Mini Retreat in the Studio

It's official.  I'm hosting a mini retreat on Saturday, Oct. 22nd.  This will be a all day event consisting of multiple classes in paper art, book art, wearable art & assemblage.

Two of my Stampaway Lovelies from IL will be visiting Wilmington and convinced me to stop being so lazy and make some art.  So we are!

The day will begin at 10:30 am and run through 6:30pm, with lunch served during a brief break, allowing time to check out all the displayed eye candy in the studio.  We're going to kick the day off with paper art, creating fabulous colorful backgrounds.  Some of those will be used in the wearable art project and some will be used in the book art project.  I think you'll even use a smidge in the assemblage creation. 

Email me if you think you need a day of creativity and I'll reply with the specifics.

I'm excited.  Are you?

Happy Ramblings

Most of you visit this blog to see and hear about art.  To you, I beg patience.  I just want to tell you that today I'm filled with love and laughter and I wanted to share that with you.

My mother celebrated her 77th birthday on Friday.  She arrived at my house on Thursday and settled for burgers on the grill, baked beans and oven-fries, followed by nutty buddies & refresho popsicles which could be held with one hand while playing dominoes with the other.

On Friday when we were caught in a downpour at the antique festival and she realized she'd left her raincoat in my car, she whipped out a Food Lion brown plastic bag and put it right on her head, holding the handles under her chin as it filled with air and tried to blow away, all while eating homemade vanilla ice cream with a spoon in her other hand.  I so wanted a photo of that, but didn't take one.  And when I gave her my raincoat, opting to get drenched in order to salvage her hair, teased to within an inch of its life and sprayed with what surely must have been 3 cans of spray, she smiled and gave my step-father her bag to wear on his head.  He actually received a compliment on it as we raced to the car.  (Another photo op missed, but to be remembered fondly.)

Friday night I cooked a feast, served a beautiful birthday cake, and got back to the business at hand...more dominoes.  While we took a break so Mini Cooper and Mercedes Benz could go out for a walk, I pulled out my IPad and pulled up Talking Tom 2.  As that cat held his paw cupped to his ear, Mother said loudly "this is one stinky hand", referring to her dominoes and trust me, she did not use the word stinky.  When that cat repeated the phrase in his high-pitched voice, the three of us burst into laughter, which he also repeated.  And so it began, with Mother and Tommy laughing and talking, and Tom repeating everything they said, which led to more laughter and tears from us all.  Our tummies ached from the uproarious laughter, which just made it all the funnier.  Everyone should download that free app on their iphones and ipads.  Seriously.

When she called on Saturday from my brother's house in the mountains, the next stop on her birthday journey, you could hear the dominoes clacking in the background and knew she was having a large time indeed.

Late yesterday she called from her room in the Casino to say she'd lost my step-father somewhere between the $60 seafood buffet she'd purchased with part of my birthday money, and the slot machine that had stolen another $100+.  And she was laughing and beaming, just gushing with the news that she was having the time of her life.  And once again, I smiled with her.

Today they're on their way back home, anxious to plan their next adventure. 

I went to see baby Jackson on Saturday evening.  As usual he wants nothing to do with me but adores PaPa.  It's just not fair.  To whom may I direct my complaints?  He's talking non-stop though you can't understand a single word he says.   I tried taking photos but he wouldn't be still so I have lots of blurs...baby in motion.  Did I tell you he now has my strawberry blonde hair?  And he has a long curl hanging down the back of his neck though it's fairly short everywhere else.  Can a grandmother request the first lock of hair, do you think?  I'd pay cash.

Fall has arrived with cooler temperatures and the new Fall lineup on TV.  I'm overcome with happiness at the return of both.  Truly overjoyed. 

My new pergola didn't get painted this weekend due to the rain and the birthday celebration, but that's okay.  I still haven't finished filling my new planters, and that's okay too. 

I'm happy today and hope you are as well.

Playing Catch Up

Time seems to get away from me, and for that I apologize.  I've already had another stamp club meeting without posting photos from last month.  The ATC above is a creation by Sharon with a little help from me. 

Everyone was supposed to make ATC's to swap, leaving one as a background only for us to stamp and embellish during the meeting.  So instead of using the background she'd made, Sharon chose one of mine. 

Next I spread out a wide variety of rubber stamps so everyone could choose a face.  This one is from Invoke Arts.  To that we added these fabulous little glasses and hats from Coffee Break Designs.  The hat is "colored" with Viva Inka Gold in a shade of green.  Think Rub N Buf, but far more fabulous.  You just rub it on with your finger and then buff with a dry cloth.  The sheen is glorious though the photo doesn't do it justice.

I'd also spilled out a few dozen tubes of Viva's Paper Pens and Pearl Pens and that's what Sharon used to add the dimensional dots to the hat band.  Don't you just love it?

I'm pretty sure this one was done by Mary, who added zentangles onto her polished stone alcohol ink background that she'd also stamped with a crackle stamp.  The image is one of my favorites from Cats Life Press, and again the crown and specs are from Coffee Break.

This one was by Michele, again using one of my backgrounds.  Can you see where I stamped with a piece of Clearsnap's Magic Stamp?  The face image is from Invoke Arts and already donned a hot but she chose to add one anyway.   And don't you just love those little star glasses?

Deb used her own background, added a face by Cats Life Press, and then round glasses, opting not to add a hat. 

This month our project was to make "restructured paper", inspired by a recent issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine (look back to March/April).  Michele had made more than one after seeing it then so everyone brought their craft sheets, scraps of paper, and we spent an hour getting really messy and having lots of fun with it.

This one was done by Lyn, though the Mod Podge is still milky white and wet, but she added lots of bold flashes of color, which I loved.

Lynda made this one using lots of beachy elements like a crab, flip flops, sand dollars, etc, since she's missed so many meetings while enjoying her beach house.

Laurie used lots of punches and shapes on hers...

While Michele used lots of stamped images.

Janie added lots of flowers...

While Sharon added lots of punchinella, dry wall tape and pages torn from books.

For mine, I began with pages torn from books added to the tissue paper first, then added mulberry papers, tissue papers, napkins, and more, trying to use as many Fall colors as possible.

It's going to be interesting to see who cuts them up and puts them to use before next month's meeting.  Including me, of course.

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.