Lots to share!

What a crazy weekend. But good - crazy.

Donna & I went to a trade event in Framingham, MA and took a ton of classes and workshops. We each took separate Hero Arts classes. Donna took two classes with Tim Holtz, one using Idea-ology products and one using Claudine Helmuth's products. I took a class with Tim using his Distress inks and grunge paper and learned to make the grunge paper roses.
Below is Tim's Sample from the class:

Donna also took classes with Cheryl Mezzetti of Creative Imaginations, The Cat's Pajamas, Melissa Frances, We R Memory Keepers, Heart of Texas and Copic Markers.

Other classes that I took included Impression Obsession, The Paper Cut, My Favorite Things, Magenta and a very intriguing form of artful meditation called Zentangle.

If you've never heard of Zentangle you may look at it and think one of two things; either it is much too difficult to learn to do or that it is simply "doodling". Neither assumption is correct.Done the way the it's creators, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts intended- it is simple, deliberate and exquisitely beautiful. Please click on the link to learn more detailed information, but to explain the experience briefly, everyone at the presentation was given a pen, a pencil and a "tile" of fine art paper. Rick & Maria then guided us through the steps to create our first Zentangle. When we all finished, we placed them together into a single mosaic. It was amazing how beautiful it was both as a whole and each individual part. We all were given the exact same instructions and materials and yet each tile is completely unique.
We made a ton of sample cards in the different classes and I hope to get a few pictures up eventually. We also did a lot of buying for the store! Below is a sample of some of the stamps we ordered from My Favorite Things:

We are headed back to Framingham tomorrow for an all-day workshop with Tim Holtz of Ranger and Jennifer McGuire of Hero Arts. The workshop is called "Creative Chaos" so it should be quite exciting. Of course, every day is creative chaos when Donna & I are together...