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

A long, long, long post from me today....

Well, I have got a whole month to cover as you'll see my last post was 1st March. I could have done with cloning myself or at the very least borrowing some time from someone with some to spare as I seemed to be running just to stand still all month...

I have doodled all my life and just lately felt in the mood to make a doodled card and the one above is the one that started it again. I had been at the Dr's to sort out a mistake with my thyroid prescription and found myself at the shop with an hour to spare before we opened and so I took out my pen and four and a half hours and a few customers later I had my finished card...
I then doodled a Happy Birthday card for the lovely Yaa my Saturday girl... and made an Easter card... and this is another one I did...and another one for my Mum... and so I decided to share my love with the girls who embraced it wholeheartedly...

Elsa from Madrid was the only one of the Saturday girls whose photo I managed to remember to take...
the Monday girls hard at work doodling...
and the Wednesday ones...
I ran a weekend for four ladies from the UK. They came last September for a similar weekend and asked me to do another one as they enjoyed it so much...
The projects this time were an album for men, a decorated frame, a hanging and shrink plastic jewellery...
I had a lovely surprise - Barbara brought me a sock monkey she had made for me... Barbara and Jen enjoying a moment! well there were more than one I can tell you - the whole weekend was chock a block full of such moments... Barbara with her finished frame... and Joy and Mary with theirs... The ladies treated me to a meal at a local restaurant on Saturday night - the food was superb - it always is there - and the other diners were quiet - and our table was noisy...just like the whole weekend really... March has English Mother's Day and Spanish Father's day and whatever nationality the girls are - and I have told you before the list of girls reads like a League of Nations - these days are both celebrated here.
This card was made with die cut butterflies from a beautiful Teresa Collins scrapbooking paper... as was the scrapbook page and Fathers day card made with loads of heat embossing and die cutting and a tidgy bit of stamping and Stickles thrown in... Alice and Celine, two of the older girls... here's Eva putting her all into turning the handle on the big Shot Pro... and succeeding - can you see that smile... here's the younger girls with their scrapbook pages... and their cards...
My oldest son Lee visited for a few days to play golf and it was so lovely to be able to have and give hugs - so different from Skype... The girls were asked to design and make four outfits for a model. We discussed things like fabric and looked at photos in magazines to illustrate drape and suitability for use and then when they had designed their outfits they made the model from heavy card and her clothes using watercolour pencils and heavy Bockingford watercolour paper - here are my designs - very basic - the girls really went to town with some of their designs... here's my model in one of her outfits - notice no face is drawn on - I preferred the girls to spend their energy on the clothes... and here are the girls with the first of their outfits... and a quick change later and they are in the second outfit...
and the third...and the fourth...

Aren't they all fabulous and at such young ages 7 to 11...
Meanwhile the older girls had asked if they could make this canvas of mine that hangs on a pillar in the studio... and here's Alice... and Celine and Arlette with theirs... and in the middle of the month we had two days solid rain as you can see from the ceiling over the till!!!!!that's all the news from me and the shop so I hope you enjoyed our month - I certainly did...

Bye for now
Sue

Kits for the kids

I was asked a few weeks ago if I had planned any courses for the school holidays and the answer was nothing more than the usual classes. These continue all throughout the year because whilst some of the regulars go to their homeland or just on holidays, the rest still attend added in with the children here on holiday from Madrid and Valencia or UK.

With this thought in mind I put together a kit consisting of a sketch book, two gel pens, two paint Dabbers (Ranger of course) and a selection of bits and bobs to help them with their journalling. I added doileys, die cuts, alphabet styles, phrases suitable for girls 8 to 14 - the hours I spent on the internet researching these - lids, sequin waste, a page of journalling prompts, a page of hints and tips which walks the girls through the order they can add layers - which we have been doing in class over the last six or so weeks and lots more.

These kits have proved to be very popular and so I decided to use exactly the same kit to make some example pages for the girls and here they are

I just loooove this page. Just a simple face from a magazine -the flower with eye is cut from another image so she has two different colour eyes - didn't we all love adding moustaches and glasses on photos in newspapers when we were younger - this is hopefully just the next step up from that!
On this page I have used the sequin waste to add texture and stamped with lids using Stream and Mountain Rose - my two chosen colours - a fun page... I did these next two pages to dispel the idea that you needed more than two colours. Some of the girls believe that more is more and I have tried to tell them that you use what you have this page is mostly images from magazines with a little Dabbered water and doodled word "blue" Colin is home shortly - he has been away in UK on a golfing jolly with our two sons - and I am sooo tired. Looking after two dogs and a cat, an 86 year old Mother and keeping myself fed and watered - most of which Colin takes care of has taken its toll and add in the neighbour two doors down who had a party on Thursday night which had a singer with a microphone in his garden no less!!! belting out Elvis hits until 12,50 am!!! when I had gone to bed at 10 absolutely whacked for an early night. Add in looking after the shop, teaching classes, the washing and ironing, watering the plants all of which I always do anyway, de-pooing the garden - how can two little white fluff buckets produce so much of the stuff!! and a large delivery which Yaa helped me to check off, price up and put out yesterday and more projects in the pipeline and I think my head is about to burst! so before it does I will say

Bye for now and see you soon

Sue

doodled names

I love doodling. I find it so relaxing and usually sit with a book and pen whilst watching TV. These name doodles are from ages ago. I remember sending my daughter a birthday card made from her doodled name and her birthday is September, whether that was last year or the one before I can't remember. Anyway, here's Abigail (Granddaughter), Colin (OH) and mine....

Right, I have a shop to open and a class of 8 to 12 year olds to teach doodling to so I'll doodle off..

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

a passion for journalling

***edit...bad Blogger has removed the last three photos so this is the happy smiling faces of the girls with their work earlier today...***

Well, I am battered and bruised this week. On Wednesday morning I stepped into the bath forgetting that Colin had just had a shower and my right foot slipped and my left leg hit the side of the bath with a thump - ouch! bruise about 4 ins long and 1 inch high and then following that I went for a blood test and the nurse took the blood without me feeling a thing - very unusual as they can't usually find a vein but no probs but then soon after this grotesque purple bruise appeared at which I have been asked numerous times what's happened to your arm??? and then last night going to the loo mid-sleep I walked into the corner of a table - another bruise this time on my right hip!

Anyway, injuries apart I have had another busy week. Unlike many of my UK counterparts I can't make a set of projects and decide on dates and then wait for people to book them - the good folks over here either live here all the time, live here part time or are just on holiday and so my ladies - and children for that matter - come when they can. It can make for huge headaches and so I just have to go with the flow. It's difficult to decide what to teach so I usually let the ladies decide what they would like to learn and work around that and with the children I think who will/might be there and do the same. Doesn't make life easy but then who said it was!

Last Saturday Becky had asked if they could do some more journalling so very happy with that I agreed and took a couple of pages from my journals and simplified them. I looked for pages where there were lots of techniques and Becky, Izzy and Charlotte were very happy. These are the original journal pages and the examples...minus the page I forgot to photograph! duh!

The girls scraped paint and stamped and gessoed and doodled.......and smiling faces were the end result with requests for more next week...

Bye for now

Sue