A few samples

Bank holiday Monday was the usual wash out wasn't it. I only popped outside to take out some rubbish, but otherwise Tara, Thomas and I battened down the hatches and kept dry. It's been a total contrast here today.....glorious sunshine and really warm.

So, I've had the doors and windows open all day while I've been working. Lovely, but now I'm regretting it as there are so many mosquitoes inside that I've lost count. The lemon oil is having no deterrent effect whatsoever obviously! I've just spent half an hour going round with my insect repellent and squirting the little demons which dispatches them very quickly if I get my aim right. I do feel awful doing it, but I know I'll end up being bitten all night if I let my soft hearted side take over. At least I have an excuse for the cobwebs now.....I need plenty of spiders around to eat the midges!
I've been busy making samples for this weekend's demonstration at Cutting Edge Crafts in Skegness as well as completing a magazine project. I had a die cutting afternoon yesterday so I had plenty of bits ready to work with today. I enjoyed making this tag, though I'm looking at the photo now and seeing things that I'd do differently! I used the negative from cutting the "25" and dabbed Snow Cap acrylic paint through it as well as stroking a little around the tag generally. I blended Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers and Pine Needles Distress inks over the tag, then wiped off the excess with a damp tissue before stamping the trees in a mix of Pine Needles and Walnut Stain and wiping the excess off again. I like the effect of the number looking both behind and in front of the trees. The deer is cut from Grungeboard inked with various red and brown tones and I added a few swirls with an Inkssentials white pen. I really liked the way the colours came together on this card - not my usual first choice but I think they work well. The focal images are made using a Sizzlits long die called Festive Greenery which has so many delicate elements. I used Snow Cap again to add the snowy details. The greeting is from one of my last season's Christmas stamp sets called Silent Night which has fourteen assorted styles of Christmas words and messages. I got really caught up making this tag! The background is embossed though you might not be able to tell here. I may well change the ribbon as it turned out a little more red than I wanted, so I might try for a more plummy colour....I'll see how my time pans out tomorrow. Well, after being such a warm day it's gone really chilly now, so I think it's time to go to bed, snuggle under the duvet and hope I can avoid the pesky biters tonight! Oh, if you want to see a little video clip of Tara just click on my You Tube link near the top of my left sidebar.

Tomorrow and some sneaky peeks!

Hello again, a bit earlier in the day than my last post, as I have packed up for the evening now to give time for a bit of time to unwind before going to Liverpool tomorrow. It's been quite an exciting day today with a box from Personal Impressions that I've been waiting for...... ......I don't know about you, but I think lots of packages look far more interesting before they are opened. However, this was a much anticipated one and look what was inside....new stamp sets, new packaging and, not really very exciting this one, a new batch of my promotional cards. The stamps are some of mine and some by Andy Skinner, who I am teaching workshops at Stitches with this year, and whose designs I know you will just love. Not all of the stamps will be in rubber, these are just samples for me to work with. The stamp set at the front isn't a new one, it was sent to show me the new packaging for my designs which is in one of my favourite colour combinations of aqua and caramel. So, you'll be able to spot them easily enough!All I have to do now is make oodles of samples from them! Talking of boxes, I had been saving two rather snappy ones that contained Christmas gifts. I tried my pens in one, but they were too long, I tried Grungeboard in one, but there was too much for the lid to close, I tried flowers, but they kept spilling out.....etc etc. The boxes are really sturdy ones though, and too good to put in the recycling bin. Today I finally found the perfect items to go inside one of them though.... ....if you look at what my Distress inks have been sitting inside I think you'll agree that the ribbon bedecked pink and black number is far more suitable! Not very grungey, but they fit inside nicely! (Well, some of them do anyway! Lol!) So, my table will look a little posher than it normally does for my demonstration at Martins Cards & Crafts tomorrow. The shop is on Linacre Road in Liverpool, so hope to see some of you there if you are in the area. By request, I will have one of my Art Journals with me if you'd like a closer look. I'll be demonstrating a mix of Darkroom Door stamps as well as Perfect Pearls Mists and Crafter's Workshop Templates.

Here's a card using a lovely stamp from a set called "Little Dreams" which I've combined with a background stamp (huuuuge one! I've cut the image down quite a bit here) called Floral. I stamped it with Dusty Concorde Distress ink onto PI's 300 gsm card, heat set it and then spritzed with Turquoise Mist. The velvet butterflies are from Petaloo. The colours don't show too well here, but I love to combine light purples and greens. Next is a baby card! I don't do baby cards! However, this DD set (Hello Baby) is gorgeous and I love that teddy image. David was extremely impressed (no pun intended) by the quality of the image. I stamped him onto PI's coated gloss card and just added a hint of colour using Le Plume pens. I stamped a mixture of the other images from the set using Weathered Wood Distress ink onto the 300 gsm card. A little grunging with a slightly mucky foam applicator (!) gave it just the look I wanted and I wrapped the ribbon, parcel style around to finish it off. As often, quite a simple card as I aim to show the techniques in the main. I'll have to do a little girl version now! I'll finish with a second sneaky peek at the mystery object which I posted last time! Ooh, maybe I'm showing too much there! Well, it is starting to take shape now and I will show you the finished thing in a few days. Many thanks to those friends who are helping me with this, I would have struggled to get it done on time by myself! Right, I had better sign out now, or my R&R time will all have gone! Have a great weekend everyone and hope to see some of you tomorrow. Lindsay

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

I'm home and it isn't even dark yet!

What a treat...it's Sunday evening, I'm already home and still light outside as well! I think we all look forward to the light evenings and when I'm travelling I enjoy it so much more in the daylight. This weekend was lovely though as I was near to home and David drove me everywhere, so no dodgy train journeys!

On Saturday I was demonstrating at Craftzone in Pontefract near Wakefield in Yorkshire. This is a huge shop which focusses on having lots and lots of stock - great for anyone who loves rummaging as you can see from the photo below and this is just one of the rooms! I had a big crowd of ladies, and a few men, all day long and it was a day full of fun and laughter as well as techniques and projects. 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

PS The weather forecast has just been on......snow for tomorrow! Goodness!

Nightmare!

Hello everyone - I'm typing this at my local internet cafe as my broadband service has been down for a week now - absolute nightmare! My service provider is arguing with me instead of fixing the problem, even though we have had my laptop checked out twice on their say so. Am getting really furious at the situation now and will be phoning them again when I get home.

So, no emails and no blogging as well as a lot of work that I'm meant to be doing has been held up because of this. I'm taking the opportunity to catch up with everyone's blogs whilst I'm here!

Had a lovely day at Strikes in Blackpool on saturday. Caught up with Joanne and also my sister and parents came along too. I'm sure that Heather has posted something on her blog about the day. No photos to show you of course because of my predicament! Finally did some ATC swaps too and will post pics of them if and when I get back on line....can you tell that I am fuming about all this!?!?!

Also had a great time at Topaz on Sunday - the ladies all made three terrific cards and all went smoothly...we even finished on time and I did a mini demo by request on using Distress inkpads!Well, I just wanted to sign in so will keep this short and hopefully post something more positive sooner rather than later. Keep your fingers crossed for me folks! Hope to see some of you at Strikes in Chester-Le-Street on Saturday. Lindsay

Room with a view, talented ladies & Matthew!

Here are one or two piccies as promised. Unfortunately I didn't get to take any of the cards that I made for Saturday's workshop with the failing batteries in my camera, but here are all the ladies on the class proudly holding their wonderful creations!They did really well with the Distress inks and blended some gorgeous sky effects - I think some of them quite surprised themselves! It was a lovely, messy workshops with inky fingers all round and - great fun!

Next is the room with a view, which in this case, was the view from our hotel room in Scarborough. We were so close to the sea, it was lovely. Being born and brought up at the seaside I sometimes don't apreciate how much I miss it until I can smell the salty air. And I couldn't resist showing you the Koon Koon pig from the animal sanctuary near Filey. Doesn't he look handsome in his "leopard" print coat?!

Lastly, here is Matthew. Who is Matthew I hear you ask? Well, that is the name I have given to our poorly pigeon......I said that he looked like an oven ready chicken and he doesn't look like a Bernard, so....Matthew it is! I shall give you regular reports on his progress. He has been visiting each day for his seed and peanuts and has now started to get a little more feisty, batting the other birds with his wing to keep the away from his food whilst propping himself up on the other one. He was preening his feathers today and seemed to be wondering just where his tail had gone!

This picture shows his good side and though his wings are folded back here you can just see where his tail used to be. His back and neck feathers are coming through and, if his leg doesn't get infected, I think he may just be the comeback kid!

I have been making sample cards today for my demonstration at Card Craft in Lancaster on saturday, so have got rather sparkly hands now! Yes, the glitter has been wafting around the balmy air and turning plain penguins into little dandies in sparkly black evening dress! Do pop along if you live in the area and...don't forget your ATC's for swapping.

Right, I am off to catch up with a few emails now before a relaxing evening watching a (hopefully) good film. Will post pictures of my latest cards very soon. Lindsay

Lovely Lingfield

I got back quite late last night after a very busy and enjoyable time in Lingfield. It really is a lovely village with just a few shops, a couple of restaurants and cafes, a pretty duck pond (with duck house!) and some really beautiful old cottages. Needless to say that, as soon as I had left my bag at the shop and checked in at my hotel, I bought some bread and went to feed the Ducks and Coots (or were they Moorhens? I always confuse the two). The adult Coots were kept very busy as they had two broods to feed - "adolescent" chicks and the newest arrivals which looked like little black fuzzy pom poms! Very sweet! My hotel was one of the local pubs and was just a stride away from the cottages and church that you can see in the first photograph. From my window I could see the local countryside and the hotel garden had a horse, goat and rabbits, so I was in my element! I went out for a meal at a lovely Thai restaurant, a delicious red curry with Kafir lime leaves and coconut - beautifully presented with carved vegetables that were too pretty to eat!

The Craft Barn weekend demonstrations were in the local community centre and we had hardly set up our displays when customers began to arrive. I only had chance to take a few photographs of my fellow demonstrators as the crowds kept coming and the day just flew by.

On the left is Sue Roddis with a wonderful display of her altered art. You will know Sue from her many magazine articles - her pieces are really inspirational. On the right is Sandra Dry who designs stamps for Kadoodle - some very cheeky ladies can be seen at the front of her display! Below is Jenny Mayes from Hobby Art who was beside me - not that we got much chance to chat! Thank you Jenny for the lift to the station! There were many other designers there too - Paula Pascaul (who will be at Topaz with me this coming weekend), Julie Hickey and Kay Carley to name but three.

Once we had finished I went and fed the ducks again to unwind. I ate in my room that night as my hands were almost completely blue from using Distress inks all day! After a relaxing night it was time for day two which was just about as busy as Saturday had been. Thank you to all the ladies who swapped ATC's with me - they were all gorgeous - and for the lovely comments which I am always very appreciative of. I met familiar friends and made new ones too, so hello to all of you.

I was using lots of Ranger goodies and the card on the right was made using distress inks to create the background before stamping the sunflowers (from my "Count My Blessings" clear stamp set) with Walnut Stain distress ink. I then brushed gold Perfect Pearls over them and spritzed with water before heat setting. I finished with two fern images, from the same set, stamped with Pine Needles ink. The words are from Messages set 1 (clear stamps). This technique is featured on one of Tim Holtz's videos on his website, so do check it out - it's fun!

Two owls to finish with! On the left is a fun 21st birthday card that would suit a Harry Potter fan. The background is Que Sera Sera paper and the edge of the card is tinted with Dusty Concord Distress ink. The tree branches are just cut from black card and highlighted with a Just Glitter pen. The Fluffy Owl is stamped and cut out and I added the hat from my "Wizard Shelf"stamp. I cut a slit at the side of his wing and threaded a jump ring through this before attaching a small key charm. I then created a mini "envelope", cut around the beak and then popped the greeting underneath it. The final touch was to write the greeting across the bottom of the card.

The last image is not a finished card, but this proved to be the most popular demonstration that I did all weekend! The background is created with Broken China, Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord and Walnut Stain distress ink pads. I then stamped the owl using black Stazon. I spritzed a few drops of water over the card and dabbed these off to create a starry effect. I used a very wet brush to "draw" the moon in the sky and to paint the owl. Once dabbed away this has a bleaching effect with no noxious bleach needed! Just water! I added a touch of colour to his eyes, beak and feet and drew a branch with a black pen. Lastly I used my Inkssentials white pen to add highlights and a couple of extra stars. Hope you like it as much as the ladies (and men!) in Lingfield did! Thank you for all of the kind comments

Finally, I must say thank you so much to Jilly who sent David and I a beautiful card - David described it to me over the phone, but couldn't do justice to just how lovely it was. Totally unexpected and much appreciated! Hope to see you again soon Jilly. And hope to see some of you this weekend at Topaz - I'll be a bit busy this week now, getting ready for my demonstrations and workshops, as well as starting work on some new (non stamp!) designs. Hope you all henjoyed your weekends as much as I did! 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

Stampers Gallery

It was a lovely Spring day up here in the north west yesterday and also a lovely day at Stampers Gallery. Sue and Phil had organised everything perfectly as always, so I was busy for the whole day, which is how I like it! Stampers Gallery won one of the best retailer craft awards, so were feeling (quite rightly!) very proud of their achievement.
Here are some of the many ladies who spent time with me as I inked and stamped my way through the day. My only gripe was that nobody brought any ATC's to swap with me! Here is a card that I made yesterday using one of the stamps from the "Swirly Bird" set (PICS013). I drew the swirly background using Sakura silver and gold shadow pens and added some adhesive gems...I am using these a lot at the moment! I stamped the bird with two colours of Distress Ink and then waterbrushed the colour across the image before cutting out. The image was matted onto a card and I added some more swirls. A simple card - and not a very good photo...my camera seemed to be objecting to the amount of light yesterday for some reason.

This card uses the butterfly and tiny flower from the "Count My Blessings" stamp set. The butterfly was coloured using several shades of Versamagic Dewdrop ink pads (I adore these pads - so many colours and the ink is so versatile) then stamped and cut out. I used Marvy Le Plume pens to apply colour directly to the flower stamp to give a shaded effect, then used the fine point of the green pen to add the stems. I added the text using one of the stamps from the Messages set 1 (PICS010) again using a Versamagic Dewdrop ink pad.

The last card that I photographed uses the same little flower stamp and another from the Messages set. I really had fun making the panel for this one, using several shades of Distress Ink pads (Fired Brick, Old Paper and Walnut Stain) which were applied to a piece of cream card using the foam blending tool. I then flicked a little water across the inked card and, after about ten seconds, dabbed away the water with a tissue. The inks react with the water, which "bleaches" some of the colour out...great technique and one of the many fabby things about these inks. I used the pens to stamp the flowers in the same way as the previous card and stamped the text with the Walnut Stain ink pad. I popped it straight onto a DL card blank...it didn't need a mat around it because of the Walnut Stain edging... and then added three more flowers to the bottom of the card using paler versions of the colours in the main image. Oh yes, I also added a touch of sparkle to the main flowers using a clear Stardust gel pen. This is a very simple card, but it just worked because of the way that the colours compliment each other. Hope you like them anyway!

As promised, I will be adding step by steps for creating the Owl/tree cards, but please bear with me as I'm working on quite a few projects at the moment. And thank you to Sue and Phil who gave me a lovely bunch of flowers before I left the shop, which was much appreciated.

Well, that's all for the moment folks. Enjoy the rest of the weekend! Lindsay