Get ready for class release

Been a busy, busy girl while Mark has been away. It was quite an epic for him, he was due to fly home last Sunday but had to extend his stay by a few more days to put the finishes touches to the project. Thankfully, it's all done now and he's home which is great. What's not so great is that now they are quoting for Tokyo and North Korea!!!!

I made the most of the time he was away and really got to grips with the preparation for the next session of classes. I have a few sneaky peeks for you and if all goes according to plan, they will go on sale on Saturday 1st August. We will also be having a bit of a summer sale that day. Once all the dates have been confirmed, I will post again. I will send out the usual newsletter when everything is up on the website for you to see.

Class place available

Due to the demand for places on my TSS masterclass, I arranged a mini masterclass for a group of friends who wanted to take a class together. This class is only one day, not the usual day and a half and takes place this Sunday. We don't normally get many cancellations but I have had one for this class, so if you would like to come, I have ONE place, give me a call at the shop on 01234 714848. First person to call gets the place! It's a very cool class, jam packed with techniques, you'll love it.


Well if you think it's hot and sticky here, spare a thought for my poor husband Mark. He is working in Singapore at the moment where it is 44 degrees C and very humid. It's a big, very important project for him and he hates the heat. Not really a happy bunny at the moment, in his last email he told me he was on a mission to find something to eat that was neither raw or still alive!!!!!

Take That!!!!

What a weekend. I went to Old Trafford in Manchester at the weekend to see Take That. OMG those guys are amazing which is just as well because the weekend was quite an adventure. We set out early Saturday morning, via the opticians to collect my new glasses and prescription sunglasses....this was a good thing. Next thing was a bad thing....real bad headache, I think due to dehydration!!! We arrived in Manchester and found the hotel quite easily, which was a good thing until we stepped foot inside the hotel and found out this was a really bad thing!!!! The hotel was the pits...I was so upset by this as I had been the one to arrange the whole weekend. The other girls thought it was funny and part of the adventure.

Once unpacked, we decided to walk to Manchester town centre for lunch and a spot of shopping which of course is always a good thing unless like me, you couldn't find anything that you like!!! We did however think that as the weather forecast was not so good and the concert was outside, it may be a good idea to try and buy something waterproof. Off we trot to Primark, who has just the thing. White and pink polka dot number for £6.00...just the ticket. For anyone who knows me though will find this hilarious as I really am not a pink girl...let alone polka dots!!! But who cares, it was only just in case, we wouldn't need them......would we?

Back to grim hotel to get showered and changed. Off to restaurant for a nice meal....good thing you would think? As it turned out.....yep, you guessed it another bad thing. We waited for over 45 minutes for 4 salads. To cut a very long story short, three complaints to the waitress and manager finally gets us our meal, a reduction in the bill but of course we are now running very late. On leaving the restaurant, the first hint of rain. It wasn't long before the hint of rain turned into a downpour so we decided to get a taxi to the venue. Not long before a taxi appears, we hail the taxi, run down the road after it like four mad women and two very rude young men jump in our taxi and laugh at us. As you can imagine, we are starting to get a bit frazzled by now. Never mind, new taxi arrives very shortly and very nice taxi driver takes us to the venue. As we step out of the taxi, we see just how black the sky is and realise that it is not just a passing shower. Off to the bar to get a drink or two (just to help brace ourselves for what was coming of course).

Notice that I'm not in this picture, I really didn't want anyone to I know to see me in my pink placky mack. Anyway, L to R oldest daughter Kelly, my other daughter Sarah and Sarah's friend Della. Take note of the colour of the sky in the background, that's what was heading our way!!!

We make our way into the cricket ground and we wait for the boys to come on. The rain started to get heavier and heavier. Kelly my daughter said, "Mum, you should roll up your jeans a bit at the bottom so that they don't drag on the wet ground". You have no idea how funny that turned out to be, I actually had turn-ups full of water, it looked like I had a moat around each ankle!!! I have never experienced rain like this before, you simply could not get any wetter. Then luckily, it started to ease a little and on came the boys. The show was just amazing, I can't tell you how fantastic it was, who cared if we were soaking wet and cold, it was worth every raindrop!!!

I hate technology!!!!

Well, it's been one of those frustrating days. My website is out of action and Mark is away in Teeside. My web guy is now working on the problem but as yet, I have no idea what the problem is. So here I am typing my long overdue post and because the site is down, you will not be able to click the link on the website to the blog, which is where most of our blog traffic comes from, so I have no idea why I am doing this. Actually, yes I do, I have stuff to tell you. You'll find it when we are up and running again.

In answer to all the phone calls and emails asking about the next series of classes, I am working on the samples now. Hopefully they will go on sale at the beginning of August if all goes according to plan. I will of course blog about it and will also send out the usual newsletter. I have to say, there is going to be some very cool classes on offer. I have already made the samples for the next TSS masterclass and there is a great class called "Viva La Paint!" There's going to be a mixed media jewellery class, some card classes and the rest are still on the drawing board.

I am trying to type this with a very excitable puppy on my lap who is insisting that my earrings are her new toys!!!

I taught a great TSS class a couple of weeks ago....that's how far behind I am with my blog posts....we covered a letter rack with metal and applied some great paint techniques. It's always great if the project is a usable item as well as decorative. Okay so this is going to be a challenge to try and upload my photographs on this computer, I usually do this from my laptop which I now have down pat!!! Let's see what happens......

I'm amazed, that wasn't so bad. Now that I have the picture thing figured out, here is a picture of Meg with her latest favourite toy!!!



Have you spotted the hole in my lawn. This is one of many, we think she is trying to convert the lawn into a putting green, the holes are small and some are almost perfect circles!! Good job we love her.

As if I don't have enough to do, I just signed up for an on line class. I'm blaming Leandra, she told me about it but I am so glad she did, I am so enjoying it. Suzi Blu is the very talented young lady behind this fabulous series of classes called Les Petite Dolls. We are learning how to draw very cute dolls, you know the kind, with great big eyes....such fun. And colouring, I thought I knew how to colour already. How wrong can you be, I have gained so much in just a week, I would recommend it to anyone.

Only two more sleeps until Take That....I hope the weather stays fine. I'm guessing there will not be any shelter from the rain at Old Trafford!!!

Mocha Sample

Well, I finally found a few minutes to finish the sample of Mocha metal that I had been messing around with the last time I posted. Things never turn out the way you think they will but now I am really pleased with the sample. The box is painted with hazelnut paint dabber with a little touch of gold paint from the Precious Metal range by Viva (sorry that these are still not on the website....hopefully they will be next week). The background on the lid was done with the design on the back of Big Daddy 1 and the fleur de lys thing has been a work in progress since last weekend. It start out with a chipboard fleur de lys shape that I used as a temporary mould. I couldn't be bothered to fill the back so I squashed it in a controlled squish with my paper stump. To refine the resulting raised up edges, I used my pointy tool to trace around all the edges. Stuck it to a square of bookboard with humungo tape before I changed my mind again!!! Next, I did the scribbly thing for the background and swiped away some of the coloured paint with Ranger's Sandal alcohol ink. I heated up the whole thing with my heat gun and sprinkled on some gold embossing powder.....this is such a cool technique as you don't need ink to hold the embossing powder, it just melts straight on the metal because it is so hot! Finally, the finishing touches....I filled the whole thing with Sepia Accents and sprinkled in a few beads. Phew....sorry that was such an epic....and to think that this started life destined to be mounted on a card.....you just never know where something will take you!!!

It's been a bit of a mad week. I taught a TSS masterclass last weekend with some great students from far and wide locations. It turned out to be a great class and they kindly allowed me to take piccies of their work. I had 12 students on this class and I apologise now if your work is not one of the ones below but I am sure that you remember, I was having real problems with my camera so the ones I have posted are because these are the best photographs....actually, I still think the colours are not truly represented for which I apologise and the quality also leaves a lot to be desired. Mark has since corrected the settings on my camera so the pictures of the box are pretty good.

I then managed to contract an eye infection which was pretty miserable for a couple of days. My eyes were so sensitive to the light for a few days....I even wore my sunglasses in the shop!!!! Couldn't get an appointment with my own doctor but thank goodness for my very wonderful pharmacist......I will love him forever....he soon got me fixed up!!!

The rest of the week has been taken up with classes. Thursday we did "Blooming Beautiful" which was a book in a box using botanical stamps from Dark Room Door, Studio 490 and a few from PaperArtsy. We included Claudine Hellmuth's Sticky back canvas. Her range of acrylic paints, matt medium and Gesso......very messy but lot's of fun. I can't believe I didn't get any photos, they all did some great work. Today's class was Christmas cards and tomorrows class is a TSS class, where we will be covering a wooden letter rack. I'll try and remember to take photos.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. Only fourteen more sleeps til I go to Manchester to see Take That.....I'm so excited. I am going with my two daughters and my dearest friend from Yorkshire who I don't get to see as often as I would like which makes it even more special!!

Metal Mania

We just had our latest shipment of Ten Seconds Studio goodies and guess what? We have new stuff!!! Okay it is only two new lines but I am very excited about these new colours of aluminium. The first is called Dijon which is a mustard/ochre with a matt finish and the second one is called mocha. I had to have a little play straight away. I covered this cute little chest with the Dijon, added some black acrylic paint, wiped off the excess and when it was dry, spritzed it with Wheatfields Glimmer Mist for a very antique but pretty look.

I am now playing with the Mocha one, very nice!!!! I just quickly threw it on a mould to emboss it, sanded off the paint so that the aluminium shows through. I havn't made it in to a completed sample yet but will post a photograph when it is finished. These new colours should be up on the website tonight, ready for ordering. If you can't wait until then, they are already on the Ten Seconds website.

I'm really amazed by how many people have asked me how Meg is doing. Well, she is still a real live wire but we do love her to bits. Her latest fun thing to do is sit in my flower pots!!! Since this photograph was taken, she has decided that plants do not belong in this flower pot and promptly dug them out so she could sit in it and stand guard over the whole garden!!!!

It was my Dad's 75th birthday last week so we had a family gathering of myself and Mark, our three children Kelly, Sarah and Alex. Kelly's husband Jimmy, their children Ronnie and Millie and last but by no means least Chris who is Sarah's boyfriend. We took my parents out for a lovely Sunday lunch and then back to Kelly's house for birthday cake in the garden. Here is Sarah presenting my Dad with his cake, he was laughing so much as the girls had changed the numbers around so it was his 57th birthday really!!! Ronnie was on hand to blow out his candles in case he didn't have enough puff!!!

Normally my parents would have stayed with me for the whole weekend but sadly when they did that at Easter, their house was burgled whilst they were away and now they are frightened to stay away from home. It is very sad and it makes me very angry. They lost all my mum's jewellery and a few odds and ends but it was the mess that they made of their house. The front door had been kicked in and all of their belongings were strewn all over the house. My dad is normally a very strong minded person and I can't believe what this has done to him. Anyway, we spent a lovely day with him and he is such a proud great grandad and he's the best dad ever!!

Artsycrafts October 2009

Today's the day that the places for Artsycrafts October 2009 officially go on sale!!! I have had so many phone calls and emails from potential Artsycrafters, worried that they are going to miss out. Yes, we did give two weeks priority booking to previous attendees but now the remaining places are up for grabs by the rest of the world!!!

The dates are 17th/18th October and 24th/25th October 2009.

The theme for the next event is "Time". It is very versatile, it will lend itself nicely to all sorts of altered projects......bet you can't guess what the main project will be? Leandra and I feel that this is the most exciting event yet, we have loads of new products to work with as well as some old favourites and some great new techniques too, so if you are interested in spending two whole days with the Artsycrafts team for a jam packed, fun filled, creative weekend, click on the link below and it will take you to all the booking information. If you book early, there is a discount of £25.00, so you might like to hop on over there to check out all the information.

Click Here

Below I have posted some photos of projects from previous events to give you the feel of what you can expect in October.

Hope to see you in October.......it's going to be amazing!!!