Gorgeous new 'Blingy Bitz' from Craftynotions. That's enough about the weather. I know it is blowing a hooley out there but at some stage we all need a bit of colour and sparkle. I have been bullying poor David at Craftynotions.com to come up with a name for the gorgeous little colourful squares I have been playing with on my latest workshops; occasionally allowing my students to use them, but only if they are VERY good. Think of a square sequin without a hole in and you will know what I mean. I took these images with my phone and they aren't the best. 'Blingy Bitz' will be available from the end of next month in eight to ten colours yet to be decided. I couldn't wait until then to tell you about them. They put a fabulous sparkle onto your work. I iron them onto painted Bondaweb. Yep! I appreciate that will come as a great surprise. Not only but also - (Yes! I have had a glass of wine). There will also be the new 'Blingy Glitz'

 Iron-on interfacing colourwashed blue. This was then foiled all over with silver transfer foil and printed onto with one of my favourite wooden printing blocks. This can be done with the heavy pelmet Vilene (S133) if you want to make a box, or the softer Decovil 1 or Decovil light to make book covers or bags - gorgeous. I sell all three - www.nid-noi.com   Painted Bondaweb layered with torn newspaper, dot jewels and glitter.  I have a few weeks of calm looming - to write the book and start a new body of work. I am also making up some layered newspaper samples to have laser cut to my own designs to start making my new range of brooches and earrings. I love it when there is room in your brain for ideas to start slinking in. This tends to need time and space - all of which I have for while. I have plenty of things to catch up with, but there should also be time for play.  As most of you will know I think it is vital for any artist to play with their materials - it can lead

One of the many very beautiful pieces of newspaper layered with painted Bondaweb. I will make this a two part post - I have so many images to show you, you would be asleep by end of the post if I put them all into one. My new newspaper based workshops seem to be very popular. It is great fun to be able to share a new passion with so many lovely ladies.  I love teaching at Art Van Go - www.artvango.co.uk   everyone is so well looked after there. It always good to spend time with Viv and Kevin who own the business - they are excellent company and VERY good fun! I do miss them if I haven't seen them for a while. The shop has everything that you could possibly wish for to create stunning work, including the gilding flake, dot jewels and acrylic wax that we used on the course. The workshop was 'A new starting point' and had been full for several months which is very encouraging. We used newspaper to start with, then the students started using road atlases and maps

Another Place - installation by Antony Gormley on Crosby Beach The Liverpool show was great fun and I enjoyed meeting up with those of you who came and said hello! Being in Liverpool was a great opportunity to spend more time at one of my favourite places - Crosby Beach. Wendy Dolan and her husband Rob were at the show as well so we spent a evening on the beach together. It has been wonderful to see Wendy so often this year, we are going to make time to see each other more often rather than just seeing each other a shows. My good friend Brenda Killigrew was also doing the show promoting our courses for Castanea www.castaneacraftcourses.com and she joined us at the beach.   Brenda nearly being blown away (she's only little) - making contact with one of the sculptures amazing jellyfish washed up on the beach When we all arrived on the beach we very soon became aware of hundreds of jellyfish that had been washed up on the beach, I have never seen so many of these creatures