I'm still here!

Hello all, sorry I have been absent for a few days. It was a very busy weekend as I was travelling a lot and had a demonstration on Monday too, so I had yesterday as a proper day off - I was banned from doing anything remotely to do with work! Did me good though, so it was back to making samples again today.

I had a lovely time at Sew Simple near Norfolk. It is a really great shop, very spacious and well stocked and in a lovely setting too. Lorraine and her staff had set out a great display area for me and I had plenty of room to work...though it didn't take me long to use up all the space with my clutter of course! Here are copies of my book and you can see my favourite K&Co snowflake embellishments in the left hand basket.

There were lots of tables for me to display my samples on, so just as well that I had been busy and made plenty! I was using alcohol inks, amongst other things, and had a surprise when I came to use the blending solution as when I unscrewed the lid there was no nozzle on the bottle! Silly me had been decanting an almost empty bottle into an almost full one, and I had forgotten to replace the stopper....I said that I needed a rest! So I had to sprinkle the contents by putting my thumb over the bottle neck...had a nice clean thumb by the end of the day! Unfortunately I had little time to take photographs, but will definitely rectify that this coming weekend. Hello to all the lovely ladies who came along to see me.

My journey home on the Saturday evening was uneventful until the train got to Sheffield when a horde of Manchester United football "fans" boarded the train. There were lots of railway police on the platform and I thought they were going to leave us to the mercy of the chanting, swearing "fans". However, around ten burly policemen got on the train too, much to my relief. We were delayed for over fifteen minutes whilst they tried to settle the horde down, but with little effect. One guy ignored the instruction to stop swearing and chanting and was immediately grabbed by an officer. This set them all off again and there was quite a bit of scuffling. One policeman escorted me into the front carriage as they were trying to contain them in the rear one, but there was some overspill. If it wasn't so serious it would have been hilarious to hear all the yobs (no other word I'm afraid) complaining about the police behaviour whilst totally unconcerned about the disruption that they were causng to all and sundry. It would be good if the police were always in such high profile on weekend trains.

Sarah is drawing (well, her husband Ewan is) the winner of her blog candy tonight, so good luck to all who left comments for her. I hope whoever wins really enjoys their treasure. I must get organised and do another one myself.

On Monday I was at CJ Cardcrafts in Edgeley, Stockport, so hello to everyone who popped along to see me there - hope you can all remember how to use the different pens that you bought!

I'll be at Strikes (Burnside) Garden centre in Blackpool on saturday where I'll be showcasing Christmas stamps, Nestabilities and Distress inkpads amongst other things. Hope to see some of you there...if you are a blogger, do introduce yourself as it's always good to put faces to names. I am not even going to mention bringing ATC's with you for swapping this time....oh, I just did! My sister will be popping along at some point in the day too, so she may well have some for swapping too....there's an incentive!

Lindsay

A few samples for the weekend!

I just managed to snap a few pictures before the light faded here after a lovely sunny day, but it is depressing how early it is beginning to get dark now. Anyway, the pics are not the best as I had to rely too much on the flash, so the colours are odd and there are some reflections. First is my new alcohol ink container. Since I got all the new colours I just can't fit them into my original tin, so I took a cardboard chest that I have had hanging around for a few years (!) now and covered it with aluminium tape. This is really easy, even for an awkward shape like this, because it can be cajoled into odd corners and curves and is quite flexible. Once I'd covered the chest I then piped on some dots and the words "alcohol inks" onto the lid using 3D paint. Once absolutely set I then covered the lid with more tape and then began to burnish it down. You can use a variety of tools for this - I usually use something large, like a bone folder, to begin with and then scale down to a medium sized embossing tool to add texture and to coax the foil around the letters and shapes. The tape has another bonus in that any overlapped, or untidy edges are made just about unnoticable once it is all burnished down.

Next I chose three ink colours - Eggplant, Sailboat Blue and Purple (oops! I forget the name of the purple one!) and used the felt applictor tool to colourise the entire chest, being sure to get into all the nooks and crannies. I then went over the rim on the lid with the purple, just to create a contrast. Once dry (only takes a minute or two) I used a cotton bud soaked in the alcohol blending solution to carefully remove the colour from the raised shapes, dabbing them with tissue before the solution had time to remove any surrounding areas! A hole poked through the lid allowed me to attach a purple tassel which I secured into position with Glossy Accents and a large gemstone was the finishing touch.

It isn't a perfect creation, and my lettering is less than smart on this one, but I just wanted something bright and cheerful to keep the inks in and this does the job. The domed lid even allows room for the applicator tool, so this will be coming with me at the weekend!

The first card is a variation on a theme of my Silhouette Trees stamp over a sky background, but I used alcohol inks on gloss card this time to create the sky. The colours were Pool, Stonewashed and just a tiny drop of Stream and a miniscule dropette (!) of silver added to a felt applicator tool. I used a few squirts of blending solution to really weaken the shades before stamping them over the card twice. I made a paler moon by taking out the colour using blending solution on a cotton bud. I stamped the trees using Archival black ink and then added snow using the Inkssentials white pen. I cut away the section of card below the trees, stuck the image onto white card and trimmed it into a square. Some simple pale blue shading under the trees and a touch of clear silver sparkle from a glitter pen completed the look once it had been matted onto my card blank. So, a similar card to previous ones, but the sky looks very different using alcohol inks.

The second card is made with a combination of my Script Robin stamp and the clear PI set designed by Kirsty Wiseman, as I thought they would work well together. I am using Peppermint Twist papers in my demonstrations at the moment, so I grunged one of them up using Walnut Stain and Spiced Marmalade distress inks - I liked the result because the Christmas trees are glitterised, so they rejected the ink, making them stand out. I used the paper to cover the card blank. I then distressed a piece of cream card using the same shades, before stamping a selection of the stamps over it using Archival permanent inks. I bleached out the bulbs, holly and the stamp, using a waterbrush (and water - not bleach!) before adding a touch of colour to the holly. A lovely piece of gold net ribbon was all I wanted to add to complete the look.

Well, hope you like the cards. I hope I'll have chance to photograph some more on saturday. I have never been to Norfolk before, so I am looking forward to it. Surprisingly, although the train journey is four and a half hours each way, I don't have to change so it's a straight run...always welcome when lugging kit around! Hope to meet some of you there. Lindsay

PS Check out Sarah's blog again as she now has pictures of all three ATC's that she wil be giving away....not to forget Ewan's handmade brownies which are infamous!

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