Time Flys and Art Journals What a Mixture

Hello Everyone.

Well what a week its been here.

On the 3rd it was 19 years since Gordon and i first met and I cant believe how quick the time has gone and how far we have come. What a wonderful journey it has been so far.

Heres something to make you laugh.

This is how we looked all those years ago ( Oh how i would love that waist back :-)

This was 9 months after we met and Gordon took me to Florida and it was really magical.

We are somewhere in Disney Land in this pic.

The week before we went i decided to have all my hair cut off ( it was very blonde and way past my shoulders ) and i am so glad I did as it was scorching hot over there.

As you may remember last year on the 4th Gordon had his Aneurism and almost died.

We cant believe a year has gone by and how lucky he is to still be here.

He continues to grow stronger every day and doesnt get so tired any more but the girls at the shop and I still guard him and make sure he doesnt do too much.

By this time next year he should be back to 100 per cent himself thank goodness.

I dont make resolutions for New year as i never keep them and then get on a line with myself, but i have decided to get my other blog up and running again even if i only post 4 times a month or so.

The first things i am going to put on is the Art Journal swap that myself and 6 others did for our college course last year.

We all had to choose two colours and then use these on the persons pages of their book.

This is one of the pages i did in Cherices book.

Her chosen colours were Purple and Teal.

I chose Fairy garden and Mermaids for her book and this is one of the Fairy Garden pages ( the other one i will put on my other blog as it may be a little risque for this one )

I was really pleased how this turned out and used all kinds of media on it including acrylics, gel pens, friendly plastic, canvas, fabric and Spellbinders dies.

So thats all for now.

Oh i almost forgot ...... The builders should be finished at the House of Wishful Thinking tomorrow.

So now the Plasterers can come in and do the kitchen walls.

Malcolm the joiner has already started doing the walls in the bathroom, and the glazers are coming soon to re fit all the old windows that remain with double glazing.

So hopefully by the end of this month we will have a kitchen and bathroom all fitted and finished.

Cant wait to put the pics up for you all to see.

Will stop here as i need a coffee.

Thanks for dropping by.

Love and Smiles .

Rob Gordon and Harry ( who goes for a haircut tomorrow ) xxx

Love and Smiles

Once Upon A Stamp Present The No More Shims Embossing Mat

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.

Yesterdays Nestabilities Frames Workshop.

This workshop evolved from a sample board i made up for the NEC craft show a few months ago. When i put it up in the shop a lot of customers asked if i would do a workshop on them and within two days the classes were full, and that is why they werent put up on the blog.

I will however do another class in July for those people who wold like to do it.

These pictures are of the girls on the workshop having fun and concentrating making their fantastic creations.

There were wizard and cuttlebug machines cutting away at gorgeous basic grey papers as well as chocky biscuits,tea and coffee to keep our energy levels up.

One of the girls had come all the way from Wales for the day and said it had been worth every minute and was one of the best workshops she had done so that put me at ease.

Here are some of the frames that were made at the workshops yesterday.

These were the first two designs of three that were made at the workshops and as you can see they are really beautiful and will look even better when they are decorated and embellished.

The girls all said that this class really teaches you to look at your nestabilities in new and exciting ways.

Everyone really enjoyed themselves and i even showed the girls who bought their cuttlebugs a way to use their machines so that they dont have to keep changing their plates for cutting and embossing (they were very impressed).

And finally here is a picture of the sample board that turned into a workshop.

If you would like to pre order a seat on the next classes before i put the dates up on line please phone the shop Mon - Sat 10.00am - 4.00pm.

Smiles Robert.

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.

My Nestabilities Triptych on show at Hardwick Hall

My Bestest friend Clare who is a textile artist and jewelry maker has some of her work on display for the next two weeks at Hardwick hall, which is a stately home on the borders of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in the UK.

She asked me if i would help her make the mood boards to go with her Jewelry and this is the outcome.I made a Triptych arrangement using Nestabilities for the frames and the spellbinders Lace Grande Borderabilities to edge the work. As Hardwick is an Elizabethan house i wanted to get that across in my work and i think i have done that. In every frame there is a peice of Clare's jewelery. She was over the moon when she saw the finished results and i just hope people enjoy looking at it.

The exhibition is at Hardwick hall visitors centre which is next to the Hardwick Inn and is on from tomorrow for two weeks and its FREE. The Triptych will then go to a gallery in Lincoln for six weeks and then will come to our shop for permenant residence.

All tags,frames and borders are made using spellbinders dies including nestabilities ,grande borderabilities and nested tags.