...don't forget the ginger biccies!!!

This is a long post so grab yourself a cup of coffee ...and don't forget the ginger biccies

This week's challenge on the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog is ...show your layers. Well, I have been layering madly this week.

I needed to get my 365 day challenge pages for September made for two reasons - the obvious one that its September tomorrow but also because I am going away on Thursday for ten days - part work/ part holiday - I'll let you know on that bit when I get back. Let's just say a lot of driving involved both in UK and abroad so not very restful but I will be taking journals and pens....and money haha!! I can feel a trip to WHSmith for a new moleskine coming on!

Hopefully these pages will have loaded in the correct sequence - these pages had 4 layers of paint Dabbers before I thought to take any photos - nothing new there then! Pearl, Hazelnut, Sunshine Yellow and Sunset Orange.

Then more layers, Terracotta and Red Pepper also blobbed on and spread around with an old credit card.

Then I thought it looked a bit loud and although the weather has been HOT! 40 and upwards whew! this is for September and hopefully the heat might calm down a bit this month so I gave it a coat of watered down gesso applied with cut n dry foam.

Still looked a bit hot so I gave it another layer of gesso and was much more pleased with that.

I cut some mini pictures from Crafty Individuals books ( I just love their work) and glued those down all overlapping - see more layers!




Then I cut 30 4 x 4 squares from Delish Design papers...

coloured around the edges with Wild Honey on a Blending tool...

then distressed the edges with Tim's burnt edge technique... and stuck those squares down...

added the title September and a bit of highlighting - does that count as another layer??? and the numbers on the squares and three mini tags and voila! September is good to go!!!

This is an easel Sympathy card I made for one of my ladies - if you are reading this Lin we all send you our love - Bob was such a nice guy with a great sense of humour. here's a sideways view to see the layers better. If you count the ribbon!!! there are six!

When Kate Crane came to play we had a wonderful time -you can see the page Kate made if you click here http://thekathrynwheelblogspot.com/ and also the photo she took of the pair of us giggling. This is my page completed with the journalling on.

If you look closely you can see the shimmer from the mica inks I sprayed over a Tim Holtz mask

Ideally I would like to wear my Ranger educator hat all the time but in my job I have to be a jack of all and master of none so here is another Diamond fold card to display in the shop to replace the one I sent to my granddaughter for her birthday.

Zoe Lauren and Daniella

Hope you managed to stay with me to the end - I may only manage one more blog before I go and then you'll have almost 2 whole weeks of peace - haha!!

Bye for now

Sue

A few assorted cards and things...

I was doodling and decided to tear out the page and make it into a birthday card for my daughter Victoria, for her birthday on 4th September. If you look really closely you may be able to see that the flag in the top right corner says "is 32"

This mornings class was doodling and the ladies, though apprehensive at first, thoroughly enjoyed themselves - I showed them fifteen basic patterns and then asked them to use them in an atc sized rectangle top left and then I showed them ribbons - top right and below. We were enjoying ourselves so much that I forgot to take any photos - I have never had such a quiet class!!! Interesting how all their atc's were totally different using the same patterns.
These are two cards I made for a dear friend Erica who lost her lovely husband John to cancer last week - the one on the left is the one Colin and I are sending and the other one is for the men Colin and John played golf with to sign. I have such lovely memories of John - he used to come to collect Erica and sit himself down and munch the ginger biscuits - Colin and I had some lovely times with him and Erica and it's hard to believe we won't see him again.

Here's the fifth and final card in the kinetic series - its the Diamond fold card. I am sending it to my granddaughter Abigail for her 11th birthday on 5th September... and here's Lorraine, Mu, me, Margaret and Barbara with the cards they made last Friday in class... Bye for now

Sue

3rd week of SSSS challenge

For those of who who do not know what the SSSS challenge is I suggest you visit simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com and see for yourself - it's a newish challenge blog just overflowing with great ideas and artwork. It's a site for people who love Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi, 7 Gypsies and Graphic 45 and all things vintage. Each week a challenge is issued and anyone can put a photo of their artwork on there and each week some lucky people win prizes - this is my way of doing something for myself. I make so many things to demonstrate techniques for my classes I need an outlet just for me to be me and this suits me down to the ground.

The theme this week is Anything Tim Holtz inspired - and I remembered he made a quilt out of grungepaper so thought I would try to use that as my inspiration. This started out as a 4 x 4 book cover - I had too many images and ideas so I then decided to use the 7.5 x 5 Bind-It-All covers and ended up with the 8 x 8 ones!!

This is the back and front cover unbound as I haven't yet decided what to do with the inside pages. I made the tag to go on the inside front but liked it so much I decided it would be good on the back cover instead. The tag has been inked with Distress Inks over Tim's mask, stamped, the edges distressed and some alterations attached and ribbons added.

On the front cover the grungeboard heart has been crackle painted and distressed over, the grungeboard wings have been Dabbered and sewn with wire, there is some stamping with Tim's stamps and some texturing with Tim's texture fade dies, the top right corner is a fragment glossy accented over stamping, the 13 was textured faded, distress inked with glossy accents over, the FLY letters were cut with a Tim Sizzix die called Vintage market alphabet I think, I added some paper clips to hold the typewriter key letters and a few staples and the rest has papers from Tim's paper stack and some embellishments from- yes you've guessed it , the man himself Tim.

I was a little panicky at first as I thought I was very low on Tim's bits and bobs but I needn't have worried - I had plenty.

Thanks for looking and have a go yourself - its good fun

Bye for now

Sue

ps just looked at the blog and think I might put some cinammon stickles on the crown tomorrow.

Playdate and a pressie...

I started this page in my moleskine this morning and shall try to add some journalling later. I tried to capture the essence of girls having fun together. My lovely blog friend Kate Crane (of Craft Stamper fame) and her family are here on holiday at the moment. Kate came to the shop today for a playdate and brought in her 365 day challenge diary and her A4 and A5 moleskine journals to show me (at my request I may add). They are all so fabulous - so much to take in - too much in fact.
We both layered paint and ink and other messy stuff on our pages and we were so engrossed in our work we didn't notice the time and it was gone half past two before we realised. She went off to join her family at the beach and I realised I hadn't taken a photo of her page. Hopefully we will meet up again before she goes home.

Kate gave me a fabulous atc - in her own special style - I am so doing a happy dance. Isn't it just gorgeous and aren't I the lucky one. Sadly the photo doesn't show the sheen or the brightness of the colours but in real life it's even more lovely. I tried to take a photo of us holding my camera not very successfully... Kate took a much better one with her camera that she will email me when she gets home but here's this one for now...Here's this week's project for the youngsters who come to class....

the frame and easel were given a paint wash just to soften the look while keeping the woodgrain... detail of the lollipop flowers.... and the butterfly....stamped, coloured, Stickled and with a beaded body and antennae

Here's the girls from last night who worked so hard with their work

Becky, Katie, Dayana, Sabrina, Megan Bye for now

Sue

Simon Says Stamp and Show

It's Monday and already the second week of the new Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge. Here is my entry for this week's challenge which is The Wendy Vecchi ; Studio 490 Style!

Wendy Vecchi style courtesy of Tim Holtz!!!

I only have one set of Wendy Vecchi stamps which are very useful words so I used that stamped onto paper from Tim's retro grunge book which was attached behind a hole cut in Grungeboard with my Sizzix Baroque die. The Grungeboard itself is inked with Vintage Photo.
I cut Tim's Sizzix flowers which are inked with Stormy Sky then run through the Big Shot through Tim's texture fade dots (as I don't have the dot stamp Wendy uses) and inked over with Chipped Sapphire to accentuate the dots. The smallest layer and the pointy layer are misted with gold Perfect Pearls as are the leaves cut from another Sizzix die. Behind the flower is a Tim stamp from Artful artifacts - a flourish stamp that I just love and is my new favourite.
On the other side the hearts are cut from grungepaper - one is coloured with Distress ink and over stamped in Brown Stazon with the alphabet from Artful Artifacts and the other has a page from an old Spanish book glued on, coloured with Distress inks and stamped with the numbers from another of Tim's stamp sets. The 45 is accented with an embellishment from Tim.
Around the edge and the "hole" is a dotted line drawn with a fineliner pen. Finishing touch is a small heart button from my stash.

This now hangs next to last week's submission and I am going to put a poster on the wall explaining just what these pieces are for and with a link to SSS.

I have added two photographs of it because I couldn't decide which looked better - the darker one which is more the true colours but where you can't see the details or the paler one where you can.

Bye for now

Sue

The rain in Spain falls mainly by the bucketful...

We had a good class this morning making yet another in the kinetic series this time a swing card using stamps from Clarity.

During the morning the sky got darker and the rain started to fall and the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed all at the same time. Mucho big flashes and bangs!!!

By 2 pm when I was due to leave a lot of water had arrived!!!!!The rain had risen across the pavement and reached the shop door (luckily the shop has a step up)
and my feet got slightly wet as I paddled out to my car!!!

This was the scene that greeted me as I turned into Cami Cansalades a road near home...sorry a lake near home!!!!!

Luckily I drive a 4 X 4 so I reached home safely but I am NOT going out again today so

Bye for now

Sue

New Challenge

Over on the new Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge blog the challenge this week is "Things with Wings" so to me that means birds and butterflies. I took three beermats, covered them in Alcohol inked glossy card and edged them with gold Dabber. I then stamped a few Tim Holtz stamps directly onto the beer mats. The butterflies I stamped onto card covered with book page, coloured them with Distress inks and then added touches of Stickles. I dug out my Grungeboard letters and Dabbered them and Alcohol inked them, added a metal bird embellishment coloured with Alcohol ink and attached it all together with ribbon after Crop-o-diling. Oh and not to forget the Wendy Vecchi sentiment.

It now adorns the wall by the till.

Off for some lunch and a rest before the younger kids class tonight.

Bye for now
Sue

Happy Birthday to the shop, Happy Birthday.....

I can't quite believe it but my craft shop is 4 years old today. We are not in the same premises we started out in but one 4 times the size and all this from someone who moved full time to Spain five and a half years ago already retired but who then decided that life with Colin on the golf course four days a week was too quiet!!! Now I work 6 mornings and 2 evenings (1 of them until late) a week, teach 5 classes and although tired at times couldn't be happier.

The girls enjoyed doodling on Wednesday and so I decided to continue with doodling. This time we made a 12 x 12 page. Mine is on the right and Yaa's is on the left - I know, we made one for each other...

Melissa took a photo of Yaa and I and when they are printed I will put the same photo on each layout.

Leire,Paula and Nayara

Blaithin and Melissa

Right I am now off to do the boring things Sunday brings - the washing and ironing....so

Bye for now
Sue

ps why does Bad Blogger show you a preview of how lovely the page will look and then when you publish it the things have all moved around!!! GGGRRR!!!!!!

Doodle bugs

A small selection of pages from one of myA5 doodling journals....

Eleven girls came to class tonight. I showed them 15 basic patterns for doodling.They were then asked to draw a 10 x 15cm rectangle with a curved horizontal line and a looped vertical line and they had to use these patterns to design a picture.

After a break we then drew bugs from our names. Lots of laughter followed.

Here's some of the girls showing their alien name bugs....

Right I am off for some dinner so

Bye for now

Sue