Plastic fantastic

Long post today so settle with a cuppa and a biccie and enjoy...
When the Sizzix friendly plastic dies first came into the shop last year I made all these samples and haven't had a chance to demo them what with Christmas and all that .... The plastic is fiddly to work with but if you can overlook the odd misshapen piece they work just fine. I have worn the brooch and one of the pieces has gone abroad so they are lovely to give as presents...
here's a close look at a layered necklace - the tiny stamped image is from a Tim Holtz stamp set before shrinking and the brooch is layered with a brad...
a small bracelet and a simple pair of earrings.....
another couple of necklaces - the one is diecut from a christmas ornament die pinned through with a copper brad and hanging from a plaited waxed cord and the other is from a shrink die embellished with a bead and a metal charm...
and on Friday 13th I taught it to a class of ladies - it's great fun watching it curl and roll around...
and if you look at Cristina's blog Cristinejoy - Scrap you will see the pieces she made on there...
Mu might be smiling but nothing went to plan for her so only Ruth's pieces to see...

and here's Pat happily showing what she made... and then this Friday we moved on to Friendly Plastic.....
I showed the ladies how to join pieces together, marbling, patchwork, draping, flowers, a use for the dreaded peeloffs and then left them to play... and here's Pat pieces - aren't they fun -
and Mu's adorned with a bit of bling and embedded with peel offs!!! but a good use for them...
and last but definitely not least here's Ruth's.....
Well, before you desert in droves with boredom I'll go now but I have sooooo many new projects to share with you on here that I will be back much sooner - hopefully - then I have in recent weeks.
Bye for now
Sue

What a "Friendly" weekend we all had!!

Friday morning started off what was to be a manic but excellent weekend.

Margaret showing her finished black and white album

I had invited the lovely and talented Queen of Friendly Plastic Liz Welch to come and teach some classes at the shop so once the normal Friday morning class was over and lunch was done I headed off to Alicante airport to collect Liz. There were two days of work/fun with four separate classes - oooze and aaahs, beads, button bonanza and patchwork play.

Interspersed with photos of people and their work are Liz's wonderful and inspiring pieces of work - as usual Blogger is not allowing me to load in the places I want or to move them!!! so mixed up or not here are...

...Jane's pieces and Liz's gorgeous mask

On Saturday it was class as usual for the youngsters and I let them join in the "Friendly" fun.

Blaithin's pieces (she is 11 years old) and Jonas with his necklaces for his Mum

Becky modelling her necklace...
Liz's fabulous bag

...listening to Liz explain... not sure whose hands these are...

and then on Monday morning Liz and I had a play date with some grungeboard, Distress inks and a Big Shot machine.

This is Colin with Liz just before I took her to the airport for her flight home. Mutual appreciation going on here - Colin, Liz and both dogs. Liz also fell in love with Colin's massage chair.

The high winds on the airport run made me later than expected getting back to the Monday class and so in my absence Inga very kindly stepped in and helped the littlies make their albums .... after which I drove home and promptly fell asleep watching Masterchef Australia - huge joke that as everybody know I don't do cooking!!! but I do love watching this programme.

Liz e-mailed me to say she had arrived home safely and so thanks Liz for a fantastic few days. Please come back again - everyone loved you.

Bye for now

Sue

busy, busy, busy....

This is the weekend that Liz Welch is coming and getting everything ready has made my life very hectic this last week or two. Liz is doing four different classes using Friendly Plastic and I am really looking forward to them as she is such a master (or should it be mistress!!!) of it. To see her work go to Rarelizzie's blog. You will be amazed at the gorgeous things she can make with a 7 inch piece of plastic.
Well gotta go, lots still to do plus my usual Friday morning class to teach so
Bye for now
Sue

my week

a quick peek at how my 365 calendar challenge is going...

at the end of the month I will put the completed month on flickr...

This morning started off grey. cold and miserable as the rain poured down. It is meant to be set in until Thursday.
.
I finished off two projects.

The first is a Valentine's card (thanks Linda E for the instructions on construction) ...





the left panel


the middle panel


and the right panel - this has little labels to write messages on the back... "valid for a neck and shoulder massage, go to golf nag-free...etc,etc... you get the gist!!!


The other project also has a Valentine theme - it is an altered box that holds two packs of playing cards


with Friendly Plastic card suits on the lid.


and at lunchtime as it was still raining with no sign of stopping Colin picked me up from the shop and we drove 20 minutes down the coast to Benidorm and went shopping. Indoors of course and I got a dock for my i-pod. Luckily, Colin doesn't read my blog otherwise he would know the story behind my i-pod. When Tanya was here in November we also went shopping to Benidorm and I bought an i-pod for Colin for Christmas but when I got it home ...well you can guess the rest...it's mine!!! He got clothes from M&S instead!!!

...and to bring you up to date...

On Monday night I was thrown into a tizzy as I left at home the paint Dabbers meant to finish the boxes the girls had started last week...however, all was not lost as two newbies, sisters Jenny and Vivi arrived so some quick thinking off the top of my head and I showed them how to make a paper bag album and started them off rubber stamping. Whew!!!



The Saturday girls continued the theme of last week and learnt iris folding...

Rosangela


Blaithin


and on Friday Mu played some more with Friendly plastic making all these pieces...


So that's my week - how has yours been?
Bye for now
Sue x

girls, girls, girls...

These are the friendly plastic pieces I acquired from the lovely Liz Welch which I promised to photograph. They are even more beautiful in real life - lustrous and sparkly.



The girls have all been iris folding this week...

On Monday the younger girls
Emily...


Dayana...


and Louisa made balloon cards.

and tonight

Melissa...made a basket and balloons..... and brought in a marble cake she and her sister Emily had made for us all to share at break - it was delicious - so light - thank you girls...


Yaa...made a basket and completed her album (from months ago!!)


and newby Maria made a basket and a dress.


Well done girls.

I haven't done anything arty for myself this week - everybody aaahhhh! get the hankies out!!! apart from filling in my 365 calendar which I will photograph at the weekend. I have been busy making samples for classes. There is an adult box and a card both for Valentine's day which are almost finished. Story of my life really - so many unfinished projects - so little time.

I was looking at Linda Elbourne's blog when I got home and she takes part in a what's on your workdesk on Wednesday - I daren't show you my worktable - it's groaning under the weight!!! There is a half completed scrapbook page, a gessoed but unpainted canvas, the aforementioned half completed card and box, a part completed mini album for another class, a shrink plastic project at the prototype stage - need I go on...so as you can imagine with so much on there it is hard to actually do any work but tomorrow afternoon I have told Colin and Mum I am going to put up a "DO NOT DISTURB" sign and try to achieve at least one finished piece of work.

It is almost midnight and I am going to bed
Bye for now
Sue

I went and had my hair re-styled yesterday - Gayle cut layers into my bob and flicked out the ends. It looked fabulous when I left the hairdressers



...but when I got up this morning!!! no photos of that I can tell you. I need to learn what to do with it - I have had a bob for more years than I care to mention - so easy - and now, well!!!

A couple of posts back I showed some friendly plastic atc's I had made for classes. I love working with it but am a Jill of all and master of none so my pieces reflect that.
I can't tell you how proud and amazed I am that I got a blog comment from.....the Queen of Friendly Plastic herself - yes Liz Welch - how cool is that. I feel so honoured that she even bothered to look at my blog never mind to leave a comment. I have met her a couple of times and she is so lovely to talk to. She even gave me a couple of her pieces that I showed the ladies this morning. I am so in awe watching her as she works.

This morning I carried on teaching friendly plastic and it was...friendly I mean...
and it did all I could have asked. Here are Gill, Mu and Q happily working away. Q and Gill sing in a choir so there's always lots of singing going on when Q comes - this morning it was musicals, West Side Story, Carousel and Cabaret.



here's Gill's


and Mu's


and Q's


They did well especially as it was their first time. There will be more techniques for them next week.
I forgot to photograph Liz's pieces and they are at the shop but I will tomorrow. Liz, if you are reading this I still can't master the ooze technique so any tips for it I'd be most grateful.

Must go as it is my new dog's 2nd birthday and we are off to a party at her Mum's house so
Bye for now
Sue