what I've been up to...

At the weekend I was browsing other blogs and I came across a challenge to use yellow, kraft and white or ivory. As yellow is so out of my comfort zone - I do not look good in yellow and have never in all the houses I have  ever lived in had a yellow colour scheme - except in the current house where I inherited a yellow room, bought yellow bedding and thought mmm! yes this looks bright and cheerful. Anyway, I digress.....
so I got out my spray inks and templates, drew a birdhouse on a large piece of card  and set to work. I diecut birds from kraft card and flowers from the mop-up piece of card - well true crafters never waste anything - I put the kitchen roll from mopping up aside for another day...I die-cut a hanging sign and purely by accident sprinkled white embossing powder instead of clear onto the hanger part and it looks antique - happy accident eh!!

 I was having so much fun that I then went on to tags and so I Distress Stained some tags...

and die cut more birds and flowers, stamped a bit and stained some lace and seam binding, added a few embellishments and ended up with very messy hands but three very nice tags - so all in all very happy with the result...

Right, just a quick call out for the ladies who live in Spain but not in Javea - I have had a load of new dies and texture fades from Sizzix but be quick...you know how fast these disappear...

and disappear is what I am going to do to watch Britain's Got Talent so

Bye for now

Sue

In class on Friday I demonstrated the Ranger Distress Stains and showed how versatile they were and how they worked with the Distress inks and reinkers.                                   
I stained a tag and pressed onto it a sheet of hammered card and took a print which became my main card front. A bit of blending around the edges, stained some seam binding, some stamping and a bit of embellishments and my card was ready - tra la!!!

A week ago I had a few days away from the shop to visit Tanya in Belgium. She is psyching herself up for her breast rebuilding op next Wednesday and so we chatted loads and had a fun lunch and some shopping in Hasselt, a nearby town, along with an hour long visit to a huge art shop - 4 floors worth of arty goodies - the rock chicka looks good don't you think.....

and back at hers she offered me the opportunity to make a page in a new "old" journal. Her neighbour Ludo had given her an old ledger from the 1960's and that was too good to turn down so armed with just what was to hand on the coffee table - its a big table!!! -  a DCWV 6 x 6 paper pad, a box of watercolours, a case of coloured pencils, a bottle of red Stickles, albums full of Tim's stamps and a Coffee Archival ink pad I set to while Tanya dozed...

I watercoloured, cut and pasted, highlighted,  stamped, crayoned, stickled and generally enjoyed myself in her journal... the photo has turned itself around and I haven't a clue how to rotate it on here so hopefully you can make out what I did - if not look on facebook - it worked ok on there!!!

Tanya also lent me a book - Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier - heavy going at first but ok once you get into it - and inside it I found a tag bare and unloved and so I had to change that - well I did didn't I - and so I took some coloured pencils from her pencil case lying on the coffee table and a Sharpie marker and she now has a doodled colourful bookmark and a reminder of me to boot.

Tanya lives in Heks - its in the middle of nowhere -
    
but a beautiful fruit growing region - just look at all that blossom on those trees everywhere you looked   - bit like round here in February when the almond trees blossom...           

Right that's enough for one day so
Bye for now
Sue

a mini album I made...

I made this mini flap album with templates and spray inks and have been teaching it during April...
 the flower was from the kitchen roll - no waste here - true crafter me!!!

a view of the inside pages...

Hope you like it - that's if it has loaded and you can see it of course!!!

Think that will have to do for today so

Bye for now

Sue

ps the wording seems to be all over the place - will have to work on that tomorrow too

quick update on April...

OMG I have been away and Blogger has changed AGAIN!!! I now need to find out how to load my photos to update you all. Oh well watch this space...

missing...presumed stolen...

I'm feeling really gutted as my lovely new Graphic 45 Staples album has gone missing from the shop. It has loads of pockets and tags and flaps and sewing and shrink plastic and a crocheted fastener. I hadn't even got round to putting it on here but luckily I had taken photos of it all. Presumably someone somewhere is enjoying it.


















Sue

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