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

Yay!! I'm back...

I think at long last I may have turned the corner with this virus thingy that has laid me low for most of this year so far. To say I am fed up with it is a huge understatement. My thanks must go to my lovely customers who have supported me through all my coughing attacks - I was barking like a seal - awful!!! but have still come to classes. Thanks ladies - you're all stars.

Right, first off some good news.
On Evelien's blog http://www.hobbyfarmblog.blogspot.com/ there was a challenge. You followed the basic sketch - which is not something I have done before - and created a scrapbook page. I made this page which I was really pleased with and sent it to her and blow me down I heard yesterday that I had won.
I have been busy making this board of tags to replace the Christmas board. This time I made it for the men. Lots of techniques on here - triple embossing, Distressing grunge, friendly plastic, liquid pearls, masking..... I taught four of the tags last Friday... The two previous weeks in Friday ladies class we decorated this frame which is a basic frame but now looks fabulous - even if I do say so myself...
and here are the happy ladies showing them...
and a card which was basically a Valentine's card...
but very versatile...which Pat made...
Margaret made a blank one...
Auntie Pam and Ana made Valentine's...
as did Mu and Ruth...
while Barbara made it for her son's forthcoming wedding in May...
The girls made shrink plastic bracelets - I was finding the jump rings on the floor for days afterwards...
including plaiting the cords for the charms to hang from...
here's Alice's... Celine's...
and Arlette's...
and the younger girls making theirs...I forgot to photograph the girls wearing theirs...
and lastly here's mine... Hope you managed to stay with me to the end. Hopefully normal service will be resumed and I will be blogging more regularly from now on.
Bye for now
Sue

Feeling nearer to normal thank goodness

Having looked forward to a break from work over the Christmas and New Year period and then finding myself ill for just about the whole holiday it has taken me a while to feel well enough to even think about all the projects that I had in mind.

So, with the ear infection finally clearing - unfortunately the cough still lingers - here's just a short post to show you a scrapbook page I made with Prima products.
I love this photo of my eldest son and grandchildren in our pool last summer.
For those of you who don't know - drum roll - tada!!! I have the Prima team coming from the USA on their Europe tour - so ladies, put the 15th and 16th of March dates in your diary. The lovely Prima ladies will be doing three classes on both days. The Prima products are gorgeous and so easy to work with and it should be a real treat.

Bye for now
Sue