A great weekend

Thanks to all the lovely ladies (and one or two gentlemen!) who came along to Burnside on Saturday and Crafty by Nature on Sunday. It was so busy on both days and I had a great time with lots of laughter, as well as seeing everyone keen try all the techniques that I was showing. Joanne and her lovely hubby came along so it was great to see them, though we didn't get much time for a proper catch up. I did swap an ATC with her though as well as one with my sister, Heather, who also came to see me. Heather had brought some fabulous book swaps that she has been working on, but I missed out on having a proper look...well, I will catch them again hopefully.A couple of ladies came along to both days (hello to Alma!) and here are some of the keen crafters who came to see me on Sunday.

I am still bearing the stained hands from the weekend, as I used just about every type of ink known to man I think! I was also using Martha Stewart punches which everyone else seemed to love as much as me. My friend Jan and I made quite a lot of the samples for the Martha Stewart TSV which starts at Midnight tonight on QVC and which I am betting will not last for very long going by how popular they are!

This is the card which I promised to put up on here so those who bought the Versamagic inks and the Swirly Birds stamp set could remember how it looked! I stamped the birds with Sepia Archival ink and used Cut n Dry foam to smudge different ink colours over them . The paper down the side is from the Blossomwood paper pad from K&Co (gorgeous) and I used the Lattice Arch MS edger punch on matching brown paper which I slipped underneath the Pussy Willow paper. I added some tiny gold gems to the bird's eyes, and layered flowers and a large gem as a finishing touch.

Personal Impressions have now put some of the new stamp designs up on their website which you can check out under "coming soon". There is a whole mix of styles and themes by myself, Sue Dix and other designers. If you want to know who designed any particular image, or set, just click to enlarge the image for details. The images which I have been working on for the last couple of months are not up there yet, as they are for release later in the year.

Well, I have been busy all day, so am now going to relax a bit! Lindsay

An inky day

I have multi coloured fingers this evening as I've been using Distress and Alcohol inks this afternoon to get some ATC's and background papers ready for my demonstration tomorrow at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio. Messy and fun! Hope to see some of you there and, if you're early, you can swap one of my new ATC's - bit of a Halloween theme on some of them, with orange and black Alcohol inks. I'll get some photos tomorrow - it was horribly dark here today, but that Autumn, cosy feel was nice too. Talking of which, the clocks go back tonight so it's a lie in and coming home in the dark tomorow....ugh!

Anyway, here are just a few pictures to liven up this post! The first one was taken at the QVC event in London, and is of my template kit with just a few of the samples that I made.

The card on the right features paper from the K & Co Winter Wonderland pack. I simply watercolour stamped two birds from my Swirly Birds clear set (PICS013) and added gem stones for their eyes. What, literally, tied this card together was the combination of purple and blue sheer ribbon which picked up on the colours in the paper. Simple, but I liked this one!

The last one shows two examples of the fairy cards which were one of the workshops that I taught at the QVC event. The backing papers are from My Minds Eye and are really easy to work with as they are double sided and have a nice mix of patterns and plain. The cards feature images from my Fairy Silhouette clear stamp set. Hope you like them, Lindsay

At last! Time to make Owl cards!

Well, it's taken me weeks I know, but I have finally got round to taking some step by step photos so I can give you the Owl card instructions that many of you have been asking me for. Sorry it took me so long! This will be a looong post because of all the pictures! Okay, here goes!You will need: Owl stamp from my clear set - Swirly Birds PICS013 (If you want a cute owl, as opposed to a serious one, then try"Fluffy Owl" FH116 which is a wood mounted one.) 3 x shades of Versamagic Inkpads...I used Night Sky, Aegean Blue & Purple Hydrangea, but go with what takes your fancy. You'll also need a black ink pad (I used Archival so I could crack on with colouring my owl) a bottle of Ranger's Distress Re-inker in Black Soot, a circle punch, a piece of sponge and a thin straw! You will also need whatever is your choice of colouring medium in various browns, greys and ochre - I use Marvy Le Plume pens and a waterbrush, and, of course, some cardstock. Okay, first of all, cut a piece of white card a bit smaller than your card blank. Punch a circle from thin card and stick it to the top right of the piece of card using repositionable glue. Make sure it is secure before the next step. Starting with the lightest of your chosen Versamagic colours, pick up a little ink with the sponge and swipe it across the card in a diagonal direction - this gives the impression of a rain swept sky. Turn the sponge around and repeat with the next colour. Finally, repeat with the darkest shade, adding colour until you like the effect. Make sure that you apply ink across the circle to define the shape.Now carefully remove the circle mask..a pricking tool can be helpful for this. Don't worry if you do damage the surface of the card beneath as you can add some Diamond Stickles to disguise it!

Next, drop a blob of the Distress Re-Inker at the bottom of the card - I usually place the card onto a bigger piece of scrap card whilst I do this as it avoids mess and allows me to lift the image for the next step. Here comes the fun part now! Take a straw (the thinner the better) and blow the ink blob up the card. As it goes up the card you can blow sideways to make a twig shoot out an angle. Keep adding blobs to the bottom of the card and then blow them to create more branches. The way the ink "spiders" across the card gives a very natural look which is much more random than drawing them. It does make one feel a bit light headed though! Mat the finished piece onto black card and then onto the card blank.

Stamp the owl twice onto thin white card and colour him with your chosen medium. You only need the wing from the second owl. Cut the images out and decoupage the wing over the first owl. It will give a more natural look if you stick the top of the wing flat to the base image whilst using silicone glue to give height to the tip. Carefully "roll" the owl around your finger to give him a nice shape and squidge a line of silicone down the back of the image before positioning him onto the card. If you want a bit of sparkle, just add a little Stickles to the moon.
Well, I hope you will have a go at the card - let me know how you get on! 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

See you in Wickford!

Only a few more days to leave a comment and maybe win my Blog Candy! So, do add your name...as they say...you have to be in it to win it!

I'm all set for my trip down to Essex now. I'll be travelling down by train on friday, which, apart from the usual mad dash across London by Tube (which I never enjoy!) should be an enjoyable journey, watching the changing scenery and looking to see what wildlife I can spot in the hedgerows and trees. If you live near Wickford please do pop along and see me. It's going to be a busy day with lots of great new products and some interesting techniques.As you can see from the advert above, there is an anniversary sale on at the shop, so there will be some great bargains to be had I'm sure. I'll hopefully get chance to take some pictures of the day, so will add those next week. Don't forget Craft Day on QVC tomorrow - I know that some of my stamps will be on in the 12pm slot. Meanwhile, here are a few more card samples featuring some more of my new bird designs. The one on the right is another from a clear set (PICS013) featuring four birds, including the owl which I posted earlier. The one on the left is a large wooden stamp image (FR63)which I've combined with some K&Co "Cut n Paste" papers and some doodles done with our new Deco Colour pens. For the lovers of more cute images, the last card features my "Fluffy Owl" (FH116) stamped several times and added to a sponged background with a branch cut from black card.

The eyes have been glazed with Glossy Accents and a hand written greeting added...another terrible pun!!! (In case you can't read it, it says "Have a hoot on your special day!"....I know, it's dreadful!) I have a very eclectic taste, but I do like making cards which raise a smile! Hope you like the avian collection of designs, whatever your taste is.

Have a great weekend everyone and I'll be back on Sunday with pics of my day at Wickfords and, of course, to reveal who will be getting the goodies! Lindsay

What a great weekend!

I'm back home again now and all the hard work in creating new designs and making up samples was worth it. It was a really busy weekend which began by travelling to Birmingham and checking into our usual hotel before heading off to the NEC where the Personal Impressions stand had been built and was being filled with all the new products, and then tweaked and polished in readiness for the influx of visitors the next day. This is my demonstration stand all nicely set up for action...and lovely and tidy before I get started of course! It was icy cold as there is no heating in the massive hall on set up day and, of course, the huge doors are constantly open so that companies can bring all their goods through. We finished around 7.45pm and then headed back to the hotel for a meal and a well earned night's sleep!
Day two, Sunday, and it's an early start and the first time that one really notices all of the stands which seem to have miraculously grown overnight! Everything is sparkling, shiny and new looking but there's no time to look as we need to get ready. I discovered that my cards, popped into the cupboard below my table for safety, had been squished under boxes when an electrician had to do a running repair in there - so I had to do some repairs myself first thing (yes, the electrician did get out alive.....just! As you can see, Tim Holtz was demonstrating the wonderful new additions to his range on his table to the left of mine.
I was a lot happier than I look in this picture at my work area! You can see some of the rest of our stand behind me. To the right of me was the board showing all our latest stamps - including new clear stamp sets.

It's always exciting to see what reaction the

new images will get as you may imagine. I'm pleased to say that the comments were very positive!

Here are a selection of the cards that I made using my new designs. The owl is from a clear set of four bird images - you know how I love birds!

Of course, I had to come up with new shelves! This is the Toy Shelf and there is also a new Wizard shelf for all the Harry Potter fans and aspiring magicians out there! The "Dream" card has one of my retro stamps along with some gorgeous K&Co acetate die cuts. The vibrant panel is made with alcohol inks used on a new canvas sheet that Personal Impressions are selling - it's fabulous stuff!

The day went very quickly, even though it was 9am - 6pm with just about no breaks all day. A busy day always goes fast. I met lots of people who I only ever see at the show, so it was great to catch up with them and find out how they were doing. That evening we had a meal and an early night!

I will post "part 2" tomorrow, as the Blogger is working very sloooowly tonight and keeps freezing. So, I shall say goodnight and do check back tomorow for more and also for pictures of exciting Candy! Lindsay