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

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

my mojo has returned...

Woohoo - it seems that painting the wooden boxes worked as my mojo is back - the ideas are now tumbling fast as ever - faster than I can make the samples.
With teaching classes and working in the shop - there are just not enough hours in the day now.
I found a Maya Rd accordian album that I had attached Basic Grey kraft papers to in a drawer and as soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to do with it - strange as it had sat there unloved for absolutely ages!
Fast as you like I unclipped the jump rings and started by distressing all the edges with a new favourite Distress Ink Pad - Gathered Twigs - one of the limited edition for autumn range.
This is the front of the album with a grunge stamped man - glossy accented later -
a bit of stamping and a bit more die cutting,a shrink plastic dangly and a metal star.The inside pages came together really well with more stamping, die cutting, a few bits ' n'
bobs and some Broken China and Shabby Shutters to liven it all upLast night I had three very quietbut very giggly girls to class. They were making Christmas cards using Wet Look Markers.

Here are Arlette, Alice and Celine showing the zillions of cards they made...
and here they are giggling again as Alice dropped hers.....

and here's the sample board they were using to make their cards...... loads of quick and easy and light to post Christmas cards- just what you need.....

Mum has hurt her back and Colin has gone to sort her out so I need to give the littlies their dinner so

Bye for now

Sue

I've got that shrinking feeling.....

...and not its not me that's lost weight but books that shrunk! This morning in class the ladies made mini books from shrink plastic. The stamping and colouring and shrinking were great fun BUT... ...this was what caused the ladies the trouble this morning - the ribbon lacing...there were a lot of "oh sugar"! and "ggrrrr"! and such like words used - hahaha! The holes in the shrink plastic were made with the Bind-It-All before shrinking and in the card pages with a hole punch BUT putting it altogether with narrow ribbon - it took ages and there were lots of sore fingers and more words... The shrink plastic book cover started out the same size as the stamp - 10 x 7 cms... and ended up 4 x 3 cms...So here are the ladies with their mini books...

Lin, Florence and Q... Jean, Margaret and Pat...

As usual there was loads of catching up to be done and lots of laughter - add in cups of coffee and ginger biccis - what more could a girl ask for.

Bye for now

Sue