A weekend to lift the spirits

Good Sunday afternoon everyone, from a "rapidly getting colder by the minute" Lancashire! It's been a lovely crisp and sunny day but now, at approaching 4pm, the temperature is dropping like a stone and I've had to cave in and put the heating on - that's always a bad moment. Thomas is tightly curled up on "his" shelf in my work room and I've just found Tara cosily ensconced on the pillow on my bed so there's only me up and about!

After the dark and depressing news that we heard on Friday night I know that I wasn't the only one to be feeling very low and, as expected, I hardly slept. I was up very early - woken before the alarm by Thomas jumping up onto my head - nice! The day didn't start well as my train was cancelled and the alternative journey I was advised to take involved three changes and arriving at Port Sunlight an hour later than planned - gggrrrr. As an experienced train traveller though, as soon as I got to Preston I searched the screens and found another way though it did involve lots of rushing up and down stairs and dashing to catch connections with seconds to spare! I got to Port Sunlight in plenty of time after all though, so it was worth all the puffing and panting.

As usual, the Happy Stampers show was busy, busy, busy and being in the presence of so many enthusiastic people really gave me a lift. I was cheered up further by some lovely gifts that I was given....

....the gorgeous tag was from Ruth and the skirt of the dress is made from pleated tissue tape - lovely! The card at the top was made by Millie, who won the blog candy last week, and she drew the whole scene....isn't it amazing?! Thomas and Tara are both there as well as so many other tiny details. The Cats plaque was actually given to me by Chris at the Burnley demo last week but I've only just had chance to photograph it. Chris thought it would be something that I could artistically alter...I think you may be right Chris! The luscious poppy brooch was from Karen and it's fab - I shall wear it with pride and it will definitely be with me when I'm at the NEC in November. Wonderful gifts that all brought smiles to my face and thank you so much ladies.

Here's a picture that my friend Esther took when she saw the card that Millie had made...

 .....me, the card and the artist - Millie! Is that the only top I possess I wonder? I seem to be wearing it in every photo recently!

I had my sister Heather's company for the day as she travelled over and was soon acting as cameraman, coffee and sandwich gopher, personal shopper and table sitter during loo breaks (whose bright idea was it to paint the ladies toilets at Hulme Hall on a day when the place was invaded by hundreds of women?!?!! Hence some long queues!). After Heather posted some piccies on her Facebook page where she referred to me as "sister Lindsay", I thought I'd share this one her looking rather Angelic - ha ha...she'll really tell me off now!

What a lovely day it was and thank you for all the positive comments about my stamps and my mixed media work too...they really did cheer me up. Thanks too to Karen, Liz and George from Happy Stampers who, as always, made me very welcome and made sure everything ran like clockwork.

Here are the latest two mixed media pieces that I made last week and are now on the shelf in my Etsy shop!

This one's a large tag shaped wall hanger "Change Gear"....

 .....and this one is a canvas entitled "Wings"....

As people kept telling me yesterday, the photos don't really do justice to the colours as they really are. Very hard to photograph the metallicy sheen.

It was really great to have Heather with me yesterday, and it certainly made the train journey home more enjoyable having her company. Then it was a naughty Chinese takeaway for me and watching Strictly on catch up!

This morning I was up and off to Church early as I was on duty as well as being one of the puppeteers during our Harvest Festival service. The Church has been filled with stunning arrangements....

 ....this is the Font, filled with flowers, fruit and vegetables and surrounded by individual flower baskets which will be distributed amongst the housebound tomorrow. The flower guild ladies have excelled themselves! This is a view towards the Altar with more arrangements around the pulpit and Altar itself. There were boxes, bags and baskets filled with harvest offerings to be distributed tomorrow as well.

I'll be off back to Church in an hour as we have a special Harvest Evensong accompanied by Rossall School Choir...this is a renowned choir who recently sang in Westminster Cathedral so I'm expecting it to be a lovely evening.

I'll be walking back home in, doubtless, very nippy weather, so I'll be having a warming curry when I get back - that will be a very nice end to a lovely couple of days. Hope everyone else enjoyed the weekend  - keep warm!

A little help

Good evening all, I hope it's been as glorious where you are as it's been here in Lancashire.What a beautiful, sunny day it's been.

I've had a little help in my Doo Lally room this week,or should I say a little help-er...and not so little either! Thomas seems to have decided that my work needs to be supervised - only trouble is that he doesn't leave me much room to do anything!

Not even sure that he approves of my work!

I'll be travelling up and across to Newcastle on Friday and then onto South Shields on Saturday morning for my demo at Crafty Corner. I've got lots of Christmas cards and tags made using my latest Christmas stamps as well as Sweet Dixie dies and various sprays and spritzers. Could get messy (could? Who am I kidding?!).

Talking of my pusscats, I had a close shave this week in the form of Tara - who else? What a little monster she can be! I was letting her out and she stretched her front legs right up as if to tell me to hurry up.I bent forward to give her a little kiss on her head and her paw came right up and into my eye - it was so fast that I didn't have time to blink. I felt her claw in my eye but, thankfully, no damage was done. She really can be a minx!

Thomas was rather unpleasant to be around yesterday as he was rather whiffy! I think he'd been curled up in the sun too long and he's also recovering from a bout of fleas...yikes! They do both have their drops but, living with open land so close by, and the fact that there are quite few farm cats about, fleas can be an occasional problem. He's been scratching, as they do, and was generally looking (and smelling!) a bit of a mess! I made the bold decision to give him a bath!

Never in a million years would I contemplate this for Tara - I'd be flayed alive - but I thought that Tom might just be okay with it - enough for me to give him a little wash anyway. Having read that a few drops of vinegar in the water is excellent for cat's that have had fleas, I added some into the warm bath water, changed into my old clothes and shut us both in the bathroom. 

Of course, as soon as I started to lower him into the bath his legs extended in four directions and he made rather a loud grumbling sound. However, once he was in the water,he placed his front paws on my shoulder and stood quite still as I gave him a really good wash! He even purred! Once rinsed off I got him in a big towel and dried him off and, after a few shakes, he trotted off very happily and sat in the sun. He seemed to actually enjoy the whole experience and he looked a lot happier!

Well, aside from feline escapades it's been pretty quiet here except for working on various samples and projects. I made a few jewellery pieces for my Etsy shop using metal bezels and Ice Resin. They are fun to make but the frustrating part is leaving them alone until the resin sets....sooooo tempting to stick your fingers in to check.....not a good idea! I hid them away till the following day so I wouldn't be tempted and then I was able to add chains, bows etc. This one is called "Fly Free", with the little bird,some metal flakes and a bow.

And this one is called "Soulful" which seemed to bemuse my nephew when he saw it on Facebook!

All my "stuff" for Saturday's demo is packed up now, so I don't have to think about that now until Friday. Tomorrow will be a mixture of a little housework (nnoooooo!!!) mainly prompted by the fact that my neighbour will be popping round to look after the two terrors. She always says that she doesn't notice the lack of housekeeping but I'm sure she must be thinking that I'm a real sloven!!! Lol! I'll also be working on some canvasses that have been ordered and then it's Church in the evening, although not a service. This time it's puppet rehearsals first and then we are hosting a concert called "A Little Night Music" which is songs from the shows. There will be refreshments and a raffle...I'm helping...with refreshments....not singing! So, it should be a lovely evening altogether.

Right, I am off to make a coffee and a sandwich before Bake Off, so I shall bid you good evening and hope to see some of you on Saturday.

Don't forget, if you haven't already done so, do leave a comment after the previous post to be in with a chance of winning my Blog Candy. All the details are below. You can't win it if you're not in it!

Sunday....my favourite day of the week

Yes, I really do love Sundays. It's the day to recharge my batteries and I'm always up bright and early so I can enjoy a leisurely coffee before strolling into the village to the sound of the Church bells calling everyone to the family communion service. 

This morning was also a Baptism service - for a very sweet little boy who was the only baby that didn't cry during the service, even when he had three very generous dishfuls of water cascading over his head.Our Vicar doesn't hold back when it comes to the water! The little chap got a round of applause and then the Vicar carried him round the Church so that everyone could welcome him. A lovely service.

After Church quite a lot of us go for coffee together...this used to be in the Church hall but it's been closed for some months now as there were too many problems with the building. Hopefully, it will be re-opening before too long once it's been overhauled. Meanwhile, we go to the local pub for coffee...too many of us for the little local cafes! It's a good chance to have a catch up and today I took some of my garden produce to give away. Just like last year, I found a huge marrow lurking under one of the courgette leaves and it was far too big for me to eat...not only that but my last attempt at cooking a stuffed marrow was a disaster!

Hard to tell from the photo but it really was a bit of a monster! It went to a good home though as did the lettuces that I took with me...crikey, not only enough for veg for me but a surplus! Of course, it will be harvest festival in a few weeks and in times gone by that would have been an ideal time to give some produce away. Unfortunately, as with most things, modern harvest donations have to be tinned or dry goods - just as much of a gift but not quite as evocative as the days when I remember all of us schoolchildren carrying baskets of fruit and vegetables into Church.

It's another warm and sunny day here and, after doing some drawing in the Doo Lally room I decided that I really couldn't stand being inside and missing out on the sunshine for the whole afternoon. I sat on my garden bench with my book for a while and then lay on the lawn to just enjoy a peaceful half an hour. I did the same yesterday and was quite surprised when somebody flew right over in a microlight aircraft - I wondered what it was at first! He circled and went over again, even lower....so low in fact that I waved at him as I lay on the lawn...and he waved back!

No microlights today but there was an even bigger surprise and (for me) much excitement when I decided to come back inside, went past the teeny tiny micro pond and saw this.....

......yes, I nearly shrieked (well I did actually!) when I saw a little frog sitting there quite happily on top of the tiny clay pot in the pond! I ran in to get my camera and, thankfully, he was quite relaxed about me taking his picture. I can't tell you how happy that one little amphibian has made me today! The idea that my old washing up bowl has become an attractive enough habitat to tempt a frog into it.....wow!

Cute or what?!

He dived into the depths (well, such as they are!) after I took his photos, but I popped out later and he was back on top of the pot again. Hopefully he'll make short work of some of the slugs that have started appearing again this last week or so.

Anyway, that's all for now...I'm just off to look at the pond again....

A little holiday...and a loooong post!

Well that's an overstatement! I've not actually been on a proper holiday for over twenty years (seriously!). It's one drawback of being freelance because if I don't work, I don't get paid! Still, the freedom of being my own boss makes up for it.

So, my little holiday is really just a having a few days off, at home, without feeling guilty about doing whatever takes my fancy. Yesterday, being Sunday, began with Church in the morning. There was a baptism during the service so that was jolly - always fun to see whether the babies will cry or just look surprised when they have all that water poured onto them...yesterday's baby cried!

After Church there is coffee which is always a good chance for a catch up and then I was invited to join a couple of the ladies for a spot of lunch which made a change. As it was a beautiful day I then had a lovey stroll home through the park. After a very long day on Saturday (more later!) I was feeling really tired and could hardly keep my eyes open in the afternoon. I decided to go outside into the fresh air. Lots of lovely things to look at in the garden just now too....

....lovely peachy roses right beside my bench....

 ....and David's beautiful memorial rose is flowering profusely and looking stunning......

.....and this amazing rose greeted me yesterday. It's one that I planted a few months ago and the flower is huge. It smells as gorgeous as it looks.

Sitting on the garden bench was lovely but I decided to lie down on the lawn and I soon nodded off and spent an hour or two dozing in the sunshine which I think did me the world of good. Thomas thought it was great fun so he lay down too! 

After a phone call to Heather, my sister, I decided to make the effort, get ready and walk back to Church for a Songs of Praise service in the early evening. On the way there a group of teenagers ahead of me were dropping all their sweet and crisp packets on the road as they walked along so I pulled them up about it. Of course, I just got the usual jeering and I picked up the litter and put it in the bin myself after telling them that they didn't deserve to live in such a lovely place (not a very original remark I know!). 

This came up in conversation after the service....we were all treated to some sparkling wine at the back of Church.....and I was told "you were brave, tackling teenagers", which is something I hear a lot. It never seems that way to me, it just seems better to say or do something than to let things go. I was pondering on this as I made my way home, back through the park, and recalled how I've often walked that way on dark evenings in the Winter months. I rarely feel nervous though, and, when I do, I have a quick word with "Him upstairs" and ask him to look out for me! 

I was having all these scatterlogical thoughts yesterday as I entered the park and then spotted the teenagers that I'd had a go at earlier. I had no thought that they would do me any harm, but I was expecting to have to "run the gauntlet" as I went past them. Just as I thought that, I saw a male figure coming in my direction and then realised he was wearing a dog collar. He said "Good Evening" to me and the teens focussed all their attention on him, asking if he was the new Vicar, the old Vicar, or who was he. I heard him say that he was a Priest from the Catholic Church. I haven't seen him before and it made me smile that I'd just been thinking about how I always feel that I'm being looked after and protected and I encountered the Priest just as I was anticipating some heckling. 

This reminds me to say that I've decided not to continue with my second blog (My Rambling Spirit) which I'd set up in order to have somewhere to talk about more spiritual things. I never seem to get the time to post in two blogs and I also decided that, as my faith and spirituality have always been a huge part of my life, I shouldn't feel the need to keep them separate as if I'm somehow embarrassed  or worried that I'll alienate anyone. So, please feel free to skip over any part of my posts that don't appeal to you! I do try to make my blog quite encompassing rather than just being about art, craft and things creative.

When I got home last night Thomas was waiting for me by the gate and he decided he wanted me to go for a stroll up the lane with him so we had a nice wander and watched the Swallows racing each other round and round the big tree in the field - they are racing each other I'm convinced of it! The bats were also out and about, even though it was still quite light, and it made for a lovely way to end the evening, watching them swooping and dipping over the garden. Just lovely.

I had a great night's sleep and woke to another gorgeous day here. This was a day to do very little! I mowed the lawn, did some washing, cut back some Foxgloves and Snapdragons that had gone over and did a bit of weeding and feeding of plants. Then it was time to sit outside and read for a few hours. I've been reading Life of Pi since early 2013 and still not finished it! Terrible I know! I just haven't been able to focus long enough to really spend time in a good book, even though I had been enjoying it. As I'd suggested the film for one that some friends could come over and watch, I decided I really must finish the book first. So, I've got through quite a lot today and really enjoyed myself. This photo pretty much sums up the kind of day it's been.....

....Tom likes the bench as much as I do!

Later it was watching the tennis and egg and bacon sandwiches for dinner - yum! A refreshing shower and freshly laundered PJ's and I'd call it a pretty relaxing and enjoyable day.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Heather in Blackpool for some window shopping and to return the shoes that I bought a couple of weeks ago which disintegrated the first time I wore them! 

To go back a bit, on Saturday I went to Daisy Jewels and Crafts near Coventry to teach an all day workshop. This involved me getting up at 5.15am in time to get ready and then walk round to the station and catch the early train to Preston for the first leg of my journey. Imagine my horror to be told that the train was cancelled (due to staff shortages...I ask you!) and that, instead of arriving at 9.20am it would now be 10.53 am when I got to Bedworth! Thankfully, the ladies were all very patient and spent time looking round the shop until I arrived. We tagged the time onto the end of the day but it was a rotten start I can tell you!

A great time was had by all (so they told me!). We made several projects.....

...including a wall plaque featuring a Doo lally Pip character and roses made from rolling up spirals of ink sprayed dictionary paper. 

I used my "Frayed Around the Edges" character, but the ladies all had a choice of which stamp to use....

....here's one in progress using my "Keep Dancing" set, before any flowers were added. I liked the way the burlap was cut out as a heart shape.
Here's one of the cards made on the day...

...lovely and cheerful!

Everyone was kept hard at work to get through everything....

.....including Zendoodle Owl cards....

....complete with stripey branches of course!

The shop has two amazing dresses on display which were made by DCWV for one of the trade shows. Just look at this fantastical creation....

....wow! Thanks to Wendy and all the ladies who came to the workshop for making it such a fun day and being so patient when British Rail let me down...again! Gggrrrr! I'll be going back there in October and will post more details nearer the time.

Well, I told you this was going to be a long post and I was telling the truth! It's almost 11.30pm now, so I should make a move, get the two terrors in and lock up the house before getting to bed. A nice day with Heather to look forward to tomorrow and then, on Wednesday I am assisting with a funeral at Church in the afternoon before our second Les Mis study group meeting in the evening. So, busy even when I'm having a few days off!

I'm waiting for my new Christmas stamps to be sent to me so that I can start getting samples made up with them, so will share those as and when of course. I won't post any more of my new designs tonight though!

You may like a couple of cute Tara pics to finish with instead! On Friday she was sitting on the chair facing into the corner and looking for all the world as if she'd been a naughty girl and was in trouble with the teacher. I couldn't resist making a little something so I could take a photo...

.....she didn't move at all and hardly seemed to notice her new attire! She even posed for a lovely close up for me....

.....cutey pie!

Right, I will now sign off before anyone still reading this missive drops off! Enjoy the sunshine everyone.

AWOL agaaaiiiin!

Hello folks, that is, if anyone is even reading this....after going awol for a couple of weeks it wouldn't surprise me if nobody is there now! It's been a very fraught few weeks, with the death of my brother in law, Graham, and, along with having to get lots of work done, it has led to me having a break from blogging and emailing - retreating into my shell for a while as I do when life becomes overwhelming. 

It's time to get back on track though. It's Sunday and I'm heading back to church shortly for a special All Saints day memorial service so I thought I'd take the chance to share a few photos. Talking of church, I've set up a new blog now, called My Rambling Spirit, which you can find a link to in my left sidebar. I sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about the more spiritual side of life on this blog...after all, I know that some people visit just to see what I've been making and maybe read a few exploits of my two pusscats or the garden! So, the new blog is where I can just ramble on about how I feel about things.

Anyway, back to this blog! Hello to everyone who I met at recent demonstrations at the Leigh show, Card-io and The Paper Warehouse. A special thanks for all the lovely messages and cards for Heather and myself which were very much appreciated. I'm getting round to thanking everyone slowly but surely.

For the month of November I'm concentrating on demonstrating ideas for Christmas decorations and gifts - with a little stamping thrown in too along the way! I've been really enjoying working with the WRMK envelope punch and a range of Sizzix dies. I didn't expect to be so bowled over by an envelope maker but it really is terrific and makes much more than just envelopes. I've been making boxes and shaped tags too.

Not the easiest thing to photograph and the background doesn't help! The papers I used were from the MME Vintage Christmas range, along with some Bazzill card stock.The envelope punch has certainly proved to be a big hit and it does mean that you can make odd shaped cards which is good if, like me, you often decide to make something using bits and pieces of cardstock that are lying around.

All inkiness has been put to one side this week and I've moved from the Doo Lally workroom and into the lounge where I have been spreading card, papers, dies, embellishments and my Big Shot over the floor with a "me" sized space in the middle! I just needed the extra space to work in and I've been watching the old classic films in the afternoon while cutting and sticking which has been rather enjoyable.

Two new favourites have to be the TH Luminary die and the 3D Birdhouse Scoreboard die. The scoreboard dies allow you to cut and score heavy weight chipboard or mount board in one pass, though you can also use them with standard cardstock too of course. Below is one of the bird houses made up and decorated...I used a natural twig to push through the base of this one, so it could be used within a festive floral arrangement.

The dies are really easy to work with and I like the fact that they can be used throughout the year, not just for Christmas projects. Although Halloween is now over, I couldn't resist making a spooky, gothic Luminary with one of Tim's battery operated lanterns inside....

I used Graphic 45 papers for the Luminary itself - it's amazing just how strong this piece is even when made from paper. I cut out a few bats and cats and added some black gem spiders with wire legs as well as some wispy fibres - all great fun!

A certain someone has been keeping me company whilst I create, albeit from behind the net curtains at times....he still likes to keep an eye on me though....

....what a cute button nose! He won't be very happy, nor Tara, when I leave them for most of next week while I'm at the NEC though. My neighbour will be coming in twice a day to feed them and let them in and out, but they don't like their mum not being here at their beck and call. Poor little sweeties!

At least I haven't been missing out on nice sunny weather whilst I've been chained to the Big Shot machine! The view through my front window has basically been like this....

 .....but at least nothing has been blown down or swept away...yet! 

Heather and I were lucky on the day we had in town last week and we spent a sunny day wandering around the art gallery and shops for a good many hours. It helped to blow some of the cobwebs away and did us good. The exhibition at the gallery "creeped me out" though, much to Heather's amusement, as it was based around fairgrounds and Coney Island in particular and featured, amongst other things,  lots of images of weird waxwork figures accompanied by old soundtracks of music hall performers and slightly eerie laughter. Made me shiver!

I was glad to get into the "normality" of the streets and shops again and we had a nice lunch followed by some retail therapy where some new fleecy pj's were one of the must have purchases to combat the increasingly cold evenings. Don't let me get started on the cost of fuel and the fuel companies though.....and since when did it become the norm for them to harass customers by phone only a week after sending a bill? Gone are the days, it seems, of the polite reminder letter a couple of weeks after a bill - now it's straight onto demanding money over the phone....swines! Sorry, I did say don't let me get started!

So, I hope to see lots of you in Birmingham next week. I'll be on the Card-io stand and both Wendy and myself will be demonstrating - Wendy will be using her wonderful Tapestry stamps and I'll have my Christmas stamps, various inks and mediums and the gorgeous dies. I'll be there for the whole show from Thursday to Sunday inclusive.

It's now going dark - how miserable at 5pm! So, I had better get myself organised for my second trip to St Chads of the day. Take care everyone and keep warm!

Northern Papercrafting

Hello my blogging friends, and, once again, apologies for being awol for a week or more. It's been an especially busy time with shows and demonstrations on the work front and other activities also taking up my time.

As promised, here is a photo of the cute tags that Diane added to the two bags of cat treats that she gave me for T&T when I was down at A Maze of Memories a week or so back.....

 .....each tag has a little cat image and a different poem inside. As you can see, Tara wanted to get in on the act.......

.....thanks again Diane - once they've finished all the treats I will be carefully removing the tags and adding them to my Doo Lally display area.

Last Saturday I was back at Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden, Northamptonshire, which is a huuuge store, crammed full of goodies. I didn't take my camera as I was already loaded up and, going off last time I was there, I knew I'd probably not have time to take any pictures anyway! Thank you to all the staff for, once again, looking after all the demonstrators so well (teas and coffees on tap and sandwiches in the fridge!) and to everyone who came along to watch....and spend! It was another really fun day and, hopefully, I'll be back in the Spring.

This Wednesday I was at Inspirations in Preston, so hello to everyone who I met there. Once again, myself and the other demonstrators were really well looked after (it does make a difference!) and I had plenty of space to work which is always a bonus....

Here are some of the things I got up to on the day.....

.....as ever, when I take photos at a demonstration, the background is usually my grubby craft sheet, so not the most beautifully presented image! Anyway, I used one of the Steampunk snowmen from my Nicicles as Icicles stamp set to make a Christmas tag with a slightly Halloween feel....dangly spiders anyone?! 

I made the tag background by dabbing Liquid Pearls onto the card using some scrunched up plastic bag (I usually just snip a bit off a carrier bag, but you can use cling film) and then drying the tag before blending Distress inks over the surface. This gives a shimmery effect and it's nice to use the Liquid Pearls in a different way.

I stamped the snowman onto the tag and separately onto white card....I'm not cutting round those fiddly arms for anyone, so I was able to cut them off the second image! I used a metallic gold pen to colour the arms on the tag, then coloured and cut out the second snowman before sticking him down. Some black gem spiders with webs and legs drawn with a fine black pen always add a nice touch! The snowy area is just scrunched tissue glued to the base with a wet glue and more glue squelched over the top to strenghen it - and to adhere some Rock Candy glitter to of course!

Here are two quite different effects using my Winter Silhouettes and Winter Critters stamp sets.....

.....The one on the left has a background made with my trademark faux bleaching technique using Distress inks and a water brush. I think I must have demonstrated this over a thousand times now, but I always get asked to do it again! The stag was inked up with a little Dusty Concord followed by a touch of Frayed Burlap Distress inks - just use one colour if you are a bit precious about keeping your ink pads absolutely pristine! I stamped him directly onto the card, resulting in a slightly two tone image...sometimes a silhoette image will come out slightly patchy, so just tickling it with the water brush will even everything out.

I stamped the sentiment in black and then overstamped it in Dusty Concord but ever so slightly to the above left to give a shadow effect - not too much or it will make your eyes go squiffy!

The card on the right has a much bolder look, created by the wonderful Goosebumps sprays. I used the clear (gloss) one on this one. I simply sprayed it over 300gsm white card and allowed it to dry for about ten minutes. It dries to a textural finish but is also a brilliant resist medium. Some Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade inks were blended just below centre and I then worked various blue and purple Distress inks in from the edges to create the snow filled sky. I used the old torn white card trick to create the snow drifts and then turned to heat resistant acetate to stamp the stag and also the trees from the Winter Critters set.

I stamped them with Archival black which won't dry on acetate unless given a quick blast of heat. I cut around the trees and added a couple of bits of black 3D foam behind the trunks before popping them in behind the "snow". The stag was trimmed out and then coated with glue (not the antlers) before adding Black Soot Distress Glitter. He was stuck to the foreground and I used a little Gesso to anchor his feet.

On the non-work front, I've been rehearsing my role as Camille the Camel again - this time for the Harvest service on Sunday, so it's a little sketch with two lugubrious camels discussing where their food comes from. The children at church love the puppets, but the adults also usually find something to smile about as well.

Last night was one of the rehearsals and, of course, the rain, which had held off all day whilst I was at home, decided to come down with a vengeance as soon as I set off to church! After the rehearsal I was then going to a WI meeting but had twenty minutes to spare, so I "treated" myself to a bag of chips for my very unhealthy but nice, dinner! The WI meeting was a visit from a local bee keeper so very interesting and, even though I thought I knew a lot about bees, I learned lots of new things about these fascinating creatures.

Everyone has a single raffle ticket on the night and mine was 999! I never win these things, but I did last night - it was either a box of chocs or the wine. I don't eat chocolate anymore, so it had to be the wine....I don't really drink either, but I'll force myself!

I'm all set now for my day at the Northern papercraft show where I'll be on the Ali Craft stand tomorrow. Hope to see lots of you there, so do say hello. It's going to be a busy day!

I'm really looking forward to next Thursday as I am going on a coach trip to York with others from church. We come under the Diocese of Blackburn and a new Bishop, Julian, has been elected and is being ordained on Thursday at York Minster. It's a wonderful opportunity to experience the full splendour of this magnificent building and will be a spine tingling ceremony I'm sure with the full choir and the service taken by the very charismatic Archbishop John Sentamu. Not sure if we're allowed to take any photos, but I'll take my camera just in case!

Well, I'd better get a shift on now, or there will be an empty space where I'm supposed to be tomorrow! Have a great weekend everyone.

A Sunday to remember

What a wonderful Sunday yesterday was. After church, my sister Heather met up with me in the church hall where we have teas and coffees after the service, and then we picked up a few extra nibbles before coming back to my place. We laid out our indoor picnic and then got settled down to watch the Wimbledon men's singles final.

We had to have the ubiquitous Robinson's Barley Water of course, but we also splashed out on some Lambrini and some strawberry flavoured Kopparberg cider - not that either of us are drinkers, but we thought we'd go mad! I was getting into excitement mode even when they were warming up!

 Lol! As the cameras were scanning around the crowd we noted that Sean Connery didn't seem to be there, which was a little surprising as he has usually been at Andy Murray's big matches. I remarked that I'd prefer to look at another Scottish actor, Gerard Butler anyway. Talk about your wish is our command....later on in the match the cameras honed in on.....

....the aforementioned Mr Butler! 

Needless to say we had a brilliant afternoon with much "yyyeeeessssss"ing, "oh noooooooo"ing, heads in hands and arms raised to the rafters! How they ran around like they did for hours in that heat can only be marvelled at - tennis players are definitely the fittest sportsmen on the planet! We were a bit hoarse by the time Andy finally triumphed, and I caught the moment....

......well done Andy, you did everyone proud....even if you did almost forget to hug your mum! 

After we'd come down from the ceiling we went for a bit of a wander round the garden and a walk down the lane to cool off and get some fresh air. We didn't see the deer I'm afraid, even though I kept going to the back of the house all evening just to check! Hopefully I'll spot them again when I have my camera in hand.

We had a nice relaxing evening and went to bed pretty late.

This morning Heather dropped me off in the village on her way home as I had another funeral to "verge" at. Today I also had to process, that is, lead the procession into and out of church. All went okay I'm pleased to say.

The heatwave continues and I am typing this now while I'm cooling down after walking home from church. I stopped off to sit on a shady bench in the park at one point - everyone was walking around at the speed of zombies! Too hot for me I have to confess, but I wouldn't dare to complain!
On another topic entirely, I'm happy to say that my new Christmas stamp sets are available now! Also, the Crafty Impressions festive sets which are our general range. You can link straight to my new Doo Lally Pip sets here, and you can look at the full range by clicking page 2, 3 etc. To see the new Crafty Impressions sets, including some of mine, click here and scroll through the pages...there are seven of them. They will be available from any craft shop that stocks Personal Impressions products. If you make a note of the code of any stamp that you'd like, your local store can order them if they don't have them in stock. There is also a "nearest stockist" search bar on the website that you can punch your postcode into. Any problems, just drop me an email!

That was the week that was....

......a very busy one! In fact, I was joking today that demonstrating on Saturday will feel like a day off! It's been a juggling act to bring all the different strands together on time if that's not too much of a mixed metaphor! I haven't even seen a tennis match yet, just an odd five minutes here and there, although the match featuring Sharapova yesterday got switched off anyway when I could stand the outrageous shrieking from both ends of the court no longer! Time to get tough on the ladies who spoil the game with the ear splitting screaming in my opinion.

I had two days that were more or less set aside for making samples for my demo at the Coleman's Craft Warehouse event on Saturday. As well as my Doo Lally Pip range they have a good stock of lots of my other stamps, so it was fun to work with them for a change. This is one of the cards that I made using one of my wooden rubber stamps called "Fluffy Owl".......

 .....I used a DCWV paper to fold into the "frame", secured with brads and threaded with sheer ribbon that I coloured with Dylusions inks. I've used a few images of the owl, cut and layered to give him some dimension. I cut out a separate pair of his feet so that I could glue the branch across his body and then the feet on top of that so he looks as if he's gripping it.

Here's the card taken out of the paper frame - it's not as finished as it would be if I were making it to send to someone. And, yes, I know it's either a Bonsai tree or a bloomin' big owl....artistic license! 

I cut the tree freehand from really dark brown textured card stock and glued it down over the card and the owl panel. A little white card moon and some white gel pen stars just add a touch of brightness and I wrote a simple message with a fine pen...not very straight! Oh yes, I did put Glossy Accents on his eyes.

Back to Doo Lally Pip for this tag now, quite a bright tag at that! The birdcage is cut from Tim's Kraft Core card using one of his Sizzix dies and I then sanded it back a bit. 

The background of the tag is Tim's tissue wrap (Symphony) that I sprayed with inks and then dabbed with paper towel to blend them onto the slightly resistant surface. I added gold embossing powder over glue stick around the edges. The bird and word are from my "Squawk" set. Some TH pearls along the bottom of the cage, some inky ribbon and an inked Kraft Resist flower complete this quirky quacker!

I've been too busy to get into the garden at all this week, except for watering things in the evenings of the very hot days we had on and off. I got home this evening in the middle of a downpour and decided to take a few snaps whilst the rain was giving the colours an extra vibrancy. I can hardly believe how much everything's grown in the last few days.

This is the area at the back of the house that the side door of the conservatory opens onto. It's where I hang my washing, but it's much nicer to look at when there are no towels and sheets in the way....

  ....to think all this came from some tiny seeds that I planted a few months ago! Don't even ask about the tray and the plastic bowl part filled with soil...at least the bowl matches the Nasturtiums! There are Sweet Peas and Sunflowers against the fence and the troughs at the side have Sunflowers, courgettes and tomatoes in them.

More edible goodies are maturing now....

 ....though I'll be lucky to get any of these cherries if the birds have anything to do with it. Last year I put netting over the tree which did deter the birds but did nothing to protect the fruit from the aphids and ants which appeared like magic as soon as the cherries began to ripen. I might get the odd one anyway!

I'm chuffed to see the Clematis at the side of my bench is flowering now. It's a beautiful blue lilac colour and has plenty of buds, so I should be enjoying the blooms for quite a while I hope.

 

Well, that's tonight's garden tour over with!

The other big commitment this week has been in my new role as deputy Verger of course, and I set up two Communion services and helped with two funerals. Everything went okay and thankfully, I remembered all the various things that I had to do. Not the best picture, as I was standing in the subdued light at the back of the church, but this is me wearing the Verger's robe.....

 .....I did feel a bit of a fraud as it's emblazoned with the Guild of Verger's badge, which I'm not a member of, but I'm allowed to wear it when I'm on duty. You can see from the panelling behind me that St Chads is a very old, traditional church, a Grade II listed building with some parts dating back to the 11th century.

This evening I was in almost the exact same spot where this picture was taken, but in a very different role as a puppeteer! We were having our first rehearsal for an event in a few weeks time - I'll post some pictures after the show, but we had a lot of fun tonight!

My bags are packed for my trip tomorrow....Thomas doesn't like the way I have kept paying so much attention to my case - think he suspects! He won't be best pleased when he has to sleep on his own tomorrow night...he's a big bruiser but a real "mummy's boy" at heart!

So, hope to see some of you on Saturday and, though I'm a day early - have a great weekend everyone!

Countdown to the weekend

Monday again and I'm already counting down the days to the weekend...no wonder the time seems to fly by. I don't usually tick the days off like this, but there's so much to get through that I'm noticing every hour that comes and goes! Today has been all about getting samples made for Saturday's event at Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden. As well as my Doo Lally Pip range they have stocked up on lots of my other stamps, so I'm racing to get a good mix of projects made using them.

Here's one of today's "makes".....

.....using my "Keep on Smiling" (PICSA6208) and "Hoist the Flags" (PICSA6207) sets. I covered one of the larger square boxes from a Tim Holtz Configurations box with papers from a DCWV paper stash then inked up a square of blank card for the inside back, using browns and greens. I drew some fine brown lines and knot holes on the card for a bit of a tree bark effect. I covered the edges of the box with TH tissue tape.

I stamped, coloured and cut out the door from the Keep on Smiling set and glued that to the backing card, then added some foliage around it using twisted and rolled up pieces of paper towel that I'd used for wiping up my craft sheet. I used Glossy Accents applied to the card in lines or dots for this as I find the tissue pieces stick almost immediately and it allows you to twist them into different shapes. I then stuck the backing into the box.

Next up I cut some little stepping stones from card, inked and glued them to the base.

 I stamped the character from Keep on Smiling a couple of times, coloured and cut her out, with a second dress to decoupage over the top for added depth. A bit of extra card stuck to her back helps to stiffen the image and I used folded back tabs of dark card to keep her upright in the box. One is behind her back and the second is behind her feet - I cut that one into a tuning fork shape so that one "prong" could be glued behind each leg.  The words are from the Hoist the Flags set and I stamped it a couple of times so I could outline the separate words before inking, cutting and gluing to the front edges of the box. 

I'll have this little project with me on Saturday, so do have a peek more closely at it if you're coming to Coleman's.

I've added a new painting to my Etsy shop...well, it's not a "new" painting as such, but one I did a few years ago. There is always a choice to be made about paintings and when, if ever to sell them. I've always sold my art work, but I sometimes like to hang on to certain pieces for a while and sometimes they are definitely ones I want to keep. I decided that it was time for this painting to go into the wider world now though!

 It's a fantasy landscape called "Icy Mountains" and you can see more details if you click onto the thumbnail image below my Etsy shop link in my sidebar. I added the Celestial images to the frame using acrylic paints to add to the slightly unearthly feel that I wanted to create.

Now for a few links that I've been sent that feature projects made using my Doo Lally Pip stamps. I was teaching at Samuel Taylor's in Leeds on Saturday and the ladies, and I, all had a great time making Steampunk themed cards. Here is one of the cards that I made as a sample for the class (unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the other card!).....

 ....we used gorgeous Graphic 45 papers along with my "Steamed Up" and "Time Traveller" stamp sets...plus lots of Tim's Idea-ology hardware. I love the crow on the Graphic 45 paper holding the "Carter's Little Liver Pills" sign. Priceless! Joan was on my workshop and she sent me the link to her Late Night Stamping blog to show me the cards that she completed at home. I love the quote at the top of Joan's blog by Jack London..."You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."....absolutely true, as I know every time I have a deadline looming! Thanks for the link Joan.

The next link is to A Maze of Memories, a store that I get to visit about twice a year and always enjoy my time there. Christina let me know that there was a great project on the blog made using some of my Doo Lally stamps, so do pop over and take a look at what the talented Julie made.

The last of the links is to the blog of Ali-Craft where there are some step by step projects using Doo Lally stamps by Jane and Ali. I love the tags they've made, especially the fabulous colouring and I like the use of the vellum too. I'll be demonstrating for Ali-Craft at the Great Northern Paper Show in Harrogate in October, so really looking forward to that.

That's my round up for today. I've been so busy I even forgot to put Wimbledon on in the background - darn! I am now trying to catch up with what's been happening on court and the dramas that are unfolding as I type...I do love Wimbledon fortnight!

I'm off to get a shower now and do my best to scrub away all the inks that are under my nails and ingrained into my fingers...I really don't want to be assisting at tomorrow's funeral with multi coloured hands. Just hope that it all goes well and that I remember everything for when I have to assist at the one on Thursday without the full time Verger being there. 

No fresh veggies for my dinner tonight as I'm letting them all grow a little bigger before picking them. The outdoor courgettes are flowering now too though, so I think I'll have a good supply for a few weeks at least! Just waiting for the first of the cherry tomatoes (black ones!) to ripen now. Definitely must grow more veg next year and maybe some fruit too.....