INKY FINGERS

Thrown together, but I did some! I may even start on some Christmas cards in the next few days, all being well...........

You can tell it's coming close to Christmas and I haven't even thought about it yet, but I just don't seem to have enough minutes in a day at the moment. We had workshop on Saturday and have another one this coming Saturday, so I won't be around for a while longer......

Thought I'd upload a card I made a while ago. This was one that I really enjoyed. I've been reorganising the craft room since the show - but there isn't enough space and I can't find things as easily yet. I haven't stamped in it yet, since it was done, but today's the day I need to do that........ watch this space!

This one's the demo sample from the workshop. I think the technique shows up a little more on this one.

I've given up on trying to fix this so I'm uploading it again, on its own - I bet it works now!

One of the dabbers was a little blocked and as it was one of the lights, I added a touch of water (you can do that with the Lights as for some reason, they seem to be a tad thicker than the other shades!) and gave it a good shake.............. of course it splashed over to where my completed WHITE card was sitting. Sod's law, eh? I had to redo it, quickly so I revamped it a little by adding more colour and shading to the trees and to complete it (or at least I think it does) added two of the JustRite mini Christmas stamps above the image. I was going to replace the original with it, but I thought I'd upload it again and let you decide which one looks better.................

That was the title for this weekend's workshop, so I've had a go today........

Can you see anything Christmassy about this? H'mm...... need to get my thinking cap on quickly. I really love classical type images and this one is just so romantic. I love historical fantasy literature, too, so it's right up my street. I've used one of the mica backgrounds - one I made later with a lot more Shabby Shutters ink and a mixture of blue and interference blue mica. The background and word images are Non Sequitur, but the main image is Pam Bell. All crooked images courtesy of moi.

The new book is in production and should be out in two weeks' time - woohoo! Can't wait to see this one and some of my friends/fellow group members have their artwork published in this one, so all the more exciting. Here's a sneak preview of the cover........ It will be shipped to us as soon as it's available, so watch this space. I can't recommend these books highly enough - especially the Techniques book (currently sold out and new stock on the way) which is beautifully produced and laid out, gorgeous artwork inside and really helpful information, with a great glossary and step by step instructions for some great techniques, as well as some fab projects. You can see one of them here - it's the book that Lynne did at the last workshop! This is a photo of the real cover - duh, I boobed - again!

Just to show how sad I really am, I'm uploading photos of two of my friends. I really mean it, too! I spend hours talking to them and putting out food for them, but am rewarded when, like here, they come to our feet for food. I have to be honest and say that it only usually happens at breeding time - after that they start to lose feathers and become very timid because they aren't as confident of their aerobatic skills. The downside is that I sometimes get up to a death bed of feathers in the garden. The sparrowhawks are rampant around here because they know they have easy targets. I've found two blackbird graves in the last two weeks and I cry when I do. I need to get a photo of my favourite bird, Scruff. We nicknamed him that when he turned up at the front of the house one day, looking absolutely battered and with one leg which wouldn't bend. We spent the next couple of months feeding him at the front - he'd wait for us to come home and then come down as soon as we put food out, knowing that the other birds would leave him alone if he came while we were there. Then he started taking sultanas off with him and we knew he had babies. He brought them to meet us when they fledged - it was lovely. When I saw the first blackbird grave, I seriously feared for him because of his leg, but he comes every couple of days and the day before yesterday, he actually came down while I was there, much to my delight. They'll become less timid as it gets colder and they need the food more. Photos courtesy of John, not me. To show how good he is, here are a couple of his cormorant photos and one of a grebe. The others were taken with an SLR but this is taken with his new Digital.