Bit of a catch up

Sorry it's been a few days since I posted any photos so here are some from the last week or so. This is one from the dabble day at Samuel Taylors in Leeds where the ladies were doing a round robin of crafting in four different workshops. I took quite a few pics throughout the day but I picked this one for all the lovely smiles! Everyone had a great time making a variety of projects using different techniques and products. You can see more pictures of the day by visiting the Samuel Taylors facebook page...sorry I don't have a link for that. On Wednesday I was teaching another workshop, this time at Weavervale Garden Centre in Northwich. More smiley faces! The ladies each made three cards and were enjoying it so much that we overran by more than an hour! On Saturday I was at Astbury Meadows garden centre in Congleton where the demonstration table had been set up in the coffee shop...with the aroma of coffee all day which was nice! Here are a few of the cards that I made for the weekend. This one uses images from my Gwendoline stamp set as well as a quote from one of the Dylusions range of stamps. The background for this card is made using Liquid Pearls in Flamingo which has been randomly applied over card using scrunched up shrink wrap. Once dried, I inked over the card using Spiced Marmalade distress ink which, of course, resists the pearly paint. The effect is lovely and shimmery, though you can't really see the pearliness here.

I combined a couple of my stamp sets for this card and decided to make a DL one for a change. The cottage, trees and fence are from Build a Snowy Scene and the letterbox is from Christmas Post. I used White Opal Liquid Pearls to give dimension to the snow on the trees and roof etc before sprinkling with fine glitter. I used a white gel pen to add tiny snowy touches to the letterbox which give it more dimension.

This last card was great fun to make and features my Humbert & Spider Boy stamps. I used my Glue n Seal resist technique on the stamps before adding the blended distress ink background and stencilling the cog wheel using a Crafters Workshop template. I spritzed a little black Dylusions ink onto my craft sheet and spattered it onto the card with a paintbrush to create some inky blobs. Of course, I had to add three of my gem stone spiders to complete it!

When I got back on Saturday Heather met me at the station and we walked round to the church hall where we were the "Chalk and Cheese" team (Heather's idea!) in a quiz and curry night. I'm afraid we didn't win but we had a lot of fun trying. The curry came halfway through the quiz and then we all got to help ourselves to various components to decorate cupcakes with before carrying on with the questions. Here's Heather busy with her cake....

and this was my effort... ....as usual, I had to go over the top!

Yesterday we went to see mum and when I got home I had a "power nap" before cracking on with work. The nap was to get over the shock of having to get up in the dark twice for early morning trains during the week. There's something just wrong about getting out of bed before the sun is even peeking over the horizon! So, I've been virtually chained to the table since then, surrounded by pens and pencils and scary blank sheets of paper! I've got a nice pile of designs building now though.
Well, it's time for bed as I was up early again this morning and my eyes are really losing the fight to stay open now. I think a good night's sleep is coming my way...I even dropped off in the middle of watching Only Connect tonight, much to my annoyance! Night all.

The day today

Evenin' all.....said in my best Jack Warner voice! It's been a busy old week again but, for once, I am at home tomorrow as opposed to trotting about the country with my faithful case in tow. It's an unusual occurrence but I shan't be lounging around as I've got a final push to finish new designs along with prepping samples for two workshops and a demonstration for next week. Still, it will be nice to be at home.
Today I was teaching a full day of workshops at Crafts 4 U 2 Do where the ladies were very busy making cards, a tag and a Christmas shadow box. This is a (not great) picture of the morning session - though the central card did spill over into the afternoon slightly!
The first card of the day was the bird one on the left. Everyone's looked slightly different with their own colour choices. We used Kraft Resist paper, Distress inks, Tissue Tape and Darkroom Door "Love Birds" stamp set. The circle in the corner is a Muse token (coloured with alcohol inks) which is encapsulated in one of the plastic bubbles that are part of their packaging.
The central card features Distress Stained Kraft Resist Christmas paper and an ATC collage stamp from Tim Holtz. The red rose is just a handcut spiral of card rolled up and twinkled with a few dabs of Ice Stickles.The tag was great fun, with Snowcap alcohol ink swept across a foil covered and embossed tag. Other colours were added and then we used Blending Solution to remove ink from the raised snowflakes. The white edging was done using the Picket Fence Distress Stain...brilliant product and I love the way it stayed on the metal surface with no problem. The image is from the Dear Santa Darkroom Door set of stamps.
Here are Carol, Marie and Janet working on their tags....don't think they even noticed me taking the picture as they were so engrossed! In the afternoon the ladies were kept busy making the shadow box. Here's my sample one.... ....I pre cut the house shapes from mount card, along with seperate roof pieces and used the new Tim Holtz Tissue wrap to cover the main shape. Everyone loved using the tissue - it has a unique feel to it and it's really easy to work with....rather like non sticky Tissue Tape but bigger! Once stuck down decorated matchbox trays were attached to the back with another piece of mountboard to keep everything together and to attach a ribbon hanger to. Snowtex is the finishing touch for that really Christmassy feel. Everyone really loved making the shadow box and everyone also said that they wouldn't be giving them away as a gift! Lol!
Last Sunday's workshops were a mixture of cute and not cute! One card that everyone took home part finished was this explosive snowman pop up (I mean explosive pop up, not exploding snowmen!). My sample card was deliberately over the top to show just how much can be added to one of these tiered pop ups. It's a really fun card to make and one that I've taught several times over the years as it's such a great one to make for children or the young at heart. The other card last weekend was a "secret message" card and you can see the delight when anyone makes this and finds that it actually works! Nobody seems to be able to explain how these cards work, but it's enough that they do! This was the inside of my sample.... ......and here is the "secret" area that it opened into. I kept the card simply decorated but, today, Frances brought her finished card back to show me and wow....it looked incredible! This is the joy of teaching workshops - it's not exactly about what you go home with on the day, rather it's about ideas and inspiration to take it a step further. The above shows the opened front of Frances' card and here is the inside...... .....even wowier! The only downside was that Frances added so much to her card that the secret part doesn't work now as the panels are stuck together! Not that it matters with such a wonderful piece of art. Everyone was thoroughly impressed!
I am going to be teaching an extra workshop at Crafts 4 U 2 Do on Thursday, from 1.30pm - 3.30pm. There is one place available, so if you fancy joining us, please contact the shop on 01774 611940 to book. I'll then be at Karacter Krafts in Doncaster, to demonstrate new MS punches, stamps and inks.
Whew! Right, time for a last cuppa and then a shower and bedtime. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I'll be back next week to share more.

Just touching base

Hello folks. Just a fairly quick post tonight. Thank you for the many suggestions, crossed fingers and, even, mantras that I have received to help me find my Journal. Sadly, it has not materialised and I can only think that my worst fears were right, and it was in one of the boxes that got stolen. The fact that I have so little time to create pages makes the loss much worse. Still, in the scheme of things, it isn't life or death, so I won't dwell on it. As Heather suggested, the best I can do is to try to print out the photos I took of some of my pages to journal page size and paste them into a new book. Not the same, but better than nothing.
I have to say a big thank you to my friend Joanne who sent me a very much appreciated envelope that contained swatches of Distress and Alcohol inks as well as labels for my Distress ink pads.....I have been putting off labelling them for so long, but now I have no excuse! Thank you Joanne, you're a treasure. You may have seen Joanne's scary Halloween cat on her blog recently and I'm very happy to say that it was given to me recently...looks even better in real life! Talking of cats, Thomas has been "helping" again today as I prepped things for Saturday's workshops. If it had been a Monday I could have linked these pics to Joanne's Crafting Buddies blog, but pop over there anyway if you get chance.
As per usual, Thomas gave my efforts a good check over, made sure all the lines were straight, everything glued down properly.... ...and then decided that he could do much better. Check out that disdainful expression (and the lopsided mouth!)! For those of you who are joining me on Saturday's workshops, you can see a sneaky peek of what we're doing in the afternoon....I'll post pictures of the finished items next week. Meanwhile, here are just a couple of snaps of some recent demonstration samples. This one features my Script Robin stamp (wooden) which I inked with Distress inks, spritzed with water and stamped onto white card before cutting out. The papers and embellishments are from the lovely MME Lost & Found Christmas range which I have found so easy to work with. I had to add a tissue paper frill! This tag features the same paper range, The Philosophy tag has been drizzled with a teeny drop of Snowcap alcohol ink which I then rubbed off to highlight the word and numbers. If you get the chance to buy the Snowcap ink - do! It's excellent and completely changes the look of all the other colours. I used Rock Candy crackle paint on the numbers, which were cut from the Lost & Found Tim Holtz paper stash. Well, I said this was a quick post, and it is! So I will sign off and return next week with more photos to share.

A mixed week

Hello all, especially to the ladies and gents that I met in Crewe and Fleetwood over the weekend. I did take my camera, but complete forgot to take photos as I was rather busy! Still, here's one picture of a tag which I made for a good friend of ours and which has now been received so I can show it! I used some Ice Stickles in Gold Ice, to edge the tissue tape flower and frill though you can't really see it here...shame as it is a really pretty, almost vintage looking shade. On the good side of the "mixed week" of my title, I received a small package today which contained the three Autumn (Fall) limited edition Distress ink pads, and, especially as one of them is a purple shade (Seedless Preserve) I am looking forward to using them!
As this has been a mixed week, you may gather that all has not gone smoothly, and I am feeling really sick at the moment. I have been too busy to work on my current Art Journal recently but, as I am working on new stamp designs for next Spring, I decided, on Monday, to have a look through it to get a little inspiration for some of the quirkier things I have in mind. That was when the bad part of the week started.....I cannot find my journal anywhere. I have an awful, sinking feeling that it has gone forever, as I just cannot recall when I last had it with me when I was out and about. I've been taxing my brain to visualise where it could be, all to no avail and I have looked in every bag, box and on every shelf that I can think of. We had some things stolen from the cellar a few weeks ago and I am beginning to think that it must have been in one of the boxes that was taken, either that or I have left it behind somewhere. My last hope is that David moved some of my things to make more room for me and that the journal is somewhere hidden, but neither of us can find it. You may imagine how upset I feel about this, so please send me some "finding lost things" vibrations in the hope that it will emerge from somewhere!
I don't want to dwell on miserable things though, so just a reminder that I'll be in St Helens this coming Saturday, at Crafts 4 U 2 Do and then will be back there on Sunday to teach two workshops. Both classes are the same and we'll be making cards "that surprise and delight". There are a few places still available, so, just send me an email or contact the shop directly if you fancy coming along.

Brainboxes!

Hello folks, and what brainboxes some of you are! yes, the quiz answers are flooding in...I've even had an entry from as far afield as New Zealand, but, if you haven't had a go yet, there's still time to enter. Just email me with your answers by early next week...you have to be in it to win it as they say!
I'm sorry that I've been somewhat absent for the last week, but it was a mixture of no photos to share and being quietly busying myself with an assortment of things. Last Thursday I was teaching at Crafts 4 U 2 Do and in the morning the ladies made an array of tags. Here is one that we ran out of time to make! This one features Darkroom Door stamps, Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium papers (which Personal Impressions are now stocking - yippee!) Tissue Tape and a Christmas Muse token by TH. I do like the tissue tape as ribbon effect. In the afternoon we used Darkroom Door stamps to make cards and this one was David's favourite of the samples I made. The lovely paper is Christmas Emporium "Believe!" which has postcard sized retro images on the front and this beautiful blue paper on the reverse. I used Faded Jeans to ink the postage stamp and then, once I'd applied it to the paper, lightly misted it with water for that slightly blurred effect. On Saturday I was at Crabapple Crafts who were celebrating their twelfth birthday. Rosemary and Debbie were also demonstrating as well as Woodware and even Nigel got in on the act. Hello to everyone who came along and glad you enjoyed the day.
Sunday was also a busy day as I was at the Craft Shop in Congleton where a group of very keen ladies spent most of the day with me as I got very messy indeed with various inks and stamps. There were lots of homemade cakes and the kettle seemed to be on all day...I did indulge in one piece of delicious lemon cake which was my lunch as the ladies chained me to the table all day! (not really of course!)
I have added an email subscription to the sidebar near the top - if you'd like to get my posts sent to you via email (!) just add your email details and follow the simple instructions. Hopefully it will work...I'm never too sure if I have done things correctly or not!
Crafts Beautiful's current issue features a set of cards and decoration that I made using Nitwit papers and toppers - along with some inks of course! Here are a couple of pictures featuring the stocking.... ....and one of the cards - though you can see the second card in the background. The magazine includes the template for the stocking and full instructions of course. So, not a very long post tonight really! I am just about to go and call Thomas for his dinner as he has been out enjoying the weather all day. It's been incredibly warm here and, at 7.15pm in late September, we have the windows open and the fan on - and it still feels hot! Bonkers! david cooked a really delicious chicken, stuffing and baked potatoes last night, so we are going to have the same again now...he hasn't cooked a roast for a while but it was worth waiting for!
I am off up to Lancaster on Saturday for my demonstration at Card Craft and from there I travel over to Hull for Sunday's demo at crafty Creations in Cottingham. Hope to see some friendly and familar faces at Lancaster and some new ones on Sunday! Finally, a warm welcome to new followers of my blog.

Keep going you fool!

A phrase that has always tickled me and seems appropriate this week! On Friday I took the train down to Norwich and it was an especially good journey. This is a good time of year to see interesting sights through the "wide screen tv" of a train window! The first notable image was of a field of ducks - not a field with a few mallards toddling about, but hundreds of ducks waddling about or sunbathing. I don't think these were domesticated, so I guess they were all on there way somewhere and decided to stop off for a rest. That was my idea anyway!
Further along I spotted another deer - a little one, all on its tod. Then a lovely view of a long stream with swans carefully watching three huge Shire horses on the banks, one craning over to take a drink. As the landscape changes, so does the wildlife, and I saw a large Buzzard wheeling around as the train ventured further south. The trees themselves change too, and the rounded tops of Chestnuts, Elms and Oaks gave way to pencil straight pines that looked as though, if one shifted slightly, they would all topple in a continuous cascade like a row of dominoes. At Ely, I thought I saw a hare, but it could well have just been a big rabbit if I'm honest! No Kingfisher as we pulled into Norwich this time, but I had been treated to some lovely sights.
I spent the afternoon walking around the city's streets, both large and small, though I must confess that it wasn't as enjoyable as usual due to the oppressively humid weather. It wasn't just me - everyone was saying how heavy limbed they felt. However, I still managed about five hours of wandering which meant I slept reasonably well despite the heat.
Next day I was at Jarrolds famous department store where I had a busy day getting very inky...which caused some humour when someone remarked how "clean" all my samples were, as I had been pointing out all my inky fingerprints on everything just before! Hello to all the ladies and, yes, a few men (!) who I met on Saturday, some for the first time. It was lovely to meet you all and I hope that you have all been having fun making those landscapes!
The day sped by and I was soon dashing down to the station for the four and a half hour journey home. It was a nice, quiet train journey and, coming back a slightly different route, I saw hundreds of Norfolk's famous piggies...all living outdoors with their own stys (styes, sties...?!) you'll be pleased to know. Made me feel guilty about my cooked breakfast at the guest house though! I spotted a Heron too, but then, of course, it was beginning to get dark, so my viewing pleasure ended with glorious views of the sun setting over water and some spectacular clouds.
I got home late and, before I knew it, it was Sunday morning and we were off to St Helens to teach a full day of workshops. Here is the well behaved table...all inking, colouring and sticking very nicely..... .....this is the self confessed "naughty" table, though they behaved quite well I have to admit! Here they were making their own decorated paper for the Triptych that we made in the afternoon. In the morning however, everyone had a go at faux bleaching using water over a Distress inked background. Nearly everyone felt a little worried about painting their own scene, but I think all of the finished results had real charm and character....Jacqui's ...........and Christine's snowmen were especially folksy and characterful.... ....they were all brilliant. I haven't got photos of my finished workshop projects yet as the camera batteries have died, but I will post these later in the week.
Here are more background papers being inked after stamping first with Andy Skinner's "Let the Festivities Begin" set. These papers formed the inside covers of the Triptychs. And here are the ladies (some, very naughtily hiding....come out from the back there please Sheila and Kath!) with their Triptychs as they looked at the end of the day. These are a work in progress, so I'd love to see any piccies of extra embellishing that any of you have done. It was a really fun filled day as you can hopefully see! More workshops are available, so check the left sidebar for details. So, after a windy day, but not exactly on a hurricane scale here, I am all packed up again and ready for my trip to Whitley Bay tomorrow. I'll be demonstrating at Papercuts in Roxburgh House...a mix of stamps, papers, punches and lots of inky techniques. Not sure that I'll be having a paddle as I did back in March when I was there for the shop opening day! You never know though...I'm pretty game for tippy toeing in even the coldest of sea, so I'll let you know!
I was about to say "have a great weekend" and then realised it's only Monday and I have a trip way up north and then one way down south before the weekend gets going! (Hence my post title!) I'll post more pictures later in the week. Take care everyone.

The five Counties

Last weekend involved quite a bit of travelling, hence today's post title. On Saturday I was at Weavervale Garden Centre in Northwich which was a very busy day as you can see from this photo that David took. Kate was rushing around finding stamps, card etc for customers and it was a very jolly day with a lot of fun amidst the creativity! I hope to back there before Christmas, so will keep you posted.
From there, David ran me to the train station in Manchester where I boarded the train for the two and a half hour trip across the country to Grimsby. It was a beautiful journey that went through the lush green hills of Derbyshire and Yorkshire...in my opinion some of the most beautiful scenery in Britain. Along the way the clouds kept changing quite dramatically from fluffy white, through mottled Mackerel skies to heavy, rain filled moodiness. As the train slowed at one point I saw three Roe deer calmly watching us pass them by...a big tick in my imaginary spotter's book!
By the time I reached Grimsby Town it was dark and I was glad that the hotel was literally round the corner from the station. I realised that I had gone, in one day, through Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and, finally, Lincolnshire! Whew....no wonder I felt tired!
Next day I was at Grimsby Crafts for another very busy day. Lynn had set up three big tables for me so I was able to spread everything out - not sure how I still managed to make an untidy mess! Unfortunately I didn't take my camera, so no pics to share of the day. Thank you for all the lovely feedback ladies, I really enjoyed meeting you all. Again, I'll hopefully be back there before too long.
My journey home was fine except for the two families who seemed to think that the train was a private one just for them! They were not travelling together, but both had very unruly offspring who spent the entire time running up and down the aisles, throwing things around and shouting at the top of their, very loud, voices. Despite all the black looks from everyone else, one set of parents completely ignored the hullabaloo whilst the others spent their time shouting and swearing (very strongly) at their young children...who totally ignored them. Modern parenting eh?! Needless to say, it felt like quite a long journey home!
So, this week has been spent working on some designs as well as prepping all the kits for the workshops this coming Sunday. I have just found out this afternoon that there is now a place available on the class due to a cancellation through illness. So, if you'd like to join us on a Christmassy crafting day, just drop me an email and I'll send you the details. We'll be making snowmen themed cards in the morning and a Triptych piece in the afternoon. Poor David drew the short straw (well he offered actually!) and spent today cutting up the pieces of mountboard for the afternoon session...I could almost see the Tom & Jerry type throbbing hand by the time he'd finished!
Well, before the workshops I have a trip down to Norwich to demonstrate at Jarrolds department store. I'll be on the third floor in the art & craft department - I'm usually opposite the lifts, so you can't miss me! Hope to see some of you there.
I'll be back after the weekend with some new photos to share and a few more tales from my travels no doubt. Welcome to new followers and readers and I hope you'll enjoy popping by here rom time to time. Lastly, do check out Personal Impressions website where Richard has added some more of my projects (with instructions) and samples.

Last weekend's demo & workshop snaps...

Yaaay, David managed to find the lost photos that I thought had gone up in a puff of smoke! There were lots of them, but here are just a few to give you a taste of what the workshops are like and a couple of cards that I did for the demonstration.

This is a simple card enhanced by the lovely MS punch around the page set "Snow Flurry", one of the new "Holiday" punch sets for this season. I used American Crafts red textured card and my "Christmas Collage" unmounted rubber stamp PIRS027. This one's great for fans of colouring in! As I do a lot of inky, distressy cards, I am enjoying doing some clean, more straightforward ones as a change. Here's a card using my Angelic trees stamp set PICSA6259, where I used a photocopied Bible page of the birth of Christ as the background with some Ranger acrylic dabbers smudged over it. The Peace on Earth sentiment is from Andy Skinner's "Let the Festivities Begin" stamp set. The Minarets are from my Nativity set PICSA6258. We were using this set for one of the cards on last Sunday's workshop....here is one card being layered up after alcohol inking the background and stamping the trees, Minarets and stable scene. Hard at work cutting out trees for our snowy scene card..... ......even a bandaged up hand didn't get in the way of this beautifully stamped and coloured card! Here am I just overseeing things and reminding some of the ladies what effect they were going for....though, as you can see, they were pretty much concentrating on what they were doing! A great time was had by all and if you do fancy joining in the fun of my workshops, I now have more details of what we'll be doing at each one. Please email me for more details, or to book, or call in to Crafts 4 U 2 Do, St Helens, where they'll be happy to help you. We have also added an extra weekday date into the schedule on Thursday 22nd September and this will be held at the shop itself - this workshop will be for fewer numbers, so do book early if you'd like to attend.

Thursday September 22nd - workshop sessions at Crafts 4 U 2 Do instore

10am-12.30pm: Collaged Christmas tags: an array of festive tags to hang from the tree, adorn a card, or add to extra special gifts. £15.00

1.30pm-4pm: Darkroom Door Christmas Cards: make seasonal cards using gorgeous stamps from the Darkroom Door range. £15.00

Wednesday October 5th

10am-12.30pm: Pop up Cards: create dimensional cards that are sure to delight. £15.00

1.30pm-4pm: Punches & Stamps: combine Martha Stewart punches with stamping to create delightful Christmas cards. £15.00

Sunday November 6th

10am-12.30pm: Clever Christmas cards: make cards which surprise and delight. £15.00

1.30pm-4pm: repeat of the above class. £15.00

Saturday November 12th - full day of workshops

10am-12.30pm: Artsy cards and tag: Christmas themed with inky techniques.

1.30pm-4pm: Christmas Shadow box: create a wonderful festive gift or keepsake.

Cost for the above is £30 for the full day of workshops.

Saturday 19th November:

10am-12.30pm: Acetate cards: Using acetate in various ways to create cards with a Christmas theme £15

1.30pm-4pm: Christmas decorations: We'll be making a selection of tree decorations using various materials and techniques.

Hope something tickles your fancy from the list there!
Finally, another stamp set has been added to my new Christmas designs. It is called Christmas Post PICSA6266 and features the Postbox, lamp post, wreath, yule log and two teeny robins. It works really well with the Build a Snowy Scene set. Hope you like it! Well, a cup of coffee has my name on it now and then I'll be back to do another post about the last week at QVC and in Yorkshire!

Workshops and gggrrr!

Hi folks, I'm blooming furious! It was a great weekend and I had a pile of photos to share with you of the demonstration and workshops.....but the computer has eaten the pictures, chewed them up and spat them out - after having deleted them from the camera at the same time of course. Oh I am so mad. I had lovely pictures of everyone on Sunday's workshop, plus the cards that they made, lots of samples that I left at the shop on Saturday and a few others besides.I will be able to take more photos of the workshop cards in the next few days, but the others are gone forever now. If you'd like to take a look at the cards meanwhile, do visit Joanne's blog, as she posted some yesterday.
Anyway, Saturday was a lovely, busy day at Crafts 4 U 2 Do and I really enjoyed working with all the new Christmas stamps. It's like a new lease of life when there are new stamps and other products to work with! Here's a card that I made with my new Nativity stamps set. I made the background with alcohol inks and Stazon spray cleaner then stamped the Palm trees with Archival black ink which always works very well over gloss card. I stamped the Nativity stable twice and cut out the doorway on the second image to layer over the full one below it. A star drawn with a white pen and the Silent Night from my "Silent Night" (Christmas words) set complete this one. The card which was second in my workshops was a similar one to this and everyone made a great job of them...and they all looked completely different too!
I have tried to make some of my new Seasonal designs useful beyond just Christmas, so, with the Nativity set for example, you can use the Palm trees for a tropical, or beach scene, the Minarets (which you'll see further down this post) can be used in conjunction with my "I dreamed of Castles" set as extra, differently shaped towers, and the Stable itself can be used as a shed, barn or even a dog kennel if you cut away the interior scene! Next is one of the Gorjuss Girl stamped cards, which I really enjoyed working with. I make so many distressy cards etc and I had great fun doing some detailed colouring in on these cute images. Of course, I couldn't resist using an alcohol inked background but I think it goes really well to evoke the icy feel with the Polar bear. This particular stamp is simply called "The Bear". Again though, the girl could be cut out and used on her own after Christmas...just sit her on a toadstool instead for instance. Here's a card I made using my "Build a Snowy Scene" stamp set against a Distress ink background that I bleached out with water. This set was designed in response to the many requests I've had over the last year or so for images to use with my Swirly Bird stamp set. So you can stamp the tree stump, fence, cottage etc and, with the use of a post it note mask or two, it's really simple to create lots of different scenes. The last picture is of a card I made this afternoon which hasn't photographed terribly well - it looks less detailed here than it is and the gold line I added around the figures looks more like a muddy brown here! I have used Adirondack dye based ink pads to create the background and to colour the Minarets as well. I loved using these rich colours and I'll be using Adirondack ink pads this coming Saturday when I'll be at Samuel Taylor's in Brighouse, Yorkshire. Meanwhile, I am almost ready for my trip to London tomorrow for the QVC customer event which is on Wednesday and Thursday....I will be taking my camera and the computer had better behave this time! I have lots of workshops to teach over the two days, so it's going to be fast paced, fun and a little tiring I'm guessing!
Talking of workshops....we have sorted out some more dates for these in St Helens. I will be posting more details of what each class will be, but, for the moment, here are some dates for your diaries!

September 11th - Sunday
September 22nd - Thursday
October 5th - Wednesday
November 6th - Sunday
November 12th - Saturday
November 19th - Saturday

Some of these will be seperate morning and afternoon classes, some will be the same workshop both morning and afternoon and some will be full day sessions. I will post the relevent details as soon as possible. You can email me for details and booking, or you can book by calling into Crafts 4 U 2 Do, Greenfield Rd, St Helens. There will be more dates to follow, so watch this space!
On a humorous note, I was about to chastise Thomas for scratching the carpet this morning when I could hear odd noises, but when I looked up it wasn't him at all, it was that cheeky squirrel who had come through the window and decided to find his own peanuts!! Thomas was just idly watching him running about the room - I guess he must realise that he has no chance of catching a squirrel, because, if it had been a bird, he would have been after it. Oh well, this afternoon the last of the scaffolding came down, so Mr squirrel will not be climbing through the window anymore...in fact, I just spotted him outside, looking up at me in disgust!
Well, I had better go and tidy up the remaining mess that I have left strewn about the place in my efforts to get everything ready for London. I'll post again as soon as I can after the weekend, with photos - I hope!!!

Quick reminder...

....that I'll be at Crafts 4 U 2 Do in St Helens tomorrow as part of their Christmas Card Extravaganza. I've been busy all week making lots of cards for this weekend and next, so I will have lots of samples with me and will share some of them on here next week. Hope to see some of you there tomorrow and on Sunday at the workshops which are also in St Helens.
It's been great using lots of new Christmas stamps, and I have, of course, been working with my Stickles glues. I've just been clearing away and tidying up and I discovered a stray bottle....unfortunately I only spotted it as it whipped up the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner! There's a little job for David!
Next week I'll be off down to London for the QVC Customer event where I'll be teaching twelve workshops over two days - eek! It will be fun though, and a great chance to meet up with lots of very keen crafting ladies and gentlemen. I'll be back late on Friday night and then straight up to Yorkshire on Saturday morning for my demonstration at Samuel Taylor's in Brighouse. So, a busy old week or so ahead!
Thank goodness the rioting (looting) seems to be abating now. The whole of Manchester city centre was a no go area on Tuesday night, with no buses running into, or out of the city itself. Tough for anyone who was stuck there! Even our local supermarket was closed and shuttered and that's in the suburbs. I think politicians need to do a lot of thinking about what measures they are going to take, but I also think that this is something that we, ourselves need to take responsibility for. You know that I often relate tales on here of incidents when I am travelling around the country....more often than not I am complaining about the apathy that bad behaviour is met with from my fellow travellers. I feel very strongly that adults need to take back control so that youngsters (sometimes very young) know their boundaries. We are all individuals and, as such, we often feel that we can't do anything, or are scared to confront antisocial activity, but, if we join together we can confront anything. Think of ants that are so tiny and yet, because they work as an integrated society, they can achieve amazing things. It's time to stop looking away and, instead, support each other in stopping the bad behaviour, that, left unchecked, leads to worse things.
Of course, I'm aware that there are countless very positive young people who would no more think of getting involved with the sort of things we've seen this week than would you or I. If we don't change things soon though, we are going to see more and more scenes of rioting and violence. I'd be interested to know what you all think.
Right, the stamps, papers, inks and samples are all packed up for the weekend now, so it's time to have a few hours to relax this evening. Hope everyone has a lovely, and safe weekend and I'll be back next week with piccies to share.

Christmas cards, QVC and a little helper!

Morning everyone, I am just taking a coffee break between making lots of new Christmas card samples for my demonstrations and various events. It's always good to be working with new designs so I am really enjoying this week.....getting the old glitter out always cheers me up!

This Saturday I'll be demonstrating at Crafts 4 U 2 Do in St Helens and I have so many products to show! My new stamps as well as Andy Skinner Christmas designs, Gorjuss Girl stamps and decoupage, Nit Wit festive decoupage, Best Creations papers, Martha Stewart latest Holiday punches.....crikey, I need more hands!

Talking of which, a certain someone decided that he should help out on the design side of things with his very own pencil and paper....... ......though I'm not sure he was too happy with his efforts! Lol! If you are at home this afternoon do tune into QVC as there will be some of my stamps on...I think in the 3pm hour. I haven't made the samples for the show so I'll be interested to see what has been made using them - always fun to see what other people make using my designs! There will also be stamps by my friend Andy as well.

Last Saturday I was at The Craft Box in Elsecar (Barnsley way) where there was a demonstration event to celebrate the opening of their new premises. It's a lovely big (really big!) shop with a very airy, spacious feel. Thanks to Carole for taking these piccies for me on the day! I think my table looks quite tidy for me...for a change! And here's a close up of everyone's favourite card of the day which features the tactile Teddy from Darkroom Door stamp set "Hello Baby". If you look closely at the cards on my table you can also see a girly pink teddy card. Carole kindly emailed me some more photos which I couldn't post as they came out like thumbnails when I save them...David will sort that out though I'm sure, so will show you them once he has got them resized for me.
David and I are really looking forward to Sunday in St Helens too where we will be hosting another day of workshops. These are Christmas themed and using my new stamp designs amongst other things. There are still places available (mostly in the morning session) so if you'd like to come and join in the fun, please drop me an email. There are also more details in my demonstrations and workshop dates sidebar on the left.
So, here are just a couple of cards that I've made for Saturday's Christmas Card Extravaganza! These aren't the workshop projects...they have to be kept under wraps! This first one features my new Elf stamps...cheeky characters! I've kept it pretty simple using Best Creations Trees paper in the background, highlighted with a white pen. Next is one I've made using Andy's Winter's Tale stamp set. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show it too well as I've used Perfect Pearl Mist on the card and it's reflecting in a rather odd way here! It's been Distress inked, Faux Bleached, stamped and spritzed. The words are from my new PICSA6263 set which has lots of little Christmassy sentiments and words in it. Next is a card using Gorjuss Girl Clear stamps...if you love colouring in these are great. What I really love is the new Martha Stewart Holly Leaves Punch around the Page set which I have tinted using good old Distress inks. Think I will be using this punch rather a lot! The little character just fits in the 3.75" x 5" punched mat perfectly. The verse is from my new stamp set PICSA6264.So, just a few sneaky peeks and I'll post more photos in the next few days. That coffee is stone cold now, so I shall drink it up and get cracking again with more stamping!