This Friday's class

I have been asked to put the projects on here that I teach in class so here are three canvases that I made with Valentine's Day in mind. Ladies, you will be able to make one of these this Friday the 3rd February - the choice will be yours but you will need to bring your own photos.
The pictures on mine are from a Darkroom Door sheet and I paired up the men with ladies -
the first canvas is the teenage innocence - when they believe they will be together forever and friends forever - soft and sweet the second is the older stage of romance - the wining and dining and loads of red roses to show you care -
and the third one is the settled down - maybe married or planning a wedding but still very romantic -
Am I daft - or do you see what I see in them - let me know...
and I will be back tomorrow with the next week's projects.

Bye for now
Sue

My Lovely Monday girls...

For the last four weeks I have been teaching the younger girls drawing and painting techniques. They experimented by dropping alcohol into various paints to see/get a reaction and learnt the proportions of a face and the construction of flowers and to get texture into hair and lots more... their concentration is amazing considering their age...
and here they all are - ages 11, 10, 9, 11,7 and 7 - with their finished work...
pretty good hey!!Right, I'm off for food

Bye for now
Sue

Plastic fantastic

Long post today so settle with a cuppa and a biccie and enjoy...
When the Sizzix friendly plastic dies first came into the shop last year I made all these samples and haven't had a chance to demo them what with Christmas and all that .... The plastic is fiddly to work with but if you can overlook the odd misshapen piece they work just fine. I have worn the brooch and one of the pieces has gone abroad so they are lovely to give as presents...
here's a close look at a layered necklace - the tiny stamped image is from a Tim Holtz stamp set before shrinking and the brooch is layered with a brad...
a small bracelet and a simple pair of earrings.....
another couple of necklaces - the one is diecut from a christmas ornament die pinned through with a copper brad and hanging from a plaited waxed cord and the other is from a shrink die embellished with a bead and a metal charm...
and on Friday 13th I taught it to a class of ladies - it's great fun watching it curl and roll around...
and if you look at Cristina's blog Cristinejoy - Scrap you will see the pieces she made on there...
Mu might be smiling but nothing went to plan for her so only Ruth's pieces to see...

and here's Pat happily showing what she made... and then this Friday we moved on to Friendly Plastic.....
I showed the ladies how to join pieces together, marbling, patchwork, draping, flowers, a use for the dreaded peeloffs and then left them to play... and here's Pat pieces - aren't they fun -
and Mu's adorned with a bit of bling and embedded with peel offs!!! but a good use for them...
and last but definitely not least here's Ruth's.....
Well, before you desert in droves with boredom I'll go now but I have sooooo many new projects to share with you on here that I will be back much sooner - hopefully - then I have in recent weeks.
Bye for now
Sue

Winner of give-away

This is my random number generator. She is a Lhasa Apso called Kyipo who can sniff out a stray piece of paper at 10 metres....she had just had a bath a few days ago I laid the pieces of paper on the floor and called - Kyipo come - usually she bounds in eager to please and......pieces of paper are ripe pickings - she is off with them.... but today she refused to co-operate - why am I surprised... she's a girl after all!!! eventually success - she pushed slip number 4 but still refused to look at me!!! Marsha if you email me your snail mail address I will get the die in the post to you.

I am now totally drained after that manic fifteen minutes and now have less than 10 minutes to shower, wash my hair and go to the shop!
Bye for now
Sue

The Give away is now closed...

Firstly, thank you to the 4 new followers - I didn't reach 50 but 46 is a lot nearer than 42. Very happy.
Can I suggest to those folks who have been following me a while that you take a look at the newbies blogs and leave a welcome comment - its always nice to know someone is looking at your work isn't it?

Ok its just gone midnight on Tuesday 24th and the give-away is now closed. I will activate my random generator first thing in the morning and do the draw to see who's won so take a look after 9.30 Spanish time - 8.30 UK time - don't know elsewhere in the world sorry!

Bye for now
Sue

Ta Da!!! Post 300...

.......and a GIVE-AWAY.

It's hard to believe that when I started this blog in October 2008 we would now be celebrating 300 postings...and 42 lovely followers. Perhaps I can persuade a few others to follow my blog to push the number up to 50 - here's hoping...

If you comment here at the bottom of this post before midnight on Tuesday 24th January you will be in with a chance of winning this beautiful die from Sizzix. It is one of their shrink plastic jewellery range. Remember, if you don't leave a comment you won't win so don't be shy - its very easy.
Bye for now
Sue

Post number 299!

As you can see from the title I have reached post number 299 - tada! and a drumroll!! and to celebrate post 300 you will have to read to the bottom and find out about it...

I have been making projects with Prima products - did I tell you the Prima ladies are coming in March - are you sure I told you??? and so I have lots of projects to show over the coming days but I couldn't get the photos right to my satisfaction and so yesterday I e-mailed my eldest son who is a very good amateur photographer - he has had exhibitions of his work - and explained the problem. Well Mum he said its the macro setting you need to use !!!!!Huh! what I said and where????? so having explained it slowly to me like to an idiot - yes I know - I got it!!! and so now I can - hopefully! - take better close ups of my work.
Anyways, I decided to make an easel card for my youngest son and his new wife...and then I decided to construct a drawer for it to sit on... and then it needed a little book to go inside the little drawer - well it did really ...and now the project is made it is so nice that sorry Jon and Jodie but you are not getting it!!! and here it is... and here's the front cover of the mini book...they got married on a terrace overlooking the lake at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas - absolutely beautiful - everything...the first pair of inside pages...there was laughter all day - and I know you are not supposed to laugh when you are getting married but they were like a pair of toddlers giggling - they are so much in love...
and here's the second pair of pages...makes a change to see Colin in a suit and me in a dress...and a very proud mama... "that's my boy"and the back and front covers...as you can see a very small, intimate wedding but just what they both wanted...
it was a fabulous day... and here it is altogether....hope you like it...I certainly do...
and so onto this morning - a while back I made a Sizzix suitcase with a mini album to go inside and it's a lovely project for a class...
and here's the small but very select group of ladies Ruth, Ana and Pat showing their suitcases and mini albums...well done ladies - I enjoyed this morning and I think you did too.
Right if you are still with me I shall be having a "give-away" to celebrate my 300th post - so keep watching this space - better yet join in as a follower and you won't miss it - and if you feel like commenting at the bottom I love receiving comments so feel free.
Bye for now
Sue

Feeling nearer to normal thank goodness

Having looked forward to a break from work over the Christmas and New Year period and then finding myself ill for just about the whole holiday it has taken me a while to feel well enough to even think about all the projects that I had in mind.

So, with the ear infection finally clearing - unfortunately the cough still lingers - here's just a short post to show you a scrapbook page I made with Prima products.
I love this photo of my eldest son and grandchildren in our pool last summer.
For those of you who don't know - drum roll - tada!!! I have the Prima team coming from the USA on their Europe tour - so ladies, put the 15th and 16th of March dates in your diary. The lovely Prima ladies will be doing three classes on both days. The Prima products are gorgeous and so easy to work with and it should be a real treat.

Bye for now
Sue

Happy New Year 2012

Well, Kate I managed it. Here is the January page of my 366 page journal. I was determined to join in again this year - for those who don't know Kate Crane has run the 365 day challenge - see The Kathryn Wheel on side bar for Kate's blog and details - for the past I think this is the third year. I participated fully in 2010 but fell off in February last year as there was just so much going on in my life but this year I am determined to keep going.
This is part of the cover...
this shows the detail on the cover - basically I took a plain Kraft covered Moleskine journal, added a layer of titan buff - that was before I had decided what to do and it took away the bareness - then over a crafters template I spread a layer of moulding paste and let that dry. I then hunted around - don't forget I am at home and only have a few basic products here - and found a couple of old Tattered Angels mist sprays - sea glass and tattered leather - and gave a good old spray and left that to dry. I then thought aha I'll make it pop with a light coat of gold rub n buff but grabbed the Chinese red in my eagerness and what a good mistake that turned out to be. It now looks like old leather with loads of touchy feely texture - what a happy accident.
Right, I'm off to do the ironing - it never goes away does it. Mustn't complain though as its the only "around the house" job I do these days so
Bye for now

Sue