Bbbrrrr!!!!

Don't know how it is where you are, but it's freezing here! Kendal was cold too, but looked lovely with a frosting of powdery snow on the hills. "Hello" to Dorothy...I am putting a picture of the garden shelf card especially for you as a reminder of how it looked. I'm sure that you will manage it with no problem though! This card uses Funstamps FM197 (Gardening Shelf)...I added a die cut from the Carol Wilson range in the left corner (this was to cover a mucky mark...but don't tell anyone!)

I was also using Iris folding stamps by the very talented Anna Stemplewska (Google her name to find lots of great samples of her cards) which are really easy to work with, relaxing to make and create great cards, especially if you use larger card blanks. Here is a wedding card made using

Personal Impressions stamp P1481P. I used pearlised paper for the strips and just matted the image onto an 8" x 8" card, wrapping a ribbon around and adding a floral embellishment. Some gems and glitter added the final flourish.

Finally, here is a fun card using the Carol Wilson "How does your garden grow?" range. I used a Personal Impressions template for the apron shape, adding plain old garden twine instead of ribbon for a rustic look!

Despite the cold we have been out and about today. I don't always have Sundays free, so when I do, we like to visit the large car boot sale and market that's also a nice little drive out...wished I'd had my camera as the countryside looked like a fairyland this morning with the frosted trees and mist over the hills. We also made a discovery as we followed a sign that announced "good food this way"...the cold had made us unusually peckish! When we rounded the bend we came upon a huge lake that was home to waterbirds of every description. There were people with loaves of bread surrounded by honking geese, squabbling ducks, moorhens and swans. Thankfully, the catering van which was the source of the advertised good food, also sold bags of bird seed, so I was able to join in the fun of "feeding the ducks" which I think is a national pleasure. Hot chocolate and sandwiches went down well too...for us, not the ducks! We'll be going back there for sure - armed with stale bread! I think that moments like this are all the more enjoyable when they are surprises.

Well, after seven hours of walking around out in the chilly air it is time for a snuggly evening in with a beef curry to look forward to...lovely! Keep warm everyone. Lindsay

Back home...

I'm just relaxing today after the long, and rather cold, journey home from Dundee. A lovely bubble bath and a warm bed was enough to banish the chills last night though!

Hello to all the folk I met at Millers in Glasgow on friday (including some gentlemen for a change!) and hope that you remembered how to make the slider cards. Picture below, as promised, to jog your memories! This one features Christmas Cheer

paper and a Jolly Nations stamp ( PNO30Q Sleigh) which decoupages very well of course. I also added chipboard trees from the Swell Noel box and a lovely snowflake (each one layered, glittered and with a gem in the centre) also from the latest K&Co range - these are gorgeous, and, as the ladies this weekend know, should be grabbed if you see them, as they disappear from the shelves very quickly indeed!!!
I travelled on up to Dundee, and from there to Broughty Ferry on friday evening... it was getting colder and by the time I went down to dinner it was snowing. My hotel was literally across the road from Kitty Krafts, as you can see in this picture which I took from my window on saturday morning...very handy! I met some lovely ladies there and was thrilled when Hazel appeared...Hazel had posted that she would love to come along, but as she has agoraphobia she didn't know if she would be able to. So well done Hazel, you should be so proud of yourself! Check out Hazel's blog at Dido's Designs. Hello to everyone else who came along - as you can see...it was smiles all round!

This comical line of penguins uses "Have an Ice Christmas"(Funstamps FM208) which is a penguin and polar bear - by just using the penguin several times, cutting away the back wings and adding wings cut from black card, I created the idea of them all holding on to each other and slipping over. Add seperate feet for the bottom two to complete the effect. Notice the lovely snowflakes again?!
The last picture is the inside of a
pop out window effect card. This one has the delicious Christmas Cheer papers combined with chipboard icons from Swell Noel.
Well, that's all for now - check my dates section to see where I'll be next and for workshop dates when I will be doing at Topaz Crafts.
Keep warm everyone! Lindsay

Thanks for coming along!

Thank you to everyone who came along to the demonstration at Samuel Taylors in Brighouse yesterday...it was lovely to see both new and familiar faces. Everyone was so enthusiastic that it made it a very enjoyable day! I must say special "hello's" to Lynne (Eccles), Clare (Ramsden) and Mary (Brady) who arrived early and stayed nearly all day! Hope you ladies are enjoying your new stamps and papers (have you stopped stroking them yet?) and thank you for keeping me supplied with glasses of water! Also "hello" to Clare (Horners Corner) and I didn't mind you being cheeky at all! "Hi" too to Karen (Johnson) - it was lovely to see you again! Hope to see you all again soon.

As promised, here are a few more cards that I had with me yesterday:

This one is my Christmas Shelf (Funstamps FP120) which is really dimensional, as I hope you can see from the picture. It features a "real" shelf...well, it's made from card actually!..so you can add lots of extras. I made baubles by glueing small gold beads to the top of larger Miracle beads, and little gifts from metallic paper and thread. The secret to attaching the shelf is to glue it to the card and then add folded card tabs, like brackets, which are then hidden by the decoupage. Great fun to make!

The next card is made using papers from the Swell Noel Speciality
pad by K&Co. A very simple fold which is just an A4 piece of card which has been folded into three and then one end folded in half to form a lop sided "M" shape in cross section. A piece of torn white card covers the front fold to represent snow. I covered the back panel with the Santa and village section from one paper and then cut out more buildings from the glittered sheet and added those to the front. Really easy, but very evocative of a silent, idyllic Christmas scene.
Well, I must get on with making new samples for my weekend up in Scotland. I'm travelling by train again, so will have to do some nifty packing ...my case was a Tardis in a previous life I think! So, if you are in Glasgow, or Broughty Ferry this weekend, do come along and say hello.
Lindsay

Some new cards...

Well, I waited and waited for the daylight to arive yesterday so that I could take some good photos of my cards in natural light, but it remained dark and dreary all day! Pretty much the same again today, so I have had to use the flash after all - the pictures have come out okay anyway.

The card on the left features new papers from the K&Co Christmas Cheer Speciality pad...aren't they lovely and rich? I used "Peek a Boo Kitty" (Funstamps FM200) and added a die cut hat from the Carol Wilson Jingles range. The greeting is hand written with a Marvy Le Plume pen - use the fine point to write and then the brush point to add a dot to the ends of each letter.

The card on the right is a sliding pop up card - great to fold flat for posting. This uses red card stock along with K&Co Swell Noel paper. The stamped image is Funstamps "Mistletoe Penguins"( FM203) coloured using Marvy Le Plume pens with Personal Impressions fine glitter in Blue Black added to the penguins using a glue pen. They look as if they are in their best bib and tucker! It's odd why we all colour penguin beaks and feet in orange when they should really be grey, but I guess they are dressed up for Christmas!

No stamped image on this card, which features baubles cut from the K&Co Christmas Cheer Speciality paper pad and layered onto the fabulous reindeer paper from the same set. I simply added some burgundy ink swiped around the card edges to tie the colours together.

Finally, on the right is a cute card made using "Peek a Boo Puppy" (Funstamps FM210). I've coloured him using a waterbrush and Le Plume pens and layered him up. I also stamped him onto Christmas Cheer paper to get the stripey effect on his hat. The presents were a mixture of images from Swell Noel and ones which I made using rectangles of paper with paper strips as the ribbon. Notice another terrible pun for the greeting!

Well, there are more pictures, but I'll add those in seperate posts. I'll be busy next week preparing for my trip up to Scotland but will hopefully get chance to get on here at some point! I'm off to Brighouse tomorrow morning, to Embsay crafts, so do pop along if you are in the area as I'll have these cards, and more, with me, as well as those lovely papers and embellishments to show you. Till next time, happy crafting! Lindsay

More card samples...

I've been busy preparing samples for my demonstration at The Stamp Hut on saturday down in Bury St Edmunds. I'll post some pictures of the day next week. Meanwhile, here are a couple more general Christmas cards using my latest stamp designs.

This first one is a simple pop up using Carol Wilson Jingles paper and die cut tree along with "Have an Ice Christmas" (Funstamps FM208). I love making pop up cards as they really do bring a smile to peoples' faces.

This next one is a pop up slider card featuring "Snowman Family" (Funstamps FM209). These sliders are so easy to make and yet very effective - they also fold flat for posting which is a great bonus of course.