Just for you.......'

I found this little stamp by Peachy Keen lurking forgotten in a drawer - it's amazing how craft stuff lurks isn't it. She was due for an inking, and coloured with ProMarkers of course. The papers are from an oldish stack by Martha Stewart. I 'grounded' the image (so that she didn't look as if she was floating mid air) with a bit of green and drew in some little spikes of grass....

Thanks to those of you who have asked how Mike is doing. Not very well I'm afraid, no real improvement and the tests continue. Backs are stubborn things to heal!

I am struggling with the after effects of a terrible haircut. Last time I was at my ridiculously expensive salon,  a woman fell dramatically down a step and cut her leg quite badly. I sat, hair dripping and half trimmed watching the furore in the mirror; waiting for some competent member of staff to leap into action crying 'I am a qualified first aider'..so I waited, and dripped, and waited (my hairdresser had abandoned the cutting, thrown in the towel, literally, not to help but to stand with the rest of the staff dabbing ineffectually at the poor woman's leg with a cloth). In the end, the (retired) nurse in me couldn't stand it any longer and I got up to help. First Aid box please!
Well, we haven't got one but we do have a lot of eye washing stuff they muttered. Yes, washing the poor woman's eyes will make her feel a lot better while she bleeds profusely, fetch another towel please.....
So I dispatched a young apprentice to a pharmacy to get some supplies, sent another one to make a cup of hot sweet tea for the shaken woman, and  asked my hairdresser to call the patients daughter. I was so bossy! Well, someone had to be..
So drama over, I took myself and half cut head of hair back for the overexcited hairdresser to finish. I think she forgot that she had already cut some, total confusion. Result: hedgehog hair and a search for a new hairdresser. I will just check when I find one that they have plenty of eye washing stuff in the salon

Skin Tones Anyone?

Here's a little giveaway for my lovely followers, a set of Flexmarker skin tones - set 2. the winner will get:

Saddle Brown

Cinnamon

Burnt Sienna

Nutmeg

Light Fawn

Blush

All you have to do is leave a comment under this post. Mention it on your blog if you have one, and the winner will be drawn next Tuesday 5th March - March already? Where did February go?  

Thanks to everyone who took the time to go over to the Letraset blog last week - I have had a lot of requests asking for more detail about how I did the sky.....

I used cloud blue, powder blue, sea mist, blue grey 1 and a blender pen

Just colour in your blue sky, leaving plenty of white ragged spaces which are your clouds. You can be quite random, use light feathery strokes of the pen. Then add stripes of a darker colour, and deepen some areas even more. Go over all the coloured areas with the blue grey marker to blend the colours together.... 

Finally go over the whole sky, blue areas and white with the blender pen. This softens the look and makes it look more realistic. You can see that my two 'skies' in the images below look quite different - the one on the right still has wet blender ink drying. Play around with colours - I am planning to try an evening sunset sky, we will see if that ever makes it onto my blog! Remember, you are colouring the blue sky, not the clouds, and you can't go wrong

Here's the finished card. Stamp is by Penny Black

I had a day off all chores today and went to meet my sister for lunch and a chat, but it's back to the drawing board tomorrow...

Last Stitches photos....

As promised, here's the last lot of photos from Stitches trade show at the NEC. I had never heard of this company.....

but I really liked her designs, lots of great shoe cards, perfect for girlfriends

Then a quick peek at one of my favourites - Paper Artsy..

 One of the American companies that were exhibiting, HOTP, I really like some of their papers....

There was a chap there painstakingly decopatching this huge dinosaur. I hope he got a move on because the show closed about three hours after this photo was taken...and how on earth was he taking it home - I do hope he didn't come by bus.. 

and when I went to meet Kath for a quick coffee, this very nice man from the Spellbinders booth was there, he was quite comfortable wearing his fluffy flower

and having his name emblazoned in bling across his chest....I do like meeting men who craft, they understand me so well!

Back to normal tomorrow after this display of talent. I think I may get back in the swing with a little giveaway...see you then

More new products!

Let's carry on with my dash around the halls of the NEC trade show. I just snapped whatever took my fancy, and stuff I thought you would like to see...

Craftwork Cards weren't exhibiting, but their products were displayed by a few suppliers. Isn't this layout striking?

As always, DCWV had their dramatic paper dresses on show - I am sure I saw this one at CHA in LA two years ago! It's travelled very well, no creases, perhaps I should switch to paper clothes.....

 and who would think that this peacock was made of paper.....

I have to say that this next dress was a total miss for me, it looks like something from 100 years ago, and yet it just missed on vintage - I appreciated the workmanship of its creation, but instead of thinking 'what a gorgeous vintage dress', I thought 'good grief, I wouldn't be seen dead in that.....' the fact that I was seriously musing about wearing a dress made from cardstock says a lot about how effective they look!

I'll be back tomorrow with the last of the show photos - hope you are enjoying them x

More Stitches at the NEC

Sissix always have lovely displays at craft fairs, and this one at the NEC was just gorgeous, all full of sugar almond colours, and such great ideas......

I think this next card is one of my all time favourites, I just love the embossed clouds, with multi coloured strips of paper coming from them that were curled at the edges. Gorgeous!

and a little pail filled with paper flowers and candy........

The next photos are a company called Frankly Sweet, they make cutters that make tiny shoes and bags out of icing,  and the samples looked far to good too eat, they were adorable. I could imagine a birthday cake for Kiki decorated with the cute sneakers.....

all of the above were made with these cutters...I had to drag myself away, I don't have time for another hobby....

This next booth is a UK company as well....

all the above were made with these chipboard kits - I loved the little houses and the samples they made...

Another company flying the flag for the UK, they have come up with this thin mesh that is strips of gems, so you could cut a piece and use it like a ribbon for real bling. I had visions of cutting a flower aperture and filling the back with some of this stuff, bling heaven.. 

Now I really wanted to try some of the stuff on the next booth....

I know someone else who would love this stuff, my friend Anne. I didn't get all the technical details, but from what I could see, it's some sort of stuff in a bottle (I told you I didn't get the technical details!) that moulds to any fabric, so the samples below were made from netting, burlap, denim, scraps of fabric..., left to dry, then the whole thing is brushed with more stuff, a powder and you end up with works of art like this. I am seriously tempted.... 

This next one is made from a chunk of polystyrene.......my favourite

Phew, a picture heavy post today, I'll be back tomorrow with a lot more to show you. If you have time for a bit of blog hopping, I would really like it if you could pop over to the Letraset blog to see my post today, and leave a comment if you have time x