On Father’s Day we went for lunch at my Mom’s place. What happened on the way there was a lesson in Karma…

We were just going out to the Mom’s for a Grandpop’s lunch of home made fried chicken, potato salad and sourcream cucumber salad and as we were getting ready to leave,  Terry was standing in the laundry/mudroom deciding which shoes he was going to wear with his jeans. As he pondered his shoe-choice, I heard a loud guffaw and exclamation "She’s scooting! She’s scooting!"

Lulu [our 7.5 month old kitten] started butt scooting across the lino floor in the mud room. She had a little turdy stuck to her butt… So, while her human father was laughing at her and pointing in amusement, I went to get a babywipe to, well, wipe the baby’s butt. Once T caught his breath, he stooped and scooped up the turd, wiped the floor and since we were now running late, we quickly headed out the door.

We made our planned pitstop at the Hallmark card shop and Save-On grocery store on the way to Mom’s place, and that’s when the hilarity really ensued… We chose the Dad’s Day cards we wanted, then I asked T to pay for them, while I went next door to the grocery store to pick up the pie and a few other things we’d need for the luncheon. He could catch up with me in the grocery store. So… I’m wandering up and down the aisles when he walks up to me and tells me to look down.

It seems that while T was walking over to the grocers from the cardshop that he noticed a problem… He couldn’t figure out why one shoe felt tighter on his foot than the other, and after glancing down at them, he quickly discovered why. He had on two different shoes!

You see… it seems that while the kittykat dad was laughing at his 8 month old furgirl, HE forgot that he was trying to decide which shoes to wear with his jeans - one very casual and one definitely dressy. By the time Lulu and the floor were cleaned up, he had forgotten about the shoe issue as we quickly headed out the door so we wouldn’t be late for lunch. Well, when he figured it out and walked up to me in the grocery aisle, telling me to look down, I nearly peed my pants I was laughing so hard. My perfectionist hubby, who prides himself on always trying to look his best, had on two very nice, but VERY different shoes.

Karma definitely bit the kittydad in the ass on Father’s Day. THAT is what you get when you laugh and point mercilessly at your butt-scooting kitty… you end up looking like a total and complete dork with two different shoes on. At least they were both the same COLOR.

Quick update. Busy as all H-E-Double Hockey sticks!

Work has been a zoo… Shipping and packaging orders here has been a zoo… prepping and teaching a NEW 3 session workshop has been an interesting challenge. It’s been a crazy June!

Finished my Acrylic Alchemy workshop series tonight. I had great fun teaching it and think everyone walked away with new knowledge and that ‘ah ha’ moment at some point through out the evening.
Here is a shot of my painty hand after the monoprinting demo. So cool… I LOVE this shot.

Ok. Off to bed. I’m exhausted. Have had two incredibly busy, stressful weeks and I’m dying to get to the weekend and 3 days in Harrison Hot Springs.

Have a good Canada Day if I forget to post before we head out to Harrison on Saturday morning!

As I mentioned in my brief, previous post… I am prepping and teaching a NEW class. It’s being held at RubyDog’s and runs over three 2.5hour evening sessions over the next three weeks - starting tonight.
All that is normal, nothing too scary about that. I’ve taught new and multi-part evening workshops before - no big deal… The BIG deal with this was that I was going to be teaching an Acrylic Painting class - for the very first time - starting at ground zero and working our way up to complex backgrounds and textures with acrylic paint. OHMIGOD! What was I thinking?

I agreed to teach the class immediately, knowing in my heart that I could do it, but I’ll confess… a little panic set in after I agreed to do it. Now I’ve taught a lot of classes, varying from technique based classes to project based ones, to a wide variety of people [many of which have taken every class I’ve ever taught at one time of another], so the teaching part was a-ok with me. No problem. [I’ve been told that I’m a good instructor, so that really helps]. What was freaking me out was that this was a PAINTING class. A class on teaching people who had little [or bad] experience(s) with acrylics, being taught by me - a person who has little formal painting training other than lots of experimenting, practice and who paints very instinctively and organically and without premeditation or planning. Panic set in…

HOW was I going to teach people what I knew about acrylic? That you take this paint and this thing and make this texture. Cool Huh? NOT! I was freaking out… I KNEW in my heart I could do it. I knew it. I just had to wrap my head around it and get past the idea, that just because I work instinctively and organically doesn’t mean I can’t teach a painting class. Of course I can, I kept repeating to myself. So… I pushed through the panic by launching myself into creating a KICK ASS hand-out [it is soooooo beautiful if I do say so myself], getting all my acrylic duckies in a row, running the class through in my head and repeating to myself "you CAN do this".

Tonight was the first of a three part series on Acrylic Paint and Mediums. I told everyone [7 of the 9 students I already knew - THANK GOD!] that I was nervous because this was the FIRST painting class I had ever taught, and that I speak quickly when I am nervous, so stop me if I start talking gibberish <insert nervous laughter here>. Everyone was really great and all told me that they had complete confidence in me, that I was a great instructor and that I’d be just fine. So… deep breath and on I went.

The first 15 minutes were the big hurdle. After the initial jitters cleared the system, and I could get into talking about the acrylic paints and mediums that I know and love, I was good to go. And go we went.

2.5 hours later, my throat is sore, my hands are crusty with paint and I feel wonderful!

Everyone responded so positively to the information I provided. Many of the students having epiphanies at different points throughout the evening… Like the color wheel really, really works! and the 5 basic harmonies on the color wheel, make up the fabric of colour harmony in our natural and fabricated environments - WOW who knew THAT??!?!  Like when my student Teresa commented that she loved the combination of violet delphiniums with their bright green stems. I asked her to look at her color wheel, with violet blue in the main color section; then I asked her to look at the complimentary color directly across from it. Her eyes grew big and she whispered "green". Nature is the biggest and best colour wheel out there people… we just have to take another look.

So now I’m tired. But it is a really happy, satisfied tired. The kind of tired I get after teaching a class, where every single person walks away with at least one big "AH HA!" and they all feel that they have learned something new and important to use with their art. That is why I teach. Why I LOVE to teach and why I agreed to push through my panic and share my love of acrylic painting.

G’nite all… happy painting.

Been a hectic few weeks here in studioWERX land…

Crazy busy at work; LOADS of new rubberstamp to cut, packa and ship; working on no less than THREE website redesigns/new sites [including our OWN being revamped! - I LOVE IT!!!!]; doing demoes and Make and Takes; teaching a NEW class that requires a ton of prep work [more like writing] for me; stocking the store and oh… did I mention my regular work is CRAZY?!?!

Yep… gotta say, I like busy - but this is a little over the top, even for me!
Will try to post more frequently again… but sometimes the time just escapes me.

ATC Make and Take!

Make and Take runs from 2-4pm on Sunday June 10 and will be held at RubyDog’s on
4738 Main St., Vancouver [between 32nd and 31st Avenue on Main Street]. Hope to see YOU there!

Before
I headed out into my garden, to deadhead my huge Rhodo bushes and wage
war in my backyard against the ever advancing English Morning Glory, I thought I’d
send out a newsletter to all our online store customers, letting them know that we’ve updated our Image
Transfer section in our web store and let them know what new
products we have made available… Well, it’s only fair that since I’ve updated THEM, I should also update YOU! So here goes…

Vintage Image Transfer Transparencies

Culled
from my embarrassingly large collection of cabinet cards, carte de
visites and postcards, we’ve created something truly wonderful for
anyone interested in vintage images and transferring images…
Pre-printed image transfer sheets!!

These
gorgeous, vintage image filled, transferrable images are printed
in-house at 300dpi with an Epson Durabrite printer on my favorite,
nearly fool-proof Apollo inkjet transparencies. Use these image
transferrable transparencies with acrylic fluid, matte and gel mediums
for amazing, sheer image transfers on virtually any surface including
paper, fabric, twill and unpolished stone tiles. So COOL!

Each pre-printed 8.5×11 Apollo Inkjet Transparency comes packaged in clear self-sealed bag with cardstock liner.

How To Use:

1. Apply acrylic medium to your receiving surface
2. Apply transparency image side down [the opposite side of the removeable strip]
3. Burnish firmly with a hard rubber brayer
4. Peel
   the corner of the transparency up after a few seconds to check
   transfer. If it looks good, peel the image transparency back and reveal
   your transferred image!

To shop our selection of Pre-printed Inkjet Transparencies, please click here.
These sheet are also available at our store studioWERX on Main - on Main Street and 32 in Vancouver, BC.

Acrylic Image Transfer Mediums

I have taught a comprehensive image transfer class for years called the ‘Art of Transference’…
Many of my students know I love and frequently extol the virtues of
Kroma Acrylics for image transfer above the more commonly known [and more expensive!] Goldens
Acrylics, the reason is simple:

Kroma
artist-grade acrylic mediums are hand mixed and prepared in my home
town of Vancouver BC, on the artist/studio filled mecca of Granville Island and I want to support a local business!
PLUS, their pricing and the quality of their products are as good if not better than Goldens. It’s a no-brainer…

So… We are now making my favorite acrylic mediums in Fluid, Matte and Gel available to YOU!

These
mediums are fantastic for image transfer of both inkjet and toner
printed images AND are excellent when mixed with acrylic paint for
glazing, adding texture and body to your painted canvasses. They extend
and add body to acrylic paint, without altering the pigment or color
value of the paint. COOL!

To shop our selection of 8oz and 16oz bottles of Kroma Acrylics, please click here.

Apollo Inkjet Transparency Film

One of the trickiest things with inkjet transfers is the knowing what TYPE of
transfer sheet to use and how to work with the brand you are using. The BEST and most fool-proof inkjet transfer sheet
[in my humble opinion] is the Apollo brand Inkjet Transparency Film.

I
love it… It has a distinctly different texture when compared to other
inkjet transparencies; it’s printable surface is smooth and coating isn’t rough unlike the majority of other transparency products. I believe
that it’s this smoothness that helps artists achieve nearly perfect image
transfers, everytime.

The only draw back
with inkjet transparencies is the cost… We generally have to purchase
transparencies in packs of 25, and not everyone needs
that many sheets LOL! So… we have managed to source a large volume of
these transparencies and will be selling them as individual sheets, so
all YOU have to purchase is what you need. Cool huh?

To purchase Apollo Inkjet Transparencies by the sheet, please click here.

Last but not least..

We’ve
announced our new Design Team [aka the studioWERX Street Team] and have
started uploading some of their super cool Challenge artwork using
simple, humble manilla folders in combination with digiWERX digital
products to create a cool ‘hybrid’ project of their choosing. The work
I’ve seen so far is great, and inspires great confidence in the gaggle
of girlies we’ve assembled for this Street Team.

Hop on over to our studioWERX Street Team blog to get a shot of inspiration and meet the Team!

Well, I’m back from the garden…

I did the big Rhodo in the front yard, cut back the dead tulips, ripped out a bag full of that damn Morning Glory…  Morning Glory, it’s the bane of my summer existence LOL! Ah well… at least our garden looks a little nicer. I think my hands and arms will be paying for this afternoon’s gardening aggression tomorrow LOL =^P

Oh well… hope you have a great weekend =)
Thanks for hangin out…