Helloooooooooo... is there anyone there??? Helloooooooo???

Are you out there still?  If you are then thanks for popping by, sticking with me because its been a disgracefully long time since I last blogged - shameful!  Just over a month!! Shocking.  I've missed blogging- missed interacting with all you lovely peeps out there on the www - I shouldn't have stayed away so long!

But I'm back, quite a few things have happened and quite a few things had to be put on hold because I was not a 100% but I'm better now so here's a quick round up:
I've.. erm... welll I .... hmm its a bit hard to know where to srart so I'll ignore all the little things and move straight onto the big stuff:

ArtsyCrafts with Lynne Perrella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
omg - how much of a great time did I have at Lynne Perrella's workshops?!?!?  Bloomin' marvelous!!
An 11 hour, 400 mile round trip to get there - & it was worth every single mile & moment!
I went for 2 of the 3 days - made 2 projects - which I'm still tweaking - yeah yeah yeah - I know, me tweaking a project, who'd have thought - but they'll be finished very soon and when they are I'll put up pictures - the PaperArtsy site and video has pics of them as works in progress - I'll leave you to guess which are mine...
Here is me with the FANTASTIC Lynne Perrella - she is a fabulous, funny, talented teacher - really generous with her ideas and time - brilliant.

She showed us how to get the most out of stencils & photocopies of vintage photos & illustrations, I barely touched a stamp during the whole weekend!  We collaged, stencilled, glued, repurposed & painted. 

A brilliant weekend.

This is Lynne P's demo desk on Saturday night when she was showing how to add colour to a picture (of Edgar Allen Poe) with a bespoke stencil - I love how she effortlessly adds colour to alter the tone of a picture.

It was a really fabulous weekend - I learnt lots of things that I'll use on future projects- but mainly I'll take away that you don't have to have all the latest this'n'that - rummage through drawers, repurpose things, paint things, & photocopies are versatile (I know that already but it was well worth revisiting) etc etc etc...

Finally 'Thank you' to my lovely hubby who bought me the weekend as a birthday present!

A this'n'that catch up.... Part 2

Here's another random selection of stuff that I meant to show you before now:

Ranger have brought out some more Distress Stains!! Squeeeeel! Love this product.
Thank you for the lovely messages I had about my article in this month's Craft Stamper - glad I inspired you.  I bought a few more of the Stains and played with the bleach on these too:

No great surprises in the remaining colour once bleached (eg walnut stain that has a great purple when bleached) but I do like the pale yellow thats left in the black soot - nice.

I bought Milled Lavender after I'd made these samples - it wasn't one of my favourite Distress Colours (not sure I even have it as an ink pad) (a bit of a 'non-colour) but the Stain is a really lovely soft pretty colour.  I'm converted.
Picket Fence!!! ooh thats a good one - its more opaque than the other stains - great for a white wash look over a surface.. very versatile.

------------------------------

October ArtsyCrafts!!!

Oops  - can't believe I haven't blogged about this before now!! - well I might have mentioned that it was running but what I haven't mentioned is that its going to be another exciting event with another guest teacher!!!

In addition to the usual top classes by Leandra & Lin, Lynne Perella will teach 3 days of classes - a different one each day.

How fabulous is that!

Aaaaaand its very exciting for me because I'm not going to be working at the event* - I'm going to be taking 2 of the classes!!!!!!!  Beyond excited.
(* don't get me wrong I love working at these events)

------------------------------

aaaand another exciting event - so much arty learning will be going into my head in October I may implode (but don't worry if I do it will be sparkly and there may be buttons..lol) - I was lucky to get a place on the Dina Wakley classes at LB Crafts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, beyond excited! lol  I love Dina's artsy, splashy, colour rich, sprayiness (yes, I know that's not a word but I'm excited so forgive me! lol)

Dina Wakley. www.dinastamps.typepad.com

So many new exciting things to be learnt in October ( I love learning new things) I may have to lay in a darkened room for the whole of November! lol

-----------------------------------

In my workroom there are lots of boxes with supplies in them, & it's sort of organised (& getting better, its an ongoing process) - I have several Moppe boxes (from Ikea - love these but apparently they don't make them anymore! The shock!) but these boxes aren't very interesting to look at - so I pulled out some of my current favourite scrapbook papers and covered the drawers in those!

I like looking at scrapbook papers!
I like storage.
Its a win win situation. I deliberately kept them simple and embellishment free so that if I get 'bored' of these papers I can easily change them.

Take care