Another catch up...and some Christmas cards...

Life is hectic as ever. 

With the arrival of Ben and putting arrangements in place for the shop to be looked after while I am away in the UK having cuddles..... and chasing up orders that have yet to arrive????? grrr!......  and then to add to all that, since the weekend we have had some very heavy rain.....the photo shows one of the roads on my drive home - like driving up a river...

and don't you know it the shop roof leaked again but luckily Inga was on hand to mop up yesterday and this was the scene that greeted me this morning - puddles on plastic bags covering the till, credit card machine, etcetc.....

 After all that doom and gloom here are just a few of the Christmas cards from this years classes.....I always challenge the ladies and this year colour was the challenge.  How many of you use non-traditional Christmas colours on your cards. Talking to my customers it seems that cardmakers can be very "safe" when it comes down to it. I used red with brown...

 and brown and cream.....

 and Halloween papers from Echo Park - aaahhhh!!! orange and charcoal.....how daring !!! 
more cards tomorrow...

Now for my lovely girlies... these are some of my class girls with their finished canvases... loads of spraying, stencilling, painting, diecutting and fun...

and these two photos are from Birthday parties that we have held at the shop during October...

this was Izzy's 10th birthday party - all girls...

 and below is Vivi's 10th birthday party - 9 girls and 4 boys...

 The feedback was excellent from the parties and we plan on hosting more in the New Year...
the canvas was based on one Tanya made in July when she was here on holiday - thanks sweetie - and here's the version that I made on a pre-party trial run..... just needs a photo and its good to go...pity the photo doesn't show all that menacing sparkle and drippy black drips!!! thought the boys would prefer something a bit less girly...

above is Tanya's canvas after a couple of weeks in the sunny shop window - a totally different colour to the one below - how it was when Tanya made it - just shows how quickly things fade here...

.....and I'll leave you with another photo of Ben...

Bye for now

Sue

***edit don't know why both cards look bent - must be something to do with the camera?***

This week it was two birthdays...both on the same day - 1st June.

This is the card I made for my friend Molly - she of the mollypop flowers!!! and I won't reveal her age but... I shall be the same age in three months time - anyway, the edges are all Distressed, the button is utee, the flowers are recycled jacket lining and mosquito netting and the black lace is the edging from the mossie netting - how's that for ingenuity! huh!!! She was thrilled with the card and Colin and I are going there for a meal tomorrow with her and Arie... fingers crossed for good weather as we have been having very unpredictable weather of late...

the second birthday card was for the lovely Jodie - my daughter-in-law to be - and I used the gorgeous Teresa Collins paper and glitter card -- Jodie is a real pink and pretty girl - see her legs below! My son proposed to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower and their wedding reception meal is at the Parisian restaurant in Las Vegas in October so when I saw this cardstock at Stitches I knew just who I would use it for and have been patiently waiting for June to come around...

I took this photo of Jodie at my daughter Victoria's wedding - both girls are really tall and very slim - its just the angle I took this photo that make Jodie's legs look huge - sorry Jodes -
This is the page that this weeks class will be making... it includes stamping, stamping and heat embossing, painting, doodling, painting and drawing a face, die-cutting and journalling... and here's Blanca, Elena, Celia, Becky and Blaithin after class this morning... and this is my original journal page...
This morning while wife Arantxa shopped I chatted with Josep - they are from Valencia an hour and a quarter away - who turns out to be a Northern Soul fanatic - Dyan if you are reading this he will be at Cleethorpes in 2 weeks time - Arantxa is a Tim groupie so what an alright couple!!! This is the page all the girls in last weeks classes made and which I forgot to photograph.....
and here are the Monday girls - giggling at Mina - she's a real cutie but quite a handful!
Right, I had better take advantage of the sun shining to put some washing in the machine - its been one day beautiful and the next day pouring - quite unusual for May/June here in Spain 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

Sorry Alice

When I took this photo of Celine and Alice on Wednesday showing their completed 2011 journals, Alice commented that she had never seen a photo of herself on my blog - and Alice has been coming to my classes for well over 3 years - and so in order to put things right here she is.....

and this is the only other photo I could find on this computer Alice, as Colin has moved all my other photos onto my notepad and I cannot access them on here, sorry.

Dayana and Alice summer 2010 So Alice, BIG apologies and will do better in future.

Bye for now

Sue

Yes, I'm back!

this is a pps. at the beginning haha!! Blogger is not playing the game and I can't seem to move pictures or text!!! what IS going on!!!


my 365 day challenge for May and June - sorry Kate but April got lost about 3/4 way through.

Yes, I'm back.

It has been a bumpy few weeks but we have survived the move and are almost there. Just the air con to have fitted (hopefully next Wednesday) and then that's all the major things done. We have probably made a few mistakes along the way but heyho! what's done is done and we will just have to live with it.

The work above is mine - gasp - yes at long last I have made something. What started out as a front cover for the Ranger techniques I have been demoing on tags changed when I realised I had fastened the flower through the hole for the book ring - out of practice is my only excuse!!!Lol!...so I coloured and stamped some card and glued the tag on and I think it looks OK.

I had an amazing class today. 8 ladies came and we distressed, we diecut, we stamped, we embossed, we drank coffee, we ate ginger biscuits and generally had a fabuloso time. I managed to remember to photograph a few of the ladies work before they left ...

all different but all very beautiful - just like the ladies themselves...a few photos of the girls and their projects... It is sooo hot here at the moment - around 30 degrees and not even a little breeze to help - so from a very sticky me I'll just say

Bye for now

Sue

ps won't leave it so long before I'm back