No day like today....

Artful summer reading.......

I am a bit of a book collector, and a voracious reader.  I am not truly happy unless there is a tall tower of books on my nightstand and on my work desk. I really don't post as often about what I am reading as I should given all the books I consume! Today I thought I would share some of the more artful titles I have been enjoying this summer and follow up with another post later this week about the memiors, fiction, and self help books I have enjoyed so far this summer as well. Bent, Bound and Stitched by Josie Cirincione is such a cool book, Josie shares her creative approach to collage, jewelry making and imaginative wire creations in this book.My favorite chapter in the book was the one called "wrapped", in this chapter Josie shares some of the most amazing wire creations and gives step by step instructions on how to get the great results she does when working with wire. Wire has always intimidated me a bit, but now I have my needlenose pliers, wire and metal scissors in a little basket on my craft table ready for a project.  As will all the Northlight craft books, in addition to the project photos you will find step by step instructions that take the mystery out of creating and lots of suggestions that you are sure to find inspiring.To learn my about Josie check out her blog, and if you live in Arizona you can take a class from her at Mystic Paper. I am lucky enough to have met her since we share the same publisher, she is a great gal and artist! I next on my artful reading list this summer is a really fun book for the "junker" in all of us is Junk Beautiful by Sue Whtiney and Ki Nassauer.   Sue and Ki are both regular contributors to Country Home Magazine which is where I first became enamored with with their decorating tips and style that repupose antiques and "junk" into beautiful home decor.  Anyone who loves electic home decor will simply drool over the room makeovers in this book! My mom and dad frequent antique auctions and estate sales, i just might have to give mom a list of "junk" I want her to find to create my own version of some of these projects. This is the type of book you leave out permanently because everytime you look at it you find something new and inspiring that you didn't notice before. Amazing eye candy, If you like this book you will also love their first book "Decorating Junk Market Style"In both of their books they also give instruction and supply list to help you junk-i-fy your projects with ease!  Anyone who knows me, knows I love to create handmade book.... the funkier the better. When I happened upon The Artful Storybook: mixed media artists create handmade tales by Terry Taylor  I was in heaven!  Terry and her band of super talented  band of mixed medi artitst take a fresh look at the storybooks and fairy tales we are all familiar with from our childhool and interpret them in their own style with their own stories. The book shown on the cover by Catherine Moore is  one of my favorites, her book "Queen of Tarts" was inspired by Marie Antoinette and is simply beautiful. With all the unique book  creations in this book you get to hear the story behind the book, and how the book was made. I own a lot of books on bookarts and it can be hard to find a book that isn't duplication of what I already know or own.  The Artful Storybook is unique,addition to my library that I will be inspired by for a long time to come. Some of my favorite artists are contributors to this book Claudine Helmuth, LK Ludwig, Sandra Evertson, and Catherine Moore just to name a few! Next on my artful reading list is True Vision: authentic art journaling by L.K. Ludwig I really have grown fond of art journaling in the last few years and I love it when I see a book that I think can truely inspire me. In addition to the amazing journal art created by L.K. and her guest artists you also receive mega- doses of inspiration and creative ammunition via the journaling prompts that are sprinkled all throughout the book and the insight activities that are are suggested to generate more creative thought. Some of my favorite contributors in the book were Lesley Riley, Amy Hanna, Kelly Rae Roberts, Tracie Lyn Huskamp and of couse LK herself. ( there are so many more artists contributing their work in this book it is unbelieveable!) Last but not least on my list of fun inspiring books this summer is Postmark L.A. by Theresa Mcfayden, Pamela Garrison, Amy Hanna, Rebecca Sower, Carolyn Peeler, and Charlotte Lyons. First off let me begin by saying I admire every single artist in this book! They all have their own signature styles that never cease to inspire me! This book was born out of a creative gathering of all these artists last spring in Los Angeles, the book covers their adventures together and the things they created along the way and were inspired to create after their artful journey together. The art in this book is fun and unique and I truly love that each artist has shared a little bit of themselves in this book as well. It is simply delightful.  Well, there you have it, these are the crafty titles I have been pouring over the last few weeks, what have you been reading? please tell me! I promise to post a little about the other catagories of my summer reading later this week.  If you like to talk about books  consider joining me and all my friends at Big Picture Scrapbooking in the Reading Room!  It is fun and free and a place to hang with other folks that love books.  Another favorite book lover's site I hang at is Good Reads, A cool site where you can read book reviews get recomendations on books, and keep an online library of the books you are reading and want to read!

July project for Big Picture Scrapbooking - Handmade Book of the Month club!

Next month's class as Big Picture Scrapbooking starts on July 3rd! All year this year I have been teaching a monthly handmade book class at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Handmade Book of the Month Club.  Each month we make a different type of handmade book, and in July we are making a heritage inspired book using fabric and photos it is sure to be fun!  I was inspired to create the project after reading a cool book by Amy Butler, In stiches .I have been a seamstress since I was a kid, sewing everything from clothing to costumes and home decor, but it had been a while since I created some sewn projects just for fun!  Amy's book is full of fresh and fashionable projects that were great for the beginner or seasoned seamstress.  If you would like to join me for the July Handmade Book club class there is still time, class starts on July 3rd, and registration will remain open until July 16th, its going to be sew fun!

So many milestones for Alyssa!

So many great things have been going on in Alyssa's life and I really owe her a mega-long post! This past weekend Alyssa, myself and her college roomate- to- be Riley and Riley's mom Jackie motored up to Flagstaff, Arizona for Freshman orientation at Northern Arizona University were Alyssa will be attending college starting this August. It was amazing. Love this photo of Alyssa and Riley with the school mascot Louie the Lumberjack... I had to beg them to take the photo... but they were both glad I did! Freshman orientation takes the students through lots what is may be like when they move on to campus,they got their schedules,toured the campus, interacted with students to find out the ups and downs of being a new student, and ate lots of campus food!  They love the location of their dorm, Allen Hall it is located right in the heart of central campus near the Student Union, the advising center and the other freshman dorms. I am so impressed with NAU, I love that the average class size is only 28 students, and that the advising and faculty group there are really present for the students. The campus itself is incredible as well, it is 1 1/2 miles long and about a 1/2 mile wide, and filled with a combination of historic campus buildings, lush mountain scenery and a feeling of community that is just amazing. Jackie and I were thinking it might be totally fun to go back to college in this town! Alyssa is majoring in education, she wants to be a special education teacher, we had a chance to tour her college and meet with some of the advisors to get an overview of all the education programs and their degree progression plans. NAU has a great education program and we are so excited that ALyssa will now be a part of it, she will even have a couple of her educaton core classes in her freshman year. Of course before leaving campus we had to make a couple NAU apparel purchases  at the bookstore for Mike and Michael as well as ALyssa so she can start sporting her school colors and feeling like a true Lumberjack!  I am so  glad this is the college she chose.  Now I have to get used to the  idea that I can't just see her whenever I want.. fortunately we only have a 3 hour drive to get to Flagstaff and Alyssa got an, Apple  Macbook  computer for graduation so we can video chat with each other. Alyssa amazes me, we are so proud of her and excited for her as she starts out on her next journey.  This post barely covers everything that has been going on for her so be prepared for more posts on Graduation and her final show with her dance company before college.

52 Card Pickup - Begins tomorrow, 6/19! woo hoo!

Tomorrow I begin teaching a 12 week technique class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, called 52 Card Pickup! If you are game for trying 52 techniques and leaving the summer with a a creative arsenal like no other.......by all means come join me!!  For the next twelve weeks monday-friday my class will try a new technique each day and create an example of the technique that they will house in a technique card deck that they will create. I taught this class last summer and it was a blast! Students will have access to a classroom gallery to share their daily technique creations, a message board to chat about it all, live chats and even a few videos from yours truly along the way. This class is great whether you are a veteran scrapper or a newbie it is sure to recharge your creative batteries and you will leave with a new group of crafting buddies!  It is not to late to join, Registration is open thru June 22nd!

A Boy and a Booksigning.......

Last night was lots of fun for Michael and I we attended a sold out book signing for  Stephanie Meyer's new book The Host.  Micheal is a big Fan, having read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse  already, we were excited that Stephanie would be able to sign those books as well. The book signing was held at Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, and there were 1000 people who had tickets..... only about 15 of them were male! which was fine with Michael! it was a total chick fest! You can kinda tell in the background of the photo of Michael trying to read all of his books at once that is is women for as far as the eye can see!  For whatever reason more women than men read Stephanie's books, Michael says they don't know what they are missing and I would have to agree!  Prior to signing books Stephanie talked to the crowd for about a half hour answering questions that the audience had submitted regarding her books as well as questions regarding what it is like to be a professional writer. Michael being a budding author himself was mesmerized by her  talk. Much of what she said totally resonated with him and his quest to write and publish fiction of his own. One of the things she said was that if  you find yourself wanting to read your storied over and over and curious about what your characters are going to do next you are probably writing something good  so keep going ! Michael was totally motivated to get home and work on the book he has been writing after listening to what she had to say. I was glad he was pumped up because after the lecture ended we began our wait for our books to get signed.  On the tickets we bought to the event a letter of the alphabet had been written, ours was the letter "U" so as you can imagine we had to wait until they called the letter 'U" to line up to get our books signed.(which was 2.5 hours later). Michael made use of the time by working the room, making friends and snapping a little picture of Stephanie while she was signing books. I cracked up when I found this little picture on the camera of Michael with two college girls he met at the event... leave it to Michael! I thought he would get tired of waiting but he didn't. When we finally got up to the table for Stephanie to sign our books he thanked her and told her one day he hoped she would be attending one of his book signings.... love that boy. He thanked me over and over all the way out to the car, saying how totally worth the wait it was,and talking about how cool it would be to be an author someday. I would have to agree it was totally worth it , and I was glad to share the fun with him.

Senior Prom.... Wow !

Last night was Alyssa's big night at the Senior Prom. After weeks of planning, and prepping she was off! The preparations started with the dress which is always the tricky part for her, she is almost 5'7 now and still between a size 0 and 2 so  it can be tricky to find a dress that fits.  We went back to the store we found her homecoming dress at and once more got lucky with this cute Emerald green stapless dress, it fit her perfect! Next it was off to Dillards for the perfect sparkley shoes to compliment the dress, once more we hit the jackpot and found some sassy, strappy,diamond studded ones that were perfect.... and marked down! Alyssa went on to make her appointments to get her hair done, nails and pedicures, and planned some time to work on her tan. We have a great little sparkly jewelry store near us called Dazzle and we made a little trip there to find some fun jewelry and a rhinestone headband to compliment her look!   Alyssa went to the Prom with her boyfriend David and we  thought he did a fabulous job matching his tux to her dress she told him her dress was emerald green and his tux and tie was almost a perfect match! Alyssa and David went to the prom in a group of 10 other couples they got together and rented a party bus so they could all ride together, they were pretty excited.  They met  for photos at a favorite local location the fountains at Las Sendas, where I took most of these photos, their bus picked them up these and took them to dinner at a restaurant in Scottsdale, Chelsea's Kitchen, then it was on the Villa Sienna for the  Red Mountain High School Prom.  Alyssa's best friend Kristin was in a different prom group than Alyssa so she came over to the house before prom for some pictures with ALyssa she looked so cute. I am sure her and Alyssa will be comparing Prom notes tomorrow morning. After Prom Alyssa is having a fun sleepover with some of the girls in her prom group, how fun. Speaking of the girls, here is a photo of most of the girls in Alyssa's group, I just love all the bright colored dresses, looks like short dresses were definitely the trend this year! Here are a few of the couples in her group! great looking kids!

Paris kits..... while they last!

Teaching in Paris at Version Scrap was simply fabulous! Along with my souvenirs I brought home a few kits left over from my classes in Paris.  My teaching buddies Kim Kwan and Pam Garrison also a  a few lovely kits they are willing to part with on their blogs as well so take a peek. All the kits have stepped out instructions with color photos .  Each kit is priced at $30.00 (plus $5.00 priority shipping and handling for US addresses), International orders are welcome, just let me know where you live and I will quote you a shipping price. I will list some kit specifics and photos below.  Email me using the email link on my blog   if you are  interested.

Clipboard Journal - This lovely little  mini book is mounted on a cute little clipboard, if you love creating mini books and using fun office supplies in the process this is the book for you!  In additional to fun office supplies your kit will include papers from 7 Gypsies and Autumn Leaves, as well is ribbons from May Arts.
What you need to add: To complete this project you will need a basic scrapbooking tool kit, as well as inks in brown,green or orange if you desire to distress you pages and tags. Embellish the book  with photos in sizes that range from 3 x 5 to 4 x 6 in size.

Warm and Fuzzy Layouts  - Make three fun layouts all using products that add a fuzzy, textural  feel to your layout. Experiment with felt, textured wallpaper and flocked rub-ons as you create layouts to cherish! Kit includes products from Bazzill, Daisy D's, American Crafts, Making Memories, and 7 Gypsies. What you need to add: To complete these layouts please have a basic scrapbooking toolkit, tapestry needle, tacky glue, and brown and green ink.
Handsewn patchwork journal
Create this fun and functional handsewn journal to house your favorite memories.  Learn book covering and sewing techniques to assemble your book and embellish it with patchwork papers from 7 Gypsies and Jenny Bowlin, and embellishments from Bazzill and Chatterbox.
What you need to add: to complete this project you will need a basic scrapbooking toolkit, glue stick and brayer, book binding or tapestry needle.  I painted  some of my inside pages and chipboard embellishments with Tattered Angels glimmer mist, this product is available at  Scrapbook.com in many beautiful colors.

For additional pictures of my projects check the Paris 2008 photo album on my sidebar. 

SPECIAL INCENTIVE:  By one kit for $30 (plus $5 S&H), buy two kits for $55 (plus $6 S&H) or buy one each of all three of MY kits for $80 (plus $7 S&H)!

Beyond INSPIRED!!!!!!!

Ok ,I know i have not blogged in a bit... but I really have been on the road for a long time! Even though I went to France first, I will blog about my amazing experience at the Inspired Artist Workshop this past weekend in North Carolina.  It is hard to find the words to express how fabulous this weekend was.  Let's just say Donna and Bill Downey really know how to put on an event! You would never know these two were not professional event planners... every little detail was attended to be sure all the students attending had an amazing time. I arrived late Wednesday night, April 9th the night before registration began and the excitement was already in the air. Even though I was tired after being home just 2 days from France, I caught the fever fast! I shared my shuttle from the airport with two other inspired attendees Chistiana and CD Muckosky.  We gabbed all the way to the hotel, two new friends for me and the event hadn't even started yet.  I got up early  Thursday and shared breakfast at the super cool Concord, Embassy Suites, our event hotel with my new pal CD and my good friend Jeanette along with her sidekick Carol before heading off to start preparing my classroom .  I was immediately wowed by all the mega cool set up that was underway, a huge retail store in one of the ballrooms with 4 different retailers representing themselves, a booth for Heather DeZerga, (the seamstress behind all of Donna's custom sewn goodies!) with all her creations ready for us to peruse, and the registration desk manned by my good friend Donna! The photo above is of the goodies waiting for me in my lime green inspired event totebag.  I immediately fell in love with the way Donna had hand bound all the inspired workshop notebooks... with corrugated cardboard, and handstamped of course! The handbook was designed to have all the event info and class instructions inside so students had a all in one event notebook.  It was super cool to see some students turning these into event autograph books and keepsakes over the weekend.  I have not stopped wearing my Inspired necklace designed by Lisa Leonard, just for the inspired weekend I love it! I also totally dig my inspired apron embroidered with my name that I wore all weekend when I taught! 
Next I had the pleasure of meeting some of my fellow instructors,  Kal Barteski and Jennifer Stewart I have admired these two gals for awhile and it was a kick to hang out with them and soak up their super creative energy!  Thursday night we had a kick off dinner with all the students and teachers, there was such a cool mix of folks there... I was cracking up I was sitting at a table with 5 Canadians, and one great gal from the UK, how fun is that?I was totally tickled to be given a fantastic charm bracelet from the all the gals in the Yahoo group that had participated in their charm swap, they made extras for all the teachers! After dinner the first round of mini workshops began.  Every night of the event there were bonus mini workshops that attendees could sign up for in addition to the  workshops included in the Inspired Event, students were creating in workshops til 11pm!  During dinner two more of my esteemed teacher peers arrived, Claudine Helmuth and Christina Lazar-Schuler, as well as special event guest Heather Bailey. It was great to have a chance to chat with all of them before the event started in the morning. Friday morning the Inspired Workhop began!  I started teaching my first class at 8am... and I was excited to get the show on the road.  I was teaching a workhop using a great clear album from Page Frames, my students got to experiment with paint glazes, alcohol inks and glaze pens to create their finished project.  Each workshop I taught was 3 hours long... the perfect amount of time in my opinion.  Students had the opportunity to create, experiment and play without being rushed, the result was an environment in which creativity flourished!  All my students blew me away with their creations! I haven't mentioned yet that somehow I managed to almost completely lose my voice by the time the workshops started, so my students got to listen to me with a much huskier, whispering voice than usual.. thanks guys for putting up with my wacky voice! Friday night was also fun in that I had time to visit with some friends in the industry attending the event, Ali Edwards, Wendy Smedley,   and Cathy Zielske as well as meet Ali's sister Jessica, and their friend Paolo. Saturday Morning came and  I did it all again! I taught 3 more amazing, fun 3 hour workshops to more great students! Saturday afternoon Donna surprised all the students and teachers with heartfelt thank yous and hugs in each classroom and roses for every student and teacher!  After the end of classes we had  some fun wrap- up comments from Bill and Donna and an auction for Autism Speaks.  Each teacher at Inspired had made a canvas to post outside their classroom that shared their style and gave an indication of what the class was about, these canvases were the auction items for the night. I also had the chance to reconnect with a good friend from Nova Scotia, Paulette Sarsfield...... this gal rocks.  I have taught for three years at an event in Canada  each fall and Paulette has been a student there every year. I loved having some time to chat with her at Inspired. Paulette is such a generous soul, she is an incredible cook and I have drooled over some of the home cooked goodness she has posted on her blog, in particular some amazing shortbread cookies she is famous for.  Paulette made a big box of cookies for me to take home as well as enough cookies for the whole class she was a part of she enjoy!  Did I mention she also treated me to some Canadian coffee  and   cool coffee spoon carved from the apple tree wood on her apple farm in Canada... so good to have friends like her!
The event was finished off with  big group photo out in front of the hotel taken by Paolo, then it was time for  more visiting and mini workshops before we all headed homeward in the morning.  In the morning we  had a  send off from Bill then I was off to the airport. I had the pleasure of sharing a cab with Claudine... she is  so fun, and  Laura another fun inspired student. We giggled and chatted all the way to the airport. good times.  I am still smiling from the fun I had this weekend, thanks so much to Donna for inviting me to teach, and thanks to all the students who made the classes so inspirational to be a part of.  I feel so lucky to have been a part of this Inspired Event.

what have I been up to......

Well, I have been waist deep in kit building, instruction writing, and die cutting for about two weeks, on top of the regularly scheduled activities our in my household in preparation for two super hugh events in my spring teaching schedule.  First up  is Version Scrap!  in Paris, France,April 4-7th, closely followed by  Inspired Artist Workshop, in North Carolina with my good friend Donna Downey !  The little photo on the right makes me happy...... my son went to work for me last week making the cute little buttons to give away to students in Paris, Michael is a pretty good little button maker and managed to make quite a few in just a couple hours, I will put this skill to use again soon!  I love to make my own button pins I bought a super fun button maker last year from Dr. Dons Buttons and I have used it lots! In my frenzy to get more done than is humanly possible I am constantly making lists of things I need to do. while shopping for crafty odds and ends at Michaels last week I came across the cutest little Magnetic list pads ..... I liked them so much I bought 4, they were in the dollar bin only a buck a piece!  Tomorrow morning we are heading out for the happiest place on earth, you guessed it Disneyland for a couple days of  fast -paced spring break fun.  ALyssa's dance company is dancing in a show in Disneyland so we built a little vacation around it.  For the first time ever each of our kids is bringing along a friend on the trip, this may keep  Mike and I off some of those rides that we don't tolerate well any more! I am sure it will be fun and exhausting. When we  return my Brother Joe and his family will be in town for a little visit from Montana, can't wait to see his kids it has been almost three years since they moved  and boy have they grown!

Counting the Days til my next Parisian Adventure!!

Update! I created a photo album with all my Version Scrap Projects and supply lists! So take a peek my Parisian Friends!

I have been busy with work and family  so each week I consult the calendar for that weeks "must do" activities. This week it is  MUST PACK KITS  for  France!!!! Holy Moly...... how did this happen!  On March 29th I am leaving to teach in Paris at Version Scrap, last year it was an amazing experience and I am expecting no less this year!  Once more I am teaching along side the some fabulous US teachers Kim Kwan and Pam Garrison who will no doubt inspire me to no end!  I thought I would share a little sneak peak of my projects so my students in Paris could see what we have in store!  I will be teaching a total of 4 classes while I am at Version Scrap  my first class is a fun chipboard book that used a book structure from Magistical Memories, and a beautiful set of papers from the Narratives collection from Creative Imaginations, The class is called "Dedicated to the Onces we Love".  Next up is a fun layout class   called " Warm and Fuzzy" that  uses lots of fun products that have a fuzzy feeling on three layouts. I taught this class last fall and had so much fun using felt, flocking products and  sueded wallpaper! We use great papers from Making Memories, Daisy D's and American Crafts for this class. Last year when I was in France the students really enjoyed the handmade book projects so this year I brought back two! I made a fun Clipboard book using some cool papers from the 7 Gypsies Pretoria Collections and lots of fun office supplies, and then a handmade stabbound book with a patchwork cover that has some fun spraypainted accents on the inside and outside.I also have to give a HUGE thanks to the Bazzill cardstock company, who is a huge sponsor of my  kits to Paris! thanks  Bazzill for all you do and your wonderful products that make my projects look so great! As I get closer to my French adventure I will have to share some of our fun travel plans.  I will be doing some "fun" travel the 4 days before we start teaching at the event and seeing a different part of France than I saw last year!