***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

Bye for a few days...

Just a quick post tonight as in the early hours I have to get up and go to Valencia airport where I am going to Brussels to spend a few days with my lovely friend Tanya. We will be going to Holland to kkd where she is working and I am taking a class with Tim (eat your heart out Linda E) - you know that man Tim who can make a 1 and a half hour class fly past in 5 seconds with just a tag and a bottle of rock candy stickles!!!!lol!

I have prepped a few journal pages and have also popped a few felt tips and oil pastels in my handbag - no scissors or glue stick though - to pass the hours spent at the airport - I don't know how many I will manage to do anything to but the intention is there!!

BTW - last year Colin had 10 rolls of easi-lift tape confiscated at Birmingham airport in case he tied anyone up with it. The fact that you can tear it easily didn't cut any ice with the confiscating jobsworth!!! It caused a great deal of laughter for a few weeks in the shop I can tell you.





















and a few Teesha style pages...







Last night the girls started a Spring album but I forgot to take photos...

Monday night class was full - six lovely little girls painting and decorating wooden boxes. They unscrewed all the metal fittings before painting, decorated the box and screwed it all back together again and considering their ages they did a remarkably good job.

Jenny 9, Vivi 7, Dayana 9


Emily 6


Sarah 6 and Mina 6


Right now I really am off to bed - up again at 3am so night, night
Sue

four more journal pages

Quiet Sunday in my pj's with the dog and cat spent journalling...

I surrounded myself with my Pitt pens (have now got terra and landscape sets)various coloured pencils and markers, trusty Ranger inkessentials white pen and settled myself lengthways on the sofa with my lovely adorable moleskine journal and lovely adorable Bailey at my feet. Tia, being a cat did what she does best - slept on my bed!!!

It was a beautiful bright blue sky but oh so windy and the TV kept going off and on so it stayed switched off - the wind did mean I got all the washing dry though...and ironed later. ( she says polishing her halo!!!)

these first two I had started the pages earlier...







the photo does not do justice to this - the flourishes are gold and shine in reality - this really is a very pretty page ( did I hear myself say pretty - me do pretty!!!what!!!) notice anything familiar about this one Tanya - for the rest of you out there, you'll just have to wait and see!



the next two were done from start to finish... why does the camera always wash out yellows??? and with the flash switched off too...






Well. that's what I did yesterday. If you come to class or the shop why not show me what you did too.

Bye for now
Sue

The girls worked really hard again tonight



...but just look at the state of the table.... am I complaining NO - just look at the standard of work they produce...



this is one of the pages Melissa made - she marbled the card, diecut the letters from paper she had made and stamped and heat embossed the flower and painted it with mica paint



The albums should be finished next week so a bumper blog next Wednesday evening.

I have included the lovely Yaa in the earring watch as she has the most fabulous earrings....



....and here's mine for today...turquoise and pink chandeliers



It's 00.46 so I'm off to bed now so

Bye for now
Sue

100th post!!!

A few random mumblings on this my 100th post...


Thought you might like to see one of the men working outside the shop....



... in fairness it was lunchtime...


... a future project including stamping and a Wendy Vecchi flower or two...





...and a couple of journal pages inspired by Dyan's blog



touch of gesso, an old book page, whatever pens and pencils were in my pencil case and a couple of images from a magazine...


...all finished off with a photo from last night's Wednesday class when we had a holidaymaker named Ana join us...




Just got home from the shop, now going to have some toast and pate and an ice lolly - it's still 28 degrees! and a read of the newspaper
so Bye for now
Sue