An extravagant weekend!

Hello folks, and sorry it's taken me a few days to upload my pictures and tell you about The Craft Barn Extravaganza last weekend. I travelled down to Lingfield, a pretty village in Surrey, on Friday, where I met my friend and colleague, Andy Skinner at the shop. We had a catch up and looked around the shop before having a stroll around the duck pond (complete with duck house!) and enjoying looking at the ancient trees. I was staying at a local Inn just nearby, so I then strolled back there in the glorious sunshine and had a wander around the nearby churchyard and adjacent lanes with their characterful cottages. It was a lovely way to relax before the busy couple of days ahead. Above you can see the Star Inn...much prettier than a Premier Inn or Travelodge!
Next day it was time to set up my table at the Community Centre - the Extravaganza weekend is held in three venues plus the shop itself. This year there were visitors coming from all over the country, but also as far away as France, Canada, New Zealand and Australia! Many of these ladies were members of a Forum who got together to enjoy the event together - what a looong way to come! That's what I call dedicated! Here are a couple of pictures of my table (you should be able to enlarge the pics for a closer look) complete with my favourite fruit tea of course! As you can see, I am still not quite over my purple, blue and pink phase, though I am trying honestly! There are some hints of orange, yellow and browns in there too. There was a lovely name sign on each of our tables as well as a beautifully wrapped bag of sweeties to keep hunger pangs and sore throats at bay. Altogether there were 24 different designers and demonstrators across the four venues. Look who was on the table adjacent to mine..... ....yes, the lovely Paula Pascual, who was demonstrating her favourite die cutting. Our styles are so different but we are a mutual admiration society! So it was good to catch up and have a smiling face nearby.
Here is a card that I made on Sunday, using a slightly different technique with Alcohol inks to create the background. As you may know, Blending Solution must never be put into a Mini Mister because, although it's a really safe product, if you were to spritz it, it becomes airborne as particles and could be ingested. I have wanted to create a similar effect that can be had when spritzing water into Distress ink backgrounds ie the faux bleach speckly effect and it came to me, in one of those "Doh" moments, that maybe Stazon spray cleaner would do the job. Well, the great news is that it does work, as you can see from this card. I'll show some more examples of it next week. I love finding something that I can do differently with a product and this technique went down very well at the weekend. This card and instructions will be going onto the Personal Impressions website very soon. The Butterfly and Keep On Smiling cards from my previous post are on there now if you'd like to have a go at making them.
I met lots of very friendly, excited and lovely people at the event, and special thanks must go to Stella, who presented me with the lovely bracelet that you can see here. Stella said that she had seen it and thought of me....it's really lovely as the charms are things like scissors, crayon, paint tube, stapler etc...just perfect! Stella also gave me the box of chocs to give to David - how lovely, especially as we have never met before. Thank you again Stella! On the left of them, is a gift that I was given by Glennis, who had come all the way from New Zealand. As you can see it is a handmade gift box that contained a bar of NZ chocolate...though it looks like a gold bar and seemed almost as heavy! Thank you Glennis, welcome to my blog and I hope you are enjoying all the lovely things you bought.
Next are some ATC's which were swapped with me..... .....clockwise from the top left, they are "Aargh! Who's drinking all our water?" by Connie, "The Witch's cat" by Barbara, "Time Flies" by Michelle and "Optique" by Maggie. I think you'll be amazed when I tell you that Michelle had never made an ATC but was so inspired on Saturday that she went home and made her first one ever and I was the lucky recipient. Well done Michelle, it's really, really good.
Andy had a really busy time at the opposite end of the room to me....we hardly saw each other until about 3.30pm each day due to having crowds in there all day! Here's just one part of Andy's tables of samples, complete with Steampunk Time Machine, tea caddy, altered calendar and much more..... ......and here's the man himself, surrounded by more fabulous creations. I know that Andy had a great time meeting everyone and his fan club continues to grow! You can see lots of his inspirational techniques on his blog or on the PI website. I used some of Andy's stamps for the projects which I created for this month's Crafts Beautiful magazine. I created a false lid in the box and filled it with tickets, shells etc. The paper that I used to cover the surround was stamped with various Andy stamps. I made this matching card using the same stamps and Distress ink colours along with the Martha Stewart PAOTP classic butterfly punch and some Idealogy items. Hope you like them! Well, that was last weekend, and I have another busy weekend coming up. I shall be demonstrating on Sunday at the Suffolk Papercraft show on The Stamp Hut stand. This is in the Leisure Centre in Bury-St-Edmunds. Hope to see some of you there - don't forget to say hello!
Welcome to new followers and readers of my blog and I hope that you will enjoy my ramblings.
I am going to sign off now as Thomas will be waiting to come in for his "7pm on the dot" dinner! It's a few minutes after 7pm now, so I know I will get grumbled at!

Post weekend post!

Hello folks, and welcome to any new followers or readers. Wasn't it a lovely weekend? My idea of perfect weather...sunny and warm with a cooling breeze. Hope those of you who are mums, or who have mums, had a lovely day yesterday. I was over at mum and dad's and we had a lovely trip to a little village called Scorton where we had lunch and a bit of a wander with window shopping and an ice cream cone each thrown in.

On Saturday I was at A for Art in Chesterfield where I had another lovely day. I was really well looked after and everyone who came along was so friendly that the day just flew by. I still have purple fingers after using Colourwash dyes which is my own fault for preferring not to wear any gloves and liking to handle ribbons that I've just sprayed with inks! Here's me with the lovely A for Art ladies - I wasn't wiping my inky hands onto their shoulders...honestly!

And this image proved to be one of the most popular of the day. It is a really evocative stamp from the Darkroom Door set called Wilderness 2. The scene puts me in mind of one of my favourite artists called Atkinson Grimshaw. I did several examples of how this stamp could be used to show how versatile it could be - will post some pictures of those next time. I used Colourwash dyes for this one, onto PI's infamous 300gsm card. I sprayed a mix of purple, blue and stream before spritzing with water and pressing a second piece of card on top to get two for the price of one! A little water brushed onto strategic areas gives the look of moon, stars and some light on the pathway. I used one of the new MS deep edge PATP sets (just the edger this time). This one is the double loop. The phrase is from the same stamp set. I'll be up in Lancaster at Card Craft (Millenium Heights) on Saturday, so if you'd like to see some of the techniques using Rangers spritzes and sprays I'll hope to see you there. On Sunday I'll be at Topaz to teach workshops - card making in the morning and a mini grungeboard album in the afternoon. Bound to be fun!

Meanwhile, why not join in my sister's Heather's ATC swap? Hope the link works, as I didn't know how to do this until Heather told me! Fingers crossed! The theme for the swap is "in the pink" and is a fun combination of vintage men and the colour pink! All is explained on Heather's blog and, not only is there the fun of the swap, but the fascinating Cabinet card that she has made is up for grabs...it's gorgeous - well worth joining in for a chance to win it.

Don't forget to email your quiz answers to me by this coming Saturday, as I'll be revealing the answers (hoorah, I hear some of you cry!) and the name of the brainbox winner on Sunday! You may or may not be pleased to know that I am already half way through setting the next one, though it will be a little different from the current one to give those of you who are being made ill by my cryptic clues a chance!

Finally, my new stamps will be hitting the shops any day now, but I will keep you updated on that and let you know when they are officially "out there"!

A few photos and birthday fun

Hello all, I've had a busy, but very enjoyable weekend and have a few photos to share with you. The first ones are of the cards which I designed for the workshop on Saturday. It was, as ever, a little hectic but lots of fun too! This first one, features acetate that has been embossed with a snowflake design before being alcohol inked. I then swiped a black Archival ink pad over the surface and wiped off the ink to leave the snowflakes clear again. I simply mounted the panel onto card, added a white card "snowscape" and a few trees made with a MS punch were tucked in behind the snow. I stamped my Christmas teddy and snowman and added this, then stamped a greeting as well as punching the card corners with another MS punch (Aspen). Sorry the image looks so blue - my camera seems to like blue at the moment as every close up has a blue tinge! The next card is completely different, though still based around acetate. This time I stamped one of my favourite TH stamps (the serious faces lend themselves to adding an amusing word or two!) onto acetate, heat set the Archival ink and then painted the image from behind using Blending Solution to thin the colours. This is such a fun technique as the inks work so differently from paints - one colour will replace the colour beneath it, but, dabbling the colours on is a good way to get a very colourful look to the piece. I then mounted the piece over Personal Impressions Metallic film to give a glow behind the coloured image. Some distressed paper then seperated the image from the TH paper which I had used to cover the card blank. A distressed Adage Ticket, some TH tissue tape and an alcohol inked ribbon were the finishing touches. At my demonstration on Sunday I was asked, by a lady named Gail, what a painted acetate piece would look like over gilding flakes, so I made up a piece of white card covered with a silver and gold mix of flakes so that Gail could see the effect, which, we all agreed was pretty good and rather reminded me of a craft that I did as a child where we had black designs on glass and covered the backs with differently coloured sweetie wrappers! No picture of it I'm afraid, as the flashback was too much on the acetate. Anyway, hope you like this card. The last one was the one I wasn't sure about, but everyone on the class really liked it! The main image was created by colouring some white tissue pieces with alcohol inks in various shades. The stamped acetate was then flipped over and I piped Glossy Accents over the image, sprinkled on just a little fine glitter and then pressed small scraps of the tissue to colour the image. Once dry, I mounted the image onto the card (covered with TH paper), and added punched strips and a butterfly - these were from dull silver card that I'd alcohol inked. It's a very busy card, but sometimes I like going a little over the top! Here are a few snaps of the workshop with everyone hard at work! We also did some very simple stamping onto tissue which we then applied to candles. And you can see how everyone is concentrating very intently! At this point, I am now typing this on Tuesday evening! I started this post last night but David wanted to watch a film (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which we've watched before, but that whole series can stand being watched a few times!) so I saved everything till today - more on today a bit later! So, back to the weekend...on Saturday night I was staying with Rena and Stephen (Amy's mum and dad). Amy and her little boy, Ben, came back with us for a couple of hours and we had another lovely dinner cooked by Stephen who is an excellent host! I had been warned that Alicia (Amy's niece) had seen something being made on a CBBC programme and that she was sure that I would know how to make it! It was some sort of tap...gulp! None of us had seen it, so we really didn't have a clue what it was that I was supposed to be making! (I have since googled it, so will be ready next time!) I decided that diversion was the best tactic, so I suggested that we make a magic card instead. We spent some time making the card mechanism, which has secret flaps, and then Alicia had great fun decorating it with lots of stickers. She showed Rena and Stephen and immediately turned to me to say "Shall we make the tap now Lindsay?"......hilarious! So, another idea had to be found, and I suggested that we make a Princess Tiara. This went down well, and involved lots more stickers, as you can see. Here's me crowning the little Princess..... .......and here she is the next morning in all her cuteness! On Sunday I was demonstrating in store at Dawn's Studio along with Mary who was showing card ideas and techniques with stencilling paste. I was showing the techniques used in the workshop as well as general ideas for Christmas cards and ATC's. Hello to everyone that came along, including Sheila and her mum - I'll post a photograph of them both tomorrow along with a picture of all the lovely ATC's that I swapped with Sheila, Elaine, Jacqui and Glen. I am going to have to sort out some more storage for my collection of ATC's soon!
Today was my sister, Heather's, birthday and we decided that, rather than me going over to see her, she would come over here and we'd spend the day in town. We have had a lovely day, looking round the shops, including an inordinately long time in Paperchase, where we stroked lots of handmade papers, picked some notebooks for Art Journalling in and generally had our eyes on stalks over all the amazing colours, patterns and textures! We ate a delicious lunch in Bella Italia and did some more window shopping...and a bit of real shopping too of course! Heather had received some cards and gifts from her blog friends and ATC swappers, so that was really lovely. I think she is having a quiet night in with a her family and a takeaway tonight after all the trudging about that we did! So, "happy birthday" again Heather, hope you had a good one!

Now, talking of Art Journalling, due to the huge interest I've had in my doodly drawings which I've shown on here recently, and mainly due to Amy requesting it, we are going to be holding "an introduction to Art Journalling" workshop at Dawn's design studio. It will be on Saturday October 23rd from 10am - 1pm, so my afternoon workshop "Christmas Cute but Clever" will now be running from 1.30pm - 4.30pm to accomodate the morning one. This will be an introductory class for anyone who wants to start journalling, doodling, drawing, and creating arty pages. You will need to bring your own colouring pens, such as Promarkers or Copics, but if you don't have these then you will be able to use my water based pens as well as paints and coloured pencils. Fine line pens will be provided for you to use. You won't be working directly into notebooks but will be learning how to create background scenes, patterns and textures as well as how to start drawing your own characters, naive figures etc. If you'd like to book on this workshop please call Topaz directly (see link in the left sidebar) and if you would like any more information then do email me.

Well, I must go, as David has been working hard this evening, so I am going to make him a lovely coffee now. I'll post again soon, Lindsay

A sweet reminder...

...don't forget that my Blog Candy ends this weekend, so if you haven't already left a comment there are just a couple of days to do so to be in with a chance to win. You can see details of the candy on the sidebar to the left. David will draw the winner's name on Monday, so, if you don't win, you know who to shout at!

Well, I've been drawing all day and tired my eyes a bit now, so am going to relax for the rest of the evening now ahead of the busy weekend at Topaz. Looking forward to sharing some techniques with everyone and bring ATC's if you'd like to swap...I don't have oodles of them at the moment, but I know there will be other keen swappers there too. Hope to see you there, but have a great weekend whatever you are up to. Lindsay

ATC's, art, apologies and available spaces!

Hello all, I do like aliteration as you can tell from my titles! The ATC part of the title refers to the beautiful ones which I received from Heather in her butterfly & dragonfly themed swap. Aren't they lovely? From top left and clockwise, they are by Alison Brandist, my big sister Heather and Sandra Zengler. They are now going into my ever growing collection, which I often have a browse through to give myself a burst of creativity if I'm feeling a bit "flat". Heather also included a teeny tiny bag with these little beauties inside (below) which she had made for everyone who took part in her swap...I'll be using these and taking all the credit for her work....no, not really Heather!!!! But I will incorporate them somewhere along the line. Heather has a great eye for design and if you fancy getting involved in swaps then do take a look at her blog (in my blog list) as Heather's swaps don't involve having to join a group or anything, so it's simple and fun to join in. Now I need to apologise to Sheila, as I was intending to post a picture of the three wonderful ATC's that she swapped with me and I did indeed take a photo of them. However, it has now vamooshed off the wretched computer into some sort of black hole, or worm hole or whatever, so I will need to retake the picture and add it next time. They are worth waiting for though!The art part of my title is also appropriate for my WOYWW picture - though I did cheat a bit and removed what I was actually working on (if I put it on here I'd be in big trouble!). This could have been taken on Tuesday or today as well as I have been drawing all week after getting this weekend's workshop sorted on Monday.

So, onto available spaces! There are just two left for my Saturday afternoon "Ranger Mirror" workshop at Dawn Bibby's design studio in Church, Accrington, where we will be using the Meltpot, Claudine Helmuth canvas, and lots of Tim Holtz products. If you do fancy coming along then give Topaz crafts a call on 01254 356051. If you want to get my sister to sign a copy of her Beading book pop along anyway, as Heather is coming to my class - she'll be the one causing trouble in the corner ! LOL! I'm stopping over with Dawn on Saturday night and then I'll be back in store on Sunday to do a very eclectic demonstration with lots of techniques to share. I'm looking forward to the weekend very much and I'm sure I will have plenty of good photos to share next week - as well as Sheila's ATC's!

For those of you in the Bury St Edmunds area, I'll be down there at The Stamp Hut on the following Saturday, and then the weekend after that I'll be up in Scotland! David is taking me as it is a 600 mile round trip and my Sunday venue is in Kelso which has no railway stations within reach. I'll be at Broughty Ferry, Dundee at Kitty Krafts on Saturday and at the craft shop within William Strikes Garden Centre in Kelso on the Sunday, so looking forward to seeing my friends north of the border once again.

Well, that's all for the moment, so will say cheerio and hope everyone has a great weekend. Lindsay

Still here!

Hello all, I just realised that I haven't posted for a whole week - how naughty! So, what have I been up to this week....well, on Saturday I was in High Legh, demonstrating at the craft shop in Strikes Garden centre. I met some lovely ladies (and gentlemen) including Anne, Glenys and the very talented Sheila who swapped three gorgeous ATC's with me. Even more special, Sheila sent me a beautiful card and another ATC which came in the post today - thank you Sheila, you are such a generous crafter. It was great to have a catch up with everyone and to meet new people and share some different techniques.

In my post yesterday I received my three Butterfly ATC's from Heather's swap...more beauties to add to my increasing collection. As Heather said, lovely to get something nice in the post as a change from bills (anyone else noticed how you just finish paying one round of the darned things when the next lot start arriving?!?!?! Gggrrrr) and Heather also included some tiny tags that she had made so they will be added to future ATC's. If you haven't joined in a swap before, take a look at Heather's blog and take the plunge - it's great fun.

I finished some new stamp designs this week, which means I can tick another job off my list. Mind you, I no sooner tick one off than another task gets added! Then I started on some additional designs to go with stamps that are in pre production stage. It always feels as if I won't get the work finished in time but somehow it does get done!

Yesterday I was making samples for demonstrations this weekend. Tomorrow I will be in Derby at Reams which has a great range of art materials as well as craft products. On Sunday I'll be at Strikes again, but this time at the branch in Weavervale, Northwich. Hope to see you there.

I will take photos this weeekend and post them when I get home, inclusing pictures of the lovely ATC's and card from Sheila and the AtC's from Heather's swap. So, till then, I am just waiting for the postman to arrive with, hopefully, a couple of stamp sets which I am expecting for tomorrow's demonstration day. Fingers crossed! Lindsay

Last minute demonstration date

Just wanted to let you know that I will be at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio tomorrow (Saturday) to demonstrate Ranger products, stamping, punches etc. This is a last minute arrangement...those of you who came to the demonstration weekend will know that, because of the postal strike, some products weren't delivered in time, but they have now arrived, so will be available for those of you who weren't able to get them last week. We thought it would be a good idea for me to come along again for those of you who missed the weekend, or want a reminder of how to use some of the products.

I've been asked by quite a few people about my new templates and if they will be available in the shops. I can now confirm that a selection of them are now on the Personal Impressions website, so should be avilable in the shops very soon. Any stockist of PI products would be able to get them in for you if you ask. Here are a couple of pictures of how the templates come together....

Lastly, a big thank you to Sheila for the wonderful, and hilarious, card which she sent me out of the blue. It was a lovely surprise and made a change from all the bills which are the bulk of my normal post...I keep telling my postie not to deliver the bills, but he just ignores my requests! I haven't posted any pictures of the witch ATC's that I got in return for mine in Heather's swap because I haven't got mine yet - Heather is keeping them for me to pick up when I see her. However, you can check them all out on Heather's blog in a slide show that she has set up. They are all so diverse - this is the fascination of ATC swaps. I do know that Heather is preparing to do a new swap, so do keep a look out for that, as I know you will really enjoy this next one! Right, back to my drawings!

A few photos and some thank you's

I've been busily working on new stamp designs since the weekend, so I'm a little late in posting these pictures I know. I have reached the stage where I have quite a few sketched designs that I am happy with and now comes the more painstaking process of drawing inked versions of them, then photocopying them and colouring the copies. As I've said before, I work better with a tight deadline, as I have this time, as it really does focus the mind!

This first photo is of part of my table at the demonstration weekend at Dawn Bibby's Studio. I was next to Jo who was using some beautiful glitters, Jane was behind her using the Melt Pot to create some very luscious cards that were just gorgeous. Back to back with me was Sarah, featuring Hero Arts and Craftwork Cards papers. In the other room, Brenda was cracker making and Mary was demonstrating how to use Dreamweaver stencils with paste. Jill was using Flower Soft to make some very tactile cards. Unfortunately both Dawn and Amy were poorly, so they weren't able to be there.
The next picture is of yours truly, looking like a real nutcase in my witches' hat! As you can see from the one after, the hat looked much better on little Aleysha who is the grandaughter of Rena (Dawn's sister). Doesn't she look cute in it, especially with the stripey tights! Well, I do try to get into the spirit of the seasonal events, even if I do make a fool of myself!

Next is a canvas that I made using Ranger paints and inks. You can see that I spent quite some time altering it and changing my mind about things as there is some brown ink coming through the paint in one area...I subsequently overpainted it to remove the odd looking spots!

Thanks to everyone who came along and especially my ATC "swappees"...yes....I actually swapped some this time! So, thanks to Joanne, Jacqui and Glen, Sheila, Suzanne, Sharon, Debs and especially to Angie, who also presented me with a lovely pin that she had made for me, as you can see here. Isn't it fabulous? Many thanks Angie, for such an unexpected and lovely gift.

On Saturday night I stayed over with Sarah and her lovely husband, Ewan, who is a chef. He made us a delicious Chicken Caesar salad and then went back in the kitchen to bake some scones - light as a feather! I also met Thumper the rabbit, who is awaiting a new name - what a cutie pie! Saffron and Poppy, Sarah's two cats, were not overly impressed by the floppy eared newcomer, but no fur flew!

On Sunday, after we had packed up and said our goodbyes to everyone, we travelled over to mum and dad's. Tara immediately hid under a low set of drawers where she could keep an eye on us all from a safe distance. She is settling in pretty quickly though and, after a while, when only David was in the rom, she came out to say hello. I managed to get a couple of snaps of her. As you can see, she is a very pretty girl and, although she looked very nervous when we picked her out at the sanctuary I can see that there is a very mischeivous look in those big eyes now!

Here she is, cheeky girl, sharing David's Choc Ice! Little minx! I'll keep you posted as to how she gets on - or how mum and dad get on I should say! I haven't met little Mia yet (my sister's teeny weeny kitten) but hope to see her soon.

I didn't realise until I was adding some tags to my older posts that Monday was the first anniversary of my blog! I can hardly believe it. As I keep saying, this year is just whizzing by. Well, I shall post again as soon as time allows and hopefully will have some more pictures to share with you again. Lindsay

Halloween ATC's and inky backgrounds

Yes, I managed to take a few photos yesterday...at last... so here are some of the Halloween ATC's that I made for yesterday's demonstration. They all feature Alcohol inked backgrounds, some on gloss card and some on Personal Impressions metallic film which makes the transparent inks really zing. I also used my new Martha Stewart Scary Fence border punch on a couple of them as well as some stickers from ATD and K&Co. They were terrific fun to make I have to say - the pouncing cat one is a little different in that, looking at the inky background that I had made, I could sort of see a cat shape suggesting itself. I simply exaggerated what I could see and used a fine black pen to draw the shape in and accented it with white. It was a bit like looking at a cloud and seeing a particular image, so I must try this idea again. You will spot a few Christmassy ones in there too - really simply made by stamping Tim Holtz's wonderful ATC sized stamps over the background and highlighting with white. There is also one featuring the smaller version of my Scribble Snowman from the clear set. Nobody swapped with me yesterday, so these cards will all still be available at next weekend's demonstrations at Dawn's Studios.

Above is a box which I made from K&Co Christmas Cheer papers using a very straightforward origami fold. I used a square of my Alcohol inked gloss card to decorate thetop with the addition of a beautiful K&Co snowflake. A simple way to make an inexpensive Christmas gift look quite special methinks!

The card above was made using Distress inks to create the snowy background. I then stamped the trees onto alcohol inked metallic film and cut them out, adding tiny green gems at their points. The snowflakes are glitter peel offs which I've used alcohol inks on. This card started out as a bit of a mish mash, but I ended up really liking the end result!

Next is a simple, and, actually, unfinished (!) card that I made yesterday. I used three shades of Alcohol inks (Purple Twilight, Stream and Sailboat Blue) with the direct to paper technique onto gloss white card. The snowman was one of my designs last year and still one of my favourites as he is so easy to use. I added some white glitter paper across the bottom for him to stand on and I drew some naive snowflakes with the Inkssentials white pen. Maybe I'll get him finished next weekend!

Well, these are some of the things that I was up to yesterday. I now know that this coming wekend I will be doing Ranger based demonstrations at Dawn's weekend - both saturday and Sunday. So, there will be inks, paints, grungepaper, stamps (both mine and Tim Holtz designs) and some ATC's to swap too of course! I'll also be signing copies of my book and, hopefully, Heather's Beading book will be available too, as I know that some people have had difficulty in getting a copy. I'm really looking forward to a "grungy" weekend (!) and hope to see some of you there. I'll be in the Studio this time, as the Mill could not accomodate the extra demonstration tables as they normally do. So, it may get a little crowded, but it is really going to be fun! Please remember that, if you do come along, please do introduce yourself as, especially if you have blog photos that are not of yourself, I don't always know who you are, and I do like to say a proper hello! Lindsay

London calling

Sorry for my absence this week, but I've been up to my elbows in getting things ready for an event in London tomorrow and Friday. I'm going to be teaching workshops at the QVC customer event, which will be for several hundred ladies (and maybe a few men!) all mad about their crafting. It's going to be hectic but fun.... I expect to have some good photos to show you after the weekend! I've been trying to make my workshop projects fit the twenty five minute time slots whilst still being interesting and a little challenging....I'll let you know how they go. So, I have just been busy packing my bags ready for the train journey down to the capital in the morning.

I get back on Friday night and then I'm off to Crabapple Crafts in Frodsham on Saturday morning to do a Christmas stamping demonstration. Hope to see some familiar faces there! And I am not even going to mention ATC's!

I've been using the gorgeous new sixty sheet 12" x 12" pad from K&Co, called Winter Wonderland. If you still have Christmas projects to do, but don't want to splash out on a specifically Christmas set of papers then do take a look at this one. It has flat, glittered and foiled sheets and although some pages have snowflakes, trees etc on them, they are very subtle and some pages are just simply patterns, so I know I'll be using this set for quite a few months.

I made a few more Witch ATC's for Heather's swap, so will try to post pictures of those too before I send them. I may well get round to organising a swap of my own as soon as this next week is behind me. Just need to think of a theme now!

Off to sort a few things out for tomorrow now and then a nice quiet evening before the mad next few days! See some of you soon I hope. Lindsay

Hubble bubble

Here are my rather scary witch ATC's as promised - sorry the picture isn't great, but it's been a dull old day here. I had great fun doing these, so there may be some more to go into Heather's swap. I reckon you wouldn't want to meet the one in the middle on a dark night!

Hope you like them anyway, and looking forward to seeing what I get in return! I shall endeavour to organise a swap myself as soon as I have got through this busy period, so watch this space! Lindsay

Land of the Living....

....How terrible is it that it feels as if I have been cut off from the Land of the Living whilst our broadband was kaput?!?!?! No emails and no blogging as well as not being able to check simple things like train timetables without hanging on a phone for fifteen minutes! However, I'm back up and running with a wireless connection now which has solved the problem, so I am trying to catch up with everyone and everything now. I will check out everyone's blogs but I might not leave messages or I'll get nothing else done!

I have a busy couple of weeks ahead now with new designs to work on, lots of samples to be made and workshops to prepare for a big event with several hundred people attending - yikes! I did indulge in a sort of day off today though, and I spent an hour or two making ATC's for the Witch themed swap that my sister has organised - check out Heather's blog and join in if you are able to...I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone does for this one, as there are pictures of Victorian ladies to download and alter. I'll post photos of mine tomorrow...but I must warn you, they are a bit scary!

Personal Impressions have made last minute arrangements for me to be at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio in Accrington this saturday from 11am - 4pm, so hopefuly I'll get to see some of you there. I'll be stamping of course, as well as signing copies of my book and swapping ATC's too. On Sunday, Leonie will be teaching an afternoon workshop there but I'm not sure if there are any places left on it.

Well, this is a quickie post just to say hello, but I'll pop back tomorrow and add those photos. Lindsay

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

Quiet few days

I've spent the last couple of days getting used to using my new Cuttlebug with the Spellbinders Nestabilities and Shapeabilities...there's a mouthful of a sentence! I've been up to my eyes in circles, scalloped ovals, snowflakes, labels and hexagons and combining them with Christmas stamps. I'll try and get some pictures taken tomorrow before I pack them up for my trip to Carlisle where I'll be on saturday at Houghton Hall Garden Centre. I'll be using my favourite Distress ink pads too of course...I always manage to squeeze them in somewhere!

It's been a quiet few days other than my sample making and we haven't been anywhere (apart from grocery shopping...how exciting!) but then the weather has been the sort that makes it quite easy to stay indoors.

Check out Sarah's blog (on my bloglist below) as she is giving away some brilliant blog candy of papers and stamps etc and she is also including ATC's from herself, myself and my sister Heather - I still have to make mine and send it to Sarah, so that is on my agenda for tomorrow. To be in with a chance of winning, just leave a comment on Sarah's blog.

Heather has posted pictures of a few of her ATC's, so if you haven't seen them yet, pop over and have a look.

"Matthew report" is that he is now making remarkable progress. His feathers are looking sleek again, his tail is growing at an incredible rate and today he even managed to put his crippled foot down, not bearing weight, but at least he could balance better.

Well, not a lot to report today, but I just wanted to say hello and will post new card photos asap. Lindsay

Check this out

Just a quick post to say that my sister has finally got around to creating her very own blog, so do check it out at http://www.fennedwards.blogspot.com/ - she will be posting more photos as soon as she has found her way around things. Heather does some amazing beadwork as well as lots of altered art, ATC's etc, so keep an eye open for any swaps she may be doing. I've pestered her like mad to start a blog, so please do take a look! Lindsay

Great weekend

Hello all, what a busy weekend that was! I met so many lovely people, both familiar and new faces and had lots of fun into the bargain. I was demonstrating at Topaz in the morning and then teaching a workshop in the afternoon. We made butterfly cards using various techniques...alcohol inks in the new bright shades, stamping, die cutting and peel offs, along with lovely K & Co papers. Then I went up to the hotel where Dawn Bibby was holding her residential weekend and said hello to everyone there. They were all busy making gorgeous books from acetate and K&Co papers and embellishments...very pretty.

I met up with Sarah, Leonie and all the girls from Dawn's team and helped to pack away so the hotel staff could get the room ready for the evening. A quick wash and brush up and then we all headed down to a lovely meal, followed by a crafty quiz....I was with the lovely Sarah and we were convinced that our table should have won! We definitely felt cheated! It was great to get some time to have a proper catch up as Sarah and I usually only have fleeting meetings. I just read Sarah's blog and she was burgled last night, as they slept, so hope that she is not feeling too shaken up today - it's a nasty experience for anyone that's for sure, and typical that it would happen to such a kind and caring person.

On Sunday the day began early as the ladies were bussed from the hotel to watch me, and some of Dawn's team, demonstrating. Lots of ATC swaps were done and plenty of hints and tips passed on. Then all change again for the afternoon worshop where we made my owl box. Joanne from My Toby Jug fame was at this one, so it was lovely to catch up. Hello to all the ladies from the weekend including both Margarets, Serena and Valerie. We had fun with the shrink plastic owls as it was the first time for some, so lots of giggling ensued as miniature owls flew around the room! I did take photos of the weekend, but will post them next time as I have so much to get through this week.

I am playing catch up with new product testing plus all my design deadlines and samples but hope to be able to give more details on what I am working on very soon. A giant headache has intefered with my progress today, so I went for a long walk to try and blow it away, with some success! Right, I shall press on and be back soon with piccies! Lindsay

All set

Just thought I'd sign in before having a few hours of relaxation now that I have packed my case - hardly any clothes, just stamps, inks, papers etc! I have to go via the London underground tomorrow, which is never much fun - I always feel as though everyone but me knows exactly where they are going - but, other than that, it should be a straightforward journey.

I will try and get some good photos of what some of the other designers are up to and some of the various samples, though I'm expecting it to be a very busy weekend, so time may be limited. I will, of course, have ATC's to swap, so, if you are coming along, do bring some with you. I must also thank Larraine from the craft department at Strikes garden centre, Thornton, for the RAK which she gave to me as well as the ATC that she swapped with me. Ive been doing some with Distress ink pads which I have then stamped onto with permanent ink before "bleaching" areas, such as faces, with water, which makes the area pop out from the dark background. I'll post piccies of these soon. If you haven't tried it, it's a great technique and yet another feature that I love about Distress inks.

Well, time to think about preparing a quick meal (salad - so I can manage to "cook" that!!!) and then an hour of Springwatch. What is the concensus on this new series? Better or worse without Bill Oddie? I'm hoping that I will see quite a bit of wildlife from the train tomorrow, so shall report back if I see anything unusual. Bye for now, Lindsay

Back from Scotland

Hello everyone and welcome to new friends who I met this weekend in Inverness and Broughty Ferry. I must say thank you to Cynthia and Hazel who brought me cards and ATC's which were gorgeous and much appreciated. Thanks too to Seila who sent me two scrumptious ATC's and a beautiful card - they are all on display now before I put them into my albums for safe keeping and good memories.
Well, I had mammoth journey up to Inverness on Thurdsday - made even longer by the incompetence of the person at the National Rail call centre who I booked the tickets with! Instead of getting there in six and a half hours (as I found out that I could have done) it took me over nine and a half hours and I had to wait at Glasgow station for almost three hours - that was fun! I had too much luggage to warrant walking around the city centre, and it costs £7.50 (yes, £7.50!) to leave a bag at the station! It turned out that, contrary to what I had been told, I could have used my tickets at any time of the day, so could have been in Inverness long before I did get there. Sigh!

However, the tain journey was marvellous. Not too many travellers, so I had space to relax and stretch out a bit. The scenery was spectacular and I saw masses of wildlife - pheasants, rabbits, deer, ponies, adorable lambs enjoying the sunshine and possibly an eagle - it was a big bird of prey, but we had sped by before I could properly identify it. Thrilling to see though. I took loads of photos but, of course, through the train window they don't come out too well and, looking at them now, they don't do justice to what I saw. I got very excited when I saw the signs that showed we were in the Cairngorms National Park! There was still some snow on the peaks.

I liked this picture which came out rather well and showed the lovely evening sunlight.

Near to Aviemore there was a rather scary moment or two! There was a sudden very loud "clang" under the train and then something very big and heavy seemed to be caught underneath and was clanging along up and down the length of the carriage. At one point it banged up right beneath a lady opposite to me and she almost jumped onto the table! After a few minutes it stopped, but we were all a bit nervous to say the least! The train didn't stop or even slow down and no explanation as to what it was - a bit of excitement anyway!

After the long journey, I was very happy to see how close my hotel was to the station! Couldn't get much nearer than that! It was a very grand old hotel with a magnificent staircase which, apparently, was the inspiration for the staircase on the ship Titanic.

Next day was my demonstration at Hobby Haven, which is in a charming Victorian arcade. It wasn't long before I was busily blowing ink through straws, stamping swirly birds and distressing pieces of card! Thanks to all the ladies who came along, including Cynthia (Rainbow Lady) and Susan. I hope that you are all enjoying your new puchases! The day just flew by and I didn't even get any photos. However, I'd taken a few of the cards (in the ultra bright bathroom in the hotel!) so here are just a couple: The owl is wearing a hat taken from the Wizard Shelf stamp and the background is from the luscious Que Sera Sera papers by K&Co. The Scottish Piper is backed with a handmade Tartan effect made with Alcohol inks onto Metallic Film.

Straight after my demonstration I was back on the train, this time to Dundee which was another four hours of travelling and then a taxi ride. (Yet again I had been sold strange tickets and could have got there much quicker if I hadn't been sent via Aberdeen!). A very late dinner and a good night's sleep set me up for my day at Kitty Krafts the next day. I had not long started the demonstration when the lovely Hazel and her boys arrived (with a friend who I didn't get chance to introduce myself to - so apologies for that!). Hazel looked great and stayed for around twenty minutes so I was very proud of her!

We had a big hug and swapped a few things before she made some purchases and was on her way again - so, Hazel, this one is just for you.....
style="color:#000066;">....you deserve it and I was so touched, again, that you made such a big effort to come and see me.

Well, it was another very busy day, with a lot of laughter as well. More tree blowing, alcohol inking and distressy stamping was the order of the day. Here are one or two more cards - mostly cute ones at the moment, but I'll take pictures of some more and post those asap. Notice the terrible pun on my Cherry the Cat card....you know me, I like puns!

Louise, who owns Kitty Krafts, now has a blog, so do pay her a visit and have a look at what is going on up there on http:/kittykrafts.blogspot.com . Before long my day at Kitty Krafts was over and Louise's husband Ross kindly ran me to the station at Dundee where I took a picture of Shackleton's ship, "Discovery", which I hadn't known was there before as I had a previously only been there in the dark!It's an awesome sight and very evocative of course. So, next thing was a four hour train journey to York which was lovely in the sunshine and with more gorgeous scenery. I had about half an hour at York station to grab a sandwich for dinner and then onto Manchester. This was when the lovely weekend beagan to go into meltdown unfortunately! The train carriage was invaded by football "fans" who made the rest of the journey (nearly two hours) a complete nightmare. Apart from the incredible amount of noise they were making in general, they were also shouting out foul chants and generally being totally obnoxious. I changed seats three times but there was no avoiding them. The one train guard on board was evidently highly embarrassed but too intimidated to do anything about it. One girl was right in the midst of them all and she did have a go at them but was given lots of abuse in return - when I spoke out for her I was also subjected to the abuse. When we were nearing my station I had to run the gauntlet of their stupidity and, when I stood my ground and told them just what a lot of disrespectful idiots they were, I was called every filthy name one could imagine. As I left the train I was showered in beer! Completely soaked and smelling like a brewery, I called the platform staff and complained bitterly that these yobs are even allowed onto the trains and that there are no security staff on the trains to deal with them. Myself and the other woman were the only two people who were not prepared to put up with the situation. I've been given a form to make a formal complaint and I certainly shall. It's unbelievable the way that football "fans" (I use the word reservedly, as these are just thugs) are allowed to run riot. It was scary to note that, unlike one time where if a lady complained about bad language or behaviour, a group of men would say "oh, sorry sweetheart" - these "men" had no such attitude. In fact, one of them stood up as if he was going to have a physical go at me. Well, it was a very unpleasant end to to my weekend, but I would rather go home covered in beer knowing that I hadn't just accepted the situation but had made a stand against such yobbish behaviour, than just say nothing.

Well, I can't leave this on a bad note! So, thank you for everyone's lovely cards, ATC's, comments and emails which all mean a great deal to me. I'll post details on creating the Tartan effects and a few more cards/ATC's as soon as I can. Must go now, as there is more rest and relaxation to be done today before getting back to work tomorrow! Lindsay