Not the Royal Wedding...

Well today, on the day of the Royal Wedding in the UK, the excitement wasn't much in evidence here in Spain. No bunting, street parties,etc and life seemed to go on as usual on the street outside and the shop was as busy as ever - except for my ladies at class. Barbara , however, said nothing was going to stop her coming to class - she comes for a week or two every month and times her flights to maximise attendance! How's that for making one feel good - did you like that "one"!!! slight royalty effect rubbing orf methinks!!!

Anyway, as there was just Barbara and me I got out the airdry clay and the new Karantha moulds and we played. We were having so much fun that I got out my meltpots and we did some Utee-ing too.
The face above is airdryclay with mica powder, the crown is Utee poured into a mold and pour mould and the free shape is Utee poured over a stamp and rubbed over with mica.

Add some copier paper spritzed with mica, some heat embossing, some crackle paint and to make it look really ancient I rubbed it over with my fingertip dipped into a Frayed Burlap Distress ink pad - stick all that to a canvas and you have a piece to be proud of.

This is Barbara's canvas and airdry clay pieces. She certainly didn't rush away to her TV after 2 hours either!!! I can safely say we both had a fantastic morning - no pressure, no stress, just pure enjoyment.

I have been making lots of projects for future classes and so haven't been blogging of late but I can show you the window display with the letters covered with Teresa Collins new range. It has caused a lot of comments, all of them positive I am pleased to say and I really enjoyed "creating" them.

The cards on the lower shelf are ....gasps in horror....the "decoupage" range from Nitwit designs and at Stitches I thought it was just the thing to attract the ladies who don't as yet frequent my shop as they are bright and colourful. Well, time will tell but again they have had very positive feedback. Myself, I prefer distressed and vintage but not all crafters think that way.
I will be back later in the week with photos of some of the projects.

Right I am off for an early night so

Bye for now

Sue

2 matchbooks and counting...

Seems my mojo is back big time...All through March I was feeling uninspired and sooo tired that I couldn't think straight and this week I can hardly sit still the ideas are buzzing faster than I can make them. This is the total so far in only 3 mornings - 8 cards, 2 match books and a set of letters gesso-ed and ready for me to decorate...

this was catch up week and so the girls who had unfinished projects worked on them while Alice Oh!! here you are again, with Chloe, made this week's project... Alice has been coming to classes for 3 years and so knows my stamps as well as I do and made something weird and wonderful for her bedroom wall while this is only Chloe's 3rd week and she followed mine learning die-cutting and triple embossing (the flowers) on the way...

two very pleased girls...

Gotta go, got a shop to open so

Bye for now

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

Just one word...

TIRED!!! so I will just show you this week's project and then buzz off for a much needed restso Bye for now

Sue

40th Birthday present for Gayle

Sorry ladies, it's a long post tonight...it's OK there's lots of pictures and not much writing... but I had to share with you this album I made for my lovely hairdresser friend Gayle who celebrated her 40th birthday on 6th March...I took my trusty point and press camera which never lets me down...but guess what...that night it chose not to co-operate and so some of the photos aren't what they should be but nevertheless we had a fabulous night out at a local restaurant.....so sit back and hopefully enjoy...

I shrunk the menu to fit inside the fabulous Baroque die by Sizzix...and our Queen for the night...

The table before we invaded...and Gayle and co snuck outside to enjoy a ciggie or two!

Some of these photos weren't the best but I had to work with what I had and they are a memory after all...

the left hand flap opens up to reveal a panoramic triptych of everyone seated...

There were photos of Gayle through the years - even with the 80's curly perm!!! and some beautiful baby ones too...

Gayle didn't know whether to laugh or cry and did both...

Gayle had loads of presents and.....

...lift the flap and here's just one of them...

Cheers!!! and lift the flap to see Caz's shoes.....

Just had to take a photo of Caz's shoes - you can tell she's the youngster of the group

Just look at the size of that pepper pot!!!!! with 26 ladies there you can guess there was a comment or two!!! Lol!

but by the time the cake complete with naked men came out my camera battery had died so I've had to leave that one for Gayle to find and attach...

As I hadn't got all the photos I made some pockets and tags for Gayle to add photos later...

A few photos of the food...and of course the wine!!!

I made a little envelope to hold the flyer with all the good wishes... I got all the ladies to sign it...

I went to have my hair cut and...shhhh! whisper this bit - coloured this afternoon and gave it to Gayle and she

was delighted with the album

and even if I say so myself so was I.

Bye for now

Sue

The new Crafty Notions spray inks were a hit...

This is a long post and has taken me ages to write because I am doing it in the intervals between the Dancing on Ice final. At the moment Sam has skated the bolero - captivating was Jason's comment!! and Laura has yet to skate - no idea who will win as they are both fantastic. At Stitches, the trade show in February I thought I would buy a few bottles of Crafty Notions mica spray inks to try, and boy are they gorgeous!!! Just look at those stunning colours and the mica in them mixes like a dream. It looks delicious being swirled around and they spray really easily too unlike others I have tried....they have also almost sold out so if you want some be quick.

so I had a play on Thursday morning and I sprayed sheets and sheets of cardstock and also in my A4 and A5 Moleskines - a real joy. I converted some of the cardstock into birthday cards adding die cut butterflies as you can see here... they have a batik-like quality to them. Also in the photo below are the journal pages I sprayed and on the reverse the inks leaked gently through and left some lovely images....

Today, was sunny and warm and so I took myself out to the naya and equipped with a can of Pepsi and a Cadbury's creme egg I was all set.

It's weird journalling in an A4 size. I have so many A5 journals on the go and the larger size can be quite daunting at first but I am enjoying working in the larger size. As an artist I always worked large as it is much more freeing but for journalling smaller seemed safer.

Anyway, I doodled around some of the flower images that had leaked and added wording from my quote collection which reads " If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom"

In my A5 journal I had sprayed through a new Sizzix butterfly die cut - I used the butterflies on the cards - and also dabbed the leftover spray onto the page reversing the image...look at these beautiful colours... and today I added some fairies that a friend gave me last year and found some wording which reads "Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life, and everyone deserves a little sunshine" .....which is a beautiful sentiment.

On Saturday morning I introduced the girls to the spray inks and they loved them. Here's Blaithin and Becky with the cards they made...

I find it so lovely when the ladies continue at home what they have learned in class and even more so when they bring it to show...

and on Friday morning two of the ladies brought pieces - Maxine finished her doll painting off at home with a feather and beading - truly a mixed media piece...

and Ruth brought in two examples of last week's alcohol-inked beer mats class that she made at home.....

Both stunning ladies!

So I decided to let the Friday ladies into the secret of these lovely inks and they donned rubber gloves and settled down for a messy time - you could have heard a pin drop the concentration was so great...

Lin doing an Ainsley Harriott, or at least seconds before she had her left arm raised!!! Lol!

Mu, Lin and Florence showing their creations...

Right, they are just announcing the winner so

Bye for now Sue

Sorry Alice

When I took this photo of Celine and Alice on Wednesday showing their completed 2011 journals, Alice commented that she had never seen a photo of herself on my blog - and Alice has been coming to my classes for well over 3 years - and so in order to put things right here she is.....

and this is the only other photo I could find on this computer Alice, as Colin has moved all my other photos onto my notepad and I cannot access them on here, sorry.

Dayana and Alice summer 2010 So Alice, BIG apologies and will do better in future.

Bye for now

Sue