Christmas party

The table says it all - it is the Northumbrian Scribes' Christmas Party in Sunderland and we enjoyed ourselves. Everyone brings something for the buffet.

The card exchange amongst members is one of the most important bits of the day and cards are sent on to those who could not join us for the party. Some were prevented from coming by bad weather on the day, some just not able to be there. Opening the cards when you get home is one of the highlights - so much imagination and creativity is shown. Below are the tables full of cards.

There was an olfactory quiz as part of the entertainment - thank you to Judi Postle for putting together such an original and challenging idea. She had us all sniffing little boxes full of Christmas type goodies to try and identify the scents.

In the afternoon we all sat down to listen to the Beacon Band (which does contain one Scribe, Dominic James) and they sang a mix of local, not local and Christmassy songs for us. Thank you to the Beacon Band for a lovely entertainment. Incidentally, the band said that they use their Northumbrian Scribes calendars to note down their gigs and make sure they all put down the right dates by synchronising pages using the illustrations.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all scribes and blog followers.

A whiter shade of pale

A lot of scribes turned up last month to learn from Celia Kilner about embossing. A self-confessed devotee of 'white-on-white' Celia pointed out how some quite small and simple cut outs could be re-used to make complicated designs that could be used over and over.

Making the stencil for the design meant learning to think backwards and Celia suggested that to avoid confusing yourself that you continued to work backwards throughout the process if you could manage it.

The lady at the lightbox is Mary Swales who is using a fine point to rub her paper into the corners of her stencil to make a sharp outline.

The final results were stunning - if somewhat difficult to see in the grey late afternoon light.