The Wanderer Returns!

Well people ... she is home! Only just though! Oh yes ... and boy has she had an expensive makeover! Those of you that popped in yesterday will indeed know that I am talking about my poorly sick car and those that did n't ... erm ... pop in yesterday ... Well! Where were you???? :0)
Apparently the problem was a crank shaft sensor ... I got the call this morning ... only £150 including VAT ... phew I thought! Then Mr Garage Mechanic made that awful sucking through his teeth sound and I had to sit down!

The brake discs needed replacing ... the auxhilary belt was perishing and the exhaust was about to drop off ... when I heard the price for that little lot ... I needed to lay down in a darkened room! Luckily ... the wonderful John stepped in and paid the bill ... when I am moaning about him later in the week ... please do feel free to give me a nudge and remind me what a truly wonderful guy he is!

Those of you that were sick to the back teeth of my demo tags are going to get a little break today ... I say little and today because I still have a whole load of demo tags to show you ... to be honest I am amazed at how many tags I actually made during Ally Pally!

Today ... you can see a card from my Ditress Re-inker Masterclass ... the background was made by applying Distress Re-Inkers to white card using a brayer! The colours used are Broken China, Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed ... the image is my favourite BLine stamp ever ... the background flourish and sequin waste are THE Wendy Vecchi and the little stamped stars are indeed Lord Tim of Holtz's from the Bitty Grunge set! You know Tim ... the man that can carve a replica of the Beijing Olympic Stadium in the top of a matchstick while making enough Green Tea for the entire population of Japan with just a Charm Clip and a Philosophy token!
Righty-Ho ... talking of classes ... I am in full swing designing my next release that will be available for booking at LB Crafts in early May!
Laters!

This and That!

I started off with really good intentions tonight ... the plan was to clear my desk ... tidy away all the debris that has accumulated and generally  have a good sort out!

I have a little pot ... that I throw stuff in ... you know the stuff ... the little bits and bobs you get out and don't use then cannot be arsed to put away again properly. The little pieces of card that you have cut away from a bigger piece of card ... but it is inked and stamped and that little voice in your head says ... 'NO! DON'T WASTE THAT' ... oh yes people ... my little voice shouts.

Anyways ... the little pot was overflowing so ... there I was going through said  bits and bobs and the little voice is still screaming at me NOT to put stuff in the bin ... so I kind of convinced myself ... that using them was kind of tidying ... BIG mistake ... HUGE!

I have now made about five necklaces ... and my desk is more untidy than it was when I started! The necklace up top used about a 2" square scrap of inked and stamped card ... add to that the clock stamp I had to get out ... the facet was already in the pot ... but the jump ring was n't ... and the Idea-ology spinner and sprocket ... Okay Okay ... I had to get them out too ... Hey-Ho ... maybe I will try again tomorrow!

The card is from my Take Three Masterclass ... it was n't in the pot either ... just thought I would share :0)

Laters!

Getting out the Iron!

Don't panic ... I did n't need a ladder ... I am not tackling the Everest like mound that is my ironing pile!

Nope ... that can wait for ... erm ... another day! I have in fact been ironing a card!

Another card that made it through the whole yes/no X Factor style audition process for my up and coming B Line card class is this one! Well I think it has made it ... if you guys don't like it ... well I shall have to think again and then perhaps let it down gently!

Once again ... only B Line stamps used with plain white card stock... not including the plain black ... obviously :0) Amazing what you can achieve with a few Lord Tim of Holtz Distress Inks and some embossing powder ain't it? You know Tim ... the man that can skate on unfrozen ice while painting real rainbows with just an Adage Ticket and a blob of Glossy Accents.

The beautiful Butterflies are from the Collections Elements range and what a treat when you open that pack I can tell you ... it looks like one sheet of butterflies for a bargain price ... and when you get it open ... well it has FOUR sheets ... I LOVE surprises like that ... Don't you??? And in case you are wondering ... they are not on Lin's web site yet ... but they will be at Stamperama on Sunday :0)

Right ... I am off to do a spot more class designing ... What are you doing ????

Laters!

Creating Cards!

I know ... cards by moi! I have been sat here today and playing ... playing with B Line stamps and card designs. I could n't be more relaxed if I tried! Loving every second of it I am! Better than a holiday in the Caribbean ... Ok ... that may be taking it a bit far!

I now have a little stack of handmade cards ... certainly a few more than is needed for the class I am designing and I just need to decide which ones are in and which ones are out!

I think this one may stay ... it does n't look that great in the photo but it is oodles of fun to make and proper inky messy play into the bargain ... just the way I like them!

The background involves plain white card ... lots of Distress Ink Blending ... some gold embossing ... a bit of stamping ... some Lord Tim of Holtz tissue tape ... you know Tim ... the man that would have knighted David Beckham and had real angels singing in chorus while he thanked him publicly for his debt to his country before announcing that he was too old to play and all the way throughout these proceedings building a scale model of Wembley Stadium with his feet using just two matchsticks and an edge distresser.

The background is sparkling as a result of some carefully placed Rock Candy Stickles and finally I embellished with a Fragment ... distressed with alcohol inks ... placed over the water coloured stamped image!

Do you know ... reading this post back ... I actually sound like I knew what I was doing for a change :0)

Have a good evening people ...

Laters!

Side Tracked!

I set out with the best of intentions today! I was going to clean every inch of my craft room!

I started under my desk ... that went well ... I found a box to alter that I had completely forgotten I had and three fab Papier Mache suitcases that I can vaguely remember needing on a visit to the NEC about four years ago!

Then it was going to be on top of my desk ... I had a quick blog hop to congratulate myself for doing under the desk and that is when I got sidetracked.

Remember those fab little B Line dress stamps? ... Remember the tag bits from yesterday? ... well I decided to make stuff with them rather than just putting them away! Of course while I was on the blog hop I happened by Lord Tim of Holtz's blog ... as you do ... you know Tim ... the man that will carry on working until he is 150 if he chooses while rescuing the entire underwater population with just a jump ring and an ornate frame.

Anyways ... while oohing and arrging over his post I see the Ranger Make and Takes from CHA. Well funnily enough there just happened to be a swivel clasp handy ... some shrink plastic all prepared for my class tomorrow ... and the rest as they say is ... well ... that really! Seeings as I am not at CHA ... I have made my own make and take ... not quite the same as actually being there ... but good fun anyway!

Only shame is that the top of my desk now looks worse than when I started! Hey Ho!

Laters!

A Weekend of ArtsyCrafts!

Having attended ArtsyCrafts Autumn 2009 I was thrilled to be asked to help at the second of the May 2010 ArtsyCrafts events. But ... even having attended before ... well NOTHING could have prepared me for the amount of work involved ... and I only turned up on Friday afternoon when all the really hard planning, packing and kitting had been done ... what a lightweight I am!!! 

It was the best fun though ... we worked hard ... laughed a lot ... ate lots of chocolate and met lots of really lovely crafty people.

I got to do my first big demo ... just a metal rose I might add ... but lots of people all the same!

In true blogger spirit I was told I looked just like Julia Roberts ... by more than one person ...so it must be true ... I also got to wash all the Cut n' dry foam ... Oh the glamour! I decided to take it back to my room and wash it in the shower ... I promise I did n't really shower with it ... but when you are cream crackered and it is gone midnight ... well everything seems really funny ... so I posed with camera in hand ... just for you guys!  And if you are sat there thinking ... Oh my goodness ... that woman has no ankles ... trust me ... I had some when I left Cambridge on Friday afternoon ... but they had disappeared by around 10am on Saturday morning! You can rest assured I have ankles again today :0)

A big shout out to all the lovely people I met at the weekend and all the lovely bloggers that I can now put voices to their comments ... it really was a pleasure to meet you all ...

So there you have it ... that is why I have been AWOL ... well that and launching the Summer classes on the LB Craft's web site ...

Only 24 more sleeps now until Distress Ink Utopia ... I had to spell check Utopia twice by the way ... the first time I spelt it soooo badly even the spell checky wotsit could n't recognise the word!

Right ... that is me ... how many of you are coming to LB on Sunday for the fun and frolics that is the B Line Bargain Bonanza???? And does anyone out there know whether the European plug on my hair straighteners will need an adapter in New Jersey????

Laters!

More Dresses!

Sorry about the piccies people ... I am going to try and do them again later ... well not tonight later ... more tomorrow later :0)

This first dress is Rusty Hinge spritzed with gold perfect pearls and sadly you really cannot see the shimmer ... tis quite pretty. Below are Dusty Concord ... Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire either mixed or neat. Stamps are Paper Artsy ... Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi ... apart from the dress which is B Line. These would make fab invitations ... I digress ... I just thought of that !

While I am here ... I need to right a wrong ... you all say such lovely things in your comments ... but it was n't my idea to use these dresses as tags! I have about one idea that good each decade and I think my one for this decade has been and gone ... mind you I cannot rightly remember what it was :0)

Anyways ... the B Line lady demoed the dresses instead of tags at CHA ... Lin Brown from L.B Crafts came up with the stamp idea ... they talked and hey presto we have a fab dress tag stamp thing ... which is great fun and yes they do come in different sizes ... little and large though ... not 8,10,12 and 14 :0).

I am now very terrified now about my demoing debut at Ally Pally tomorrow ... if you are going and you see me ... please come and chat ... talking I can do ... at least ... I usually can :0)

If you are not going ... I am taking my camera and will show you lots of piccies tomorrow night ... Have a good weekend everyone ... whatever you are doing ... and if you are not going to Ally Pally ... treat yourself to some online stash :0)

Dressing up!

Well ... I never actually got around to playing with my new Timmy dies ... but I still managed to have fun :0)

I have been playing with the new B Line dress stamps ... using it like a tag and generally getting inky and messy with Distress Inks ... Timmy stamps ... Wendy Stamps and Paper Artsy Stamps!

I am now in love with the Wild Honey and Fired Brick combo as well as the Crushed Olive and Broken China combo ... all very bright and very yummy ... of course I had to have a Peeled Paint moment too ... I don't want my old favourite feeling left out ... now do I?

I am also in love with Paper Artsy's little biddy flower stamp from the Flora and Fauna plate ... it has the same fab shaped petals as the larger flower which means making a little biddy dimensional flower is really quite easy :0)

Only one more sleep until Ally Pally ... depending of course on what time you are reading this post ... or if indeed you are like the Midnight Caller and require no sleep whatsoever ...

And I really am going to die cut everything in sight when I get up ... and then I am going to try out some lush new Viva paints ... coooool!

See ya's!