump drawn on with a brown Memento pen that I later added Gesso to. The backing papers are from the Vintage Shabby stash and I added a calendar tag that I cut from "Traveller" Tissue Tape. I also made a ruffle of the tape to go below the main image....this is one of Tim's ideas that I really like as it adds dimension. I've found that if you double the tape back on itself first (ie make a double sided strip) then it doesn't crush. Lastly, here's a full on grunged card! The backing paper is from the Seasonal stash, the music score from the matching salvage stickers. The numbers are Grungeboard that I've inked and added Gesso to....love Gesso, despite the dangers of mess! I also inked and Gessoed an Adage ticket and added a dyed ribbon, a strip of Tidings Tissue Tape and some Foliage accents. Hope you like them! I certainly had fun making them. Oh yes...check out Tim's blog as there is great news about Colourwash which I really love using. New colours (including some of my all time favourites) a new, handier size and improved spray nozzle. I am keeping my fingers crossed that these will be coming soon!

Remember to leave your comment to have a chance for the blog candy....you don't need to have a blog of your own to do this - just follow the directions after pressing "comment". I'm hoping to start the artwork side of the candy on the train tomorrow! I do a lot of doodling when I'm travelling, so I should, at least, get something sketchy done.

Finally, we're holding Dawn, Rena, Amy and the rest of the family in our thoughts and hearts as they go through this difficult time. It's at these moments that their strong family bond comes into its own. Lindsay

Great weekend

Hello all, what a busy weekend that was! I met so many lovely people, both familiar and new faces and had lots of fun into the bargain. I was demonstrating at Topaz in the morning and then teaching a workshop in the afternoon. We made butterfly cards using various techniques...alcohol inks in the new bright shades, stamping, die cutting and peel offs, along with lovely K & Co papers. Then I went up to the hotel where Dawn Bibby was holding her residential weekend and said hello to everyone there. They were all busy making gorgeous books from acetate and K&Co papers and embellishments...very pretty.

I met up with Sarah, Leonie and all the girls from Dawn's team and helped to pack away so the hotel staff could get the room ready for the evening. A quick wash and brush up and then we all headed down to a lovely meal, followed by a crafty quiz....I was with the lovely Sarah and we were convinced that our table should have won! We definitely felt cheated! It was great to get some time to have a proper catch up as Sarah and I usually only have fleeting meetings. I just read Sarah's blog and she was burgled last night, as they slept, so hope that she is not feeling too shaken up today - it's a nasty experience for anyone that's for sure, and typical that it would happen to such a kind and caring person.

On Sunday the day began early as the ladies were bussed from the hotel to watch me, and some of Dawn's team, demonstrating. Lots of ATC swaps were done and plenty of hints and tips passed on. Then all change again for the afternoon worshop where we made my owl box. Joanne from My Toby Jug fame was at this one, so it was lovely to catch up. Hello to all the ladies from the weekend including both Margarets, Serena and Valerie. We had fun with the shrink plastic owls as it was the first time for some, so lots of giggling ensued as miniature owls flew around the room! I did take photos of the weekend, but will post them next time as I have so much to get through this week.

I am playing catch up with new product testing plus all my design deadlines and samples but hope to be able to give more details on what I am working on very soon. A giant headache has intefered with my progress today, so I went for a long walk to try and blow it away, with some success! Right, I shall press on and be back soon with piccies! Lindsay

Lovely Lingfield

I got back quite late last night after a very busy and enjoyable time in Lingfield. It really is a lovely village with just a few shops, a couple of restaurants and cafes, a pretty duck pond (with duck house!) and some really beautiful old cottages. Needless to say that, as soon as I had left my bag at the shop and checked in at my hotel, I bought some bread and went to feed the Ducks and Coots (or were they Moorhens? I always confuse the two). The adult Coots were kept very busy as they had two broods to feed - "adolescent" chicks and the newest arrivals which looked like little black fuzzy pom poms! Very sweet! My hotel was one of the local pubs and was just a stride away from the cottages and church that you can see in the first photograph. From my window I could see the local countryside and the hotel garden had a horse, goat and rabbits, so I was in my element! I went out for a meal at a lovely Thai restaurant, a delicious red curry with Kafir lime leaves and coconut - beautifully presented with carved vegetables that were too pretty to eat!

The Craft Barn weekend demonstrations were in the local community centre and we had hardly set up our displays when customers began to arrive. I only had chance to take a few photographs of my fellow demonstrators as the crowds kept coming and the day just flew by.

On the left is Sue Roddis with a wonderful display of her altered art. You will know Sue from her many magazine articles - her pieces are really inspirational. On the right is Sandra Dry who designs stamps for Kadoodle - some very cheeky ladies can be seen at the front of her display! Below is Jenny Mayes from Hobby Art who was beside me - not that we got much chance to chat! Thank you Jenny for the lift to the station! There were many other designers there too - Paula Pascaul (who will be at Topaz with me this coming weekend), Julie Hickey and Kay Carley to name but three.

Once we had finished I went and fed the ducks again to unwind. I ate in my room that night as my hands were almost completely blue from using Distress inks all day! After a relaxing night it was time for day two which was just about as busy as Saturday had been. Thank you to all the ladies who swapped ATC's with me - they were all gorgeous - and for the lovely comments which I am always very appreciative of. I met familiar friends and made new ones too, so hello to all of you.

I was using lots of Ranger goodies and the card on the right was made using distress inks to create the background before stamping the sunflowers (from my "Count My Blessings" clear stamp set) with Walnut Stain distress ink. I then brushed gold Perfect Pearls over them and spritzed with water before heat setting. I finished with two fern images, from the same set, stamped with Pine Needles ink. The words are from Messages set 1 (clear stamps). This technique is featured on one of Tim Holtz's videos on his website, so do check it out - it's fun!

Two owls to finish with! On the left is a fun 21st birthday card that would suit a Harry Potter fan. The background is Que Sera Sera paper and the edge of the card is tinted with Dusty Concord Distress ink. The tree branches are just cut from black card and highlighted with a Just Glitter pen. The Fluffy Owl is stamped and cut out and I added the hat from my "Wizard Shelf"stamp. I cut a slit at the side of his wing and threaded a jump ring through this before attaching a small key charm. I then created a mini "envelope", cut around the beak and then popped the greeting underneath it. The final touch was to write the greeting across the bottom of the card.

The last image is not a finished card, but this proved to be the most popular demonstration that I did all weekend! The background is created with Broken China, Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord and Walnut Stain distress ink pads. I then stamped the owl using black Stazon. I spritzed a few drops of water over the card and dabbed these off to create a starry effect. I used a very wet brush to "draw" the moon in the sky and to paint the owl. Once dabbed away this has a bleaching effect with no noxious bleach needed! Just water! I added a touch of colour to his eyes, beak and feet and drew a branch with a black pen. Lastly I used my Inkssentials white pen to add highlights and a couple of extra stars. Hope you like it as much as the ladies (and men!) in Lingfield did! Thank you for all of the kind comments

Finally, I must say thank you so much to Jilly who sent David and I a beautiful card - David described it to me over the phone, but couldn't do justice to just how lovely it was. Totally unexpected and much appreciated! Hope to see you again soon Jilly. And hope to see some of you this weekend at Topaz - I'll be a bit busy this week now, getting ready for my demonstrations and workshops, as well as starting work on some new (non stamp!) designs. Hope you all henjoyed your weekends as much as I did! Lindsay

What a nightmare!

Hello everyone, what a nightmare start to my day I had! I was all set to get cracking on some projects that need to be done "yesterday" and the first job was to get out some stamps. I'd decided which ones to use last night and was already dreading the usual search amongst my, less than organised, collection! Apart from the boxes of stamps that are dotted about the place, my main collection is held in a three drawer unit that, admittedly, was not designed to hold hundreds of wooden blocks! There was I, rummaging through the layers, when the whole set of drawers completely collapsed!!! Yes, all three drawers gave up the ghost and all my stamps ended up in piles buried under each other and the remains of the drawers....wonderful! So my stamps are now sitting in the empty frame of the unit waiting for me to come up with a new storage solution...I think that some stackable trays are in order. I am now waiting for another crash, as the top of the, now drawerless unit, is weighed down with boxes of ink pads, peel offs, powders and a hundred other things. So long as the floor doesn't give way I wil cope, and, yes, I did eventually find the stamps that I was looking for!
I've taken some new photographs of the boxes, as promised, though they are still not as good as I'd like as it is rather dull here today. I'll be teaching these on two workshops at Dawn's Design Studio, one in June and the other in November. They aren't a new idea, and are a variation of the Exploding Boxes that many of us have made. But I had great fun making them, so I hope that you like them. The first one was made with papers from one of the latest K&Co ranges called Que Sera Sera (they are absolutely stunning by the way!) and I've used one of their adhesive borders around the lid. Inside the box are birds from my Swirly Birds clear stamps set which I've combined with the tiny flower from the "Count My Blessings" stamp set.
This picture shows the inside of another box and I used some of the alcohol inked metallic film and stamped butterflies onto it before cutting them out and adhering them onto acetate strips. I went a bit mad with the adhesive gems as you can see! No picture of the outside of this one as the image didn't come out very well.The last box is a little different as I had an idea to use the Owl stamp full sized on the outside whilst doing shrink plastic versions on the inside and I knew that I wanted to create a tree effect. After some thought I came up with the idea of a piece of black corrugated card which I cut into a wedge shape and then cut "twiggy" shapes into the diagonal edge. I rolled the card up with the tallest edge in the middle and stuck it into the bottom of the box - my must have product, Glossy Accents, came to the rescue for this job, as it stuck the spiral of card into place within a minute so that I wasn't forced to hold it for an age whilst it set! A little more Glossy Accents around the edges strengthened the bond and allowed me to add glitter for a slightly mystical look. The Owls were coloured with watered down Marvy Le Plume pens and I used a gold Just Glitter marker to add sparkle and a warm colour so that they look like Barn Owls when the light shines through them. I also coloured the beaks in gold to highlight them. I'll admit that I did make about twelve more shrinky owls before I was happy with the final three!!!

Apologies for the less than brilliant pictures, but I hope that they give an idea of what the boxes look like, and hope that they might inspire you to have a go. My friend Sarah has posted some photos of the weekend up at Oswaldtwistle Mills, so check out her blog (in my blog list) to see those...hooray, no pictures of me this time!!! Also check out MyTobyJug blog where Joanne has also posted some great pictures.

Well, I am going to have a cup of raspberry tea now and then back to those stamping projects! Lindsay

Up and coming events

Hello everyone - hope you have as much lovely sunshine as we do here today. I remembered to put my clocks forward and was quite happy that I wasn't working away from home today, so have been able to absorb the lost hour quite smoothly. It will be nice to have all that extra light later in the day again now, that's for sure.

I was at Create With Card in Ashton Under Lyne on friday...a very chilly day but they kept me warm with hot chocolate! Then, yesterday, was spent at Top Barn Crafts (above) which is in Plassey craft and retail village near Wrexham. It's a lovely setting as you can see in the picture on the left...the tree in the gardens has been carved into a work of art featuring different animals and birds as well as a naked lady! It's well worth a visit, with various Boutiques, shops and a cafe and restaurant as well as the craft shop of course. Hello to everyone that I met at both shops, and I hope that you had fun with all the techniques using your new pens. Below is a picture of a pendant made from one the kits that I was using yesterday...the metal butterfly has been coloured with Glaze pens to give an enamelled effect. I wanted to add something to the circles at the edegs of the wings and finally decided to use eyelets! They fit perfectly and I just pushed them tightly in with some Glossy Accents to keep them securely in place. It would be nice to add beads or gems, but I had to do something quite quick. It's not the best picture as the glaze is very reflective!I'm adding some new dates once I've done this post, so do check to see if I'll be in your area and come along if you can - we always have fun at my demonstrations!

Next weekend (4th/5th April) is the big demonstration event at both Osaldtwistle Mills and Dawn Bibby's Design Studio and will be well worth a visit. Dawn will be there of course, as will Leonie, Paula Pascual, Sheena Douglass and myself, as well as all of Dawn's creative team. There will be make n takes and demonstrations, lots of new products and more than a bit of fun I'm sure!

In response to your comments - yes, I really will be adding instructions for the owl cards (promise) it is just a case of getting the time to create the design in stages to photograph. I was all set to do it last week and then something else turned up that needed doing "yesterday"...just for a change! Thank you for all the comments that you leave generally - I do appreciate them all.

I was wondering where all "our" little birds had vanished to, as we seem to have had hardly any at our feeders lately. The pigeons have been as cheeky as ever of course! Our squirrels seemed to have deserted us too...was it something I said?! Thankfully, they must have read my mind as I can report that they are back with a vengeance and we have gained a Robin now too which is great...we found our last Robin dead over a year ago and think that he may have crashed into the window. One of our squirrels was back this morning which cheered me up, as I do love the way that they stand up on their back legs and look up at the window as if to say "come on, get the monkey nuts out!" - cute! He was burying them all this morning, so I hope that he remembers where they are before one of the ever observant Magpies starts digging them all up!

Well, that's my demonstration and wildlife report done for today! Don't forget to bring ATC's to swap if you are coming along next weekend and I will endeavour to post the owl instructions this week if humanly possible! Happy Sunday, Lindsay