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Another morning post from me, although, according to blogger, my ramblings are never written at the time that I actually sit down to type them for some reason. Must be a different time zone at work. Anyway, it's actually just before 9.30am!
I had a really lovely day at Crabapple Crafts on Saturday. It took me an age to get there, even though it's not that far...I had around three quarters of an hour to wait at Warrington station for my last connection, but at least the coffee bar was open which made it bearable...didn't much like the 6am start to the day though! I met up with Esther Gundry on the platform as she was also demonstrating at the shop and we travelled the last few miles to Frodsham together. Nigel met us at the station and we soon knew he was in mischief mode....and look what he did to one of my photo cards when I nipped to the loo! 
Blamed Esther too.....how rude! Lol! (Told you I'd tell on you Nigel!) It was a busy day and great to meet up with lots of friendly and familiar faces again. I was demonstrating with Gorjuss stamps again, as well as some of Andy Skinner's sets. This card features one of his "Word Up" stamps as well as the grasses from his Easter set, alongside the "Little Foxes" clear Gorjuss set. The card itself is just folded from a piece of MME Kraft Funday which I've smudged some Dusty Concorde and Faded Jeans Distress ink onto. Just my colours! 
I was featuring the Glue n Seal technique again and, as promised to the ladies that were there on Saturday, here is the picture of one example that shows how it can go wrong if you don't make sure you cover the whole image with the seal! Poor girl ended up with a 5 o'clock shadow and I couldn't help but add a thought bubble! 
Again, by the way, that was just hand written and then I swiped Glue n Seal over with my finger before drying and layering on more ink colour. It's good to have some fun on demo days! I was given a fab ATC by Sonia - very cleverly put together to form this serene image. When I got home, there was a lovely card waiting for me from Redanne, who won my recent blog candy - love the air balloon with the honeycomb paper, and it was fun having a card with an instruction to peel up the DST and fold the paper back to create the 3d effect - brilliant! Thank you both, ladies, much appreciated. 
Finally, as also promised on Saturday, here is a sample of how you can alter the look of a single Gorjuss character with just a few lines drawn with a fine pen...
....I know some people dislike the "no face" style, but it only takes a few seconds to change that. It's a bonus too, because rather than being stuck with one expression, the lack of faces means that you can use the same image for lots of occasions. So, from left to right we have the cute smile for a happy card, the sad face for a get well card, the wavy mouth that could suit a "sorry" card, the surprised face that could say "you're how old?!", the cross face (note the eyebrows)...well, choose your own card occasion for that one. Lastly, just a different smile that's not quite as wide as the first one. You really can give an image a myriad of expressions!
Well, I must dash as Heather is about to call round so I had better be ready!
Blamed Esther too.....how rude! Lol! (Told you I'd tell on you Nigel!) It was a busy day and great to meet up with lots of friendly and familiar faces again. I was demonstrating with Gorjuss stamps again, as well as some of Andy Skinner's sets. This card features one of his "Word Up" stamps as well as the grasses from his Easter set, alongside the "Little Foxes" clear Gorjuss set. The card itself is just folded from a piece of MME Kraft Funday which I've smudged some Dusty Concorde and Faded Jeans Distress ink onto. Just my colours! 
I was featuring the Glue n Seal technique again and, as promised to the ladies that were there on Saturday, here is the picture of one example that shows how it can go wrong if you don't make sure you cover the whole image with the seal! Poor girl ended up with a 5 o'clock shadow and I couldn't help but add a thought bubble! 
Again, by the way, that was just hand written and then I swiped Glue n Seal over with my finger before drying and layering on more ink colour. It's good to have some fun on demo days! I was given a fab ATC by Sonia - very cleverly put together to form this serene image. When I got home, there was a lovely card waiting for me from Redanne, who won my recent blog candy - love the air balloon with the honeycomb paper, and it was fun having a card with an instruction to peel up the DST and fold the paper back to create the 3d effect - brilliant! Thank you both, ladies, much appreciated. 
Finally, as also promised on Saturday, here is a sample of how you can alter the look of a single Gorjuss character with just a few lines drawn with a fine pen...
....I know some people dislike the "no face" style, but it only takes a few seconds to change that. It's a bonus too, because rather than being stuck with one expression, the lack of faces means that you can use the same image for lots of occasions. So, from left to right we have the cute smile for a happy card, the sad face for a get well card, the wavy mouth that could suit a "sorry" card, the surprised face that could say "you're how old?!", the cross face (note the eyebrows)...well, choose your own card occasion for that one. Lastly, just a different smile that's not quite as wide as the first one. You really can give an image a myriad of expressions!Well, I must dash as Heather is about to call round so I had better be ready!
We remembered to put the clocks forward thank goodness, so there was no last minute dash this morning! So today was spent at Crabapple Crafts in Frodsham, the shop owned by Rosemary and Nigel Merry who you will know from QVC of course. Another gorgeous day, weather wise, and another busy and fun day. I was showcasing the new Distress ink colours as well as other Ranger products and a mix of Personal Impressions and Hero Arts stamps.Everyone seemed to really enjoy the day and almost everyone was tempted into giving Ranger inks a new home! I hope everyone enjoys using them - just keep practicing the blending techniques! The card below was a popular one today - I used Bundles Sage, Tumbled Glass and Victorian Velvet Distress ink colours to create the spattery background and then used Marvy Le Plume pens onto the small flower head stamp from PICS012 Count My Blessings set, spritzing them lightly with water before pressing onto the card to create a soft watercolour effect. I sketched in soft stems and leaves and then made a hole at each side of the stems to thread my ribbon through to create the bow. This was mounted onto an alcohol inked mat and then onto the card. I coloured my ribbon using alcohol inks and, to my great amusement, this brought a round of applause as everyone loved the instant hand dyed effect! After that, we had applause every time I coloured a ribbon - very funny!
The next example uses a stamp from a Hero Arts set and is a whimsical, fun card. I used all sorts of elements here, including one of Paula Pascual's lovely message stamps punched out with a scalloped circle punch. Also some weeny flowers from K&Co's Que Sera Sera range and a daisy border MS punch too.
The last sample from this weekend is from the "Whoo Loves You" stamp set from Hero Arts.I really like these fun owls! This card features a Distress ink spattery background again - another simple card, and I liked the natural look of the corrugated card as a mat for this one.
Finally this is a not very good photo of my project as featured in this month's, April, issue of Crafts Beautiful magazine. So, if you fancy making one of my boxes featuring a"tree" inside, then you can find all the instructions and patterns in there, plus a simple matching card. 
Well, that's all from me for tonight. We are going to have a takeaway dinner tonight so that we can completely relax after the busy last couple of days and make the most of the first light evening of the year. Lindsay