Not gone, just resting!

Hello all, and apologies for my absence this past week and to anyone who I still owe an email reply to. It's been a week or so of meeting some deadlines, combined with both David and myself having a nasty bug...well, he is very generous, so, of course, he had to pass the bugs to me! So, thank you to everyone who put up with my sniffly nose and croaky voice at this weekend's demonstrations! Last weekend I was away in Carlisle and it rained...quite a lot! I had a wander around the city centre for a few hours then back to my hotel room for a good night's sleep before my day at Houghton Hall Garden Centre. I had visitors from north of the border as well as the local area, and must say a special hello to Helen...good luck with your new venture and hope it all goes well. On Sunday, well, you may recall that the rain was even heavier, to say the least. We set off driving to Northwich in Cheshire and the roads were more like canals. Thankfully, almost everyone was being sensible and driving carefully. When we pulled onto the Garden Centre entrance it was like a massive log flume! Needless to say, it was a fairly quiet morning as everyone waited to see if the rain would ease up. So, I busied myself making some extra cards and tags. I have really been enjoying making tags just lately, as you can see....The day did brighten up I'm happy to say, so I got to meet plenty of ladies who were keen to be inspired!

So, this week I had a Crafts Beautiful project to complete which took some time as there were problems getting some of the products that I needed. The yucky bugs took hold of me too, so I really felt like just doing nothing at all, but deadlines have to be met! Thankfully I got everything done and after feeling awful all week I began to feel more human again on Friday night. So, yesterday I was at Crabapple Crafts (Rosemary Merry's shop)in Frodsham. There was a clue that I was going to be there due to the giant sized posters that had been displayed, and I do mean giant sized! I'd hardly set up when everyone began arriving and it was the start of a really enjoyable day that just flew by. I saw friends old and new and hope everyone has been trying out the white card with Distress inks? Let me know how you get on with the trees and the faux bleaching. Thank you to all the Crabapple staff for keeping me supplied with fruit tea all day - it was most appreciated!

Today was a demonstration at the Garden Centre at High Legh in Knutsford, not too far away, so not much travelling today. Hello to Chris and Hazel and the lovely lady from Congleton whose name I don't know, but who I was tempting with punches and papers....sorry! Talking of which, take a look at this sweet snowman.... .....he is made using the MS DIY snowman punch and is so easy to create from just a few colours of card and a little shading. The punch has the elements for the main body, hat, scarf, buttons and twiggy arms. I drew the face in but, guess what, the confetti from the punch that I've used on the mat (PATP Deco fan) are just right for the carroty nose if you punch them from orange paper! Anyway, I used the reverse of a sheet of Best Creations Frosty Christmas paper (Snowscene) to partly cover the card blank and then punched a 5" x 3 1/4" panel of white card with the Deco Fan which I softly blended Stormy Sky Distress Ink over. I then added a panel from the fronts of the Snowscene paper to the centre of the punched mat, having rounded the corners first as I think this looks better. My little snowman is wearing a scarf punched from my Lilac Snowballs cardstock which I also used for his hatband. The greeting is from the matching greeting toppers. I then cut a 3 cms wide strip of white card and punched each side with the Deco Fan before wrapping an alcohol inked length of ribbon around it and fixing to the card to complete. This was a deceptively quick and easy card to make but I like it....mainly because of that so cute snowman! I have it in mind to make a card featuring a whole row of them, all posed differently and facing in both directions....I'll post a picture when I get round to making it!

Well, I just wanted to sign in and show that I'm still in the land of the living, so am off now to enjoy dinner that David is cooking as I type. I am feeling much better but poor David is now suffering from a Neuralgic after effect. Think we need a holiday, hmmm, some chance! Lindsay