Tim Holtz in the UK!

For those who follow Tim's blog you'll know that today was the day that booking opened for his only classes to be held in the UK this year. I was ready bright and early to be sure I was ready to call as soon as the lines opened but I think everyone else had the same idea!! Over 100 engaged lines later I was beginning to think the opportunity was passing me by but suddenly I was through and booking places for myself and two crafty girlfriends to spend the afternoon with his royal Timness!! 

I'm not much for the 'celebrities' of crafting but Tim Holtz is such a talented designer and thoroughly nice guy. I've never known him to be anything but generous with his time and ideas so I'm really pleased to be attending one of his classes next month!  If you were fortunate enough to get tickets too let me know and I'll see you there!

Life Book week 10 - Heart Connection

This week on the Life Book art journaling course we celebrated the connections of our hearts - everything and everyone that we love and treasure in our lives.  Its hard to see but the background is made up of at least eight different layers and processes.  Within these layers is some really meaningful writing that you can just catch glimpses of is you look carefully.  I played with alcohol and acrylic paint to create amazing interactions, collaged with vintage book pages and sheet music, stamped, dripped, gessoed, stamped some more, added tapes, painted, sprayed - basically you name it, I did a little bit of it.  If you stop and look closely at the background in real life you can see each process but its so subtle it all works together as one.
The key technique for this class was creating little rolled love letters which were then formed into a heart shape.  As usual, I approached mine in a different way to Tam's sample in my construction and was really happy with the result.  Each one of those rolls contains a love letter to someone really special to me, they will never read them but that's not important here, its the intention behind this process that really matters to me.  I loved creating this and each step of the way gave real pleasure.  I added the gorgeous wide May Arts ribbon to tie my heart together - we have this in the shop in both the black/cream and the green/white versions (yummy!!).
Those of you who are eagle-eyed may have noticed that I've missed posting about the week 9 class.  This is because I'm struggling with it a little and haven't really got to grips with the idea behind the techniques.  I'll be working on it over the next few days I'm sure!

Total Papercrafts February kit 1

Our double page kit for February is chock full of goodies, lots of bits and bobs for you to play with and a new tool for your stash!  We have combined 7Gypsies papers with a fabulous key template/stencil which also includes three key embellishments to alter and include on your layout - loads of fun to be had with this I can assure you!!

This is another kit that will work with all sorts of different types of photos, the maps papers cry out for travel or holiday snaps or you could play with the key idea and include photos of your home or a holiday cottage (or your dream home!!).  There's lots of scope here and you aren't restricted to just these ideas.  I loved the idea of creating a 'washing line' of memories, its an idea from a Masterclass I taught last year and I thought that it had so much scope scope as a double page.  You can include loads of smaller photos - I think that the largest one in the sample is 3" x 3" but you could go larger and include fewer embellishments if you prefer.  Its such an adaptable idea!

The kit includes; cardstock, 4 double sided patterned papers, a key template, string, pegs, envelopes, tickets, tags, paperclips, a Tim Holtz flash card and a Tim Holtz game piece.

To create the sample design you will need brown and black inkpads, a border punch, white acrylic paint or gesso, assorted stamps, alcohol inks or permanent inkpads such as Stazon or Archival.

For those of you who are attending the clubs, I will have the stamps, gesso and alcohol inks available for you to use.

Take care, TP :o)

Tunbridge Wells masterclass this evening

Following the awful weather earlier this month we had to reschedule the Tunbridge Wells masterclass to this evening, thankfully the weather has decided to co-operate today!  We will be creating a canvas wall piece which incorporates an album and shadow boxes, all created from scratch.  This is one of my favourite projects from the past year and it has seen a couple of incarnations including as a Christmas themed piece.  This version is much more adaptable to every day living and can be added to throughout the year.  The Tim Holtz ring binder mechanism means that its a snap to add more pages or to move things around in the album to suit your taste.

The kit includes; masses of cardstock, loads of patterned paper, a 12" x 18" canvas, chipboard, a whole pack of diecuts, lace, a Tim Holtz cash key carm, a Tim Holtz clip, a jump ring and full instructions.

You will not complete the project in the class so please don't worry about photographs!

To complete the sample design you will need; narrow double sided tape, strong wet adhesive, pokey tool, a bone folder/stylus for scoring and folding, black inkpad, black paint & brush (or paint dabber bottle), hole punch (cropodile or similar), circle punch (about 1" but size doesn't have to be exact), washi tape, Tim Holtz tissue tape or similar (not essential), decorative border punch.

If you have a score board or similar you will find it very helpful but don't worry if you don't own one.

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone at TW again tonight, it seems like ages since we last had a masterclass!!