Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Cool Scrapbook Stuff Book Club Welcomes Special Guest, Tracy Weinzapfel

 

Here are some of this month's circle journal pages.

 

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We had such a great time this month.  Our special guest, Tracy Weinzapfel, President of Helmar USA joined us for the evening.  She is extremely educated on her product and taught us everything we would ever need to know about Helmar Glue.  It seems there is a glue for everything and if you use the right glue for your project, you will have much better results...a good thing for every artist to know.

 

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Tracy and Elena

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Cyndi and Kat having fun with glue and posing with a finished Make and Take.

 

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This is an example of a glue holder that can be ordered through Tracy.  Look at all the different glues that Helmar makes.

 

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Some of the girls working on their Make and Take.  That's Cynthia, Alicia, Kathren, Denise, Gaye, and Tracy is standing.

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And, on this side of the room is Kat, Cyndi, Peggy, Judy and Alma.

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Kathren sharing her finished Make and Take.

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Elena is in the process of working on a gorgeous Mandala.  This is just the beginning.  It's amazing how many layers are involved.

 

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Tracy shared some of her art journals with us and I snapped some pics of a couple of pages.  Her style is wonderful.  "Words and color are what inspire me," says Tracy.

 

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Debby created this fabulous travel journal.  It has pockets for receipts and other bits of ephemera.  There are pages for journaling and pages for adding photos.  What a wonderful keepsake to remember a trip of a lifetime.

 

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Gaye said, "I was so inspired by Alicia's art last month that I had to give it a try."  And, so she did.  She made this wonderful picture using paint and crackle medium, papers and embellishments.IMG_0433IMG_0435

Gaye had so much fun and was so inspired that she created a whole series of pictures for her office.  The theme of course, is the Wizard of Oz.  The papers are by Graphic 45.IMG_0437IMG_0439

These photos do not do justice to Gaye's beautiful creations. 

I look forward to seeing a picture of them hanging in her office.

 

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Gaye has been a very busy artist this month.  She made book marks for all of us at Book Club.  Her inspiration was from the Stampington Magazine, Somerset Life, which is the book we are working with this cycle.  Thank you Gaye for your thoughtfulness. 

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This is what Gaye put on the back of our bookmarks.  A reminder of some good books that she recommends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This incredible piece of art is Alicia's.  It's a shadow box that has been embellished with all kinds of awesome goodies that one would find in nature. 

Every time you look at it, you see something new.

 

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It was lost and now it's found!  Elena created this necklace for Kat for her birthday.  It is a picture of a Suzi Blu petite doll.  The necklace was at Suzi's house for awhile because it was being photographed for Suzi's upcoming book.  Somehow it was lost, and we thought it was lost forever.  So sad!  Then weeks later, it was found in the sofa.  Yey!  So happy!

 

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Kat's been busy with resin again.  Kat and Suzi Blu spent the day together making these adorable Little Windows.  These pendants were made with Little Windows Brilliant Resin, created by Fran Valera.  The little boy is Kat's new grandson, Alex.  The little girls are Suzi Blu La La Girls. 

 

 

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Elena has been having fun creating button stacks and making them into fabulous jewelry.  As a designer for Blumenthal Lansing, her assignment was to make necklaces for Michael's.  Who knew they could be so elegant!

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What an ingenious way to show what can be done with buttons and beads!  They are lovely!

 

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Judy, made this clever collage with one of our most recent kits.  Such a cute way to turn zippers into wall art

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Have you ever melted UTEE over an inked stamp and then pulled it off?  That's what this is.  Kat created this cute little embellishment for a future project. 

 

Until...

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Hmmm!  Tracy, I wonder who would do such a thing?  Hee Hee.

 

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Here is the adorable Make and Take that Tracy brought for each of us.  It is a little 4x4 photo album or art journal.  Each item is attached with a different glue.  Go to the Helmar website to learn more about all the fabulous glues, including Liquid Pop Dots.  Yep!  It's in a tube!  Check out all the cool videos with Tracy showing you how to use these different glues. 

It's amazing how much easier it is to do art when you are using the appropriate glue for the type of materials you are using in your project.  I think we all learned a lot from our very special guest, Tracy Weinzapfel.

 

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Our kit this month included, 2 pieces of Hollywood Vogue by Webster's Pages, a wooden dress form, a lace pack by KaiserCraft, and a bottle of Liquid Leaf by Plaid.

 

Gentle Reminder of items you may wish to bring next month:

  • Circle Journal
  • Your book - Somerset Life (Can be purchased at Cool Scrapbook Stuff.)
  • Projects you've been working on
  • Finished project from Book Club kit
  • Tool kit, including scissors, glue and a pen or pencil
  • Camera
  • A snack to share

Things to remember:

  • Next month is the second month of this cycle.  Our meeting is scheduled for  September 21, at 6:30. 

Tag swap.  Elena will provide the tags. The tags are about you.

  • Starts in August
  • Due in October
  • Make tags that include a picture of you.  
  • Add some little know fact or facts about yourself.
  • Make 13

White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Christmas is around the corner.  Start thinking about and working on your Gift.  It must be something wonderful, that you created, and would want to keep for yourself.  Put your best foot forward.  We will discuss whether we are going to have our party in November or December.

 

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Creating Outside the Box at Gee Gee's

Another fun night at Book Club.  Since last month, Gayle has transformed the craft room at Gee Gee's.  We have more room to spread out our fabulous artwork.  There's more of an open feel to the room...very Feng Shui.  Our Book Club members completely embraced the new change and immediately felt at home.

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Here is Pam showing us her adorable, finished critter.  She painted the image on canvas and then stuffed and hand-sewed it together. 

 

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This summer, Terri took several classes at CREATE in Costa Mesa.  She created this fabulous custom quilt in a class with Alisa Burke.  Terri said, "We first made our own cloth, then we cut it up and sewed it back together to make an art quilt.  We used free-motion stitching." 

I can think of several things one could do with this beautiful handmade quilt.  Can't wait to see what Terri has in mind.

 

IMG_0389Another class that Terri took at CREATE was taught by Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard.  The substrate is vinyl.  Terri said, "You work backwards on a piece of vinyl or Plexiglas.  You have to put your forward images down first, and the background down last since you are working from the reverse side."  Sounds so interesting and looks fantastic.IMG_0390IMG_0391 IMG_0392

Here are three papers that Terri made at a class with Jane LaFazio.  Terri's description of this technique is, "Working on deli paper, you layer light papers, ephemera, cloth, etc. on top of it and then glue down with gel medium." 

Wouldn't it be fun to use these gorgeous papers in a journal!

 

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Here's Terri showing us her awesome paintings that she made in a class taught by Teesha Moore.  "They are both collage, with the black one being a collage on canvas and using fun foam for the bird", says Terri.  She did a lot of work on these paintings and the result is incredible.

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Kat was lucky enough to take Suzi Blu's last class taught in San Diego, which was just days prior to Suzi moving back to New Jersey to be with her family.  Suzi is a good friend to many of us and will be greatly missed here on the West Coast. 

This is Kat's version of a Suzi Blu fairy.  The colors are vibrant and there is lots of texture.  Kat says, "I never knew how to draw a face until I met Suzi.  She gave me the courage to draw any kind of face I want and really enjoy it and believe that it is art."

 

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Sheila has been working with Fran Valera's awesome Little Windows Brilliant Resin.  She embedded charms, crystals, sequin and beads prior to pouring the resin.  The result is these two beautiful examples that can be drilled and made into pendants, or added to an another piece of art.

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Sheila has also been working on a beautiful album for a little friend in her life.  What a lucky little girl to get this lovely mermaid album to use for her special pictures.

 

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Kristal has also been working on an album for a little person in her life...her granddaughter.

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Kristal used a weaving technique with ribbons as her background for this adorable layout.

 

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Elena brought a fun Make and Take that included, LaBlanche stamps, Ranger Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE), and a Ranger Melting Pot. The LaBlanche stamps are made from silicone so the UTEE doesn't stick.  Add ink to the stamp and then pour the hot UTEE over the stamp.  Let dry just until it's not hot and remove.  Makes for a very interesting embellishment.

 

Here's a LaBlanche YouTube video.

Here's an interesting UTEE and Melting Pot YouTube video with Suze Weinberg.

If you would like to educate yourself further on these products, there are actually lots of videos on YouTube.

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Gayle, Owner of Gee Gee's and Glenna are having fun making UTEE embellies.  Love this picture.

 

IMG_0404This month's kit included several pieces of Cut-It-Up paper, lots of embellishments, including Nostalgiques Attic Collection die-cuts, stickers, buttons and letters, by Rebecca Sower designs.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the ladies create from this bounty of goodies.

 

 

Gentle Reminder of items you may want to bring next month:

  • DRESS FORM SWAP DUE
  • Canvas for the Canvas Swap - (Starts in September - More details below) Ladies who have committed to the canvas swap so far are:
    • Ally Evers
    • Glenna Ruoff
    • Sheila Goldsberry
    • Kat Baker
    • Cynthia Ellis
    • Elena Etcheverry
    • Lola Finklestein
    • Nanci Ishii
    • Terri Kinjo
    • Kristal Lemke
    • Pam Rothberg
  • Projects you've been working on
  • Current book is Mixed and Stitched by Jen Osborn
  • Tool kit, including scissors, glue,  a pen or pencil.
  • A snack to share
  • Camera

 

0511-0808-2900-2326Things to remember:
  • September is the 1st month of a 4-month cycle and the meeting is Thursday, September 1st. 
  • We will be meeting at Gee Gee's.

 

Swaps

213081-Royalty-Free-RF-Clipart-Illustration-Of-A-Canvas-Character-Painting1. Canvas Swap.  Each person will start their canvas by painting it, embellishing it, whatever you want to do to it to prepare it for the next person to add something to it.  Bring it to the meeting and pass it to another person.  That person will add more paint, embellishments, doodles, ephemera, whatever they think will look great, to the canvas.  The next month someone else will add to the canvas.  The Canvas Swap:

  • Starts in September
  • Due Month to Month
  • Canvas must be 5"x7" or larger
  • For protection to your canvas, bring it in a shopping bag with your name on it.
  • Put a note with your canvas describing some of your likes and dislikes. For example, if you hate the color purple, then add that to your note.  If you would love for it to have a theme, add it to your note.  Do you want it to be dimensional or flat? 

 

shippingtag_blog_badge_large2.  Tag swap.  Elena will provide the tags. The tags are about you.

  • Starts in September
  • Due in December
  • Make tags that include a picture of you.  
  • Add some little know facts about yourself.
  • Make 14

 

gift113.  White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Christmas is around the corner.  Start thinking about and working on your Gift.  It must be something wonderful, that you created, and would want to keep for yourself.  Put your best foot forward.  We will discuss whether we are going to have our party in November or December.