"Movin' On Up, Movin' On Out, Nothing Can Stop Me..."

 

Second post in one day! What on earth is wrong with me?
As promised, here is my run down on my day out yesterday.

Jo and I went to a lovely little village called Tattershall to see our friends Jo Channon (of Create and Craft fame) and her hubby Mark, re-open their shop (Let's Create) after moving from Coningsby (literally twenty feet away!!!) into bigger premises.
They don't have a web presence just yet but I have put a link (here) to Jo's blog/challenge site, do yourself a favour and go and have a gander!
They had Sheena Douglas there all day, demo-ing Pebeo Fantasy-Fusion paints . They came in boxes of seven colours plus two small tubes of a paint that looked like lead lining with a mega-fine nozzle on it. Sheena was using it to paint over the lines of a stamped image on a glass vase, then filling in the areas with the paint leaving it looking a bit like church windows. I would have bought a set had the price not been (a 'reduced' special) of £35.00. Even with the five pounds off Jo was giving it still seemed a bit pricey.

 

Sheena was also there to demonstrate some of her stamps (available here) and after purchasing a beautiful set of snowflakes, which I saw put to really good use on a stunning card made by one of her design team members. Jo bought this gorgeous little set after watching Sheena demo it on a tag. She used some kind of gel medium brushed onto some sentiment stamps (I missed the name of it but it looked like a slimy white Acrylic paint!). Then she used Distress inks as a water-colour paint to make a light wash over the whole tag, which worked as a resist on the sentiments. After making sure the tag was completely dry (she used her little hairdryer looking heat tool. I have one and it is one of my favourite things ever!) she then darkened the top, bottom and sides with a co-ordinating Distress ink before painting the scene in and heat-setting the tag once more.                      
                            

The three Distress ink pads she used for the whole project were Chipped Sapphire, Forest Green and Shaded Lilac.

She finished the whole thing off using some of the snowflakes (from the set I bought) down the sides of the tag, again using the slimy gel medium and while she had a tiny blob of the gel on her mat she painted the top of the door and the ground white to give it that snowy look.

I thought the whole thing looked stunning when it was finished and it really got me excited to start making some Xmas cards this week. I know it is way too early to even think about but I do love making Christmas cards and at least people might even receive one this year if I pull my finger out and actually make a start now rather than two weeks before the big day!!

 

We were only at the shop for a few hours (we had to leave because my back was in so much pain I could barely stand) but we both had a really lovely time. She had cake and snacks, the atmosphere was really happy and even though I had a panic attack when we arrived, I settled down into a relaxed mood. Jo and Mark both looked really happy which is all you can ask for really.

 In case you don't know what Sheena looks like (and if so, then where on Earth have you been

hiding??), here is a little pic I took and if you look close you can see the cake she was having, after telling us she had started dieting the day before!! She is a really funny lady with a self-deprecating sense of humour and she comes across as really warm and friendly when you meet her.

 

So that was our BIG DAY OUT. It might not sound exciting to you but for people who rarely leave the house these days it was lovely.

Before I leave you again though I must recommend a few movies - The Wolverine is superb, loads of amazing action scenes and a great sneak peak at X-Men//Days of Future Past (out next Summer). The Conjuring is genuinely scary. I love horror movies and this one really got under my skin even though it plays every horror cliché known to man, it just does them so well the film is a modern classic in-waiting. Finally 'Only God Forgives' is another brilliant pairing of Nicholas Winding-Refn and Ryan Gosling in a mixture of comedy and tense thrills all stirred up in a big bag of Oedipal stew (honourable mention to Kristin Scott-Thomas).

 

So I will say ta-ra for now and I will be back again soon with some new cards  for you. Have a great week, hope the weather holds for you!

Take Care,

Hugs 'n Stuff,

Andy

xx