Time for a breather

Another busy weekend has come and gone! I am a little late posting my account of the weekend at Topaz as I was really tired last night but had an interrupted night, so have still had very little sleep....feeling a little bleary eyed today, and looking forward to a couple of days of welcome rest and relaxation before the next deadlines loom large.

I was really looking forward to the weekend - not only a chance to catch up with people that I don't often see, but it it's also exciting to launch new designs and I especially enjoy working with the Christmas images. Here is part of my table with just some of the new stamps piled up. My ATC album is just behind...though I have to say that I was very disappointed as I only swapped four!!!

Behind my album you can see the candles which I had decorated and this proved to be so popular that I ran out of candles to stamp! Dawn's sister, Rena, brought me some from home on Sunday which were part burned down which gave them a very authentic look! Here's another view of my table with more cards on show and you can just see the unmounted rubber sets of stamps which are new for Personal Impressions this year. Hopefully they will appeal to those of you who, like me, really enjoy the versatility of a rubber stamp but also need to think about space. (Mmmm...sore point...despite all my clearing out I seem to have more clutter than ever!). The card at the top left of my display board features Distress inks used to create a moody sky, which is one of the things that we will be doing at my workshop on the 15th September.

It was wonderful to meet so many of you over the weekend - new faces and more familiar ones. Sheila (Crafty She) said hello and has already posted creations with her new stamps on her blog...a very keen crafter indeed! Sheila had sent me a beautiful belated birthday card and ATC so I was really pleased to be able to say thank you in person. Paul came to see us all and handed round chocolates to keep our blood sugar levels up! Serena, Carol, Sharon.... and so many more who I know by face but not by names - thank you for all the lovely comments and the positive feedback.

There was some fabulous work on show - my friend Sarah was using new Hero Arts stamps and made some gorgeous dimensional flowers using Grunge paper....this is a great product as, if you shape the petals, the flowers will stay curled and of course you can ink, punch and Distress it. Leonie was creating some luscious effects with Smooch inks (the ones that look like nail varnish!) and stamps. Jane, was making some amazing scrapbook pages with Vintage papers and some really great embossed effects. There were lots more great projects too many to mention or photograph, but certainly lots to see and get great tips from.

Below is a quirky card using a couple of my new stamps (Script Robin and Star Topped Tree) along with some Grunge paper and Grungeboard swirls and crown. The papers are all Peppermint Twist by K&Co.

The next card had exactly the effect which I had hoped for, that is, to make everyone smile! I used my new "Sliding Polar Bear" stamp and created three mini bears from Shrink Plastic. Carol Wilson Jingles paper covers the DL card and then I cut a simple iceberg shape from white card, slightly larger than the base card so that I could curve it to make it more dimensional. Tabs left at either side allowed me to stick it to the front and then I shaded and glittered it slightly before adding my slippy slidey bears! I am thinking....parachuting, bungee jumping, hang gliding Polar Bears may be adorning a few of my cards.

The last card in detail is the Script Robin again, but this time I coloured directly onto the stamp with Le Plume pens, using reds for the breast and browns elsewhere. I spritzed with water and stamped onto white card and simply mounted onto Jingles paper. I was pleased with how clearly the words still showed because the water can often cause details to be lost. However, Personal Impressions cut the rubber so deeply that this was not a problem as you can see.
On saturday evening Sarah and I tootled along to the design studio where the remaining demonstrations had been. Paula Pascual and Sheena Douglas were both there along with Dawn of course. We all went out for a lovely meal and then went back to Dawn's for a catch up and to meet the goats (who were, of course, adorable!) and say hello to the doggies. We sat around the kitchen table which was weighed down with card, pens, stamps etc and, of course, Dawn got us all making a card each...well, we tried anyway! It was very funny because we all felt "carded out" and were too embarrassed to show each other our creations!

Here are Sarah and Sheena having a well deserved giggle and Dawn and Paula who both look a little "pixyish" here! The night was vanishing quickly so Sarah's hubby, Ewan, came and collected the two of us and we went back to their house where I was having a sleepover. Good conversation scuppered our plans for a healthy, early night of course! Ewan had baked two trays of delicious brownies for Sarah to give to customers the next day - what a thoughtful husband!

Sunday came and went very quickly too - as always happens when it is very busy. One of the most popular, on the face of it rather boring, products on my table was the new Stazon spray cleaner. This is a must have which I can really recommend as it doesn't just clean a stamp but, unlike the original Stazon cleaner, it removes the blackness too as well as conditioning the stamp. A basic product, but brilliant.

Well, excuse the rather rambling nature of this post, but I think that the lack of sleep is really kicking in now and I should probably get to bed. Thank you Hazel for the award - I will get to it asap - promise! And thanks for all the lovely comments as per usual. Now I am off to have, I hope, a lovely dream with no double sided tape, paper, scissors or ink anywhere in sight!!! Lindsay