wishing you all the JOY of the season

Taking a few days off from the shop to spend time at home re-acquainting myself with my patient husband and lovely dogs and cat.
I made this JOY on grungeboard in the summer when Christmas seemed so far away and now here it is already...where did 2011 go?Bye for now - may see you again in 2011 but if not be ready for loads of new projects in 2012.
Sue xx

Hurrah!! blogger has let me in again!!!

Has anybody else been having trouble getting photos to load on their blog. I have spent the last few days trying to get in but no good - blogger won...
BUT..... just now when I tried I managed so here goes - lets hope I get to the end before it has revenge on me or something!!!

This morning I woke to a most beautiful sky coming in through the bedroom windows but as I reached for my camera my cat Tia decided she wanted to be in the photo too...This is the beautiful sun rise I was trying to capture...just look at that paintbox coloured sky... Whew! - yesterday was one busy day for me. In the morning I had a group of ladies from Jalon U3A to learn about distressing...
they bought a Big Shot machine and dies from me earlier in the year and I did a class for them then to demonstrate that...
and now they want to progress with their card making so I added a little distressing to the die cutting and you have some fabulous cards and some very happy ladies...
and then the usual youngsters class in the evening...
I haven't done tea-bag folding for years (I was asked how to do it by one of the regulars a week or two ago) and I taught the littlies to make a pillow box and a card and some teabag folded flowers and it was a really quiet class!!! Just look at the concentration.
We had a problem in the loo last week as you could hear water running but couldn't work out where from...well today I had a builder with a Kangol hammer and a plumber and we now have a few tiles missing from the floor but...Friday ladies if you are reading this... the water is back on and the loo is functioning again - no more trips to Mr Punch, the local cafe/bar to use their ladies.
Bye for now
Sue

A Graphic 45 Christmas

The trouble with this time of year is that everyone is making Christmas cards and I made mine way back in July and August ready for the Christmas market I staged in the shop in September.

I am still teaching Christmas but behind the scenes it is Valentine's Day and Easter. I will show a few sneak peeks of what I have been working on over the next couple of weeks but for now you will have to be content with the Graphic 45 cards I made to show what you can do with just one pad and a few odds and ends. and here's an extra one that wouldn't fit when I attached them all to the display board.

Bye for now
Sue
ps and I still have loads of G45 bits left for future

December already

Just a quick post. Here is the Advent box that was a joint effort between my lovely friend Tanya and myself back in the summer. It has had so many lovely comments - and sold a box or three to other crafters hoping to make a keepsake to pass onto future generations - that I thought I would share it with you all today.
Bye for now
Sue
ps Happy Birthday Mum - 87 today

The last couple of days

I've been working hard making up for the down-time when I was so empty.
Yesterday morning as well as teaching a class of children and serving in the shop - with help from the lovely Yaa - I made four Christmas cards for my immediate family - 3 children and Mum - all very similar but all different and using the lovely Autumn limited edition colour Distress Inks - we have just a couple still in stock at the shop ladies - the ripe persimmon colour really brings the tattered floral die into life as a poinsettiaIn Friday morning's class the ladies made three of my twelve Christmas tags - here's one of them...very bright and cheery...6 happy ladies showing their tags...Mu, Maxine, Ruth, Pat, Shirley and Rena...I love the colours on this one... this looks so pale but it's just a bad photo...

Well, the washing and ironing is done, Craig has been voted off the X-factor - boohoo! and now I am going to snuggle up in bed with my kindle and find a new book to read - just finished The Winner by David Baldacci about a lottery scandal - very interesting

Bye for now

Sue

my mojo has returned...

Woohoo - it seems that painting the wooden boxes worked as my mojo is back - the ideas are now tumbling fast as ever - faster than I can make the samples.
With teaching classes and working in the shop - there are just not enough hours in the day now.
I found a Maya Rd accordian album that I had attached Basic Grey kraft papers to in a drawer and as soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to do with it - strange as it had sat there unloved for absolutely ages!
Fast as you like I unclipped the jump rings and started by distressing all the edges with a new favourite Distress Ink Pad - Gathered Twigs - one of the limited edition for autumn range.
This is the front of the album with a grunge stamped man - glossy accented later -
a bit of stamping and a bit more die cutting,a shrink plastic dangly and a metal star.The inside pages came together really well with more stamping, die cutting, a few bits ' n'
bobs and some Broken China and Shabby Shutters to liven it all upLast night I had three very quietbut very giggly girls to class. They were making Christmas cards using Wet Look Markers.

Here are Arlette, Alice and Celine showing the zillions of cards they made...
and here they are giggling again as Alice dropped hers.....

and here's the sample board they were using to make their cards...... loads of quick and easy and light to post Christmas cards- just what you need.....

Mum has hurt her back and Colin has gone to sort her out so I need to give the littlies their dinner so

Bye for now

Sue

Hoping for a bit of inspiration...

I have been going through a complete brain melt down since my holiday. I haven't been able to rouse any ideas or inspiration which is so unlike me - my brain normally travels faster than my hands can write down the ideas or process them - so I thought that if I bought a couple of plain wooden boxes from the local Chino bazaar - like pound shops - and painted them it might kick start my mojo or at least awaken it. I have loads of assorted sewing items and buttons scattered around so I thought if I gave them a home in one place that would be a good start so this is what I made...
A distressed sewing bits n bobs box...
and a button box... in a funky urban style...very Barbie pink and bright...with grungeboard letters and rub-ons...
Will have to see on Monday if the therapy worked but I am generally pleased with the way they turned out and if nothing else they will be useful and help me be a bit more organised.At the start of the week I made this little book with sticky back canvas covers, alcohol inked letters and spray inks for Inga as I had forgotten her birthday - to give her due credit Tanya originally made one for me - although I used templates with the spray inks...as my mojo was still somewhere over the USA I decided I could lift the idea and I know Tanya wouldn't mind...after all it was a personal gift for a friend and not a class.

Right, I have loads of ironing still to do - 16 days away sounds good but when you come home to bad weather and can't dry the washing and the clothes you are wearing in the meantime also need washing it mounts up to 3 and a half weeks worth - anyway, I am now wafffling so I will say

Bye for now

Sue

Jon and Jodie's Wedding - 27th October 2011

I promised a few snapshots of the wedding so here they are...

Here come the girls..... daughter Victoria is 3rd from left in the frilly pink number and Granddaughter Abigail is in front...

and the boys - well most of them...what's Lucy doing there??My lovely eldest son Lee and grandson Joshua...
The Announcement...plus Jean, Jodie's Mum looking on...
The waiting is almost over...

Jodie on her Dad's arm... They are pronounced husband and wife...A very proud Mum... Jon having a bit of fun with his nephew Joshua... There was smiles all day...

Colin and I had ordered the cake and it was a complete surprise to them - this followed a lovely meal in the Paris restaurant in the Eiffel Tower ...and more smiles...

It was a fabulous day all told and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves.

Jon phoned last night from Sandals in St Lucia to say they are having a really good time in a beachfront room, they have been sailing and Jodie is having a golf lesson today.

Today is the first day I have felt anything like normal??? but I have been advised that epsom salts are good for swollen aching feet so I am off to buy some and then open the shop

so Bye for now

Sue

Yay! I'm back - well my body is here but my brain and eyes are having serious trouble functioning. Walking round Las Vegas on Friday catching the last minute sights plays havoc with your feet and and then all that travelling afterwards not arriving home till midnight Saturday and I am still so out of it!!! I went to the shop this morning to takeover from Inga but I wouldn't say I worked and luckily its Halloween parties so no little girls class tonight and tomorrow is a big fiesta here so time to catch up with mountains of washing and hopefully more sleep.
I thought I would show the card I made for my youngest son's wedding. Jon works in the film industry and proposed at the top of the Eiffel Tower on October 27th last year and they married on Oct 27th this year in Las Vegas and had their reception at the Paris Hotel in the Eiffel Tower restaurant. I also made them an album - a sort of this is your life...
I contacted Jodie's Mum and she sent me photos to which I added ones of Jon at a similar age...they were so surprised and pleased...
You and Me - this is our story...Three wishes for them...

baby Jon

and baby Jodie...

what a cutie... and another cutie... yes he was and still is all boy with a love of wheels - bikes, cars, Grandad's train...

Jodie age 8 to 13... We very reluctantly let Jon have a bike at age 16 to get to college..... Jodie age 16 and growing into the beautiful woman she has become... Off to a festival at age 19... Jon age 19 and a reunion concert of the school barbershop group he sang with and at Victoria's 21st with Chris 3rd from left one of his best men The two loves of his life besides Jodie - his bike and his golf...a charming and adorable girl...

This page speaks for itself... Don't know about superhero but he is all these and more... This is probably my favourite page of the whole album... Jon's birthday in 2009... These next two pages I left for them to complete as I hadn't any photos of the engagement or their trip to Paris... and I couldn't ask for any without arousing their suspicions... This was last Christmas

I hope you enjoyed the album - they certainly did and the wedding was absolutely beautiful and I will show photos of that later in the week

so Bye for now

Sue