colour me happy!

the amazing and talented ali edwards’ latest blog post mentions me and my textile anthology class from inspired. can i just say one thing… woot!!

it’s so cool to get mention on the creative miss ali’s blog. thank you, thank you, thank you!

ali also posted about my etsy kits. there are only a few left at the moment, but never fear… more are on their way! i just have to figure out how many additional ones i can squeak out of my current fabric stash [there will be lots of the floragraphix ones very soon…] and will post them throughout the week. i also just restocked on all my seed beads - 200 vials in 8 yummy colours - so kits will be hitting etsy very soon!

thanks for looking and checking out the blog… have a great day =)

there are so many possibilities for these wonderful textile anthology fabric projects… here are a few examples for your consideration:

using large grommets and your crop-o-dile punch, create binding holes along the left edge of your fabric page so that it can be included in a traditional binder album like a maya road chipboard binder. this is a great addition to any paper based scrapbook album since it infuses unique textures and tactile qualities of fabric into your memory project.

use grommets and fasten multiple textile anthology pages together with binder rings to create a 100% fabric book. yummy!

add grommets to both sides of your main page and add additional fabric pages to the sides to create an accordion album! so cool and infinitely touchable.

make two fabric panels that are the same size, then create two narrow sides panels and a bottom panel that when stitched or fastetned together make a ’soft’ box! this is so great for holding collectibles and memorabilia in a baby’s room or as a gift for grandparents…

more ideas and photos will be coming soon!

i’m all jazzed up about making more of these touchable, lovable and huggable fabric projects. i just can’t stop touching all my fabrics and embellishments… it’s a bit of an addiction lol!

i’m off to the quilting store again this afternoon to pick up more lovely fabrics and then this weekend will be spent stitching new projects and sifting through my embellishments so that i can put together the most wonderful textile anthology kits. ahhhh… nothing like a little enabling huh?

since the first etsy kits are nearly sold out [wow! that was fast…] i thought i would add a few more to the mix in different colour palettes.

each kit will come with the same basics [see the etsy listing for complete details] and the embellishments will be adjusted to coordinate with the colour palette of the foundation fabrics. here are the new kit colour ways:

just a reminder…

these kits do not come with the image transferring transparencies, fluid medium or transfer fabric. the textile anthology kits are made up of the patterned fabric seen here plus coordinating embellishments including thread, beads, ribbon, buttons, silk flowers, batting, image transferred graphics and interfacing.

tomorrow, i’ll post some additional images and ideas about how to use these wonderful, textured and tactile fabric pages… in the meantime, happy stitching!

p.s.: i have amy butler fabric arriving in about 2 weeks from her new spring collections. these will be posted in my etsy store shortly after they arrive. thanks!

wow. 18 hours of teaching in 2 days at donna downey’s inspired event.
amazing…
exhausting…
an experience to remember - for all the right reasons.

as i posted earlier, the event was so well organized you would never know that this was donna’s first workshop retreat. both donna and her husband bill made it look so easy. trust me, i KNOW it isn’t from personal experience and those two rocked it….

when you look beyond the event organization, i think the thing that really made this event so amazing was the mix of instructors and students. creative energy was everywhere with a diverse group of instructors and students open to trying new things. it was really wonderful and totally in keeping with my belief that people gravitate to what they
are comfortable with. sometimes, unless you put people into a position where
they are pushed out of their self-imposed creative boxes, they will
never grow or try anything new. inspired perfectly illustrated this concept and 200 women embraced the idea of trying something new and stepping outside their “creative comfort zone”.

over the two days of classes, a number of my students expressed that they felt “out of their element” when it came to sewing and fabric. but, after giving me a chance and embracing the idea of something new, those same students came back to tell me that the class was either one of their favorites, or felt that they had really grown with the experience. it was wonderful to hear that i could help someone onto a new creative path… one that they never would have considered without the inspired event push. how awesome is that?

it was fun having some scrap-celebrities and fellow artists like ali e, wendy smedley, renee pearson and cathy z in the classes at inspired. a little intimidating for sure, but super fun to see them take to the on projects with excitement and enthusiasm. ali’s travelling bud paolo and her sister were there too… hanging out with her, taking the classes and sharing her creative energy. i have to confess that i was a little disappointed that cathy z missed my class, but i understand that she was feeling a little overwhelmed. no prob cathy, maybe next time? renee p and i bonded over image transfer and the idea of digital/hybrid scrapping with fabric… an exciting new tandem class could be in our future. wouldn’t that be cool? yup. i certainly think so!

i did manage to take a few pics while my students settled into the stitching part of the class. while they hunkered down and focussed on their needlework, i quietly snapped a few photos and have uploaded them
to my flickr site. to see them, please click here.

i enjoyed meeting the other instructors… it was so great hanging out with my dear friend claudine. getting to know fellow canadian kal was fun and i was so glad that i was able to help her out a bit at the airport [even if it was only to lend some moral support, my cell phone and give her a hug when everything seemed to be going sideways]. tena and i bonded over a common problem with headaches [botox rules!]. but, unfortunately due to the busy event schedule i wasn’t able to do more than meet jennifer stewart [darn! we’ll have to fix that. another time, another place] and didn’t even get to meet stephanie mcatee.

it was fun connecting with vancouver/bc girls at the event too… for heather main i will always think of sookwang tape as ’smells like daddy’ and to my table of bc girls we ‘kick ass’ and yeah, ‘f*ckin eh!’

i’m tired.
my brain is a bit like mush.
but i am totally and completely thrilled to have been a small part of this very creative and inspiring event.

first day teaching at inspired today. it was an early day but the vibe with all the students was great. super fun and a really laid back crowd. this vancouver girl LOVES that! everyone has been so open to the idea of stretching their creative boundaries and trying something new. it’s been awesome.

i’m also having a great time hanging with claudine for a few days. we don’t get to do this kind of thing [conferences and teaching] together, so sharing a room and hanging out has been really special and loads of fun! lots of laughs and fun stories to remember and reminisce over. love that =)

donna d has outdone herself with this event. so organized… great take home goodies, scheduled and coordinated to the hilt. you go girl! have a few pics to share on my return home Monday, so will catch up with you then =)

the time has finally come. i’ve got to pack my suitcase, my art gear, my camera ‘gwen’ and my passport and tomorrow at 4:30am my quick ‘jaunt’ over to north carolina for inspired.

it’s been a flurry of activity around my house this week between me getting ready to fly fly away from the hubby and kitties for a few days of girl power [yeeeeeeha!] and visiting with mixed media instructor/friend michael de meng. we [michael and i] had a meeting earlier this week and a nice, but brief afternoon on granville island. this evening he is swinging by our house to check out t’s star wars collection [collection is a mild description of the amazing volume of plastic men that now live in my house!]. michael says he wants to see what a hard-core collector of SW looks like… especially what an owner of ‘yakface’ looks like [don’t ask LOL!].

tonight, i finish packing, get ‘gwennie’ all ready for our first big trip and ‘try’ to hit the sack for some zzzz’s before i pry myself outta bed at 4:30am to get to the airport.

my day will be spent flying almost diagonally across north america from vancouver bc to charlotte north carolina to teach at inspired. i’m so ready to do this! i’m stoked, nervous and excited all at the same time. it’s making for some interesting tummy rumbles and flip-flops… but it’s all good!

so to those that i see in a little over 24hrs… hi! be gentle with me =)

to those who’ll miss my rambly, nonsensical blogging… i’ll be back to post a full-on recap on monday or tuesday. with pictures and interesting anecdotes. until then… be good and i’ll catch you next week!

it never lasts for too long in our house LOL! the kitties and the hubby won’t let me wallow for long =)

i wanted to post something fun and inspiring [i hope!] for this dreary vancouver week. with all the rain in our forecast this week, a little blast of this yummy textile and scrappy fun has dragged me outta the doldrums. i’m hoping it will do the same for you!

i’m teaching a class at the huge clipper street scrapbook stores in both coquitlam and langley at the end of april. the class is called textile anthology and is being taught for the first time here in the vancouver, area after its big debut at donna downey’s inspired.artist workshop on april 10 - 12.

it is a fusion/hybrid of scrapbooking, collage and fabric arts using all kinda of scrappy supplies, printed photos and the most amazing [seemingly scrapbooking inspired] fabric i’ve ever seen. here are the samples that can be seen in the clipper street stores this later week. please go and see the real mccoy at either store; the scan of these collage quilts just doesn’t do them justice…

to register for the classes, please click here… i hope to see you soon!

i’ve been looking at my schedule in the first half of the year and wow! i’m teaching alot in april lol!!
it’s going to be a bit of a where’s waldo for me, so here is the run down…

• Workshop: Sunday March 2nd at RubyDog’s Art House
  Art of Transference
  In this class you will learn to make image transfers using 6 transfer techniques! We will discuss ways to incorporate image transfer into your artwork, ideas for gift giving and more.
  This workshop includes lots of demos and hands on work making it a great opportunity to learn new techniques.**SPECIAL BONUS in this full day class will be a demo of Polaroid image transfers and then try it for yourself! NOTE: this is a technique/process-based class where you will create a large number of samples. Also please note that one method of transfer produces STRONG fumes. If you are sensitive or allergic to chemical smells, please consider this carefully before signing up for the workshop.
  Register for this class by contacting RubyDog’s Art House at 604.873.2825
• Workshop: Sunday April 6th at RubyDog’s Art House
  The Artful Shopper
  Follow a ‘green’ trend and create an artistic shopping bag that you will be proud to carry for your daily shopping excursions. Using quilting fabric, image transfers, ephemera and embroidery, we will create an 8×8 collage applique to be added to a plain jane grocery bag. Then extend your applique boudaries with fabric stamping, more embroidery and additional embellishments. Register for this class by contacting RubyDog’s Art House at 604.873.2825
• Workshop: INSPIRED.ARTIST WORKSHOP - April 10 & 12th
  Click on the banner graphic for details!
• Workshop: Sunday April 20th at RubyDog’s Art House - Vancouver
  Acrylic Alchemy
  An exploration of acrylic paint, acrylic mediums and painting techniques in the ‘from the ground up’ full-day class. Areas covered include basic colour theory, demystifying acrylics in all their forms, paint mixing and creating background textures as a foundation to abstract and mixed media art.
  Register for this class by contacting RubyDog’s Art House at 604.873.2825
• Workshop: Saturday April 26th at Clipper Street - Coquitlam
  Textile Anthology
  A photo, fabric, floral, ribbon, and bead filled class that explores the fusion of collage quilting and scrapbooking. Officially debuted at Donna Downey’s INSPIRED. ARTIST WORKSHOP retreat on April 10-11, 2008, be the first in Vancouver to take this fun and innovative class that takes hybrid scrapbooking to a new level! Register for this class by contacting Clipper Street
• Workshop: Sunday April 27th at Clipper Street - Langley
  Textile Anthology
  A photo, fabric, floral, ribbon, and bead filled class that explores the fusion of collage quilting and scrapbooking. Officially debuted at Donna Downey’s INSPIRED. ARTIST WORKSHOP retreat on April 10-11, 2008, be the first in Vancouver to take this fun and innovative class that takes hybrid scrapbooking to a new level! Register for this class by contacting Clipper Street

whew! then… add to that the dates i’m doing portobello west and it’s going to be a busy 1/2 half of 2008.

for a quick reference on these teaching dates and my portobello dates, please check out the bloggy sidebars for links and descriptions.

i hope to see some of you real soon!

donna downey’s Inspired. Artist Workshop registration is now open.
i’m the textile instructor and we’ll be working with fabric, photos, florals, beads, image transfer and handstitching. loads of fun and potential with the techniques you’ll learn in this class!

here are a couple of sneak peeks at what i’ll be teaching at the event…

so now that you’re interested… go. run. and sign up to take 6 incredible classes over an april weekend in north carolina. i hope to see you there!