ArtsyCrafts Weekend

It was only 3 weeks ago, but I must tell you about what a fantastic weekend event we jointly organised with Linda and Mark from LB Crafts. Called ArtsyCrafts, we had 40 enthusiastic women come and learn loads of ideas and techniques with all kinds of products. We have anohter planned for early 2009, so if you want to know about that stayed tunded to this blog!


We had 9 sessions planned for the weekend, and made some very stunning projects if I say so myself! I would have loved to be a participant at this event! Linda and I had so much fun designing these projects together, so it was cool that each project had in put from us both.

This is the 'birdcage' inspired by a project Sue Roddis taught at Katy's Corner Stamp Camp earlier in the year. Sue did many more layers to the sides of her box, and had a different feature on the top, but the core of this idea was certainly inspired by her.

You might just be able to see the colourful birds from Tops and Tails plate 2 stamped and coloured on a tall strip of acetate insdie the box. the acetate was formed into a circle so the birds looked as if they were sitting on a piece of twig inside the 'cage'. That sits on a metal plate secured in the base of the box, and metal- stamped windows also give the box good strength. The little house on the top is a new squiggly mini (#18), I'm loving that stamp a lot these days!

Another fun class was the metallic niche. This cute little slide mailer was stamped and embellished. The cover was texturised with a technique developed by linds for which you must own a 'gloopy stick' - one of those terms coined by me.......a 'Leandra-ism'. Those of you who know me will understand all about my weird words for items that have no name. Anyway, once armed with a gloopy stick, some paint and embossing pwder you can make this background.

Inside we decorated with SILK plate 1 (shrunk of course) ...one person's house shrunk in a really wonky manner and we loved it! Reminded us of the crooked man in his little crooked house!

The central piece was the 'Gothic Arch'. Using metal, we made pieces to cover the Arch-shaped frame. Each piece was a different technique incoprorting metal moulds, stamping, the cute little cuttlebug, alcohol inks, paints and more. For those ladies for whom metal working was a new experience they were really thrown into the deep end and they loved it, and totally got into it. It was so exciting to see people take our ideas, and then use the technique but doing it in their own preference of colour, pattern and layouts. The one on the left her is my sample distressed with black paint, and touches of blue alcohol ink.

Everyone was so pleased with their frame as it took shape, and no 2 frames were the same. Mark got some fantastic photos of this class in progress. Some of which are featured here. Some people did less colour, and others more, but they all looked totally stunning!

The finishing touch to the frame was a row of UTEE beads to dangle across the bottom. A lot of people thought these were bought beads, so when they realised they were going to make their own fro this frame they were amazed! So we each made our own blobbie-balls to dingle from the frame. Brilliant! Instuctions for making these beads will be in the next issue of Craft Stamper magazine (UK) out in shops the first week of next month.

We also made a great Xmas canvas, but a slightly different version of that will be a project in a future Craft Stamper Magazine, so I'll keep that one under wraps for now.

We are already planning the next event sceduled for March 2009, so start saving, you won't be disappointed! We'll be making an announcement in the next few weeks with all the nitty gritty details.