a box of curiosities

I taught this workshop at The Cubby Hole on Saturday.  It was a 'cheap and cheerful' workshop in the sense that many of the materials we used were mainly recycled.  I just couldn't resist framing these photos of the materials in this way:

cans, broken china and an old calculator!

no I'm not reading Jackie Collins, it was cheap at the library!

my scraps jar, a squashed coke can....

What a lot of junk!  But the work we produced certainly wasn't!  The project was based on an old cardboard box...

...with the inside lined with book pages and filled with a variety of 'curiosities', including felted stones, weathered shells, steampunk goodies and a handmade pebble...

...along with a book made from a cardboard box, envelopes and bits n pieces collected on my walks around town...

I know I've said this before, but one of the things I love about teaching workshops is seeing how others apply my idea to their own colour choices and, in this case, themes too.  Nigel's piece is so 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Dead Man's Chest'....

...whereas Christine went for a more delicate approach...

Wendy loves words and conversational 'witticisms' so based hers on the fact that the box had contained ceramic pieces entitled 'Hootie the Blowfish' [no prizes for guessing where the boxes were from lol]

Little Sue's love of purple quickly shone through her piece...

I really have had the most amazing weekend...the opening night of my art exhibition on Friday...workshop on Saturday...and Take That yesterday!!!  So FaNTaSTiC!

opening night of 'The Art of Moodling' exhibition

I'd like to say a huge THaNKYou to everyone who attended the opening night of my exhibition, and a very special thankyou to Carol and Danielle for providing the wonderful cheese and wine.  It was a fabulous evening and everyone got stuck in to making their own mark on a huge canvas, even those who thought they weren't creative :)

I made my first video!  It's just from my phone so no sound or anything but hopefully it'll give you a feel for the exhibition  :)

I was back at The Cubby Hole again today teaching a workshop.  We made boxes of 'Curiosities'.  I particularly liked the tiny felted pebbles!  Will post pics tomorrow, before I go to the Take That concert ...so, so, so excited! :)

eeek...a radio broadcast and an art exhibition launch

I'm nervously looking forward to being on local radio later!  Chorlton FM is broadcasting daily from the 16th-29th May across South Manchester and online.  They include coverage of the 2011 Chorlton Arts Festival, for which I did a workshop last Sunday.  I'm being interviewed at about 6pm, which I'm sure will involve lots of giggling on my part ;)

I'm also busy prepping for my first solo art exhibition at The Cubby Hole, Crewe in June.  

I've been really enjoying 'moodling' with some paint and canvases!

With the odd bit of paper and glue thrown in ;)

Still lots of pieces to get finished ...  I'm always on the last minute with these things - just the way I work best I guess!

journaling on a plate

 Well, a stand for hot things in your kitchen to be precise but you get the idea!  I spent the last couple of days on a workshop provided by the suppliers of our ceramic paints for The Bean & Brush, and I got time to PLaY :)

I've been wanting to try some of the art journaling techniques I use on paper on ceramic pieces instead, and yesterday was my opportunity.   Especially as I learnt how to do this using lace (not a great photo I'm afraid):

This was another technique that was on my list to learn!  So after decorating this plate I had a go at journaling.  This went in the kiln last night so I should be able to share the final look of the piece in the next couple of days.

Things are mad busy around here still - I'm teaching my first workshop for The Bean & Brush tonight.  It's full but if anyone is interested in doing it, please let us know as I'm more than happy to run it again.

Meanwhile, I'm also prepping for my exhibition at The Cubby Hole, Crewe which starts on 4th June.  If you're interested in attending the preview night the evening before though, please drop me an email and I'll get an invite out to you :)

PDCC78 - romantic pinks and reds in time for THaT wedding!!!

For those of you who are regulars in the cafe, you will know that these are some of Julie's favourite colours - she's a real pinks and reds girl whereas I lean more towards the teals and blues, but I LoVe, LoVe, LoVe  this colour combo.

These are real Cath Kidston colours :) and bring back great childhood memories for me of blue/pink/red melanine cups with white spots.  They also look fantastic on the Union Jack, which I seem to remember seeing in this colourway in John Lewis but I may be wrong.  Perfect colours I feel for the upcoming Royal Event next week.  Are you celebrating?  I have a tea party and a bbq to go to, and turned down another invite as couldn't fit it in!!!

Apologies for the terrible images today.  I'll change them later when I can get hold of a camera (still no sign of my phone); these are scanned.  I used My Minds Eye papers to decorate a library folder thingamajig ...

...and I decorated the little card inside to match, adding a new Stampotique stamp I got from The Cubby Hole last weekend :)  I'm going to use this piece at the front of a wedding memories book for a friend who has just got engaged.  I'll write in their names and the date of their engagement.

Don't forget to visit the fantastic (and they really are!) projects from our DT and guest designer this week over at The Play Date Cafe, or on their individual blogs ~ have fun creating, and don't forget to let me know what you're doing on the 29th April 2011!

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

Julie Ranae 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

and this week's guest designer

Hanna Craner

and huge thanks to this week's sponsor

I have had...

... the most fabulous day down at The Cubby Hole!  I taught a felting workshop for the first time and although the table started off fairly empty and most un-Sarah like, by the afternoon we'd got lots of supplies around and about and we all felt (ha ha, pun not intended but funny so I'm leaving it!!) much more comfortable.

Still no phone, so no pics as yet :(  Hoping Tracy'll blog her pieces so I can nick her pics, although I have caused her a massive amount of money today as she fell in love with my embellisher.  

a blissful day spent cutting and sticking and printing

I did a Collagraph printing workshop at The Cubby Hole for my birthday treat.

I've been wanting to take a printing workshop forever but never quite managed it.  We made our printing plates from a variety of tapes so that we didn't need to wait for them to dry before putting them through the printing press.

The image at the top of the post was made from this plate, made entirely from masking tape on card, and using my favourite punches in the whole world [my Martha Stewart Hydrangeas].

We also worked on card shaped the same as our first initial.  I decided to make a few and print a collection.  We did LoaDS of printing :)

I'm going to add some stitching to some of my pieces I think.  It was great to see Carol having the time to join us on this workshop.  I love the pieces she did with textured wallpaper.

We had great fun with the string - it could be 'deconstructed' into very fine threads which printed brilliantly.

little Sue made this fabulously textured flower

whilst Nigel added roots and leaves to his 'N' with it

Wendy made a fantastic print from the leftover card from her 'W' being cut with the Cricut.  

A fabulous, fabulous day :)

letters, letters and more letters

but as you can see, Walter doesn't appear to like wearing his yellow woollen waistcoat - he is definitely NoT happy!  I spent yesterday immersed in letters, fonts and illustration as I ran my lettering workshop at The Cubby Hole, Crewe...a wonderful day!!!

We started with some loosening up exercises on a large scale, trying different pencils and crayons.

I think almost everyone fell in love with the watersoluble oil pastels that my Mum brought back from the US last year.

The lettering patterns kept us all so quite and relaxed that you could have heard a pin drop!

I love the lettering that Nigel used on this page following an activity creating different line patterns.

This is Nigel's too [he was sitting next to me so I managed to get more pics] and I just love the way the letters in the largest heart come to a point.

Little Sue counted 30 journals at home (how fab is that!) and brought some along to add writing in.  

I had anticipated this being a 'less messy than usual' workshop, but no!  Although I did have to tidy up before I could continue working on this page...

Ah, that's better!

I am repeating this workshop this coming Thursday and Saturday at Paddy's Stamping Place, Prestwich - no need to book, we'll squeeze you in!!!

PDCC70 - back on the wagon

What a fantastic response to our first 'Combined Grind' challenge last week - my piece is still half finished I'm afraid - life just pushed all blogging stuff out of the window last week.  But thankyou to those that emailed to check all was ok :)

This week's colours come courtesy of Ruby2Shoes, aren't they gorgeous?!!!  The idea for my project started with a metal flower I purchased from The Cubby Hole, Crewe on Tuesday, and some embossing powders I bought at the same time, inspired by Fran on the Woodware stand at the trade show.

This is a small black sketchbook by Daler-Rowney from Dunelm, about A5 in size.

I got my dabbers out to paint a patch of colour on the front, only realising after painting in orange, that it I meant to do it turquoise lol.

So I painted over it!

Then added some green through my flower stencil.

I cleaned my stencil off inside my journal, the start of a page :)

I kept the stencil out to add more colour to the front of the book.

After using the metal flower as a stamp, which didn't show up too well, I attached it to the front of the journal and filled it with green embossing powder.

The green is a very 'flat' colour, so after adding some orange powder to the centre of the flower, I filled the whole shape with kaleidoscope embossing powder for a bit of sparkle!

Some snippets of painted paper and lace, bling and fluffy wool with beads and I was rather pleased with the result.  I was trying to keep the design in the bottom right hand corner but my backgrounds always creep into the 'white space'!!!

This week our guest designer, Maria Gurnsey, an ippity chick of great fabulousness, is also providing our prize.  Head over to the play date cafe to see the wonderful ippity stamps she's given us to give away :)  And whilst you're there, why not check out the great inspiration provided by our wonderful team of designers.  This week there are one or two projects other than cards to give you inspiration :)

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

Julie Ranae