The Weekend at Stamplistic

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but I have been really behind and I've been trying to get caught up. Here is the latest:

I had an opportunity to attend a class taught by Tim Holtz at Stamplistic, a rubber stamp store in Amherst Ohio. I received an invitation from Jennifer, the owner of Stamplistic, to come up.So I signed up for a class and went up for the weekend.

Day One

I left Ft. Mitchell, Friday morning and arrived at Stamplistic later that afternoon. Tim and his assistant, Mario, were already at the store for a meet & greet from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. What a great event that was. The ladies came in and sat down right next to him while he demo'd some distress techniques. These ladies were thrilled. After the meet & greet, we all headed to Jennifer's lake house for a grill out. It was great. We all got to get to know Tim and Mario better and we sat outside around a firepit to keep warm. It was a tad cool up on the lake.

Day Two

Saturday was Sweetest Day and neither Tim nor Mario was not familiar with that holiday. Tim thought Jennifer made that one up, but he researched info online, he read the story, and gave us the background on this day of celebration. So for rest of the afternoon Tim kept calling it SWEETNESS DAY and we kept correcting him, too funny. For those of you not familiar with this day of celebration, click here to read the story of the origin of the holiday.

Saturday was also the first day of classes. I got to work the 1st class. Let me explain how that works, all the students are given a paddle with a number on it, similar to one used by bidders at an auction. Then, as Tim explains a product, if the student wants to purchase the item, they raise their paddle and I write down their number next to the product name on a sheet of paper. We take the info to the front and start to bag up their requests and by the end of the class their bags are full of their goodies. Pretty cool. Everyone loved the ease at which this worked. In the second class I was actually a student and it was a great class. We made Raku and fragments from clay and used a host of other items that Ranger makes and Tim explained a lot of the properties of the various items. The class was 3 hours and that went by fast. We had plenty of time for the class though, it's nice not being rushed. Another nice thing,you do not need to bring anything to his classes (not even adhesive - a little private joke on this one). After class I went to the front counter and assisted Mara, Stacy, Jennifer and Bev getting everyone checked out and helped in getting the next group of class participants checked in. It was so busy.It was fun and the time flew. After the last class I went to Jennifer's house and crashed.

Day Three:

Day Three was a repeat of day two, with some students returning for more classes and some students taking their first class from Tim at the store. My plan was to leave at noon however that didn't happen. The store was slammed with one class leaving and another class getting set up. I also had to say my goodbye's to everyone.

So after helping everyone I left at 1:30. What a great weekend.

See you next time and thanks for stopping by,

Barbara

Ike and his windy effects

If you live in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area, you are probably aware of the wind that blew through here yesterday. I was in my basement  working on rearranging my stamping area  while the worst of the weather was going on. I had just reconnected the TV and cable by my work area, when the electric died for good. There are so many areas without power they are estimating 4-5 days without power. Lovely!!  On a good note, the power in the store is on and we are open for business. I have spoke to a few people today and everyone is ok but the cleanup will take a while.

 

Take care and thanks for stopping by

See you soon

Barbara

Art on display at Crone Cottage in Bellevue, KY

Some of you may know that an altered arts group (Altered States of Mind also known as ASOM) meets here at the store once a month. One of the members of the altered arts group owns an art gallery in Bellevue Kentucky called Crone Cottage. She has invited the ASOM members to submit artwork for display at her gallery. The gallery has a monthly event on the first Friday of the month in the evening. So on Friday September 5 the ASOM members will have some of their artwork on display at Crone Cottage.The event will be from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m..

On behalf of Beth, the owner of Crone Cottage, and the Altered States of Mind members, you are invited to attend a fun event on Friday September 5 from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you.

Here are the pieces that I have made and am submitting.

                             

Well that is it for now. Thanks for stopping by.

See you next time.

Barbara

Flourishes

I just haven't had time since getting back from CHA to play or do anything. The other day I was browsing the blogs that I normally review and I saw the cutest Cinderella carriage. And for the life of me I cannot find where I saw it. So I put on my thinking cap and tried to recreate what I saw.

If you like the flourish stamps then you will be able to do this with little problem. The top card was my first venture into this. I stamped flouishes to resemble the base of the carriage and next I used the Nestabilities to cut the scalloped oval. As I positioned the oval my minds eye saw a baby carriage ,so I cut the oval to make the carriage look like the top was up.

 Next I wanted to make the "Cinderella Carriage" I used the flourishes stamps and built the base. Next I cut a circle and an oval using the Nestabilities. Then using a glue pen I traced all the stamped flourishes and added glitter. I added the glitter to the carriage part and wella!!!.....Cinderella's Carriage.

Hope you like these and thanks for stopping in.

See you next time

Barbara

Cards using wallpaper from Joyce D.

Joyce D. stopped in the store with the latest cards she has made. She and I had been talking about the wallpaper that you can paint and she went to Lowe's and bought a roll of the paintable border. This wallpaper works well on cards. You can use acrylic paints, inks or even alcohol inks. This wallpaper has a coating on it so the alcohol ink technique will work exceptionally well.

Joyce used her wallpaper to make the most unique and pretty cards. I hope you agree. You see, we stampers will use anything to make cards, won't we.

    

Well hope you enjoy these and hope they inspire you. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Barbara

cards, cards, and more cards........

My mother made some of the most beautiful quilts and I made this with her in mind. Paper weaving and  Fiskars border punch (lace) some clear stamps that have stitching designs and a few feathers and here is a card that any seamstress would love to get.

I used the sea grasses stamp from June Great Impresions June board and did a little direct to paper inking on the cardstock and here is another quick card

This card has a few steps and uses circles to mask off the areas. But all in all this was fun and not too complicated. I love leaves. Maybe because I really love trees. You know, the kind that grow in your yard, not just the stamped kind.

Here is that sea grasses stamp again. The dandilion is a Cuttlebug die and I used a paint chip for the paper. To mask the white line on the paint chip I used inks and copic markers to try to get rid of the white line.

This is my favorite. I masked the center and added ink, DTP for the border in the center. I removed the mask and added stamped images then took a larger piece of cardstock and did DTP again stamped some words and adhered the center image to the larger one and that finished this one.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,

Barbara

Goodbye to my best friend.....

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.My best friend, Helen, passed away June 20 after a long (8 years) and courageous battle with cancer. She was off from work, taking a deserved rest on disability , and she got sick on June 6, her mother took her to the hospital and she never came home. She was a trooper from the word, go. She hardly ever complained and if you saw her you would never know she had cancer.

Ann, Helen's mother, is 85 and lived next to Helen, so they could take care of each other. Helen's wish always was to live 1 day longer than her mother so her mother would not have to endure the pain of losing Helen. Unfortunately that was not to be. I miss my good friend already, as I had not spoken to her since right before she went to the hospital. Helen is in a better place and I can hear her saying "simply amazing". And she was just that. Yesterday I read a poem by Linda Ellis. This poem sounds as if it were written just for Helen. Please click here to read this wonderful poem called The Dash.I do hope you enjoy the poem. The picture below was taken the day we went to see "Bodies, the Exhibit". We both loved that show and we had a great time. That was the last time I saw Helen. That was early May.We spoke every week and the last time I spoke to her was right before she went to the hospital.

Helen's visitation and burial was Monday June 23.















This is a Thomas Kincade stamp and I thought this was very fitting. So here is the card I made for Ann.

Helen will be missed by many, as she had so many friends.
















Thanks for stopping by,

Barbara

Dianne's Shadow Box

 

 

Dianne wanted to make something special for her friend and she decided on using the shadow box from Creative Stamper. The box is easy to decorate and really makes a nice gift.It will look great sitting out on a table. What a keepsake. I am sure her friend will love it.

Thanks for stopping by,

See you soon,

Barbara

The Wall Hanging is done!!!

Hi everyone

I finished the Tim Holtz inspired canvases. I brought it in the store and they now hang on the wall above the water fountain. 

I used Ranger Color Washes, grungeboard alphabets, hinges, part of a soda can, game pieces, and a whole host of other saved stuff. The canvases are from Canvas Concepts.

This project was pretty quick to do and I worked it up over the Memorial Day weekend.

The next time you come into the store make sure you check out this new addition. It looks so good on the wall I may need to do another for my home.

Thanks for stopping by

See you soon

Barbara

 

The Creative Word Book made by Joyce D.

Joyce D. ordered a Creative Word Book recently and look how she has decorated & embellished it. She really did an outstanding job on the book. Thanks Joyce for sharing this with us.

These books are available at the store and you choose the word you want the book to say.Maybe you are going on a trip or the book is to be a gift to someone special.Your choice. Many nice papers to choose from to further design the book. Stop in to make the arrangements. Books are ready in 1 week or less.

Thanks for visiting and stop back soon,

Barbara

Watercolor Cards

   

On my May 21st post I mentioned I had 2 watercolor cards that I would share with you next. Well I got busy and forgot about that for a while. I just remembered and I wanted to share these with you. Thanks for waiting, hope you feel it was worth the wait.

Dianne Witt teaches the Art Impressions Watercolor technique here at the store. They have developed an array of stamps that you use to build your scene and then, you use Marvey Markers and a watercolor brush to actually color those stamped images.

I have always loved the look of the cards when everyone completes the classes. However, I have never taken the class before. Well, the last time Dianne gave the class, I actually took the class with the other students. Dianne makes the class so easy and I actually did the two cards you see above. Art Impressions has just recently introduced a new series and these are in it. When I saw these I really fell in love with the images. Birdhouses are so cool. The other images in the series are rural mailboxes and a plant stand. Those will be featured in the June class here at the store.

Hope you like these cards as much as I do.

See you soon,

Barbara