Ally Pally

Had a great time yesterday at Ally Pally.  Not having any craft stores anywhere nearby it's good to get to actually see all the stash in person and watching the demos is really inspiring. Managed to spend a huge sum and buy loads of stuff.  Here's a peek

I had snaffled this huge basket that DDs had filled with bath stufff at Christmas for stuff I needed to sort out. I managed to fill it one go with my Ally Pally spree.  My new pal, Freyered ( my PIF from the uber talented Donna) was so amazed she came to get a better look!

I bought lots of things that weren't on my shopping list, including some Art Parts after seeing what THE Linda Elbourne had done with them. Jennie had a geat deal on some Wendy Vecchi stamps as well as some really gorgeous new stamps, and I just had to get some of the new PaperArtsy Fresco Finishes after seeing Lin demo them, especially the crackle glaze!

Saw quite a few amazing people, including Alison, Minxy and Helen but alas did not manage to find Carmen. I think she was hiding from me :(

Anyway, am off now to play.  Hope everyone is having a good weekend and enjoying the fabulous weather x

Ally Pally...

...was packed!  I arrived at at 9.30am and sat and had a coffee, and the queue was right the way across the palm court entrance hall and round the side corridor!  I have never seen it that busy before.  I waited until the queue had gone down before going in to the hall, and it was heaving.  Usually for the first hour or so you can move around the stands a bit, but not this time.  So much for the recession!  Anyway, spent waaay too much, as usual. Here is my haul .

I stopped by the LB Crafts stall and saw the amazing Julia Roberts lookalike Linda E and the fantastic l!n Brown doing amazing demos (and spent some money).  Linda was talking to Cardarian.  How amazing is that?  WOYWW is everywhere!

Jennie's Tag

I then wandered over to The Artistic Stamper stand and watched Jennie doing some amazing things with the melt pot.  She made a tag which she gave me :)  The leaf shape was die cut from some fab plastic stuff that isn't acetate which she dipped in the UTEE and stamped then heated slightly with a heat tool which made it pliable enough to bend in to shape which is kept when it cooled... amazing or what!! So I had to have some of that, plus some of the new stamps.... I actually love this background stamp here.... should have got that one too.  Guess I'll have to do some online shopping!  I managed to spend over £25 (what a suprise) so I got one of their fab grunge roses too

Jennie's Grunge Rose

Isn't it beautiful.  This one was made by Jennie too.   I bumped in to Alison watching Hels doing make and takes, but the hall was so crowded we didn't get a chance to do much other than wave and say hello!  Later on I did pop back to the stand (and spent some more money) and it was a bit quieter then so I did one of the make and takes

Make & Take with Hels

So not only did I get to shop, but I got inky and messy too! What more could you want?!

Visited quite a few other stands too (Scrap Revolution, Art From The Heart - Dyan looked great and was doing amazing art journal pages - Lavinia Stamps to name but a few).  There was also a Decopatch stand there which I hadn't seen at Ally Pally before, which was useful as I was thinking about using some decopatch papers on a couple of things.

Lin's Tag

I wandered back over to the LB Crafts stand and, while Linda E skived off for a while, poor l!n was left alone demoing her little heart out.  She made me this fabulous creation - isn't it stunning? I also got my mucky paws on one of the Paper Artsy button badges too :) I bumped in to Helen while I was watching the demo and we had a brief chat... she was laden with bags of stash as usual!

I was spent out by this time, and a bit washed out too - got the remains of some nasty throat lurgy hanging around - so I headed off to the bus and made my way home to stroke my new stash :)

Had a great time.  The thing I love most about Ally Pally is the inspiration.  Watching the demos and seeing the samples really gets the ideas buzzing and makes you think of new ways to use your stash.

Off now to stroke my stash some more!

Circling Around

I've been messing around with this all day.  I'm in a circle journal, or at least I will be, it hasn't started yet - first posting date is May 1st.  Anyway, I have chosen Fantasy as my theme, anything fantasy related, dragons, fairies, fairy tales, wishing to own your own tropical island - anything goes really (except whips, leather and bondage - it's not THAT kind of fantasy, thank you!).  My book is a 6 x 6 and this is my DLO for it.  I was inspired by Tracey Dutton of Lavinia Stamps, and read her article in the August 09 issue of Craft Stamper to get some tips, then I tried brayering a background.  I've tried it before, and it was no more successful this time *sigh*, so I ripped my 'hills' and used cut n dry foam instead (but don't tell anyone!).  This is actually my third attempt.  The first one was, to be fair, just a trial run to see how different greens worked for the hills.  The second one I just wasn't happy with, and then I buggered it up (technical term) altogether by smudging one of the stamps, so I started again and I am happier with this one.  I have used, of course, a Lavinia fairy plus the castle and some mushrooms which you may be able to just make out in the foliage at the bottom.  The runny babbit is, of course, from Sir t!m's Spring Sprung set ( a purchase from Ally Pally yesterday) as is most of the foliage at the bottom.  The birds and the tree branches down the side are Crafty Individuals.  The mouse (is it Hunka Munka? I'm a bit rusty on my Beatrix Potter) is from a set of die cuts I seem to have aquired from somewhere - think it might have been free with a magazine.

Ally Pally was great.  The weather was fantastic and was lovely to be able to sit outside to eat lunch looking over London.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to find Helen :( but I did bump into Carmen a few times which was great.  I also got to see Hels demoing on the Artistic Stamper stand and while I was there was lucky enough to meet Alison as well.  Of course, the divine Ms Linda was beavering away on the LB Crafts stand and I got to meet her too. It really is amazing to meet people from blogland in real life, you feel as if you already know them!  

Enough waffle from me, off now to try and make the rest of my book for the CJ before I run out of time!