A Grand Day Out with Mrs Bertimus

 

Way, way back at the start of April I heard a rumour (I think it was on Facebook) that a couple of last minute spaces had appeared on a day workshop with the lovely Mrs Bertimus, at Hope and Elvis.  I mentioned it to my sister, who said "why not?"  And so, one Saturday morning in April we headed up the Motorway to take part in a day of "Stitchery Pokery".

Mrs Bertimus welcomed us all with a teacup of gorgeousness, there's mine, up above.  Then she gave us a little introduction to herself, her art and what we were to do that day.  We heard about image transfers, and machine stitchery and general stitchery pokery stuff.

 

 

Then we were free.

Free to delve into the boxes and cases and baskets of goodness that Louise has around the edges of her fabulous studio.  

 

 

Free to mooch around Louise's personal studio space.  

 

Free to look at the work of previous tutors, Jessie Chorley, Julie Arkell ... 

 

...and Mr Finch.  To name but three.

 

We could look at and be inspired by Mrs Bertimus' own work.  

 And we could chat to and learn from the lovely lady herself. 

 

One of the themes of the day were Mrs Bertimus' Nanas.  Some lovely ladies of a previous era, all dressed up to the nines, probably for a grand dav out.  They made an appearance on our name badges and on lots of the pieces that we all made.  I think some snuck into my bag and came home with me.  Naughty Nanas!

 

These are the pieces I made on the day.  Using image transfers, on blocks, and hand stitching and machine embroidery fabric pieces.  So many new skills and techniques.  I love a good workshop!! 

 

There is a little bit of a corner shop set up at Hope and Elvis.  And this dusty, spider webby, complete with dead spider and a broken handle, little brown case had to come home with me.  Under my self-imposed thrifting rule - "I'll regret it if I don't buy it" rule, it was a must buy.  Helen and I also had to buy a few pieces of blanket to continue our stitchery pokery.  Mine is heading towards being a needle case, with the machine embroidered bird adorning the front. 

 

And there you can see the replacement handle that I made for my little case - and the case is just the right size to hold my fabric scraps for the stitchery pokery yet to come.

 

At the end of the day Mrs Bertimus had us all put our pieces on one big table so we could look at all of the pieces that had been made.  Helen and I put ours out together, her two are at the top, and my four below.

And there we have it, a grand day out with Mrs Bertimus.   If you get the chance to play at Hope and Elvis - take it.  And if Mrs Bertimus is there?  All the better. 

And a last word for Mrs B herself - If you find yourself wanting to go thrifting in Birmingham.  The kettle will be on, and the biscuits will be out!

Technical hiccup

I´ve been having a few technical hiccups around here with my poor old blog. But I'm persevering. And should be back soon with plenty of pics and the story behind  that pretty teacup up there.

A stroke of genius

Just found this languishing in the draft post area of my blog.  A card I made for my brother last September. 

The background was made using dylusions sprays and stamps, some Tim Holtz tape and stamp, and some found words from an old book. The book is one of the best 30 pences I´ve spent in years. The words pop up everywhere, on cards, on tags, in journals, everywhere.

The day I met Tim

 

Ready for the second installment of this year's crafty adventures?

At the end of the summer, my sister, Helen, and I were lucky enough to spend a morning with the very lovely Tim Holtz, (and a few dozen others!) making this tag book.   It really was a dream come true!  I mean, Tim Holtz! Showing us how to ink, and distress and assemble.  And he really is as nice and friendly and smiley as you've ever heard.  

As well as leaving with this gorgeous little book and a head full of ideas and inspiration, each delegate left with a stencil (from his new range), a distress stain and paint, a distress marker, a book of his fragment word stickers and a mini stamp set.  All of which we had used and shared around our table during the class.  Tim also gave us some extra "things that money can't buy" - as he described them.  Which were a Tim Holtz messenger bag, a signed copy of his second book and an apron - which we also got signed!

As I mentioned in my last post, we met up with Kaz Hall again, as she was also there, helping Tim with his class. And in another installment of Helen and I living in "a small world", we ended up sharing a table with a couple of ladies who we had previously met at our local crop.  One of whom will make an appearance when I tell you about another of our adventures! Till next time.......

Tag, you're it

 

Back  in the summer, I went with my sister on a day of workshops organised by a local stationery and craft shop.  Helen sold it to me as soon as she said that Kaz Hall of The Little Shabby Shed was going to be there, teaching with Dylusions.  

This is the tag that Kaz taught us, using Dylusions and Perfect Pearls for the background, and some of Dyan Reaveley's stamps.  

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the words.  I'm usually ready for an adventure.  Which is what Helen and I had when we met Kaz for the second time this summer.  But, that's another story, for another time!

Time to play

 

Yummy new paints. Definitely time to play!

Create. Just because.

 

Yesterday, I sat down to get inky and painty.  

But got stuck with what I was trying to do.  

So, just got a blank piece of card, picked a couple of distress inks I haven't been using lately, and went for it.  

Distress stains started the background, then some stamping and stencilling in similar colours.  More background added with stamping in black and white. Then topped off with Glinda from The Octopode Factory, coloured in with Neocolors.  

Now, what to do with this piece of whatever? Stick it onto a piece of corrugated card to "frame" it.  Just needed some words to finish it off.  I looked at a set of sticker words I have, and they jumped out.  

And now I have a piece to remind me to Create.  Just because.

What have you been creating lately? I'm coming to look...

A quick card and a quick post

It was my neice's birthday last week. So, I whipped up a quick card for her.
And I also had a new phone, so I'm testing a quick post with it. Fingers crossed it works

Tag, you're it!

I know I'm a bit late to the Hallowe'en party, but I made these tags a couple of weeks ago (bit addicted to tags around here at the moment, if you want to know), and what's to be done with a pile of tags?

 Put a scrap of vintage text behind them...  Pop them on a piece of black card....

 And start filling up that 7Gypsies carousel thingy that's been sat on my shelf for ever!

Apalling pictures of them in the carousel, I know.  But doing my best with dark nights, shiny shiny pockets and getting used to a new/different camera.

'Tis the season

This year, I decided to go a slightly different way with my Christmas cards.  For years I've made my own Christmas cards, but this year, with working full time, it just wasn't going to happen.

I decided early on - in about October, that this year, I would do just one piece of art, using the She Art course, that I did earlier in the year.  Then, this would be printed out for my cards.  I finally got around to doing the canvas, which is actually 12" by 12", late in November. I got it scanned at work and set about printing them off at home.  I decided to go the easy route - and print straight onto the cards.  However, three hours later it just wasn't happening, and I even ended up with the printer spewing out dozens of copies onto ordinary printer paper, which promptly got put to one side.

About a week later, whilst considering buying cards, I decided to just go with what I'd got.  Although the prints were on very ordinary paper, they were printed at best quality.  So, a production line of cutting and sticking brought me a neat pile of Christmas cards in about half an hour - result!  Some doodling around the edge of each picture gave just a little bit more of a hand crafted edge.  And I also have a Christmas piece of art, as I said - Result!

I'm a Winner!

 A couple of weeks ago, I was having a little blog hop - as you do.  I was visiting the lovely, creative blog
Efemera Ink when I was invited to hop on over to another blog.  So, off I went, to yet another inspiring blog, Scattered Scarlet .  Where I was invited to leave a comment, which I did.  And in return, I am now the very happy owner of "this little bit of nonsense".

 

Thank you, Effie.  It's so lovely, and is inspiring me to do something creative.

I'm missing my makings - but, I have less than a week now, until I run my half marathon - and then I can return to real life, and the long list of ideas I've gathered over the past few weeks and months.

One of the first things on the list is that  header, up there...

Tuesday Play

It's the Easter holidays around here.  So, today, Phoebe and I had a quick shopping trip out.  Then came back to do some art, based on the She Art course that I did.  Mine's finished, Phoebe's is still a work in progress.  Then we watched Harry Potter.

a bit more arty stuff

A few more of my pictures following the She Art class


I “collected” the quote on the first one when we went to the eden project last autumn.  I think it was a “what I wish I’d known when I was at school” quote.  How true, and I wish I had known it…

This next one I’ve done for my sister’s birthday, I hope she likes it…


I’m trying to move these towards “my style” – not sure if I’ve quite got it yet, but I’m enjoying the journey

she art workshop

Want to see what I've been up to this week? I've been getting messy with this workshop.  And I'm having a ball!!  Learning lots of techniques, and being inspired by a fabulous group of artists in the She Art Community.

I've been following the techniques outlined in the lessons - but I'm already starting to feel my way towards what is more my style.  I'm sure I'll have more to show you in the future.  But, if you fancy having a go, there are some tutorials on Christy's website, and I believe the workshop is running again soon.

I'm off now to get my bags ready for Saturday's 12 hour cropaganza at the Bromsgrove crop, with 3 classes being taught by Kirsty Wiseman