Yay! I'm back - well my body is here but my brain and eyes are having serious trouble functioning. Walking round Las Vegas on Friday catching the last minute sights plays havoc with your feet and and then all that travelling afterwards not arriving home till midnight Saturday and I am still so out of it!!! I went to the shop this morning to takeover from Inga but I wouldn't say I worked and luckily its Halloween parties so no little girls class tonight and tomorrow is a big fiesta here so time to catch up with mountains of washing and hopefully more sleep.
I thought I would show the card I made for my youngest son's wedding. Jon works in the film industry and proposed at the top of the Eiffel Tower on October 27th last year and they married on Oct 27th this year in Las Vegas and had their reception at the Paris Hotel in the Eiffel Tower restaurant. I also made them an album - a sort of this is your life...
I contacted Jodie's Mum and she sent me photos to which I added ones of Jon at a similar age...they were so surprised and pleased...
You and Me - this is our story...Three wishes for them...

baby Jon

and baby Jodie...

what a cutie... and another cutie... yes he was and still is all boy with a love of wheels - bikes, cars, Grandad's train...

Jodie age 8 to 13... We very reluctantly let Jon have a bike at age 16 to get to college..... Jodie age 16 and growing into the beautiful woman she has become... Off to a festival at age 19... Jon age 19 and a reunion concert of the school barbershop group he sang with and at Victoria's 21st with Chris 3rd from left one of his best men The two loves of his life besides Jodie - his bike and his golf...a charming and adorable girl...

This page speaks for itself... Don't know about superhero but he is all these and more... This is probably my favourite page of the whole album... Jon's birthday in 2009... These next two pages I left for them to complete as I hadn't any photos of the engagement or their trip to Paris... and I couldn't ask for any without arousing their suspicions... This was last Christmas

I hope you enjoyed the album - they certainly did and the wedding was absolutely beautiful and I will show photos of that later in the week

so 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

feeling sorry for myself...and it's all Colin's fault!!!

Not really but he had the cold first!!!
I made this jigsaw piece to teach lots of techniques to the ladies. It involves using three different types of inkpad, some stamping both with ink and paint, triple embossing, shrink plastic - loads of laughs and oohs and aaahs there - and a sprinkling of accent beads. Went down a treat... and here are yesterday morning ladies showing their jigsaw pieces - I managed to get through the class OK somehow as I have a really bad cold - closed the shop an hour early today though as I felt so rotten...so sorry girls forgot to take photos of the lovely work you did today... Here's my lovely Wednesday girls , Arlette, Alice and Celine showing the Christmas tags they made...

and here's the Monday girls...Sienna, Liza, Ana, Dayana.Daniella, Ciara and Lauren...

As I said earlier I have a really bad cold, shivering, head pounding, teeth aching - going back to bed so

Bye for now

Sue

Last 4 tags of Christmas...and a bit more...

Thursday and Friday we had some rain - in fact it positively tipped it down - along with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder - having said that it was much needed as this summer has been long and hot and so humid...this was the sight outside the front of the shop with me in the dry... Here are all the Christmas tags together on a board as they are displayed in the shop...and here's a bit of how they were made...

blend some colour, stamp a bit, colour and add some embellishments and its done...again lots of colour, a frame, a strip of tissue tape and a dangly bit and we're done...a bit of embossing through the Big Shot, a touch of colouring over the top, add a rosette, a frame and a bit of stamping and hey presto another tag done...

this tag looks quite dull but its not really - just a little more subtle than the others.

and now for something totally different to what I normally do... a set of Christmas cards made very quickly and easily but very effective nonetheless using Wet Look markers and clear and rainbow sparkle embossing powder - a new favourite of mine...

These cards went down very well with the ladies in class yesterday.

Right off to have chips for tea and watch X-factor and totally chill...

Bye for now

Sue

An inky weekend...

This sums up the weekend I have just had. Inky fingers = joy at crafting and pure pleasure atthe wonderful company. One of my ladies Barbara, brought three of her friends from the UK to Spain for a weekend of crafting. She left the choice of projects to me but stressed they must be small and light as they were only bringing hand luggage. I chose to teach them a mini Ranger U - lots of techniques which they then made into a tag book, four Christmas tags - see blog post of last Tuesday - a sprayed and spritzed album for their weekend's photos and also a sprayed one page book. Whew! I work them hard but they must have enjoyed it as they are all talking of returning for another weekend next March.

They blended and diecut....and sprayed and rolled.....

and laughed..... Let's have a group photo before you go...

The lovely Liverpudlian, Barbara has had extensive dental work and is unable to smile at the moment - its a great shame as she is such a laugh.....Joy showing all the projects she made......Jen looking oh so pleased with herself.....

and last but certainly not least young Gina.....a relatively newbie to crafting but who shone with her inspired ideas... Right, my feet are screaming so I am off to soak them and then slouch in front of X-factor
so Bye for now

Sue

Otoño

Autumn or Otono in Spanish is a lovely time of year when all the colours are so beautiful.
I decided it was time to refresh the window display - the Barbie pink cupcakes have ceased to be Barbie and are more baby pink with the sun fading them yet I didn't feel it was quite time to delve straight into Christmas with it being 33 degrees outside and so the last two mornings between customers I put together these autumnal pieces..... A rustic photo album made from corrugated card... A tag and a photo frame also made from corrugated card - the other side has two panels complete with staples to display photos...I attached some birds and butterflies to my lantern... I thought this looked OK but now I see the photo I will add some more bits and pieces to it tomorrow...

A chunky tag with a sprig of berries... a very simple card with some die cut leaves and a few left over berries... and another simple card with a bit of stamping and a Tim Holtz flower...Not too bad for a bit of a rushed project...

Bye for now

Sue