The calm in the storm

That's what this evening is going to be now! I've done the samples that were needed for QVC, sorted out what I need to take for this weekend and also finished the last pages for the chunky book swap. Tomorrow it will be full pelt again with a workshop and then demonstrating all day on Sunday at Dawn's Design Studio. So, I am going to enjoy the hours of relaxation tonight. I'll post pictures of the workshop samples after the weekend, and the QVC samples in a couple of weeks, but here are my last few pages. They are not my favourites as I knew that I'd need to get them all finished by today really as I won't have time otherwise. Still, here they are! The one on the left, below, is for "With a Little Flourish" and I have simply applied some Distress inked card first then a white card over the top which I punched along one edge with an EK Success flourish border. I distressed the white card and then used my waterbrush to paint some simple swirls, dabbing with tissue to remove the colour. I used a Grungeboard flourish which has been hanging about for ages as I have used it several times as a mask and it had some suitably toning spritz already on it. I added a little glitz to it with a glitter pen and then punched out four large butterflies from silvery card which I then alcohol inked. I made them into double butterflies, slightly off setting each top layer so that the bottom ones are more visible. The antennae are the punched out swirls from the border.

The right hand page, above, is for "It's Only Words" and I'm a bit happier with this one. I brayered ink from the Hydrangea Big n Juicy pad over white gloss card. I thenstamped a selection of TH sentiment stamps over a piece of acetate, flipped it over and dropped silver and pearl Mixatives over the back before attaching to the gloss card with brads. I stamped "words" over a magazine page using a TH alphabet set. A little ink smudged over and then I cut them out before matting onto black card and sticking over the acetate with 3d foam. I attached the word key to the letter "R" using a sheer ribbon. Above are the backs of the two pages just decribed. The flourish one is a thick paper towel which I dropped alcohol inks onto. Once dried this was surprisingly strong! I simply wrapped it around the page blank (before I did the front) and then drew some flourishes and words on with a fine black pen, highlighting with a sparkly pen. The back of the words page was, again, drawn with my 0.05 pen and coloured with Promarkers - I had fun with this one!

The last page was actually the first one that I did! However, I've slightly altered it now by removing any dodgy beads (ie those that seemed likely to come off!) and adding some Micro Beads to fill in any gaps. I used some map paper to cover the board and added a vintage lady and car images, before applying some Beeswax. The Rome image was stuck to a piece of Memory Glass and dipped into UTEE in my Melt Pot, before being stuck firmly into position and edged with the beads. I used some 3d paint to add some trails around the page and finished with two metal corners. It was only after I'd done all that that I remembered about leaving space on the left where Heather has to bind the pages...oops! Hope there will be room! For the back of this one, which I did when we were "on holiday" at my parents in June, I did a simple picture, semi inspired by the yellow brick road! A bit of fun was had doodling anyway!

So, my pages are all done and I have really enjoyed making them, though I'd like to re-do a couple of them! I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished books now and I'm sure that Heather will have great fun deciding who gets which pages!!!

Looking forward, too, to seeing everyone tomorrow at the workshop. I've tried to come up with a few different styles to suit everyone, so I really hope that you'll all enjoy the afternoon. I'll be working you hard...just for a change! We'll have some fun though of course. So, I'll be back after the weekend with photos. Lindsay

PS As I write this, there are several pigeons lined up on the windowsill...I think they are pestering for food, but maybe they all want a pedicure after seeing Limpy getting the treatment!