The wanderer returns

Not that I've been wandering! Quite the opposite really - I feel a little bit like a hedgehog that's reluctant to come out of hibernation! Christmas was quite a stress filled week and I've been taking some time out to catch up with some much needed sleep and a little R & R too. I've still been working away at home, with new designs and magazine projects. The picture below is of part of a set of matching pieces that I made which are in the February (current) issue of Crafts Beautiful. We'll be doing something in a similar vein on my first workshop of this year in a couple of weeks. These particular examples are made using the lovely Rachel Grieg's Darkroom Door stamps - gorgeous images. I'm looking forward to seeing Rachel again in February when she visits the UK for Stitches and workshops at Dawn's studio. Looks like the sun was shining when I took the photograph.....mmmmm, not much sign of it today. It's a very dull, dour day today.Well, it seems a little tardy now, but I hope that most of you had a lovely Christmas - I say 'most of you' because I know that a few people had a fairly depressing time. Let's all hope that this year can be a fresh beginning and that we have more positive things happening.

Apologies to those who never did receive their Christmas cards from me....that's apologies from the post office I think really! Thank you to everyone who sent cards to David and me, they were much appreciated, beautiful and it was difficult to take them down after the twelve days were up!

Well, I shall be back into the travelling about mode next weekend! I have enjoyed the novelty of being at home at the weekends, it feels quite decadent! So, I'll be up at Dainty Supplies in Washington, Tyne & Wear next Saturday. I'm going to be demonstrating stamping and stencilling with the new Ranger Perfect Pearls Mists and Crafter's Workshop stencils. I'll be using Darkroom Door stamps too, so, if you are around the area, do pop in and bag a set - they are top quality and come in snazzy tins to keep them safe and for easy storage.

The weekend after that I'll be at Card-Io in Wigan - I'll have more details next week about exactly what I'll be demonstrating. Then I'll be busy with workshops at Dawn's Studio at the beginning of February. These will be stamping (cards), making jewellery with Ranger products and an all day Art Journalling class. I've had a few email queries as to whether the workshops are still going ahead, as you will have no doubt read/heard that Dawn and her family have taken the decision to sell the shop. I can reassure you that, yes, all the advertised workshops are going to be running. Dawn will keep everyone posted as to any more classes that may be added after these. I know that many of you will be very sad, including myself, at the news, and I know that it was a difficult decision for everyone involved and that we all wish them well.

I'll try to catch up with any emails that I'm still late in replying to and the next thing I know it will be Stitches time again, so lots and lots of samples to be made. That's my favourite few days in my working year, when I get to catch up with everyone - including Tim of course...think I shall have to warn him about some of you who are going to his workshops in February!!!

So, I'll sign off for now...I feel as if I have almost forgotten how to blog after all this time! Will be back with more photos soon. Lindsay

PS Please do check out my rant blog, or go to http://www.fishfight.net/ to find out about a very important campaign, if you haven't been watching the Channel 4 programmes on the state of the fishing industry. This is one of those times when the general public can really help to get things done!

My last demonstration before Christmas

Hello folks, me, signing in from the library again! So, no pictures yet I'm afraid. Hope that everyone has been keeping warm in the cold weather and not too many of you have been snowed in.

I'm off down to Norwich tomorrow...thankfully the trains seem to be back on track (!) so it should be a straight run. I'm taking extra gloves, a woolly hat and a shawl though, just in case! If you are in the area, do drop into the new Hobbycraft store on Saturday where I'll be demonstrating and hosting an informal Make n Take where you can make a decorative tag to take home.

Last weekend was a busy one as I was demonstrating on Saturday and then teaching two workshops on Sunday. The double class days are hard work but great fun too. We made Fairy Doors and Christmas decorations...pictures will follow as soon as I am back on track with a computer. It was great to meet some new crafters as well as catching up with Chris, She, Kath, Elaine, Caitlin, Tracy, Paul, Edna and Gill. Joanne and "Peg Leg" dropped in too, so it was a busy old time. Thanks to everyone for cards and gifts which are so appreciated. I have made a start on my Christmas cards....finally! Paul....the hot chocolate was delicious - can I put in a repeat order?!

I have been busy all this week on two projects for Crafts Beautiful magazine which will be in issues next year. I do a regular project each month for them and, of course, always have to be working several months ahead of the publishing dates....so it can be very odd, thinking about Spring time themes when there is snow everywhere and Christmas Carols in the background! I'm also working on designs for next year and having to re-do some things which were stored on the computer...gggrrrrrr! I have another week of trying to get all of the work finished and then I might be able to start relaxing and thinking about Christmas. I'm looking forward to an afternoon in Norwich tomorrow though, so that will be fun.

Unfortunately, it does mean that I have to miss the last Christmas bash at Dawn's Studio this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. I would normally be there to join in the fun, but it will be a good weekend if you can make it. I believe that the usual mince pies, hot mulled wine and chocolates will be on offer along with demonstrations by Dawn, Amy and the team and lots of last minute special offers! There are Make n Takes as well as demonstrations and a gift wrapping service too...how posh! Hope it's a great weekend and just sorry that I'm missing this one.

Since the trees were cut down next door (see my rant blog for that story) we've been making an extra effort with the birds and wildlife to make sure that they are well fed. With the icy weather I've been putting fatty food out at night so that there is something for the shivery little birds when they wake up. Did I say "little" birds? The latest visitors this week have been seagulls! just shows how cold it is as we never normally see them, but they are obviously needing some extra food too. Our regular foxes have been calling earlier than normal and asking "can I have some more please?"!!! A new addition was a Robin who we saw every day until a few days ago, so hoping he hasn't succulmbed to the cold. It's amazing just how they survive these temperatures isn't it? So, as Joanne said on her blog, remember our feathered (and furry) friends and put extra rations out for them. I grilled some sausages the other day and drained off the fat from them into a tin plate, poured in some bird seed, stale cheese etc and then let it set in the fridge. Saves having to dispose of yucky animal fat, saves buying fat balls or lard and was so quick to do. The birds loved it!

Well, my case is packed, so I am all set for my last trip for 2010. Am going to go back home now and have a relaxing evening before my early start tomorrow. I'll take some pictures and hope to share them with you before next year!!! Have a great weekend everyone and a special greeting to my new followers - welcome. Lindsay

Melt Pot creations

Hello everyone on yet another wet and windy evening. Well, I haven't felt too chilly the last two days as I've been working with my Melt Pot creating some samples for my demonstration at The Stamp Hut. I've made a range of things so here's a sneaky peek at some of what I'll have with me on Saturday.

I did take some closer pictures of these two necklaces but they looked awful, very blurred, so hope you can see some of the detail in them here. They both feature images which I got from Suze Weinberg when I was at Ranger U a couple of years ago. I eke them out as you can tell! The left one has a tiny key embedded under clear UTEE poured into a Memory Frame with the image adhered to glass inside the frame. I've used a Swivel Fastener attached to the hanging loop (at the bottom) and I Glossy Accent-ed (!) the other end to the corner of the frame. Once set I added a couple of alcohol inked Foliage flowers with inked gems in their centres - the alcohol ink just knocks back some of the bling. I then attached various charms to the chain using Mini Paper Clips, added a Hinge Clip at the top and threaded the whole piece onto a length of Lace Chain.

The right hand piece is made in the same way but with a teensy dragonfly as oppoed to a key. I added the clip at the bottom and strung a key and a letter charm from it. More Foliage and gems and some Glossy Accents drizzled around the piece to which I added some Beadazzles (that was fun!). I srung this piece onto large ball chain. These were fun to make! Next is a card that I made using the technique which Dawn Bibby amazed Suze herself with! If you haven't tried this, or if you don't like cleaning out you Melt Pot, then do give this a try. Simply cut a piece of non stick craft sheet to fit inside the Melt Pot. You can then add various UTEE and powders without them gooking up the Pot. So, here I added a scoop of Black UTEE, a sprinkle of gold and copper Perfect Pearls and a little Bronze UTEE. It only takes a few seconds to melt and then I whipped out the craft sheet piece and place it onto another craft sheet before pressing my stamp firmly into the surface. After a few more seconds just peel away the stamp and craft sheet piece to reveal a thin, lacy edged piece that can be stuck to the front of a card or used however you wish. This card is very simple and I just used an EK Success punch (Scroll & Hearts) to add some extra interest. Simple card for a man I think...as opposed to a card for a simple man! Oh dear! The next card features the same technique to make the focal image using different colours. This is an example of my "looking at clouds" way of working....that is I sometimes look at an abstract thing and either something will jump out at me, or I'll try to see something in the design. This one was the former! The piece of stamped UTEE just looked like a Christmas tree to me, so I decided to add it to a Best Creations paper background and then added a border of snowflakes across the top - MS Snowflake Trim M42-70016. A bit quirky but I like itThe penultimate picture is a mixed technique piece which started out as a boring coaster. These are great - cheap to buy, a nice size to work on and you can easily pierce them to make holes for a wire or ribbon hanger. I covered the coaster with a page from an unwanted (charity shop buy) book of Fairy tales, using Multi Matte Medium to glue it in place before trimming. I then brayered the page using a Soothing Sunset Big n Juicy ink pad. To this I added another of my precious Suze W. images and the word Heart from Tim's Seasonal stickers pad. I melted natural Beeswax in the Pot and brushed it over the whole piece, thicker in some places than others. The thicker areas obscure the images underneath, but you can scrape away thin layers of the wax to re-reveal them. I then dropped a paper flower into the melted wax and then secured that to the corner using more wax. The heart was a piece that I had already made by placing a greased cookie cutter on top of a colour copied image and then pouring melted UTEE into the cutter, allowing to cool and then removing the excess paper with a finger dipped into water. I also inked and partly embossed a Grungeboard flourish before sticking these to the piece with melted wax. I added more wax over the top, scraped areas away and then added the wire hanger. The final piece is my favourite! Those who came on my Matchbox Shrines workshop may possiby recognise the crown which was one of the car boot treasures which were on the table to dip into. Nobody had chosen it, so I decided to use it myself! I began with a teeny canvas that I had already begun and then given up on...all I had done was used Paint Dabbers to colour it and then stamped the TH sentiment over that. I used white Beeswax to texturise the whole canvas and added another Suze image in one corner. I stamped Marion Emberson's lovely dandelion from her "Make a Wish" set. The image didn't completely take on top of the wax, but that's okay. I added the extra word and a teeny dragonfly before adding more wax layers. I cut some Maya Road chipboard wings in half and embossed them with silver and verdigris powders...just enough to leave them looking a little textured. I adhered the wings to the back of the canvas with Glossy Accents and, once they were set, I adhered the crown between them. It was an old brooch that I was able to easily snip the pin off..think it may be made from lead! I finished the piece by adding more Beadazzles held in place with Glossy Accents...not just decorative, they also help to keep the wings and crown in place. Hope you like this piece. So, tomorrow morning I am setting of down to Bury St Edmunds which is a lovely town. I'm especially looking forward to this visit as last time I was there I discovered, too late, a whole area which I had somehow missed on my previous visits! It takes a good few hours (four and a half to be precise!) to get there, so I'll be doing some of my exploration in the dark and, probably, the wind and rain if the last few days are anything to go by! If you are in the area please do come along and say hello. Meanwhile, remember that my blog candy ends on Sunday and the winner needs to email their details to me by Tuesday, so leave a comment, if you haven't already, and pay another visit on Sunday evening to see if you've won! (I've confused myself now! Lol!)

Have a great weekend whatever you are getting up to, and see you back here on Sunday. Lindsay

Back in the North

Hello all, after a week of being in and near London, I'm home again and looking forward to a few weeks being in the North of England and not so much travelling. Having said that, I had a really fabulous time last week! On Wednesday I travelled down to the Capital and had an hour or so people watching in the sunshine outside Euston station while I was waiting to meet Amy, whose train was delayed for an hour. It was quite good fun imagining where people were going, who they were waiting to meet and so on, and the time went by quickly until lovely Amy arrived and we set off for our hotel. I was bunking on the sofa in Dawn's room that night! We had a trip to Harrods but, with prices like £7.95 for a pomegranate, £5.50 for a cabbage and £3.50 for half a pound of butter, you may guess that I didn't buy anything! I haven't been there since I was a little girl so it all looked very different and quite magnificent of course, but definitely only for window shopping! We went for a delicious Italian meal and then headed back for a good night's sleep as we had some very busy days ahead.

Next morning we drove to the Queen Elizabeth conference centre in Westminster where the QVC customer event was being held. I was hosting one of the make n take tables whilst, this time, Kanban were hosting the workshops. Below are Dawn and the very popular QVC presenter, Craig, who welcomed everyone and outlined the day's events. Then it was all systems go and it didn't stop until almost 6pm! I was featuring my new Christmas clear stamp sets along with Distress ink pads...showing that you can combine whimsical with more distressy techniques. This is my table before we got started...looks pretty messy already! I had eight or nine people (not all ladies!) at my table per sessions and each lasted around half an hour with more people standing behind chairs waiting to come on the next sessions, so the the pressure was on both for me and those who were trying to finish their cards! Great fun though, but very tiring as you may imagine.

Here is the wall at the side of my table, showing some general card samples using my new stamps. And here are just one, very cheerful group of ladies at my table. And there's my coffee and a biscuit which was one of three cups that I only took one sip of during the day! All the QVC customers who had come along were able to go around the tables and to the Kanban workshop, so there were things to make with the various companies and guests that are featured on the channel. My lovely friend Paula Pascual came along to see us all too - she had a great time as she was having a day off and a busman's holiday! There are some good pictures from the event on Paula's blog. After the first day finished we left everything just as it was and I went with Kathy and Jayne, from Personal Impressions, back to Jayne's house for the night. We had a lovely Indian takeaway that was super delicious and a good night's sleep was had by all! Next day was a repeat of the previous one except that Anthony was there instead of Craig. He made one lady's day by giving her a huge hug and she turned to jelly! I did have more photos of the event, but my camera has managed to spit them out somehow! Hello to all the ladies and gents who attended the event and hope you all had as much fun as I did. On Friday evening I had to hot tail it to the station to get the train to Horley as I was demonstrating at Crafts U Love there the following day. I just caught the train and it then sat there not moving an inch until way past the departure time....a voice then announced that they were very sorry for the delay, but there was no driver! That's a new one on me! Scurrying to a new, packed, train then ensued and I got to Horley quite a bit later than I should have.
However, my mood lifted when I arrived at the hotel as this was one where I had previously stayed, and had problems...after three emails to them were ignored I was finally contacted by the manageress who urged me to stay there again, assuring me that I'd be looked after. Well, as you can see from the picture below, I was upgraded to a "presidential suite" - just me in this huuuge room with a triple sized bed! I went down for dinner and, after I had eaten and had gone to pay, I was told that there was no charge and that I could also have a complimentary breakfast. Just shows it pays to be persistent if you have had a problem! Only thing was, I didn't sleep particularly well as I felt very odd being in such an enormous room on my own and the heavy wood panelling and the drapes over the bed kept making me think of haunted houses!My day at Crafts U Love was less frenetic than the two previous days and it was nice to be able to take time with everyone to show the techniques I was using. I've lost all the photos from that day but I'll be making samples this week, so will add some pictures before the weekend.
I decided to avoid the underground for my journey home, knowing there were engineering works going on, and I've experienced them before....having to walk down out of order escalators with heavy baggage is not something I enjoy! However, it turned out to be a bad decision as my alternative route took me over seven hours! It was almost a disaster, as I was very nearly robbed of my suitcase containing all my stamps, inks, card, pens etc. Two middle aged men with bikes were on one of my trains and their body language made me a little suspicious of them - thank goodness. My case was in the train doorway, there being no luggage areas on this local train, but I could keep an eye on it if I stood up. So, at each stop, I made sure that I could still see my bag. The two bicycle guys were being quite twitchy, moving their bikes about a lot and engaging with people "sorry dear, sorry about the bike", "can you get past okay" etc, but their body language was giving out bad signals to me. When they came to get off I looked up and my bag was not in sight! I jumped up and rushed to the doorway, only to see them, with bikes and my case on the platform!!! One of them said "Oh sorry hen, is this your bag?" (unbelievable). "Yes, it is my bag, and even if it wasn't, it certainly isn't yours is it?" One of them handed me my case back, the train doors closed and we set off agin. Very frustrating as I couldn't do anything else about it and, typically, there was no guard on the train to report them to. I felt extremely fortunate as I was a split second from losing all my stuff...mind you, I could have almost enjoyed imagining their faces when they unzipped my very heavy bag and found it contained....card, inkpads, stamps etc!!!
Yesterday was just for relaxing and watching the men's Wimbledon final. It was a pretty disappointing match, over in just three sets, but there was some great tennis nonetheless and I know that Paula and I were both very happy to see Rafa Nadal reclaim the championship title. He's a great role model with his very humble attitude and the respect he shows to everyone. A worthy winner.
Today I have been remaking a magazine project because the original one which I sent, by Special Delivery, never arrived. Needless to say, I shall be filling in a complaint form for that one! I read so many comments on blogs about the poor Post Office service...think we all have problems with it sometimes.
Well, the 20,000 visitor mark has almost been reached, so, as promised, I shall be giving away some blog candy very soon. I shall gather everything together, take a photo and post details very soon, so watch this space! So, I hope everyone had a good weekend, and got chance to enjoy the sunshine. I'll be back with candy soon! Lindsay

Dawn's Residential Weekend

Two posts in one night! I'll need to lie down in a darkened room after this one! Well, it was another busy weekend as I was one of the tutors at Dawn Bibby's residential weekend. It was a mixture of hard work and lots of fun, so all of us felt pretty shattered afterwards, including the seventy odd ladies who attended - I mean seventy odd as in number not as in "odd" ladies!!! On the Friday I was at the studio helping to prepare kits and let's just say that I don't want to see any more gilding flakes in a hurry! We went to the hotel to prepare and then meet and greet all the ladies and one or two husbands. It was a great start to the weekend as everyone got chance to chat and make friends and I got to meet up with a few people who I only see once or twice a year.

On Saturday it was a full day of workshops - here are the ladies on "my" table looking all fresh and ready to take on anything! It was a very intense day with so many projects for everyone to get through. I was joined by Heather in the afternoon, and she also helped the ladies at my table. She was joining us to demonstrate and host a table on Sunday - something new for Heather, so she did really well...knew she could do it! In the evening we had a lovely dinner and a fun evening, including dancing - here is my lovely friend Paula looking gorgeous and elegant as usual! And here are Dawn, with her lovely sister Rena, Rena's husband Stephen and Amy of course.

On Sunday, after a bad start for some of us....I overslept for the first time I can recall in years (!) myself, my sister Heather, Jo and Paula were demonstrating in the Design studio and in the afternoon we all hosted tables for everyone to come and have a go at various projects and techniques. Here are some of the ladies making Beeswax plaques at my, as usual, very messy table!

And here are some samples that I made using the Beeswax techniques...the blue plaque doesn't show up too well as the Perfect Pearls I smudged on there are reflecting the light back. The orange hanger has a set of chipboard wings that I cut in half and popped under the lady image. These and the ribbon hanger on the blue plaque are all held in place purely with the wax - no other adhesives required!

I had great fun creating the pieces and I'll be demonstrating the techniques at Dawn's studio this Sunday (all day) so if you fancy seeing the samples more closely then do come along. Everyone seemed to really enjoy using the wax as it is just so different and so easy to create great effects with. On this Ikea mirror frame I used scraps from a Victorian calendar along with some Maya Road chipboard flourishes. 'Scuse the fingerprints!

Well, I shall be demonstrating at C J Crafts in Edgely, Stockport on Friday, then teaching a fairy workshop at Dawn's on Saturday - we'll be making cards and a fairy in a jar! Then I'll be in store all day on Sunday too, so another busy weekend ahead.

If you would like to see more pictures from the weekend, then have a look at Heather's blog to see her fabulous beaded dragonflies and at Paula's blog to see the brilliant slide show that she has put together. Amy has also added photos on the Topaz Crafts website. I'll end with a big "hello!" to all the ladies that I met at the weekend and hope that you really enjoyed the whole experience. Lindsay

Last weekend....this weekend

Had a great day at Handmade Heaven in Chorley on Saturday. My, everyone is really keen in Chorley! Some of the ladies were outside the door twenty minutes before opening time! Lovely to see many familiar faces as well as ones I hadn't seen before. Thanks to Heather and Sandra for looking after me and keeping me supplied with drinks. I'll be going back there on 10th July. The lovely Joanne and Terry came along and look what I caught Terry trying to smuggle out under his jacket......my Ranger mirror frame! Lol! Not really of course, but it made us all laugh! Nice try Terry! It was great to see Jilly too and I must say to both Joanne and Jilly that, although I couldn't display your cards when I was on QVC this time, I did have them with me, just under the counter, for luck! Thanks again ladies, you are both treasures.Here are a couple of snaps of the box that I made using my new Easter stamps for the QVC show. There was a chocolate egg inside, but it appears to have vanished! I liked the fresh colours of the Martha Stewart papers that I had been sent to use, and it made a nice change from using Christmas designs at last! Apologies for the very dark picture of the inside of the box.Below is a card featuring the scribble cat from my Nature and Flowers triple stamp set which I combined with K&Co Blossomwood papers and Distress inks. The Blossomwood range is gorgeous, very rich and sumptuous but with a very natural feel.

On Saturday evening after the Chorley demonstration David and I drove (well David did!) up to Cockermouth, passing the awe inspiring Bassenthwaite Lake as we neared the small town. We went out to eat but most of the shops and restaurants were, of course, closed up after the terrible floods of last year. An eerie red glow was coming out from the interiors which turned out to be the heaters drying out the buildings. We ended up carrying a takeaway back to the hotel! On Sunday I was demonstrating at Al's, whose original shop had been flooded out and Alison had taken a new shop in Lowther Went shopping centre - a lovely spacious area. Alison and her family were lovely, even serving us home cooked Cottage Pie for lunch! Hello to everyone that we met there, and hope you are all having a go at those Distress backgrounds! That's Alison on the right of the photo below.This coming weekend I'll be at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio - my Fairy Doors workshop on Saturday is fully booked, but I will be confirming details about new classes there, so will post these as soon as possible after the weekend. I'm looking to do more unusual projects in some of the up coming workshops, so do check them out if you fancy coming along and trying something a little different. All the workshops can be booked directly through the shop. I'll also be there all day on Sunday to demonstrate a selection of stamps, Ranger products and Martha Stewart punches...a bit of everything really!
Meantime I'm working on new designs (for a change!) for Personal Impressions and QVC, so lots to keep me out of mischief!
On a more serious note, some of my good friends are going through really rough times just now, so I want to let them know that they are being thought about and that positive things are being sent their way. Lindsay

Trade show, telly and time flies!

This could be a loooong post! Lots of pictures to share, well, a few of them anyway, and tales from the trade show and the telly studios. The time just flew by and it all seemed to be over as fast as it began. As this is the one time of the year that I get to meet colleagues and friends I always hope the time will go by slowly, but it always races faster than ever. So, the first picture is of some of the samples that I made for the shows, all piled up and ready to pack. There are cards, boxes, candles, chocolates and more! This was the first time that I had to prep QVC samples at the same time as those for Stitches, so it was a slog to get everything made.

David drove me down to Birmingham and checked me into the hotel where we met my good friend and colleague, Jan, who is Personal Impressions area manager for Scotland and North England. We then went to the NEC where the PI team were already very busy setting up the stand which is one of the biggest in the show. David and I said goodbye and then Jan and I began helping to get things ready....or so we thought! Ranger and PI had collaberated in two half day workshops for our customers and there were just two places available as the ladies who had booked had not been able to get there. So Jan and I were able to go along and enjoy the three hour afternoon session. Did we feel guilty about leaving everyone else to set up?.....er....no!! The first hour was with Suze Weinberg using the Melt Pot and we made a selection of UTEE pieces. Next was Claudine Hellmuth and we used her new range of acrylic paints, mediums and sticky backed canvas. Lastly was Tim Holtz with alcohol inks and the new yummy Distress ink pad colours. We inked, painted, melted, glued and distressed and ended up with a stack of samples which we then attached to framed mirrors which we had colour washed. As you can see, the results were fabulous and this little beauty will be accompanying me to my Ranger demonstrations. The great thing is that, even though I am a "certified Ranger educator" (no clever remarks please!) and demonstrate the products regularly, I still picked up new ideas and had my enthusiasm tweaked up a few more notches! On a more serious note, I had been concerned about a magazine project which I saw somewhere, some time ago, and have noticed people on various forums saying that they were going to try the technique themselves .....this was using alcohol inks to tint UTEE in the Melt Pot. I asked Suze about this and she confirmed that this is a complete no no. So, please, if anyone is thinking of using the Melt Pot, you must only use To Dye For inks to tint the UTEE as they have been specially formulated for the purpose. Even if other inks appear to "work" in the Melt Pot, fumes are invisible and could cause problems. Okay - back to the fun now!
Here is one of the cards I made using some of my new stamp designs - this is a quirky bird from the "Knotty & Friends" clear set, and there is another set of them called, wait for it....."Trotty Lotty Botty"! I should explain - when I design I give working titles to each drawing and sometimes the names are used but often they are given new ones. When I did the birdies I started using rhyming names and was running out by the last couple, so we ended up with the above! I like it that PI have a sense of humour though, and it was a talking point at the show! The background for this card was made with Ink Potion no 9, gloss card and dye re inkers. Lovely bright shades. I was teaching versions of this card in my workshops on Sunday and Monday and demonstrating for the rest of the time. It's when I get to see all the retailers from all over the country, and overseas, in the one place, so a lot of catching up goes on as you may imagine! yOn Sunday night was our traditional, annual night out at the Wing Wah Chinese restaurant. It's always a real hoot with around twenty five or so of us having a great buffet meal, chatting, laughing and hopefully not talking shop too much! One of the traditions is the "initiation" of any new guests at our tables...a nice, if slightly embarrassing initiation! There is a sudden burst of the Happy Birthday tune and then the waiters approach the newbie with a large ice swan filled with ice cream, surrounded by fruit and topped with a giant sparkler. Everyone joins in with singing and clapping as the recipient sits there, rather surprised as it isn't their birthday of course. Daft, but fun! This year it was Claudine (Helmuth) who was our newbie....that's me behind the sparkler! Claudine loved the surprise - I think! At our table we chatted about our pets, present and past, and Claudine and I found that we both have nightmares about our long tresses being cut off! Next day it was back to work with workshops, demonstrations and business meetings. Most of us went without lunch after the big meal and then a good breakfast, but ny 4pm we were all beginning to feel ravenous and the show goes on till 6pm. So, it was time for me to break open the emergency cupcakes! (I had made one of my boxes featuring cup cake images and there was a cake inside it, so I brought extras with me in case that one got pinched. Here are Elaine from PI and Joella who had come over from Pergamano to be with us on the stand.both tucking into a tiny cupcake each. Elaine is one of the most wonderful people I have been lucky enough to know, an absolute treasure.
Here are two ladies that you will instantly recognise! Suze, Claudine and Tim were all demonstrating on our stand throughout the weekend, but I really didn't get much time to watch them. Managed to snap this though just as Suze was packing her things away. What dazzling smiles they both have and they are two really individual ladies.In the afternoon, as I was demonstrating, there was a hand on my shoulder and there was Tim with a gift for me....a full set of the new Distress ink pads! Can't wait until they are in all the stores so I can use them on my demonstrations

Here is a not very good picture of the Ranger gang getting ready to head down to QVC on Monday afternoon. Tim was launching his TSV at midnight, so we all promised we would saty up to watch that night and wished them all well. By the way, Mario (Tim's wonderful assistant) was actually wearing long jeans as opposed to his trademark knee length shorts....mind you, we did have 4" of snow in Birmingham!Monday evening was spent having a quiet (ish!) meal at the hotel and then lots of telling of stories and laughter to keep us going until we could watch Tim on QVC at midnight. We all huddled round a laptop as they couldn't change the channel on the big tv in the hotel bar. Hope we didn't make too much noise as we were cheering for Tim of course! Not that he needed our good wishes as, of course, his products had been so long awaited! Below is a picture from Tuesday morning which shows Malcolm, and a huuuge cake that was given to him as it was his 40th anniversary with PI! Dawn mentioned him on air and it was announced at the show too! I made a card which we all signed of course. Next to Malcolm is Kathy and behind her is one of my best friends, Jan. We are like the terrible twins when we get together! Here are snaps of a couple of the cards I made with some of my new stamps. I'll post more new images of these as and when! Thoughts of an exotic summer amidst all the snow here! On Tuesday afternoon myself, Rachel Grieg, Shari Carole and her husband Tom all set off on the train for London and QVC. Rachel and Shari were snapping away as we drove through London in the cab! Look who was in the Green room when we arrived - Tim was relaxing before going back on air. We had to sort out all our samples and get organised ready for the "All Star Stamping " show at 7pm. Here is Amy - with frog slippers! - taking my picture taking hers. I liked the way that she matched the collage on the wall! Amy is another of my favourite people - supportive, funny, kind and also a really great mum.Next you can see Shari and Rachel setting up their demonstrations very quietly! If you can imagine, there were about seven of us all, including Paula and me, setting up in silence as we were in the live studio - well, trying to anyway! As you can see, there wasn't much room!All too soon we were trying to get ready to go on air, slapping make up on....not even time to do my nails after all the inkiness of the weekend....getting changed an miked up. I was up first and, though I felt fine all day I have to admit that I did feel rather disorientated once I was on! It was a combination of the small demonstration area, everyone else being in the studio watching me, having Dawn on one side and Debbie Flint on my other side....oh well, I know I'll be able to take whatever is thrown at me next time! Thankfully all my stamps and the inks and glitters that I was using just about sold out, so that made me feel better! Dawn is absolutely fantastic as she can find the word that has mysteriously escaped one's brain, fill in the silences that you may experience and generally guide you through. I don't think that everyone appreciates how very hard Dawn works and what a lot of pressure is on her to make everything flow smoothly. This craft day was her first without Jj to help her for seven years, so it was even more stressful than usual. I know that we all were amazed at how she keeps going for a whole craft day and Tim and Mario were very complimentary about what a star she had been.

The gorgeous Paula was on after me and she had no time even to demonstrate as her stamps sold so fast. I was thrilled as these were Paula's first stamps on air, and I know how it feels when people love them. Paula primped my hair for me too just before I went on - thanks Paula! Next came Shari from Hero Arts, who was on TV for the first time...who would have guessed? And finally Rachel, from Darkroom Door who was also a TV first timer and sailed through as if she had been doing it for years! It was over very, very quickly and then we went back to the Green room to watch Tim's final show. After that we helped to clear the studio and got chance to snap a few more photos. So, here are Mario, Dawn and Tim - doing his pirate face - very sultry! And now me with Dawn and Tim.When we had all cleared up we left Dawn, Amy and Paula to carry on the hard work and the Ranger boys took Shari, Tom, Rachel and me out for a truly delicious Italian meal. We were there for so long that we had to ring the hotel to make sure that they held our rooms for us and we disn't check in until 12.40am! Well, you have to make the most of the good times and it was a great ending to a very busy few days. I'll post more sample pics as soon as I can, but I have another busy weekend coming up in Chorley and Cockermouth so have to make some more cards tomorrow. Hope to see you at one of the venues! Lindsay

Last minute demonstration date

Just wanted to let you know that I will be at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio tomorrow (Saturday) to demonstrate Ranger products, stamping, punches etc. This is a last minute arrangement...those of you who came to the demonstration weekend will know that, because of the postal strike, some products weren't delivered in time, but they have now arrived, so will be available for those of you who weren't able to get them last week. We thought it would be a good idea for me to come along again for those of you who missed the weekend, or want a reminder of how to use some of the products.

I've been asked by quite a few people about my new templates and if they will be available in the shops. I can now confirm that a selection of them are now on the Personal Impressions website, so should be avilable in the shops very soon. Any stockist of PI products would be able to get them in for you if you ask. Here are a couple of pictures of how the templates come together....

Lastly, a big thank you to Sheila for the wonderful, and hilarious, card which she sent me out of the blue. It was a lovely surprise and made a change from all the bills which are the bulk of my normal post...I keep telling my postie not to deliver the bills, but he just ignores my requests! I haven't posted any pictures of the witch ATC's that I got in return for mine in Heather's swap because I haven't got mine yet - Heather is keeping them for me to pick up when I see her. However, you can check them all out on Heather's blog in a slide show that she has set up. They are all so diverse - this is the fascination of ATC swaps. I do know that Heather is preparing to do a new swap, so do keep a look out for that, as I know you will really enjoy this next one! Right, back to my drawings!

Thank you She!

I got this very colourful award this week, so thank you She for including me. I now have to pass it on to five other people and tell you five interesting things about myself...mmmm, that may prove tricky!!! It's hard to choose just five bloggers too, but I'll pass it to:

Sarah McCrossan who always greets me with a big smile and a big hug!

My sister Heather Fenn-Edwards because this will make her smile!

Joanne of My Toby Jug who is one of the warmest people, along with her lovely husband, Terry, that I meet at events "up north"

Kym from Kym's Krafty Kards who was so wonderfully enthusiatic when I met her at a demonstration a couple of weeks ago

Debsg - whose comments always make me smile

But everyone who comments on here can take the award too, as I love reading your observations and your blogs. As to the five interesting things - I've used up quite a few on previous awards! So, here is what I can think of right now:

1. I used to be in a scrabble club and went to London to help at the World championships - I had to adjudicate on odd words and was in charge of the stopwatch! Gyles Brandreth, who founded the contest, was there and he was charming, funny and as eccentric as he comes across on the tv!

2. I don't get as much time to read as I'd like to, but I just finished the last Harry Potter book, so it feels like the end of an era!

3. I spent my 15th birthday in Leningrad when I was on a school holiday. The Russian people were the friendliest, as a nation, that I had ever met.

4. My sister thinks I'm psychic! Some odd things did happen when we were children, and we were convinced there was a poltergeist in our bedroom!

5. I had an "epiglotyl spasm" ('scuse spelling!) a few years ago which meant that I couldn't breathe in. It was the scariest experience of my life and it was only because David managed to keep me calm that I'm still here!

Well, they were five very random things, that's for sure! So, nominees...over to you now for your five things.

I am all set for the demonstration weekend at Dawn's now, though I do know there have been a few problems with the items that I am supposed to be using, so I may have to do a little bit of thinking on my feet! As a nod to the spooky date I have painted my nails black - guess what? I had no black nail polish, so have used a marker pen and overpainted with a glitter varnish....good thing that I am at home all next week as I may have trouble getting them clean again! I've also dug out my old witches hat and given it a bit of a revamp, so I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to show you next week. Sarah texted me to say that she will be demonstrating there tomorrow as well, so we should have some fun.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that I have a mixture of feelings about Leonie leaving QVC. I'm really pleased and happy for her that she has this new adventure in her life and sure she will have a great time. But I'm also sad that we won't be meeting up at QVC or at Topaz anymore as I know Dawn is of course. Lindsay

An inky day

I have multi coloured fingers this evening as I've been using Distress and Alcohol inks this afternoon to get some ATC's and background papers ready for my demonstration tomorrow at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio. Messy and fun! Hope to see some of you there and, if you're early, you can swap one of my new ATC's - bit of a Halloween theme on some of them, with orange and black Alcohol inks. I'll get some photos tomorrow - it was horribly dark here today, but that Autumn, cosy feel was nice too. Talking of which, the clocks go back tonight so it's a lie in and coming home in the dark tomorow....ugh!

Anyway, here are just a few pictures to liven up this post! The first one was taken at the QVC event in London, and is of my template kit with just a few of the samples that I made.

The card on the right features paper from the K & Co Winter Wonderland pack. I simply watercolour stamped two birds from my Swirly Birds clear set (PICS013) and added gem stones for their eyes. What, literally, tied this card together was the combination of purple and blue sheer ribbon which picked up on the colours in the paper. Simple, but I liked this one!

The last one shows two examples of the fairy cards which were one of the workshops that I taught at the QVC event. The backing papers are from My Minds Eye and are really easy to work with as they are double sided and have a nice mix of patterns and plain. The cards feature images from my Fairy Silhouette clear stamp set. Hope you like them, Lindsay

Sore feet!

Very sore indeed! I've spent most of the last few days on my feet and my little toes also had an argument with a chair's legs, not once, but twice, on Thursday, so they are a lovely shade of purple! Otherwise, it has been a lovely, if manic, few days.
I set off to London on Thursday morning and arrived at the conference hall in Westminster ready to get things set up for my workshops. Kathy and Jayne from Personal Impressions had done a fantastic job in preparing things and cutting out gazillions (!) of pieces of card and paper, so there was less to be done than I had feared. I had time to say hello to everyone and then the doors were opened so that all the ladies (and a few men!) could start coming in and having a look around before the official start of the day. Dawn and Catherine Huntley welcomed everyone and introduced all the designers, demonstrators and manufacturers before the event was declared open.
Here's my huge workshop, all ready to go and the very posh sign on the workshop door! (I wanted to bring it home with me!)

There were lots of new products at the event of course, many of which will feature on craft day which is on the 20th October, so don't forget to make a note of that. I have some new items (not stamps) that will be premiering that day, so I hope that you'll like them...they are fun! Here is a very sneaky peek, as I can't show them properly as yet! Jayne and Kathy took turns to help me on the workshops, which I was very thankful for, as we had around twenty five (mostly) ladies on each class, and there was lots to get through in very little time. Apart from the "mystery" object on the right (!), we did watercolour stamping with my fairy set and some scrummy new papers, and a Distress ink card featuring my Swirly Bird owl.
The day flew by as we were so busy, and then it was off to the hotel, a quick change and around twenty of us went to a fabulous Thai restaurant by the river. The meal was beautifully presented and served as well as being just delicious. You can see the attention to detail in my starter (Siam rolls) which looked as if Alan Titchmarch had planted a mini garden on my plate! Here's a picture that shows the table to my left - you can see Dawn, Lorelei (the designer behind the fun ladies you may have seen on QVC last week) as well as Jj and some of the faces behind products like Stix 2 etc.

Leonie and I were sharing a room, so, needless to say, we nattering away until pretty late...or early! She was very touched by everyone's messages after her Gran passed away. Well, next day we had another two hundred or so lovely ladies and gentlemen attending the workshops and make and takes. It was great to see familiar faces and meet new people too, and lovely to see so many people having such a great time. Here is Leonie's table which was full all day long.
The owl card (bet you're sick of seeing my owl!) on the left is not the one we made on the workshops, as we only had a short time on each one, but it was the one that everyone seemed to like! The paper is from the K&Co Winter Wonderland pad and I matched my Distress ink background to work with it and create a wintery feel. I created the trees in the background and the owl's tree perch using Le Plume pens and the Inkssentials white pen. The holly images were from PICS02 clear set from Personal Impressions.

Again, this is not the fairy card that I was teaching as that one used new papers which will be airing on QVC. The fabulous flower and swirling leaves were cut from a Winter Wonderland paper and you can see the foiling on the images. I watercolour stamped the faires in toning shades. Oh, and apologies to those of you who came to the final clas on friday...I could see that some of you were disappointed that we were not doing the Distress ink card after the previous people had shown what they had been doing. Unfortunately, we only had a certain amount of card etc prepared, so we had to stick to what we had organised.

It was a great couple of days in London and I headed back clutching my QVC goody bag which promptly burst apart, spilling the contents all over the floor whilst I was in the underground - disaster! I crammed everything into my other bag - just - apologising for holding everyone up!On Saturday I was at Rosemary Merry's shop, Crabapple Crafts in Frodsham. I felt a bit woozy at the start of the day, but I soon came round and had a busy day creating Christmas cards with stamps, inks and papers. Joanne and her lovely husband Terry came along (Joanne came especially to get a copy of my book and they hadn't arrived, so we swapped some ATC's instead!) and we had a good catch up. It was a very jolly day with a lot of laughter and I met some lovely people who were very complimentary about my work...always appreciated!

David and I were busy on Sunday too and got back home in the afternoon...to be greeted by the sight of a bird of prey in the car park making a meal of one of "our" pigeons. He watched us warily for a few moments before flying off carrying his meal - quite amazing as he wasn't very big. I tried to see the colouring of the poor pigeon but he seemed to be one of the generally grey ones which I can't really tell apart. I don't begrudge the prey bird his meal of course, and it's a good sign to see top predators around as it means that we are doing well with the smaller birds, but it still made me feel sad. Even more sadly, I have to report that Matthew (aka "Limpy Lou") has not been around for about a week so I fear that he may well have been taken by the falcon...very ironic as he had made such a fantastic recovery. However, I will keep looking out for him and will report if he (hopefully) turns up again. I'm not sure which bird of prey we actually saw, but, as Autumn Watch are having a feature on distinguishing between them this friday, I may be able to tell after that.

So, today I have been sitting on the sofa with my feet up (still throbbing!) to recover from the hectic last few days...I always feel a bit guilty doing nothing, but sometimes it has to be done! On friday I shall be setting off again, this time to The Stamp Hut in Bury St Edmunds - a lovely shop in a lovely town, so I'm looking forward to that. On Sunday I'll be teaching at Dawn's Design Studio so it's another busy weekend ahead with quite a bit of preparation to be done this week. Well, I'm now going to watch University Challenge and see if I can answer a few more questions than I did last week! I hope everyone is well and hope you are still awake after reading this mammoth post!