Cuppa Tea Time

You might want to make yourself a nice big cuppa.....this could turn out to be the longest post in the history of man!!!! I have so much to tell you as this will be my last post before my daughter Sarah's wedding on Friday. I can't believe the wedding is now only three days away, we are keeping everything crossed for a dry day. A dry, sunny day would be even better but we will settle for just dry.

I had a lovely evening on Saturday with Sarah, my oldest daughter Kelly and all her girlfriends. A few weeks ago they had the real "hen night" which was a bit out of my league, so we had a second, more subdued hen night for my benefit. Great food,wonderful company and lots of cocktails!!!! Sarah is the one with the veil and Kelly is directly opposite her.

Only a few last minute jobs to do now, like take our dog Meg to Kennels for a few days. I'm a bit nervous about it, she has never been away from home before but we have no choice as everyone we know, who we would normally ask, will be at the wedding too!!!

Sarah is having a bit of a nervous breakdown as Mark still has not written his speech yet!!! He keeps teasing her by saying that he will make it up as he goes along. The reality is, that he will probably do that and she will never know!!!

Ronnie and Millie, my grand children have the cutest wedding outfits, watch the blog for wedding snaps next week.

Okay, back to work related information. Ally Pally is looming fast.....we are in full swing making new samples for our stand, new and exciting stock is arriving all the time and hopefully everything will be here in time for the show.....that would be a first!!! We always have real dramas with important deliveries, in fact one year Mark actually went to Heathrow on Friday afternoon to collect a B Line shipment that got held up.....now that's cutting it fine, and I nearly had a nervous breakdown!

Some of you may have already seen Leandra's blog and will know that she will NOT be helping me out on my stand this year. She is actually taking a booth at another show in France that clashes with Ally Pally, so I would like to wish her very good luck with this new venture. I'm positive she doesn't need luck, she is going to knock their socks off with her demo. Anyway, as a result of her ditching me for a better offer (only kidding) I am very pleased to announce that I will have a new sidekick for Ally Pally.........drumroll please........Linda Elbourne has very kindly agreed to come along and work her magic with all sorts of goodies. It's all a bit hush, hush, top secret at the moment but we will reveal a bit more as the show gets nearer. She is a tad terrified, so please be gentle with her.....I don't want to scare her away. I feel very fortunate to have her on my team and I am positive that you will be amazed by her work, talent and wit....she has a wicked sense of humour!

In the meantime, I would like to share a couple of things that I have been working on recently. As you will know from a previous post, my Ice Resin arrived in the shop recently and I have finally had a chance to have a bit of a play. Sadly, it is not a product that I will be able to demonstrate at the show due to the drying time, so I would like to share my first attempts with you on the blog and of course the product will be available for sale at the show.

These are just a few of the samples that I had prepared ready for Ice Resin. I have a couple of style stones, one contains a collage and one just a simple picture. The gold frame contains a mini collage by Wendy Vecchi. It is a copy of her original artwork which has been reduced for the index sheet of her stamps and was the perfect size for this little frame. If you are using a frame that does not have a back to it, then you need to put packing tape over the back of the frame to stop any resin leaking out.

This is what you need, it all comes together in the kit.
Ice Resin is a two part resin and you need to be accurate when measuring out equal parts of bottle A and bottle B, hence the measuring cup.

Pour part A into the measuring cup first.

Topped up with an equal amount of part B

Stir for at least two minutes. Don't worry about any air bubbles, they disperse on their own!
Use the stick to drizzle the resin on to the prepared surface.

The resin will find it's own level.

This is how is looked after 6 hours.

It will need three days to completely cure, but the results are amazing....completely clear and it will not yellow. I have a few other samples here, this one is a collage I made in a memory frame. Sadly, my photography is rubbish, I am taking these photographs in the shop and the lights are reflecting in the high shine of the resin.....trust me in real life they are gorgeous.

I'm loving this one. It's an old bottle cap,painted black inside. I stuck a red paper flower in the bottom and a little clock doo dad thingy on top of that and poured resin on the top......how cool is this?
All my resin samples will be on display at Ally Pally...they will probably be chained to the desk or around my neck like Olympic medals to make sure they don't go walkies, so if you would like to see them in the flesh stop by the booth.

Finally, here is a canvas that I have been working on using one of the new B Line unmounted sets that will be on sale for the first time at the show. I've also used some of the new Ten Seconds moulds and Gold Nugget metal...love this colour! Again, this will be on display at the show.

Some close ups in the hope that you can see some of the detail.

Phew! That's it from me until after the wedding. Hope to see you at the show.

Lin x