artsee bloggers

Look what's new this week...

Geri and her husband have set up this blog for arty farty types - it's not a challenge site - its a site to see dozens of amazing artists sharing their work. They call it a directory of the creatively inclined and I agree so if you want to share other artwork or just view it click on the button and it should hopefully take you there.

Right, I have Tanya, my lovely friend from Belgium arriving later tonight for 2 weeks or r and r so I'd best be off so

Bye for now
Sue

my butterfly ladies

I haven't blogged much lately as I have been working on some future projects for September and there hasn't been anything to show as it is almost all in the pieces stage. I play about with bits for ages before deciding how to put it altogether so I thought I would show you instead some pages from my A4 molesking journal.

In April I was sitting one afternoon after work and saw some butterflies flitting around the garden and wondered what they would be like if they were human and this is my interpretation...

these were just sketches done with a Pilot pen and my watercolours.

and this is the inside front cover of the moleskine

so from my own happy place

Bye for now

Sue

Language skills

Had an interesting morning on Friday. The ladies came to make lollipop flowers from fabric and kitchen paper.

Four ladies in class - no problem you would think and normally you would be right -such a small group would be quite a pleasure -

well it was a pleasure and thankfully I had asked Yaa my lovely Saturday girl to come in to help in the shop. Let me explain...

Pilar, the lady Yaa is helping, is Spanish and only speaks Spanish and when you don't understand her she says it again...only faster! She is so keen the words cannot tumble fast enough as she tries to explain......

Barbara (standing) is English and only speaks English

Chantal in stripes is Belgian and only speaks French

are you with me so far .....

and Emma is English but has lived in Spain since age 13 and luckily also knows French from school

and so between us all we had some very interesting conversations.

Since living here in Spain my language skills - rusty to say the least - have been sorely tested.
I have a wide variety of crafters coming into the shop from Germany, Netherlands and France and the like. I learnt French and German at school but was never very confident at the verbals and with the passage of time ...well need I say more.....mange tout, mange tout!! a la Del boy!

but it all went well and they are back for more next week so they all must have enjoyed it.

Right, need to get the ironing done but it's soooo HOT. Might just leave it till later!!!!!

Bye for now
Sue

Kits for the kids

I was asked a few weeks ago if I had planned any courses for the school holidays and the answer was nothing more than the usual classes. These continue all throughout the year because whilst some of the regulars go to their homeland or just on holidays, the rest still attend added in with the children here on holiday from Madrid and Valencia or UK.

With this thought in mind I put together a kit consisting of a sketch book, two gel pens, two paint Dabbers (Ranger of course) and a selection of bits and bobs to help them with their journalling. I added doileys, die cuts, alphabet styles, phrases suitable for girls 8 to 14 - the hours I spent on the internet researching these - lids, sequin waste, a page of journalling prompts, a page of hints and tips which walks the girls through the order they can add layers - which we have been doing in class over the last six or so weeks and lots more.

These kits have proved to be very popular and so I decided to use exactly the same kit to make some example pages for the girls and here they are

I just loooove this page. Just a simple face from a magazine -the flower with eye is cut from another image so she has two different colour eyes - didn't we all love adding moustaches and glasses on photos in newspapers when we were younger - this is hopefully just the next step up from that!
On this page I have used the sequin waste to add texture and stamped with lids using Stream and Mountain Rose - my two chosen colours - a fun page... I did these next two pages to dispel the idea that you needed more than two colours. Some of the girls believe that more is more and I have tried to tell them that you use what you have this page is mostly images from magazines with a little Dabbered water and doodled word "blue" Colin is home shortly - he has been away in UK on a golfing jolly with our two sons - and I am sooo tired. Looking after two dogs and a cat, an 86 year old Mother and keeping myself fed and watered - most of which Colin takes care of has taken its toll and add in the neighbour two doors down who had a party on Thursday night which had a singer with a microphone in his garden no less!!! belting out Elvis hits until 12,50 am!!! when I had gone to bed at 10 absolutely whacked for an early night. Add in looking after the shop, teaching classes, the washing and ironing, watering the plants all of which I always do anyway, de-pooing the garden - how can two little white fluff buckets produce so much of the stuff!! and a large delivery which Yaa helped me to check off, price up and put out yesterday and more projects in the pipeline and I think my head is about to burst! so before it does I will say

Bye for now and see you soon

Sue