Carlisle and an ATC

Hi folks, hope you all had a lovely weekend wherever you were. I had a great time up in Carlisle on Saturday and "hello" to all the ladies and gentlemen (including some extremely patient ones!) that came along. No ATC swaps again....mmmmm...I shall be getting a complex! Hope you are all managing to create those Distress ink skies, just keep practising and it will suddenly come right. As well as my Christmas stamps, I was also using Nestabilities and here are a couple of samples from the day.....this one is my Script Robin coloured with Le Plume pens, spritzed with water using a Mini Mister and stamped onto white card. I then cut him into an embossed circle and matted him over a scalloped circle. Simple card, but kind of fresh with the lovely colours of the Peppermint Twist papers. Next is are two cards using my Sitting Snowbaby stamp. The first uses the "I Believe" Peppermint Twist paper which has a lovely Santa and Reindeer silhouette in one corner. I stamped my Tree Line silhouette image across the bottom twice and then cut the paper along the bottom edge of the trees. I mounted the paper onto white card and cut it to fit just inside the DL card matted onto silver. I used an Inkssentials white pen to create a snow effect on the trees and did a light blue colourwash below each tree. I stamped the Snowbaby onto frosted shrink plastic before colouring and miniaturising him and attaching him to the card. A clear silver glitter pen added a touch of sparkle. The third card features the Snowbaby again, but this time he is set into a frame made using Nestabilities scalloped circles. The gorgeous snowflakes are from the Spellbinders Snowflake Wonder set cut and embossed in plain white card. The sentiment is from the clear stamp set "Christmas Sparkle" by Sue Dix. Above is a picture of my typically messy table! Well, half of it anyway, with a copy of my book near the corner. I had a lovely big area to work in at the Carlisle shop, but I still managed to create a bit of a tip! Thanks to the lovely girls there who looked after me and kept me supplied with fruit teas all day. Lastly is a picture of the ATC that I have created for Sarah's Blog Candy. Apologies that the image is not very sharp...I was being a little ambitious with my camera I think, and the light wasn't too good.It does look better in "real life" so to speak! I decided to do a hand drawn one so that it would be an absolute one off. It's a simple, cutey cat with some sketchy lines for a bit of depth and a little dimension added with some 3D pearl accents. Just leave a comment on Sarah's blog to be in with a chance to get your paws on this, an ATC from Sarah and one from my sister (check their blogs to see them) all very different in style and technique. Plus there are paper and stamp goodies to win as well!

I have another few days of sample making ahead - Alcohol and Distress inks as well as stamps - for Saturday's demonstration at Sew Simple in Taverham, Norfolk, so hope to see some of you there....ATC's will be swapped - or else!!!

I was thinking that I may be reporting sad news about Matthew, as we hadn't seen him for a few days. However, we may have just been unobservant as he has been here today and is now so well recovered that he is not so easy to spot anymore! He sat and soaked up all my compliments on how sleek he looked this afternoon, and seems to thrive on it...it's okay, I already know that I'm eccentric! Well, cheerio for now, Lindsay