I'm going to Bermuda....

Well... did I manage to fool you.... lol You should know better than to think that I would be fortunate enough to be jetting off to the sun... but thanks to a beautiful gift that I received over the weekend I can at least pretend for a while.

Upon arrival at the hotel on Wednesday there was a little confusion over whether or not I was actually booked in... thankfully after a few hours we managed to get everything sorted out. I was fortunate enough to have the delightful Cynthia (Rainbow Lady) staying in the same hotel and she felt so sorry for me that night, she got on the phone to her DH and asked him to bring me a present as he was flying in from Bermuda. Now how many people can you say are truly that generous, kind and giving... I owe a massive thanks to both Cynthia and her wonderful husband Geoff for this absolutely gorgeous gift they presented to me at the hotel. Hope you can see the mother of pearl shining through in all it's true glory.

At least in future when Cynthia posts that she is off to Bermuda for a visit I will be able to look at my gift and know exactly where she will be. The detail included on these two pieces of work are truly amazing.

Thank you Cynthia and Geoff for the gift, your company and for allowing me to call you my friends.

Hugs

Lorraine xxx

Sleepy old me...

Morning all... (well just, seeing as it is almost lunch time... lol), naughty me had a little bit of a lie in today and then my friend popped round for coffee so I'm still in pj's at the moment...

Anyway, I'm now running behind & so badly need to get in the shower, organised & out the door... unfortunately the cupboards here are a little bit on the empty side so I'm making a quick trip to Asda for the essentials then I'll do an online order with Tesco later so it's delivered direct to the door tomorrow.

After four days standing at the NEC my legs are a little on the sore side but hopefully by tomorrow those too will be back to normal... got a few things to share but in the meantime I've got food to buy & invoices to sort so best get them done so we can eat & I can get paid... no money no food... lol...

I'll go as quick as I can to get all the boring stuff out of the road as I still have my step daughters birthday card to make (she was 21 yesterday), but being of that age she's celebrating with her friends so we're not seeing her until Thursday... Phew thank goodness for that else her card really would have been thrown together... lol

Will try & pop back again this afternoon, but at the latest, some time this evening.

So glad to be back in blog land again...

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

P.s. huge thanks to all those who came & said hi to me on the Fiskars stand over the four days. It was so lovely to actually get the opportunity to speak to you in person. Love you all. x

I'm heading home now....

Well.... by the time this post is appearing I'll hopefully be on the plane waiting for take off... scheduled departure is 18.10pm...

Let's hope you are reading this which means that Mr Blogger has been very kind to me over the last 5 days... if he has... thank you Mr Blogger.

This is another of my semi tidied areas which requires just a little more organisational work and it will be up & running as a fully functioning work space.

Now this here is where I keep all of my card, papers, scraps etc... they are super strong boxes which just slide in and out for ease of use... love them so I do...

Now the next posting you get from me will be tomorrow and will be a personal one from me direct whilst sat in front of my much beloved computer and keyboard... oh it will be good to be back home no doubt.

Till tomorrow.... happy crafting.

Lorraine xxx

Mother In Laws birthday

Now I'm one of those people who has 2 mother in laws... and it is one of their birthday's this coming Tuesday... being short of time lately I had to come up with something quick and simple... and this was the final outcome.

Base card from Craftwork Cards along with the papers which I punched with a Fiskars squeeze punch, sentiment & candy. Flowers are Prima and gorgeous buttons were purchased from Hobby House.

A little close up off one of the flowers just so you can see for yourself just how pretty they really are.

Hmmm.... wonder how my old feet are holding up just now... last day on the job... lol

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

My beloved tubs...

This is one of my most beloved areas in my craft room... Tim Holtz, Sakura etc all lie within these super little tubs... yes they do need to be sorted out a bit after my mad clearing out session the other day, but still, it's a bit better organised now than it was before.

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

What a riot...

Well what a riot this card turned out to be... very possibly because it was somewhere around 2am in the morning... but not entirely convinced that is still a good enough reason. I did start off with the best intentions but somewhere along the line I managed to go astray... need I say anymore... the proof is in the card...

Now that's what I call a BLOOPER....

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

A little bit of a tidy....

Now I did tell you that I cleared the craft room rather a lot but not completely finished the job yet... here is a pile of papers & embellishments all lying waiting to be sorted upon my return.

Thankfully I did manage to clear the computer area almost completely which hubby will be pleased about as he has to use the computer in the evenings to call clients... life should be a little easier for him during my absence now... lol.

Pop by tomorrow again for another little update...

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

NEC... fortunately last nights disaster has been resolved so i will be at the show until Sun... need to make some samples now before bed.. nite nite x

Yippe.... Here goes....

Well folks... I'm sure you can all imagine how big the smile is on my face today... oh yes it's doors open today at the NEC.... anticipated visitor numbers.... over 30,000 during the 4 day period...

Who will be on the Fiskars stand (BO8)....

Today : Rachel and myself

Friday : Severine, Rachel and myself

Saturday : Severine, Rachel and myself with Jayne and Caroline also joining in

the fun today...

Sunday : Rachel and myself

If you're going to be there... please pop by and say hello... oh and don't forget that the notorious Mamma Kath will be in the building on Saturday...

Back tomorrow again if Mr Blogger is being good...lol

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

Fiskars Fiasco - can't type in text box only here but having a disaster here today... will tell all when i get home... which may be tomorrow

Incorporating Tim Holtz.....

Hopefully Mr Blogger has been kind and started to show you my scheduled postings... fingers crossed as not a lot I can do if he fails me... lol

Heaven forbid I had left without having a wee play with some goodies inspired by the wonderfully talented Mr Tim Holtz...

Used my Ink Blending Tool which Kath very kindly educated me on.. (thank you darling) to create my coloured background... if you haven't tried this tool... it's amazing and this background is my first attempt to goes to show how easy it is. Next up I attacked some chipboard with distress crackle paint & when dry I went over that with some distress ink to fill the crackes & distressed stickles for a little bit of sparkle. Attached to some card to mount to base card... added some papers, Prima flowers and sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

Can't wait to actually have some proper time to play with this stuff and see the true extent of what I can create.

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

YES.... I am still alive.... lol....

Gosh I so cannot believe how the time is flying by just now... only another week to go and we'll be into April... clocks change this weekend... and no doubt that means another few grey hairs & wrinkles for me... lol

Anyway, got rather a lot to schedule with Mr Blogger so there will be new postings on my blog even during my absence so please do check back daily.

Well today, the day that I should have been spending packing... not a single thing even ironed yet to go into the old case as the Sky engineer was out this afternoon to install our HD and the old box was being moved into my office. Now if you had seen the state of my room you would understand better but it was far too embarrassing to share I'm afraid... anyway, spent the whole day trying to sort the mess out... not completely there yet but acceptable enough until I return so I can be content with that for the moment.

My wee tv to watch whilst working

How wonderful I can now tape programs upstairs as well as downstairs.. yippee.

Well best bid you all good night now... get on with scheduling all my postings then pull out the dreaded ironing board and get the case packed ready for the off tomorrow.

For anyone coming to the NEC... I'm so looking forward to meeting you all.

Will miss you all loads but hope you enjoy what I've scheduled. Back again in person next Monday...

Toodles for now

Lorraine xxx

Yippee.... Essay complete...

Hells bells.... although I set myself a deadline on completing my essay for yesterday... I had a meeting which I was required to attend last night so it threw my timeschedule out the window. Thankfully I've got up this morning and got stuck in again... yippee... I've finally managed to finish it so now all I have to do is get everything printed off, packaged up & off to the post office I'll go... guaranteed next day delivery is a requirement as it must be received at the university no later than tomorrow so must dash now but will hopefully get time to come up with a little creation later on. Think I've definately earned some me time... lol

Catch you all later.

Lorraine xxx

Tim Holtz Curiosities... woohooo....

OMG.... I'm so excited as I have my very own copy of the new Tim Holtz "A Compendium Of Curiosities" book.... even though I don't have the picture card that would have came with the package from QVC had I ordered it there but I can live without that...

There is quite a funny story to this as I placed an order last week for my book and received a dispatch note on the Wednesday afternoon... well yesterday I still didn't have my order so I contacted the company. They advised it should have been delivered last Thursday and recommended that I check with my local sorting office... Now to cut a long story short... I was demonstrating in Dundee last Thursday so I presumed that had a parcel arrived it would have been left with a neighbour and a note put through my door... not the case I'm afraid... the postman had infact left the package in my garage but not put a note through my door !!!! Can you believe that my little bundle of yummy goodness lay undetected in my garage for the best part of a week.... shocking I know and pardon the pun... rather distressing as well... lol.

Here is everything that I received in my delicious package all ready to be utilised.

This is just one of the techniques in the book which uses grungepaper to make die cut shapes and boy don't these just look amazing once they have been shaped... I've never personally used grungepaper but Mamma Kath swears by it so I know it's gonna be a good investment. Now all I need is the time to play...

I also decided to purchase some of these gorgeous sequin flowers by Prima... they are lovely and will make a gorgeous embellishment to use on a card or scrap page but at £2.50 a pack... I'm not sure I'll make any further purchases as they are pretty small so unless it's a very special card you wouldn't want to use too many at the one time as they work out at 25p a flower.

Well now that I have shared my new yummy goodies with you all I had best get on with this damn essay I have to do... today is my final day for completion so it's pressure time here in my house.... good thing being that I can take time to reward myself for completing it by having a play with all my new stash.. what more could a girl ask for... lol.

All of my new goodies were purchased from Craft Obsessions who are selling the Tim Holtz book for £19.95.

Hope you all have a fabulous day ahead full of heaps of happy crafting...

See you all again soon.

Lorraine xxx

SECC Candy Winner....

Good morning everyone... hope you are all & ready for the day ahead. Personally I have to do a mad dash around the housework so I can get pushing ahead with my essay as tomorrow is my final day for posting & believe you me... if I manage to succeed in even getting it to the post box on time I will amaze even myself...

So, to kick start my day I thought it best to go ahead and announce the winner of the SECC candy and this did make me laugh.....

Here is the result of the draw...

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:12
Timestamp: 2010-03-16 09:16:21 UTC

Now the funny part... when I scrolled through the names to see who had won... it is none other than my name sake....

Lorraine

So a big thank you to everyone who joined in the fun... and congratulations to Lorraine (if you can drop me an email with your address then I will get your goodies all packaged up and in the post to you asap.)

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

Sakura on wood

Morning folks... gosh this really is a quickie as I'm running behind schedule... got to finalise a wedding order at 11am then off to see Gayle, Ava and gorgeous baby Maya.

So many of you have your wonderful Sakura pens at home but don't always experiment with them so just thought I'd share this little fells with you... he's a little wooden bunny I bought from Hobbycraft last year & I have used Sakura Metallic pens to colour him in... part water colour, part direct from pen. If you've never experimented with your pens then why not start now... they really are a world full of fun.

Sakura pens @ Markingworld

Okay... must dash... back later... happy crafting

Hugs

Lorraine xxx

Naughty Mr Blogger

For anyone who left comments over the last day please be aware that although it is not showing on the comments as being there... if you click on the actually bit that says comments... low & behold the comments are there... oh Mr Blogger is being naughty today... well seeing it's a man eh ...

Happy Mothers Day all.

Hugs

Lorraine xxx

Now is that not just typical... I posted this comment... went back in to check... and low & behold the comments are now appearing... lol

Sakura & Stampboard !!!

Morning folks... hope you all slept well & are ready for another wonderful day... for a little change I thought I'd share with you one of the samples I've made recently... incorporating an old favourite of mine... can't remember the last time I played with it though... stampboard.

Now as we know not everything will work well on the surface of stampboard & very often you have to ensure your finished masterpiece is all sealed so that there is no transference... well... I may have found a solution for you all so that you too can make quick pieces of work without the need for sealing.

For this sample I used a black base card, upon which I layered some lovely Joanna Sheen backing paper... next up I took another piece of the same black card cut into a smaller layer again, edged with a silver Calligraphy pen & attached to the card. See all quick & simple so far eh... right here comes the difficult part... ha ha... I'm only kidding... this part is quick & simple too.

Take a piece of stampboard & cover completely with silver calligraphy pen... as this pen has a wide nozzle it only takes a few strokes & less than a minute to dry. Next up use a stamp of your choice, ink up with staz on & stamp onto your chipboard... see... nothing a beginner couldn't do... and finally to colour the image I used a selection of coloured pigma micron pens.. I scribbled a small amount onto the area I wanted to colour & spread out using a Koi water brush. Do this all over to complete the image & then allow a few minutes to dry. Now all you have to do is attach it to the front of the card using silicone glue.

Voila... simple as pie... and I hope that those of you out there who still have some stampboard hidden away at the back of drawers etc will give this project a try as it really is fun with endless possibilities.

Calligraphy & Pigma Micron Pens @ Markingworld

Have a great day & be back again soon... maybe today... maybe tomorrow...

Happy crafting

Lorraine xxx

Happy Mothers Day...

Evening folks... gosh I can't believe how the day has gone by already... then again I was sitting in my pj's till gone lunch time... lazy old sod that I was today but I did need a little rest you know. Granted that although I was lazing around I still managed to pull together a little something for my mum for mothers day.

My mother & I very often clash with characters but at the end of the day we still love each other & are always there to provide support when it is needed... she is also often known to go on merry jaunts around the country with me.. whilst I'm demoing she's off out perusing all the local shops to see what goodies she can put in her bag to take home with her... she is a true master in her division... lol.

I decided to make her something nice & bright for tomorrow from my little stash I bought at the SECC... Here I used a scalloped card, papers, half of a decorative mat and some candy, complete with flowers, gems, pearl button & pin... the sentiment I have written with a coloured Sakura pigma micron pen.

Thought I'd give you a close up on the pearl button & pin as they are gorgeous.

Card, paper, decorative mat & candy @ Craftwork Cards

Prima flowers, stickles, gems, pearl button & pin @ The Hobby House

Sakura Pigma Micron pens (Black & Coloured) @ Markingworld

Hope you've all had a good start to the weekend with plenty more fun planned for tomorrow. Lots of crafting too of course... me... I need to get some studying done as less than a week to go now till my essay deadline & my work schedule so far hasn't allowed me time to even make a start on it so really pushing the deadline on this one... fingers crossed eh !!!

Right well I think that's enough dribble drabble from me this evening so I will bid you all a fond farewell till the sun rises upon a new day tomorrow.

Happy crafting with love & hugs

Lorraine xxx

P.s. don't forget to check out the candy if you haven't already done so. x

NEC... here I come again....

Oh well folks... looks like my trusty suitcase is soon to be packed again ready for another jaunt down to Birmingham... oh yes... have just been booked to work at the NEC from 25th - 28th March.

Due to personal reasons, Jill Johnston has unfortunately had to pull out of demonstrating at the show & I have been asked to take her place on the Fiskars stand... B08... so glad the number 8 is at the end of that else it would sound rather disgusting eh... lol...

Well I certainly wasn't expecting that one to happen so completely unprepared but am so looking forward to meeting up with all the lovely crafters who will be attending the show... if you are one of them, please make sure you pop along & say hi to me as I'd love to meet you all...

Guess I best sign off now as I've got so much to do today... need to sort out how I'm going to ship all the banners, leaflets etc, flights etc.... haven't even managed to unpack demo kit from yesterday.

Just before I go though, I would like to say what a marvellous time I had in Dundee yesterday.. certainly were more than 1 or 2 laughs throughout the day and I must say the new Red Hot Bed & Colour My World products are a joy to play with... watch this space for some samples at a later date... can't show you what I made as they were left with Burns & Harris for display in the shop but fortunately I have brought some yummy stuff home to play with at my leisure.. (not entirely sure I know what leisure is at the moment right enough)... lol.

Right, I'm off now, back to work for me & hope to catch up with you all again soon.

Love, hugs & kisses along with tons of happy crafting

Lorraine xxx