What a busy weekend!

That really was a busy old weekend, though there wasn't too much travelling for a change! On Saturday I jumped on the train to Port Sunlight - I've never been there before and what a pretty place it really is....must go back there for a leisurely look round sometime. I had a busy day there, though not at the stamp fair itself (sorry to those of you who have emailed to ask where I was......but I had the wrong information!) I was in the social club down the road! Here are just a few of the cards that I made for the day......a simple new home card using the row of houses from my "Hoist the Flags" stamp set. I made the cloudy background using Distress Stains with a spritz of Perfect Pearl Mist to give a shimmer. It's matted with a MS punched panel that I've inked with Mustard Seed Distress ink. I'm in a bit of a flouncy ribbon phase I think, with bows hanging off the edges of my cards! The next card is using a combination of "Magic Happens" and "Silhouetted Fairies" stamp sets which I have used over a Distress Stains background. I punched a circle out at the top and then layered the panel over white card to reveal the moon, which I added Stickles to for a more twinkly effect. I smudged my Archival black ink pad along the bottom of the stamped panel to give a fairly smudgy base and then sketched some simple grasses in with a fine black Le Plume pen. If you look closely, you'll see that I used a white pen to add a few highlights along the edges of the images nearest to the moon...it just helps to bring them to life. The stars were added with white pen too. Next is another card using my "I dreamed of castles" stamp set. This one has been stamped over book paper and lightly tinted with Le Plume pens. The Distress Stain background came out really well, and gave just the ethereal look that I wanted. I used the Stains to colour the ribbon too. A little blue shading below the castle just grounds it (even though it is meant to be floating!). Sunday was a fun day! Myself and Amy Shaw were teaching workshops in Darwen and there was much laughter throughout the day - and a good amount of crafting of course! Amy taught in the morning, making cards with a flower theme and showing the ladies how to create tissue Carnations which everyone impressed themselves with! Sheila is showing her enjoyment in her usual way as you can see! Before we got started, as everyone was arriving, we had time to congratulate Joanne's husband "Peg Leg" on his 70th birthday (I know....he looks far too young!) and their wedding anniversary which were on the same day the week before. Terry has been having a very extended celebration and here he's posing with the giant cigar that David thought he might enjoy! Two of our favourite people, Joanne and Terry are a delight to be with and Joanne is such a talented crafter. After a break for lunch and a chance to tidy up and reset the tables, it was time for my workshops. I'll post photos of what we did as soon as I can, as I somehow managed to not take any! The first card was mainly about making a background using Acrylic paint, stamps, Distress inks, Distress re-inkers and Perfect Pearl powders which became the focal point to which were added stamped butterflies and a bird. The card panel was covered with Distress stained Kraft resist paper. Here are some of the part finished cards..... and some more here..... The ladies made two more cards, one using alcohol inks and Andy Skinner's "Back to nature" stamp set, and then a card featuring a MS punch all over the page butterfly which caused some jumping in fright when the magnets clanged together! Everyone made fantastic versions of all the cards and, as you can see from the pictures, they all looked quite different.

It was a lovely day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I'm not sure when I'll next be teaching workshops, but do keep an eye on my dates and in my posts of course, as I'll be sure to let you know what, when and where!
So, today, unfortunately, was still not a day off as I am in the last few days of getting designs finished, as well as prepping for the coming weekend's events. However, it's been nice to be at home all day, and David has kept me going with coffee and toast!
For those who have been asking, our new little friend is really settling in now. He did blot his copybook last week, as he is definitely nothing like our dear little Cherry, and is quite the hunter. He has been pouncing at our regular bird visitors and one pigeon did leave a few feathers behind in a flurry of claws and wings! There has been a grisly moment with a mouse too, but I won't dwell on that one. So, we seem to have Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde living here, as he swings from being purry and cuddly to a miniature lion! Hopefully he'll learn that the birds are off limits - fingers crossed! He is still wolfing food down, ate half of david's sandwich when he put his plate down for a moment and, last night, I even found him chomping on the skins that I had removed from my broad beans and set at the side of my plate! I guess he has been a hobo for so long that he thinks he had better fill up while he can.

He has been to the vet who pronounced him fit and well and missing his "boy bits" - no microchip and, despite posting his details on animal lost & found sites etc, nobody has claimed him. His name has been "pusscat", "oy", "ccchhh, ccchh" etc and I was wavering towards the very original "Tommy". A lady who was at the vet's with her two beautiful Shelties, thought he looked like a Thomas, as did the nurse, so, Thomas it is. It suits him. So, that's the state of play at the moment. We have been battered into submission by him really! Will keep you posted!

I'm going to get back to some work again now.....Christmas verses are calling!

Drawing pains!

Well, it's a lovely sunny day here, so hope the weather's good where you are. It should be a great day for drawing, but, for some reason, my back has decided to twinge rather nastily, so I am struggling somewhat. If I stay in the same position for too long it starts to get painful, so I am a bit too wriggly for concentrating on detailed work! Still, work has to be done, so I will have to press on. No idea why my back is suddenly being gyppy, but guess I probably just slept in one position for too long. Moan over!

It was a really fun day on Saturday at Topaz. Everyone was in a quite frivolous mood as you can see in both of these pictures. Amy.........and Sheila! Both showing what they think of having their photos taken - charming! Everyone else, as you can see, was hard at work making their easter cards! Sheila is such good company on the workshops, always ready to have some fun and she does keep us in stitches!Here's a picture of the afternoon's workshop where the ladies were all decorating and filling Sahdow Boxes. There's me, floating about with the tin of alcohol inks for the ladies to colour silver keys to make them look more aged. Lots of concentration going on here!And look who turned up and tried to pinch my Ranger workshop canvasses! Terry has lost so much weight now that he can't hide as much stash now as he used to..... ....so it looks like Joanne will fail in her attempt to get him to pocket the third canvass! Lol! In case you don't know, Terry "pinching" my stash is a regular episode when we see each other - and he really isn't a criminal - honest!

Well, this was just a quickie post to say hello while I'm just having my coffee break. So, back to work now! Lindsay

PS if you fancy having a fun day with me at Topaz, do check out my next workshop dates on the left.

Happy days!

Yes, days that are filled with laughter, friends and creativity are definitely happy ones. It was a very busy weekend but all of the above made it worthwhile. On Saturday morning it was my Introduction to Art Journalling workshop and we made some backgrounds, altered magazine images with Gesso, painted and drew. There was so much that we could have done and so little time! Hopefully we will be able to fit another workshop in before long so that we can work on some specific pages, but I also hope that everyone felt inspired and more confident in their ability to put pen to paper and create something special. Here's one of mine that shows my impatience! I used a magazine image for the head and torso of the mermaid and Gesso for the background, her hair and tail. I stamped in the Gesso, added paints and some collaged images. All went well and then I added my words (which I wasn't happy with - they look too heavy, but hey ho!). Unfortunately, I thought that everything was dry when I closed my journal but, mmmm, seems not! So my poor mermaid now has blue squidges all over her! I may have to turn them into rain drops, or I may leave it as it is to remind me to wait! This next page is just a fun one that I did to show everyone in the workshop that, even if you think that you can't draw, you can create a piece of original art! It was great fun to do - another of my drawn and coloured with Promarker pages. The sentiment is true for me...I refuse to grow up and I love having that inner child alive and well! The last page has a mix of techniques and I'll give a quick run through of them specially for the ladies on my workshop! I stuck torn out book pages to the blank pages in my journal and then Gessoed over the whole double page spread...I made some areas very thin, some a little thicker. Once dry, I then swept Paint Dabbers up and down the text areas, adding various colours to build up the effect. I wanted to still be able to read some areas. I cut out various images from magazines and papers and stuck them down using Multi Matt Medium, creating the main figue from four different images collaged together. I coloured the pink edging using a Memento brush pen (rather like a Le Plume pen but with a slightly larger nib)...the Gesso texture shows up well as darker and lighter shades of pink. I drew the toadstools in with a black pen, colouring them with brush pens and a white Inkssentials pen. I painted the simple grass effect with acrylic. I added the words and the teensy spiders and finished by adding some shading on and around the characters with Promarkers. Hope you like them.David joined in with the Journalling workshop and I will post pictures of what he did as soon as I have taken them...need some new batteries! We were all impressed! However, a loose lid on a jar of Gesso caused uproar when David picked it up and the contents went flying....most of them over poor Chris! David was mortified and he and Chris spent quite some time cleaning up her bags, clothes and the table. Only later did I discover that I had a white leg and skirt as well! These things happen and thank you Chris for being very good humoured about it all. It was great to see Gez there as she has been having a terrible time suffering with vertigo - her journal pages are gorgeous. I was lucky to get gorgeous ATC's from Chris and Gez and a beautiful tag from Sheila - I'll post piccies of them soon. Thank you ladies.

Now, speaking of good humour, the afternoon workshop was an absolute hoot! We were making a plaque and two cards. The plaque had Gesso on it, to simulate snow. This caused great humour as it was variously referred to as Gessop, Gello and other strange names. Marion put her letters on back to front, so "Joy" became "Yoj" leading to more giggles, especially from the delightful Cynthia and Sharon who lit up the afternoon with their laughter. Here they are - promised I'd blog you girls!Sheila was having fun with the MS punches that just would not behave for her. So much so that David made a special notice for her...... ....thanks for being so good humoured She, you know we love you really!!! Having said that, the sign did move around during the afternoon!After making a card using MS punches and Best Creations papers we finished the session by making a secret message card (sorry, no photo of this one yet either) that opens up in different ways. This caused a few puzzled expressions but as I said, don't worry how it works, just enjoy the fact that it does!

The workshop ended and then Kath and Elaine produced a bag from under the table which they said was for me. As it wasn't my birthday or anything I was somewhat surprised to say the least! I let Kath open the carefully taped and wrapped box as they had said it was fragile....everyone was very eager to see what was inside! When I opened the tissue and carefully drew the creation out we were all amazed and I was thrilled.....it was the most beautifully decorated Goose Egg adorned with delicate fairies with shimmery wings topped with sparkling crystals and sitting on top of a gilded stand. A tiny switch lights up the egg from inside to give an even more magical effect. Absolutely stunning and made with Kath's own fair hands. Here are Elaine and Kath with me and the Eggstraordinarily generous gift they presented me with! It is something that will be treasured and the fact that it came so out of the blue made it all the more special. Thank you so much, I cannot tell you how grateful I am. Again, because my camera is "powerless" I will post a close up of this beauty very shortly - watch this space!

David and I have said many times that we have met so many wonderful people over this last two years, it's been a very heartwarming time and helps to counteract those days when one feels down.

On Sunday I was back at Dawn's studion to demonstrate for the day. I was using some of my wooden backed rubber stamps for a change and they were mostly my whimsical designs. I was challenged to combine "cute with distressed" by Karen, and my Leaping Robins were chosen as the stamp for me to use. I made this quite simple tag by inking the background and stamping the robins with Archival black. I then bleached them with water so that I could colour them against the dark background using more Distress inks. A bit more faux bleaching and an alcohol inked ribbon was the last touch. Sheila and Joanne had come along to my demonstration and everyone gave a thumbs up for the "distressed cute combo"! Now, of course, if Joanne was there then you can bet that the phantom cat burglar was there too! (For new blog readers, it's a standing joke, Terry - Joanne's lovely husband - isn't really a burglar!) Just look how shifty he looks here...did he really think he could get away with my Tim Holtz paper stashes? Oh, and is that a MS punch I see there as well?! Good try Terry! Lol! As I said, such a fun weekend, I was hoarse from laughing. I shall also be posting photos of the ATC's I got on Sunday too...blinking batteries, gggrrr! I'm ending with a picture of my littlest best friend Alicia, who is just adorable. You may recall that I mentioned a few weeks ago that Alicia had seen a "tap" being made on a tv programme, and was convinced that I could make one. None of us had seen the tap, so we were a bit clueless really. However, I managed to track down what it was and made the basic tap for her on Sunday morning. It was made from paper cups and cardboard, but look what Alicia showed me at the end of the day..........she and Rena and Gill had gone to town with the decoration and had added silver leaf and ribbon etc. Lovely! Look at that big smile - makes it all worthwhile doesn't it?

I'll post again as soon as I have the batteries in the camera and can show add the other piccies. Lindsay

Time to rest

Today was the day for some time off after a few weeks of solid work. So I took a leaf out of Tara's book and had a lie in! Then there were some good tennis matches to watch...well, first day of Wimbledon, it would have been rude not to! I should say here that I was writing all this yesterday ie Monday, and had almost got to the end of this long post when something happened, I think my thumb slipped onto a mystery key, but, whatever it was, it deleted the entire post, words and pictures! Ggggrrrr.....I just didn't have the heart to re-do the whole thing from scratch last night. Maddening. Tara is mum and dad's cat and the lovely picture above is of her fast asleep in my bed at their house. I really miss not having kitty feet padding around, so it was a treat to have her company whilst we were house sitting a few weeks ago.

The next picture is of the three ATC's which I made for Heather's swap last month. The theme was "A little birdie" and the only rule was that there must be a bird and a figure on each ATC. I decided to draw my own designs for these, so I pencilled the images in, inked them up with my 0.05 pen, coloured with Promarkers and then added extra details with more pen work. I hope the recipients liked them as I had great fun creating them! If you fancy joining in one of Heather's monthly swaps check out her blog (in my blog list at the left) and just email her - then you can join in as many, or few, of the swaps as you want to.

While we were away I did a demonstration at Windmill Crafts in Thornton and managed to get a photo of Terry trying to sneak off with more of my stash in his sling! He would have got away with it if he hadn't been so over enthusiastic - I think my bright orange guillotine was just a little ambitious! For anyone who hasn't read my earlier posts, there is a long standing joke now that Terry pretends to pinch goodies off my table and I take a picture for the blog - poor Joanne (Terry's wife) always looks mortified but it's very funny! Best wishes to them both at the moment because now Joanne has had a "trip" as well - I think they need to start taking more water with it! (Only joking!).
The card below was made using one of my new character stamp sets. This one is Finlay the frog (PICSA6113 Prince Frog) and I stamped one of him lying down and then used several impressions of the sitting version to create the crowd behind him.

I simply cut the grassy strips with my scissors, but the Martha Stewart grass punch, or fringing scissors give a really good effect if you have them. I used the crown and message from the same set. The frog stamps are great for male cards...which man wouldn't like to think he was the real Prince! As you can see, I enjoy making fun, whimsical cards, but I also love making more artsy pieces as you will see further down.

On Saturday I was at Dawn's studio where I was teaching a workshop entitled "Secret Canvas". One of the ladies attending was Sheila and she completely overwhelmed me by bringing a wonderful gift that she had made especially for me. It's a box which Sheila has made and decorated with friendship definitions. Inside are five RAKS, one of which is made using my TSV stamps! The remaining ones all feature Aliced in Wonderland images. Sheila, thank you again for this beautiful gift, you are an extremely generous and talented lady.

These pictures are of the sample which I made for the workshop, showing the front and back of the canvas. The colours don't look as vibrant as they really are, but I used ochres and gold combined with teal as my pallette. The flowers are all hand dyed ( a technique I'll be demonstrating in my next few demonstrations) and the "secret" area in the back has a mixture of photographs, a "love letter", a lock of hair (mine!), an altered matchbox, flowers etc.
I think all the ladies were a little
intimidated by the stark white canvasses to begin with, so I got everyone to sponge paint on them straight away - amazing how some colour makes an empty space less scary! We then used tissue to create texture, added crackle paints, grungeboard letters and stamped images.
As you can see, everyone was soon getting quite engrossed in their pieces of art. Here's a face that many of you will recognise! Amy made a very girly pink and lilac version, complete with fairytale castle and winged key, for a little girl's bedroom. Below you can see Sheila's canvas coming together. It was, as always, fascinating to see how different everyone's style was.
We had a lot of fun, with lots of laughter throughout the day, and we over ran the allotted time too! I think that all the ladies were going to add extra ephemera, charms etc to their creations once they got home as well.

Below you can see how well everyone's work turned out (I told them they could do it!)

From the left we have Elaine, Lesley, Sheila, Kath, Sarah and my sister Heather. No Amy on the picture as she had to get back to work before I took this. Kath and Elaine came in to see me the next day to show me how Kath had finished her canvas off with lots of extra embellishments.

If you fancy coming along to one of my workshops, keep checking the "demonstration dates" section on here for what's coming up. My next one is on Saturday 17th July and is a Ranger techniques class where we will be using all sorts of different Ranger products and each technique will be used to make an ATC sized aide memoir with the option of putting them all onto a ring to keep them together. If you'd like to book a place, please contact Topaz Crafts directly - not many places left! The last couple of photos are of a little tin that I altered using alcohol inks and stamps. The images are all Darkroom Door by Rachel Grieg - a really talented photographer who then turns her images into superb rubber stamps. I highly recommend them as they are not only wonderful images but they stamp beautifully. I used the inks to colour the outside of the tin. I then used Rachel's butterflies, flowers and words (from the "Wildflowers" set) to embellish the lid. For the inside I ditressed some cream card with inks and water and stamped a Tim Holtz message onto the one for the base. I hand dyed Petaloo flowers to match and added these, as well as two velvet butterflies, also from Petaloo. It's just a whimsical piece, not practical at all, but I like that!

I stayed with Rena and Stephen (Amy's mum and dad) on Saturday night and little Alicia was staying over again too. No "Cockle Overs" (forward rolls!) this time, but, instead, we were making some felt monsters which later became characters in a puppet show with Alicia and I behind the sofa enacting St George and the dragon! Stephen filmed the whole thing and has threatened to add it to the Topaz blog, so myacting skills (!) may well be there for all to see! It was a lot of fun!

On Sunday I was demonstrating all sorts of techniques at Dawn's studio and must thank everyone for their lovely compliments about the TSV and also for the gifts which I received - there are some lovely, kind people out there!

So yesterday was a rare day off with sunshine, tennis, watching the birds and just having some relaxing time at home. Just the job! I'll be posting some pictures and a bit about my art background (as requested) after this post, so will say cheerio for now. Lindsay

Express yourself

Hello everyone. What a busy and fun weekend that was. On saturday I was teaching the Ranger Mirror workshop and it was three (and a bit!) hours of chaotic creativity! A great time was had by all and we "Melt Potted", stamped, Beeswaxed, inked, cut, distressed and painted up a storm. Nobody actually left with a completely finished and assembled mirror because we spent our time cramming in as many techniques as possible. Choosing some Grungeboard pieces...kids in candy store springs to mind!Take a look at the eclectic mix of goodies on the tables as I give a quick run through of the next technique.
My sister, Heather, before we got started on the workshop - yes, she had been doing a bit of shopping already!
Oodles of paints, inks, stamps and who knows what else! Here everyone was distressing stamped images before glueing acrylic fragments over the top of them. Pretty clean fingers considering the artistic mess!

And here are two partially completed mirrors. I'll post a picture of the alternative version of the mirror which I made but at the moment it is still in the boot of the car! Heather has a piccie of it on her blog though if you'd like to see it meantime. Oh yes, following from two pictures that I posted recently, there is now a running gag on here and it is entitled "Where's Terry?". Terry is the lovely hubby of Joanne (My Toby Jug) and it has become a ritual now that whenever we see each other at a demo or workshop, Terry pretends to make off with one of my samples or some of my stash! So, not much of a challenge today, but can you spot the culprit sneaking off with a pile of my paints?! Joanne and Terry popped along to see us on Saturday before the workshop started, and it's always lovely to catch up with them. I shall sneak more images of Terry on here from time to time, so keep your eye open for him!

I stayed at Dawn's on Saturday night, so we had a good catch up as we hadn't seen each other since I was on QVC in February. She looks fabulous and is feeling much better now, and really grateful for all the support that she's had from her followers. We went for a lovely Italian meal with Kelsey (dawn's niece) and her friend Chloe - dressed like identical twins! Then I had great fun playing ball with Charlie and Arnie...two of Dawn's doggies. Next day I was back in the studio to demonstrate a bit of all sorts really. A very busy day but so many lovely people came along that the day just rushed by.

My title today refers to something that I feel very strongly about and that is the way that more "mainstream" styles are sometimes regarded as being somehow less creative and possibly inferior to the altered art styles. I, for instance, hate being pigeon holed as an exponent of cute styles just because many of stamp designs feature whimsical characters. I, like many of you, enjoy many eclectic styles, techniques and genres and none should be regarded as more valuable than any other. There can be a certain amount of "snobbery" about altered art which I know, having spoken to many people at demonstrations and workshops, can be intimidating. So, my message is to enjoy whatever you are working on at the moment whether it be simple, artsy, cute, vintage, whimsical or altered. All are equally valid! This subject was sparked by a conversation that David and I were having yesterday about the elitism that often surrounds modern art, poetry or even altered art where there is often an invented mystery to keep it exclusive. I'd be interested in reading your opinions on the subject!

Well, I've been busy drawing new designs, so decided to write this post as a little break and have updated my demonstrations and workshops - think I need to learn to fly a helicopter! Better get back to work now. Lindsay