The last couple of days

I've been working hard making up for the down-time when I was so empty.
Yesterday morning as well as teaching a class of children and serving in the shop - with help from the lovely Yaa - I made four Christmas cards for my immediate family - 3 children and Mum - all very similar but all different and using the lovely Autumn limited edition colour Distress Inks - we have just a couple still in stock at the shop ladies - the ripe persimmon colour really brings the tattered floral die into life as a poinsettiaIn Friday morning's class the ladies made three of my twelve Christmas tags - here's one of them...very bright and cheery...6 happy ladies showing their tags...Mu, Maxine, Ruth, Pat, Shirley and Rena...I love the colours on this one... this looks so pale but it's just a bad photo...

Well, the washing and ironing is done, Craig has been voted off the X-factor - boohoo! and now I am going to snuggle up in bed with my kindle and find a new book to read - just finished The Winner by David Baldacci about a lottery scandal - very interesting

Bye for now

Sue

Thought I would show you what I transformed the dull, boring black front cover of my 365 challenge journal into.



I used my two favourite colours - purple and lime green with just a hint of muted gold - and just had fun Dabbering, inking and stickling the grungeboard bits and pieces.

Tonight, the older girls class made the mirror. They painted, triple embossed and stamped into, stippled over masks, more stamping, distressed and cropadiled flowers and generally enjoyed themselves. We put my i-pod in the dock and sang along...Pink. Lady Gaga, Keane, Crowded House, Boyzone - you name it, its on there!

Here's Melissa...



and here are the rest of the girls...Maria, Celine, Yaa and Melissa -

The green mirror on the table saying hope is mine... every time I look in the mirror I hope that the reflection will say that I look better than I do - "hope"less I know but a girls gotta try.....!! Lol!

Anyway, another night when I am tired but happy so I'm off to make my hot choccy and take it to bed so
Bye for now
Sue

Dabbered, stamped and distressed...

I painted, dabbered, stamped, distressed and stickled a wooden box for the girls to take inspiration from.....





and Yaa and Melissa made theirs tonight choosing beautiful jewel colours


Emily, bless her - she is only 6 cleaned all the stamps, put them back onto their sheets, put away the stamp pads, acrylic blocks, scissors,so I think she deserved to sneak into the photo albeit holding MY box!!!

That's all for tonight so
Bye for now
Sue

Concussion of the mouth!!!

I wasn't able to park outside the shop this morning and wouldn't you know it but it was the day I had oodles to unload!!! Having taken the demo stuff in I went to bring in the supermarket bags - you know, water, teabags, biccies, etc and with both hands full fell backwards trying to balance on an uneven kerb and close the car door!!! I wasn't hurt - my back was just covered in loose tarmac chippings - but I think they thought I spoke English as a second or even third language as I wasn't able to get a sentence out straight!!! Talk about Concussion of the mouth!!!




Fortunately, I had already made all the pieces to demonstrate the techniques. I had taken the Melt Pot into the shop along with some Utee, some Memory glass and frames and so with fingers pointing and weird words, they got the gist of what they were to make and so I left the ladies to play while I put the kettle on.

These are Margaret's...



...and Muriel's pieces. They both loved the faux agates.



Norah was feeling the effects of a couple of strong Ibuprofen for her back and so didn't feel able to handle the Melt pot and luckily I also had on hand some Nunn design frames and embellishments so she was able to get a similar effect using Diamond Glaze.


When I tried to get a photo of them suggesting they look as if they were working they had a fit of the giggles.


Having spent the afternoon laying quietly in a darkened room - ha!ha! I wish!!! - washing brought in and ironing done - yes, that's more like - I thought I would raise my head carefully and whilst sipping lightly sweetened herbal tea allow you to laugh - not too loudly mind - at my morning!!!

Bye for now
Sue x

Quick and easy but quality

Some of my ladies have been asking for quick and easy but quality Christmas cards and so here are the ones I made this morning. A couple of Paper Artsy stamps, red card and three shades of green and a dab of Stickles and voila!! 25th June taken care of.
NB - from Jume to November the 25th of the month in my shop is Christmas card making.

I have started to make matchboxes with tags inside for the 25th July but they are not quite finished. I will show those in a few days.

Tonight, the younger girls completed their paintings. I had done this class with the older girls and wasn't sure whether to give it a try with the younger ones but they mastered highlights and shadows so well. I am so pleased with them as they are only 9and 7 years of age. They have done a brilliant job. Well done girls.



Even though it is just gone 8pm it is still 25 degrees - thank goodness for air con in the shop. The sun is shining in the window and the birds are singing still.
I am now off to watch a bit of TV, have some dinner and kick off my shoes - well flip flops and relax!
Bye for now
Sue

Quick peek at tonight's project

Just a quick peek at what the girls will be having a go at tonight. For the last two weeks they have been learning about faces - the 3d ness of them. How eyes fit and where etc and drawn loads of sketches and talked over ideas for hair and backgrounds and so tonight we have canvas, we have paint and rubber stamps and inks and Stickles of course and all sorts of other bits and bobs. I explained the concept of mixed media to them and so they are eager to try. Can't wait - I want to do more myself so very self-indulgent reasons for choice!!

These two canvases are sketched out and ready for me to show the steps of adding paint and then other medium.

Just been handed a sausage bap by DH so will go and eat it and come back tonight to let you see finished?? artwork.

Bye Sue x

Bit too good to be true

I woke up to blue sky and bright sunshine which was lovely as the weather has been awful since the weekend. Good start to the day. Certainly lifted the spirits.

After breakfast I took photos of Bailey as he was due for a haircut today but at lunchtime found the date had been put back to Friday so here is the shaggy uncut version of my dog. He will look totally different come Friday.
Tia, my pretty faced little cat said and what about me!



Went off to the shop in high spirits to find that the rain all day yesterday and all throught the night had blown in under the door and left little trails and puddles on the floor so after mopping up I decided to mske some atc's. I haven't made any for a long while now. I used to participate in a swap forum but I found I didn't have enough time once I opened the shop which was such a shame as I enjoyed receiving these little works of art. I took ages cutting up the little pieces of card........great time wasting ploy..... but once I got going I could have stayed there all day. They are not great works of art but served the purpose which was to get me back into the swing of making them again.







bit of stamping, dabbers, triple embossing and Stickles.

As the morning wore on the sky darkened and the sun disappeared and by the time I came home for lunch it was raining again!

Spent a very unproductive afternoon on paperwork - yuk! and then back to the shop - I just love Wednesday evenings - these girls are just the greatest. We laugh, pull legs, play music (who, I ask!!! and they laugh!!!!)oh yes and craft.

The girls finished their albums - a 3 week project - and they all turned out really well which is more than I can say for the photography...and this was the best one of the three I took!!!





I got home about 8.30 and sat down to catch up on America's next top model cycle 8 with a bowl of Colin's home made leek and potato soup - just right when its cold and rainy outside - love that programme - very easy watching when you just need to flop.

Right, i'm off to bed now as its almost midnight. No classes tomorrow so lots of playtime between customers - yes! maybe even a few more atc's you never know.

Night, night Sue xx