Anyone know where I can get an artistic octopus...?

That is to say, I could do with another two or three pairs of hands at the moment! I have a list of work to be done and I keep ticking things off one by one so that I can feel some progress happening and keep track of what I am up to.

Anyway, on Saturday I was up in Carlisle and had a very early start to the day, a really chilly old day it was too! Unfortunately I got there a bit too early so I was frozen. Thankfully it was warm in the shop (Heart of Craft) so I busied myself getting ready for my demonstration. This shop has only been open for a few months but they are already hosting workshops and have a great range of products, so worth a visit if you are in the area.

It was great to see everyone, including Helen and her husband....Helen had sent me a beautiful card and letter the previous week and we swapped some ATC's last year - well, I took an age to send mine, but I got there eventually! As you can see from the picture, Heart of Craft is under one of the railway arches so we had the sound of an occasional train going overhead! Mind you, it could have been my tummy rumbling as I'd had no breakfast and thought there was a cafe nearby - there wasn't - so I had no lunch either!

I was using my favourite Distress and Alcohol inks and a mixture of my stamps and some Darkroom Door ones by Rachel Grieg. I was also demonstrating how to make Grungepaper flowers, so hope everyone went home and made one! Don't forget to check Tim's blog for a step by step guide on making these lovely roses.

The bird card has not photographed very well as the image was stamped and embossed onto acetate then laid over an alcohol inked background, so there is a lot of glare. You can't really see the colours inked onto the brads either. Oh well! The second card was just a quickie that my friend Jan caused me to make. I was mounting a set of DD stamps onto Klingon when she rang me and during our conversation she mentioned the mosaic technique that she had seen, using the offcuts of rubber that are normally thrown away. Needless to say I rummaged in my bin and retrieved mine! It's not a great card, but I just wanted to try the technique...really easy of course, just cut up the waste rubber and stick it onto an acrylic block before inking and stamping. I used Distress inks and stroked them across the rubber to give a textured tile effect. I didn't have that much rubber left over, I just kept re inking and stamping till I'd filled a larger area. I shall be doing this again with more forethought to creating a particular design maybe. Interesting though - thanks Jan!

Well, before setting off home I called at a fish n chip shop to get a bag of chips as I was feeling almost faint by now! Got home late evening so it was a very long day indeed. Yesterday I had a lot of samples to make but I woke up feeling terrible and was forced to spend most of the day doing not very much...aaarrrgh! David said it was a combination of being frozen and not eating all day. Anyway, I felt 95% better today so I have been pushing on and catching up with myself and have now got a pile of things ready to post off tomorrow - phew! The samples are for the craft day on QVC on the 23rd February (I think I am on at 7pm) but are needed ahead of time for some promotional filming.

Some of my new stamps arrived over the weekend, so tomorrow I'll be designing some card projects with them that I'll be teaching at Stitches (trade show) later this month. I've more or less decided on the techniques but until I start using them with the new stamps I can't be sure!

After that I'm starting on some new samples for the demonstrations in Thornton and Bolton next weekend. On Saturday I'll be at Burnside Garden Centre in Thornton, near Blackpool and I'm going to have lots of Martha Stewart punches, stamps and various inks to show everyone...and guess what? No Ranger in sight! Well, maybe a bottle of Glossy Accents! I have some background ideas using Ink Potion no 9 and liquid inks - great fun and very messy! I know that my sister Heather will be popping in and will have some ATC's to swap, and I'm sure that Joanne will be calling too, so if you want to grab a great ATC, do bring some with you! On Sunday I'll be at Crafty By Nature in Kearsley, Bolton and I'll have Ranger inks with me, as well as stamps, Grungepaper, punches and a host of other goodies. So, hope to see lots of you this weekend and I'm looking forward to showing you lots of things.

I am supposed to be relaxing after dinner now, so I am going to sign off before I get told off! Take care everyone, and will post again soon, Lindsay