not brave enough..

...to go into a shop and ask where you can get felt? [sorry, terrible joke, but couldn't resist!]

Well, it's great fun making your own!  I'm teaching a needle-felting class at Paddy's Stamping Place next week.  I LoVe needlefelting, it's like collage but with bits of wool roving, ribbons, wool, beads...

And for this piece, I cracked open my mold and made a daisy or two :)

Hmmm, maybe I should sit outside in the sunshine and get some of these made up as pressies!  Got a lot of birthdays coming up.

There are still spaces on the workshop if you can join me [dates in sidebar].  Phone Paddy on 0161 798 5115 to book.

play date cafe challenge #36

Aren't these colours so pretty?  I just love that Julie and I have different favourite colours, it gives such a nice balance in the cafe :)

There's a little mini challenge within the challenge going on so if you are a fan of Tim's bird cage die cut, head on over to the other girl's blogs.  They have some GoRGeouS inspiration going on there!

Suzanne Czosek

Stephanie Kraft

Lisa Somerville 

[by the way UK friends, Lisa has an article in this month's Craft Stamper :)]

Ruby2Shoes

Julie Ranae

 As soon as I saw the colours though, it made me think about how red and pink just didn't go together 10 years ago; it's definitely a new, acceptable colour combo.  So I worked on a journal page.

I love red shoes, and would have loved a little tiny pair of 'mary janes' for Sophie when she was little.

The trouble was, ten years ago, when Sophie was three, she adored wearing pink.  And back then, you just didn't put red shoes with a pink dress!  How times change...

I'm planning on more little story pages like this which I'd like to bind into a book, inspired by Roben-Marie Smith's graffiti book that she did on a Dina Wakeley workshop.

Lots to see over at the cafe today.  We've had a makeover, have new badges, a guest designer, and see what Sav made otherwise she's going to feel left out! :)

more art journal pages

As promised, here are some more art journal pages from my workshop demo book.  The envelopes, tags, little books and stencilling are part of my Art Journalling 3 workshop which I taught at The Stamp Attic last Saturday, and will be teaching at The Cubby Hole this Saturday!

The last two pages are from Art Journalling 2 where we explore different ways of colouring a page.  They are both ready for any extra collaging, doodling, or splashing of paint that I might feel like adding!

It feels a bit weird sharing a whole journal with you, rather than just odd pages...very baring my soul... so would love to hear any comments you have on it [just click on 'arty ponderings' below to leave a comment]

latest USArtquest Parcel arrived :)

And here's a sneak peek of what was inside :)  We'll be posting our next USArtquest design team projects on Monday but if you'd like a hint of what they might be, have a little hop around our blogs as we're all posting an element from our kit!

I've been enjoying the art shows that are going on at the moment.  Last week I went to the graduate show at MMU, over the weekend I saw an A level/GCSE show whilst down at The Stamp Attic, and tonight I visited my childrens' school A level/GCSE show.  I'll post the pics another day as I realised I'd not posted any of my own stuff recently.  Here are the first few pages from my workshop/teaching journal :) [more tomorrow]

Elements

I'm so excited to be teaching at Elements in September.  It's being organised by Paddy Cosgriff of Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich, Manchester.  Paddy owns a quirky little shop on Butterstile Lane, Prestwich which sells the most amazing items for the mixed media artist.  I have learnt a lot from Paddy over the years and am so thrilled to be involved with  her first mixed-media crafting weekend. We've got such a diverse mix of ingredients within our project that the techniques being taught are very varied and up to the minute.

There are 6 tutors in total, and each tutor is focusing on a different 'element' of the piece.  Becca Balazs is working with fabric.  She owns  'Becca's Quilt Emporium' in Dorset and hosted our corset display last year (see my post here).  

 

Then there's Neet Hickson who will be teaching techniques with makin's clay.  Neet does a lot of  wonderful work with clay of all types, and teaches regularly at Paddy's Stamping Place.  

 

Kay Halliwell-Sutton is another regular tutor at the shop who does brilliant workshops with mdf pieces.   And last, but not least, I will be working with perspex, Paddy with metal, and my great friend Helen Jackson with mixed media.

I LoVe teaching workshops and have just come home from teaching for two days at Wendy's Stamp Attic.  I'll get those pics posted for you seeon as it was a fabulous weekend, and I found my cable - YAY!  It had been appropriated by my 15 year old son!!!

missing in action without a cable

I'm heading 'down south' and teaching at Wendy's for the weekend.  I was going to leave you with some pics from my zendoodling class, a new little friend, and my guinea pigs (they're for Lavender in Amsterdam - I do love how you meet people blog hopping!).  But the cable has disappeared that connects my phone to the computer so I'm afraid I can't share pics :(  I can share the link to the USArtQuest post though, leave a comment and your in with a chance of winning the Draw and Gild kit!

http://sarahanderson1.blogspot.com/2010/06/usartquest-design-team-launch-and-blog.html

But me quick, it ends Sunday!

PDCC#35: what a teeny tiny world we live in

If you're a play date cup winner you're eligible to be featured as a guest designer at the cafe, and this week we welcome

Lucy Abrams

Now one of the remarkable things that we discovered about Lucy this week, is that she lives 5 minutes drive away from me!!  Can you believe what a small world we live in?  And not only that, she's not long moved house and used to live 5 minutes walk away!!  We're sure we must have seen each other in Sainsbury's or Tesco [our local food stores for my US friends] lol

I love blogs :)

Lucy and I are both teachers, we both like to use stitching in our work, and both love Hero Arts designs, oh, and we both enjoy gardening.....but our work is rather different.  Lucy works very cleanly, I'm a bit of a messy, throw paint around kind of person.  I can't wait to meet up though :)

Ok, if you're still with me, I chose the play date colours this week. I realised we'd not really featured the colour brown in many of our challenges so had a browse around some art photos.  Julie and I both loved this chairs image.   I'm definitely in a canvas mood at the minute (which is good, as I'm teaching them  a lot at the minute!!)

I drew this seahorse earlier in the week for a zendoodling class and decided to use him again here.  I used brown, red and orange portfolio oil pastels for his body and enhanced him with stitching and beads.

Spray ink on the canvas, buttons, thread, lace, beads, feather and fabric all bring texture to the sea. 

I love adding these bits n pieces, it's so relaxing!

My Sophie is 13 today [Happy Birthday Sophe!!!] and she's had her eye on this piece so I'm wrapping it up for her birthday :)

And I'm going to leave you with Lucy's card, so beautifully neat and tidy :)

Don't forget to hop on over to see all the other designer's cards for this week - they are all FaBuLouS!!