Artsycrafts.....a fab time was had by all

I got back from Artsycrafts late on Sunday night, tired but very happy. All I can say to our attendees is wow, you guys were amazing, you produced some fabulous artwork, really throwing yourselves in at the deep end and making the most of every single minute. We worked you hard, ate sooooo much food and had a lot of laughs along the way, so thank you for making the weekend a wonderful event, Leandra and I loved it as much as you.

Day 1 was all about sewing. We made  fabric books and each page was made on a separate square of backing fabric which were all stitched together to make a meandering book. This is actually my sample and hopefully you will be able to see how it all opens out in an interesting way. This is my front cover, the images were stamped with Rangers Archival Jet Black ink, heat set and then painted with watered down Fresco Finish paint by Paperartsy.

 Flip open the first page to reveal an image transfer on the left and some more stamped fabric on the right. The heart was actually die cut from fabric using Paperartsy's Tall Heart, stamped, painted and padded out with some wadding for a 3D effect.

The next page actually drops down to reveal a image that was stamped on Paperartsy's new Crackle paper. Organza fabric layered over the top and stitched to within an inch of it's life before burning away the fabric with a soldering iron. The bottom page was another image transfer. Leandra's daughter Courtney discovered that Paperartsy's Satin Glaze is actually an amazing medium to use for image transfers.

The third page opens to the right. More fabric stamping and image transfers but lots of embellishments, then on the right side, die cut crunchy paper dragonflies that have been stitched to lots of layers of fabric.

My book actually has one more drop down page, so here you can see the complete inside of the book.

But that's not all, then you have the back!!! These are close up shots of some of my back pages.

I have to admit, I was on the nervous side teaching a sewing project. Leandra and I have been discussing doing this for about three years....why did I worry.....I have no idea......nearly everyone came with a sewing machine, we had some spares which was great as we had quite a few people who flew in from Holland, France, Germany and Ireland as it would have been a bit tricky for those guys to take a machine on a plane. My worries were completely unfounded, everyone got really into very quickly. We even had a couple of lovely ladies who had never used a sewing machine until the night before the event and they were the first ones to finish!!!!!

Bit of an action shot here, the lovely Sue T. arranging her fabric. I think those hands and scissors on the right belong to the lovely Mary who has the same sewing machine as me!!!

I'm sorry that I don't know who this belongs to but whoever it was made a fabulous job of the image transfer on to fabric!

Day 2 - We had to move room over night.....tis a looooong story. The basic short story is that the venue double booked the room but it all worked out OK. It was more than adequate for our other two classes, the first of which was called the sewing room.

It comprised of two wooden frames that we hinged together book stylee and filled it with all things stitchery. Mr and Mrs Paperartsy launched a new line of sewing related stamps that we have been discussing for about four years and we dived into all sorts of things for this project. A bit of metal work, some polymer clay, some image transfers, some resin plaster, fabric stamping and we painted everything with Fresco Finish paint.

Andrea hard at work!

The lovely Missie Sally beavering away......she's probably gonna kill me for posting a picture of her!!

And the lovely Anita proudly displaying her gorgeous work.

Third and final day - Rusty Relic.
This class was all about paint, rusting powder, polymer clay & gold leaf, mica powder, image transfers, puff paint and Fresco Finish paint.

We had used a small amount of polymer clay on the previous class which I had prepared, and rolled out through the pasta machine as I had been a little worried about available time. Because we were not able to get the clay we had wanted, we realised that due to the amount of time required to condition the clay we had, we were going to have to prepare the clay for this class to. So this is a shot of the behind the scenes stuff at an Artsycrafts event....this was taken at nearly midnight!!!. Mr Paperartsy was chief clay chopper upper and stage 1 conditioner. I was stage two conditioner and responsible for getting the clay into the correct shape. Leander was official trimmer and in charge of applying the gold leaf and one of our fantastic volunteer helpers, Racheal was queen of wrapping and distribution.....all of which was helped along by a little glass or two of something lovely!

I think this sample may belong to Lou and I apologise now if I am wrong but I think it's hers as I remember that she put those cute little lables on her bottles.

Gorgeous colours of mica powder on the clay and fabulous rusting on the wooden frame......I love it!!

Painted, stamped and rusted bottles.

A painted canvas with a painted brass charm, fixed below some wire mesh with an opening nibbled in the mesh to reveal the canvas on the lower level of the project.

I think this beautiful sample belongs to Margriet from Holland.

So I think you'll agree it was a pretty jam packed weekend and such a lot of fun.

Finally, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to this event and previous events as this was the last Artsycrafts event that Leandra and I are doing. It has been an amazing adventure, we have loved every minute of it but it's time for me to slow down....I am supposed to be retired you know!!! Leandra and Mark are very busy at Paperartsy HQ and need to concentrate on their own business. There is no doubt about it, Artsycrafts has been one of the highlights of my career, I love working with Leandra but it takes so much time and effort to organise events of this scale and it really does disrupt everything else in your normal daily life. Our attendees at this event gave us the most wonderful send off and presented us with flowers, wine, choccies and a special little memento.....a jubilee rubber ducky.......which was hilarious but I really do love it and will treasure it forever.

I must apologise for this tiny picture but I have stolen it from Joan who travelled from Holland for our event and I have no idea how to make it larger!! I hope you don't mind Joan but it shows just what lucky girls we were, we're laden with gifts!!

 I'm leaving with with a snap of my favourite gift........Dicky the Duck!!