bringing you right up to date...

I apologise for my tardiness in updating the blog but the virus I have had since December keeps rearing its ugly head and one day I am feeling so much better and the next day - wham! I am left wondering what hit me -

Well, here is Friday's class ladies. Its a frame and a card. The frame will take 2 weeks to make as it needs time to thoroughly dry before decorating it and the card will fill the rest of the time. It is quite an adaptable card - it is initially a Valentine card but could equally be used for a wedding, an anniversary, a new baby or even a sympathy card with just a change of greeting
The photos really don't do the projects justice - they are in the shop window if you have time to pop along -
Also in the shop window is this lovely jigsaw puzzle frame that I decorated but sadly this one won't be a class - these frames have almost sold out...
here's a close up of the two interlocking die-cut jigsaw pieces stamped and shrunk... this is part of the window display - I can't seem to get a good shot of the window display - it has the mini canvases and both these frames and looks a real treat...
and here's Becky... and the Wednesday girls with their completed canvases... and here's Ruth, newbie Barbara and Pat showing last Friday's canvases... All based on the same one but all different...
Hopefully, things will be back to normal healthwise very shortly and I will blog more regularly
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

It's so easy to do and so relaxing...

Small group of girls tonight which makes a nice change. They get a lot more attention when there are fewer of them which is good for them and for me. They made the journal page the same as the other girls this week and were equally keen.
Poor Celine wasn't able to come to class and she came into the studio with her finger splinted - she had broken it after it was slammed in a door. Hope to see you next week Celine. I love doodling. I find it very relaxing and regularly sit doodling while watching TV. Well I am female and can multi task don't you know!! I have loads of journals full of doodles. The girls were looking through them and asked if they could do some next week so yes no problem... Just a very small selection of my doodled pages...

Well it has been a long and busy day so

Bye for now

Sue

2 matchbooks and counting...

Seems my mojo is back big time...All through March I was feeling uninspired and sooo tired that I couldn't think straight and this week I can hardly sit still the ideas are buzzing faster than I can make them. This is the total so far in only 3 mornings - 8 cards, 2 match books and a set of letters gesso-ed and ready for me to decorate...

this was catch up week and so the girls who had unfinished projects worked on them while Alice Oh!! here you are again, with Chloe, made this week's project... Alice has been coming to classes for 3 years and so knows my stamps as well as I do and made something weird and wonderful for her bedroom wall while this is only Chloe's 3rd week and she followed mine learning die-cutting and triple embossing (the flowers) on the way...

two very pleased girls...

Gotta go, got a shop to open so

Bye for now

I haven't been able to get into blogger for a few days so in true Sod's Law style I get Colin in to watch me log in ...and hey presto ...straight in!!! gggrrrr!!!

So, in reverse order.....

...tonight the girls completed the canvases they started last week. I forgot to take a close-up photo of mine but I will do so tomorrow.



Yaa was ill last week so I gessoed a canvas for her - her Dad and Alice's are sharing a joke while waiting for the girls to finish...delayed slightly while waiting for paint and glitter to dry...



Here they are working diligently...



...earlier today, as I do on the 25th of every month from June to November, I held a Christmas card making class...scaaary - this is the last one this year!! only 30 more sleeps till Santa comes!!

Amidst much merriment and singing of carols Q, Monica and Ruth made two cards, a black and white Crafty Individuals one and a red and green Artistic Stamper/Blonde Moments one.





so that's today, now on to yesterday...and the workmen - yes they are still outside but we now have two lots!! We are now on week 13 of the road improvements lot( yes, the one that the chief told me two weeks more or less on the day they started!! -methinks he meant two weeks before Christmas!!ha!ha!

and then there are the lot painting the outside of the building - well after they have sand blasted (with water) the loose paint off. This photo was taken at 10am - luckily only Erica was coming to class with Christine now in the UK for a while and Emma moving house....





so with a cushion over her head Erica dodged the splashes...and happily made a beautiful pop out card....



...and my loyal customers weren't going to let a drop of water!!!!! stop them from coming in - so a Universal "YooHoo!" got the man with the hose on the crane to stop the water while they made a dash for the door...

Tuesday evening saw me on the sofa with my journal doodling once more...




and then Monday the younger girls started their canvases but I forgot to take photos - I will take them when they are finished next Monday...

Over the weekend Sunday was designated a "don't think about the shop" day - Colin insists on this every once in a while - difficult I know but sensible I have to agree - and as I have been a fan of Teesha Moore for quite a while I opened my other blank moleskine journal and decided to try some journalling in Teesha style so I painted a dozen or so pages and stuck in some images and here are a couple of pages....





Well I'm glad you managed to stick with me to the end - I hope you thought it was worthwhile.

Heavy day today so I am going to get a mug of hot choccy and head for bed.

Bye for now
Sue

my 15 minute challenge

If you read about any Zentangle type doodles you will find most say a time limit of 15 minutes - I thought this was impossible and so today I set myself a challenge. I pencilled in the shapes of 3 atc's in my journal and gave myself exactly 15 minutes to complete each one. I finished one just on time and went on to do the other two in 15 minutes too. I am amazed that it was possible. They are nowhere near as detailed as my others or as large (others are 8 x 5 inches) but they are OK. They all started off with a thick line (the tangle) going from top to bottom with a loop part way down and a curved line from one side to the other but they have all finished up very differently. (Kirsti you could try this idea. Don't fret what they look like - just stop after 15 minutes and see how far you have got in the time. You will see that you get faster and more confident with each doodle.)

After leaving the shop I had a wonderful catch-up coffee with two of my girlfriends - Lorraine and Chrissie - which lasted for just under 3 hours!!! yes, we met before two and when we left it was quarter to five.....

...so I went straight back to the shop to get ready for tonight's class.
The girls were just great with newbie Maddie settling right in. We have started on a canvas as I thought it would make a nice Christmas present but when I showed the girls the sample they seemed to think they wouldn't want to part with it once they had made it. We gessoed - see Alice's hands - Alcohol inked, stamped and dabbered and laughed loads.



Yaa has the flu and we send you big hugs and hope you are feeling better very soon.

Right, I am having an early night - no more doodling or it will be another after midnight and my body just can't take the punishment of all these late nights any more

so Bye for now
Sue

ps Kirsti, if you email me on sue.artyfacts@hotmail.com I will tell you where to look.

11.11.09

Just a sneak peek at a tag book I have made for an art exchange that Tanya has tagged me for. It is not yet finished. It will be winging its way to Arizona when it is.


Now on to tonight's class. The girls all needed a birthday card for a Christmas birthday so that's what we made


Alice


Yaa (with Emily, Melissa's sister peeping over her shoulder)


Melissa


Colin has been in the UK for a week now and is likely to be there for at least another week and it is so quiet here on my own. I know I have the dog and cat here but it isn't the same as having someone to talk to. I think I am feeling sorry for myself which is so unfair as there are so many people who are alone through no fault of theirs and I have no reason to feel as I do, I can only blame it on the medication and pain. To take my mind off my really non-problems I am going to settle with a hot chocolate and my journal and see what arrives on the page.

so Bye for now
Sue

Couple of days of catching up to do as I have been in so much pain with Sciatica I didn't know what to do with myself - couldn't stand, sit or lie down comfortably. Today is much easier.

Erica came in on Tuesday to do more work on her journal...



...and Tuesday earring watch...diamonds, er no... zirconia!!! from Italy 2001...



...and Wednesday earring watch...how about these pink beauties!!!



...and the Wednesday girls did more work on their journals



Alice has been on holiday in USA for the past month so she hasn't made this journal and so tonight she made some Halloween atc's instead.



The girls are so talented...
Yaa brought in a sketch she has done of a friend...



and Mar brought in a canvas she has painted...



Mar finished her journal apart from running out of time to stick all the photos in









The girls do amazingly well considering their age and that there are 20 different techniques in this journal.

...and so this morning I sat down to do some more in my lovely moleskine journal - Thursday is always quiet as the market is on in the old part of town...who was I kidding - it was busy, busy, busy...but I did manage to get a layer of paint on three pages...






...and today's earring watch - small pink four square...quite sedate after all those danglies!!!



Anyway, I am having an afternoon of tidying, sorting and forward planning - I have all next years classes and workshops to think out, design and make so

Bye for now
Sue