My lovely walls!

This is what my walls look like in my 'so called' finished craft room. The decorator (who luckily hasn't been paid yet) is coming next week to have a look and decide what to do. I think they've painted it before the glue under the paper has had time to dry or they've used the wrong glue. This is the first time we've paid someone to decorate and it will probably be the last! It's so frustrating, especially as we have visitors arriving on the 10th April who may need to use the room. We'll see what next week brings!

Cards from Friday's class

----------------------------------This morning I had Laurie, Nicki and Therese at the house making cards. Therese had to leave early and I didn't manage a photo of hers but these are Nicki and Laurie's. Laurie is an art teacher and spent half an hour teaching me how to colour in my Hanna stamp images rather than using the paper piecing technique which is time consuming. It's interesting for me to watch someone like Laurie trained in art using the Stampin'Up materials in different ways. I love how she watercoloured the pear image.

No time to write any more, we're off to an African music evening organised by the boy's school. I'm pretty sure Neil would rather be watching the Toulouse game which is on at exactly the same time, tant pis!

Another photo prolongation.

This is the work of Christelle from the Tuesday scrap classes. Like myself, she mainly used the Stampin'Up! watercolour wonder crayons for her background. She added acrylic paints for the flower detail. Of course, when you see it for real the colours and texture are much clearer. Christelle works quicker than me though, hers was finished nearly the same day she started! Next Tuesday we start our next project which is a mini album.

Great Ocean Road

At last it's finished! When Anne told us we were going to do a photo prolongation on canvas at the scrap association and showed us her example, I thought, I'll never be able to do that! After arriving with the wrong type of photo the first week I then decided on this one taken a long time ago on an Austalian holiday. I used Stampin'Up! watercolour wonder crayons to make the background and 'papier de soie' for the waves to give a bit of dimension. It was great fun to do and I'm now wondering where to put it in the house and which other photos I can use this technique on.

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Muriel from the scrap association was complaining on Tuesday that I hadn't put any new cards on my blog for a while. So here you go Muriel, this is one I've been preparing to teach at an atelier next week. It's very simple and quick to do but I like it's simplicity. The stamp set used is a hostess set 'du fond du coeur' which unfortunately you can't buy, so ............. who wants to host a party?

Easter - not just for kids!

This year it wasn't just Ryan and Greg who were spolied at Easter, me too! Severine made me a little 'ballotine' of chocolate eggs when I visited her on Sunday afternoon to deliver her Stampin'Up! order. Sev makes gorgeous cards, lots of sewing on them, I'm jealous as I can't sew and don't have a machine to learn on. To think that my sister has a brand new, never used (and never likely to be used) sewing machine in her attic in Scotland. Next time we're over with the car.............maybe!

At Nicki's house on Sunday everyone had a little package at the table, the girls had Cadbury's cream eggs and a little candle. The egg was good, I've just this minute finished it!

I'm off to the Tuesday scrap association meeting to put my photo prolongation into a frame. I'll try to post a photo later.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Happy Easter everyone, this is just a quick message before going out for lunch at Nicki and Andy's house with some other friends. I said I'd take desert and here it is, a huge sticky toffee pudding made in a roasting dish. Ice cream obligatory and extra toffee sauce to pour over obviously (well, the pudding itself doesn't have enough calories). I think there will be a lot of mouths to feed when you add in the kids that will be there hence the jumbo size! Mind you they may be too full of chocolate!

If Graeme (my brother-in-law) is watching this he'll be jealous as I think it's his favourite pudding ever. Bon Appetit!

Another Hanna set

This is just a quick message to show a card I made on Saturday morning for Val, it's her --th birthday tomorrow but I know she's already opened the card! I love these Hanna stamps but cutting the Basic Grey papers to glue to her outline just takes too long. I spoke with my friend Laurie yesterday, she's an art teacher and is going to help show me how to watercolour Hanna and add the correct shading.

This afternoon was scrap at Lempdes, we did a 'photo prolongation' which I'll show you here in a week or so when it's finished. I used a photo of the Great Ocean Road in Australia, taken on holiday 11 years ago. Where does time go?????????

Stampin'Up atelier

This morning I was invited to do a Stampin'Up demonstration to a 'chit-chat' group in Clermont. There were about 13 women there (different nationalities), they meet every Thursday in each other's houses to learn more about the French language and share their experiences on living in France. Dominique is the French lady who runs this association and we had a great time creating cards and experimenting with colours and stamps. So much so that 2 or 3 of the women want to hold demonstrations soon in their homes. I get a lot of pleasure seeing others get hooked into this relaxing hobby and sharing ideas. I wish I'd remembered my camera to take a picture of us all at work cross legged on Rathna's floor!



Tonight it was bad news about the 'craft room to be' as the painter phoned to say we need to pay an extra 400 euros to line the walls with a special 'toile' otherwise the paint and plaster would likely end up cracking a year or so down the line. As you can see it already looks much better and I've decided on the shocking colour scheme of pure white so that I can have as much light as possible in the room. We'll see what next week brings.

Friday 13th-
This afternoon I had Anne my 'downline' SU! demonstrator at the house to 'patouiller' (my favourite French verb which isn't translated in my dictionnary but which describes what we do when faced with a table full of Stampin'Up! craft supplies). We used a scrap booking plastic page protector, cut another 2 sides open and dropped in some recharge inks before spritzing with water. We then slid in some glossy white photo paper and some normal cardstock to see what effects we'd get. I can't wait to 'patouiller' a bit more with some different colours and use the results in some card making. We also tried out using the SU! markers with a Versamark ink pad. We stamped a flower image in clear versamark then 'stamped it off' on a piece of scrap paper. This left the rubber stamp with a slightly sticky coating of Versamark. Then we coloured in the stamp with a teal marker and stamped this on our cardstock. We added clear embossing powder and heated it until we had the glossy flower we were after. It isn't too evident from the photo but any crafters will be able to imagine the possibilities of easily embossing all 48 of the Stampin'Up! coloured markers.

I think that's it for now, football for both boys tomorrow and the rugby game against Stade Francais at 3pm. Sunday. Have a good weekend and get in touch if you need any more explanations of the techniques described above.

Tagged by Marie

Aujourd'hui, j'ai été taguée par Marie / à mon tour alors de citer quelques petites choses sur moi

Voici le règlement :
. Mettre le lien de la personne qui vous a taguée
. Mettre le règlement sur votre blog
. Mentionner 6 choses/habitudes/tics importants sur vous même
. Taguer 6 personnes à la fin du billet
. Avertir immédiatement les personnes taguées sur leur blog

1- Je suis fan de rugby, ASM bien sûr
2- J'adore manger le 'haggis'
3- Je suis incapable de prononce correctement les mots 'dessus et dessous' pour voir une difference
4- Je déteste de faire les devoirs en francaise même si ça me servir
5- Je voudrais une jour passer une semaine des vacances aux Etats-Unis pour me régaler dans les magasins du scrap, mais mon banquier va dire non je crois
6- J'ai toujours la télé Britannique à la maison

Maintenant c'est le tour de Julie, Angie, Belinda, Laurence, Agnès,

J'ai que trouvé 5 personnes, désolée!

Tuesday's scrap atelier in Lempdes

In January I joined an association in Lempdes who meet every Tuesday afternoon to 'scrap'. There are 7 of us plus Anne who runs the group and gives us our projects to complete. I'm behind compared to everyone else but have pictures today of my explosion box which I finished this morning. It's very simple but at least it started me off using photos as decoration which I'm not used to with my cards. I used photos of a family holiday to Spain a few years ago, time passes quickly when you know that Ryan is now 9 years old. I used the letter 'S' for Spain as my theme and added tags describing the pictures with words which start with S like summer, swim, splash. I haven't showed it to the boys yet, not sure if they'll remember that far back but they'll recognise their Grandad's swimming pool and the dogs!

Card classes

Today I've got lots of pictures of cards for you, not made by me but by 4 friends who came to make cards at the house this morning. We spent about two and a half hours creating cards and it was a lot of fun.Firstly, here are those made by Caroline who has been coming to classes for a while now and is soon going to be making her own and her best friend's wedding invitations. Her sample invitations are gorgeous but I'm not allowed to show you them yet!





Next are cards made by Briana who has even started to make them at home in between classes. In case you hadn't noticed Briana likes to use flowers and her cards are always bright and colourful.










Lastly, Nicki and Martha who were next to each other used the same Stampin'Up!stamps in different colours to make their Easter/Birthday cards. The 'Un bonheur sans fin' set was ordered by Martha and I think it will be very versatile for Easter/Birthday/Sympathy cards. We used a special technique using a 'baby wipe' or 'lingette' to make the multi-coloured bold butterflies, I think they turned out well and I'm sure the recipients will be happy!

Since Monday

I'm up early today as at last, wait for it................, the decorator has arrived to start work on my craft/spare bedroom. After accepting the quote in October to put up a new ceiling and decorate, it has taken this long for him to arrive, I hope it will be worth the wait. Here are two 'before' pictures and hopefully the 'after' ones can be done shortly! Of course, I then need to persuade Neil to take me to IKEA to buy shelving and a new table etc. and then persuade him to find time to build everything up, not easy with his schedule!

Tuesday night saw me miles into the country for Nathalie's Stampin'Up! party. Of course it had to be the only day this year that we've had snow and she lives up high, I was pretty nervous driving home afterwards that's for sure. There were 8 of us in all and we had a good laugh, Nathalie had made some delicious new recipes - a curried tuna quiche and an apple and cinammon cake were my favourites. Thanks again Nath if you're reading this and I hope you enjoy all your free Stampin'Up! goodies when they arrive next week.

Lastly, yesterday was Ryan's party with his friends for his birthday last week. There were 10 kids and we went bowling in Clermont, a stress free time was had by all and Ryan really enjoyed himself despite not managing to get a strike.

Back to school.

The boys holidays are finished and I've managed to have a productive day today. I've been making a few French chicken birthday cards for family birthdays in March (hope you're not watching this Ali), I love this 'Penny Black' stamp. I've also beeen playing with a new Stampin'Up! set called 'Bonheur tout neuf'. What do you think? I always find it hard to make male birthday cards and this chicken fits the bill.

Homework time then preparations for an SU party in Issoire tomorrow night, weather permitting as light snow has been forecast! The house smells of golden syrup as I've made ANZAC biscuits to take as a thankyou to the hostess, Nathalie, mmmmmmmmmmm!

Ooops!

I just found out yesterday that it was Mother's Day in Scotland tomorrow! Too late to post a card so Liz (if you're watching this blog) you'll have to be content with a virtual card from France this year! You can have your pressie when you get here in May.

Have a good weekend, we're off to watch ASM play Bayonne. Ryan and Greg are enjoying a relaxing weekend after their busy sports week, Ryan came home with the t-shirt for winning their 'Olympic Games' yesterday. He was well chuffed as there were a lot of older children. Greg on the other hand has apparently been the entertainment for the whole week, 'quelle surprise' for anyone that knows him!!!!!!