My Lovely Monday girls...

For the last four weeks I have been teaching the younger girls drawing and painting techniques. They experimented by dropping alcohol into various paints to see/get a reaction and learnt the proportions of a face and the construction of flowers and to get texture into hair and lots more... their concentration is amazing considering their age...
and here they all are - ages 11, 10, 9, 11,7 and 7 - with their finished work...
pretty good hey!!Right, I'm off for food

Bye for now
Sue

We're off on our hols.....

Woohoo! and tra la lala la - we are off tomorrow for our first holiday together in over seven years. Living just seven minutes from the beach and in a sunny climate, holidays for us normally consist of Colin going golfing for 4/5 days with his golfing buddies or me to a trade show. We both hate leaving the dogs and cat and so a friend is moving into our house while we are away.

We are flying to the USA on Friday, joined by our eldest son and 2 grandchildren and daughter and son-in-law and where we will be joined by our youngest son and his lovely fiance Jodie for their wedding. I will show photos of the album and wedding card I made for them on my return just in case they happen upon here in the meantime.....

So that and teaching and putting together contingency plans for the shop and washing and ironing (and being ill to boot!) and I am badly in need of this holiday so I will leave you with a photo of the loveliest of girls taken at the end of class on Monday night...

so be good and I'll be back - well if its that good and I enjoy it too much I might not! haha!
so Bye for now
Sue

Monday mania

Tonight started off as quite a normal class - girls painting, cutting, sticking, diecutting, just the usual... but it soon disintegrated into uncontrollable laughter...when some of the girls found googly eyes while they were waiting for their Mum's - I shan't name the culprits! but..... the younger girls soon joined in...

...pity Carla had left by then as she missed all the fun. I arrive home on a Monday night absolutely shattered but you can see why I enjoy these lovely girls

Right off to watch Dragons Den and eat my cheese omelette and then bed so

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

Running wild!!!

Here are the girls hard at work at class last night.... and here they are with their beautiful work - well Mina's not looking too happy as she hadn't completely finished hers...Yesterday morning and today - in between serving customers - I have been busy making cards for the next few Friday morning ladies classes - there are a few techniques here - and for once I feel happy that I am ahead - if only slightly!!! The cards are pretty basic but its the techniques I am teaching, the ladies can then take the ideas and let their imaginations run wild - the words my ladies, run and wild don't usually appear in the same sentence but well there's always a first for everything so they say!!! Lol!I'll let you know after Friday how wild the ladies can get!!!!! so

Bye for now

Sue

Tonight

If I look all hot and bothered it's because I was. Running round helping these gorgeous girls who all worked so hard tonight making cards in a patchwork style. I gave them a pile of papers, some punches, the Big Shot and some flower dies and some stamps and peel-offs and after showing them what I wanted them to do matching edges and lines they did me proud.

Aren't they all lovely.

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

Noisy night!!!

Whew!!! what a noisy class the girls were tonight....but they achieved a whole lot so that's OK. First they painted the canvases that they had gessoed last week and while they were drying they made a Christmas card and after a short break for juice and ginger biccies they decorated their canvases. Not bad for their age I reckon.
Emily 6 Lauren 7 and Dayana 8.



Beautiful work girls and equally on a par with the canvases the older girls made last week.

and on Saturday morning Blaithin finished her canvas and a Christmas card.



Busy, busy, busy...so am now off to have some dinner and collapse on the sofa and watch TV. No idea what's on but who cares.

Bye for now
Sue

doodling taken to a new level!!!

...no not these.....

Yesterday morning I did zentangle type doodles in class. I love how different my doodles are all turning out.



I got home and did another one...



went to see the chiropractor, came home and fell asleep - happened after last session too...

On Monday, Louisa and Dayana finished their journals and Lauren, who has previously finished her journal decorated a dolphin...









...and when I said doodling taken to a new level... just take a look at these from an e-mail sent to me entitled " Why they can't find a job"






...hope they went out in clean underwear in case they get knocked over by a bus!!!!!

Bye for now
Sue

Tonight the younger girls were having such a good time they didn't want to go home - again!!

Dayana showing the cover of her almost finished journal -



Lauren and Dayana co-operating whilst using the Big Shot



Louisa and Lauren



Dayana showing the pet passports she made at home with a technique she and her Mum learnt in class - they are really excellent....



.... and Louisa trying to scare her Mum

Lovely girls, all of them - but they eventually went and I came home and flopped in front of the television. I have become addicted to Come Dine with Me and Golden Balls - I will never understand how someone can shake hands and then steal!!! Maybe its just me but it's not something I could ever do. Oh well. I suppose that's life!

Bye for now
Sue