It's Been A Fun Time........

I've been absent from my blog for a week or two, mainly due to the work load at the moment. It's been incredibly busy at work since our buying trip. We bought such a lot of product and it all had to be sorted, priced and merchandised for the two open days that we had planned (05th and 06th September).

In amongst getting the August Graphicus Guild newsletter published and starting the articles for the September issue which we are trying to bring forward, Glenda thought it would be a really good idea to pull the shop apart. In hindsight, it was! But none of us thought so when we walked in at the beginning of last week, just a few days away from a major event and saw what looked like WWIII had started and ended in the shop. Wish I'd taken a photo of it from my office.... you wouldn't ever have believed the mess.

Anyway, everyone mucked in and worked really hard and put together the most incredible results. I did plan on taking photos of the shop before the event started on Friday but things overtook us and I never got the opportunity to get the camera out. I will get some photos this week and put them on the blog for anyone who didn't manage to make it to the event last Friday and Saturday.

Guess what arrived in the post at work on Saturday morning just before the second day of the event kicked off? This........

Yes, that's my Stampbord Mirror on the front cover and there's an article inside too. The article features an array of information and techniques by Glenda and my Stampbord Mirror Project.

I must say a huge thank you to Glenda for submitting this...... she is always telling me that I should submit my work to a magazine. So a big thank you Glenda! I am delighted that it got into the mag - I'm ecstatic that it made the front cover.

The Craft Stamper Magazine is full of wonderful work by some amazing designers including our wonderful Helen Chilton (stamp designer and card maker extraordinaire). I love the new format that the magazine has adopted since all the changes have been made and very much admire the
work of all the designers including Katy Fox, the editor. If you are one of the many people who stopped buying the magazine some time ago, please do give it another try! I think you will be very surprised at how good it now is. I read it cover to cover... there's some real cool stuff in there!

Back to the open days: despite appalling weather the event was well attended. It never ceases to amaze me how far people travel in such dreadful conditions to join us at our event days. Thank you to every one who made the effort and battled through the horrid weather to be with us, it was a brill two days, we met some wonderful people - some old friends and lots of new ones!

Glenda, Annette, Lesley and I were all demonstrating and we were supported by Judith, Carrie, Denise, Vickie, Kath and Jess who did a sterling job of keeping the shop shelves stocked (now that's a tongue twister), answering questions and locating goodies for the customers. Judith, who is our Guild Administrator was kept really busy by all you new members who joined at the weekend and were eager to get your hands on the latest Graphicus Guild Newsletter and Welcome Pack! And, last but not least - David (Lesley's husband) better known as 'Chef' who once again did a fantastic job of turning into Gordon Ramsey (without attitude) to produce some fab cuisine that kept us all going throughout the two days. I must say a big thank you too to Adrian who fixed my demo chair after the foot went missing from one of the legs.... oooo painful!

Debi, accompanied by her husband and lovely friend visited on Saturday. A fellow blogger and avid crafter (and shopper) drove quite a distance to be with us and brought some wonderful samples of her work for us to see. Both Glenda and I had seen photos of Debi's cards on her blog and when we found out she intended coming to the event, we asked her to bring the cards for us to 'stroke'. They were even more beautiful in real life and I was stunned when Debi gave me this card. I love it! I think it should have been the other way around though as it was Debi's birthday on Saturday..... I didn't know until just as she was leaving. So a very Happy (belated) Birthday Debi and thank you for spending it with us.

After we finished on Saturday evening I packed up all my demo equipment intent on carrying on with some projects at home on Sunday/Monday. Well, my knees had other ideas. I don't want to dwell on this subject too much (they occupy enough of my time). After a much misspent youth where years of ice skating/ice dancing, Latin American dancing and walking my way around the world for twenty five years whilst working for an airline just about destroyed all of the cartilage in my knee joints, I am now in severe pain most of the time. I am lucky that some times it's the right knee that is worse and others the left knee but this weekend it's been both of them together and the copious amounts of medication I have to take just hasn't had any effect at all. I'm waiting for the results of x-rays I had taken last Monday to find out what can be done. Anyway, it put pay to the plans I had to do more in my work room and to the shopping I had planned for today!

I have managed to do some work on an album whilst sitting on the sofa today. A few months back, Glenda and I attended a couple of workshops with Lance Anderson - Mr Rusty Pickle, when he was over here from the USA. I didn't manage to finish the album at the workshop and have been putting the finishing touches to the pages before adding photos and journalling.

The afternoon session was called the "Rustic Journey" workshop. We made an Altered Tag Accordion Envelope Album using Rusty Pickle papers and ephemera. Each of the envelopes contains a double sided tag - some of them are interactive.

This tag opens to reveal about 6 pages of plain paper for pictures and journalling. How cool is that?

Another little journalling 'tag' book I added to the page tag myself. There are more tags that I haven't included here.... too many for one post!

There is also a file folder tucked into the middle of the concertina album which houses another tag that pulls out sideways.

And finally, this is a find from a lovely shop in Barnard Castle that Glenda introduced me to. They have soooooo many fabulous things from small ornaments, lamps, jewellery and cushions right up to full sized pieces of furniture. It's one of those shops that you go into and spend ages browsing through the entire contents but still don't manage to take everything in. I saw this and thought that it would make a great home for my small albums! It is quite opulent and has a wonderful ornate catch. One thing's for certain...... I will definitely be going back there to visit again!

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!!!

Coming Soon..... to a Blog Near You!

I'm back from my travels! Oh what a fun week is has been so far, there's so much going on! I have been snapping away with my camera and had intended to sit down and bring my blog bang up to date this evening but it's taken me most of the evening to edit all the photo's and reduce them in size ready to put on the blog.

Then, when I was ready to begin my eye started playing up. It's incredibly sore and staring at this screen is making it much worse. So I'm going to get an early night (yes! anything before midnight is early for me). I'm a bit of a night owl and fortunately for me, I only seem to need about four to five hours sleep - leaves me more time for crafting!

I will aim to bring everything up to date tomorrow evening and will post pictures of the demos from the TV shows last Monday...... including the one I didn't get to do as we sold out of the Blooming Botanicals too quickly.

I also have some really exciting news that I've been dying to share with you. In the mean time, here are some photo's taken at fairly obscure angles for you to ponder over.

Night Night!

Add Talent, Imagination, Creativity and 'A Splash of Colour'

This is just a very quick post this evening as I'm still prepping for the TV shows on Monday as well as getting the packing done in an effort to be ready to set off tomorrow.

I just have to tell you about the most talented lady who, after much encouragement (bullying to you and me) has taken the plunge and launched her new BLOG today! Yey! Helen is an Elusive Images stamp designer and a very valued member of the EI Design Team. She is one of the most stylish, innovative and imaginative stampers out there. I am sure you will recognise her work from many of the projects that she has had published in craft magazines here in the UK. Most recently, Helen designed the 'Snow is Falling' A4 Themeplate launched by EI last month. It is a fabulous set of stamps (see it on Ideal World and Create and Craft Channel at 9 a.m. on Monday) which I truly love working with - thank you Helen!

I am so delighted that she has finally started blogging. Please, do go and visit her blog and if you have a moment, leave a little comment for her. It's called 'A Splash of Colour' click on the link and you'll be transported to Helen's creative world!

I'll leave you with a few photo's of some of the prep from this afternoon. You'll have to watch the show to see the finished project... I'm quite pleased with the results.

Any ideas what it's going to be? The pattern is printed onto Ivory card from the Butterfly Bliss CD ROM and the Botanicals have been embossed with lightly glittered white embossing powder. I'll post the finished item here when I get back!

'Lights, Camera, Action'

What's happened to the Summer? It would seem that we get a couple of nice days and then pay the penalty for the next two weeks - at least! The only good thing about it is that I don't feel quite so guilty about spending time inside in my craft room prepping, which is where I've been this afternoon and most of the evening..... with not a lot to show for it I'm afraid.

Glenda and I have another two live TV shows scheduled for Monday the 18th August on Ideal World and Create and Craft (all being well and subject to the usual last minute changes). We will travel down to Peterborough on Sunday as we have an early start on Monday and have to be in the studio to set up at 7 a.m. to be on air at 9 a.m. We then have a couple of hours down time before the second show at 2 p.m.

The nine o'clock show is going to be another Christmas show with Snow is Falling, Hearth and Home, the Three Kings themeplates, a 'premier' product and Season's Greetings CD ROM. After the Christmas Workshop last Friday I feel 'all Christmas'd out' and need to do something radical to get me back in the festive groove..... and NO! I'm not going to put up the Christmas Tree. I don't think I need to do anything quite that radical. But it may have to be a nice Christmassy movie when I get in from work tomorrow evening to help move things along while I'm prepping.

The two o'clock show will feature brand new stamps (yey!), another 'premier' item???? and Artylicious CD ROM's. We won't have the 'premier' items to work with until tomorrow, so I think once everything is pulled together it will be a lot easier to decide on what I'm going to do for demo's. My problem is narrowing it down, the stamps are all so beautiful there's soooo much I want to do with them but I just know that we won't get the time.

The last two shows in July were so fast and furious, I don't think I've ever seen products sell out quite so quickly. I hardly got into the demos before the stamps I was using became limited stock. So if you were watching and didn't get to see the whole demo, here are the finished cards I made from the show.

'Snow is Falling' Stamped with VersaMark ink and coloured with Pearlescent Shimmering chalks. The whole surface was then dabbed with VersaMark and embossed with clear embossing powder.

' Following Yonder Star'

Stamped on acetate with black StazOn and guilded from the reverse side with multi-coloured gold leaf.

'Hearth and Home'

'Christmas Fusion'

When we went down for the last two shows both Glenda and I took our cameras with us and we snapped away pretty much the whole time (except for when we were on air of course). I have several scrap books just waiting to be filled and I thought it might be fun to record our visits to Ideal World and Create and Craft.

This is 'Orton Hall Hotel'. A 17th century manor house set in 20 acres of parkland where we stayed the night before the show.

Here's Adrian relaxing in the Green Room. This is where the guest presenters hang out and get ready before shows.......

......and Glenda in the Green Room snapping away at something very interesting on the floor?

This is our dressing room. There are two attached to the green room plus a small kitchen. It all looks very exciting doesn't it, but if you could see us when we arrive with all our craft trolleys, samples, carrying wardrobes, bags and NO MAKE-UP! at seven o'clock in the morning, you wouldn't think so. The poor security men on the gate get to see us 'warts and all'. A frightening concept (speaking for myself of course).

Once we've put on our faces and coiffed the hair, the floor manager comes to collect us and we go through to the studio to set everything up. This is usually about an hour and a half before the show starts.

Glenda is getting all the samples and her demo equipment set up while Adrian is checking that the computer is loaded with the right Artylicious CD ROM and that the PC WORKS! You can see the bank of camera's and cue screens in front of the set.

Adrian is putting the PC through it's paces to make sure that it's not going to let us down once we're on air. This is a live show and we can't stop and start again if something goes wrong. Oh how I like 'living on the edge'!

Hey Glenda, you're on the wrong side of the camera. But doesn't Adrian look the part? He looks so at home and comfortable behind that camera all he needs now is the head phones.

Ok, we're all set up and ready to go. Just waiting to be 'mic'ed up' for sound. Then we have a final meeting with the producer and floor manager to decide the running order for the show, meet with our Ideal World presenter who for this show was Stephanie and then it's 'Lights, Camera, Action' and you know the rest.

Before we know it the floor manager is counting us out and the show is over. I've never got used to just how quickly it goes. We have a quick tidy and set up again with new demo's for the next show which is in just one hour.

The show was a sell out (including the stock we had for the eleven o'clock show) so we have to get back to the green room for a meeting with Adrian to make sure that we do have stock for the next show. Never fear, Adrian has already been on the phone to the office and the Production Department are in action as we speak getting more stock manufactured and ready to ship down to Ideal World..... like NOW!

No time for a cuppa, it's straight back into the studio to get mic'ed-up and do it all again. You may ask, why bother taking the microphones off when we're only off set for such a short time? Well, they are radio mic's and you can never quite be sure if they're turned off and sometimes you may just have to pay a visit to another 'little' room in the green room..... get the idea? It could be quite embarrassing to say the least.

After the second show has finished (another sell out - yey!) we quickly get packed away in the studio and return to the green room for yet another meeting, this time with our buyer. More shows are programmed in for the coming months and then we can hit the road back 'up north'. Here is Adrian packing the last of our equipment into his car before we leave. It's a good job his car is so roomy - you should see just how much stuff has to fit in there, especially when our trip is an overnight one.

Well, that's it for now. We do it all again starting with the prep and pack the car up for the journey south on Sunday! I know it can be quite frustrating at times, especially when everything is prepped and ready and a show gets moved or cancelled at the last minute but on the whole, it is great fun. We're crafting after all..... can it get any better?

A Little Forward Planning

On Friday, Glenda and I taught a Christmas Workshop at Graphicus. They are always fun and a bit bizarre especially when it's hot and sunny and the Christmas music is playing in the background.... this is what Christmas in Australia must be like... mmmmm!

Two of the ladies on the workshop travelled all the way from Stoke to attend and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I taught the morning session and Glenda the afternoon session.

My class was all about getting a head start on the Christmas preparations and we made this Christmas Organiser File Book with the Bind-It-All. The pages were all cut with the DreamKuts machine which saved me such a lot of time when prepping up the workshop. I have spent most of today putting mine together and adding the finishing touches. The one we made in the workshop had sections for Christmas Shopping Lists, a 'To Do' section, Christmas Card List and File Pocket Pages with tabs that you can keep things like receipts, postage stamps and gift tokens in.
It also has pages of Christmas Verses printed on vellum and plain sheets of card for stamping on. The Journalling themeplate has been used together with Snow is Falling, Hearth and Home and the Wise Men themeplates to decorate pages throughout the organiser.

I have added extra sections to mine today for note taking, menus and the endless lists I make to get myself organised for the festive season. I didn't get chance to join in the stamping on Friday so I took the time to add the stamped pages to my book.

The papers are all from My Minds Eye and Bazzill and I have decorated the cover with chip board letters inked with Adirondack pigment ink and edged with a Krylon gold leafing pen. I then covered the letters with Rangers Glossy Accents to seal in the colour and added a beautiful Prima bloom and lots of organza ribbons tied to the 'O' rings that bind the book.

Now I'm all ready to start the festive planning!