lovely surprise today...

Phew!!! it's HOT again here today. 44 degrees but I have finished work for the day and am now just going to try and catch up with some me time...

 ...and I had a lovely surprise this morning. The postman arrived with a parcel - didn't order anything methinks???  and when I opened it it was full of goodies from my lovely friend Marsha in Holland. Can you see the package made from an inside-out milk carton?? and even the jiffy bag was patterned...she is one very talented lady - click on Marsha in the followers and you should be able to view her blog...

4 rolls of paper tape - this one has a message "Dead or" and that is how I am feeling in this heat... and you can't see it but there is a birdcage tape which is soooo gorgeous...

a card made by Monique Helfrich, a friend of Marsha's - isn't it beautiful...

 some fabric stickers...

a wooden brooch of an extremely sophisticated lady which I intend wearing tomorrow to my ladies class and handmade buttons...

 I am feeling so spoilt - thank you Marsha xx


I am going to take advantage of the peace and quiet - Colin is still in the UK till the weekend - so I am off to put my feet up with a book - nothing too serious just a holiday-type read so
Bye for now
Sue x

A bit of journalling

Now that's surprised you hasn't it! Me posting twice in as many days!

Having completed all the things on my immediate to do list - there are other lists - ie buy new sandals, book dental check-up, buy paper and carrier bags for the shop, etc,etc... I could go on...but the immediate things are all done and so I awarded myself a play date this morning. Flicking through my moleskin I found this background done a while ago - it has acrylic paint, oil pastels and a little doodling on it - but it seemed to be right for how I felt and

here it is completed. I added a couple of magazine images, some journalling, a

bit of random stamping, a pair of numbers cut from packaging and alcohol inked, more doodling and a quote that I thought seemed most appropriate... given that the temperature is..... well,  HOT!

Right, I'm off to jump in the pool to try to cool down so
Bye for now
Sue

the best of intentions...

I always promise to blog more with the best of intentions but life seems to get in the way...in my last post I said how much work I had on my plate and hoped that I wasn't pushing my luck!!! well - I did - I pushed too hard and the following day I spent 5 1/2 hours at A and E. Turns out it was acute lumbago
.....Pain - no - it was agony!!! An injection - oh the relief - and loads of blue bullets and muscle relaxants and a holistic massage later I am upright and almost back to normal - me and normal in the same sentence I hear you say -  well, as normal as I ever am!!! Lol!

Here's a couple of cards I made for the ladies Friday morning class a couple of weeks ago using dylusions, templates, a bit of stamping and a bit of writing and doodling.....

 can you see the sheen of the heat embossing...
and some happy ladies...

 and then this Friday class - Ana front right - had asked could I show her image transfer -
we also had two men join in the class - Cliff and Norman - I sang the "Cheers" theme tune - where everybody knows your name dadadada dada- but it went down totally flat - shame really!
we did lots of ways onto various surfaces - but I now have no fingerprints left on the first three fingers of my right hand!!!

 and lots of unfinished samples - very tough on the old fingertips that!

what else - well the children are still working on their summer 2012 album, the piece for the local magazine got in on time, the children's summer holiday kit is ready to be sold from tomorrow night - that was loads of work but I am very pleased with the way it turned out...

I will put those photos on after it goes on sale - oh and in preparation of Tanya coming on Sunday - woohoo!!! I have had my toenails painted fluorescent pink!!!

Bye for now
Sue x

a pre-summer holiday project...

 I have been absent from the blog due to the sheer volume of work I have on at

the moment. I am trying to get all the summer holiday projects made, order loads of new crafting goodies, I had a piece for a local magazine to write and all the while keeping the shop and all my classes running - at the moment I seem to be winning but I don't really want to jeopardise it all by speaking too soon. 

Here are the girls tonight working on making the covers of the album above - they sprayed, heat embossed, stamped,  die-cut and triple embossed...

 a glimpse of the inside pages - full of mica powders painted, sprayed and dusted...with lots of pockets for notes and memorabilia...

this is them triple embossing - not bad for 7 to 11 year olds...and yes that is a Versamark pad that Rosie is tapping her 0 into - just look at the colour of it - absolutely filthy but it still works just fine. I will show their albums in a couple or three weeks when they are completed.

Right, loads more still to do tonight but hopefully will be able to show another project tomorrow so
Bye for now
Sue