Frosty greetings everyone! Well, it's certainly frosty here anyway and I imagine it's going to get even colder when I head over to Stockton later. The garden looks like it's been sifted with icing sugar this morning and the bird bath has refrozen even after I'd melted the ice with boiling water. So, the suet, cheese and seeds have been liberally sprinkled on my bird tables and everything from blue tits, my robin and some very big seagulls have been having a good breakfast. You know it's cold when there's steam coming from their little bills! Bbbbrrrr.

It was too dark to take any photos of what I was making yesterday, so I've just snapped a few pictures of the festive configuration box before it gets packed into my case.

The boxes were covered in a mixture of Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium papers and Tim's Composer tissue wrap.The individual box edges were covered with tissue tape and I used MME All is Bright tape for the edges of the main box.

The TH mini lantern is such a cute addition and well worth the fiddling about that I had to do after deciding to place it in the tall thin box with not much room for fingers!

The deer (and numbers) were die cut from grungeboard using Tim's Movers & Shapers die SZ657493. I inked the deer using various brown tones and added some white gel pen dots to its rump. It just fitted nicely into it's box so that it could be held in place with a little Multi Matte Medium on either side as well as a big blob at it's feet which was then sprinkled with clear rock candy dry glitter.

The little red bells were a freebie from Crafts Beautiful magazine last month and I attached them with a jump ring and brad along with leaves from Tim's Festive Foliage pack which I inked in green. The snowflake is from the Christmas Adornments pack which I dabbed with white acrylic and then Stickles Diamond glitter glue. I filled the corked vial with Rock Candy glitter and cut the tiny tag from the Graphic 45 papers.

 I love the TH Woodland pack with the trees and wreath that can be coloured with ink. I used the small tree here and sprayed it with two shades of Dylusions ink before adding some Gesso "snow" and wrapping with the mini tinsel from Tim's Winter pack. The Seasonal muse token has been painted and inked and I added some TH stripey paper string.

I inked one of the TH Baubles with a teal Promarker and used TH box corners to give a finished look to the piece. I'll have this with me for tomorrow's demonstration at Suzicrafts in Stockton, as well as some other boxes, tags cards and canvasses.

I thought you might also like to see the latest things that my two mischief makers have been enjoying. Thomas decided to help me with the jig saw that I'd been doing in the evenings....

 ....I did complete the puzzle but, despite searching everywhere, there was, annoyingly,one piece missing. Not that I'm accusing anyone of course!

And Tara decided that the box which I brought some groceries back in this week was the perfect new spot for her to sit in.....

 .....she's been plonking herself in it with great delight, so it looks like it will be a fixture in the lounge for a while until she loses interest! I'm glad to report that she is finally becoming much happier and trusting, even choosing to snuggle up with me on the sofa from time to time. Unfortunately, even after a year, she still thinks Thomas is a complete yob and hisses at him every time he walks past her. Still, it's good to see her so much more contented.

Well, I had better go and finish packing my case ready for my four and a half hour journey to Stockton. Hope to see some of you there tomorrow.

When I get back I'll be able to post some pictures of some of my new stamp designs which will be out early next year, so watch this space!

I think I'll just dig out an extra scarf before I go...

PS I've been meaning to say that if you have emailed me and not had a reply, please check that you're using the correct email address and not my old one. The old email address is now completely defunct and the one at the top of my blog is the right one.

Another week begins

Hello all, it's a dreary day here at the moment, but I had a really good trip to Darlington over the weekend and, apart from a little rain, it was the perfect weather for wandering around the town on Friday afternoon. I am usually sat down designing, demonstrating, travelling.....so when the chance arises I like to really stretch my legs and I'll walk for hours. My legs could do with stretching that's for sure!

So I travelled up to Darlington on Friday and, having had a discount voucher from the rail company, I had been able to get a first class return ticket for less than the normal "cattle class" price. So, nice and quiet, a couple of complementary coffees and more leg room....I could get used to it! It was really sunny when I arrived there and I dragged my bags to the hotel - uphill most of the way, but not that far. I was staying at the Bannatyne (owned by the dragonmeister, Duncan, himself) which is a lovely hotel with exceptionally friendly and helpful staff.

My room wasn't quite ready so I left my bags and set off for an afternoon of walking and shopping....and searching for teeny things for the Shadow Box workshop this coming Saturday. I called in lots of charity shops without much success on the nick nacks front, though I did find a very inexpensive Blue Ray Disc for David to add to his collection. I managed to get a few things though - some coloured pebbles with words etched onto them, a stone heart and some nice marbles that put me in mind of fortune teller's crystal balls. I called into the market and discovered a cake decorating stall where I managed to get some really dinky crowns as well as a bag full of hearts, horseshoes, ballet dancers etc. So, not too bad really.

A visit to Past Times forced me into another purchase, which, if you know about Cherry, our greatly missed white pussycat, you will understand. It was the dinkiest necklace with a teeny crystal cat and, the fact that it was in the sale was the deciding factor! I've taken it off the chain and am going to have it attached to my charm bracelet....been looking for a little Cherry charm so I'm really delighted with it.

I spent about five hours wandering about so, once the feet started to complain, I went back to the hotel. I've stayed there before (not expensive if you book online) and last time I left some good comments for them on a travel review site...the manager contacted me and asked me to book through him next time I was planning on staying, which I did. Imagine my delight when I went to my room and found that he had upgraded me to a huuuge suite! It made for a really comfortable evening, though it was just a shame that David wasn't with me to enjoy it too! There was a large fruit bowl, magazines, chocolates and drinks to welcome me, a lovely snuggly bathrobe (no, I didn't pinch it!) and the comfiest sofas I've ever sat on. Just shows that it pays to say something nice when you get good service. As promised to the ladies at Darlington on Saturday - here's a piccie of just one part of the room!I had a great night's sleep and then, after breakfast, walked round to The Art Shop on Bondgate. If you don't know this store, it is excellent - really helpful staff (must be a Darlington thing!) and Ian and his team always look after me. The first arrival to my table was Beverley, who had emailed me previously to ask about my Fairy Doors which I brought for her to have closer look at. Beverley generously brought me some Maltesers, and, even more generously, a gorgeous canvas that she had made....you can see it resting against the choccies. Isn't it lovely? Thank you so much Beverley, I shall treasure it. I've also included a card and tag in the photo which Sheila kindly sent me a couple of weeks ago and the card on the right which was from Joanne just before Stitches. All of these were complete surprises which made them even more special...thank you ladies. Btw, I brought the Maltesers home, unopened, to share with David, as they are one of his favourites......needless to say, the box you can see there is empty! So David says thank you as well Beverley! There was a lovely surprise of a different kind too, when I looked up and saw Joanne and Terry (PegLeg) standing there.....a big surprise as they had been down in Newport Pagnall where Joanne had been attending the Tim Holtz workshops and, instead of going straight home they had come up to Darlington to see me. I was only sorry that I couldn't spend more time with them, but it was lovely to see them both.

I had made two more Shadow boxes for my demonstration - here's a picture of the smaller one which I used the TH Vintage Shabby papers and Symphony Tissue Tape to cover. I didn't put quite so many things into this one and I included the acetate sheet at the front, but I quite liked the slightly less crammed look for this smaller sized box. This size would also make a great gift - a new baby box could include a little bootee, dummy, wrist band etc, or an anniversary box could have the hearts, anything made from the relevent year's material (silver, pearl, gold etc), numbers etc. They are a very gratifying project to make. I left this box at The Art Shop, so, if you missed my demonstration, do have a look if you pop into the shop. I have another box, but will save that picture till after this Saturday's workshop. Here's a picture of what turned out to be the most popular card that I made on Saturday. I used Adirondack Colourwash Dyes sprayed over PI 300 gsm card and spritzed with water. I then applied a second piece of card over the wet dye and heat set them both to get two different backgrounds for the price of one as it were! I chose this one for the card, as the depth of colour and the way they had spread was just what I wanted. I stamped the trees from Darkroom Door set DDRS018 Trees, using Archival black ink. I used a Le Plume black pen to add a simple base to "root" the trees to, fading it out a bit at the base so it looks a little as if the trees are on a river bank (use your imagination a bit!). I painted water in a circle to create the moon, dabbing off the excess water which lightens the colours. I trimmed the card and matted it onto black. I liked the way that some white areas of the card just add to the watercoloury effect. I stamped the bird from set DDRS057 Love Birds partly over the moon. The sentiment is from the Trees set and was stamped onto gloss card, torn round and edged with a touch of Tumbled Glass Distress ink. I took a large card blank (8"x8") and lightly spritzed with Colourwash dyes and water. The card looks a smidge warped because I would normally either iron it after dyeing, or flatten it under something heavy. As I made this on the day, I didn't get chance to do either, so please forgive the bending! As you can see, I have somehow managed to let some purple and blue creep back in! Must make one of these using some orangey tones for a sunrise/sunset look! I left this card in Darlington too, so do check it out if you are there.

I'll finish with a few more images of some of my new stamp sets. The first two are Easter themed, one cute and one traditional. This first set is one of only a few outright cute sets that I've designed for the Spring release. I'll post pictures of cards made using the Easter designs after the weekend. I made a new baby card at the show for my friend Elaine using the Cute Easter set. Elaine had just become a great auntie, so, with no baby stamps to hand, I used the large chick and the cracked egg (cut into two pieces) and added the words "newly hatched"!So, details of these are....Easter Cute PICSA6209 and Easter Tradititional PICSA6210. Both of these should be available next week from any PI stockist as the Easter and Mother's Day designs are being released first. The next set is called "Sending Words of Love" PICSA6200 and is one of several verse sets that I have designed. This one should be available in about three weeks or so, as will the remainder of my new clear stamp sets. The verses are ideal for card inserts, but equally suitable for making a focal point on a card front.

Well, another long post! I'm working at home for the rest of this week, making some workshop samples and also starting work on a new collection of stamp designs. If you would like to come along to any of the workshops at Dawn's this weekend there may be one place left on the Easter cards class on Saturday morning and there are a few places left on the Shadow Box afternoon class on Saturday, as well as the Guardian Angel mixed media picture and Mermaid Art Doll classes on Sunday. Contact Topaz directly if you'd like to join in the fun! Okay folks, that's all for now! Lindsay

Coming up for air!

I feel a little bit like a terrapin swimming my way to the surface of a tank to grab a lungful of air before diving down again! The most recent batch of stamp designs that I have been working on are finally complete, in the presentation folder and ready to send off in the morning....whew! It's always a lovely feeling when a set of designs are finished and I'm especially pleased with these ones, which is quite unusual for me. I can't give any details about what they are of course...there are spies everywhere.....lol! There are more designs in the pipeline soon, but, at least for the moment, I can lay my pencil and pens down.

I had two very full boxes of new products delivered to me in the last couple of days and am now going to spend the next week making samples and a magazine project from them - needless to say all with unfeasibly short deadlines! There are some gorgeous new K&Co papers and embellishments as well as Martha Stewart products.....all scrumptious!

Unfortunately the demonstration at Crafty Corner in South Shields has been cancelled, so, if you were planning on popping along there to see me, I'm afraid that I shan't be there. Well, more time to work on these deadlines!

The snow around here has been thawing quite slowly but surely and the snow that was falling today hasn't stuck, so I'm guessing that we may have come throught the coldest of the winter now - I hope so anyway, as I am due to go up to Carlisle for a demonstration in a couple of weeks and I know it has been bad up there.

Well, this was just a quick pop in to keep in touch with everyone! Sorry that there are no photos tonight, but hope to remedy that soon. If you haven't checked out my sister's blog recently, have a look at the gorgeous post Christmas present that she has made for me.....aren't I lucky? (She is really getting far too clever

Absent without leave

It's been a bit of a disastrous week here! After a very busy day at Wickfords near Basildon on Saturday and then a lovely Sunday at Dawn's residential event, the plan was to spend this week working on new stamp sets which I need to have ready veeerrrry soon. However, all plans were scuppered when I woke up on monday morning with a nasty bug which got worse as the day went on. My eyeballs felt as if they were being pushed into my head and I just couldn't get on with anything - nightmare! So I've had three enforced days off which I couldn't afford right now and am now running way behind schedule and have to play catch up very quickly. I'm off down to Norwich tomorrow morning for my Saturday demonstration at Jarrolds department store (if you're in the area I think I'll be on the third floor!) so will be taking my pencils, pens and paper along with me and doing some sketching on the train!

I'm doing a, mostly, Ranger product based demonstration on Saturday, so have, today, made a few new non card samples, so will take photos whilst I'm away and post these, and ones from last weekend, next week (?!).

Apologies to Joanne, Helen, Sheila, Hazel and everyone else who I have been remiss in replying to...will catch up once I have caught up! I'm now all packed up ready for my early train tomorrow so I'm going to spend a bit of time on the drawings before dinner. Lindsay

Another great weekend...and new stamps!

I got back last night from a lovely weekend at Crafts U Love near Horley in Surrey. As I was arriving on the friday there was an almighty thunderstorm with very dramatic fork lightning and hailstones...typical July weather I suppose! On saturday I was demonstrating in the morning and teaching in the afternoon - one workshop was about using alcohol inks with metallic film and stamps and the second was using Cherry the cat stamps. Sunday was demonstrations again and then a workshop on making a box of delights with a butterfly theme. It was great to meet lots of new people as well as catching up with familiar faces.

I caught up with Jennette and her mum who I haven't seen for a couple of years - Jennette has lost over nine stone since I last saw her, so I did a double take! They were staying at the same hotel as me, so we had a lovely couple of hours with Paula and Geoff (on the right), the lovely couple who run Crafts U Love...nice to have time to talk as we rarely get a chance to.

Next is a picture of my, as usual, messy table, filled with alcohol inks which I was using on peel offs, with stamps, on metallic film, acetate and gloss card...messy but fun! Lastly you can see Paula's mum having a root about in my suitcase....with my permission! I had samples of new stamps in there and everyone was having a look. Check out Crafts U Love website and blog for more pictures.

My journey home was slightly fraught as the underground had a lot of line closures because of weekend engineering works. I was given all sorts of conflicting directions, and went on several tube trains before I finally got to Euston....I was the mad woman careering through the station, bags flying everywhere and muttering "get out of the way" as I ran through the crowds and just caught my train! I didn't want a repeat of the last incident at Euston!

So, as you will have gathered, Personal Impressions have new stamp designs about to be released. The ladies this weekend had a sneaky peek, but I will be demonstrating some of my designs for the first time at the weekend extravaganza at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio and Oswaldtwistle Mill...I'm usually up at the Mill along with Leonie and Sarah as well as Amy,Brenda, Jayne and Mary. If you would like a sneaky peek though, pop onto the Personal Impressions website (on my links at the side) and check them out. There are loads of new designs, but if you did want to know which are mine, just put my name into the search bar and all my stamps will come up. I have done a larger Cherry design as so many people had asked for one - hope you like it! As well as penguins, snowmen, owls etc. I am working on card samples this week, so, for those of you who can't get up to see us I shall pop photos on next week of course.

For those of you who are coming along, please remember to bring ATC's to swap! I'll post again before the weekend, Lindsay

The Hermit......

Well...that's what I have felt like for the last couple of weeks or so anyway! Emails, phone calls and my blog have all been on hold and I have more or less been at home beavering away on all the new designs and samples that had to be done in silly time. Thankfully, the majority of the work is now done except for more samples and some more designs which aren't quite as urgently needed. I've been designing new Christmas stamps....quite funny when there has been a tropical heatwave going on!....as well as a collection of non-stamp based designs which will, I think, be coming out in August. Proof reading has also been on the list of things that had to be done, so, although it has been manic, at least it has been varied! Anyway, apologies for leaving it so long since my last post, but I hope to get back to some kind of normality now.

I have just a couple of photos to share tonight....on the right are the ladies who were at my workshop at Top Barn Crafts in Wrexham. They had a go at various techniques and, although we were all sweltering, it was great fun. On the left you can see Sarah, Dawn and Paula doing their Vamp impressions at Dawn's residential weekend - very exotic!

On the wildlife watching front, I saw a whole family of foxes, including four or five cubs, at the side of the railway tracks near Huddersfield which absolutely made my day! On a sad note, David found one of "our" squirrels dead at the back of the house on the same day - there were no marks on him, so we think that he may have fallen from the tree as several of them have been racing across the boughs at the speed of light recently. Two extremes in one day.

My QVC date is next wednesday at 8pm so I'm busy getting everyting ready for that. It will be an interesting experience, so I shall report back after the event!

Well, I shall sign off for now but shall be posting again soon! Take care everyone, Lindsay

Blog Candy is now closed - won by Elaine!

Here are the items included in my Candy......

Also a wonderful framed Melt Art piece from Suze Weinberg...signed of course!Then a gorgeous tag made especially for my blog candy by the man himself, Tim Holtz, and featuring many of his brand new products...signed on the back! Also a card and ATC made by me and using some of my newest stamps. Both signed of course! Just leave a comment on my blog to be in with a chance! Lindsay

What a great weekend!

I'm back home again now and all the hard work in creating new designs and making up samples was worth it. It was a really busy weekend which began by travelling to Birmingham and checking into our usual hotel before heading off to the NEC where the Personal Impressions stand had been built and was being filled with all the new products, and then tweaked and polished in readiness for the influx of visitors the next day. This is my demonstration stand all nicely set up for action...and lovely and tidy before I get started of course! It was icy cold as there is no heating in the massive hall on set up day and, of course, the huge doors are constantly open so that companies can bring all their goods through. We finished around 7.45pm and then headed back to the hotel for a meal and a well earned night's sleep!
Day two, Sunday, and it's an early start and the first time that one really notices all of the stands which seem to have miraculously grown overnight! Everything is sparkling, shiny and new looking but there's no time to look as we need to get ready. I discovered that my cards, popped into the cupboard below my table for safety, had been squished under boxes when an electrician had to do a running repair in there - so I had to do some repairs myself first thing (yes, the electrician did get out alive.....just! As you can see, Tim Holtz was demonstrating the wonderful new additions to his range on his table to the left of mine.
I was a lot happier than I look in this picture at my work area! You can see some of the rest of our stand behind me. To the right of me was the board showing all our latest stamps - including new clear stamp sets.

It's always exciting to see what reaction the

new images will get as you may imagine. I'm pleased to say that the comments were very positive!

Here are a selection of the cards that I made using my new designs. The owl is from a clear set of four bird images - you know how I love birds!

Of course, I had to come up with new shelves! This is the Toy Shelf and there is also a new Wizard shelf for all the Harry Potter fans and aspiring magicians out there! The "Dream" card has one of my retro stamps along with some gorgeous K&Co acetate die cuts. The vibrant panel is made with alcohol inks used on a new canvas sheet that Personal Impressions are selling - it's fabulous stuff!

The day went very quickly, even though it was 9am - 6pm with just about no breaks all day. A busy day always goes fast. I met lots of people who I only ever see at the show, so it was great to catch up with them and find out how they were doing. That evening we had a meal and an early night!

I will post "part 2" tomorrow, as the Blogger is working very sloooowly tonight and keeps freezing. So, I shall say goodnight and do check back tomorow for more and also for pictures of exciting Candy! Lindsay

My latest stamp designs

Well, I'm all set for the NEC tomorrow and Stitches trade show. The samples are made, the workshops are all prepared and my bags are packed, so I can afford to relax tonight before my busiest weekend of the year.
I was just looking at Personal Impressions' website and the new stamps are now there for all to see! If you would like to check out my latest designs just go to the website (the link is further down on my blog) and then click on "new products" and all the new stamps will come up. Alternatively, just type my name into the search box and all of my stamps will be displayed. I have five new sets of clear acrylic stamps as well. Let me know what you think!
I'm not posting pictures of the samples I've made until after the show, but have photographed them in readiness. There will be pictures of the show too, just to give you a feel of the atmosphere. I'll give details of the Blog Candy at the same time...watch this space!
Well, have a great weekend everyone! Lindsay