A T!m-tastic Saturday !!!

Wow! what a day we had yesterday at the Frenzy Stamper for their 7th Birthday celebrations. Tim Holtz was teaching an all day workshop, a brand new one especially for Debbie's store. We had a wooden curio cabinet to alter and embellish. This was Tim's sample being shown around by Mario, who did a great job as usual with getting everything we needed and helping out in general.
We got to use the fabulous new Tissue Tape that is just shipping to stores, cannot wait to get my hands on some. Also the Lost & Found paper pad, and Tim very generously let us all share his French ledger papers that he got in Paris last year. You cannot imagine the amount of embellishments we had to choose from, we had a long table set up like a buffet, it was so hard to choose but the beauty was we could keep going back if we changed our minds to swap things out.
There was a lot of people who kept swapping items, me included, but the fun thing was how everyone's project turned out so incredible and all so different.
A really nice lunch was provided for us by one of the ladies at the class and there was even a birthday cake and cookies, what more could  you ask for ? I am hoping Tim will be back next year for Debbies 8th birthday celebrations, hint, hint..

The other fun thing was that I took the class with my
very good friend Lisa, in fact she was the one who saw
the announcement about the class and signed us both up,
so glad that she gets up early :)

Lisa and I met a year ago taking a Tim Holtz class at
another store, it is amazing how art can bring people
together, now we are art class buddies and supply buying enablers!

Ta da! the bird revealed...

 

Well here it is...that darn bird finally finished! I ended up
going in a different direction with it. It is not like the ones
that people did in class last year with Tim Holtz.

I had it sitting by my desk for a while looking all forlorn as
it had been sanded almost to death.

I started painting it again at the weekend and then
Tim Holtz started a series this week on distressing, so it
motivated me to take this bird in a new direction. It is
now based on one of the projects that we did on the
Mexico cruise, I did not do as many of the techniques
but it gave me a jump start to get this bird finished.

I apologize for the photo but it is very hard to photograph
something that has glass on the front, if anyone has any
tips I would love to know !

Believe me I took this thing all around my house, inside
and outside and after many attempts this was the best,
thank goodness for digital cameras :)

So as well as causing me a great deal of distress I did
use distress inks on the background, the birdcage diecut,
and the stamped canvas block. So relieved that I can
move on to other things now.

Monday musings...

 

Well here is another journal page in my Kelly Kilmer
journal. There really seems to be no rhyme or reason
to what I am doing on the pages, just thoughts that
strike me at the moment I sit down to make a page.
I had been saving these 2 photos from a mini calendar
I have on my desk and then saw the "Origins"

title page and wanted to use them together.

This is the only art I have done lately as I have been on
and off trying to yet again re-organize my supplies in my
craft area. I am embarrassed by the amount of stuff I
have, surely I am not alone in this ?? someone else out
there make me feel better, please :)

I have several times over the last couple of years done
a re-sort of my stuff and for a while it is great. Then I
find some other art/craft avenue that I want to try and
end up with a whole range of new supplies, where will
it all end ? So if anyone has any tips on storage and
whittling down supplies I would love to hear them.

Thrift store finds...

Well after all the fun of making my travel journal using a
game board and lots of vintage game pieces the hunt was
on to find more.
Today I met my friend Lisa and we went to 2 thrift stores
to see what treasures we could find. I found a box of
dominoes that was only half full but only cost 25 cents,
we split the dominoes between us. I also bought a big
dictionary for only $2.98, which Lisa took home with her
as I cannot bring myself to rip the pages out of it :)
So Lisa is going to do it for me and we will share the pages.
Other fun finds included a dress pattern for 25 cents and
a vintage wooden yardstick for only 45 cents !

We headed into downtown Mesa to get lunch and saw this
sculpture that had recently been placed there. I had read
about it but did not realise just how huge it was. That is a

bank building right behind it. It does look kind of freaky

when you see the faces as they are very realistic.

After lunch we went into the Antiques Plaza and Lisa
found some more goodies which I am hoping she will
share with me :)

This was my first time going shopping at thrift stores
and it was fun to see what you could find for a real
bargain price. Look out I see a new addiction coming on !

Fun class this weekend...

On Saturday I took this fun travel journal class at
The Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale. We tried lots
of techniques using alcohol ink, colour wash sprays
on cheesecloth, embossing metal etc. We got to
choose all the fun little game pieces to use on the
various pages. Now I am going to have to go
searching for cheap board games to get all these
cute little trinkets myself. Using a Scrabble board
for our front and back covers was what drew me
to this book. I went with my friend Lisa, and she
finished her journal off yesterday whilst I finished
mine today.

I really enjoy taking classes and learning new techniques.
Sometimes just finding one handy tip really makes it even
better, we were given a really great tip for adding pages
into the book after we had bound it. I am going to try it
first and see how it works before passing it on.

I also enjoy taking online classes and find those can be
much less pressure on the one hand but on the other
hand maybe I don't get the project finished. So who
out there takes online classes ? 

are there some good sites you can recommend that
have interesting classes ?

Birthday Review...

Definitely a 5 Star birthday yesterday :) First I met my
good friend Lisa for lunch at The Elephant Bar,
delicious lunch and a yummy birthday dessert,
and yes I did share it !

We had to go out early for a family dinner as I had a 7pm
meeting to attend. We had a delicious dinner and again I
had a scrumptious birthday dessert - sorry did not get a
good photo of it but it involved chocolate.

After the meeting we came home and it was time to
unwrap my gifts. I was truly spoiled and received lots
of things, some I had asked for and some were surprises.
One of the surprises was my husband had got several
different ingredients to make me a Caramel Apple
Martini, so last night he tried a few recipes and got
it almost right on the 3rd try. Looking forward to
trying more recipes as I slept really well last night :)

For all my arty friends out there here are a few of the
gifts I received yesterday, cannot wait to try these out !

Art Journal page 3...

Having mentioned in a previous post about me not liking
the colour pink it seems to keep showing up in this
art journal :)

I did this page on Monday after coming back from seeing
the Alice in Wonderland movie with a friend of mine.
I wasn't sure if I would even like the movie but had a
strong desire to go and see it. Honestly I liked the movie
and came out feeling very happy and positive which is
why I made the journal page - to remind me that
moments like these should be remembered.

I am so glad I did as later that day some things happened
that really took that feeling away from me, but now I can
go and look at my page and remember that feeling. I think
now I am starting to "get it" - the reason why people do
use art journals to express themselves.

Well hoping that my week gets better, particularly as it
is my birthday tomorrow :)

What's all this then ??

This was the scene in my kitchen yesterday, which by the
way I was forbidden from going in to so had to take this
from far away.
My family made me a very nice Mothers Day brunch
yesterday, the boys each carved a basket out of a melon
and filled it with fruit.
They made lots of food and we still have a basket full
of fruit for today.

Here I am with my boys right before we devour all the
food ! Not only was it delicious but I did not have to
clean any of it up, it was all taken care of for me.

I had a very nice relaxing day and now have at least a

month's supply of chocolate !

Now wondering how much pampering I will get

later on this week for my birthday :)

Creativity or chaos ??

Yes, that is the question ! This was my desk a few days
ago. I was trying out some new art journaling techniques
and it involved cutting out lots of strips of papers,
I actually had fun doing it but then had to tidy it all
up yesterday. I am trying to learn new techniques and
really love the pages of Teesha Moore, her style is unique
and I know it is not everyone's taste. She has some really
good videos out on Youtube that explain her process,
which is what I was trying here, not really sure that I
have her talent and ability to pull it off but I had fun
experimenting with it. If I ever get the page to where
I like it then I will post it here.

My problem seems to be making all the elements on my
page blend in so that it seems like a seamless piece of
work.
Some of my pages are OK and others I cannot get it to
work, there is just something not quite right. As Teesha
says though, it is all about playing and it looks like I
will have to do more playing to get more experience :)

Moving on ...

Well I am trying to get my creative mojo back so went
back to how it all started, scrapbooking. I have been
scrapbooking for 13 years, but the last year or so have
been branching out in different directions and

sad to say have neglected my photos.

I just did this layout today and the pictures are from
3 years ago when we were in Big Bear Lake, CA.

Hard to imagine from the photos but we were actually
there skiing ! Yes we did ski and there was snow on
the mountains but down in the village and at the
lake it was gorgeous.

So on the advice of a friend I am undergoing a trial
separation from the bird. Hoping that we can make
up soon though :)

Monday musings...

So when is it time to give up on a project ??
I have been trying to work on something that I had put off
for a while and decided a week ago to just do it !
Well I did not like the way it looked so tried to change it,
then I had issues with the products I used.
Well let me tell you the saga...

Last year Tim Holtz taught an altered wooden bird class
in various places around the country. I did not get to take
the class but they did sell their extra birds so you could
try it yourself. I was told some vague directions which
I wrote down and this is what I did:
1. Sand the bird a little
2. Use a light coat of acrylic paint dabber and let it dry.
3. Do a second coat of paint dabber and let it dry.
4. Sand the bird so you take off various amounts of paint
to make it look distressed.
5. Use a piece of foam and dab distress ink all over it.

So I did all this but the distress ink kept coming off on my
hands every time I picked up the bird, days went by and
it still was coming off all over. I wiped it down with paper
towel but still the ink was coming off. I thought I could
seal it and give a cool effect if I applied the clear rock
candy crackle paint over it. Well something odd happened
and the crackle paint sort of crystallized and started to
crumble off in big chunks. So I rubbed off as much as
I could and decided to try putting some metallic paints
over it all and re-colouring it. Well I wasn't sure if I liked
it or not but when my son saw it last night he
told me it looked like my bird was wearing a leotard !!!

This morning I went around trying to find some non toxic
paint remover and decided to start all over. Well tried
that and the paint went all gooey and sticky so I have
been sanding and sanding to get the stuff off, I am
almost there but am feeling frustrated at this point.

So back to the question, should I give up and bury this
bird or should I re-think and try something else ???
Help me before my friend Lisa stops talking to me
as I have been updating her with this saga.

P.S. To ease my embarrassment no pictures of the bird have been taken :)