Show time

I was quite happy to be ensconced in my workroom today, looking out at the rain pelting down and bouncing off the pavement. It's been pretty non stop, so Thomas and Tara have taken the odd chance to rush outside in a moment's let up, only to be wanting to be let in a couple of minutes later.

I've been making the last couple of samples today and then packing my case ready for tomorrow, the first day of the Event City show in Manchester. Do say hello if you're visiting the show - I'll be demonstrating on the Card-Io stand. Here are a couple of the latest things I created.....

.....this little guy is on my "Nicicles as Icicles" stamp set along with the snowman that I painted onto my sweatshirt (see an earlier post). The "snow" is kitchen towel - the non inked variety for a change! I love the font that I cut using a Die-Versions set called "Tickled Pink", it's a great size for tags, cards or scrapbooking.

I realised I'd been using a lot of blues in my backgrounds this last week, so I made a conscious effort to go down a different colour route when I was using my "Snowy Scenes" set.....

 .....I used water colour paper (I'm really liking using the torn water colour paper effect at the moment!) and created the scene very simply with the stamps...no masking required on this particular version. I thought that rather than the whole white out of a fully snowy landscape I'd colour the fields in green before adding snow in certain areas using white gesso. The two snowflakes were cut using the Die-Versions Sweet Petites Snowflake die from stiff white card which I glittered with Rock Candy Distress glitter before sweeping a touch of Frayed Burlap ink across the edges. 

I'm afraid the card blank itself wasn't the best quality one which is why it looks a little wonky!

I'll finish with another tag, this one featuring the grumpy Elf that I painted onto my Tee shirt last week......

 .....he really does deserve to have the Bah Humbug words next to him! I also used one of the Die-Versions Sweet Spots to stencil Jingle Bells very lightly in the background. My favourite bit of this tag though is the ribbon! Well, it's the technique really! I used the new Goosebumps spray from Tsukineko to spritz the ribbon first before drying it and then adding lots of ink. The Goosebumps adds a texture which also acts as a resist so it gives a very different effect to the ribbon. It looks more interesting in real life! Brilliant new sprays and I'll be using them at the show.

Well, I've had an early, very early for me, dinner so that I can just relax for the rest of the evening and be ready for a reasonably early night before my early start tomorrow. I've just got a plate and a pan to wash up (Singapore vermicelli noodle stir fry!), a hot shower to get rid of the last of the ink stains (I hope), the kettle to switch on to make a steaming coffee and then it's relaxing on the sofa in the PJ's until bed time. Lovely!

So, hope to see some of you over the next few days...looking forward to it!

piccies & a reminder

My Stitches samples came back today, so I'm posting some pictures here as promised. If you're coming along to my demonstration at High Legh garden centre this Saturday you'll be able to take a closer look at these and more. 

The reminder is don't forget to leave a comment, if you haven't already, after my blog candy giveaway post from last week. There's still time to be in with a chance to win it as I'll be randomly picking a winner on Friday morning. Well, it may be Heather, Thomas or Tara, who picks somebody! I'll post the winner's name on Friday evening, so don't forget to call back and see if you're "it"!! 

Welcome to new followers and hope you'll enjoy my ramblings, both creative and not as it were.

So, here are a few pictures with some brief descriptions of what I used.

This tag was made using my Doo Lally Pip stamp set "All steamed up". The background on the tag was made using Distress Stains including metallic to give a slightly rusty, verdigris effect. I roughed up the edges and inked them with Rusty Hinge Distress ink. The flowers are simply punched out from Kraft Resist papers that I scrunched up before spraying with Dylusions inks and heat setting. I added Idealogy gears using little brads to link them to the steampunk theme. Here's a closer look at the details....

 

I layered up the images and added Glossy Accents to the rivets to give dimension to the tag and the "ribbon" is just tissue tape that I've folded and inked with Stains. I like the odd juxtaposition (!) of flowers with the steampunky theme!

Here are a couple of whimsical Easter tags....

 

....the left one is made using my "Peep Peep" stamp set and my Glue n Seal technique to protect the images before inking the background. I coloured the chicken using Dylusions sprays to give a speckled hen look. 

The right hand tag features the egg branch and sentiment from the Peep Peep set as well as two of my Tinchie stamps - Bunny Behind and Rabbit Warren. I used inked dictionary paper to create the hillside - love that technique!

Finally for today, this little canvas was probably the piece that most people liked at the show! It seems my Moochin' character reminds almost everyone of their grandson, son, nephew etc! The canvas was simply sprayed with inks (no prep to the canvas) which I then smooched out with tissue until I liked the effect. I went rond the edges with Distress ink and the black splats were made using the Black Soot Stain in "bingo marker" fashion - such a satisfying method! I inked though the number stencil to add some extra interest in the background and stood the character on kitchen towel that I'd used to wipe up my inks with - I splodged Multi Matte Medium onto the tissue and scrumpled it onto the canvas adding more medium to allow me to clump it up. You probably can't see it here, but I sprinkled some Rock Candy Distress glitter over the "grass" too. 

My favourite bit of this canvas are his clothes. I picked a couple of sheets from my pile of used, inky paper towels and stuck them down onto thin card using a glue stick. It's best to glue the paper towel down then peel back the top layer if it's a two ply tissue before adding more adhesive and smoothing the top layer back into place - otherwise it might just come adrift later. I then stamped the character onto the two different coloured pieces before cutting the jeans and tee shirt out and adhering in place over the original image. I love the way this gives texture to his clothes - makes them quite touchy feely!

Of course, he had to have the crown at a jaunty angle and the words from my "I've Had Enough" stamp set just suit him perfectly.

I'll post photos of more samples in the next few days but here's one to finish that shows just how much respect Tara has for her mums work.....

...not sure if she was picking out her favourite or deciding which one to chew first!

The work that Tara is so casually playing with almost came at a rather high price. I had to have the plumber round again this week as the lounge radiator had sprung a leak....I still feel really strange having to call "a man in" for these things, as David would have been able to fix just about everything. I guessed that the valve screw thread had stripped when I was bleeding the radiator and so it proved to be - but I had no way of sorting it out myself besides permanently sealing the valve. 

Anyway, I digress. I'd been having bad headaches along with a dodgy tummy for a few weeks before Stitches and I was sure that it was a bad reaction to an increased dose of one of my tablets. I was all set to ask the doctor to try me on a different one. Then, a couple of days before the show, I realised that the symptoms had stopped. It was only then that a thought came to me about an alternative explanation.....I'd been working in my Doo Lally room for hours and hours each day and, with the freezing weather, I'd had the gas wall heater on as well as the radiator...it's a chilly room otherwise. The symptoms had stopped when I'd finished working in there in the last couple of days. Mmmmm....I thought....suspicious! So, I asked the plumber to check the heater and he said that I'm lucky that I didn't fall asleep and never wake up! He's turned the gas off to it for me and I will now have to pick up a halogen heater to top up the heat in there instead.

Thank goodness I twigged what the cause could be though. To think, I've been working away in there and breathing in gas fumes the whole time! Yikes. It pays to check these things out.

Okay, that's me signing out for today and....don't forget....leave a comment on the blog candy post. 

PS in reply to several queries, yes, I will be at this year's Craft Barn Extravaganza and this time I'll also be teaching there on the Friday as well.

Off on my travels again

I'm all packed for my trip to Yorkshire tomorrow. I'm not setting off too early but it's nice to have all the gear organised and ready to go. I'm travelling to Hessle, which is about ten miles from Beverley, for the demonstration at Studio Craftique on Saturday. I've just taken delivery of some Dylusions stamp sets and will be using these, as well as some of my Off the Wall designs, all brought together with ink sprays and other Ranger goodies. It was touch and go, as the bad weather held up the parcel so I was very relieved when the postie walked up the path!

Here are a couple of "journal pages" that I made with a selection of the Dylusions images (they are loose pages so that I can leave them at the store after my demo). I really love the birds...especially once I'd put their hats on....

......please excuse the vile backdrop! I was rushing to take pictures at the last minute before packing them away and I just grabbed the nearest thing...a manky old cushion from my workroom...yeck! Anyway, I used Dylusions ink sprays directly onto the card, lightly spritzed with water and dried with kitchen towel. I spritzed water onto the surface of the template (CW Mini Gears), pressing onto the surface, lifting and drying to give a negative "bleached" pattern.

The leaves and the coloured fronds are from the Doodle Parts stamp set. I stamped some birds in black directly onto the surface and others onto white card that I sprayed with more inks. I stamped, coloured and cut out the hats and stuck these onto the birds - don't they look jolly! The birds and hats are from the Birds on a Wire set. The phrase is from a Dylusions set called The Right Words.

The next page features stamps from the DooLally Doris set, also from the Dylusions range.

 Done in a similar way to the birds page, but no stencilling this time. Instead, I stamped the leaves with black Archival ink and then bleached them with water before adding a light green to colour them. I took a small strip of stiff card and concertina folded it before using it behind the head to give a wobbly effect!

Finally, I just have another tag to show you, featuring my Hopeful Harriet stamp set along with wings from my Steamed Up set. I used TH tissue wrap around the tag before spritzing with inks...the surface isn't very absorbent so I dab the inks with tissue and layer them for a subtly effect. 

 I've given Harriet the top hat from the same stamp set and the words are from my I Can Fly set. I was really happy with the way the colours came together on this tag...nice when you're pleased with something you've made isn't it?!

Well, that's all the pictures for tonight and I will report back after the weekend. Oh yes, I forgot to say how the British Gas visit went. The two guys came, drilled holes in the walls and pumped the insulation in....all of which made one heck of a noise for over an hour and meant that every door in the house was open to accomodate all the leads and pipes. As it was snowing pretty heavily at the time it was somewhat chilly! Poor Tara and Thomas were beside themselves - Tara buried herself in her bolt hole of the airing cupboard and Thomas, after hiding under a chair for five minutes decided he was better off out of it and scooted out of the house. He was obviously keep an eye on matters though, as he came back about two minutes after they'd left! Tara soon came round as well, but they got some extra treats last night to make up for their traumatic day!

So, I can report that my room thermometers are showing higher temperatures since yesterday...I think it's still as cold outside so I'm hoping that the insulation is already helping to keep the house a little toastier. Here's hoping anyway!

Coffee break

This is another quick post whilst I'm having a sneaky coffee between finishing one tag and starting another. Here are three that I've made today, nestling in some Heather in the front garden now that the sun has finally come out today. The greenery looks festive so I thought it could double as a Christmas tree for these seasonal samples. There's a mix of TH dies here along with Andy Skinner's stamps. I absolutely love the typeset die (as in "Joy" and "Christmas") and know I will be using these little letters over and over - it's code number SZ657176 btw. I also managed a little drawing of just one eye but with more detail this time. I used a propelling pencil - I like these....no wasted lead - on watercolour paper which gives a roughish surface to work the pencil into with the finger.
It's a little unnerving drawing one's own features as it makes you really notice how much they've changed over the years. My eyes have got more hooded, the less said about the bags the better and I've no idea where most of my once lovely, long eyelashes have vanished to! The perils of waterproof mascara I'm suspecting.
Right, coffee is just about drunk, so I'll get back to work.

Travelling North.....East

It's Thursday again...I can't really believe it...which means that I am off on my travels again tomorrow, this time to Darlington and Chester-Le-Street up in the North East. Bet it'll be a bit nippy up there! My bags are really heavy because I'm packed for two demonstrations and have punches as well as paper stacks and card....surprising just how heavy card is! Anyway, I'm pretty tough, so it will just give my muscles a good work out!

Last weekend I was in Bury St Edmunds which is one of my favourite large towns to visit as it has interesting little shops as well as a lovely area of parkland and gardens behind the Cathedral. I had a less than relaxing jorney down there as my train was running late and I knew I would miss my connection with a looong wait for the next one. I was willing the train to speed up but we seemed to be going very slowly all the way. After being given wrong information by everyone that I asked, it then transpired out that I could pick up my connection from a later station. So...it turned out okay but meant that I had been "on pins" for no reason. Oh well! There's not much wildlife watching to report from my journeys at the moment, but I saw quite a few dead animals and birds on Friday's trip. I think they must have succulmbed to the storm the night before, poor things. Hopefully I'll see some more uplifting sights tomorrow.

I had a very busy day at The Stamp Hut where I was using the Melt Pot - great fun! I hope the ladies who were making Christmas wishes will be receiving Melt Pot shaped packages from their husbands....I did drop plenty of hints to them on your behalfs! Thanks to Paula and Dot for looking after me and keeping me hydrated with fruit tea as always!

I have a few new pieces to share with you tonight. Well, the first two are actually only partly new! I have been trolling a Grungepaper flower tag around with me as well as one that was unmounted. So, I decided to give them a new lease of life and made two new tags. They are both covered with TH paper (Retro and Vintage Shabby) and both feature alcohol inked velevet flowers and ribbon. I've used a Timepiece and Game Spinner on one and some pleated Symphony Tissue Tape and a new (for me) MS punch called "Modern Garland".The next photo really doesn't show this tag very well, so I will take a better one if I get a chance. Here it looks quite flat but it's actually very dimensional. I used the Vintage Shabby paper again and a mix of Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet Distress ink to smudge around the edges. to make my rosette I cut a full strip from the VS paper stash and then scored lines along the length using a ruler and ball ended tool. A bit laborious, but not too bad! I then concertina folded the strip, stuck the ends together and flattened it into a rosette. I stuck this onto a punched circle as a base to keep it in place, added it to the tag (after sticking some Tissue tape across the bottom) and then glued one of Tim's buttons into the centre. I carefully piped Diamond Stickles around the edge of the rosette....I chose Diamond for the golden glint it has which tied in nicely with the button. I dyed the ribbon and Jewelled Florette flowers (Petaloo) in my usual way! (ie alcohol inks) and added these. The butterfly is a Grungeboard element of two seperate wings which I lightly inked and curled before glueing the into place. I cut a simple body from a scrap of Grungepaper and wrapped it in Tissue Tape before glueing it over thewings. I cut the antennae from more Grungepaper and slidd them under the head before adding more Stickles. A few MS Opal gems filled in some blank areas to complete. My final photo tonight is of a card featuring my Fairy Silhouette stamped onto an alcohol ink monoprint on gloss white card. I then stroked Paint Dabbers over a page from my charity shop bought copy of Grimm's fairy tales (no wonder they were the Grimm brothers - some of the stories are positively horrific!) and cut out three rectangles and three triangles which I glued down to create towers. I added details with my fine black pen. I dyed and added some flowers at the base and then popped blue gems to their centres. I drew two of my "grown up stars" with an Inkssentials white pen and then covered the fairy image with Stardust Stickles to give her a softer look. I have done a similar thing with the "Paint Dabbers on book page" towers on a recent Journal page which gave me the idea for this card.I'll have all these, plus lots more of course, with me over the weekend, so do come along if you are in the area. On Staurday I'll be at The Art Shop on Bondgate, in Darlington. I'll be using lots of Ranger products including TH stamps and papers, Idealogy and inks etc. Then, on Sunday, I'll be at Lambton Garden Centre in Chester-Le-Street with similar products as well as my stamps and cardstock. I'll have MS punches with me at both as well. I'm looking forward to this trip, as it's a while since I was in the North East and I always enjoy my time there.

Okay, better sign off now as I have some emails to send and train times to copy out before we have dinner. So, have a great weekend everyone. Lindsay