Fun Where You Find It

Guess who's busy unpacking boxes of new products?  That would be me.

Guess who hasn't unpacked their suitcases from Stampaway?  That would also be me.

And now for a real shocker...you should be sitting down.  Move your beverage away lest you tip it over when you fall out of your chair...

After 30+ years, I'm teaching card classes in the studio.  Oh my, I feel faint...weak in the knees...I may fall out of my chair.

It's true.  Cards.  Help me Rhonda.

Interested?  I'm working on samples this weekend while Hurricane Irene swirls and blows and sheds big fat rain drops all over me.  Truly, you should email me if you're interested.

Stampaway Art House Display Class

What do you get from Linda when she teaches an 8am class?  Shaky photos of less than crisp images.  My apologies, but these are all I have from my third class at Stampaway.  All you ladies who took my class are invited to share your photos with me so that I can post great pictures of your finished houses!  Seriously.

I packed everything but the kitchen sink for this class, just as I'd done for the other 2.  Roof choices were unlimited:  Monopoly money, vintage tickets in gray, blue & pink, tape measures, cigar box bands, wooden nickels, Chance & Community Chest Cards, Fortune Cards, Zodiac Cards, wooden dowels,...  I was out of control.

Here's a roof of gray tickets but check out those wooden nickels attached as trim.  Love it!

How about pink tickets (that once were red) and tape measures for accents?

This one had staggered rows of blue & pink tickets for shingles.

I admit it...this one was my favorite.  I loved the contrast of that red tape measure as a featured element, though the row of pink tickets wasn't bad either.

Ca Ching!  A roof made of money!  Ain't that the truth?

Days before flying to Cincinnati I found a bag of 4" long wooden dowels at the craft store.  And since the houses were 4" wide, I thought they'd be perfect.  Don't know if you can tell this is a round dowel, but it is.  Dimension at its best.

All the ladies selected a shade of Ranger's Distress Stains for the wooden front of their house.  And this one was distressed with more ink for a truly aged look.  Genius!

This roof is predominantly gray tickets, but check out the green tickets beneath that peek through the holes and highlight the edges.

So many hard workers...so much to choose from...decisions, decisions.

My gals stayed busy the entire 2 hours and since the next class didn't begin until 11am, we took advantage of the extra time to keep working.

Now this is what a happy camper looks like! 

This house features ticket images from Invoke Arts.  The rubber bands are insurance til the adhesive dries.

The face is also from my good friends at Invoke Arts.  And it's stamped on Eco Board from my buddy Harry at Rubber Stamp Concepts.  Everyone was given 3 pieces of this in different sizes and shapes, and then selected from oodles of stamps after they'd applied colors to the background.  And if you look closely you'll see Tim's Tissue Tape wrapped around the edges of some of these, as well as on the edges of the houses.  The tape isn't to hold them together; it's just another element of the design.

Thank you to all my students for joining the fun in this class.  I hope you had as much fun as I did, and that you'll look for me next year when Stampaway celebrates their 20th Anniversary.

Stampaway Specimen Box Collage Class

Don't you just love finding something new?  When my buddy Tim introduced his large houses die cut, I knew immediately that I'd need those in my collection.  But it wasn't until 4 days before Stampaway that I knew I'd use them in my Specimen Box Collage class. 

This is a class I've taught at Stampaway several times before, but each time it's different.  The first time we created art dolls with castles in the background.  The second time around we used a clip art "angel", think vintage photos of little girls altered with wings & fairy wands, and elements from Tim's grungeboard adding dimension and interest to the background.

So it's no surprise that I didn't want to repeat an idea.  After all, the name of the class was "Secrets of a Specimen Box Collage".  And 33 ladies joined me for this little adventure.

The big surprise for me was that more than half these girls had never taken a class with me before!  Wow.  So glad you chose this year to join me!

My classes always include techniques, and this one was a perfect example.  I love introducing my students to new ideas and new "tools" for making backgrounds.  In this particular class we were applying all those techniques to a background, to houses, and to roof tops.  Way too much fun.

This collage isn't finished as I'm sure you can tell, but please check out all the textures on these houses.  Aren't they wonderful?

I apologize for my photography, but look closely and you'll see Clearsnap's Magic Stamp blocks on the table.  It wouldn't be a class with Lovely Linda if we didn't have those.  And once again, I'm amazed by the number of people who don't know about this valuable stamping tool.

Check out the upper right corner of the background; it was made with the Magic Stamp I'd impressed at home with a rubber stamp.  How dynamic is that?

Every kit was filled with pages torn from foreign text books including Greek, Russian, & German, plus sheet music,Asian text & newsprint, and my favorite for this class:  a text book on building homes.  Notice the largest house on the left:  a page from that very book.

Now look at the roof of the second house from the right.  Coffee Break Designs sells these wonderful chipboard pennants that I'd bought for my Elevated ATC class last year, but they were perfect for the roof of a house.  Not just because of their size, but because it was an added element of dimension.

Every kit this year was packaged with a 6" stencil I'd purchased from The Crafters Workshop.  They offer such a fabulous collection of stencils you can't imagine!  At the beginning of class the ladies lined up to trade their tickets for a kit.  It was interesting to see how often they'd sort through 3 or 4 specimen boxes, trying to decide which stencil they liked best, before moving on to collect the rest of their supplies.  Only 2 came back to the front to swap out their box because of the stencil choices.  I would have expected it from more.

Notice the pattern in the upper lefthand corner and on the second house from the left.  Yep, those were done with a stencil.

The roof of the house on the left was cut from a large border stamp made by Artful Illusions.  And the roof on the second house from the right is metal flashing tape that I'd run through a texture plate.  The key and token are real.  Imagine assembling 40 kits with old rusty keys and metal tokens, but that's exactly what I did.  Of course there were jewels and Bingo markers, Tim's spinners & tissue tape...the ladies had access to everything.

Another new product I introduced them to was Viva's Inka Gold...a waxy pigment that adheres to metal much like Rub n Buf, but far superior in consistency & color choices.  So lots of the gals used it on their metal embellishments, including their rooftops.  If you scroll back up and look at the houses, you'll see several of the roofs are made from the metal flashing tape that's been colored.  How divine.

As always, I thank you for stopping by to visit.  And to all the Lovelies who attended my classes, a HUGE thank you.  Maybe next year I should make name tags for everyone that read "I'm one of Linda's Lovelies".  Think anyone would wear one?

Stampaway Classes

My first class at this year's convention was a 3 hour Visual Art Journal as Memory Book.  I shipped 2 cartons of supplies with a total weight of 88 lb, and that didn't include my luggage which weighed another 90 lb.  So much paper, so much weight!

Everyone's kit included everything from stamped images on sticker paper to library pockets, glassine envelopes, coin envelopes, and their own set of watercolors.

We began with 2 simple techniques, one dry and one wet, and then using both background pieces I showed them how to use lots of fun tools unrelated to stamping that make perfectly wonderful patterns and backgrounds.

I brought along 5 of my own journals so everyone could flip the pages for inspiration, and of course photography was allowed to keep that creativity flowing once they were back home and ready to play.

My carry on bag was filled with about 400 rubber stamps, half mounted, half unmounted.  So many choices...

I had seen a magazine ad for Sally Hanson nail colors with an entire page of nails in every color and pattern.  If you look closely at the above photo you'll see where individual nails were cut out of a strip to use on a journal page.

Do you see the wine bottles in the above photo?  I bought a $30 magazine that featured prize winning advertising, just so I could cut it up to be used as elements on their pages. 

Not only did I pack dozens of small items in a popcorn bag, but I showed everyone how to fold and adhere it to the page of their journal to create an oversized pocket.

There were a few questions, lots of stamping, and tons of fun creating pages, as well as embellishing the book covers.

Each participant was to bring their own dye-based ink pads, and the color selections were like a rainbow.

Here's an example of someone who stamped lots of images to cut out and use later.  Clearly she liked the image of the panic button!

To you it may look like chaos, but everyone spread out at the tables, with piles on empty chairs, and had a marvelous time playing.

For those of who in attendance, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude that you spent 3 hours playing in one of my classes.  And to those who weren't there, I hope you can join me next year.

Check back tomorrow for photos from my other classes, and as always, thanks for checking in today.

Stampaway USA 2011

What's the best thing about attending and teaching at Stampaway in Cincinnati each August?  Easily it's meeting up with old friends and making new friends.  This year my dear friend Mike Meador, owner of Coffee Break Designs, was sorely missed by so many of us, and certainly by me.  His wife, Chris, is on my right above and the new proprietor of Coffee Break Designs, Kris Hubick, is on my left.

Mike's booth was always my first stop, and it wasn't just for the quirky inventory, but for a chance to visit with him and Chris, always a highlight of my Ohio trip.  He was witty beyond words, never without a smile on his face, and the wink of mischief never far away.

Chris was gracious enough to give me a pin to wear with his photo and everytime someone would comment on it, I'd get teary eyed and have to walk away for fear I'd cry in front of a crowd.  He was loved and he is missed, but I'm so glad I got the chance to visit with Chris again and to meet Kristin face to face. 

Sharon was the only one of my local girls to attend, for her fifth year, and we were both exhausted when we returned home Sunday.  The good news:  according to an email from her yesterday, we've both caught up on some much needed sleep now that we're back in NC.

Another friend is Carol, whose husband Gil spent more time with me on Friday than she did.  We found ourselves together on an elevator ride and after an hour of chat outside the classrooms, parted ways; he to search for a local coin shop and me in search of food!

Carol has attended 2 of my art retreat weekends, and like several others, she wanted to know when the next one will be held.  Start looking at your October calendars girls!

I failed to get photos of Mary Jo McGraw, Cecile, Connie or Tammy.  I was too tired to think straight and never once pulled out a camera while we were on the show floor.  Michelle and Anne from St. Louis invited me to their room on Friday night after the Preview Party for our annual show & tell.  We missed Lori, who didn't attend this year, but still managed to eat pizza and laugh til 3am!!  And again I didn't take a single photo.  Sheesh!

I did get to visit with my pal Barb, even had a chance to sit and eat with her during the Friday night event.  She was dolled up here for the Flower Power theme.  When I asked if the curly locks were hers she said "Yes, I paid for them"!  Too funny.  I got a big hug and wouldn't you just know, she was covered with glitter, which meant of course that I was also covered with glitter for the rest of the night.  Help me Rhonda!

Greg of Marco's Paper was over-the-top fabulous as always.  One big flower.  Yep, that would be him.

Ted, at the Stamper's Anonymous booth, took flower power in a completely different direction.  How divine is he???

I failed to get a photo of my dear friends Joni & Mark, owners of Artful Illusions, but I did get one of Lemon Drop.  Isn't he a jewel?  And I liked his shirt so much that I bought one for myself.  (Actually bought 2, but one was the same artwork he's wearing, just in a lovely shade of brown to flatter my blonde hair.)
More to come, including photos from all 3 of my classes.  Thanks for dropping by and do come again.