Altered States of Mind Retreat

Altered States of Mind is a club that meets at the store once a month for about 2 hours. A few months ago we all decided to have a retreat and hold it at the store and be together from 9:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m.The date agreed upon was Saturday Oct. 17.  Carla offered to teach us a few things and we took her up on her offer. It was decided that we would make altered dolls, a water color transfer, and wire beads. So we all brought in the raft of things needed for each of our "classes" and so began our altered day of fun.

 Below are the photos of my dolls. I will post more later on the watercolor transfer and the wire beads.

ALTERED DOLLS

We all started out with wood blocks. I brought in about a dozen that were about 2.5"X3.5" and about 1.5" thick. Another size which was more square and larger was also made available to anyone. I made 2 dolls and used the size mentioned above. We then took porceline dolls purchased at the dollar store, and totally disassembled them and used the limbs and the heads.(To me this seemed so sacrilegious at first, as a child I would never do this to my dolls.) But the end result is so cool. After some paint, doll parts and ribbon and effemera, here are the end results of my creations.  

   

Its amazing how doll parts and various other items can really transform a block of wood. The altered doll on the left still needs a few more things before she is complete and the angel on the right still needs a halo, but this gives you an idea as to what I was up to on Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon,

Barbara
  
  
 

Cloth, no paper and stamps

Well it's been eons since I posted. Sorry about that. Last saturday I took a drive to Columbus Ohio with my friend Barb B. to take a class from one of my favorite instructors, Amy Flowers. She teaches classes in the altered arts theme. I had received a postcard from Amy outlining some of her upcoming classes and I called and signed up for 2 classes. Heavy Metal Book and She's Come Undone. Believe me when I say I really wanted to take these classes because the 1st class started @9:00 am so I had to leave here at 6:30. I hate getting up early. I would rather take late classes and stay up half the night. Oh well, the drive was 2 hours and Barb & I caught up on things and in no time we were at Amy's studio.There were 5 or 6 of us in the class and three of us were named Barb. When Amy mentioned the name Barb we all answered.It was to funny.

Amy gave us canvas & cloth and stamps & inks and and we did a wee bit of sewing, and below is the end result. (Make sure to click on the individual pic's for a much better view.)

Well this was so much fun and I had no theme in mind but used a slew of stamps in my stash. Quite a few of the stamps are from Innovative Stamp Creations. I really love their stamp line. As soon as I finish the other book I will post it for your viewing pleasure.

Hope you enjoy viewing this little book as much as I did making it, thanks for stoping by and I will see you soon.

Barbara

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