The Most Amazing Class Ever!

Last Saturday the alarm went off at 4am.

There was a very good reason for this, I had to be on the first flight to Birmingham to take part in a class given by Mr. Tim Holtz. Who? well this post won't be nearly as exciting as I had hoped if you just asked that question. If you are a paper crafter or mixed media artist I am pretty sure that amongst your stash there is something that he has designed (if it says 'Distress' on the label that's a big clue).

So, I arrived nice and early, met up with Kate and Julie and waited for the class to begin. Kate and Julie had both met Tim and Mario several times, (I had met Tim once many years ago and as it was the last day of a trade show he was tired and understandably so over smiling at the crazy woman who stood grinning like a Cheshire cat in front of him) so I was ridiculously excited when he came out and said hello to us!

The were several new products that we were working with, Collage medium, Opaque texture paste, brushes, the wooden frame and most exciting, the new Distress Crayons.

Mario made sure that we had everything we needed, he is just so lovely! Tim gave us direction and information about the products and then just let us have fun - the three hour class seemed to pass in about thirty minutes!

(Excuse the fuzzy photo, I took it with my phone - this man is ridiculously patient when it comes to having his photo taken!)

                                                                  Background layers

                 Embellishments ready - its so hard to think of a word, thank you Kate for giving me an extra 'D'!

                                                                    The finished project.

This is Julie and I pretending to be good!

with Tim and Mario

This is a terrible photo but its the only one that Kate got into!

Sadly, it was all over so quickly, we were back on the plane at 2.30pm.  I had to catch a train from Dublin  but missed it by about 5 minutes...... so I went to a nearby hotel, ordered a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine and thought about what a great day it had been.

p.s. The Distress Crayons are fab.... I don't say that about a lot if products but I will definitely be getting more of these - think Gelatos crossed with lipstick, love them!!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend too,

F xx

Valentines Swap.

The lovely Aideen from Aideen's swaps organised a swap for Valentines day and since I hadn't joined in since Halloween I was delighted to take part.

My partner was Kay and today my gift arrived - look!

The box is full of little love themed die- cuts, as well as a tag book, card and chocolate! this photo doesn't really do the metallic colours much justice - it really is gorgeous.

I had made a shadow box that held a heart and a valentine card which I sent with a bag of chocolates, I wish I had thought to send on some extra bits and pieces. I posted my gift on Monday and on Tuesday the post man knocked on the door and handed me back my own package...... An Post had delivered it to the senders address rather than the 'To' address..... sometimes the postal service is questionable!

This is what I made;

The heart is raised from the back of the box to give more dimension. The box is made from chipboard and covered with old book pages.

 

The card is super simple but I was pleased with it (in case you don't know, i'm not the worlds best card maker)

It is so lovely to have a pretty package delivered to you,to unwrap it and see what someone has put time and effort into making for you. So thank you Kay and thanks Aideen for organising the swaps, I look forward to the next one!

F xx

Stormy Weekends.

It has been a wild and stormy weekend here, perfect for making soup (Mary Berry's butternut squash soup, which was even nicer the next day*) and then locking myself away in the art room (that sounds very grand - its not, its a lovely 8x10ft room where we keep and do anything art related.)

Anyhoo, I did a couple of tiny 5x5" paintings with a 'Home' theme and then I did this.

 I haven't painted a new doll for ages, mainly because it takes forever since THAT FATEFUL DAY, but eventually this one appeared, again it is 5x5" but now i'm thinking she needs a sentiment. I think she should say something positive, something to remind anyone who sees this that they are enough just as they are.

                           I think I like this one, "Believe in you" because self doubt is a bitch.

I stamp them out on paper so I can move them around and make sure i'm happy with the positioning and then take a leap of faith and stamp permanent ink onto the picture - which is a pain if it goes wrong because then I have to try and paint it out.

Right, its still blowing a gale here, storm Imogen has a lot to say. I have to venture out to the Post Office (to post my Valentine swap, which I will show pictures of once Kay has received it) and to walk the dogs then I will be brave and add some lettering.

The * in the first sentence is a disclaimer....I didn't actually make the soup, Tim did, I just watched. Thank you Tim! x

Have a great week,
F xx

Afternoon Tea Anyone?

Last Sunday Ebony and I went to Cork for the #Cloggers Afternoon Tea event.

#Cloggers is a Cork based blogging group (who kindly let us go even though we're from Kerry) and they were holding this event in the Imperial Hotel (ver, ver nice hotel, gorgeous in fact!)

We set off early and magically got parking right outside the hotel. Now, this was when one of those strange little 'it happened for a reason' moments occurred. On the way up (we always say 'up' to Cork, when it is geographically down, I wonder why?)I had said that if we had time i'd like to go to Brown Thomas because I have a voucher to use and I had decided to spend it on skincare but didn't know which ones (hello anti- ageing products!)
BUT, as we pulled into our usual multi storey car park we found it closed, it should have been open but perhaps someone was late for work, so as I said we found a spot on the street right outside the hotel. This meant I wouldn't be passing Brown Thomas and decided to go after the event.

Once we got to the event we were surrounded by women who obviously knew what they were at. You didn't have to ask what their blogs were about it was because they were all very glamorous and beautifully dressed - Beauty and Fashion bloggers for sure!

I immediately decided I was here as an impostor and at any minute my jeans, boots and I would be asked to leave. But do you know what? they were really friendly and welcoming and didn't mind at all that I couldn't tell my designers from my elbow. I would like to give particular thanks to Erin , Stephanie, Joyce and Cliona who were great company. Look at this, how delicious!

There were guest speakers who were all really interesting and spoke about their businesses and lives, one of those was Niamh from Holos. She spoke about her skin care range that is essential oil based, I liked the sound of it and she had two spot prizes to give away, one for relaxation and one for anti ageing. I was delighted to win one and even more delighted when the first winner chose the relaxation package (she was beautiful and had no need of the other package!) I was really happy with the prize and thought I would be picking up fewer products from Brown Thomas later.... little did I know.

                                                             Niamh from Holos.

By the time we were leaving we could hardly carry the amount of goodies we had been given! I won't even try to list them as I will forget something but here is a small selection.....

Seriously, this doesn't even cover the skincare products!

I was honestly blown away by the generosity of the gifts, needless to say I didn't go shopping afterwards, and I won't be going for some time.

 Finally, these fabulous women  Marie and Richael made the day possible, thank you again!  I met lovely people, ate delicious treats and was inspired to continue blogging.

All in all it was a fantastic day!

F xx