Wishing Well Ya'll

I've been quiet but busy of late. Lots of stuff going on in my life and it's been hard keeping everything straight but I vow to try to be more up to date in the future. Maybe?

I have a class featuring the Kaisercraft wishing well coming up this Saturday, August 11th from 10am to 12pm at The Crop Shop in Rockland, MA. It's a great project and functional too. I love projects that have an actual purpose. This wishing well is wonderful for kids and it'll keep their money safe and in one place. I could also see this being done for Christmas too. It could be decorated with some of the new lines coming out this fall and the kids could write down things they want for Christmas and put them in it so mom and dad can get idea of what the kids want and they can relay that information to 'Santa.'

I have a couple of projects I'm working on for the fall and will show some sneak peeks here as I complete them.

ATCs and Inchies

About a year ago I joined the ATC (artist trading card) group at my local scrapbook store, The Crop Shop. The group meets on Saturday mornings which is great for me because I work the second shift and this early morning meeting fits right into my schedule. I've know about other groups but they meet in the evening; yes, I could turn them into swap and pick them up later but I like to see everyone and hear how they came up with their ideas and techniques they used on the cards. Below are just a few of the recent swaps that were done at the store.

 Books

 

Guilty Pleasures

National Parks

Automotive

Wizard of Oz

Recipes

 1920s

I'm pretty precise with my ATCs. I don't do too much collage on them. The 'Wizard of Oz' ATC is about the only one that I did that fits the technique category and that I'm really proud of myself for stepping outside my comfort zone with this one.

Not sure how it happens but almost all my ATCs end up having some element on them that I cut out with my Silhouette Cameo. I love that no matter what I might want to cut out or design myself I can usually do it with the Cameo. I think I'm most proud the 'Automotive' one because I downloaded the 'DQ' logo and then separated to elements and was able to cut them out on the Cameo and it looks great.

I run the 'Inchie' swap at the store and we meet right after the ATC group, so it's convenient for those who are in both swaps. We've recently opted to use the same themes as the ATC group. I won't be able to make this weekends meeting, I'm heading down to Texas for a long weekend to celebrate my 40th birthday with my family, but Ann who runs the ATC group is going to fill in for me. Ann is a great ATC instructor and I know she'll do just fine helping the 'inchie' group in my absence. Here are my 'inchies' for the 'food' and '1920s' themes.

Food

Food

1920s

I couldn't decide on what to do for the 'food' theme so I did two. I'm a huge sweets person but also thought the watermelon was a good one for summer. I'm not a huge vintage/retro person and I had a hard time with the 1920s theme for the ATCs and 'inchies.' As I researched I came up with the 19th amendment, the right to vote for women. I love this stamp that came out in the late 1990s and thought it would be good to use for both swaps. I was able to adapt it and put the amendment on the inside of the inchie. I use Inchie Arts 'inchie' squares to back most of my 'inchies,' not only do they have white and black squares but also have them in neutral shades like the one in the photo above.

Challenge 'Hobbies'

And of course, I cannot forget about the 'challenge' for the next 'inchie' swap. The theme was 'Hobbies' and it couldn't relate to scrapbooking or crafting. I own a motorcycle and was just overjoyed when DeNami Design came out with this cute motorcycle chickie stamp in their latest release. I received it last Friday just in time to use it for the challenge.

These groups meet this Saturday, July 14th from 10am-12pm at The Crop Shop in Rockland, MA. Drop by and check it out.

YUMMI DENAMI!

Yes, I know two posts in less than 24 hours, it's unheard of from me. But I just couldn't contain myself when I opened my door to see this....

Then I opened it and saw this...

Just a little of what was in the box; you'll see these featured in classes to come this fall...

Thank you DeNami Design for creating new chickies and plenty of more fantastic stamps for me to play with in my studio. Also, the turn around on my order was phenomenal. Ordered on Monday received today, Friday, don't forget there was a holiday in the middle of the week. Plus, there was a little sample of their twine! This company is great and cannot wait to create more classes using their stamps. In the future, look for classes featuring these stamps at KEPT Creations in Whitman, MA, which will be opening on September 1st, 2012.

ATCs and more

Well June was a busy month for me created three different classes for The Crop Shop in Rockland. I created a seasonal calendar set with 7 Gypsies shadowboxes along with stamps, embellishments and die cuts.

Also, this Teacher thank you gift using the Kaisercraft drawer set.

Finally, I ended the month by teaching this napkin decoupage technique using the Viva Decor Ultra Licht and their napkin decoupage. Two cards and one journal were given a three dimensional look using this technique.

Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are 3.5 x 2.5 inch cards that are decorated with a theme and/or technique. People can swap these in groups to exchange ideas and techniques. Since this can be daunting to some at first I created this class to help new comers create their own ATCs using the new ATC line by Creative Imaginations. This company has made it convenient to create ATCs by packaging cooridinating frames, diecuts and paper. This class shows that you can do more than just swap the ATCs but you can also use them to adorn cards. This class is Saturday, July 7th from 10am-12pm at The Crop Shop in Rockland, MA.

I'm currently working on classes for August and September along with more class for the fall. Come by and take a class.

How a blank canvas picked me up out of my creative slump!

Yes, it’s been about 5 months since I had a blog post. Between the holidays, vacations, super bowl (work related) and a death in the family, I haven’t been in a crafty state of mind. My craft room was a disaster and I didn’t want to enter it let alone craft in it. I finally committed and after 3 hours I could see the floor again. You can see below before and after photos.  

Now that the room was in order the next step was to create some projects for classes. I had completed three projects before the holidays and those classes were submitted and taught at The Crop Shop. They can be seen below.

BoBunny Snowfall Album

Double-Z Fold Album card

Bird Arch album

But as I thought back I couldn’t remember the last time I created something for just the heck of it. I get together with some friends each month and we craft. The last couple of gatherings I haven’t really been in the creating mood, more of an organizing mood (figure out a way to organize and store, embossing folders, metal die cuts, and of course the ever expanding pile of ribbon).

Well, today after helping out some close friends at a great craft event, I met up with some other crafty friends. We were gathering to share and explore the world of art journaling. We had bought some Dylusions stamps a few months back and we thought getting together for some inspirational time would do us all some good. I had bought the Dylusions sprays also and brought along some stencils and masks and some old ledger books I bought on eBay. I started out playing with the sprays and inking up the pages of the ledger book to get a good base for the pages along with seeing how the colors looked when applied to the pages. This was a great way to get my feet wet again. 

Once I finished the pages one of the ladies gave us some canvases she had laying around her house and thought maybe we could do something with them. I first started to spritz my favorite color palette (red, oranges and yellows). On the coated canvas they dried a little muted but were okay. I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the canvas and since I had been working on a napkin decoupage technique I had seen at one of the craft trade shows, I thought it would be a good idea for the canvas my friend had given me. As I started looking through the many decorative napkins I had procured over the last week, I picked out a couple and then realized the sprays I was working with were a little bright for the color palette of the napkins. But I was not about to be deterred, so I just started spraying layer upon layer and blotting the pools of color over and over until the right blend of colors appeared on the canvas. I will say this I don’t think I could recreate the background to save my life. It was a happy accident so to speak that this particular color scheme came together.


Next, I selected the napkin I wanted to be the main focal point and then some additional elements from another napkin. I applied the Viva Décor decoupage to the napkin. Then I added some Viva Décor ultra licht clay to the areas I wanted to become three dimensional and then added the final layer of napkin by applying the decoupage again. The next element was adding some accent to the butterflies to make them pop and I did that by applying some Viva Décor Crystal Gel to them. My final touch was to stamp a saying from one of the Dylusion sets. When all was said and done,  I had a completed piece of art that I did JUST FOR ME! I felt so happy, excited, elated, gleeful, energized and of course a sense of satisfaction. It took a blank canvas to raise me up from the creative rut I was in to a Crafty State of Mind! Thank you Jacki!

Merry Christmas!

Just dropping in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

I Keep Chugging Along…

Last weekend I was able to actually take a class at The Crop Shop, where I teach classes. It was a great change of pace to see how another teacher approaches instructing students in a class. The project was wonderful and the instructor, Jean, was very patient. I cannot wait to show my mom how to do it too when I visit her next month.

I’ve been up to a few things this past week and they are mainly swap driven. I completed my 12x12 ‘June’ layout for a calendar swap I’m running at The Crop Shop. 

I also, finished two sets of ATC’s (artist trading cards) for the ATC club at the store too. One theme was ‘Retro’ for last month’s swap, which I couldn’t attend since I was on vacation.

The other is ‘Wild Card - Designers Choice’ for this weekend’s swap. I figured out I do better when given a theme. It took me awhile to figure out what to do for it. I wanted to definitely use paper and embellishments I already had on hand. I started digging through some old scrapbook paper from K and Company and was able to come up with something. It’s simple but I think it works and looks nice.

I also finished assembling the kits the 2012 ‘Inchie' Calendar class I’m doing Saturday, December 3^rd from 10a-12p. I only have four spots left in the class so if you would like to take the class or a kit please call the store at 781-792-2767 or go to the website and signup via PayPal.

 

Last but definitely not least my new Silhouette Cameo arrived this week. Yes, I’ve had it since Monday but have yet to take it out of its box. I hope to tackle that next week after the holiday weekend. I’ve been just salivating over this machine since I saw it at CHA in July. I bought my original Silhouette just as the Silhouette SD was about to come out, so I was able to get it pretty cheap. The one feature I always wanted was for it to cut 12x12 and now the new Silhouette Cameo does just that. I’ve already started making room for it in my craft room.

I’ve several more projects I have to complete over the weekend so I hope everyone has a wonderful Black Friday weekend.