No Walking For These Boots!

In wee hours of Sat 6th, I received a message from friends. they were due to go to a workshop at Art From The Heart in Harrogate, unfortunately one of them wasn't feeling well at all and had to pull out. they wanted to know, could I fill the place. At the time I was travelling back from a 5hour music gig. 

I hadn't seen these friends in ages so I said yes... and then it occurred to me I had no idea what the class was or who was teaching! It turned out the teacher for the day was the gorgeous Karen Hayselden. 

After frantically getting home, searching for and sorting travel arrangements and packing a pack, I didn't get much sleep, before having to be up and off to the shop. My lovely friend Marie was already there, so we had a quick catch up and the Catherine arrived... so ,so good to see them both. Bonus was that Jayne was on her way too.. 

Later we also met up with Chris and Linda, amazing who you bump into, so nice to catch up with people that we usually only see online. 

Here is everyone hard at work. 

During the day we practised blending techniques, tried out lots of different paints, and generally got all painty and messy. 

This was our first project, the birdhouse was finished during the class.. 

I added the stamped text once I got home. 

Originally the house had a loop of cord at the top, I cut this off and added the twist of wire and the heart instead. 

This is a Stampotique girlie, stamped onto plain card, also onto book page and also onto painted card, then all the bits assembled. 

The 2nd project of the day was to make this single boot on a stick. Karen showed us her tips and trips for forming the shape. Mine took a couple of days to dry out properly. 

Using my new frilly flowers, I created this layerd flower. I used the large one twice and the small one once. Between the 2 larger flowers I glued a metal clip. it is completely hidden by the flowers. 

Once the boot was dry I could paint it and the stick. 

Love it, You can see the  larger flowers sit either side of the stick. 

The flowers are stamped onto card that I had painted and blnded while in the class. 

The clip inside is perfet to hold this photo of me and my lovely friends from the day. 

and here are both projects together, what a fab reminder of a great day.. 

Darcy x

Fun Weekend

Well what can I say about this past weekend that would sum it up, other than I do not think I have laughed so much in my life.

It all came about when PAPERARTSY decided to hold a retailers training day, to educate shop owners and teachers about the fabulous PaperArtsy products, including FRESCO PAINTS and GRUNGE PASTE.

Myself, MICHELLE and GILLIAN were invited to go along to the training day too. partly to help out and partly to brush up our skills with paint techniques etc. (go and see both their blogs, them make awesome stuffs)

Gillian got the train down from Scotland to a station near me and Michelle, we picked her up and set off.

Here we are in the car.

We sang and laughed and tweeted all the way to Art from the Heart, where Michelle was teaching a taster class for an hour. 

While she was busy with her class, Gillian and I mooched around the shop and chatted with DYAN and KATE

Here we all are just before we set off again..

On our way again we drove down to Essex, to PaperArtsy HQ. As soon as we arrived we jumped in the van and went to the training venue to get everything set up. it took us about 3 hours, but looked great. 

Just look at all those awesome stamps!

See that huge..HUUUUUUGE banner at the back, I helped put that together, and took it down all by myself. it was all attached to this weird metal frame and trying to figure it out was like being on the Krypton Factor!

Lots of samples were placed around for people to see and take photographs. All the projects that I had made were on show..

Once we were all set up we went back to PaperArtsy HQ, where the very lovely Leandra and Mark had invited us to stay with their family. We were treated to a great bbq. We also got to see where the stamps are made, that was so very cool. 

Here is Mr.PaperArtsy. 

Sunday morning we were all up early and off to the venue about 8.15am, where we did final prep for the day. 

People started to arrive, claim their seats and wander around the samples on show. I got to try out my painted apron for the first time..

We then got busy,busy. Leandra and LIN taught around 20 samples between them. Everyone was having a great time getting messy.

At lunchtime we stuffed ourselves silly with this gorgeous buffet.

and followed it up with these deserts..

The only problem of the day was the heat, boy was it warm....roasting in fact. but the venue staff kept us supplied with jugs of iced water all day. 

With all that food inside us and the heat it was hard to stay awake lol but the excitement of the wimbledon win kept us alert, and we managed to complete all out samples. 

This one is my interpretation of the techniques taught by Lin.

I was totally thrilled that I got to meet JO, I had missed her at Ally Pally so it was great to chat with her on Sunday. Jo is the designer of the JOFY stamps that I used to make my girls with big hair. 

Such a fantastic weekend, with some of the nicest people I have ever met. Huge thanks to Leandra and Mark for their generosity and hospitality. 

postcard challenge

Here are the entries for Decembers best of comp.

Shortlist..
Sweden. Alice..Janet..Jay
Hawaii. Abby..Alison..Cindy
Greenland.Jenny..Mags..Kelly..Jamie
Mexico. Gina..Lori..Kaylene

Finalists.

1. Gina. Mexico

2. Jay. Sweden

3. Jenny Greenland

4. Alison Hawaii

5. Lori Mexico

6. Magaret. Greenland

PRIZE..

VOTING NOW CLOSED

Weekend Away..

So the 10 month circle journal came to an end, and instead of posting the books back to their owners we decided to meet up.

We all headed for Harrogate, and exchanged our books. here is me getting my book back..

photo courtesy of Leanne..

All the books are complete except for a single page in the back, I intend to put a photo of us all on there. When the whole thing is done i shall make a flip thru video and show you.

We had a wonderful meal out on the Saturday night, and then a pj party in one of the rooms. Much wine and cake was consumed. I shall refrain from showing you the pj photos lol

On Sunday morning we had breakfast and then walked along to Art from the Heart where we spent the day doing a workshop with the fabby Dyan.

We made these huuuuge canvasses, I really want to add a quote to mine, so when that is done I will show you.

Here is me and the gorgeous Dyan, could be sisters...

photo by Jackie

we had a fabulous day, and got very messy..mine are the smurf hands on the left..

Here we are all together after the class..

Lynn brought moustache cookies...

photo by Jackie

this is Marie, she was my roomy for the weekend, and it was a pleasure to share with her.

As gifts for the girls I made them all a bag, here they are showing them off..

I will make a post soon just about the bags, and also one about the page I made for Jayne.

Here is how my canvas looked by the end of the class, I have since added a little more blue ink and I am currently searching for an appropriate quote to go on it.

photo by Jackie

and here is everybody with our canvasses just before saying goodbye..

Fabulous weekend...