Memories Artwork™

Tattered Angels, Ranger's Tim Holtz and more at Kars in Holland

This past weekend I paid a visit to my wholesaler Kars in Ochten, Holland at their semi-annual event with special warehouse deals, demos and workshops. I had a really great time! The wonderful Ms. Condic, the manager over all of German-speaking countries was so nice! She actually picked me up at my house and let me ride with her. Just awesome! The time just seemed to fly by so quickly.

At any rate....this was my room....a quite old, but charming hotel. Only problem was, someone forgot to turn off their alarm, so it was beeping all night long until I woke in the morning. I just had no idea what it was or where it was coming from. Yikes! So, to say the least, I didn't sleep all that well. (My own fault!)

So, these were the beds...I did figure out that those were actual covers. ;-) ...Being used to big bedspreads, I guess it looked to me like something was missing. hehe

  

Here I was playing around with the camera, testing the light, etc. I haven't really been making many photos, so I needed to practice a bit.

DAY 1 (Demo day)

 

So, here's Tim Holtz, whom most of you might know I would guess. This was early Sunday morning and he was just getting ready to begin his demos. Just looking at some of the stuff he made to decorate was fascinating. He and I believe his team, even sewed a jacket out of grunge paper that you can even wash and dry!! I gotta see this jacket sometime, because I must admit... I am a bit skeptical, but Tim...if you say so, I'll have to trust you. ;-)

Tim started his demos and I was lucky, because I just happened to be there checking out his work. He made (or shall I say "whipped up") three gorgeous tags in a matter of minutes and I was allowed to pick one that he signed. Very cool tags. I had to have the one with the eye, don't know why...just thought the eye was awesome.

 

Now, do NOT ask me what colors of distress ink he used, but know this, I think they were ALL from his new line. I think "wild honey" and "crushed olive" were my favorites. Just beautiful. 

Just take a look at this tag that Tim made. Using several colors by wetting, drying, rewetting, drying, then flicking water onto it and drying again it got some pretty cool colors. Then using his new cling stamps (of which I just HAD to get of course), he stamped using archival ink in two different ways (tapping and rubbing over the stamp) he was able to create different shades of the archival ink . He also distressed it using his distressing tool, then added the metal washers and time plate by punching holes. Then he used his hammer is beat up the brads a bit to distress them as well. Fantastic job. You gotta just love the "eye" don't ya? Anyway...thanks for showing me those techniques first hand. The videos are great too, but it sinks in better when you see it done live.

So... then I was able to get a photo with him, which was pretty cool. Man... some women, they just swoon over Tim. I mean, come ON...yeah, he's incredibly talented and he's nice, but does the man need groupies? I dunno...I mean, he stamps, crafts and designs products, you know? At any rate, he's very down to earth and very patient with the ladies that follow him around. LOL

Just a good kinda guy with talent.

So... THEN I went over to Tattered Angels in Wendy Senger's (CEO) class. Hey! Talk about COOL! wooooohhhh! No offense Tim, you're great too! LOL

Check it out:

All the Glimmer Mists, templates (masks) and stamps with all kind of tags as well. I made the ones below. Such cool colors.

 

Can you see the glimmer on there? How cool is that?

 

And here I am with the CEO herself, Wendy Senger. A really nice gal. And yes... I know I have ink on my fingers and need to desperately die my hair....I am aware. lol Thanks for the pic Miss Wendy! ;-)

Here are a few photos of the Kars warehouse and their beautiful demo room.

 

 

This is Tanja Watts, a Ranger-U instructor. Really cool girl who showed me what can be done with UTEE embossing powders....namely this (below):

 

 

DAY 2 (Workshop day)

So, the next morning I was schedule along with the ladies from Scrappies, two wonderful ladies I might add. ;-) And we made 5 completely awesome tags using various techniques, various inks, distress inks, archival ink, stamps, distress crackle paint and distress rock candy. Too bad the workshop was "only" 1-1/2 hours. lol

Aren't those some really cool tags? Definitely! Do you want me to show you how you can make something like this? Well, I'm planning on it, so stay tuned for the news. lol

Here's another photo with Tim after the workshop. He probably wouldn't remember me now if he walked past me on the street as many women as he comes across, but I thought this memory is worth remembering.

 

He's probably gritting his teeth underneath that smile and I can't blame him. Even my cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much and I wasn't even holding classes!

So, to conclude this quite long blog entry....here are a few other little things that I made as make & takes or took along with me. The flower is from a great gal who designs for Cosmo Cricket. 

 

This was a card I made with a Basic Grey card kit and a little goody bag from DCWV cardstock.
The flower is cosmo cricket and was designed by Natasja Verbeek, a designer at Cosmo Cricket. What a sweet, cute and incredibly talented girl! Just fantastic!

This was a me&my BIG ideas mini-album kit that I didn't have time to complete there, but aren't the colors awesome? And lots of glittery stickers, etc....which, of course I LOVE!

I met another awesome lady named Rozella Méyer who designs for Kars, a Dutch scrapbooking magazine and Prima I believe. Very sweet and talented. Her layouts just "stunned" me, seriously now! Check out her blog! It's Dutch, but just check out the layouts! Here is one layout so you can get an idea on her talent:

So, ladies (& gents...if there are any out there paying attention), that's all for today. I will be translating all of this tomorrow...whew.... I know, it's long, but I just wanted to show you how fun it was and will be happy to pass along to you what I've learned!

You all take care and scrap your life!

Fun gals at my Basic Scrapbooking Class!

I just wanted to give a big thank you to all the gals who attended my class yesterday and who where patient with me.  I am a bit embarrassed to say that I was late for my own class. I had everything set up, but miscalculated the time as I hauled everything all by myself up and down stairs, in and out of the car....and let me tell you ...it was a LOT of "stuff" ;-).  Close to starting time I realized that I still needed to freshen up with a shower as I had been sweating up a storm.

Thank the LORD for my friend Antra! I don't know what I would have done without this gal. She's just a great friend, what can I say. :D She was there just in time for me to drive home for a quick shower.  She checked off the girl's names as they came in, took in  the money and gave them their handouts and their goody bags (see below). So, I was about 20 minutes late to my dismay, but it was the fastest shower including hair that I have ever taken. LOL Lesson Learned! In the future I will set things up the evening prior!

Last, but not least, a special thanks also goes out to my wonderful husband Erik who is so supportive of me and puts up with my scrapbooking mania!! Love you dearly!! XXOO

At any rate, everyone introduced themselves and we got to it.  Unfortunately, will 9 attendees, it was a bit tough to get around to everyone and instruct all appropriately. I will either have to limit the seating the next time or come up with a different concept. Maybe an actual layout sketch for everyone to follow or something to that effect. Just so they get the feel of things. I do plan on continuing holding classes (I promised!) maybe more in the way of special techniques or special subjects, etc.

So, with no further hold up, here are a few impressions of yesterday's fun class!

Stay tuned for more classes! If you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you may do so using the link way up at the top left side on this website.  You'll receive information about upcoming classes as well as tips, tutorials and trends (TTT). ;-)

Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!

XOXO,

Christmas Cards & Journal Notebook Class

Hey Peeps!!!

Yes, I know... making Christmas cards again.... but I look at something and then get so inspired that I have to do something about it. It's like an itch. LOL Anyway... I made a few Christmas cards again and wanted to show you a few pictures of the journal I made in Karla Dudley's Journal 3 Ways Class. The class has already begun, but I'm sure she will be having more workshops. Now, I have to tell you, this woman amazes me! She has 5 kids, including 2 sets of twins...two boys, two girls and the oldest is another boy. Wow... is all I can say. Then she's got kids getting sick all over the place, but takes the time to shoot videos and show her students how to make cute journals. I have to hand it to her, Karla: My hat is off to you girl! You are just a cool gal!

Little "medallion" tutorial here:

So, I made these two cards with "medallions" on them that I made myself. The easiest way is to take a 12" strip about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2" wide, cut along the edge with either scallop scissors or zig zag, but it should be something that is uniform, no tearing scissors or anything like that. Next you want to fold the piece back and forth like an accordion, maybe scoring each line before you do that to make it work a bit easier and look straighter LOL. Then just glue the ends together with tacky tape so it doesn't come apart, then push down on the middle part to make it flat....go ahead, I promise it won't fall apart. But, in order to hold it together, you're going to need something sturdy to put on that middle part. Use a scallop circle, a big button, or a regular circle, a flower, anything you want, but you will have to make sure you use a good adhesive to make it stick. I used glue dots, which seemed to work pretty well. Make sure they're heavy duty and the cardstock is fairly heavy weight. Chipboard might be even better.  Then just use 3 D glue dots or pop dots to adhere to your card or layout. I really love the look of it. Next time I'm going for ones a bit smaller though. ;-)

On this one, I originally stamped the flourishes with opaque white stazon ink, but you could hardly see it, so I went over it with a white gel pen to make it stand out more. Truly had fun making the medallions!

Now to Karla's Class! She's so sweet and her videos were so cute. Making the journal was easier than I thought. Tomorrow is week two! Can't wait to see what she comes up with! :D Check out the journal I made today.

The angle of the photo I took, makes it look crooked, but it's not, trust me. ;-) I got this free Katie Pertiet border swirl brush from Designer Digitals. Go check it out!

These are the inside pages using Karla's swirls from the class. Love those swirls! Can't get enough of them.

Here are the pages with the journaling brushes that Karla designed. Don't you just love her handwriting? I mean, okay, mine is not the worst handwriting, but I just loooove Karla's... kind of looks similar to Ali Edward's style of handwriting.

So, folks, that's all for now. I've really got to get to bed! ughhhh....busy week... what am I saying? Months!

Nite all!

Jackie

Super Halloween Cards tutorial video

Ladies (and Gentlemen...in case you're reading)

Wow, just had to share this with you!! Kristina Werner makes fantastic videos on her blog and now she's made yet another fabulous video tutorial for three (yes, three!!) awesome Halloween cards she's designed. They have really cool shapes and cute details.  Check it out on her Blog and lots of other videos. Now just sit back, relax and enjoy this load of creativity!!!

This is what acid can do to your photos!!!

I was actually looking for some other old paperwork, when I came across a professional school photo that was taken of me I believe during Jr. High School. Yeah...don't laugh, I know they didn't exactly catch my best side. ;-) But, what I noticed immediately, is that the photo was ruined with various spots. Now this photo has been sitting locked up in a cabinet all these years, inside the portfolio that it came in (from the photographer).  Now obviously this photographer did not use an acid-free portfolio, because the folder itself has yellowed, which paper does when it contains acid. This, in turn, has ruined my photo.  Very, very disappointing!  So, check out all of your old albums. Especially the albums that have those self sticking plastic covers you adhere over the photo. DEADLY I tell you!!! Take them out NOW! Or your photos will be ruined, if they haven't been already! Now you know why it's so important to use acid-free products for your photos, even if you don't scrapbook. 

Check out the photo. I've circled some areas where you can see the acid ate through (red spots) and some white spots as well.

Selling Distress Embossing Powder and Adhesive on Ebay!

Now on Ebay, so check it out here!

My Introduction to Basic Scrapbooking Class

Yesterday I held an introduction to Basic Scrapbooking class and although I had just two ladies (need to work on some of that marketing) we had a great time.  We all enjoyed ourselves and they made some very cool layouts and cards! Check it out! (click on photos to enlarge)

   

 

Be on the lookout for more classes!

Impressions of Scrap Day in Lörrach

Wow... did I mention it was a long trip there and back? ;-) Anyway, for me, it was worth it!  Take a look at some of the classes.

  This is Simea! She's SO cool and inspiring!

  And this is the oh so cool Adventcalendar she taught a class for with matchboxes...lots and LOTS of matchboxes. :-) It's so pretty!

So, this is sweet Hanna teaching her advanced scrapbooking class. She just couldn't be sweeter, love her to death!

  And this is Hanna's awesome layout! This girl has got major talent! You should see her mini-albums, just stunning!

  And this was my basic scrapbooking intro class, where I had some very sweet students. I had so much fun with this class! I also held a card class, but no fotos there, sorry.

Julia (the photographer) didn't have anyone to take photos at her mini-album for men class. :-( We'll get her next time with my Canon Rebel XT SLR! ;-) Yeaaahhhh!

My little private scrapbooking lesson

On Monday of this week, I have a private little class (just an overview of what's possible in scrapbooking) to a beautiful young woman in my scrap studio.  It was great. She came up with the idea to do a journal jar for her best friend Jessy.  Awesome idea! I've never had the occasion to do that for someone,...but it did get me thinking. ;-) We had quite a bit of fun and I was having a hard time trying not to overwhelm her with all my "stuff".  But now I believe she's inspired to start scrapbooking, my thoughts exactly.  She has a wonderful sense of color and taste, a real "natural" I'd say!  Take a look at this amazing project she created.... (with just a little help from me.. ;-).

My Christmas Card Class...

Layout and concept provided by Cathy Zielske, Design Your Life workshop at BigPictureScrapbooking.com

This was really so much fun and even though not everyone could make it, it turned out to be a successful and funny evening with my girls.  They had lots of fun and can't wait to come back for more classes.  Now THAT is a compliment I like to hear! :-) You gals did GREAT!!  And it was SO much fun having you!!!

Getting excited about my classes!

On November 22, 2008 I will be holding an introduction to scrapbooking class and a card class in Lörrach. I'm really looking forward to meeting new people and getting them motivated about scrapbooking.  I've been hooked now for 4 years and am so happy to have found a hobby that fulfills me in ways I could never imagine.  Sometimes, it's almost a bit of therapy when I'm feeling anxious. 

So, once again, here are the details of Simea's Scrap-Day in Lörrach:

22 November 2008

Morning Classes
9:30 - 12:30
Scrapbooking for beginners (Jackie)
New layout ideas for advanced scrappers
Adventskalendar

Demonstration
12:30-13:30
The Cuttlebug
Make your own stamps with the stamp case

13:30 Lunch

Afternoon Classes
14:30-16:30
Mini album – a male album
Clocks
Cards (Jackie)

Mini-Classes
16:30-18:00
Easy Albums with folding technique
Make your own mini-album - very simply

Detailed information:

Scrapbooking for beginners: (Jackie)
The basics of scrapbooking will be explained completing two layouts (double spread) where you will learn basic information about scrapbooking.
Cost: 15.- € (incl. supplies)

New layout ideas for advanced scrappers(Hanna)
Hanna will create two offbeat layouts with you and will be layouts that you have probably not done very often (if ever)!
Cost: 15.- € (incl. supplies)

Adventskalendar (Simea)
We will be creating a beautiful Adventskalendar.
Cost: 20.- € (incl. supplies)

Demonstration: The Cuttlebug
The Cuttlebug is a wonderful diecut and embossing machine and I will demonstrate its advantages.  There will also be a special offer on this machine.
Absolutely free

Demonstration: Make your own Clear Stamps
Julia will show you a fantastic stamp case with which you can make your own stamps.  There is also a special offer for the stamp case.
Absolutely free

The "male" album
Our men seem to be neglected somewhat when we scrap - many supplies are just very female...Julia will be creating an exciting mini-album for the men in our lives - whether they are the little or the big men. (or it can be a great gift for a man...)
Cost: 25.-€ incl. all materials

Clocks (Simea)
I will pretty up clocks with you scrap style and each one will be one of its kind that might even be a wonderful Christmas gift!
Cost: 10.-€ (incl. supplies for one clock)

Cards (Jackie)
Jackie will be making 6-8 exciting cards with you in a card marathon for many occasions. Supplies are pre-packed, some pre-cut materials so that you can just go, go, go.
Cost: 10.-€ (incl. supplies for all cards)

Easy-Albums with folding technique
These albums are sooo cool and can be quickly and wonderfully created - aren't we all looking for something like this?
Cost: 10.-€ (incl. supplies for all albums)

Make your own mini albums
Cute chipboard mini albums to make on your own - a low cost alternative.
Cost: 10.-€ (incl. supplies for all albums)

Registration Information:
Please send registration in writing to: simea@simea.de
Per class there will be a 5.- EUR fee for the room and refreshments. You are invited for lunch and coffee.

For all of you who wish to attend all day, there will, of course, be a gift for you - and all attendees will take part in the raffle. Anyone who brings a friend will receive a gift certificate for 20.- EUR.

Instead of classes you can also just come to scrap all day.  As I will have all my materials with me (Simea) me, you will have great possibilities there.

Detail info
Location:   Freie evangelische Gemeinde Lörrach, Gewerbestrasse 1-3, 79539 Lörrach
Teachers:    Simea Gut, Author of 3 Scrapbooking books and designer of www.simea.de

Julia Wittek, Scrapbooker of the month of October and talented young designer, also author of two books. 

Hanna Bäumle, Member of the creative team of von www.simea.de

Jackie Schimmel, Member of the creative team of von www.simea.de and card specialist

Registeration in writing to:
Simea Gut
Käppelinstr. 8
79576 Weil am Rhein
simea@simea.de
www.simea.de