Workshops « Artful blogging from Glenda Waterworth

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A glimpse into the studio

November 9th, 2011

Four week class - starts November 29th

I’m not one of life’s naturally organised people. I have to work at it.

I’ve been writing class handouts today for my next online class, Card Design Workshop, which starts at the end of this month. It’s a four week class, so will be finished before Christmas, but with the classroom open through the holidays so plenty of time to get through all the material. If you’re not familiar with how my online classes work, I am working on a new page here on the blog which will explain what’s involved. Keep an eye on the tabs along the top.

I got a funny look from Adrian today when he saw me emptying out the entire contents of my big storage carousel that I keep on my desk. You see week one is all about tools and equipment needed for making cards and I thought I would examine the things I keep closest to me and use most often. Well, that proved easier said than done as the storage unit has become a dumping ground for a whole host of stuff and it was all shoved in any old how. My carousel (made by Making Memories, but sadly discontinued now) is huge and holds a LOT of stuff and that’s a double edged sword really. It’s very easy to keep shoving stuff in without it really being organised.

So I emptied it out and sorted the contents into ‘like with like’ piles. I found that I had the following groups of items in there

scissors
large stipple brushes
waterbrushes
fine paintbrushes
sharps (knives, piercing tool, bradawl, Stampbord scratch knife)
tweezers
adhesives
tape runners
pens
pencils
rulers
Ranger scrapers
paper distressers
blending stumps

Four rulers, six pairs of tweezers, four scrapers, two distressers and ten pairs of scissors later and I had an empty and cleaned out carousel. Phew!

A small selection of my many pairs of scissors

This is just a selection of my scissors – the three I use most are the Tim Holtz ones (for cutting unmounted stamps), the orange and grey Fiskars pair beside them (my decoupage scissors) and the lilac handled long shears. The set of three mini scissors are proving great for general use when the workspace has shrunk down to that six inch square that always seems to happen. The long orange ones tend to be used for cutting open packaging (Nesties!).

Six pairs of tweezers?! Ten pairs of scissors is perfectly acceptable, but six pairs of tweezers does seem a little excessive. However, on closer examination, they are nearly all different types.

Do I need six pairs of tweezers?

The ones I use most are the yellow and black ones on the left. They’re reverse action, ie you squeeze to open them and let go to shut them. I use them to hold layers I’m about to stick down and to peel off the backing off foam pads. The long ones on the right are my UTEE tweezers and they’re a bit gunked up with embossing powder and glitter. The other black pair are eyebrow tweezers, but they have the strongest, tightest grip of any of them. The others were just lurking around in the carousel not really earning their keep.

That Tim Holtz ruler is a really useful piece of kit

I have four rulers in the carousel. Two metal rulers, one is cork backed which means it won’t slip. The wavy one is a tearing ruler – I use it sometimes to make masks as the torn edge is softer than a cut one. The Tim Holtz ruler is a really useful gadget, I just wish it had centimetres on as well as inches.

So, having sorted through all that lot, I have discarded some old worn out brushes, put some pens and waterbrushes into my journaling pack, put tools I don’t use frequently (like palette knives) back where they belong and I now have a beautifully organised carousel, with the six segments containing groupings of similar kinds of objects.

Yes, this is the "after" shot - you should have seen it before!

Next I need to deal with the ribbons – they are spilling out all over. I may be some time …

Comments ( 12 )

Craft Stuff, Workshops

Terrific Techniques

February 15th, 2011

This one snuck up on me a bit – it’s time for my next online class!

Rubber Stamping – Terrific Techniques starts tomorrow, Wednesday 16th February and enrolment is open for another week or so. Online classes are a great opportunity to learn new skills without having to brave the weather or travel long distances. I have students from all over the world taking part, so it’s a great way to meet new people online too.

This class focuses on some fun things to do with your rubber stamps including resist techniques, ways to create texture, masking and learning how to build a landscape scene, working with bleach and a great introduction to Stampbord.

The class costs just $30 which is approximately £18.60 at today’s exchange rate. The course lasts for five weeks and each week you get a pdf file explaining that week’s topic, plus you can visit the classroom web page and watch videos of me teaching the techniques.

You can work through the lessons each week, or you can go at your own pace and save the pdf files for future use. The online classroom has a forum where you can chat to other students and a gallery where you can upload your own work and get feedback from me.

The classroom website is run by a lovely lady called Jeri who takes care of all the technical stuff with her team of helpers. If you are worried by the technical aspects of doing a class online, you really don’t have to. Once you have registered a username and password with the My Creative Classroom website, that’s all you need to log in to your classes and get going.

For more information, you can visit My Creative Classroom.

Those of you who have done any of my other online classes, please feel free to leave a comment and let other’s know how you got on.

I’m getting close to making an announcement about the new company, but still waiting for various service providers to swing into action before I do. Realistically it’s looking like the end of February before we’ll be fully operational, but hopefully well worth the wait.

Comments ( 15 )

My Creative Classroom, Rubber Stamps, Workshops

Rubber Stamping online class

November 29th, 2010

Well Adrian and I did manage to get into Barnard Castle briefly this afternoon. We cleared the answerphone messages and got some post out, took some orders over the phone and dealt with a software upgrade that was scheduled for today. (There’s no changes visible on the website, but the way payments are processed behind the scenes just got even more secure.)

The snow started to come down thick and fast again, so about 3.30pm we packed up the post, took it to the sorting office and headed home via the supermarket. We have a well stocked pantry, freezer and store cupboard, we have candles, matches, logs and kitten food (and litter), so we can probably survive a few days if we have to. And to be honest, it’s looking pretty bleak for the next few days. This weekend’s Christmas party will still happen if the weather permits, but obviously safety comes first so we will play it by ear. That applies to any workshops we have lined up too, so please keep an eye on the Graphicus Blog or Graphicus Twitter feed for up to date information.

Talking of workshops, that’s why I’m blogging again today – there’s another chance to sign up to my online class “Rubber Stamping: Back to Basics” with My Creative Classroom. The class starts this Thursday, December 2nd and runs for five weeks, though the classroom does stay open longer to allow people to catch up.

I had lots of people ask how it works last time, so let me explain.

Firstly, I am a guest tutor over at My Creative Classroom (MCC), this is not run directly by me or Graphicus. That means that you need to register with MCC at their website which is www.mycreativeclassroom.com.

Once you have set yourself up with a username and password on their site, you can enrol on any of their courses, including my Back to Basics one. Each course you enrol on has it’s own web page on the site which is known as a virtual classroom. There’s a news forum on there (think of it as the teacher’s blackboard), a general chat forum where you can get to know other students (the cafeteria) and each week there is a specific forum for that lesson where you can ask me any questions about the techniques or materials covered. By using this kind of structure, whenever anyone asks a question, all students benefit from the answer.

Each week a new lesson appears in the classroom. The first week of this class is an online presentation, but the other weeks all have videos in them. Week one is all about inkpads and many of the students from the first session tell me how this has been the most useful of all the lessons because they finally understand why they were getting poor results with their stamping.

Each week I suggest activities, but I must stress that homework is not compulsory and if you don’t have time to do it, that’s fine. You’ll probably get more out of the course if you can make the time to try out the activities, but my classes are a laid back guilt free zone, so it’s up to you.

There is a gallery where you can upload photos of your work and if you want constructive feedback, you can ask for it. I have to say, I’ve been so impressed at the work of my first session students – many of them have really embraced the course and jumped in with both feet. One of my model students is a lady called Paula and she has blogged a lot of her assignments for the course – click here to see her Back to Basics work on her blog.

I have had some really lovely comments about the course and I hope they don’t mind me repeating those comments here, but it will hopefully encourage others to have a go. The course is only $30 (around £20) which I think is actually a bargain for what you are getting. If you’ve missed watching my tutorials on TV, this is the next best thing!

I’ve really enjoyed this course too. It’s filled in lots of areas I was unsure of and given me the confidence to try things. Glenda I think you’ve done a great job teaching us, thank you so much. I do hope there will be lots more on line classes to come as I think this is a great way forward especially for people who can’t get out and about easily.

Jo.x

Thanks Glenda – it’s been great fun. I think the videos have been extremely helpful – it’s nice to actually see something demonstrated (and be able to play it back again, and again).

I’ve also enjoyed the exercises – particularly making the swatches – and they are proving to be very useful. I love seeing everyone’s work – lots of ideas and inspiration.

The printed pdf files are so good for reference – and to see where I should be!

Can’t wait to get started on the next one.

I do hope you are able to do more courses in the future. Well worth the time and effort – thanks again for all your hard work.

Regards, Deborah

Thanks from me also Glenda This has been an invaluable course. Its so important to know the basics and although life has got in the way of me doing so many of the exercises I have learnt a great deal from watching your videos and reading about others experiments with ink.

Christa

I know quite a few of you reading have already done this course – do you have anything to say to anyone who may be thinking of taking part? I know it’s not the same as a visit to the real physical workshops, but in this weather at least you won’t get stuck in the snow!

PS – it’s worth registering with My Creative Classroom as they do ‘scolarships’ where they give away vouchers towards courses.

Comments ( 10 )

Rubber Stamps, Workshops

Dogs and workshops

November 8th, 2010

There we were having our breakfast last week, when Adrian spotted a pair of dogs in the garden! The black labrador wasn’t impressed and told us in no uncertain terms that he had been in the habit of regarding the garden as his own and could we please let him get on with his search for the perfect stick.

The little terrier was a lot friendlier and enthusiastically offered to rid the garden of rabbits, squirrels and any other such creatures he could find. Sure enough about two seconds after taking this photo, he flushed out a rabbit and proceeded to chase it out of the garden, across the road and into a field full of startled bullocks. The rabbit got away, so he came back full of gusto to see if he could find some more.

Next thing we heard a rather muffled yelping and realised he (or she) had got trapped behind some loose wire netting that has come away from the wall. A choking sound made us both panic slightly, so I waded through the undergrowth to do my dog rescue bit. (Well it makes a change from lambs!)

When I finally managed to ease back the wire trellis and see in behind the clematis it is supporting, the dog was not in any distress whatsoever, but had it’s head down another rabbit hole, whimpering with frustration at not being able to reach his prey. Ten more minutes of trying to get this dog out of the garden ended in failure and we had to go to work, leaving our garden at the mercy of one very tenacious terrier.

They turned up again this morning and it was my turn to explain to them that it’s our garden now and we’ll deal with the rabbits ourselves, thank you very much.

I am actually quite surprised that it was last Wednesday when I put that picture up. I had intended finishing the story on Wednesday night, but I was busy prepping a Christmas card making class for Thursday. It went well, I think the ladies all enjoyed themselves.

Then Friday I was prepping up a class for Saturday. Saturday I was teaching all day and Sunday … well Sunday’s story will have to wait for another day, it’s … complex.

So here we are on Monday and I’m just finishing off last Wednesday’s story … what on earth has happened to the space time continuum? I’m sure it worked better than this when I was in my twenties.

Anyway, I’m off to the craft room now to do some prep for this week’s workshop – Mixed Media and Collage stamping.

I’ll leave you with a picture of one of the Christmas cards we made on the class – I was rather pleased with this one.

Comments ( 9 )

Animals, Cards, Christmas, Workshops

I do still make cards occasionally

October 19th, 2010

You’d be forgiven for thinking I haven’t made a card for months, but I have actually made quite a few recently. The most recent were the ones I managed to make at last weekend’s open days in the shop. This one is a deceptively simple card – it’s coloured with Copics and shows some subtle shading that gives the illusion of a decoupaged layer on the flower where there isn’t one.

More Copic colouring, this one makes use of the cool greys to add subtle shadows. The edge of the panel has been inked with Tumbled Glass and laid onto a panel of Artylicious Spirit of Christmas paper which has had the edges sanded.

The open days were great fun and it really does feel like welcoming old friends at these events. What touches me most is when new friendships are formed and some of the comments we’ve had from our customers really prove that we have brought together some very special people who have become lifelong friends as a result of their shared interest in crafting.

We are planning our Christmas Extravaganza already (3rd and 4th December) which historically has always had a really good party atmosphere and is early enough to avoid the bad weather that we seem to get after Christmas.

I have a few more cards I’ve made recently, mostly for the online classes I’m running at My Creative Classroom. The second class, Terrific Techniques, starts on Thursday so you have just a few more days to sign up for that as enrolment will close very soon – end of the week I think.

If any of my Back to Basics students read the blog, I’d love it if you could leave me a comment to let all my readers know what you think of the course you are doing at the moment. I’m sure some are worried about the computer aspect of it and others will be thinking they have to do homework (it’s optional). I’m teaching a one day Back to Basics class in the shop on Friday 29th October for those who prefer the hands on approach and can make it to Graphicus and for those who can’t, the Back to Basics online class will be running again in December.

Now, for an important announcement: there are new stamps from Elusive Images which were launched officially last Saturday. You may have seen a preview on the Elusive Images blog recently and here’s another little sneak peek for you. I’ll be back tomorrow with more Belle Dames and news of an opportunity to win one of our new sets of beautiful ladies.