A CREATIVE DREAM COME TRUE... ME, IN TIM HOLTZ CLASS!

OKAYEE FOLKS here THE post of the year...
settle in with a cuppa and ...may I suggest a family sized block of Caburys...
this may take awhile...

Firstly let me appologise its been such a long time since my last long ago blog post ...

well ... I have had a dreadful couple of non artistic months. My creative mojo went seriously awol. 

I lost a dear friend to cancer and had another invoved in a serious car accident thankfully now
sheis back at home and on the mend. That coupled with some other issues just saw me aimless and disinterested in creating anything. I guess we all go through patches of this sort but this was new to me.
 It seemed my spark had just disappeared but ....thankfully it's back...

and what a way to set it ablazing ...

a creative dream of mine
forfilled...

 when, I was given the opportunity
by The Scrapbooking Hut 
to attend a full day workshop 

with

American crafting royalty, 

the rockstar of all things inky ...

MR T!M HOLTZ

Heres how 

my "journey" unfolded...

The venue: The Coogee Bay Conference center just behind the Coogee Bay Hotel.

I boarded a plane sunday for the class on Monday

 traveled by myself from my lil home

 in Wagga Wagga, regional NSW 

to the big smoke... Coogee Bay, Sydney.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement ... 

to say I was merely excited would be equally an understatement...

to say I was completely freaked out of my everloving mind and 

I'd been counting down the sleeps like a 7 year awaiting christmas morning 

would be more accurate!!! LOL  

Oh yes... those who know me on Facebook 

would know in the past couple weeks I made a bit of a "GOOG" of myself

 in the lead up to this event. It was widely know I was I bit dilerious about the prospect 

of meeting Mr Holtz and learning what ever he could teach me. 

Many of my "friends" have known for mny years how much I admired Tim's many talents 

and the wonderful Ranger products he uses. Some of those "friends" 

made more than one mention of my wetting my pants or drowning in a puddle 

of my own drool in front of the class and its highly thought of teacher. 

In all seriousness though the idea of me , lil country bumpkin 

whos taught more classes than she'd ever taken, being taught in person by 

an Icon of the industry, like Tim Holtz, was indeed both a humbling and daunting thought.

Couple that with that with the fact I dont travel alone much 

and I knew that Id be representing our local online store there, 

The Scrapbooking Hut, I was all a quiver! LOL 

  

The Woolongong/Dapto lasses

Thankfully a good hearted lady by the name of Jo Kinder put me in contact
with a bunch of amazing design team and store owning ladies who were also attending
I could share the excitement and accomodation with. So on sunday night, after a plane and two bus rides

I finally arrived at the Coogee Bay Hotel and met up Sandra Henderson Staples, Tracey Shenton, Heidi McCallum and Andrea Cosier. A big thankyou to those girls for taking me under their wing and for sharing their diggs both accomadation and otherwise with me!!! Oh and for sharing Heidi's baked goods with me as well nothing like a few peices of mars bar slice to create a bond between crafty women!!! LOL

So after alot of chatter, some beautiful Thai dinner,
A Timmy sighting and stalking in coogees main street! LOL (heidi you know who you are!)
A couple of not so beautiful cocktails and a less than perfect nights sleep we were there...

MONDAY morning the moment of truth!

The main event ... 

THE TIM HOLTZ 

TECHNIQUE OVERLOAD CLASS

The classroom

Another riverina local Kylie and her lovel mum, who run a shop in Gundagai

Kylie is in big trouble when next I see her for letting me have a moustashe in this pic! LOL

Sherry Mendoza

                             So after a hastey breakfast I arrived running to the class room and
                                       giggling to myself, I line up to have my name checked of a list.

Women of all shapes, sizes, ages are filing into the conference centre 

and I am still wondering how I got to be so damn lucky!

YAYYY!!!  ITS FINALLY TIMMY DAY!!!

The class rooms set up imaculately
rows of identical tables laiden with kits and boxes of treasured Ranger products!

 A craft mat and a Ranger apron await each participant and on a big screen 

at the front of the room are those the words that make it all real....

TIM HOLTZ

 RANGER

TECHNIQUE OVERLOAD!!! 

 with a picture of the 20 tag book we'd be making !

 

The Kit and Products supplied for us to keep and use in any future demos.

 and ....

TIM!!! 

( SQUEAL !!!  INSERT first hyperventalation of the day HERE !!! )

 

He'd been milling around the room for a half hour 

chatting and signing all manner of things 

but now hes a row away from me. Im impressed with how effortlesly he breaks

 into the proceedings, I supose he has taught this class a million times and the

content is a comfortable as...

well...

an old worn boot to him.

He welcomes us all and chats a bit about his trip so far "down under".

Hes relaxed, charming, down to earth and in good humour begins by going

through the the supplies and then onto the safety warnings...

You know like... be VERY aware that the heat gun will burn you ...

and does remain super hot for quite a while after use ...ahhh DUHHH??!!!

.

Guess who must have been daydreaming
and didnt take on the seriousness of that warning...
ahhh that'd be.... me 
within the hour, I reach accross the barrell of the heat gun
to pick up a stamp and let out an attention grabbing  lil squeal!

I look up and Tims shaking his head laughing saying "I did tell you!"

Thankfully he didnt see me do the same thing two more times as the class went on!!! LOL

 I half hope my burn scars... it'll be an nice keepsake!!! 
It never looked like I was gunna get that signed breast
 to turn into a tattoo that I dreamed of ! (kidding! LOL)
I had to settle for my signed Trinket box and Compendium book !! Raotfl)

Heidi McCallum and Sandra Staples

RtoL Sherry Mendoza, Jane Clark, Andrea Cosier and Tracey Shenan

My favourite photo of the dayof myself and Tim Holtz taken by the lovely Rachel Grieg, despite photobombing  Heidi's uninvited toncil shot ...cheeky bugger! LOL I had two more photo's with Tim  but not only did I look like an awestruck rabbit in the headlights,  I was also displaying more chins than a chinese phone book so I will just have to be happy with this memento.

So then it was tag after tag of gluey painty goodness from then on in. 

Each one demoing a different use for the Ranger/Tim Holtz products. 

On compleation of each tag a pre printed jac label describing the products 

and technique used was attached to the back to "jog" our memory when we returned home.

I could not fault the class in any way,  an overhead accompanied Tims dirrections and the kit 

was layered and packed with all its embellishments in order of their soon to be creation. There were a few eager beavers who shuffled up their kits looking, before finding out this vital information... to which Tim chuckled and mentioned it didnt pay to be one of those "over achievers" you have in every class that try and get two steps in front... ahhh NO PROBS HERE I thought! LOL 

We worked from one tag to the next pretty solidly. I didnt stop as I wanted to make the most of it all I distressed and inked edges, used extra stamps etc because I wanted to go home with the finished product... didnt want hubby going so what else did you do in a whole day! LOL

We broke for lunch mind numbingly crumpled  but exstatic I made some ridiulously 

delieriously happy phone calls to friends to tell them I was having a blast and had 

Chicken a mushroom Pide on one of those park benches overlooking the ocean...

it crossed my mind... I could do this everyday!!!

The main Coogee Bay boulavade where I had lunch opp. the convention centre

Not quite sure but Im sure theres a story behind the teddy bear signing

Who knew you could take a "selfie" with 5 people in it! LOL

My room at the clean friendly comfy bed ...perfect Coogee Bay Beach house hostel

The Technique Tags 

I created...

 

All in all  I "enjoyed the journey" for me the journey of a lifetime.

Now I have to look forward to the best part ...the sharing! 

I will be demoing some of some the techniques for our local Scrapbooking Hut  ladies 

real soon and I just hope I can do Tim justice!

&

one last  lovely

surprize.... 

I'm in one of two pics on 

TIM's BLOG!!! 

YAYYY! LOL

:)