Lovely day yesterday......lovely day today

Yesterday, I left home bright and early to travel to the NEC to take a class at 9am with Tim Holtz and Dyan Reaveley. I never get to take classes so when this opportunity landed in my lap, there was no way I was going to decline the invitation even though I still have sixty million things to do for Artsycrafts next week. Boy, am I pleased I did go. I had forgotten what it's like to be on the other side of the desk so to speak, and I have to tell you, it's a really nice place to be, I now have the urge to seek out amazing classes and be a student....not sure when that will be able to happen but I'll put it on my "to do" list. That's really very funny as my list is eternally long!!!

Anyway, back to yesterday's class.....first up Mr Tim Holtz himself, he really is an amazing teacher, very easy going and he has a knack of getting you to work at a faster pace that you would normally but without you even realising it. His style, wit, and all round creativeness never ceases to amaze me. The first canvas we made was using the brand new Distress Stains.....love this new product!!! It's a stain in that is available in 12 of the Distress colours that is far more liquid than I imagined it would be, hence great coverage really fast. We used it on some of Tim's new kraft resist papers which were adhered to the canvas and also on grunge, sticky back canvas, ribbon and over the top of rock candy crackle paint......VERY NICE!!!!!

Here's a closer shot, hope you can see the effect a bit better now.

Second canvas of the day and this section of the class was taught by Dyan Reaveley using Perfect Pearls, first as a dry powder and then as a paint to paint the birdy guy and flowers. Of course you are never going to see the beauty of these products in a photograph but they really are gorgeous and shimmery.

It does show up a little better in this shot but it still doesn't do it justice.

Third and final canvas was taught by Tim again. I am really surprised by this one. I thought it would be my least favourite but actually it's the one I like the best. We used Claudine Hellmuth's line of products, her Studio paints, sticky back canvas and her new stamps. The stamps come as two types first up, there are the foam ones which we stamped with the Studio paint and then the line drawings which are polymer stamps were stamped with Jet Black Archival ink over the top. I really struggled to like my houses and flowers at first. It really doesn't matter if the background image (the solid foam stamps) doesn't come out as a complete image, in fact it looks much more artistic if it is a bit patchy. That wasn't my issue though and it took me right until the end of the class to realise that it was the white canvas showing through that I didn't like. Soon fixed that.....mixed up another little puddle of green watery paint and washed it right over my houses and flowers.......love at first sight!!!! It's amazing how something as simple as that can just transform a piece.

I didn't think I would stock Claudines stamps, but now............

........I'm just gonna have to have them!!!!!

So that was my three hours of indulgence, quick bit to eat then helped Mr and Mrs PaperArtsy set up their booth for the trade show which starts today. OMG!! Those guys have been working their socks off to get all their new products ready for launching at this show and I know that Leandra and Mark are my friends but they have got something FABULOUS new products lined up and I can't wait to have them all in my store.

I'm not going to the NEC today as it's Ronnie's 5th birthday today and what sort of Nanna would I be if I missed his special day? Karen and Linda will be at the show today, no doubt Linda will be stalking Tim and Karen, the queen of kits will finally get to meet Mario, the king of kits.....wonder if they will share they kitting up tricks????? I'm off to the show tomorrow instead but for now, I'm off to wrap up a Star Wars Light Saber for a certain young man.


This is the birthday boy in his first school photograph.......he's gonna kill me in a few years time!