Workshop and sheer exhaustion!!

Jo Na I attended a brilliant workshop at Graphicus in Barnard Castle, run by the wonderful Lesley Wharton and was called 'Fabulous Finds and Curios'.  It was all about using items you have in your home or office to make fabulous crafty things out of.

First of all we started to make flowers out of tissue drinks coasters.  We crumpled them up to release each individual layer and spritzed them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  I think I used some sort of lime and a yellow.  We also had to cut around the inner circle of the coaster and do exactly the same thing with scrunching and spritzing to make the smaller flower.  We then punched out 2 scalloped circles and 2 smaller plain circles from dictionary pages.  These were also spritzed in the same colours.  We dried all of the pieces with a heat tool before scrunching the dictionary pages to match the coasters.

Once put together with the help of a small circle of cardboard behind the flower, we added buttons for centres (or a scrabble piece, an idea I unashamedly nicked from Jo!)  and 'floofed' them to make them stand up.  Once we'd done this we made a gift bag from a plain white A4 envelope and attached the flowers to it, adding stems from paper printed onto self adhesive labels.  Any decoration can be added when the bag is flat.  As with all crafting, you're only limited by your imagination!!

Then we each picked 3 (empty) loo roll holders out of a bag which Lesley had the staff at Graphicus collecting for weeks.  We flattened them and Lesley put them under house bricks to make sure they were completely flat.  Once they were, we covered them with paper, put holes in them for book rings to hold them together and voila a mini tag book!  We used a cheap elastic hair band to hold the book closed and it looks FAB!!!

Our final task for the day was after lunch and was an absolute killer for me.  Lesley had to help me as I was s-o-o-o e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d.  It was all about making another mini tag book from a DL envelope.  Luckily Lesley gave us full instructions and did all of the folding and cutting for me.  I just had the job of gluing down which I had to get Jo to help me with, but the result is stunning!!

Luckily Carrie had very kindly given us a lift through to the workshop, so I didn't have to drive.  I was so exhausted when I got in I had something to eat then went to bed and slept from about 8pm.  I had treatment the next day at the hospital and I came home straight afterwards rather than shop in Newcastle.

Although the workshops kill me, fatigue-wise, I won't stop going to them.  At least when I feel dreadful for a few days afterwards I know that I've achieved something that I am proud of.

A big thanks to Lesley for a FAB workshop as well as to all the girls who attended.  I think its safe to say we all had a great time!!!

Graphicus Open Days

I had a VERY tiring but VERY inspiring day yesterday at Graphicus in Barnard Castle.  Graphicus is a wonderful craft shop which is very simply Crafting Heaven.  As it was an Open Day there were lots of demonstrations going on and I sort hopped between them all. 

Firstly there was Glenda Waterworth who owns Graphicus showing off their new Mermaid stamp plates and she was doing some absolutely AMAZING colouring with the Copic Ciao markers. 

Here are some of the wonderful samples Glenda made yesterday.

This is Lynn Robinson-Hunter.  She usually does loads of Ranger techniques on tags using distress inks.  However yesterday she was amazing people with an image transfer technique using Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back canvas.

Lynn places the sticky back canvas on to the front of the image.  Yes you read right.  It covers the image completely.  Then you burnish it and spritz the paper and rub it off the back of the canvas.  It is quite relaxing doing this or watching someone else doing it!

She was also doing a lot with beeswax.  This technique is wonderful!!!  If you'd like to know more about this technique there is a workshop running at Graphicus on Thursday 22nd July.  Details are available on the Graphicus website.  Just go to the tab on the left marked 'Book a workshop'.  These are pictures of the book boards that she made yesterday and Friday. Something along these lines will be made at the workshop. Please come along!

Lesley Wharton was also there doing demonstrations using Clarity Stamps and techniques as well as the new CD (which is gorgeous!!).  She was also using the new Mermaid stamps.

Judith Walton was demonstrating the Ranger Melt Pot using Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) to make jewellery.  She was using molds made with Mold 'n' Pour and filling them with UTEE and that is how the key was made in the picture.

It was a brilliant day, but I am paying for it now as I am exhausted.  I've been in bed all day and my legs are really hurting even though Graphicus kindly gave me a chair at each demo.  A big thanks to David for providing the food (and my extras for my tea!) and Carrie for giving me a lift there and back!