Happy Halloween

Just thought I would try to post the things I made for Halloween...so here goes...

 31 October Street has a scary house.....
above is the front...

and here are the side views...

and the back door typically with the cat wanting to come in...














and here is my graveyard complete with coffin, gravestones, lamppost, lantern and skull...

closer view of the coffin.....

 close up of the top hat...

this is the house in the display in the front window of the shop...I tried to photograph the whole display but the reflections of cars spoilt the photos.....

and the coffin shaped bookmarks.....the old book is in Polish I believe...

and the trick or treat bag made from a black envelope.....every girl needs a trick or treat bag at Halloween!!!

part of the shop window display..... how good is that old book I picked up at the charity shop and altered...

                                  and an easel card party invite.....
                                 
and some happy girls with their coffins.....

and top hats...

and bookmarks and bags.....

Yay, the photos have loaded so expect more catch-ups now I have found out how - I know not the why or the what but don't really care- hahaha!!!!!

Hope your Halloween was good

Bye for now

Sue

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

what I've been up to...

At the weekend I was browsing other blogs and I came across a challenge to use yellow, kraft and white or ivory. As yellow is so out of my comfort zone - I do not look good in yellow and have never in all the houses I have  ever lived in had a yellow colour scheme - except in the current house where I inherited a yellow room, bought yellow bedding and thought mmm! yes this looks bright and cheerful. Anyway, I digress.....
so I got out my spray inks and templates, drew a birdhouse on a large piece of card  and set to work. I diecut birds from kraft card and flowers from the mop-up piece of card - well true crafters never waste anything - I put the kitchen roll from mopping up aside for another day...I die-cut a hanging sign and purely by accident sprinkled white embossing powder instead of clear onto the hanger part and it looks antique - happy accident eh!!

 I was having so much fun that I then went on to tags and so I Distress Stained some tags...

and die cut more birds and flowers, stamped a bit and stained some lace and seam binding, added a few embellishments and ended up with very messy hands but three very nice tags - so all in all very happy with the result...

Right, just a quick call out for the ladies who live in Spain but not in Javea - I have had a load of new dies and texture fades from Sizzix but be quick...you know how fast these disappear...

and disappear is what I am going to do to watch Britain's Got Talent so

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

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

The new Crafty Notions spray inks were a hit...

This is a long post and has taken me ages to write because I am doing it in the intervals between the Dancing on Ice final. At the moment Sam has skated the bolero - captivating was Jason's comment!! and Laura has yet to skate - no idea who will win as they are both fantastic. At Stitches, the trade show in February I thought I would buy a few bottles of Crafty Notions mica spray inks to try, and boy are they gorgeous!!! Just look at those stunning colours and the mica in them mixes like a dream. It looks delicious being swirled around and they spray really easily too unlike others I have tried....they have also almost sold out so if you want some be quick.

so I had a play on Thursday morning and I sprayed sheets and sheets of cardstock and also in my A4 and A5 Moleskines - a real joy. I converted some of the cardstock into birthday cards adding die cut butterflies as you can see here... they have a batik-like quality to them. Also in the photo below are the journal pages I sprayed and on the reverse the inks leaked gently through and left some lovely images....

Today, was sunny and warm and so I took myself out to the naya and equipped with a can of Pepsi and a Cadbury's creme egg I was all set.

It's weird journalling in an A4 size. I have so many A5 journals on the go and the larger size can be quite daunting at first but I am enjoying working in the larger size. As an artist I always worked large as it is much more freeing but for journalling smaller seemed safer.

Anyway, I doodled around some of the flower images that had leaked and added wording from my quote collection which reads " If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom"

In my A5 journal I had sprayed through a new Sizzix butterfly die cut - I used the butterflies on the cards - and also dabbed the leftover spray onto the page reversing the image...look at these beautiful colours... and today I added some fairies that a friend gave me last year and found some wording which reads "Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life, and everyone deserves a little sunshine" .....which is a beautiful sentiment.

On Saturday morning I introduced the girls to the spray inks and they loved them. Here's Blaithin and Becky with the cards they made...

I find it so lovely when the ladies continue at home what they have learned in class and even more so when they bring it to show...

and on Friday morning two of the ladies brought pieces - Maxine finished her doll painting off at home with a feather and beading - truly a mixed media piece...

and Ruth brought in two examples of last week's alcohol-inked beer mats class that she made at home.....

Both stunning ladies!

So I decided to let the Friday ladies into the secret of these lovely inks and they donned rubber gloves and settled down for a messy time - you could have heard a pin drop the concentration was so great...

Lin doing an Ainsley Harriott, or at least seconds before she had her left arm raised!!! Lol!

Mu, Lin and Florence showing their creations...

Right, they are just announcing the winner so

Bye for now Sue