Sunday, August 29, 2010

Jodi Ohl Online Class


Do you love Jodi Ohl? Head over to her website and check out her new online class entitled Let's Face It. While you're there, sign up for her newsletter.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Italian Composition with Chris Cozen


Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to get into one of Chris Cozen's classes at Stamping Details. Chris is a world renowned artist and has a gift for color. Please check out her website and online classes. The class was called Italian Composition. Chris had just returned from France and Italy armed with wonderful background ideas. My class was the last of five classes in one weekend so I actually was a bit behind everyone. Most of the students had signed up for all five classes and had already made many backgrounds that were extraordinary.

I made two panels and don't ask me how I ended up with these colors. Orange is my least favorite color and my second least favorite is yellow. Talk about stepping out of your box! I managed to get the paint on, but I really didn't have time to build it up because it wouldn't have dried in time to do the decoupage portion of the class. I find it odd, but the more I looked at it, the more I began to like it.

Chris had taken tons of pictures of architecture while in Europe. Plus, she had picked up some old journals and different bits of ephemera, which she shared with the class. The written collage element on my panel was taken from a journal that was hand written in the 1800's.

At this point, I have the collage portion on and then I courageously added a little swipe of blue paint and called it done. As I looked at it, it seemed a little flat to me. Well, of course, there was no build up. At the advise of my friend Suzi Blu, who is also an artist and an online teacher, I added some Golden Bead Gel and Molding Medium and let it dry. I loved that, but it still wasn't quite right. At the advice of another artist friend, Nina, I added the brown paint to one of the panels and a very dark purple paint to the other.

After working on these panels and playing with them and showing them to my friends, I think they're finally fun. I think I'm finished. I wish you could see the depth that they finally have. I took the pictures on an angle so maybe you could see. It's funny how sometimes art can take you a couple of hours and you're done. Other times, it takes however long it takes to get to that place, wherever that may be in your own head, when you finally say, ok, I think it's done...mmm, but maybe not. Ha Ha

I hope Chris would be happy with my novice work.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Art Bar With Miss Vicky

The Crew with their bottles

The Carlsbad Book Club ladies have been trying to think of a fun place to go on a field trip. Elena came up with the idea of going to the Art Bar, which is located in Orange County, or Santa Ana to be precise. If you want to go somewhere really cool for a class or just to visit and shop, the Art Bar is the place to go. It's an art store, but I found the allure to be the ambiance. It is truly designed for people to go there and make art. This fun store is heaped with wonderful art supplies to play with and a whole bunch of unusual items to purchase. You feel totally comfortable just digging in and getting your hands dirty. There's something so unique and quaint about the Art Bar that you are truly inspired to create.

Kat & Pam

My Sister and I drove up to OC last Saturday and met up with 10 girlfriends, including Miss Vicky. Miss Vicky brought all the supplies and instructed us on how to make beautiful soldered bottles. We had crystals, beads, shells, and various other embellies to add to the inside of our bottles. Then we learned how to embellish the outside of the bottle and solder it all together. Once soldered, we added a patina that gave the bottle an old-world sort of look.


Kat & Pam

I loved it so much that I've already been on the hunt for bottles and I believe I have found my next beautiful creation.

Miss Vicky

Then we went into downtown Santa Ana, which is full of European stores and antique shops. We had a delicious lunch, went shopping, but most of all we laughed and giggled and really did have a hoot of a time. It was a great day. Good idea Elena!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Suzi Blu's Birthday Bash/Fundraiser




What a crazy fun day we had at Stamping Details a couple of weeks ago. A group of like minded, artsy girls got together and celebrated Suzi Blu's birthday by having a fundraiser for Holly's Garden Rescue. The final count was $530 with only 12 ladies.

We spent the day journaling and chatting and just generally playing. Suzi shared some fun techniques and provided birthday gifty bags that included templates for us to use in our journals. We commented on how all of us could use the same templates and end up with pages that were completely different. Everyone went home with a couple of journal pages that they really loved.

We went live on Suzi's website and many of our online visitors stayed with us all day.

As with only the classiest birthday parties, we enjoyed birthday hats, balloons, flowers, presents, awesome cupcakes from Cupcake Love, fun prizes from Suzi, singing and lots of artsy love.

We also had a stream of visitors, including members of Holly's Garden Rescue, a registered non-profit, who spoke to us about their organization, which rescues small breed dogs who are in danger of being euthanized. They will get the call from a shelter that 1 or more dogs is going to be killed that day and Holly's Garden jumps in the car and rescues them. They will drive all over, sometimes several counties to different shelters in one day. If you are inspired to help by fostering a dog, or donating to this wonderful mission, I encourage you to go to their website.

A couple of our most popular guests were Gigi and Finney who came dressed in their birthday best. Suzi has some wonderful pictures of them on her website.

Our own private photographer, Rhiana spent the entire day taking pictures of this fabulous event. I hope you get a chance to see them. We had such a fantastic time.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Suzi Blu's Birthday Partaay!


Suzi Blu is celebrating her birthday
by hosting a wonderful charity event for
Holly's Garden.
Holly's Garden is a local non-profit organization that
rescues dogs in jeopardy of being euthanized.
Suzi recently adopted Finnegan from
Holly's Garden
and would love for you to join her in giving back.


Birthday Party all Day

The theme of the event will be a super fun and colorful
birthday party.



Papier Story

But wait, you will be creating a Papier Story in your art journals using Suzi's templates and designs.
Bring your journals and your colored pencils.
You will learn some incredibly fun techniques and
there will be surprises and prizes all day long.


Partaay Details


Where:
Stamping Details
14009 Midland Road
Poway, CA 92064
858-513-8024
http://www.stampingdetails.com/
Call to reserve your spot today as there is limited seating.


Here is the website for your
supply list:
www.stampingdetails.com/cgi-bin/evinfo.php?on=9202439
Suzi will also be bringing fun and interesting items for us to play with.


When:
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
11:00 am - 4:00 pm


Cost: $45

Suzi is so excited to say that absolutely all proceeds from the workshop fees
will be donated to
Holly's Garden.