I'm So Excited!

Last Friday I received an email which totally blew me away!

I've been sitting on it ever since and walking around with a silly grin on my face akin to that of a Cheshire Cat - and one that got the cream to boot. Why you may ask? Well, I'm going to let you into a little secret...... unbeknown to me (at the time), Glenda submitted a piece of my artwork to the Craft Stamper magazine for a feature they are running in the next issue. When she told me what she had done I was delighted and hoped, at best, that it would be included - even if it was only a small picture of the piece. Guess what????? I GOT THE COVER!!!! Yes, the email was to tell me that my art work has been chosen as the front cover for Craft Stamper, October issue.

Now that said, I really don't know if it will be the main picture or just a little one to support the main feature on the cover. I probably won't know until I see the magazine on the shelves, but anywhere on the cover is just fine by me. I have offered to do personal signings at my local branch of Borders - but so far, they haven't taken me up on my offer! LOL

Now, I'll calm down and get on with this. If the week started last Friday instead of Monday it would have been the start of a brilliant week. The rest of Friday and Saturday was spent prepping demos for the TV shows scheduled for Monday. I don't know where the weekend went but it disappeared in a flash.

Sunday saw Glenda, Adrian and I setting off on that long trek down the A1 to Peterborough to be in situ for an early start the next morning. The drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived safely, off-loaded the car, checked into the hotel, had dinner and crashed for the night.

One very funny moment and one that I didn't have my camera handy for at the time, was the picture of Glenda and I sitting at the table in the restaurant waiting for our dinner to arrive - both sat with our Tim Holtz scissors in hand, cutting out gold embossed Poinsettia's for an unfinished demo. Anyone would think we were addicted to crafting!!! Poor Adrian must live in constant fear of what we might do next. Our waiter did a very good job of ignoring our peculiar behaviour.

The TV shows were both fast and furious - again!

Here's the finished sample of the Frosted Snowman from the 'Snow is Falling' themeplate which was on the morning show.

I don't have a photo of the 'Crown' card from the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Themeplate as it was sent out to the email winner. I will try to make another over the weekend and include it on the blog if I get a minute.

Here's the little Concertina Keepsake that I've been teasing you with in the last two posts. Sorry...... I am naughty! I used to make these many, many years ago and to be honest, I'd forgotten about them. It was only when I was sat planning my demo's and thinking about what I was going to do this time, that I remembered this technique.

It really is a very simple project, I know it may not look it but it's easy to do. There is however, a lot of stamping and it's a great way of using all your Botanical stamps. I also made use of the Butterfly Bliss CD ROM for the printed card on the inside layer. This was made for the afternoon show but unfortunately I didn't get to do the demo as we sold out of all the stamps before I got to it.

Once the last show had finished, we got packed away and hit the road again but going South not North. We were heading for Cambridge where we were staying overnight.

In fact, we had a super evening. Adrian used to be at University in Cambridge so gave us a wonderful tour (on foot) of Cambridge and recounted some funny tales of a not-so-misspent youth. The rain held off, my feet and knees hurt terribly, Glenda had blisters on her feet, we had the most fab dinner (Italian) YUMM! got some lovely photos for the album and laughed - a lot.

The next morning (Tuesday) bright and early, we set off to one of our suppliers located not too far away. Unfortunately, they have recently announced their intention to close the business which is always very sad - but it gave us the ideal opportunity to shop for our up and coming open days at Graphicus in September..... and shop we did!

Adrian left Glenda and I to it and we were like two big kids in a ginormous sweety shop, oh Bliss! We filled box after box, basket after basket and mounded them up in the office ready for them to put our purchases through the till when we'd finished. We kept going back for more, then spotting something else that we'd totally managed to overlook. I don't know how many time we went round the warehouse (I do know now that our feet were throbbing) but you just don't notice it when you're shopping do you? When we finally finished we stood looking at the huge pile of boxes brimming with wonderful goodies and thinking that we were going to have to have them shipped. Then Adrian appeared to see what we were up to (it was mid afternoon by then) and he didn't even flinch when he saw the mountain of stash!

He assessed our selection and said confidently that it would fit into his monster truck and yes, they would still have room for ME! And they did! It was only a little space for me but I was surrounded by all our fab goodies so did I care? Nahhhh! not a jot. It gave me the ideal opportunity to sit and hug them all the way home.

I know this may not look like a lot but remember, I was in the back and we had two large rolling craft trolleys, a big box with all the sample artwork from two TV shows, two suitcases, an ink locker, carrying wardrobe, tool carousel, cuddly toy and a kitchen sink as well! (OK! OK! I'm prone to exaggerating, we didn't have a cuddly toy or a kitchen sink) but the car was filled to the rafters.

Once inside the building, you really get a feel for how much 'stash' we managed to transport. Now, let me at those boxes.

Stand aside Glenda..... let me in! You have no idea just how excited we both were. I don't think we've had such fun since hitting the craft stores in Las Vegas last September. Ordering stock on-line and from catalogues is never as much fun as being able to stroke the stash there and then.

What could this be I wonder? It managed to jump out of one of the boxes and landed right in front of my camera just as I opened the shutter. How fortuitous was that? All I can say is, if you are able to join us at one of the Graphicus Open Days (05th and 06th September) then please do, you're in for a treat!

And finally, I teased you yesterday with an obscure view of a little something I've been working on and here's another little taster. If you're a Graphicus Guild member you'll be finding out what all this is about very soon!!!