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

Hoping for a bit of inspiration...

I have been going through a complete brain melt down since my holiday. I haven't been able to rouse any ideas or inspiration which is so unlike me - my brain normally travels faster than my hands can write down the ideas or process them - so I thought that if I bought a couple of plain wooden boxes from the local Chino bazaar - like pound shops - and painted them it might kick start my mojo or at least awaken it. I have loads of assorted sewing items and buttons scattered around so I thought if I gave them a home in one place that would be a good start so this is what I made...
A distressed sewing bits n bobs box...
and a button box... in a funky urban style...very Barbie pink and bright...with grungeboard letters and rub-ons...
Will have to see on Monday if the therapy worked but I am generally pleased with the way they turned out and if nothing else they will be useful and help me be a bit more organised.At the start of the week I made this little book with sticky back canvas covers, alcohol inked letters and spray inks for Inga as I had forgotten her birthday - to give her due credit Tanya originally made one for me - although I used templates with the spray inks...as my mojo was still somewhere over the USA I decided I could lift the idea and I know Tanya wouldn't mind...after all it was a personal gift for a friend and not a class.

Right, I have loads of ironing still to do - 16 days away sounds good but when you come home to bad weather and can't dry the washing and the clothes you are wearing in the meantime also need washing it mounts up to 3 and a half weeks worth - anyway, I am now wafffling so I will say

Bye for now

Sue

a bit of journalling...and a few other bits of what I've been up to...

This morning in between customers I decided to do a bit of journalling as I haven't done any for what seems like ages...so out came my lovely new-ish Crafty Notions spray inks and Crafters templates and away I went. Spritz, spritz, turn over...the template that is, not me.!!!.....in my A4 moleskine. Bit of Dina masking, a bit of Dabbing, a bit of stamping and then what to journal? I decided to take a break, put the kettle on, grabbed the newspaper and the ginger biscuits and as I read my horoscope it all fell into place. I have been feeling uncertain about a couple of things lately and as I read I knew instinctively what to journal. I am planning on teaching a class on making flowers in different shapes, materials, etc and so yesterday morning I got out some scraps of fabric - some man-made and some not (good job I have fast reaction times as a couple of pieces went whoosh!!) but those below made it and I am not too displeased how they turned out. Weird how Blogger manages to turn photos around though - this was landscape!! oh well! My good friend Molly,who makes the most beautiful albums from all sorts of recycled products, asked if I knew how to make an album from kitchen roll insides ....and I had been saving kitchen rolls for just that purpose... so I gave her a few and suggested she make an album and come and show the Saturday youngsters. She did and a couple of Saturdays ago she took the class. It took much persuasion on my part to convince her she could do it but she had them eating out of her hand. She only decorated the front cover to make them use their own imagination and she was surprised at their inventiveness and they loved her. All of the youngsters have been bringing in sweet wrappers, empty cereal packets, lids and other recyclable things and their challenge was to use any or all recycled materials as possible.
Below is the album I made and my flowers and heart are die cut from kitchen paper from the spray ink classes I have held many times lately, there are dried banana leaves cut into butterflies, leaves and flourishes, feathers from an old boa, and all pulled together with Distress inks, a few tags and ribbons and a piece of old lace.

I think it worked really well and the colours remind me of a bathroom we used to have that was avocado and for which I bought burgundy towels and a piece of Laura Ashley fabric in burgundy and green to make a roller blind. Ah, happy days!! ...and here's the girls last night busily heat embossing their already Distress inked kitchen rolls... Next week they will finish decorating them and bind them into beautiful albums.
These girls, of all the classes, embraced the recycling the most - perhaps its their age

Right, I'm off to bed so
Bye for now

Sue

40th Birthday present for Gayle

Sorry ladies, it's a long post tonight...it's OK there's lots of pictures and not much writing... but I had to share with you this album I made for my lovely hairdresser friend Gayle who celebrated her 40th birthday on 6th March...I took my trusty point and press camera which never lets me down...but guess what...that night it chose not to co-operate and so some of the photos aren't what they should be but nevertheless we had a fabulous night out at a local restaurant.....so sit back and hopefully enjoy...

I shrunk the menu to fit inside the fabulous Baroque die by Sizzix...and our Queen for the night...

The table before we invaded...and Gayle and co snuck outside to enjoy a ciggie or two!

Some of these photos weren't the best but I had to work with what I had and they are a memory after all...

the left hand flap opens up to reveal a panoramic triptych of everyone seated...

There were photos of Gayle through the years - even with the 80's curly perm!!! and some beautiful baby ones too...

Gayle didn't know whether to laugh or cry and did both...

Gayle had loads of presents and.....

...lift the flap and here's just one of them...

Cheers!!! and lift the flap to see Caz's shoes.....

Just had to take a photo of Caz's shoes - you can tell she's the youngster of the group

Just look at the size of that pepper pot!!!!! with 26 ladies there you can guess there was a comment or two!!! Lol!

but by the time the cake complete with naked men came out my camera battery had died so I've had to leave that one for Gayle to find and attach...

As I hadn't got all the photos I made some pockets and tags for Gayle to add photos later...

A few photos of the food...and of course the wine!!!

I made a little envelope to hold the flyer with all the good wishes... I got all the ladies to sign it...

I went to have my hair cut and...shhhh! whisper this bit - coloured this afternoon and gave it to Gayle and she

was delighted with the album

and even if I say so myself so was I.

Bye for now

Sue

even more unfinished projects...

As usual so many projects started and unfinished over the last couple of weeks but here are two I have finished.
One is a brag album of baby Louie for my good friend Lorraine's first grandchild and a canvas for Jaz, Louie's mum and Lorraine's daughter.

Saturday morning was ...well wow! Ten children turned up to class and we started a summer holiday album which will be finished next week so mine will be finished then too!!Yesterday afternoon after the class Colin, Tanya and I drove to Valencia, a lovely city - below is the basilica and cathedral - well worth a visit if you are in the area. It took us an hour to do the audio tour of the cathedral.

Colin and Tanya get on really well - they share the same sense of humour

this morning we relaxed in the pool again and again

Bob, a holistic masseur has just arrived to give Tanya a massage so

Bye for now

Sue

Marsha- your little make'n'take bag is a huge hit here...

just as I knew it would be when I made it in Holland a couple of weeks ago and I then made another to put in the shop window.
Yesterday Margaret and Q made theirs




and today Blaithin and Rosangela finished off making their Spring albums and then made theirs - Rosangela is only 7 years old so that's quite an achievement. I supplied extra fingers when required to hold things like the cork when she was using the pokey tool and the tag while she set the eyelet with the cropadile but they both use the Big Shot and Texture Boutique like old hands.


Right, I am now going to get going on one of the projects half made. Haven't decided which one so
Bye for now
Sue

Working hard but not always finishing!!!

Haven't gone - just been working hard.
Some people have shops... not craft ones mind... and just turn up, stand behind the counter and serve the customers. Not in my craft shop... I do it all from ordering, stocking the shelves, preparing and teaching 5 classes a week and cleaning the floors and making the coffees. Well not quite as Colin does the books once a quarter. Hardly a day goes by without me humping a load of stuff into or out of the shop. I work at home on samples and other projects and so some stuff has to be shipped back and forth by me. I don't have two Big Shots and sets of dies or two Bind-It-All's although I do have quite a bit(quite a lot actually) at home but whenever I need something it is always at the other place!!! Quite frustrating - that is probably why I have so many unfinished projects - at least that's my excuse!!!Lol!

We have had two months of rain and when it rains the electricity is iffy and just goes OFF - no warning - OFF just like that so the other night when Colin said he was going for a curry with a couple of his golfing buddies I thought Yes! tv remote, phone, computer mine all mine all night - well, how wrong can a girl be!!! You guessed it - a few minutes into talking to Tanya on facebook PFF and OFF it went. In all seven power cuts so in the end I gave up and went to bed taking a torch - at least I could read my book just like old times when I was young reading under the bedclothes and listening to Radio Luxemburg!!!!!

Anyway, when Tanya was here in November she made a fabulous paper bag album for me to use as a workshop. A customer Lin had seen it but hadn't been able to make the workshop date so I said if she got a friend to come I would run it for the two of them and today did just that. Her friend Be was such a laugh and we discovered we were both Brummies although both had left there long ago so quite a bit of reminiscing went on. Both of them did a fantastic job.

This is Be showing her album "Don't take my picture until I let down my hair and put my lippy on"... and having checked that the photo was to her satisfaction.....


and this is Lin who was laughing at all this...

I had a wonderful day ladies and I hope you did too.

Here's a small peek at a couple of projects that are on my desk in the hope that showing them will spur me on to finish them. I've told you before how many unfinished things I have on the go snd I have decided that if I put them on here maybe someone will say hey Sue have you finished this... or that..... yet and give me the push I need.

This is my take on an album I saw at Tanya's made from a case used for sending cd's so I re-sized the template to fit a sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock. As usual I made it and then realised the stamp I wanted to use was not here so..... couldn't stick it down!!!


and then there's the album part made from Paintables cardstock as a mica workshop/class needing just that little something...


and the photo of Colin's parents in the late 1930's when they were courting (what a wonderful old-fashioned word that is) just laid on a canvas along with the embellishments - well I might want to change where I put them!!


I'll save the other unfinished projects for another day as I have a pile of ironing calling my name - put off from Tuesday when I JUST HAD to watch Tim and Suze and Claudine on QVC.

so Bye for now
Sue