Rain, rain go away!

Hi folks,
Sorry I've been missing for a few days, too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  Nothing new there then!  My 'To Do' list wasn't getting any smaller so something had to take a back seat, unfortunately it was my blog (boo hoo!) and the housework (yeah!).   But, as of this morning I'm back on track, for a couple of days at least anyway.  That is after I've dried off!
I got soaked going into town this morning.  It was one of those necessary trips again - had to go to the Post Office, DT samples to send off, and birthday cards to post so there was no getting out of it.  It's done now though, everything is in the hands of the Royal Mail, all I can do is hope they arrive on time.

It's been a bit of a mad couple of days in the old craft room.  I've been playing with the brand new Indigo Blu Christmas stamps, if you can't wait until they air on the TV, you can see them here on their website.  They are rather gorgeous and they're available now.
Here's a couple of sneak peeks at some of what's been keeping me so busy .......

ooh ..... there's another new Indigo Blu product here too ..... any ideas what it is?

2 cards ...... same stamp ?

a little bit of acetate

I'm not sure of the dates and times of Kay's next shows on C&C, I think it's towards the end of the month.  Watch this space.

Well, it looks as if the sun is trying to get out now - typical!  We have blue skies again.  I've said before, IOM weather is certainly changeable.   It was like this yesterday too.  It bucketed down with rain in the afternoon, then just as I was making dinner last night this appeared .......

Sorry, it's not a brilliant picture, it was a case of grab the camera, point and click.  It was so much brighter in real life, and the second one, just to the left, was much clearer to see.  A perfect end to the day.

I'm off now to try and catch up with some Blog Challenges (time is running out again), and also to make a start on a very important birthday card for next week.  My grandson Alex is 2 next Friday (where has that time gone!) and he'd be shocked  if his card was late. 

See you all again tomorrow.  Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.

Linda

x

I've got that Friday feeling .........

Hi everyone,
Happy Friday to you all.  I can't believe that we're a week into September all ready.  Never mind eh, it'll soon be Christmas. Only 109 days to go (gulp!)
I've definitely got that Friday feeling today, I just can't seem to get going at all.  It could have something to do with the fact I gave myself the 'day off' yesterday. 
Well, all 'work' and no play makes LindyLou down right grumpy! - you just ask my other half.

I had to go into town yesterday, to post off my latest samples for the girls at Stamp Addicts, and seeing that my friend had asked if I was free for coffee, I thought why not. I've had a busy week!
We had a lovely morning catching up, followed by a little retail therapy of course. Then after lunch, and a quick read of the latest Craft Stamper magazine, I caught up with all the boring household stuff so that I could lock myself away again today and crack on with my 'To Do' list and more DT samples.

Before I start all that though, here's a quick look at what I posted off yesterday, then I really must go, try to wake up my mojo and make a start.  (The clock is ticking, this next lot needs to be away by the middle of next week - no pressure!).

These stamps have already been on the TV, but they're new to me - I haven't worked with them before. I  think the owls are quite cute.
I used my Distress Markers to colour some of them, the rest have been paper pieced.
I haven't had the Stars background before either, I think it goes quite well with the Owls.

This set I have had before .... the Wedding Script 

........... these are a few new samples.

I'm not sure, but I think Sarah and Vicky are back on Create and Craft on Thursday 13th (4pm and 6pm - but don't quote me on that!).  It's their Birthday Bonanza Show and I believe there's lots of special offers so don't forget to tune in.

Well, that's about it from me today.  Enjoy your weekend, I hope it's a good one.

Thanks for popping by.

Linda

x

Twinchie time

Good afternoon folks,

First off, Welcome to my two latest followers, it's so nice to have you with me on my crafting journey.  I do hope you enjoy reading my ramblings as much as I enjoy writing them.

Yes it's Twinchie time again.  It's Challenge #5 and the subject is .......
                    AUTUMN

It's my favourite season of the year. Summer's over with again (that's if you can call what we had 'summer').  There's a slight chill in the air, along with the chance of the odd frosty morning. The shops are starting to show signs of the summer coming to an end as the autumn/winter fashions appear on the rails - much prefer those to the summer ranges (is that an age thing I wonder?).  Ooh, and what really makes it Autumn for me is, my 'Cinnamon Stick'  and 'Red Apple Wreath' scented Yankee Candles come out of the cupboard.  Now that's Autumn!
I love it when the leaves start to change and fall from the trees, especially when we get some Autumn sunshine too. The colours can be spectacular.   I would love to go to New England in the US and see the fall over there, it's on my 'Places to See' Wish list -   one of these years eh!

I Wish .......

Here's my Autumn Twinchie ......

Sorry, it's not a brilliant picture, the colours are much more vibrant in real life.
I've blended Distress inks for the background, in Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed,  Dried Marigold, a little touch of Peeled Paint and finished off with Rusty Hinge.
The leaf is from an SU  Hostess stamp set - Faith in Nature and it's been stamped in Black Archival ink.  The edges were then sponged with a tiny bit of Flitter Glu and covered with Brighton Pier Flake.  This one is made up of gold shades, bronzes, a bit of silver, orange and a hint of plum, perfect for Autumn.  A couple of gems just  finish it all off.

These little 2x2 pieces of artwork are so much fun to do.  There's already some fabulous inspiration from the DT on the Twinchie Challenge Blog, and some great entries too.  Why not pop over and have a look, you never know, you may just be tempted to give it a go.

Thanks for looking.

Bye for now

Linda

x

My first Craft Retreat

Good morning everyone, 
This is actually a scheduled post, written by me in the early hours, as there isn't enough time during the day to fit everything in. I thought you'd waited long enough to hear about the rest of my craft week away.
I'll apologise now as it's rather a LONG post - quite a few photos I'm afraid.  So grab yourself a cuppa and away we go.

As most of you know I was lucky enough to go on the recent Secret Craft Retreat run by Indigo Blu.
Wow! Wow! Wow! is all I can say - When's the next one?, and book me on it!!
I had a ball.  It was two days, with overnight accomodation, absolutely crammed with craft (with a little bit of mischief and fun thrown in too!)
It was all organised by two lovely ladies Kay Halliwell-Sutton and Sarah McCrossan.

Kay

Sarah

Ooh mustn't forget Alfie too, Kay's hubby, who worked very hard in the onsite IB shop and coped extremely well with 27 females who wanted to purchase just about everything in there!

We stayed at a beautiful place called Stephen Park in the heart of Gisburn Forest.  I could have stayed there all week it was so peaceful - well apart from us!
My first day was spent with Sarah, and she had two projects for the group ....

 

 ........... a lovely notelet/writing set and a canvas.

Everything in the writing box was handmade, notelets, gift tags, we even made some decorated tissue paper and put some of that in here.  It was so much fun, and by the end of the day, even though we'd all done the same, everybody's projects were different.

Here are my creations ......

Everything was decorated using the fabulous Indigo Blu stamps (of course!) and you can find them all on the website, along with a great range of wooden stuff to alter.

The second half of Sarah's workshop was the canvas.  This is where the tissue paper came in ...... we used the stamps to decorate plain white tissue then once it was dry we covered a plain canvas with it, and what was left went into the writing box.

I must confess that I didn't get this project finished on the day - the tissue was on and a couple of the squares were done but I put the final touches to it last Sunday! 
By the time it was finished there was a bit of everything on the canvas - here's a closer look at some of the panels.  

embossing with UTEE

 

 

heat embossing

lots of rubber stamping

Well, that was Day 1.  Busy or what!  I was ready to relax I can tell you.
After a lovely meal, we all met in the lounge for a quiet night in - Yeah!  That happened!  We were up until the early hours - some longer than others - drinking and playing games.  We did all sleep ...... eventually.

Day 2 was spent with Kay, and it was a workshop full of techniques.  We got messy, with paints, and Flitter Glu and flakes, it was fab!
This was Kay's project .....

This is sooo sweet, I love it.  We started off by painting the houses in one colour then each one was decorated using various techniques.  We used Flitter Glu and flakes, stamps, PanPastels, acrylic paints, mini canvas, old book pages, the new Indigo Blu Wishi Washi tape (love that name), beads, trinkets.   Again once we'd all finished (or nearly finished .....) each one was completely different. 

I decided to go completely out of my comfort zone and use colours that I wouldn't normally go for.
This is how it turned out .....

There's a little bit of bright blue on there, turquoise, and orange!  I quite like the result and I had so much fun making it.  Here's some close ups of the houses ....

We even decorated our own beads to hang on the bottom, using the Wishi Washi tape, which is fab by the way, and comes in loads of different colours and designs.


Ooh, almost forgot to say, we were all given a goody bag when we arrived, which was full of fabulous Indigo Blu stuff,  but THE BAG .... it's going to become a collectors item within the craft world for sure .......

how gorgeous is this ....

There you have it, my 2 days in the middle of Gisburn Forest.  I can't wait for the next one, which I believe is sometime in March next year.   My name is already down on the list, (along with a few more I think) and the idea of a three-day retreat next time was put forward - watch this space.

taken on the 2nd day........ that's me sat on the step!!

If you're still with me, well done! and thank you.   It's nice to know that it's not just my other half that reads my Blog.

Have a great day, and I'll be back again soon.

Linda

x

Time for a break

Hi everyone,
Phew! I'm having one of those weeks again.  It's non-stop in the old craft room, I have a list as long as my arm and it doesn't seem to be getting any shorter!
I decided to take a break from DT stuff this morning and squeeze in a couple of quick Blog challenges. 

First up is this weeks Less is More.
Being the first of the month,  it's COLOUR week, and Chrissie and Mandi have chosen ......

                           BROWN & PINK

It's one of my favourite colour combinations so I couldn't wait to get started.   Here's what I came up with ......

This is one of my all time favourite Clarity stamps - the Sketched Lady.  I just love her, she's so elegant and you can dress her up and change her look in so many ways.
Here I've used a fabulous technique I saw Barbara Gray do at a Craft Show many years ago.  I love watching Barbara create pieces of artwork, she makes it all look so easy.

I stamped the image of the lady using Vintage Sepia Versafine ink - my brown colour, then created a couple of masks.  One to cover the whole of the lady while I did the background.  For this I used an Eiffel Tower clear stamp from a set from the Lost and Found collection by My Minds Eye, again stamped in the sepia ink. With the mask still in place I used a piece of copy paper and a make-up sponge to add a little ink to ground the tower and add a bit of depth.  
The second mask had the dress and the hat cut away, so that I could stamp a design through and change the outfit. I used one of Barbara's 'clever corner' stamps to do this, unfortunately I'm not sure which one it was, but any of them will do.  The colour was Worn Lipstick Distress Ink - my pink colour.  I added a tiny gem just to finish it all off.
The sentiment, which I think is perfect for this, is from a clear set of stamps by Butterfly Kisses. 

Here's the piece of artwork that Barbara did - yes I have a Barbara Gray original!  
You can see that she's also used the corner stamp to create a matching border on the card.  These little stamps are well worth investing in, they're so useful for doing a lot more than just corners.


Well, I suppose I'd better get  back to the old craft room, still lots to do.  Next on the list is more samples for Kay's Indigo Blu show on Create and Craft.  I have NEW Christmas stamps and they are soooo nice.  Watch this space, I'll give you a sneaky look at them soon.  

Thanks for popping by today.  Tomorrow it's Twinchie time if you fancy taking a look.
See you then.

Linda

x