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