Pictures to show!

Hello all, it's been a good few days since my last post as family things have been taking precedence over the last week or so. I hope to make up for it with a fairly long post now, with some great pictures too! This time last week was my birthday and I received some lovely cards and gifts from very kind friends... ....clockwise from the back are a gorgeous canvas that the lovely Joanne made especially for me, next to that is a decorated jar filled with chocolates and labelled "Lindsay's very own chocolate treats jar"! This was from Chris but I must confess that David is munching on one of the bars as I type!!! Next to the jar is a lovely card that Joanne sent me - not for my birthday as such, but thought I'd include it anyway! Below that is a beautiful card sent to me by Gez . At the bottom is a gorgeous felted card from Chris which has a lovely heart shaped felted brooch attached to it. The teeny canvas is from Joanne and "T" and has a delicate, and very pretty heart pendant secured to it. In the centre is a dragonfly beaded box containing a really sweet silver cat wine stopper, also from Joanne and "T". Thank you so much ladies (and "T"!) for your kindness and wonderful creative generosity. Below is the birthday card that Joanne made for me...hard to see the dimension in this photo. Although I had a busy schedule David insisted we went out for the afternoon and we ended up, after a lovely drive around nowhere in particular, in Alsager, Cheshire, where we came upon a well hiden gem called "The Old Mill". It was a quiet, old Inn complete with mill pond. We had a delicious meal (the chips were home made - not frozen! Crikey, that's a rare thing these days!) which the resident black labrador would have happily cleared of any remains! Afterwards we wandered out to the mill pond and, as we had seen a large fish leaping out of the water before we ate, I threw some breadcrumbs onto the surface. They immediately attracted quite a few large Carp and we were treated to the sight of them coming right out of the water to grab the bread. Made a change from feeding ducks! If you are ever near the area we can recommend a visit. So it was a lovely birthday, topped off with beautiful red roses from David. Now, as promised, here are pictures of the Chunky Book which I received the Saturday before last from Sheila when we last met at my workshops in St Helens. Sheila did a great job of putting the books together despite the setbacks of a couple of people having to drop out of the swap and some of us (including me!) having to ask for a time extension to get pages made! Everyone involved chose the theme they would like for their book and here is mine - I chose "The magic of water". Here is the front cover...Sheila made all the front and back covers herself. Here are the inside pages - each picture shows the back of the previous one as well as the next page. The first one is this stunning piece by Joanne, which has so much detail and depth to it. I can't even imagine how long this must have taken to put together, never mind thinking of the design in the first place! The next picture shows one of Sheila's pages...Sheila knows my favourite colours that's for sure, and the sentiments on this page are very appropriate just now. The Glossy Accents just emphasises the watery feel. Gez made this next page which is so well thought out and very evocative of sunny days by the sea. I love the colours here too. Next up is my own page which I used Colourwash dyes to make the background for. I drew, coloured and cut out the Mermaid, strengthening her with Glossy Accents. Next is another page by Sheila featuring another Mermaid. The faux bleached water effects on here are so effective and I love the colour combinations. A different Mermaid here on this page made by Elaine. I love Mermaids, so the more the merrier and this one is certainly unlike the rest! I love this shimmery aqua page. This nostalgic page was created by Karen and really captures the feel of a day at the beach. This dreamy page is by Sonja and I really like the way she has got that foamy quality of a crashing sea as well as the quote from Cristopher Columbus. Zoe's page is full of texture and contrast and I especially like the shiny fibres that tumble down into the Koi pond below. Hilda made this very different page which has subtle stamping and a great dictionary panel - I love dictionary definitions! The last page is by Cheryl - great colour and the paddling foot made me smile! Here is the inside back of the book. Well, hope you enjoyed looking at the Chunky Book which I will treasure. It was a labour of love for all involved!

Last Saturday I was at Crafts U Love, in Charlwood, Horley, for their fifth birthday celebrations. It was a day of classes and demonstrations and everyone had a lovely time. Hello to all the ladies I met there (no men I'm afraid!) and hope to see you again soon!
Well, I hope I have made up for my recent lack of posting and will try to post again before the weekend.

Cracking on

Doesn't it feel good when you are cracking on with things and they are coming together? Well, I am on a roll with my latest drawings and have (wait for this Sheila!) actually started my pages for Sheila's grungy book swap. I have completed two, so only ten more to go! Never mind, at least I have made start. I've actually done two and a bit, as I have created a background for a third page as well.

I have been working on drawings for the last few days and, late this afternoon, I decided that I needed a break from them. Just doing nothing would have made me feel very guilty, so doing a couple of the pages was a good option.

It's been a quiet few days at home and I haven't been out since last weekend, except to the supermarket with David last night. It is nice to just stay in and pull up the drawbridge sometimes! I had a sudden urge for a bowl of soup and some crusty bread for dinner yesterday, so I chose a carton of New Covent Garden fresh Plum Tomato and Basil. I do recommend you try a bowl of this, as it was truly delicious and filling. I asked David to get me another for tonight, but they had sold out, so he picked another of their range...Jamaican jerk with Sweet Potato. Having read the ingredients, including tomato, coconut and nutmeg, I am looking forward to it. I'll let you know if it's any good!

Here are a few more of my new stamp releases...the first two are from my Fairy Silhouette series, and you may have seen these on QVC as they were released on there first. They will be available in craft stores within the next few weeks. This first one is called "Magic Happens" (PICSA6134)..... .....and next is "Crystal Ball Fairy" (PICSA6137). They will, hopefully, be availbale from around the 23rd of this month, but don't quote me on that! I have posted samples made from these in an earlier post, so, if you scroll back you can take a look at those and see how the images look when stamped up. The last picture is of one of my Mother's day sets, which is called "Mum is the Heart..." (PICSA6211) and should be available from the 17th March. Of course, it doesn't only have to be for Mother's Day itself, but would equally suit a mum's birthday, or, even nicer I think, just a card to say thanks, or hello. Well, not a long post tonight and there is a bowl of soup with my name on it that is calling to me now, so I shall bid everyone goodnight and hope you all have a lovely, relaxing evening. Oh, just to say, the fairy card samples are in my September 2010 posts under the heading "Fairyland".

Chunky Book Pictures

I just managed to take pictures of my wonderful Chunky Book before the skies turned a mix of grey, purple and yellow, the Heaven's opened and the thunder and lightning began. One roll of thunder was so close and so loud that I felt the floor vibrating...I kid you not! Anyway, my camera is still determined to turn things blue, so some of the pages don't look quite as colourfully purple as they really are. So, thanks to all the talented ladies who took part and especially to Heather for arranging the swap and for making all the covers and putting the pages togrther so artfully. Here is the front cover which Heather made featuring some of my favourite colours! The remaining pictures show each person's page on the right and the previous page back on the left....hope that makes sense! Next is the inside cover and the "Timekeeper" page created by Alison Brandist.....lots of textures, masking, great colours and images on this page - love it! The next picture shows the "Heart and Soul" page by Sandra Zengler. This one has really rich colours and I love the words that Sandra has chosen. The next picture is of "Heavy Metal" by Heather Fenn-Edwards (my sis, who organised the whole thing). There's so much going on in this page and, if I'm not mistaken, Heather has used the "Drunken Scotch" technique to create the scrumptious background. Very tactile.Next is my page, "It's only Words". I used alcohol inks, acetate, stamps etc to create this one.This spooky page is by Sheila King. It's for the theme "A Ghost in the Machine" and I love all the cobwebs. When David looked through the book he said this page was his favourite!Next is a very elegant page by Joanne Parkin. It's the page entitled "With a Little Flourish"...this was the page I struggled the most with, so I was really impressed with Joanne's interpretation. The amount of work on this is really something though you can't really see the dimension here.Here is the "I Dreamed a Dream" page by June Benton which looks much more purple and aqua in real life than it does here. June has done some lovely, shimmery spritzing on this page and lots of collagey stamping to create this very ethereal page. Hilda Moffett created this next page entitled "Vintage Journeys". An array of tickets, case, maps etc adorn the page and I especially like the pennant shapes at the side....black and white Glossy Enamels unless I'm mistaken! I was quite chuffed that I got this next page by Susan Jenneys (Artyjen) because it was my favourite of her pages that she put on her blog! This one is for the theme "Take Flight" and Sioux used Grungepaper to stamp her images onto. Once coloured they have been adorned with Distress Stickles (careful how you say that out loud folks!!!). Very evocative. Finally, this shows the inside back cover that Heather made and includes a list of everyone who took part...attention to detail or what?! So, there you have it, what a treasure indeed. Keep an eye on Heather's blog as she may well be doing more unusual swaps after Christmas - meanwhile she does run a monthly ATC swap that you can join in. By the way, as the idea was to make chunky pages that also included Ranger products (though not strictly) I thought I'd photograph my book on a suitable background....any idea? It's my coveted Ranger apron!

Off to relax for a bit now, so see you back here soon. Lindsay