Lotus Flower Books

I'm teaching another class at The Beetroot Tree very soon....this time making Lotus Flower Books. I've been practising for the past week - they are rather sweet and open out in different ways.



I've had great fun making loads of papers to take along with me and have stamped them with my own hand-carved rubber stamps.


I was inspired a lot by my lovely new friend Maggi at To Dream To Stitch.
We arranged to meet each other last week (a blind date!) and we spent the day visiting Peartree Yard craft centre, Cachepot (coffee in the garden and beautiful shop) and Andersons (yet more coffee). She brought lots of gorgeous little books to show me and kindly gave me this one......

....its quite tiny and sits neatly in the palm of my hand. It has beautiful hand-made papers inside.
I hope we'll get to meet again very soon.; despite talking for 6 hours, I don't think we covered everything.........

Oh where did those last few weeks go........

A slightly late but very sincere Happy New Year everyone. I'm hoping to get back to some kind of normality now.... Mum is making great progress following her operation and we've even been able to take her to see Dad in the nursing home. She'll soon be running marathons..... ;-)
Yesterday I taught a class at the Beetroot Tree and we decorated tiny 6cm boxes. These are a few of my examples.
I had lots of lovely Christmas presents but just wanted to show you my new Troll bead - its a little silver flounder; so cute! My bracelet is full now....and full of memories too. Every bead is special and meaningful. So I told DH.....its time for me to start a new one in a different colour!! :-)

I also had a stamp carving kit and have been going crazy with it (no injuries to report as yet...)
.......and I also received four gorgeous art books which I haven't read yet because I've been so busy with my DJ Pettitt Digital workshop.
I've never used Photoshop before so I've struggled quite a bit but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'll show you some results in the next couple of days.

Here's a little preview....my first practice piece (only 3 layers). I used my Maria painting for the base.