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

:)

NEWSFLASH....

Spread the word....

Phone a friend.....

 From the beautiful people 
that bought you all things gorgeous

at the Perth Scraptivate store ...

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE...

THE LASTEST, MOST DELECTABLE...

ONLINE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE...

 

All the friendly service and brands you knew and loved

 Along with a dazzling array of new art products

 And amazing prices!!!!

TO SEE 

whats HOT & JUST ARRIVED in store...

CLICK HERE

:)

NEWSFLASH....

spread the word ....

phone a friend.....

FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT YOU ALL THINGS GORGEOUS 

AT THE SCRAPTIVATE STORE ...

 IT IS MY PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE ...

THE LASTEST, MOST DELECTABLE...

ONLINE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE ...

All the friendly service and brands you knew and loved 

along with a dazzling array of new art products

and amazing prices!!!!

TO SEE WHATS HOT AND JUST ARRIVED IN STORE...

CLICK HERE

LETTING GO SO THEY CAN GROW....

Look what my biggest boy did last night ...He made perfect enchilladas!!!
We were all so impressed !!
He knew hed made it and we were in awe because we had to photograph his efforts  ...
all the BEST "master chief' ed meals are photographed, in keeping with what has become our most recent quirky family tradition! LOL

Daniel did such a great job. He read and followed instructions with a minum of supervision and fuss. Whats more he was enthusistic and stayed on task despite two lots of surprize visiters that collectively bought with them 5 more kids to add to the equasion. Amazing actually when you think there were a 3 year old and a 18 month old buzzing about his feet. Not to mention a slightly tormenting 10 year old brother undermining Daniels efforts using his best Mr Squiggle's BLACKBOARD voice to pester with an endless chant of  "HURRY UPPPP!!! " and a stream of off the cuff comments about how we'd "be sure to get food poisoning, if we didnt starve first " ahhh brotherly love eh?

It was just so heartwarming to watch Daniel move around from one task to the next with such determination and focus. Not bad for a kid who has had people knocking him down, trying to limit his potential for years with labels. Quite reassuring watching him seamlessly perform what seem like basic tasks that would have once been beyond him. We can let him use a knife WITHOUT reminding him that knife throwing is  unacceptable and that fingers need to remain attached to the end of hands at all times!

I retell these storys not to lessen my child but to encourage other parents similarly frustrated to keep their hope firmly in place. I cannot count the years I had spent following him around his everyday routines coaching, refocusing & reminding him what to do to get ready for school. Now I  can look back and laugh a little, at having to remind him everyday which direction the bathroom was when he'd be busy wandering of deep in thought. 

I still worried feverishly, right up till last years reports about his abilitiy to organise his own homework, assighnments and test revision because I lost my ability to micro mangage when he went to high school. He had a rough start in year 7 coping with organisation, timetables and constantly changing teachers. As frustrated as I was from cranky teachers phone calls and meetings I could empathsise and stratigise new solutions because it had been my downfall and a constant struggle for me my entire time in high school. I was overwhemed with his report card at the end of the year, he did amazing last year. Almost perfect comments on his report which included an A for maths and science  b's and C's. My "absent minded Professor", a nickname coined by four teachers from three different schools, was/ IS becoming more confident and "coming into his own" as they say.

He is only 14, I know there is a way to go ...

but I am happy because I feel finally he is 14 and he doesn't seem to struggle with the outside world and conformity as much. He's found his niche with a good bunch of friends, he shows initiative, maturity and even ... wisdom!  Wise beyond his years sometimes, on occasion Id go as far as to say he, appears far wiser 

than his own late 30 something mother.... only sometimes! LOL

I just feel grateful and humbled that he's growing into himself and who he's going to be more and more each day.... ... As too are the hairs on his chinny chin chin, that he wont shave or let his mother wax cause she's offered believe me she's offered! LOL 

( rereading that line I imagine it must be hard and slightly embarrassing to have his mum sometimes!)

I also love we have almost an empathy link ...we are friends to a point, we share a certain warpped sence of humour and can enjoy things togther on a level no one else in the family shares ...it can be very special. I do know I will have to hold on for grim life to keep the connection through the turbulent teen age years ahead. For the moment a love of DR WHO, artistic endevours, Percy Jackson & The hunger games novels binds us together ...oh that and waiting till the HUNGER GAMES movire comesout on the 17th of March!!! But I digress... LOL

I think I am having that realization our 1st baby is well on his way to being a man....  

and NOT JUST CAUSE HE COOKED EXCELLENT ENCHILADAS!!! 

( Is it too soon to encourage him to attempt Thai cuisine yet? LOL)

In all seriousness, we are moving into the next scary sets of milestones I dared not think of,  let alone worry about. They seemed so far away... like maybe we'd never get there. Things like mobile phone ownership, driving ( arghhhh! ) part time jobs, curfews and birds & bees issues 

( oh gawd did I just type that.. I'm such a prude! LOL) 

I am proud he has become so strong and  more mature, although he could stop for a while with the "growing" bit as he is already a smidge under 6 ft  with a size 11mens foot !!! (damn hormones in the chicken myth may have some truth after all!) well all I wanted to say was OMG I am so blessed to have my big boy and both my lil ones too. I think like allot of mums in the back of our mind we think maybe the love lessens as they move out of baby /cute little boy stage but it doesn't just like the child.... it grows as well !!!

 Over Id say the last 12 months I have come to realise I have made a  couple parenting foe par's one was not making my boys take on responsibilities to teach them the value of things like money, hard work, their parents and ... a disinfected inhabitable bedroom! It seems to be we have seen a some major progress in our eldest since trusting him not to loose a mobile phone, run over his foot with the lawn mower or get knocked off his bike riding to a friends place or what we call the "big" shops! LOL I just wanted to put it out there that sometimes its "good" parenting that lets go... so they can grow! Hopefully one mum like me might read this and have a think about the way they mollycoddle! LOL

     That and I wanted to put all this in writing before I sit down to explain to all of them they will be  taking on the reponsibility  to clean their own bathroom and GRRRROOOOSSS toilet from here

                                      on in and the glow wears off my epiphany !!!

:)

REDISCOVERING A DEER FAVORITE....

                           FOX & DEER                             

BEAUTY, quirky N kitch, HAPPINESS, 
colour & movement 

ART, creativity,  imagination and INSPIRATION

ALL the interesting JOYFULNESS you can fit into a BLOG...

PRESENTED FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE BY

THE AUTHOR AND ALL ROUND LOVELY ....

      NGAIRE       

CHECK IT OUT...

 HERE

:)

CARDs and STAMPOTIQUE STAMP JOURNALING ...

 

PRODUCTS USED: Chipboard, Cardstock, COLLECTIONS MERCHANT PAPER, Laura Ashley paper, GERMAN SCRAP EMBOSSED BORDERS, CORNERS & FLORAL EMBELLISHMENTS, Green Tara flowers, Prima flowers, gem brads.

This was for my mum and Dad who just celebrated their Ruby anniversary...

notice the "faux" ruby accents ( ruby brads)  on the card? LOL

GOT A  BIT OF A TRICK?

FEATURED PRODUCT: WOW Antique Pram

Also I show you a card I made for a friend who asked me to make one for a special occassion but my mind being the void it is couldnt remember whether she asked for a christening card or just a baby card so I made a "convertable" card ! LOL

The inside of the card read something like "a baby is the greatest blessing bestowed on a family"

Which could be on a christening card  or a new baby card...

so I planned a change of title depending on what was needed (turns out christening LOL)

                        CHRISTENING CARD                      OR         NEW BABY CONGRATULATIONS 

I also wanted to share an art journal page 

I did recently, but during my last post blogger said NO!

So I gave up LOL but here it is ...

(my appologies if you've seen it on Facebook)

FIND YOUR PASSION....

FEATURED PRODUCTS:   

STAMPOTIQUE -Amy Wilson, Tattered Angels Glimmer mists, 

and stamps, La Blanche background stamp, Sharpie fine pen,

Claudia Hellmuth and Jacquard Acrylic paints, Prima patterned paper 

Stazon watermark ink pad and embossing powder.

STAMPOTIQUE - Amy wilson stamp

I wrote the words down in a list and then thought about what I wanted to say and endevoured t say it using the words in the list. Each time I used a word I ticked it off the list and eventually used them all at least once. My hand writing is the bane of my existance, I dislike my chicken scratchings terribly 

but I love the way this has turned out.

Then next step was to create the background. Which consisted of misting three Glimmer mists onto the cardstock. I then used the La Blanche stamp with the mists as my ink . To do this I misted onto plastic and then picked up the ink with my stamp stamping onto the cardstock. The Tattered Angel stamps were embossed onto Prima PP and cut out then stuck onto the background cardstock. The face I drew

in sharpie which is waterproof and painted with acrylic paint. I used the sharpie 

and accented extra areas in her hair I wanted to stand out.

:)

WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR...

.... and as usual...

I'm Late! LOL

so where to start again with this poor neglected blog well ...

Christmas was good ...

we went down to Tuross Head with my mum and Dad
the 3 boys were happy Santa found them and they got spoilt!

That was the first week and a bit covered  then is was back to Wagga Wagga for ...

THE LONGEST SCHOOL HOLIDAYS OF MY LIFE!!!! LOL

Will never do the holiday at the start again !!!

So I may possibilly sound a little over enthusiastically joyfully when I say....

everyone is now happily back @ school!!!

Daniel is in year 9 at KOORINGAL HIGH

Connor in year 5 at STURT PRIMARY

& 

Jarred in year 3 at LAKE ALBERT PRIMARY

and mummy is just starting to play & is back smiling .... and making messes in her office !!!

I am going to be lazy and race though what I have been up to in the interim ...

 FORGIVE ME IF I POST UP A COUPLE YOU'VE SEEN 

SOME MAY HAVE PREVIOUSLY BEEN POSTED AS WORKS IN PROGRESS (WIP's )

I did this for a art journal page still a WIP atm...
 I love it a friend says it looks like she has intestines in her skull! LOL

I thought I might submit it to Cafe Press cause I looked for a an "art brain" shirt 

but couldnt find anything I liked  although I liked a shirt that described me to a T 

something along the line of " I do NOT Math therefore I ART!" 

but I bought one in white I am going to tie dye that says 

" EARTH WITHOUT ART is just...  EH!"

COOL AYE?!

so....

OUT OF MY ART BRAIN OOZED.....

 

A christmas card

 More ATC's and more pages for my tiny Art journal

 This very 3D Bo Bunny page just arrived before xmas in Scraptivate for display

Shop 1/21

 This is another WIP ( STILL ***GROAN***)

keep you eye on this space for an update and step x step on this one!

 Alot of these salads were summons'd 

when I couldnt get any time through the holidays  to be creative! LOL

 I finally finished my Art doll  for my friend Natalie on and off it took about 6 months! 

Shes made of  a real cotton reel, embossed foils, beads, metal embellishments organza bag, clay 

Twiddleybitz shadow box and German Scrap embossed borders and wings.

Oh and her ballet shoes are Fimo Oven bake clay from Scraptivate.

I used a gorgeous LaBlanche stamp from SCRAPTIVATE 

to emboss the sides of the shadow box

then used RubNbuff  and gold ink over the top to bring out the detail.

She has a Heart of Gold as does her new owner!!!

I made this layout for my friend Janet Murphy as its of her gorgous youngest child Darcy

They had a major fright just before christmas where a fire ruined three of the bedroom off the side of their house. I hoped this might cheer her up., it seems it did a little! :)

The colour scheme and componets used were influenced by the first challenge 

on a new challenge site called  CSI.

 This card was made for my Mum & Dads 40th wedding anniversary.

 A christening card featuring the

so thats about it for now I am working on 4 art journal pages and playing along with MILLANDE'S SEED JOURNAL I am still struggling to loose my careful meticulous nature despite the fact art journalling is meant to be a carefree organic freeing process... OH well old habits die hard and I am enjoying the challenge of creating my own version of milliandes journal prompts. I must have been doing okay I got my first page selected as a feature in the first week ...I consider that a huge honour which hasnt happened to me before in the 5 or 6 years I have been putting tprojects in the gallery so that was an AWESOME start to 2012!

 !

 I 'll show you all there is to show you about this art journal page in my next posts

becase as you can see Blogger is rebelling and not co opporating tonight! LOL

This post is too long anyway ...

I am probably typing to myself by now...

if you did make it this far...

CONGRATULATIONS

***YAWNNNNN****

Let me know do my long posts or do they annoy you ?

would you like smaller ones?

:)