Weekend Wax, "First Rain"

Here's my weekend's attempt at beeswax collage. I always forget how slow beeswax collage is compared to collage where there's paint and mediums flying. So yes, there was a little fight with the new skill set but it was completely worth it and I'm hooked.

 Click read more at the bottom to see the step by step.

Weekend Play

This project was going really well until the very end. It was suppose to be a congratulations card for some friends in a local play, but now we'll see. I got lazy with Claudine Hellmuth's Petroleum Jelly technique and didn't get it wiped up enough. I kept thinking if I just covered it with enough gel medium it would be OK. Nope. Bad instinct there.

I am excited about a few new techniques I'm trying. More on that later. In the mean time, if you don't have Claudine's books or DVDs they are certainly all INCREDIBLY helpful. (If you follow the instructions...ahem.) If I could find the rubbing alcohol I bought 2 days ago my night will be set.

Well Hello There Anaheim (CHA Day 1)

It's only just past 8. I think I've been conscious for some 17 hours and it seems that at some point caffeine just stops being relevant and you need to succumb to sleep. We got to Southern California with all our bags and did some major trekking through the CHA compound attempting to find our spot in the newbies section. More doors here are locked than unlocked and it means you do a LOT of traveling. This would be awesome accept for the fact we're hauling boxes and suitcases full of merchandise.


But so far it's been a lot of fun. I think the people in the booths around us are really nice and the booth just across from us has some fun stamps that I will be eyeing for three days. Sherrill Kahn brought her husband Joel down to visit us and it was so great o meet him! We're yet to run into Claudine Hellmuth or Traci Bautista or Sherri Haab but hopefully I'll be able to track some of them down tomorrow...although I'm sure they are ALL incredibly busy with demonstrations.

The only really funny thing was how the cashier at Target seemed confused when we didn't want bags for every small thing. We were buying a plastic garbage can and I told her to just throw all our stuff in there. She looked at me like I was crazy. I wanted to put my hand on her arm and say, "I know. I'm from Oregon." That point would have been doubly clear 5 minutes later when Dad and I absolutely and completely lost our rental car in the parking lot. Ten points for wandering tourists!

Tomorrow we will probably be at our booth by 7:30 am so...To sleep!

PS- The second image down is a map of the entire layout of CHA. OK that's a lie because it excludes our section of New Members. (Glorious)

Art and Soul Recap

It's been a week now since we've gotten back from Art and Soul Retreat in Portland, OR. What a blast! I remember being impressed last year and this year was no different. It still blows my mind (in a great way) that there are places where people can come together from all over the country and just be creative together. Talk art together. Do art together. Meet people who share the same passions. Such talent and spirit in one place. I kept looking at all these women-both instructors and students- and being really inspired by them. Such incredible people.

We filmed three artists: Ann Baldwin, Anne Bagby and Robert Dancik. We filmed Ann Baldwin a few years ago in a live workshop. It was great to work with her in studio. She is a hilarious woman. I always learn so much from her both when I'm filming and then again when editing. She somehow makes Golden products a little less terrifying.

Anne Bagby does the type of art that I long to do. She stamps her own paper and then uses it in these spectacular collages. Both her and Ann Baldwin can wield Golden Fluid Acrylics like no other. Anne Bagby also employs Golden Glazes. I came home and ordered a few myself and am getting obsessive about checking my order's status.

We filmed Robert Dancik on our last day and what an amazing instructor! He works with a product that he helped create called Faux Bone. (Go to Robert's site to learn more.) Robert kept saying how easy Faux Bone was to work with and I kept thinking, "Yeah, yeah, sure." He proved my skepticism wrong. It *is* really easy to work with. It's sort of magical actually!

Spending the day with each of these artists was amazing. They all did a wonderful job on camera and their DVDs will be real assets to those of us wanting to learn how to become better artists.

Finally, we took part again this year in Vendor Night. Holy Moly! I LOVE vendor night. It is one of the few times I as an employee of CCP get to interact with the people who buy what I help make. It's so rewarding! I am very lucky in the fact that I'm really proud of what I do and the company I work for. I'm normally pretty shy when it comes to talking to new people. I freeze and mumble and will probably trip. But I love talking about what kind of art people are making. I love meeting the people who have CCP workshops and hear that it's really helped them. Plus, it's just seriously neat to be around that much creativity in one place!

Is it too early to countdown to Art and Soul 2008? Definitely not!

(Pictures from Vendor Night: our booth, Claudine Hellmuth, Lesley Riley, Traci Bautista. Not pictured are Sherri Haab whose booth I kept going back to for fantastic resin molds and Robert Dancik's booth.)

Claudine Hallmuth on Martha Stewart Website

You can see Claudine Hellmuth on the Martha Stewart Show!

Claudine Hellmuth

See your favorite collage artist, Claudine Hellmuth, Wednesday September 12 on the Martha Stewart Show! Claudine will film a live segment and we all can't wait to see!

Claudine Helmuth in Cloth, Paper, Scissors!

Check out a familiar face on page 42 of this month's Cloth, Paper, Scissors! This is a take on one of the projects Claudine teaches in her third Creative Catalyst DVD, Beeswax Collage!

Check out Claudine's fun gallery and blog-

Claudine and Creative Catalyst Productions on Decor8!

Holly over at Decor8 - one of my favorite blogs- wrote about Claudine Hellmuth. She includes an interview she did with Claudine and mentions CCP and Claudine's DVDs. Very neat all around!

Easter

So Easter is fast approaching and there's lots to be done. I'm currently plotting my Dayle Doroshow Try This at Home Challenge and I'm hoping the fun that is polymer will help me in creating a bunch of fun Easter treats (non-edibles clearly :)

I also have a ton of cards to make and send. Above is what family will be receiving in their mail boxes. The blue paper was PACKING PAPER inside a random box sent to Creative Catalyst. Susan the office manager keeps an eye out for such treasures for me and I have a TON of this stuff now. The paper on the birds I made using techniques learned while filming and then editing the Traci Bautista video. And the style of using pen lines is straight up Claudine Hellmuth...a style I now love since doing her Try This at Home Challenge last month. Little does my family know that each card comes from 4 or more people! Tweet!

Spring!

The air smelled so good this morning I couldn't believe it wasn't June. I'm currently in the middle of moving and have been spending every non-work hour working on my lower back pain. Between the Gloria Page DVD I'm currently editing to thinking about the fun projects in Claudine's new Beeswax Collage to the Dayle Doroshow Try This at Home Challenge, I'm seriously itching to play but no art projects will be started until I finish moving. (*sigh*) In the meantime, I'm dreaming up characters for future paintings and cards in Photoshop.

Claudine's Video Preview

To order or learn more about Claudine's DVD, visit Creative Catalyst Productions.

Claudine Hellmuth's Beeswax Collage is Here!

Last night I was covering Jim's side of the office with streamers (it's his birthday today) and saw the boxes but didn't realize what they were. Claudine Hellmuth's Beeswax Collage DVDs are here! See a preview here. (scroll down toward bottom)

More CHA Chances

Find Claudine Hellmuth tomorrow at:
9am-12 Ranger Booth #4843 - demo

2 -3:30pm Lazar StudioWERX Booth #3772- meet the artist - stop by for a fun photo - become a life sized Poppet®!!

4pm-5pm F+W Publications Booth #1509 -- book signing and demo ONE FREE book to each person. LIMITED quantities!

Sherri Haab
10 am - 11 am Watson and Guptel booth, demo

Traci Bautista has events going on as well but I'm not sure when. Surely worth checking out though!!

Friday Goodies- CHA CHA CHA

(A card I designed this week)

If you randomly find a magic genie and he's offering you 3 wishes, use at least 2 on this.

The website doesn't do it justice but CHA stands for The Craft and Hobby Association. Their press release says "You’ll have the chance to explore 3200 booths featuring the newest offerings from 1100-plus companies –divided into six product sections for optimum buying convenience. "

I'm drooling....in Oregon...where I will be ALL of next week. But if YOU are in the Anaheim area, go check it out.

Also a few of the CCP artists will be there including Traci Bautista, Sherri Haab and Claudine Hellmuth. Check back on Sunday. I'll post the where and when they'll be along with the instructions for a project Sherri will be demoing. See what other fun stuff is going on here.

Have a great weekend!

Turning Your Hobby Into a Business

Claudine Hellmuth is one of several artists taking part in the teleworkshops at the smARTist telesummit 2007. The summit starts tomorrow and runs through the 26th. Check out their website for all the topics covered but the main focus is how to turn your art into a business. Claudine's session will cover life as a published author and how to become a workshop instructor. It all starts tomorrow so if you're interested, check out their website here.