Shows and Workshop updates.

Hi everyone.

Firstly im so glad to be back in blogland. As some of you know my poor old computer had to go away for a big operation as i had pushed it to its limits and after nearly two months its back.

The other great thing is that i have had a brand new computer (just for meeee ) that i am only going to use for my artwork and journalling stuff and my blogs. The really good thing about this computer is that it is so light and that means i can take it everywhere with me too so if we go anywhere interesting i can keep everyone up to date while we are on the move.

The Workshops have all been well attended and have been full within weeks so now i will give you dates of some we have coming up for the end of this month and into August.

LET US STAMP Part 1

TUTOR ....... Karen

Price .......£ 15.00

Dates ........ Weds 21st July 2010.

Sat 24th July 2010

Time ...... 11.00 am - 1.30 pm

Places Left for Wednesdays Class ........ 4

Places Left for Saturdays Class .............4

Everything you will need for the class will be provided as well as lots of drinks and Biscuits.

This is a series of workshops for beginners in stamping and papercrafts and will be taught by the fabulous Karen.

Karens background as an art teacher in primary schools will really shine through in these workshops as she will take the fear and mystery of inks, paints, stamping and generally letting go, away with her quirky techniques and wonderful teaching skills.

The first part of this on going beginners workshop will let you into the wonderful world of Inks and how to use them with your rubber stamps. You will learn the difference between Dye based, Pigment, solvent and embossing inks and how they are all used for different rubber stamping techniques.

At the end of the class you will have some wonderful samples you will have made and the knowledge of knowing which ink to use for the best results in your Rubber stamping art.

Our classes do fill up quite quickly so please book as soon as possible.

AN INTRODUCTION TO ALCOHOL INKS

TUTOR ....... Di

PRICE ......... £15.00

DATE ......... Weds 4th AUGUST 2010

TIME ......... 11.00 am - 1.30.pm

Places Left ....... CLASS FULL

MIXED MEDIA STAMPBORD MIRRORS.

TUTOR ......... DI

PRICE ........... 40.00 (this includes a full bag of mixed sized Stampbord and your mirror )

DATE ........... Sat 7th AUGUST 2010

TIME ............. 11.00 am - 4.00 pm

PLACES LEFT.......... 4

Please bring a packed lunch if you wish as only tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

An all day class with the lovely Di.

Di is the Queen of Alcohol Inks and you will be amazed at this wonderful work of art you will achieve on this workshop.

Using Stampbord, Alcohol Inks, Rubber Stamps and inkpads turn a plain miror into a work of art.

Di will show you how to work with Stampbord and the scratch tool to bring life to your rubber stamped images.

Combined with Alcohol inks and different ink pads you will learn lots of new techniques as well as the confidence to go on to greater things.

Our Classes do fill up quite quickly so please book as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

FANTASTIC PLASTICS

TUTOR .......... Robert

PRICE ........... £25

DATE ............. Sun 29th AUGUST 2010.

TIME ............... 11.00 am - 2.00 pm

PLACES LEFT .............. 6

Everything you need for this workshop will be provided as well as tea, coffee and biscuits.

Robert will take you on an amazing artful journey in this workshop and also be prepared to laugh a lot as fun is the best way to learn new things.

Come and learn the basics of Friendly Plastic and then combine it with Shrink plastic to make some wonderful jewelry and embellishments for your papercrafts and altered art.

You will also be using Friendly plastic with molds and using other materials which will include alcohol inks ,Lumiere Paints and beads.

This is a fun class which has been put together for beginners as well as advanced crafters where you will learn lots of new techniques and leave with loads of samples you have made for you to use at home in your art work.

SUMMER CRAFTING SHOW At Doncaster Racecourse.

DATE .......... Sat 17th and Sun 18th JULY 2010.

We hope to see you at this new papercraft show on those dates where we will be selling our wares as well as giving you some great demo's.

Robert and Di will be demonstrating on Saturday.

Jean, Karen and Michelle will be demonstrating on Sunday.

Gordon will be there both days just standing there looking gorgeous haha.

Hope to see you there.

I have some more news to tell you but will leave you in suspence till tomorrow.

Its great to be back.

Smiles from Rob, Gordon and Harry xxx

A Birthday card for Di

Heres my card for Di,s Birthday next Friday.

Ive used Nestabilities,borderabilities,K&C0 papers,distress inks,Crackle paint,rubber stamps,Friendly plastic and flat back gems.

I also made her a little envelope frame book using the large and small square sets.

She can put a piccy of each of her cats in it and carry it in her handbag.

Smiles Rob

Last Sundays Beading Class

Thought i would put some pics up to show you what the girls made on Lindas beading class at the shop last Sunday.

Remember none of the girls had ever beaded before and they were stunned at what they acheived so just look at these pics.

The girls half way through their class having a well earned cuppa and chocky biscuits.

After tea break it was back to beading and with Lindas expertise here are some of the bracelets the girls made in 3 hours.

Absolutely fantastic for first time beaders.

Thank you so much Linda for bringing your wonderful beading skills to Once Upon A Stamp we love having you with us.

Linda is going to do another beading workshop this Sunday and there are a few places left if you are interested.

The cost is £15.oo and starts at 10.30 am and that includes all you will need to finish your project tea or coffee and of coarse Chocky Biscuits.

Remember even if you are not on the beading workshop you can still come and buy Lindas Beads and beading Kits while she is here on Sundays.

Saturdays Friendly Plastic Class (class 3)

Sorry i havnt put this up until today but the weather has been so gorgeous here that i have been putting the garden back to rights and i must admit it was hard work but so worth it.

Saturday was the third and final part of the friendly plastic course and we had a great time making molds, playing with shrink plastic and playing with alcohol inks to change the colours of the friendly plastics.

There was so much wonderful art being made that i am putting every single pic up that i took today so that you can see how much the girls have progressed from the first part of the course.

So here we go.

As you can see we have lots of smiles and lots of all sorts of things on the table too.

Everyone is in a creative mood with heatguns at the ready.

Kath half way through making her friendly plastic mask.

Now here are some pics of the fantastic things the girls made today and a few things that they have been making at home.

What a lovely lot of eye candy and such stunning work.

Thank you so much girls for being so emphusiastic and not being scared to try new things.

Its been a great three months and i hope you keep using your friendly plastic noe you know how to use it.

Another three part class starts at the end of this month and i am only doing one class each month this time so please book early if you want to learn all the things you can do with this fantastic product.

ATC CLUB Theme for next month

Just to let you all know that we hold an ATC club at the shop on the first friday of the month .

The next one will be on Friday the first of MAY and it costs £5 a person and you bring your own things to work with like stamps,images,papers,paints,inks etc. It starts at 12.00 noon and finishes at around 4.00 ish.

The idea for this club is that you share ideas and techniques with others and make new friends at the same time and of course trade ATCs.

We will supply you with tea,coffee and biscuits and Robert will always leave some goodies on the table for you to use as well, like papers, transparancies and images.

At this months ATC Club we decided that we would choose a theme for the next meeting so that we could trade our ATCs with others in the group.

Karen chose this time and the theme is Metalic so this leaves the imagination wide open as you could use metalic paints and inks , metalic mica powders, metalic gel pens, metal brads and eyelets and of course real metals of all types.

So if you come along to the next club meeting please join in and bring along a couple of metalic ATCs to trade (but you dont have to).

I cant wait to see what everyone comes up with and look forward to seeing old and new members on the First of May.

Sneak Preview

I will be with Gordon for the whole four days of the NEC craft show and i am sooooo looking forward to it as i have to stay at the shop for most of the shows these days.

I love the NEC because its in my home town of Birmingham and i also get to meet so many of our customers from around the UK and beyond.

I am not going to be doing my usual things this time however.

I am going to be concentrating on the different mediums you can use with the spellbinder dies, especially using mixed media with them.

Here are a couple of frames i will be showing you how to make using all sorts of inks and substances

Of course i will be bringing along some of the new dies so you can see what to look forward to.

And i will try to answer any questions you have about your dies and wizard machines.

I am so looking forward to meeting you all and showing you what fun you can have with your wizard and dies.