They're Here!

...they are finally here!

NEW to the Studio TWO NEW SIZES of Gelli Plates!  3x5 and 5x7

image from Gelli Arts Blog

Smaller, compact, travel friendly sizes perfect for card makers, stampers and well ...creative people of all kinds!  giggles.   Can't wait to play!  I have some ideas!!  *wink*

PLEASE NOTE:  the studio will be closed tomorrow, Saturday, for the long weekend!   Have a great weekend!!!!

Jill K. Berry Workshops in the Studio!

I am very pleased to officially announce the workshops that Jill K Berry will be offering in our studio this November!

Jill is an artist, author, and instructor who's popular workshops are taught at mixed media retreats and studios throughout the USA and Canada.  She has a stencil series with ArtistCellar Stencils (which, yes, I do plan to bring in *wink*) and is enjoying great success with her latest books Personal Geographies and MapArt.   I hope you join us for what promises to be a fantastic weekend exploring the world of Art Journaling and personal Map Making with Jill.    Learn more about the artist by visiting her website


Navigating the Journal

Saturday November 15, 2014

10:00am to 4:00pm

Navigation:1
 The process or activity of accurately ascertaining one’s position and planning and following a route. 

Part of what the journal and its practice offers us is a way to navigate our lives in a visual and expressive manner. We wander, discover, identify, and acknowledge our loves, obstacles, longings, experiences and dreams. Follow the thread of the source of your creativity symbolized by the hand, meander around the trails and paths of your thoughts. These wanderings become layered maps of a sort, a visual record of our internal and external travels. 

More....

Black Maps

Sunday November 16, 2014

10:00am to 4:00pm

I (Jill) grew up in Southern California and learned to love the black velvet paintings of our neighbour to the south, Tijuana, Mexico. Working on black offers many opportunities both in making maps and enriching the surface of this paper with watercolors, pastels, mediums of all sorts and even ballpoint pen. We will work with making abstract maps and mapping the negative spaces of our pages, while creating luminescent surfaces rich with stories.
More...

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the studio.

Have a creative day!

Creative Stitching Workshop with Brother Canada

What happens when science meets art? 

When creativity meets technology? 

And when thread and colour meet the Brother NX450Q? 

Luxurious texture, glorious colour, and FUN, that’s what! 

Join Liana Kirkey, Brother Educator, in this hands-on workshop to explore the artistic side of computerized sewing. Complete an innovative showcase lavishly and uniquely embellished with decadent thread fibres and a combination of built-in and custom-programmed stitches...

This is a Brother Sponsored event at the store!  Thank you, Brother Canada!
As a result of the sponsorship, the Class Fee is ONLY $20!!  This includes a $10 kit fee and a $10 Gift Certificate to the studio at the end of the class so that you can purchase some of the fun threads, bobbin kits (yes, we will learn bobbin stitching!!!) or, should you choose, to it put towards the purchase of a machine. 

We will have a class set of Brother NX450Qs here you can use and will offer a special price for those looking for a fun fabulous machine to take home!

Door Prizes and Refreshments will be served.  We hope you can join us for this inspirational class!

FRIDAY OCTOBER 3, 2014 (1pm - 4pm)
repeated on SATURDAY OCTOBER 4, 2014 (10:30am - 1:30pm)

Register Online or contact the studio 519-267-6620 to reserve your seat TODAY!

Playing with some embroidery with the NEW Brother Innovis 990D

Hi everyone...  I have been so busy, I didn't realize just how delinquent I have been with my blog posts.  I will make sure that changes ASAP!!

The Innov-is 990D is the first of the new Brother machines to arrive in the studio and I just had to play.  New to embroidery, I thought I would keep practising and show you this feature of this fun little machine.  It's a cutie patootie.  Enjoy some of the embroidery features and be sure to pop by the studio to take a peek for yourself.

It's going to be a BEAUTIFUL Sketching Day!

I am so happy that Sharyn Seibert's students in her Landscape Sketching class will have a picture perfect day tomorrow for plein air sketching.  FABULOUS!!!

Last chance to join Sharyn in this BEGINNER FRIENDLY landscape watercolour class.   Contact the studio for details!  Only $40 (plus HST) for this fun course meeting in the studio before arting in the SUN!  ;)

SEE you online tonight -- I'm feeling a collage coming on for tonight's USTREAM broadcast!
www.ustream.tv/channel/the-art-house-studio

Feels good to be back in the studio!

Hello all!
I am back from the Brother Conference in Nashville and I am super pumped to be back in the studio.   I am filled with some great ideas for my painting, journals and fabric projects and can't wait to share them all...  You'll be hearing more in the weeks to come. That's a promise.  

Until the new machines arrive -- here's a peek at the Grand PooBah of Sewing Machines - the DREAM MACHINE.   Coming to the studio next month, I'm palpitating!

Here's some highlights of this baby.....

• Sewing/Embroidery Combo Machine
• 10.1" LCD Screen -- YES!!   The size of a tablet!!!!!!!!!!!!
• LINE ART SCAN, ILLUSTRATION SCAN, SCAN & STIPPLING! ...OMG - the stippling!!
• 9.5 x 14" Embroidery Area!   Wowsers!   They had to re-vamp the technology to accommodate that size of hoop!  Fabulous!
• 11.25"x5" of Sewing Workspace -- enough you can roll a King Size quilt in it.
• Laser Guideline Marker
• Camera Function
• MPEG4 Video play -- watch, pause and play video tutorials.
• Don't even get me started about the Couching Capabilities!  LOL...

This and MORE.... Can't wait to play!

And look what followed me home....  YES - ScanNCut Machines are re-stocked here at the studio.   Look for ScanNCut RHINESTONE features next month too!   We'll have to make an event of it! *HINT HINT*

Hope you're having a Creative DAY!

"Intent" on a showing....

I am honoured to have my painting, Intent, hung in the Dorothy Harvey  Gallery at Cambridge City Hall.

If you're local or in the area, I hope you get a chance to take a peek!  It's located on the second floor of City Hall which is located right around the corner from me here at the studio!  There are some GREAT local artists represented and I'm thrilled to be included in the show.

Have a creative day!

Stunning Alcohol Ink tiles by Cheryl

 

Okay...  Aren't you just IN LOVE with these tiles???

Cheryl was inspired by my ustream video using Alcohol Inks and Stencils and took things a little further with a STUNNING result!!!!!

She painted over the backgrounds with the Alcohol inks and...  get this...  her Spectrum Noir Markers!!  They react and work BEAUTIFULLY in conjunction with the alcohol inks.   STUNNING Cheryl and THANKS for Sharing!!!!!!  xo

Have a creative day!!

Creative Crossover - Using Gelli Prints

So excited for another Creative Crossover post - this time using the ever popular Gelli Printing Plates from Gelli Arts.

I LOVE printing on my Gelli Plates.  If you've been watching my Thursday night USTREAM.tv broadcasts (on ustream or youtube), you'll know that I've been pulling a lot of prints lately!

Monoprints can be pulled with any absorbent paper or fabric - it's fun to see how the prints change with each pull and with lots of different materials.  You can't go wrong with these.   Every print is a gem ..  even if you only use a portion of it!  They're one of a kind!   I do have LOTS of prints in my Gelli Print Bin (the place where I keep all my unused bits of prints) and I'm always looking for fun ways to use them...  and then in walks Gerri!

Our friend Gerri came into the studio this month with some show and tell.   She created a SUPER FUN Happy Villages quilt - based on the techniques she learned in a fabric quilting workshop book by artist Karen Eckmeier.   I fell in LOVE.   Such a wonderful project and...  YES! it's covered in houses!!  How could I not love it?

As I was admiring Gerri's quilt my mind was racing.  I love the look of these fabric villages but I kept seeing them in paper -- specifically monoprinted papers.  So I set to work creating papers (and finding some that would fit my colour scheme) with my Gelli Plate.  I create patterns in the plate with stencils, my own hand doodling, some stamps and whatever else I had lying around my workspace.

I cut up various shapes and collaged them to a 10x14 canvas panel with my favourite soft gel - PPA, Perfect Paper Adhesive by USArtQuest.  I did add some book text and some ric rac to the mix and it started to come together.

With all that paper though, the houses weren't popping yet. I used my new FUDE Ball pens to create doodle lines around all the houses and a black Stabilo ALL Pencil (and my trusty water brush) to shade them in.    Loving the FUDE Ball pens.   Perfect on the collaged elements and it did't run when I shaded with the ALL Pencil and water. Perfect!!

Don't forget to pop over to Christy Riopel's Blog to see what she created with her gelli plate.    HAPPY CREATING!!!!   Pull, Pull, Pull!!

Supplies Used
Gelli Plate 8x10 (Gelli Arts)
4" Soft Brayer (Speedball)
Acrylic Paints (Assorted)
10x14 Canvas Panel (Art Alternatives)
Assorted White Printing Papers
Waterbrush - Medium (Koi)
PPA Perfect Paper Adhesive - USArtQuest
Book Paper  (misc)
Ric Rac - Black (misc)
Stencils for printing (misc)
Wash Brush (for using with the PPA)
FUDE Ball Pen - Black (Distributed by Ranger)
ALL Pencil - Black (Stabilo)

And if you are interested in Karen Eckmeier's book Happy Villages be sure to check it out at your local book store or you can find it here on her website.

Have a creative day!!