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

Party Night

Last night was party nght at the Dawn Bibby Design Studio and we had a very busy evening with lots of demonstrations and a make n take for all the guests to enjoy. There was mulled wine, cakes and Brenda had made delicious cookies too. I was sat adjacent to my buddy Sarah who was creating lovely acetate cards with the latest Hero Arts stamps - we thought we might get chance for a bit of a chat, but we were just too busy! At the right here you can see Jj manning the till and being kept very busy!

As you can see, I had got into the spirit of things and made a floral creation to wear....as the idea of everyone wearing Easter "bonnets" had been mentioned. Well, I made one but nobody else did! Oh well, I wore it regardless! The red nose was just for the photos as we just couldn't breathe properly with them on, and all sounded as if we had streaming colds, aside from nearly passing out from lack of oxygen!

Lots of Dawns' regular customers were there, including Serena pictured here holding just some of her purchases....my new clear stamps. Serena is a really keen crafter and always brings a sense of fun when she comes along to my workshops...remember the homicidal rabbits?!
The next photograph is of Paul Browning who I had not met before, so it was lovely to see him - do check out his blog which I have put a link to in my blog list (the artsiders). The ATC entitled "Aspire" which you will see there, is now in my collection as Paul kindly presented me with it last night - thank you Paul! Many of you will know Paul through his workshops at Topaz, he's very talented and a lovely person too.
The final picture is of just some of us wearing our noses...yes, we were wearing red noses - it wasn't just the effect of the mulled wine! Clockwise from the top left we have Jayne, Laura, Dawn, myself and last, but definitely not least, the lovely Sarah. Jj was selling raffle tickets and raised over £200 for Comic Relief.

I promised that I would add some step by steps for making the owl card with the inked trees, and will definitely put them on after the weekend. So, please do check back for this next week. I hope everyone who bought my new stamps is having fun with them - I'd love to see pictures of what you come up with, so do email them to me.

Tomorrow I shall be at Stampers Gallery in Tarleton, near Preston (details are on my demonstration diary list) so do come along if you are in the vicinity! I'll have some new photos by the end of the day I am sure! Have a great weekend everyone and come back soon! Lindsay