Classes went great!

We had a great time getting all creative yesterday.  There were a few that had not stamped before and they rocked it! Everyone's projects looked great. I had a friendly face from the past when I taught at PJ's and met a great group of ladies.

I am greatly looking forward to May's classes and hope to see you all then.  Pictures of May's class samples are 2 posts down from this post.

Please bring to Class on Saturday

If you already have the following items please bring them.  IF you dont own it and dont know what it is, no worries, you can use it in class and see if you like it before you buy it. ;)  Having your own supplies just speeds up class. Looking forward to Saturday. See you then.

SHRINK ART CLASS

Bring to class: Basic kit. be sure to include scissors, Beacon's  glue, heat gun and any of the materials that I have listed below that you own and want to use in class.

Materials used

·         Stamps  :Stampers Anonymous stamps V2-920  (leaf botanical), Tim Holtz collection U3-1159(lace), U5-1160 (flourish) and V4-1096 (cart postale)

·         Stazon inks :Timber brown and Olive

·         Stickles glitter

·         Golden or Liquitex Gel  medium : Heavy Gel Gloss

·         Tim Holtz alcohol inks (pinks , purples, yellows, oranges , brown and greens

·         Tim Holtz Distress inks ( pink, straw, peeled paint, walnut, antique linen and old linen)

·         heat gun

·         hand towel/ craft towel that can get stained,  to wipe off hands

·         gold leafing pen

·         Color Box Stylus and foam tips

·         Beacon's glue

For the Distress/Crackle class

Bring to class your basic kit plus be sure to include scissors,  heat gun and any of the materials that I have listed below that you own and want to use in class.

Materials used:

    ·         Tim Holtz Distress inks: Mahogany, peeled paint, straw and walnut

·         Stazon on : Timber brown and Olive

·         Tim Holtz alcohol inks : meadow and yellow

·         Stamp : Stampers Anonymous  J3- 976 (Life is not measured)

·         Edge distressers

·         Light colored acrylic paints in very pale cream, sage and white pearlescent

·         Beacon's glue

·         Heat gun

May's Classes and creative play

This is what I have been working on through out March.  I am preparing for May's classes at Scraps of Art. I will have a firm date soon so stay tuned.

 I am offering a class on stamping with bleach. We will use bleach in several different ways.  We will paint with it as well as stamp in it.

Also in May I will show you how to use your chalks in a way not known to many.  Using tools such as Emory boards, versa mark pad, embossing powder and even, just maybe a water pen.

Then lastly but not least important is my latest transparency card.  I have been working on these for a couple of months now. Developing the technique of layering in color and design as well as texture into the layers of the card.  This came about as a challenge from acharmingplace to use something that it wasn't meant to be used for. I hope to bring this all together and get a great working combination of elements and layers for an upcoming class so stay tuned.

Lastly, I reached the point of vacuuming my art room today.  I have arranged and rearranged, stacked and unstacked, sorted, saved and thrown out.  I feel a new energy in my room so I am calling my latest efforts to organize and get the room set up for teaching and learning a success.

Art room clean out!

Well I successfully took out 5 boxes of stamps, papers, books, ribbons, chipboard and more out of my room for the used stamp sale!  I am very proud of myself.  Purging my art stuff is not easy.  I also took out 3 large trash bags of trash and several times, while filling the garbage can, thought to myself "what was I thinking!" lol

 The only bad thing, unless you are me or know me and my art room very well, it still looks full. LOL I also organized my stamps according to which companies I can teach with and so on.  Now when I go to make a class sample the stamps will at my finger tips and I will not have to search for them. ;) 

Once I tidy up the desks and vacuum the floor, my room will look pretty dang good.  Now to be able to find everything since I put it away and hope to not need what I have prepared to sell on April 2nd at Scraps of Art. :D  Hope to see you there.

Upcoming classes for April 9th

I took pictures but I forgot to blog about them! Well now I have a date to go with the pictures. On April 9th I will be teaching a shrink art class and a distressed crackle class. In the distressed crackle class we will also learn how to make fabric flowers so dont forget your heat tool for either class. ;)

This is the Shrink Art class.  Scraps of Art has the actual samples.

This is one of the pictures of the Distressed/Vintage class I will be teaching. The other is an ATC.  We will play with several pieces but will complete 2 projects. Scraps of Art also has these samples in their store.

Greatly looking forward to the classes and meeting you all.  I will be at the Used Stamp sale on April 2nd as well. :D

What a productive weekend

For me anyway. My husband is sick and has held down the couch most of the weekend.

Saturday morning I woke up and headed to Stampfest.  I had a good quick time.  I had to leave at noon to get back home so I could prepare Valentine's Dinner for my sons and their friends and girlfriend. Usually my hubby and I do it together.  With him not feeling well I did most of it.  This year was a 20 year tradition of dining on fine china, the silver and crystal glasses. The China is almost if not over 100 yrs old.  A picture of the  dessert is on my Facebook page.

This week I have been busy in my art room preparing for future classes.  I also had a stamp club meeting and made 15 ATCs for trading.

I completed 3 of my challenges for Acharmingplace.  The frame is covered in  papers and inked.

This is my husband's Valentine's card that will become a framed print to put in his office.

I think this Challenge was my favorite and I am turning it into a class.  The challenge was to take something and make it something it isn't/ or isn't intended for. I used 2 over head projectors transparencies and turned them into this transparent card.

Tomorrow is the beginning of another week and I plan on being in my art room as much as possible.  Now if that house cleaning fairy would only show up! ;)

Wow time flies

Well Time has flown since my last post.  I have been sick and had some family stuff going on but I have also been busy creating ATCs, Christmas tags, a recipe and clean out of the house for a yard sale.

Where to start?  My latest creations would be a good start.  I was in some swaps and ATC trades over the last month. Below are the photos:

ATC stamp club swap (that I missed because I got sick!)

Christmas tag swap

Vintage sewing swap. I made ATCs

We had a challenge on A Charming Place forum to "corrode" charms.  I used a generic, dollar store drain cleaner and let the charms soak for a day and a half. Each different cleaner works at different paces so pay attention until you know how long it takes to corrode the charms. I love the different colors that came out. The crown at the bottom was sanded after it dried and I was able to bring the brass back to shiney creating a vintage/aged look.

My other set of Vintage Sewing ATCs

A hand made flower swap.  These are fabric pieces that I melted.

So one day I was in the grocery store and I just needed to do some cooking. I also wanted something different.  Thus Spaghetti squash in a white wine sauce was created.  You can use any kind of meat on top.  My parents brought us some lobster from our family in Maine.

Okay so buy a spaghetti squash and cook accordingly.   Start your water for your orzo pasta and cook accordingly. While you are doing that saute up a sweet onion, and a clove of garlic minced.  Once the onions begin to become traslucent and browning add a cup of white wine,  Cup of chicken broth, tbsp of cumin, quarter cup of minced basil, cilantro, mint and lemon grass.  Add french cut style green beans and a package of asian slaw ( comes as a kit in salad section) add the sauce from the kit as well. Let it all simmer until the Greenbeans are done.  Now using a fork, scoop the squash out of its shell. Drain the pasta.  Now in a large container mix and gently toss the squash, pasta and greenbean/cabbbage together.  Now Daniel loves curry so he made his curry and we had it as a sauce on the side. Put whatever protein your are going to on top and serve. This will work as just a veggie dish too.  This makes about 8 solid servings. 

We recently got together with some classmates and I made a cornbread topped greens casserole that was delish.  I got this recipe from my Aunt Carolyn.

Pre heat oven to 425

In a large pot- brown 3 cups cubed ham or smoked turkey ( I only used a cup), 1 clove of garlic, 1 med onion, 1 green pepper( I forgot this) salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from the pot.  Brown 2 TBSP of flour. Add 3 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Add ham mixture, 2 cups of cooked collards, 2 cans of black eyed peas ( I used Glory seasoned). ( I added 1/2 cup Jalapino juice from the jar) Bring mixture back to a boil.  While that is heating back up make the cornbread.

2 cups self rising cornbread

1 chopped jalapino ( Or a TBSP of jared ones diced up.)

1/2 cup of self rising flour

1 tsp sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk.

Mix all the ingredients together and pour over greens mixture in a 9x13 pan.

Bake at 425 for about 25 to 30 min until brown