Lesley Riley's, "Exploring Fabric Collage"

Check out the trailer to Lesley Riley's, "Exploring Fabric Collage."

CHA- a paperaholics dream

Across the country small business owners are staying up late preparing for the Craft and Hobby Association. This is a huge event where retailers go to find merchandise and product makers go to find retailers. We are working overtime preparing for the trip. I've been writing letters to some incredible paper stores (*drool*) and working on graphics for flyers. I spent almost 2 hours fighting Photoshop this afternoon but then accidentally learned how to do something really cool so it was all worth it.

On a completely random note, last night I was in our local craft store (surprise) and I was flipping through a 2007 Sommerset and suddenly was facing really familiar work. Sure enough, there was Sherrill Kahn's name shining out at me. It's so great to meet these artists and to have a personality to go with the names. Such talented hardworking people.

Sherrill Kahn Day 3

Today we finished up all of Sherrill Kahn's filming a day early! Sherrill will be heading back down south tomorrow afternoon to begin preparing for CHA. She will be there demonstrating some of her amazing work.

Sherrill has been nice enough to leave us some of her paint to play with. And play we will! I've learned so much the last few days and I am excited to see how I can bring her techniques into my own art.

Sherrill Kahn Day 2

Today is our first full day with Sherrill Kahn and she is amazing. She has written a book on seemingly everything and she is so open to sharing what she knows. She uses Jacquard paints and it's going to take a lot of self control to not run out and buy some!

We've been in the studio filming all day so I will post some pictures up tomorrow. In the meantime, here's the trailer for Gloria Page's DVD workshop. Enjoy!

Pre Sale!

The wait is over! OK, well sort of. Gloria Page's beautiful workshop "Art Stamping Innovations" is ready for our pre order sale. I loved every minute of Gloria's stay with us. She is one of the most positive human beings I have ever met and her outlook on life is contagious. She is also an amazingly creative and talented artist. I took what I learned filming and editing her workshop and have begun to do my own card art (the elephants below). It is sort of an addictive art so be careful!

Check out a preview here.

Check out my posts from while filming and editing Gloria.

You know it's going to be fun when...

...a big box of Jacquard products shows up at the office in preparation for Sherrill Kahn's DVD workshop. Sherrill arrives tomorrow and the studio is ready. It's going to be 4 days of cool techniques and great demonstrations. I will be running a camera for the shoot and I am really excited.

Thursday

I realize that I didn't post anything personally creative yesterday. I was too excited about Virginia Cobb's DVD. Today is another attempt at figuring out how this poster should look. I'm just playing around and letting my mind wander.

My weekend starts tomorrow and starts early. First I will be at the local college by 7am getting ready to film a friend's master's defense. I will then spend the rest of the afternoon sitting on a couch with said friend accompanied by a giant bag of chips, some brainless movies and crochet hooks to celebrate her finishing 3 years of hard work!

Virginia Cobb Pre Sale

Work is abuzz today with excitement. Virginia Cobb's DVD, "Acrylic Abstract Painting: The Evolving Image" is being produced as I type. We're announcing the pre-sale and will have it shipped to us in just a few weeks!

In Progress

I'm working on two design projects right now. The first is a poster for a fashion show. The line will be geared more toward men and the designer does a lot of cool ties. The second is a brochure for the local theater. I'm finding major challenges on both. My style is fairly cutesy and I'm not sure "cute" is the aim of a fashion show poster. This is the time I always groan at my lack of drawing skills. Also, I'm not really sure how to conceptualize the 3 fold brochure.

Resolutions one week at a time

Instead of creating big resolutions, I'm creating weekly resolutions. They might combine into bigger ones but because they are only a week at a time, they feel more manageable. This week's goal: try and do something creative every day. This creativity may be in the form of a doodle or a full painting attempt. However it manifests, it'll be good for me to make myself take the time (3 hours to 3 minutes) to think and to create. Next week's resolution should be to figure out a system for taking pictures of my work. Photoshop can only fix so much!

Rigoberta

Thank You's

This was my Christmas thank you card this year. I took a 24 for $5.99 Target card and added the dog and the green sparkles. Simple and really fun to make. I like the idea of taking something store bought and adding to it. Now I have even more of a reason to browse stationary sections. (Like I needed one.)

A Creative Catalyst Cat

We're working on Sherri Haab's resin DVD here at work (her first Creative Catalyst DVD workshop was about metal clay) and fellow editor Zach found this great picture of our studio cat Benjamin. He's been banished from the filming area (which makes us all really sad) but it's still funny finding him pop up in footage.

Got Questions for Sherrill Kahn?

Multimedia artist Sherrill Kahn arrives at the Creative Catalyst studio in two weeks to film her first instructional DVD workshop. Is there something you've been wanting to ask Sherrill? Some process you'd like her to show? Now is your chance! Email questions to me at kelly[at]ccpvideos.com

Traci Bautista's 2008 Workshop Schedule

I saw Traci teach live when we shot her DVD, "Retro Rags: Funky Fabric Books," and I can tell you first hand that her classes are fantastic!

For more information visit Traci's website~

Jan 19-20- Fresno Fiber Guild (Fresno, CA)
Jan 25-26 RubyDog's Art House (Vancouver, BC)
Jan 31- Feb 3 The Artist's Nook (Ft. Collins, CO)
Feb 9-13 CHA Winter (Anaheim, CA
Mar 3-10 Bali bliss (Bali, Indonesia)
Join in on a week-long art intensive extravagenza! There will be workshops, excursions, shopping and journaling all in Bali at the beautiful Apa Kabar Villas. Watch for details. Email Traci if you are interested in joining in on the fun!
Apr 2-6 Artfest (Port Townsend, WA)
Apr 13-17 Art & Soul (Asilomar, CA)
May 1-5 Art & Soul (Hampton, VA)
May 16-18 Artistic Journey Retreat (Melbourne, Australia)
June 14-15 Surface Design Association (Burbank, CA)
June 28-July 5 Collage Unleashed in Tuscany (Cortona, Italy)
July 16-20 Idyllwild Arts Center (Idyllwild, CA)
July 24-27 Int'l Quilt Festival (Long Beach, CA)
Aug 6-10 Art Unraveled (Phoenix, AZ)
Sept 26-28 Valley Ridge Art Studio (Mascoda, WI )
Oct 1-4 Art & Soul (Portland, OR)
Oct 7-10 (Santorini, GREECE)
NOV 9-15 Mixed Media Cruise, (Cayman Islands )
Come along on a 5-day cruise to Cozumel and Grand Caymans. Experience mixed media on the sea! More details to come.

I love Damask

I also love Brocade Home. I wonder why? :)


Damask images are from the The Inspiration Gallery, a great site for...well you see where this is going.

You can find Brocade Home here. Put your credit card on a high shelf before you go.

Call for Entries!

Paper Crafts has opened a call for submissions for their August/September 2008 issue based on color. They have four categories:

Designing in Monochromatics
Adding Color with Different Mediums
Hot Color Combinations
Joy of Card Making

The idea/digital picture deadline is this coming Monday. For more information and an online submittal form go to their site.

Poster

Random project I'm working on for the local theater.