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What can you do with some leftover scrapbook papers, stickers and some beeswax?

This fall banner-

How did I do that?

I traced a Gothic arch onto my scrapbook papers

Cut them out

cut out two sets of letters- the black letters slightly larger than the yellow ones

rubbed brown colored pencil on the edges of the yellow letters

glued the layers down

added some fall leaf stickers and some orange and yellow glitter flower stickers

dipped into melted beeswax to give it all a softer old look

punched small holes into each corner and threaded it with hemp

lastly I used a lark's head knot to put some fall colored raffia between each letter

I have been experimenting with paints and papers-the yellow letters is a pieces of paper that I hand painted before I cut the letters out because I wanted paper with some texture and color variations.



GIVE AWAY TODAY!

As many of you know I purchased the Scrapper's Nook July 1st and moved it into the studio. It has been a great move for the studio! I have NEW PAPER orders arriving in the next two weeks from all over. I love ordering new merchandise for the studio. So I am sharing my excitement with you! I am giving away the current issues of Somerset Studio and Somerset Apprentice ($25.00 value). These two magazines are available at the studio and are filled with ideas for taking your scrap booking to a new level. Just leave a message and tell me if you have ever read the magazines before. I will randomly choose a winner from the responses by noon tomorrow. (Sept 12,2012)

Paper-Palooza!

Everything is better when you put "palooza" behind it!

Last post was about the "Liquid Paper Ladies Night" and you can read about that here.

Today I had a brilliant idea and I am calling it

"Paper-Palooza!"

What does that mean?

• You can come in and work with some of the more expensive "art" papers before you purchase any to see if you like them. 
• You can try new products or some of the products you've seen in the supply stores that look really cool but WHAT do you DO with them?
• You can peruse the new magazines hot off the press from Stampington and Company like

Green Craft

Somerset Studio

Somerset Apprentice

Sound like fun? Let me know what kinds of things you'd like to try at Paper-Palooza!



when we last left our hero....

she was surrounded by stacks and stacks of paper and stickers and all sorts of scrap booking chaos.

I am happy to report that everything- well almost everything there's still that one little pile that I haven't figured out what to do with yet- has been organized and displayed. Customers are following the paper trail from the old location to the new one.

And we head to the next chapter....

Will I be offering classes and workshops for adults?
Yes.

I am working on some ideas even as I type.

The first thing I thought of was hosting a scrap night in the studio- you know bring your projects and sit in the company of other like minded people and work on those books. Ok- that's a start. What if I tell them I will provide some snacks to munch on while they work? Sounds good......... and what about some wine?

How does this sound- Liquid Paper Ladies Night- from 7:00PM until 10:00PM? Ladies can have a glass of wine, snacks and scrap with friends in the studio. I'll be on hand for creative input and problem solving plus I have quite the stash of rubber stamps from the Tim Holtz collection as well as tons of bits and pieces of not your average scrapbook paper - handmade papers from India, Nepal, Italy and Japan that I can share.  Due to the size of my class room and knowing that scrappers need room to spread out the evening will have to be limited to 5 people. Not to worry- I am pretty sure I will do this at least once a month if not twice a month.

Another idea I have been working on for the past 6 months is an art retreat. My sister Cecelia and my friend Shari and I have done this the past two years over president's weekend. We do a wonderful and intensive total immersion into collage and mixed media and gelatin printing and image transfer. Last year I produced two wonderful canvas pieces and a cello.  I have blogged about the retreat before and posted albums on my facebook page and each year I get more people asking how they can be a a part of this retreat. The retreat would start at 7PM on Thursday evening. then again at 6PM on Friday evening and then all day Saturday like 10 AM until 5PM. Still working out the details....I'll get back to you on this one. I am always open to suggestions and ideas.

What about an evening of creative doodling. Yes I said doodling. Do you have any idea how important doodling is? It's like exercises for the right side of your brain so you can turn on the creative side of you. Check out the Zentangle website. Amazing stuff!

Art journals? Hand bound books? Gelatin printing? Image transfer? Hand colored images on old sheet music or dictionary pages? goodness the ideas are swirling around in my head so fast it makes me dizzy!

Altered Altoids Tins?

Altered books?

Next Friday morning I am hosting 7 ladies in the studio and we are going to make Artist Trading Cards. I am so looking forward to sharing this mini-collage with them. I have making these for years and love doing them! I give them away to people all the time. I use old photographs and burned out matchbooks and words cut form books and wax and...well pretty much anything I have in the studio as long as it fits on a 2.5 x 3.5 card. 

Pssst..........................

Artworks Studio

....it's gonna be BIG!

paper is my Passion!

I have been away from my keyboard the past couple of months. I was in a play at History Boy Theater and then I was directing the Youth Theatre production of Harry Potter and the Obnoxious Voice and then I started my summer classes and I teach all day and it was pretty insane.

I don't think I was home on a weekend from the first weekend in May until just this past weekend.

So if that wasn't enough going on as of June 30th I became the owner of the Scrapper's Nook. It's a scrap booking supply store.I have always had a love affair with paper. I have some sheets of fine art paper I bought in Chicago over 10 years ago.  I plan on selling scrap book supplies just like Cathie did but I also plan on taking it in a new direction. I spent the past 10 days combining her inventory in with mine. Which required pretty much taking everything off the walls and starting from scratch. We hung pegboard on the north wall and slat board on the south wall. Dusted and cleaned every surface and weeded out inventory that had been around for quite awhile.

Did i mention that this was supposed to be my week off and I was supposed to spend it at the cabin at Black Hawk Lake. yeah- that didn't happen. OK I am really not that upset about it since the temps were in the upper 90's all week with high humidity and did I mention there is central AC at home and NOT at the cabin?  We couldn't even take the boat out because the lake on our side is too low...so I guess if i was going to be indoors I might  as well spend it remodeling the studio right?

Messy. Messy. Messy......

I have been spending hours on the net searching for just the right papers to stock. I don't scrap. I never have. I do, however, use lots of scrap elements in my artwork. Brads, and eyelets, stamps and other embellishments. I will be stocking unique art papers- LIKE THIS- I love Washi paper.

I am also working on becoming a retailer of my favorite magazine- Cloth, Paper, Scissors if you have never picked up a copy you should. It is full of wonderful inspirations for mixed media artists.



This canvas was created during our 2nd Art Retreat and it
has 8 layers on it before I declared it finished.



 I have been working in mixed media for the past several years and have wanted to share my passion for it with other people. The past two years I have hosted a private Art Retreat for my sister and my friend Shari. We have so much fun making messes and creating papers using Citra Solv and gelatin plates and transferring images from old magazines onto canvas....and so many of my facebook friends want to know how they can get invited too-

 So I am going to finally offer some workshops for adults. This fall there will be some scrap nights and some workshops on how to create your own one of a kind background papers or accent papers for scrapping. I also plan to introduce some basic easy hand bound book making classes as well as taking the - I can't draw a straight line with a ruler- out of the equation art journal sessions. I hope you can stop in and see what's new and maybe take a class or two.

Spending time being creative is time well spent!