Catch Up 3

Third catch up today, after the promarker/flexmarker in the afternoon I had a beginners water based marker class - we used Aquamarkers, Neon Markers and Metallic Markers which are all water based....

and these are the techniques we covered with the water based markers...

Debz x

Catch Up 2

Another catch up post for you, this time it's my Promarker/Flexmarker workshop from the other week at The Papeterie....
First up was a Beginners promarker/flexmarker class - we coloured a few different images: a character stamp, a floral stamp and a teddy bear stamp. This was to give the class a feel for various different applications, how to blend and add texture.....

Debz x

Catch Up Time 1

Well I've been MIA for a month, sorry about that - so much going on at the moment that I barely get time to blow my nose nowadays.
Since the last time we spoke, so much has happened but I want to catch up with some of the classes I've done lately.
A few weeks ago a lovely man from the Discovery Awards Scotland came to The Papeterie to ask if we could supply a papercraft teacher to teach 2 x 1 hour classes for some of the delegates at their AGM which was being held in Aberdeen for the very first time. They had been let down by the origami teacher they had already booked. 
The Discovery Awards are an achievement award offering challenges to over 50's and I was lucky enough to meet the founder at the AGM who was a true inspiration.

I made up wee packs for them that included all their diecut shapes and components plus a wee flyer telling them about The Papeterie.
Here are some of the lovely ladies I was teaching...

And here are some of the ladies with their finished bags and boxes....

 Debz x

Neon and Aquamarker Cards

Blogging my last class of the retreat now - with a wee taster of the water based markers from Letraset. We used Neon markers and Aquamarkers and the embossed resist technique in 2 different ways to make these cards.
The first one, we simply used white embossing powder to emboss the image onto watercolour paper then coloured the image with neon markers

and the second one.... we coloured the newspaper background stamp with an aquamarker then clear embossed another image over the top, then cloured with aquamarkers

All stamps and greetings are Hero Arts.
Debz x

Bonus Evening Class

For all the ladies who had booked the accommodation package for the Craft Retreat, we threw in an optional bonus evening class, so this is where we had our evening meal and then our class....

But before we got crafty, we got to stuff our faces - wasn't going to bother with dessert, but decided the Bailey's Chocolate Pot needed some love.....

So for the bonus class I decided to introduce the ladies to some quick and easy water-based marker techniques using Letraset Aquamarkers, Neon markers and Metallic markers. Here's the first sample I made using Neon markers, the Tim Holtz Fanciful Flight die, watercolour paper and I used some PB stamps but the ladies used Marion Emberson "Sunshine & Flowers" stamps...

the ladies had free reign to use the aquamarkers and neon markers and here are some of the lovely samples they made with these stamps and the butterfly die... from Louise, Anda and Meg (please click on each to see them larger)

  

for the second tag, I went for a grungier look using Metallic Markers, Tim Holtz mini blueprint stamps and Tim Holtz Gadget Gears die cut grungeboard.

and here's some samples from Louise and Meg....

 

Debz x

Gorjuss Journal

Morning,
Back again with more pics from the retreat and another project. This was my second project on Sunday, my Gorjuss/Promarker/Flexmarker Journal...

We used the Docrafts - Gorjuss New Heights stamp set...

and some Promarker and Flexmarkers to colour it.

Here's Pearl trying to behave herself and Meg concentrating hard...

 some more of our craft retreaters hard at work...

 Marion, Anda and Louise with their heads down, hard at it...

Back tomorrow with pics from the bonus class that was only available to guests staying at the hotel with the accommodation package.
Debz x

Done & Dusted

Well it's all over - after months of organising, weeks of prep and loads of sweat and one or two tears, but thankfully no blood, the Craft Retreat seems to have been a huge success.
Thank you to all the ladies who attended, we hope you had fun.
Charlotte took a fantastic paint techniques class on Saturday morning, all the ladies made stunning painted wooden storage boxes shaped like books, see Joyce, Tina and Meg paying close attention...

My first and probably the most controversial project of the weekend was my alcohol ink owl project. 

We used Letraset inks to colour some glossy card and canvas, then stamped loads of circles and ovals from the Build a Flower/Marion Emberson set of PI stamps onto the coloured surfaces and cut them all out to layer up. We made the wings and face separately to give him more dimension.

Will be back tomorrow with more pics
Debz x

12 Tags of 2013 - March

Well I'm skidding in here - the coo's tail this month with my entry for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013. It took me a while to get this tag done this month - I got the label with the bunny and tinsel done, then it took me another week before I got around to finishing it off. So this is what I was aiming for this month.....

And this is my version - with a couple of wee adapt-and-overcome tweaks :)

I didn't have the seasonal stash, so I cut up the front cover of the Kraft Resist Paper Stash and coloured it with Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Stains, I cut the grass by hand as I don't have that die, or the banner die, so again I tore the banner by hand.
I also didn't have the right colours of Distress paint to colour the metalwork, so I tinted the Distress Paint I do have on the craft mat with a drop of alcohol ink :)

Have a happy easter everyone
Debz
x

Tattered Floral Challenge

I couldn't pick a favourite out of all the Tim Holtz Alterations dies I have, but certainly the one that gets used the most has to be Tattered Florals, so I've been itching to join in with Tim's Tattered Floral Challenge. Unfortunately my crafting time has seriously disappeared now that I'm working, but the local Brownies asked if I'd come along and do Mother's Day cards with them. 
They asked me last year if I'd do Father's Day cards with them, so I planned out a card and pre-cut all the elements with a sample all made up to show them step-by-step what to do. But teaching kids is very different to teaching adults.... if I showed a group of 30 adults how to make this card I would end up with 30 near identical cards, but with the kids, we ended up with 30 completely different cards, and I was sooooo impressed with their imagination. So, lesson learned from last year, I decided to die cut a mahoosive amount of Tattered Florals, brought along some shaped card blanks, some buttons and a stamped greeting banner and let them do their own thing. As predicted, we ended up with about 30 completely different and unique cards. When they spotted me curling the petals with the back of a pair of scissors, I ended up with a queue of Brownies lined up wanting me to show them how to do it :)
Sadly I couldn't take a picture of the Brownies with their creations, but I did take pics of my girls ( Willow and Faith) with their cards...

Faithy even decorated the envelope....

And I made a card for my mum too........

You still have over a week to join in with the Tattered Floral challenge.
Debz x

Quickie

Morning folks, just a super quick post - off to drop the kids at school then off to work again. Just wanted to let the winners of my recent promarker and flexmarkers giveaways know that their wee parcels were posted yesterday, so it's time to start stalking the postie.

We were finalising the class choice lists for the upcoming Papeterie Craft Retreat yesterday - so if you've reserved your space look out for your info pack and invoice coming out this week. We're really excited about the classes, more choices this year :) 

And if you're interested in any of the regular classes at The Papeterie, then pop over for all the details of what's happening between now and May. We have a special kids crafty event on Good Friday - places are limited so book now :)

Debz x