Houses and Clever, Inspiring People ....

Last weekend, on Saturday, I got it right and went to The Craft Barn Extravaganza on the correct day - lol - and had a great time. There were more clever people there than you can shake a stick at and it was just great to watch them all weave their magic. I don't want to single any one person out but Jenny from Hobby Art was as inspiring as ever, the lady from Kazelcraft Stamps had some great stuff, there was a very clever lady from the Craft Barn doing some beautiful stuff with metal (sorry can't remember her name) and I also managed to get quite near the front to see Leandra Franich (very popular lady).

Depite all that, I have to say that I spent by far the most time watching Sue Roddis. What a clever, clever lady and so friendly and sharing. I watched her for so long that when I left I popped into The Craft Barn and bought a pad of Basic Grey Porcelain papers and went home to make houses ...

(I did go in the shop before I went over the road to the Hall but I'm not saying if I spent, because my pal Sue (the one who hasn't got a blog but should have) will say "I told you so" - lol ....)
So here are two houses - inspired by Sue Roddis ....

Both have Paper Artsy doors. The one on the left has more Studio 490 flowers and leaves. The one on the right is a real mish mash of stamps, including the B-Line Designs Checkerboard. and the Stampers Anonymous Ledger Border.
On Sue R's originals, the tree trunk is a wooden dolly peg, I didn't have one of those, so mine is chipboard. The foliage is a fern stamp, stamped and cut out five times and arranged in a tree-like fashion. One great tip is to stamp on patterned paper, which is why I bought the Porcelain pad). This gives a hint of a background to the image rather than just an expanse of white card (you can just about see this if you click on the photo). Copious amounts of Distress Inks to smudge, edge and highlight were used, as well as loads of buttons ....
Had a great time making these and soon there will be a whole street .......
One final thing I met a blogging pal there - the lovely Alison. It was a bit of a shame but we didn't have much time together because I had to get off home. I hope we can meet up again ....