Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas Holiday!!

I am back in the studio today -- joined by a couple of gals needing time away from family :) hehe ... I have heard from a few of you -- I think that is a trend I'll be seeing all week! If you'd like to join us, give me a call (519 954 6620) and I'll reserve some table space for you too!!

Now that I am back I can announce our Wish List Winner!!

Remember this?

Many people took advantage of my Rudolph Wish List this year. I placed the names of everyone who used this service (and had people come in to purchase things from the list) in a hat and drew

AMBER's name. Congratulations Amber !!!-- I have something from your wish list here for you to pick up in the studio.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE -- the countdown to the New Year has begun!!

Have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS everyone!!!!
I'll be back in the studio on Tuesday December 28th. See you then!

Stampotique Tags

HO HO HO.... I'm a wrapping machine today!

I've been spending the day wrapping gifts and tying some fun tags to my parcels that I stamped with Stampotique's Oh Joy Stamp . Aren't they cute??

Love these Stamps -- and so perfect for the holidays!!

Or, if you like -- check out Global Warming! hehehehe.... I know of a couple of people who have had fun with these images this holiday season!

Are you ready yet??

STUDIO HOLIDAY HOURS

DEC 24 - 11am- 3pm (unless I am busy crafting and stay a little later... *smiles*)

DEC 25 - 27 CLOSED Merry Christmas!

Dec 28 - 31 OPEN 11am - 5 for sure.... later for croppers. Let me know if you'd like to come and create. Table space is open!!

JAN 1-3 CLOSED

See you Tuesday Jan 4 for our Regular Studio Retail Hours.

journal making.....

Perhaps this is the time of year BUT I have been asked to create a lot of journals and altered book for people. It's been a frequent conversation -- ESPECIALLY when people see these: my new Art Journal and one I made for my kid's stocking :)

Yes, they are made out of an old pair of my jeans -- I soooo love this!

For those of you who don't know -- A NEW MONTHLY GATHERING WILL BE STARTING AT THE ART HOUSE STUDIO in the new year.-- an ART JOURNALING GROUP!! This will work much like a book club -- Bring your Art Journals, we'll create in them for a few hours together, share ideas and learn new techniques, have fun with challenges.... $10/month. We'll meet on the Third Wednesday of the Month (6:30 - 9:30 - come anytime after 5) and I'm open to a Friday night too if some of you are interested on a Weekend.

So... having said that -- I decided that with all the questions, interest and this group starting up.... I'd make the first Technique of the Month Club Meeting of 2011 a Book Binding Theme. I will show you how to create your own "jean journal" AND re purpose an old book using a coil binding too -- made popular by me using an old Golden Book for our Christmas Wish Book this year. SO!!! Ladies (and Gents), if you are interested, dig out an old pair of jeans (or buddy up with a friend (you only need one pant leg *smile*) and your favourite "golden" book and reserve your space at January's Technique of the Month Club (First OR Second Wednesday of the Month). To reserve your seat call 519 954 6620 or email me your request.

Have a creative day

A Shrine to my Mother?

Sure, why not? It's Christmas! hehehehehe

This is a little something I made to hold the Dominoes that I adhered my mother's photos on. Remember? Yes, that is her - my dahling mother :)

This will be given to her on New Year's Day -- her Birthday. Hope she likes (and doesn't get the urge to log onto my site to see what I have been up too.) *wink* Loving the new little nests and eggs I got in the studio recently.... I think it helps make the piece.

Anyway ... enough of that. Had another great day in the studio with some girls! They are certainly getting my mojo going!!!! Have a great weekend everyone!

Got my computer back!

My computer picked up a nasty virus and it's been in the "shop" for a couple of days. I'm soooooo happy to get it back and in one piece!! YAY! Lots to do and things to post :)

I had a great group of gals join me in the studio tonight. Lots of fun a laughter had by all! We were inky, glittery, paint-y, all was GOOD!! A few of us were looking at the current issue of Somerset Studio and fell in love with one of the featured pieces of art.

See... here it is here. So fun and whimsical!! I saw this project in the issue earlier and ordered up some small wood plaques to create some with. For .79 how can you go wrong, right? :)

Here's mine. Loved how she turned out. I just kept playing!! Used Claudine Hellmuth's Traditional Tan Studio Paint to paint the wood piece and then used her Matte Medium to adhere the paper. A little embellishing with buttons and pom poms and a little charcoal pencil shading and voila!! hummmmm... what should we call her?


The sides of the wood piece were painted (as I said) and then I sprinkled glitter on it while wet. It didn't adhere the way I liked so I painted it with Matte Medium and of course it congealed but... I thought it looked like snow. Pretty cool, actually! I finished it off with some cream coloured "piping" using the cream Viva Decor Pearl Pen. Ta DA! :)

So now she has a new home on my studio shelf with the"naked" pieces of wood. Yes!! .79!! What can you do with one? :)

Before I sign off for the day... I'd like to thank my coop student (Amy) and her mom for this lovely Christmas Gift! Isn't it purdy?? A light "box" all decorated in my favourite Christmas colours. THANK YOU SO MUCH ladies! I absolutely love it! So clever!!!!!!!!! Do you see what she used to make this?? A frosted glass window block! Genius!! Got my mind working!! :)

Have a great day everyone!! I'm off to get some sleep before the girls come back in the morning!! See you at the studio!!

New Graphic 45 is Here!

Oh Yes Yes Yes!!! I was soooooooo happy to open a box of this Springtime Goodness yesterday as I was freezing from coming in from outside through the snow!!

I loooooooove the little faeries and the sweet rabbit family -- reminds me a bit of the Beatrix Potter books of my youth! ....and the colours!! Soooooo pretty! I brought in the whole 12x12 line and even some 8x8 collection packs for you card makers. eeeek! I'm so excited!!

Mixed Minded ... Is Coming Together!!

YES!!! I'm so excited!! I've been busy getting classes posted and registration items together for our BIG MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP EVENT in May - Mixed Minded!!!

There are more classes to post and I will be doing that soon ... but just to wet your whistle...... www.mixedminded.ca

Have a creative Day everyone.... Didn't get a chance to do the last tag YET... I will post it when I can :)

Happy Birthday Kiddo

Today is the kid's 14th Birthday. WOW!! Where does the time go?
I made this "SuperGirl" Stampotique card for her in honour of the occasion *smile* This and some Manga to read apparently makes for one sweet birthday! Oh, as does two pieces of dessert at her favourite Greek restaurant! hehe.. Can't believe what I get sucked into on birthdays!!

Have a great day today!! I'm looking forward to seeing what Tim Holtz has in store for us - this, the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas. I'll post that when I can ... might be tomorrow....
Stay tuned.....

Too Much Excitement ...

Tag Number 11 today... I created it after a very fun Wax Class with some ladies -- we did the last of the "leaves" class today as the snow has started to fall and leaves are getting far too scarce. Oh well ... Hope the girls enjoyed the last of the leaves of the season -- and playing in the wax too, of course!! *smile*

This tag was fun!! Some of you might recognise the "make your own stamp" technique that Tim taught today -- I used that technique at ScrapFest Oshawa's Crop Room Make in Take. IN FACT, Cheryl Sue used the stamp I gave them for that make in take in her variation of Tim's Tag #1 ... I thought that was sooooo cool!! Anyhoo, I digress :)

I didn't make my own stamp here .. I did use one of Claudine Hellmuth's Foam Stamp Sets instead. I love the one boarder stamp that I believe is in the Doodles Pack -- I really must check that out ... I think it works well here. The Trees were from that Seasonal Grunge Set that used before (and that has come in VERY handy this year) I embossed with Distress Embossing Powder and, instead of Flocking, I used Ranger's white embossing Puffs for the snow. Did the trick ..

Hope you like the tag cause it almost didn't happen today -- I got locked out of my back room -- THANKS WANDA!!hehe We had to break into it -- I am happy to report we must have all been good little girls in our youth because we couldn't pick the lock... even though Kelly just had to keep trying while I tried to take the pics out of the hinges....

Eureka!!! The pins came out okay.....

BUT... the door was wedged right in there... and I couldn't pry it open with my limited tools -- my tools are kept in the back room of course -- we did what we did with jewelry pliers and setting tools - OMG ... hysterical!!

So...... Amber went and got her hubby and his tools.... VOILA!!! He doesn't look as happy as I was to see that door give way! LOL

THANK MIKE!! I could get to the back room once again!!!!! And you saved the 11 Tag of Christmas ... and my bursting bladder!!! LOL

Hope you're all having a creative weekend!! One more tag to go .... Hopefully sans drama :)

Tag #9 and #10 .....

I took a day off from the tags yesterday to clean out the back room - AGAIN!! Wow... does that place ever get messy quick!! But, as every creative person knows -- when stuff starts falling off the shelves and on you, it's time to clean it up! hehe

Anyway... two tags today
The first used Tim's Rosette Die from Sizzix. Its a fabulous die but I wanted to leave the last one on the shelf SO I used one that was created for me and included in a Birthday Card courtesy of someone in my Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group. THANK YOU!! :) It really came in handy!!

As the rosette wasn't created with Christmas paper, I made it based on a different theme. Gotta Love Butterflies!!

The Second tag used the snowman from Tim's "Seasonal Grunge" pack that came out a while ago as I don't have his sizzix die here. I think it worked out just fine!!!

Hope you have are having a great day today!! Only two tags remain. I wonder what he'll get us to use this time. :)

Tag #8 - Masking and Stencling

Well... you know I love using my Distress Inks with Masks and Stencils!.

For this tag I used Heidi Swapp's 12x12 Mask/Stencil Star Set and I just love how it came out. Very whimsical. The detail in the star was created using Distress Inks and Crafter's Workshop Templates....

AND, I finally got to use the townscape edger die -- YAY ME!! I love that die -- anything houses really .. so here it is....

Simple, yet effective.

Have a fantastic day!! I'm off to clean out the back room, AGAIN!! blech! :)

Noel, Noel

Here is Tag #7 - a Sticky Back Canvas Poinsettia! Love it!

I pretty well followed Tim's directions this time ... BUT I did hand cut the flower pieces (I don't have my own tattered floral die - yet!) Hey, it let me have a bigger flower - it's all good in my mind.

Have a creative day everyone!

whoa boy.....

I am certainly channeling many aspects of my personality in these tags. Case in point... the next two tags.

I LOVED the vintage stuff I've been doing. I really have an affinity for them but the next two Tim tutorials got my quirky mojo working today.

The first you will recognise as a Tim Tag as I did keep much of what Tim Created. I really loved the faux enamel effect on the numbers and yes, the paint resist too!! So... here is my tag 5:

BUT... are you ready for it??

Yep -- I said quirky -- and that was helped by the fact that as I was creating the first tag here in the studio (on my day off *wink), Canada Post came by with my LOOOOOOOONG awaited (sucky customs hold up) Stampotique order. I JUST LOVED "Smile". He spoke to me today so. I set off to do a quirky tag.

The heart are the grunge emboss/paint/ink technique as in Tim's tutorial today .. I just added some Rock Candy Distress Stickles and some Viva Decor Glitter Pen to it. I made a custom stamp pad a la Tim Tutorial #2 to get a red heart on Smile's sweater. The background was glimmer spritzed, and paint splattered and yes, that is my hand writing: "Smile cause I Love You" ----aweeeeeee.... Isn't that sweet. It will be for my husband which is why I stamped his name with Russet Archival Ink onto a Distress Ink Stained piece of lace that I "Tiny Attached" to the tag. Seeeeeeee.... it can still be Tim and quirky, right?

Anyway, thanks for the indulgence.
can't wait to see what I channel tomorrow! *wink*

A little birdie told me...

it's time for Tag #4! hehehehe

Today was working with Alcohol Inks and Clear Embellishments - specifically, as with Tim's tag, his cool looking facets. Well, I only have one of those babies left here for sale in the studio so I thought I'd better leave it. BUT I did have some left over extra acrylic pieces from Darcie's charm line from a class I taught at ScrapFest ... I thought they'd work perfectly!! And they did!

I took out my trusty Postcard Stamp and used it to stamp the background -- now, I know some of you out there covet this stamp. You'll be thrilled to know that I now have a fabulous post card stamp by Unity now in stock!! I know, you'll thank me later *big Grin*.

Getting back to the tag...... I inked it up using the same base technique as yesterday's tag BUT this time, as I wanted it to take on a speckled egg feeling, I made a Black Wash with some black dabber paint and water and "flicked" it on the tag. LOVE how that looks. The rest of the stamps? Character Constructions, of course!! I've been just dying to use these stamps and now, thank you Tim, I'm getting an excuse. Love the photographic quality of those stamps.

Anyway, hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by and for all your comments. I love reading them!

Tag # 3....

Here is my latest in the "Tim Tags"

As I mentioned before -- take a peek at Tim Holtz's blog for the tutorial.

Today he used my favourite (and most often used) background inking and staining techniques -- although I will say I LOVE the white Paint with the splatter stamp! *wink*. Instead of decorating the tag the way he did, I used an image of a vintage postcard that I had scanned, re sized, printed and edged in UTEE for a canvas class I taught this week AND I used some misc vintage trims and trinkets I had in my tickle trunk.

The lace at the bottom of the card was stained using a little water and Forest Moss Distress Ink. I know I'll be using that technique again.

Have a creative day everyone.... off to make some Christmas Gifts!

12 Tags a la Karen

Well, it's that time of year again. Tim Holtz does his 12 Tags of Christmas on his blog. I can't get over how popular this has become -- but then again ... look at the tutorials! I shouldn't be surprised.

I decided to take Tim's Tags as inspiration this year and not do them as taught. It's that wild streak in me coming out I suppose! hehe Some days you will see things quite similar, other days not BUT one thing will remain the same.... EACH DAY I WILL TAKE AT LEAST ONE TECHNIQUE AND USE IT ON MY TAG!

If you haven't seen this before or have been debating on whether or not to join in... DO IT!! This time of year is very stressful to many of us and by making a pledge to do this you are making a pledge to take some time for yourself and create!!! And that's never a bad thing!!

Anyway ... here are mine -- TAG ONE AND TAG TWO.
Tutorials for both can be found on Tim's Blog. Have fun and enjoy!!

Tag one - Backgrounds with Distress Inks and Perfect Pearls Mists, 3d Snow, Grunge
I used Claudine Hellmuth's Dwelling Stamps but the Distress Inks are "as shown"

Tag 2 - Making a custom Ink Pad!! YES!! I see this popping up again and again in my work and perhaps even a class or two!!

We have a Winner

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good morning.
I am off to the studio in a minute but thought I would drop by here and post my blog give a way "winner" ... end that suspense! :)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
for alllllll the wonderful things you said about the Art House Studio, the blog and me :) Holy Moly!!I am truly touched and greatly appreciative!! THANK YOU! ;)

I did enter all 27 of you in the Random Number Generator and got this:
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:10
Timestamp: 2010-12-02 15:33:57 UTC

so... That means the prize pack goes to Deanna U! Congrats Deanna and THANK YOU again (have I said that yet? hehe) for all your wonderful comments.

I'll be doing some 12 Days of Christmas Tags today so drop on by and say hi!!
Happy Creative Day!

It's December 1

Brrrr... that's a scary thought!!
A couple of good things happen today though.

First!! The new Card Workshop is announced. The 4 cards above are the cards that I made using KaiserCraft's Christmas 6x6 Paper Pack and Die Cuts. We'll be doing things a little different this month -- being a busy month not everyone has a lot of time .. so, this month only, you have options: Come on in to create the cards anytime in December (4 cards will take approx an hour and a half - 2 hours to make) and you can leave after they're created with the rest of the paper pack, die cuts AND a complete sheet of coordinating rub ons - my gift to you.! AND ... this month's cards are $17 (plus the tax) Ho Ho HO. But, yes, I said you had choices. If you'd like to take this package "To Go" ... you can! $17 for the Paper pack, die cuts and rubons and a 1hour free studio time to use until March 1, 2011. You can come in and use that time to stamp some of my "stamp wall images", use my tools, what have you. Just give me a call to reserve your Card Workshop soon. Product is limited.

The second fun thing happening today -- Tim Holtz posted the first of his 12 Tags of Christmas. I will be playing along again this year BUT I will make them with my own creative flair. We shall see how it goes. If' you'd like to follow along with Tim: here's the link . Feel free to contact me in the studio if you have any questions but Tim's Tutorials are great!! I think you'll be inspired.

The third thing, I had a class today. Thanks for coming in a playing Sandra! Love having people in the studio creating! You're all so inspiring!

Now... December 1 is Eat a Red Apple Day. Enjoy a big, juicy one for me!!
Have a creative day everyone!