Back from London

Hello everyone and thank you for all the lovely calls, emails, texts and comments which you left for me before and after my debut on QVC - they have all been really appreciated. Your good wishes certainly helped to quell any nerves!

Wednesday started with me travelling down to Euston where Jj met me and drove me to the hotel in Chelsea Harbour where Dawn and Leonie were busy making some extra cards for that night's show. I went to my room first to freshen up a bit...lovely room with fabulous views over the harbour and city as you can see. I then went down to join Dawn and Leonie amidst the all the stamps, papers and inks. We had a quick snack in the room and very soon it was time to get ready to go along to QVC. A double quick shower and change and we were off! Poor Jj has two slipped discs, so he felt a bit helpless as we loaded boxes and bags into the car. Arriving at QVC Leonie had to say cheerio as she had to be elsewhere, so we loaded a large trolley and wheeled all the kits and samples up to the studio which looked quite dark and gloomy at this stage as you can see. All the kits had to be unloaded and put into order on the "pods" as they are called. The clock was now counting down but with two hours to go it seemed as if there would be lots of time to get organised....or maybe not! The time was flying by and there were so many things to put out, that it was 7.30pm before I knew it! The producer chatted to me about general things that I needed to know and very soon I was being miked up. All my nerves had left me by now, as there was just so much going on and everyone was so friendly. The bright studio lights came on, Dale Franklin arrived and very quickly it was the ten second countdown.

The whole two hour show just flew by and was so much fun. I really didn't get chance to show half the techniques that I had prepared because everything was selling out so quickly. The funniest moment for me was when I answered Dawn's question about how much Perfect Pearls powder to add to black embossing powder and I said "the tip of a Starbuck's coffee stirrer is about right".....Dale had to jump in and say "or any other coffee house of course" and...ooops....I realised what I had said!!! Everyone laughed though, so I didn't get thrown off the set! Dale Franklin was absolutely lovely, very calm and relaxed and Dawn and I just chatted together as we normally would.

Very soon the show had ended and it was time to clear away. My table looked like an absolute tip as I had been going from one thing to another with no time to clear up as I went. The photo below is of my previously well packed case after I threw everything in as my tables were needed in another studio. Dawn, Dale and the QVC crew all said that they were delighted with how the show had gone, and how natural I had been - phew! So, once we had packed away it was back to the htel where Dawn Jj and I had a strawberry champagne cocktail each (and I forgot to take a picture!) in celebration of my debut! Delicious! We chatted for a couple of hours and, of course, there were a few phone calls to make and take. David had told me to remember to smile and, apparently I looked very serious! I think it was because the studio is so full of cameras, monitors and people that it is quite hard to know where to look or whether you are on screen or not. I'm sure that it all comes with experience.

I was happy to see when I got back that Joanne and Jilly had both spotted their cards behind me on screen! I didn't get chance to show them, so I'd hoped they would be noticed.

So, it was a great experience and Dawn and Jj really looked after me - the only downer was that Jj ran me back to Euston and despite setting off an hour before my train was due out we got there with just a few minutes to spare, only to be told that my train had gone....apparently they won't let passengers on if there are only minutes before departure....first time I have heard this one! I wasn't allowed to travel with my ticket on another train, so had to pay out almost £45 on a new one - I was livid and I will be complaining!

To finish my post, here are just a few of the card samples that I made for the show.....this one was using Perfect Pearl powders over black card and then inking the silhouette stamps with Perfect Pearls medium and stamping them onto the card which removes the powder. The swirls were drawn with a Versamark pen and then powdered over.Next is a background made using Distress inks and water. The bird and swirls were stamped over the top and I stamped a second bird, coloured it, cut it out and stuck it over the first bird.

Below is a card that was made using Personal Impressions canvas which I coloured with Heritage ink pads and then made the frame from. The rest of the card was just layers decorated with birds and swirls.

Lastly, this is the card whch I made to show the masking technique using some of the cats from my clear stamp set. I thought it would be fun to colour them in pastel shades to match the cardstock.

Well, I must sign off now, but thanks to everyone who wished me luck, watched, or bought my stamps! Lindsay