Evening all! Just got back from a busy weekend of demonstrations. Hasn't the weather been gorgeous? Especially today so David took the scenic route home so we could enjoy the spring daffodils, early blossoming trees and the gorgeous shades of green intensified by the sunshine...makes one glad to be alive!

On Saturday I was at Reams in Derby city centre, a fabulous shop which sells artists materials as well as craft products and well worth a visit if you are in the area. Jill and the staff are a really lovely and friendly bunch so there was lots of fun and banter with the regular customers. It was a smashing day that seemed to just fly by! And look what Jill handed to me before I left....

.....isn't it a beautiful bouquet? So big that I couldn't take a picture that showed the lovely wrapping and bows as well as the flowers! Thank you Jill, it was lovely of you, and the flowers have been arranged and look stunning. Well, carrying on the purply pinky colour theme - here is a card which I made using a stamp from my Teddy Bear's set no 3 and the MS punch around the page set "Flower Shower". That particular punch is so pretty and the amount of flower confetti that comes out of the punched card is great...lots of different sizes and shapes too. The way that I coloured the teddy here gives a gingham effect which really suits this sort of image. All I did was a sort of loose "cross hatching" technique....just scribble the brush pen one way and then scribble it the opposite way. Doing very fast strokes means that you leave white lines between the strokes. A really simple "technique" but looks cute!This next card is one that I made a few weeks ago, using a Hero Arts set that features this hilarious bird! I stamped the bir onto white card and then smudged Distress ink over and around the outline. I then stamped him (her?!) again onto K&Co Que Sera paper, cut the image out and stuck over the inked bird. I like the way this gives a hazy shadow. I embellished with some gorgeous Que Sera sequin flower adhesions and stamped some spirals from the same Hero Arts set. This one made me smile!This next picture shows the huge tables I had to work on today at my demonstration in Northwich. It was so nice to have space and room to put all my punches and card so that I didn't knock half of my display over every time I went to pick something up! These are two background papers that I made using the wonderfully named Ink Potion no 9 with Distress ink pads. The left one was Broken China rubbed over gloss card followed by Dusty Concorde, I then spritzed the Ink Potion over and heated the surface...the effect doesn't really show until the card is heated. The one on the right uses Tumled Glass and Stormy Skies inks for a very soft effect. I keep banging on about PI's premium gloss card but it really is amazing quality, standing up to whatever you throw at it. I love working with gloss card as it takes silhouettes stamped images so well, giving really crisp coverage. If you haven't tried the Ink Potion do give it a go as the effects are stunning. For a more bold look use it with any water based liquid ink (Impress re inkers or Distress re inkers both work well).Finally, this is a card which I made using the wonderful MS Ladybug (American product!) corner and edger punches. Rather than creating them in plain black or red I punched them once in black and then again in red. Look away now if you are of a nervous disposition as you have to cut the red Ladybird heads and legs off! I use a glue pen to then stick the red bodies over ther black images to give a more dimensional effect - aren't they cute as a bug!?! I punched the corners of the card itself - with MS punches you can punch the inside corners too and attached red paper triangles to the inside of the card to show up the white ladybirds, sorry lady-bugs! The flowers in the centre are Petaloo Colour Me Crazy. These come as plain white and you can then colour them with chalks, inks, pens whatever. Here I went for really rich colour by drizzling alcohol ink onto my craft sheet and dabbing the petals into the ink. I used a greeting from one of Paula Pascual's lovely message stamp sets as the centre of the large flower and some black gems for the remaining ones. Everyone seemed to like this one - I think it is just a cheerful card!Well, that's all for now - I will post photos of the ATC's I got in Heather's swap and the lovely ones which Sheila sent me as soon as I get photos taken: hopefully tomorrow. Apologies for the less than crisp photos of the cards tonight, but my camera seems to be misbehaving. Or it may just have been my bad photography!!! Lindsay