woosh!...wuzzat?! d'you hear that?...woosh! there it is again! is that...no...is that...february?
how-in-ever did it get to be march, already?! yes, february is a short month, but it seems like ground hog day was only yesterday...
well, alot has been happenning! the second weekend in february (super bowl weekend, incidentally) kris and i decided to kick the mid-winter blahs by heading what we call "down the hill" to phoenix for a four day weekend in the warm and away from the 10 and 1/2 feet of snow piled up around the house. and what fun we had! friday, saturday and sunday (before the big game, let us be clear) we spent taking classes with one of my very favorite teachers, kelly kilmer , who was teaching at a fabulous little shop we had heard of but never been to before, frenzy stamper . what a treat! kelly's classes are always fun and playful, and she challenges students to just put down some paint, have a good time, and make art without agonizing over every little detail. and as one who easily bogs down in the little details, i totally appreciate that.
so, what did we learn about? well. this was so awesome! on friday, she had us painting and stamping and writing on - get this - deli paper! you know, the stuff they wrap your sandwiwch in? lighter than waxed paper, and unwaxed, it becomes translucent under the paint.
we made several of these friday evening. and kelly's always SO generaous with materials; she gave us all loads of deli paper to play with at home! we also did some painting on cardstock friday, playing with stencils and things...
then...on saturday we took "everything you ever wanted to know about pens." we started out by prepping several sheets of paper with acrylic paint, then kelly pulled out all the stops. i must have tried out 50 different pens that day! kris was very organized about it, writing the name of the pen with the pen, and noting whether she liked it or not. me...well, i just dove in and started drawing with them all haphazard-like, making a mental note to go back to my handout at some point and...well, you get the idea.
there were brush pens and paint pens and gel pens and sharpies and pouffy pens and glue pens and glitter pens, and a great little handout for keeping track of them all.
we learned SO MUCH about what we do and do not like in a pen, what we want in a pen, what the qualities of the different types of pens are. and we had fun doing it! won't that save us a bundle of money? i have bought so many pens that turned out to run. or fade. or blend in with the paint. or wouldn't write at all on acrylic. what a deal!
sunday's class was titled "spirit journal," and what a glorious, messy, fun time it was! we made a canvas covered art journal in class! with pages that we already made backgrounds on! using an easy pamphlet stitch binding, and with enough pages to get you through a month of art journaling before you have to make another one. here's my cover:
it's acrylic paint on primed canvas, with stenciled images. we set the covers aside to dry, then started playing with spritzers, paint, stencils and stamps on a base of 80lb. wasau cardstock. i would never have thought to use anything lighter than watercolor paper - but that's what i love about classes! s-t-r-e-t-c-h those limits and try something new! here are a few of my pages...after i'd gotten home and started journaling on them.
and then there's this page, before journaling:
i really enjoy this kind of journaling. it's very much outside my typical style. with the prepared background in front of me, i randomly choose a focal image, maybe some collage papers, and just glue everything down where it seems to fit. then the magic happens...i get to make something up about the pictures, maybe, or write about something i saw that day. and it all works!
kelly will be back at frenzy stamper (awesome little shop, folks) in april, and at art unraveled in august. take classes with her anytime you have the chance! kelly's not just great, classes with her will make you feel great, too!
we bought alot of cool new toys and tools at frenzy stamper; pens, stamps, punches. my favorite new toy is a postage stamp template. it's a big acrylic stencil with squares cut in it, for making faux postage. i've played with it alot since we got back and had alot of fun. you can use all sorts of media with it - spritzers, ink, pens, stamps, paint - whatever, with layer upon layer of color. this is too much fun not to share, so this may just turn into a class!
alot of other things have been happening. my email account got hacked, and i've started receiving spam from myself, which sucks. worse, though, is that my email program got very s-l-o-w, and then crashed. outlook contacts went down first, which is where everyone's address was stored from the holiday giveaway...then my mouse driver went south! we gave up trying to fix the wireless mouse and just went back to an old fashioned, wired mouse. which feels pretty weird after using a cordless laser mouse all this time...but it works!
the studio had become totally chaotic, and although the muse likes things a little bit messy, it had got to where we could no longer work in it, much less find anything. so i spent about a week completely reorganizing it. and i love the new setup! there are storage bins where there once were piles. things are shelved or put away in drawers, and i swear it will never get that out of hand again! lol!
i've been playing with knitting design some, too. mostly a fun hat design and reworking a vintage shrug pattern to make it seamless. started a knitting blog called the purl onion.
the best news, however, is that once we got my email program up, and the studio straightened out, and i was able to retrieve everyone's address, we could finally box up everyone's holiday giveaway presents! they went into the mail on monday, 3 day priority, and should be arriving, well tomorrow! i so apologize for the delay, and by way of trying to make up for it, tucked in a few extra goodies for you kind, patient and supportive people. enjoy!
well, that's all for tonight. thanks for visiting. come again soon!
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