Another catch up...and some Christmas cards...

Life is hectic as ever. 

With the arrival of Ben and putting arrangements in place for the shop to be looked after while I am away in the UK having cuddles..... and chasing up orders that have yet to arrive????? grrr!......  and then to add to all that, since the weekend we have had some very heavy rain.....the photo shows one of the roads on my drive home - like driving up a river...

and don't you know it the shop roof leaked again but luckily Inga was on hand to mop up yesterday and this was the scene that greeted me this morning - puddles on plastic bags covering the till, credit card machine, etcetc.....

 After all that doom and gloom here are just a few of the Christmas cards from this years classes.....I always challenge the ladies and this year colour was the challenge.  How many of you use non-traditional Christmas colours on your cards. Talking to my customers it seems that cardmakers can be very "safe" when it comes down to it. I used red with brown...

 and brown and cream.....

 and Halloween papers from Echo Park - aaahhhh!!! orange and charcoal.....how daring !!! 
more cards tomorrow...

Now for my lovely girlies... these are some of my class girls with their finished canvases... loads of spraying, stencilling, painting, diecutting and fun...

and these two photos are from Birthday parties that we have held at the shop during October...

this was Izzy's 10th birthday party - all girls...

 and below is Vivi's 10th birthday party - 9 girls and 4 boys...

 The feedback was excellent from the parties and we plan on hosting more in the New Year...
the canvas was based on one Tanya made in July when she was here on holiday - thanks sweetie - and here's the version that I made on a pre-party trial run..... just needs a photo and its good to go...pity the photo doesn't show all that menacing sparkle and drippy black drips!!! thought the boys would prefer something a bit less girly...

above is Tanya's canvas after a couple of weeks in the sunny shop window - a totally different colour to the one below - how it was when Tanya made it - just shows how quickly things fade here...

.....and I'll leave you with another photo of Ben...

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

Last 4 tags of Christmas...and a bit more...

Thursday and Friday we had some rain - in fact it positively tipped it down - along with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder - having said that it was much needed as this summer has been long and hot and so humid...this was the sight outside the front of the shop with me in the dry... Here are all the Christmas tags together on a board as they are displayed in the shop...and here's a bit of how they were made...

blend some colour, stamp a bit, colour and add some embellishments and its done...again lots of colour, a frame, a strip of tissue tape and a dangly bit and we're done...a bit of embossing through the Big Shot, a touch of colouring over the top, add a rosette, a frame and a bit of stamping and hey presto another tag done...

this tag looks quite dull but its not really - just a little more subtle than the others.

and now for something totally different to what I normally do... a set of Christmas cards made very quickly and easily but very effective nonetheless using Wet Look markers and clear and rainbow sparkle embossing powder - a new favourite of mine...

These cards went down very well with the ladies in class yesterday.

Right off to have chips for tea and watch X-factor and totally chill...

Bye for now

Sue

Christmas in September

These are my first four Christmas cards for 2011. I shall be posting more of my Christmas projects throughout the week so keep watching... Bye for now

Sue

ramblings.......

At the moment I don't know if I'm on my head or my heels. There is just so much going on in my life that I feel like I have just staggered off a very hectic, whirly fairground ride - you know that sensation...whoooosh!!!
...so I am grateful to the Spanish that their Father's Day is today and all the shops are closed (well, with the exception of cafes and bars) so today I got up late, can potter, think and just try to catch up a little - well hopefully. Also, Colin is out in this lovely bright sunshine playing golf so I have the house to myself (well with the exception of two playful dogs and one "I love lying in the sunshine on the windowsill" cat) so here goes. You might want to grab a coffee and a biscuit or two...this post isn't titled ramblings for nothing Lol!

The shop is very small and it is a shop with a table and six chairs - a very bright, sunny and welcoming little shop but little is the operative word and for some time now I have been bemoaning the fact that what I really want is a large teaching space with a small shop attached - just the opposite to what I have - don't we all want what we haven't got?? Anyway, after looking around at several empty premises - and believe me there are plenty of those here at present - we think we may have found a better place and so we are going to be on the move. The new place is not far from the old one so there should be no need for panic amongst those who come to classes and such. More details when all the paperwork is finalised and signed on the dotted line...

Colin bought me a present of a notepad laptop and has thoughtfully moved my millions of photos onto there but as I am just familiarising myself with it I am still using the home computer too and I went to post photos of my sweet little shop but I find he has removed all my millions (his term not mine) of photos onto the notepad so I may have to wait until he is home to add the photos.
edit - I have found out how to add the photos on the laptop so they are here too!! WooHoo!!!

Right - classes are full on and on Friday Q and Monica made cards

Saturday's class came and went unphotographed
on Monday the girls finished their mirrors
Dayana and Mina

luckily I photographed Sarah showing her mirror to Dayana as she went home before the others

and on Wednesday I taught a workshop making a canvas as taught to me by the lovely Tanya when she was here last November. Tanya bless her took me in hand last November and helped, guided ( well, bullied really) me into making the next three months projects that I had been prevaricating on for a long while, one of which was this lovely canvas. She made the one for display

while I sat alongside her and made one for Victoria with a beautiful photo of her and John at their wedding last October.

I gave it to her at Christmas and she was so pleased - I also made one for my youngest son's girlfriend who I always refer to as the lovely Jodie - if you saw her look at my son Jon you would know why I call her that - she absolutely adores him and thats all you can ask for your own child isn't it, that they have someone who thinks they are as wonderful as you their mother does.

Wednesday's workshop - Q, Monica and Mu

Here is the one I made - its the one of Colin's parents when they were courting in the 1930's which I showed half finished a week or two back - see I can finish projects - well sometimes Ha!ha!

and Q's which she made for her much adored husband John

and Monica's of her wedding three years ago to Phil

and Mu's of her Mother Vera (top in the photo below) who sadly died just two weeks ago - she was desperate to come to the workshop to do something normal in her world which was suddenly turned upside down with the very sudden loss of her much loved Mum.

They are all so different but all absolutely gorgeous. We sang, laughed and cried our way through Wednesday and then I had a Wednesday night class with the girls which I completely forgot to photograph probably because I was sooo tired.

During the past week I have also been making a flap album for my youngest son Jon who will be 30 on 3rd April - just where does the time go to - and yesterday morning I put the finishing touches to it. I justneed to add the photos now...




Well, if you read to the end "you're a better man than me Gunga Din" I'm bored now so I'm off to see what else I can get up to on this day off! Yay!!!so
Bye for now
Sue