#SimonSaysCreate (and I did!)

What a lucky lady I am!  I was able to attend the Simon Says Create event in Columbus, Ohio this weekend.  I thought I would share my thoughts and some of the photos I took and some of the "creating" I did.

I live in NYC, and always wanted to take classes with Tim Holtz and Jennifer McGuire, and haven't been able to take a class in my town.  When I saw they were teaching in Columbus, I knew I wanted to sign up.  I was so glad that I registered when it was announced as it sold out very, very quickly.  When I saw the rest of the teaching lineup, I knew I was in for a treat.  

Simon Says Stamp picked a great location and I stayed on premises and loved the ease of travel to and from as I traveled alone and didn't rent a car.  Lovely hotel room and amazing staff.

I have been asked how it was to attend a large event alone.  Crafters tend to be very kind and embracing to those alone.  Each meal someone included me with their group.  Very nice ladies.  When the hoopla got to be a bit much for me between classes, I just took a walk and got some tea and relaxed by the pool.  

Tim Holtz taught three classes. He was very kind, and his teaching style is very cool and he makes sure you understand and encourages people to ask questions if they are unsure.  He doesn't just plow along with some students sitting there lost. With such a large group (100 ladies), it amazed me how much information he was able to share and how many techniques he was able to cover! I am a card maker, so 3D items are not something I normally do, so these projects were out of my comfort zone at first, but boy, did I have fun and felt so free to try new things!

My folio underway!

Here is my Burlap Collage!  What fun and totally different than anything I normally do.  

My last piece from Tim's class is my Configurations box.  This was the longest class we took.  By working on the other two projects, we had the techniques already and were very familiar with a lot of the processes.  This was such a hoot, and I found out I am "wire" challenged, as for some reason I had problems following how it got used and Tim came to my assistance.  It holds the bottles and vials in the box.  You will notice my tags in the box are not done, but that is okay, as I plan to work on them now that I am home.  

You may notice there is an adorable lantern in the top left box.  It is fun, as it lights!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don't art journal.  But I am happy to say that Shari Carroll taught an art journal course on the last evening and it was a lot of fun and very interesting to me.  We used Gelatos, Gesso, and Multi-Medium.    Here is the page I worked on.  For a first effort, I am rather pleased with it.

We made a lot of cards as well.  The instructors were amazing, and the Simon Says Stamp staff were incredibly helpful and they always had smiles on their faces.  Truly a great way to experience a weekend away!

Here are a few pictures of me with some very familiar faces!

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If you stayed with me this long, you are a trouper!  I sure hope Simon Says Stamp makes this a yearly event!  If they do, I highly recommend you join me there!

Until next time!

Hashtag Love

Many of us have had days where you are feeling rather blue, or just plain blah.  Well, the other day I was having one of those days and it turned into a fun, happy day by a generous act.  Mario Rossi came up with a great idea for a stamp set for Stampers Anonymous called Hashtags! It was perfect for him as he is a great Twitter and Facebook user.  If you aren't following him, I highly recommend you do, as he is so much fun!  When I saw he was giving away some of these stamp sets on Facebook just by leaving a comment I did.  When I saw I was one of the winners I was so happy and excited!   After a long day of working and commuting in below zero weather on Friday, I came home to find it in the mail!

Last night I used the stamp set to decorate packaging and make a tag for my girlfriend Amy, who we are celebrating with this afternoon at a brunch.  The gift bag was a plain inexpensive bag, but by using my various Stampers Anonymous stamps to decorate it, it made it personalized to my friend (one of my Jane Austen group ladies).  The fun hashtags look great scattered throughout.

I am looking forward to making more fun things with this set.  Thank you to Mario Rossi and Tim Holtz for your generosity of spirit.

Just remember as you go through your day, a kind word or action can really mean a lot to those you encounter along the way.  No act is too small to make a BIG difference!

Happy Birthday, Mario Rossi!

Hi, guys! Hope all is well!  I thought I would share a birthday card I made for Mario Rossi for his birthday.  I enjoy his BTS (Behind the Scenes) on Facebook where he shares what Tim Holtz is working on. It could be projects, or new products, or even Mario's homemade pizza (that always makes me hungry when I see it!).   He works so hard year-round, and shares so much of his time and humor with all of us.  If you follow Tim and Mario, you would know they love Starbucks.  So I decided to make my card using a coffee theme.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampin' Up, Crafty Secrets
Paper: Desert Storm, Tim Holtz French Industrial
Ink: Distress Inks, Distress Markers, Archival Black
Misc.: Spellbinder Deckle Rectangle Die, Tim Holtz Label Letters

This is the envelope I decorated.  I love the Simon Says Stamp Envelope set.

Wishing Mario a very Happy Birthday!  Thanks so much for all you do!

Until next time!

... enter and sign in, please

Hi, guys!  Winnie’s hubby here.  Win got a huge number of orders for Mother’s Day and First Communion cards, and is in the basement creating away.  So she turned today’s blog post over to me.

I thought I would pull a Mario (and I suspect most of you will get the reference, if not, you can click on the link) and take you “Behind the Scenes” at Winnie’s Inky Fingers.

On weekdays, Winnie crafts during the evening, right after dinner.  The division of labor was a snap to figure out from the beginning of our marriage, and for those of you who’ve been following the blog it’s pretty obvious:  Win does the cooking, and I do the cleaning up.  She’s a fabulous cook, and I like the Zen of doing dishes.  Okay, so occasionally I forget a pot or so, but for the most part it works well.  She’s fun to shop with as well:  we hit Giunta’s Meat Farms and Stop & Shop and she’s creating menus on the fly.  You’ve already seen some of the great things she comes up with (thank you, Ree Drummond, Rachael Ray, Homesick Texan et al. for the ever-developing bay window around my midriff).  Once in a while we’ll see something fun from our youth and pick it up as well.  Which brings me to last night’s dinner.

We knew yesterday would be a busy day since, as I mentioned, Winnie had a number of orders (upwards of twenty cards) to take care of this weekend. We fortified ourselves on Friday night by treating ourselves at Carrabba's, where she had the lentil-and-sausage soup (ditto for me) and chicken parmesan, and I had The Damian (wood-grilled salmon, spiedino di mare - translation: sea scallops - and lobster ravioli). We split a John Cole (vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and roasted cinnamon rum pecans) and came home content.

  

So yesterday morning I was checking out the larder to find something quick and easy for Saturday dinner.  And I came up with:

Yep.  SPAM.  In a spasm of health-consciousness, we had picked up the 25%-less-sodium version.  Win fried it up in a pan, and we had it with Stop & Shop Tater Bites (which beats the name brands in taste by a mile) and their baby peas.

And, yes, we washed it down with a nice Chardonnay.

And, oddly enough, it was pretty yummy. The lower sodium content actually improves the taste from what I remember as a kid.   And it accomplished its main mission, which was to feed us both and get Winnie back down to the basement while I cleaned up.

And now you know why I leave the cooking – and blogging – to my talented wife.