Shire Hall Exhibition

I called in to the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford town centre yesterday and fell in love with the exhibition they have on at the moment, called 'A sense of place'. I couldn't take my eyes off of Rachel Grant's collaged pictures of houses and a huge quilt type piece of a map depicting the local area. You must go and see it if you want to be inspired. She has a web site too. www.rachel-grant.com
I have been preparing for my crop class. We are on holiday next Saturday for a week, so I needed to get it done this week. Those who want to do the class will be using embossing as a resist, painting, and making wax embellishments. I loved playing and hope you will too!

Waxworks

I just finished decorating this box in my scrap room. Click on the picture for a close up. I brushed a layer of melted wax over it first, to make a base. I then dipped various collage pieces in melted wax and laid them on the base. In a few areas I built up the wax a little deeper, used my heat gun to soften it, and pressed stamps into it for a few seconds. I then used gold metallic rub ons and buffed it up. I also added a little perfect pearls to give some dimension. That is what I like best, the depth of the effects, and the layers with peeps of colour and pictures showing through. The top drawer I collaged a photo and scrunched up tissue paper in to the wax. Interestingly, the photo dipped into hot wax suffered no ill effects :D I thought it might soak up too much wax, or be difficult to work with but it was fine. So much fun to do!

Experimenting with wax

I am having a blast experimenting with the melt pot and beeswax. The picture above isn't mine, it's taken from a google search on beeswax collage. Not sure who the artist is. You know how I love beeswax! I've done 2 layouts as samples for the September crop class. Think vintage, think blue, gold and grey, you can even think sand and sea. Bring with you either a sea side photo or an old vintage style photo. Black and white would work well too, any theme. I love it when my scrap room is littered with brushes, glues, fibres and papers. It means I'm in creative mode. There are some interesting videos on the Ranger web site that give some inspiration about using wax. Oooohhh just the thought gets me excited! Everything will be provided for the class, but if you want to bring any of the following it will save you having to wait for things:

clear stamps, heat gun, non-stick craft mat, blue acrylic paint, natural sponge, clear or white embossing powder, brown distress ink pad, stickles.

Things

Next crop is 11th September, and I can't wait! I really missed the last one. I am doing a FREE class! Ellie will be bringing the shop, and we will have a theme of cupcakes. I will bring some (I have a great new recipe, see previous post, yum yum)and if any of you would like to bring some too that would be great.
We have had some good news too. Community learning have awarded us £100 to try running and evening crop. Woohoo! I am going to sort some dates out, one a month for September, October and November. Let me know if you want to come and there are certain evenings you can not make. They will be free for the first 3 months.
Finally, Stampington magazines have their annual back issue sale on. Shipping is the killer, but I've ordered 3 magazines and it will work out about £5 each. Have a look: http://www.stampington.com/back-issue-sale/

Class and Crop

DON'T FORGET - the August crop is the first Saturday - the 7th!
Also, Trish has let me know about a class in Shrewsbury, it's
Making Fabric Books, Saturday 25th September from 10.00-4.00 at the Gateway Education & Arts Centre, Shrewsbury SY1 1NB tel 01743 355159/ 361120. The tutor is Mariatta Alker. Course Code A1043, the cost is £26.00 and it says:
This course will show you innovative ways to use fabric, paint, paper and more to create a very special journal for photos or keepsakes
We have signed up. Why not join us?

Crop Shop

Happy Daze is the shop that will be coming to our crop on 7th August!! Have a look at their website www.happy-daze.net. They have some wonderful stash, including the Tim Holtz Ideology range. Wish I was going to be there to enjoy it! I would suggest if you want anything specific you contact them through the website. You could maybe even put in an order via the website and get them to bring it along. I'm jealous I won't get to be there:(

Hard Work!

I spent some time today doing crop paper work. Not exactly riveting news I know!! I have filled out the application for our funding until March. Then I applied for extra funds to run 3 evening sessions to see if we have enough interest to have one a month (would LOVE that!) I have also applied for us to have a film made about us and what we do. If successful, the film would be put on the Community Learning website and we could use it to promote ourselves. I will let you know as soon as their is any news about it. The future could be very exciting! I will not be at the next crop :( A very dear friend of ours is getting married in Norwich, so we will have an overnight stay in Peterborough (where we used to live for 12 years) and have the day at the wedding. I am looking forward to Septembers though, and I plan to do a mini class for everyone. Carol and Karen will do a demo in August and arrange for a shop to come. What would I do without them? Thanks ladies!