Create with Kate Archives - Felicia Thomas

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The Most Amazing Class Ever!

The Most Amazing Class Ever!

Last Saturday the alarm went off at 4am.

There was a very good reason for this, I had to be on the first flight to Birmingham to take part in a class given by Mr. Tim Holtz. Who? well this post won’t be nearly as exciting as I had hoped if you just asked that question. If you are a paper crafter or mixed media artist I am pretty sure that amongst your stash there is something that he has designed (if it says ‘Distress’ on the label that’s a big clue).

So, I arrived nice and early, met up with Kate and Julie and waited for the class to begin. Kate and Julie had both met Tim and Mario several times, (I had met Tim once many years ago and as it was the last day of a trade show he was tired and understandably so over smiling at the crazy woman who stood grinning like a Cheshire cat in front of him) so I was ridiculously excited when he came out and said hello to us!

The were several new products that we were working with, Collage medium, Opaque texture paste, brushes, the wooden frame and most exciting, the new Distress Crayons.

Mario made sure that we had everything we needed, he is just so lovely! Tim gave us direction and information about the products and then just let us have fun – the three hour class seemed to pass in about thirty minutes!

(Excuse the fuzzy photo, I took it with my phone – this man is ridiculously patient when it comes to having his photo taken!)

Background layers

Embellishments ready – its so hard to think of a word, thank you Kate for giving me an extra ‘D’!

The finished project.

The Gang…

This is Julie and I pretending to be good!

with Tim and Mario

This is a terrible photo but its the only one that Kate got into!

Sadly, it was all over so quickly, we were back on the plane at 2.30pm. I had to catch a train from Dublin but missed it by about 5 minutes…… so I went to a nearby hotel, ordered a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine and thought about what a great day it had been.

p.s. The Distress Crayons are fab…. I don’t say that about a lot if products, but I will definitely be getting more of these. Think Gelatos crossed with lipstick, love them!!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend too,

F xx

25/02/2016 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

Its Beginning to Look a lot Like……

Its beginning to look a lot like…… dare I say it? No!

It is the last day of November, we have all been bombarded with those adverts since the day after Halloween, but its not really the season until I hear ‘All I want for C——-s is you’ on the radio.

( * a quick disclaimer* I am not a Mariah Carey fan at all but there is something about the introduction to that song that makes my insides fizz – instant festiveness!)

However, tomorrow is the first day of December and so the ‘DECEMBER DAILY’ begins and I am just a little bit excited!!!

If you don’t know about the December Daily then have a look at Youtube or Pinterest, you’ll find loads of examples there. It is basically an album to document the month (or up until the 25th) you take a photo every day and write something about it and at the end you have a journal of your lead up to that thing that we can’t mention yet.
I made one in 2013 but last year I didn’t get around to it , which now makes me quite sad as they are so lovely to look back through. This year I am actually quite organised (I know, not like me at all!)
I have made a monster of an album, the spine is 3 inches wide and it has taken ages! I used ‘North Pole’ papers by Trimcraft – they are a little unusual, all red and blue, no green but I loved them for the airmail stripe paper!

You can never have enough space in these things so I have paper bag pages attached to the main pages.

Look at that Airmail stripe, I love it! – it reminds me of the letters my Dad would send home from the Gulf when I was small.

The spine so far…. I’m pretty sure more stuff will get added before the month is out.

My friend Sally gave me this box recently and it was perfect for keeping all my bits ready for embellishing – its amazing what you can find in your stash! The numbers are from a ‘Simple Stories’ collection pack, I covered them with glossy accents to give a little shine. The small banner style numbers (in the bottom left corner) came from a free printable on Pinterest, I just glittered them up a bit – you can find it here.

The front of the album is plain enough – I keep them on the book shelf so the front and back covers can’t have any bulky embellishments.

I’m going to the Create with Kate party on the 12th (all details in the link, I have free seats in the car if anyone wants to go!) I never get any work done at these things,too busy chatting and catching up, but just in case i’ll bring it along.

I’m all set now – all I have to do is remember to take the photos!

30/11/2015 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

Knit ‘n’ Stitch

This years Knit & Stitch show starts next Thursday in the RDS, Dublin. It runs for four days and an awful lot of people will pass through in that time.

Kate of Create with Kate was so popular last year that she has taken a much bigger stand this time, which means I get to go and ~~play~~ help.

She has a huge selection of Sizzix dies in lots of new designs ( I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek!) and also new this year is Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fabric……. all I can say is if you love Tim then you will want to get some of this! It comes by the metre, in fat quarters, fat eights and jelly rolls. I made a quilt from the jelly rolls but didn’t take a photo of the finished thing (how silly!) so if you want to see that you’ll just have to come to Dublin!

To show the fabrics I dollied up this mannequin (it will be covered in fabric for the show, this is the naked version)….. the flowers are all cut from the Tim Holtz Jumbo Tattered Floral die and the necklace is made from some old chain I had at home and lots of Idea-ology bits and pieces.

I used spray starch to give them a little stiffness and sewed layers together – they would be great for jazzing up a winter coat or imagine a bridal bouquet made of these?!

The leaves are cut from a Coke can using the Tattered Floral die and then coloured with Alcohol Inks & I added scraps of fabric to some Fragments with Mod podge. I love the word bars, they add a statement to the necklace (literally!)

If you’re coming to the show come and say hello, we will be on stand H50.

26/10/2014 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

What do you give a Bride who owns a shoe shop?

We were recently invited to the wedding were the Bride owns a designer shoe shop and the Groom is a sound engineer. I was going to make a card but as we all know, that is not my strong point!

Last weekend when I was at the Create with Kate party I was looking at stamps and dies to see if inspiration might strike. I came across the Brenda Walton dies and remembered that she had a shoe die….. but it wasn’t there.
It is called the ‘Ballroom Slipper ‘ die in case you’re wondering.
I asked a few of the Ladies if anyone had it and my friend Veronica did. She very kindly cut out and sent me the pieces in the perfect pearlescent white card. THANK YOU VERONICA!!!!!!!

I like how it turned out –

I used some scraps of Tim Holtz fabric for the shoe lining – it brings in music to incorporate both their interests. ( I used Mod Podge to stick it on which prevents the edges fraying)

The ‘Something Blue’ paper line from Prima was perfect for covering the box.

I went around the edges with Perfect Pearls then added lace, flowers, bling and a little bow. Although the shoe is only about 5″ long it takes a while to decorate…. but that might just have been because it was fun and kept adding stuff!
I hope the Bride and Groom like it and don’t think its the strangest gift they received! (there is a gift card inside the box, we aren’t just giving them a paper shoe!)

Have a lovely day!! xx

02/10/2014 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

Craftschool was Fab!!!!

So, I dragged my behind out of bed at 5.30 on Saturday morning, packed the car (with just about everything from my craftroom) and had the luxury of Himself driving me to Co. Waterford. He decided to do a bit of exploring around Youghal and Dungarvan so it worked out very well.

There was such a nice bunch of people there, Create with Kate had an enormous shop, Karen Matthews and Betty Cominsky were there ready to alter the cutest little birdhouses, there was knitting, quilting, basket weaving,cake decorating (which was so amazing it was hard to believe it was icing!) Carol Grogan from Crafty Cutting was there, we had very cool Dylusion demos……. (I think my resolve is slipping and it could be a new addiction!! ) and there were lovely ladies who had made hundreds of cakes and kept the refreshments coming all day!!

I had two classes, the first was a mixed media painting. We painted onto wood rather than canvas because its what I prefer – it so much tougher and takes more abuse!! Here is Michelle Bermingham doing her thing, she ended up with a beautiful painting of a birdhouse. It was such a very relaxed class with no rush and we got loads done.

We had a great big classroom and we spread out all over the place! this venue was so perfect,thank you Ballinameela National School for letting us loose in there!!

Later in the day while I was doing the mini album class two more people turned up but they wanted to paint. Since the day was so relaxed and we had so much room it really wasn’t a problem, Donal used the same techniques as the others but chose darker colours. That turned into an outer space type scene with die cut metal planets…..

(for some reason I cant rotate this photo, so turn your head to the left) He decided it wasn’t complete without the Tardis – how cool is that?!

Mary used purples, greens and pinks for her background which was finished off with enameled butterflies. I always forget to take proper photos… I really wish I had taken more because they all did such lovely work!

By the end of the classes Himself was back from his travels, we got some great books at the book sale, were sent home with loads of cakes (Midi’s chocolate biscuit cake won’t last long!!) and the new Tim Holtz alarm clock to play with. I was quite sorry that I wouldn’t be there for the next day.

This event was organised by Midi Walsh, she is a great woman to get things done! It wasn’t as well attended as it could have been, probably because it was a bank holiday with fine weather – but next year will be bigger, these things start small and I really hope this becomes an annual event. I am definately going to be there next March…… Midi is already planning it!!!!

05/05/2013 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

Altered Art Fix!

Last weekend was the Great Big Craft Extravaganza in Athlone, which means classes, meeting people, and SHOPPING!!

Kate from Create with Kate had more than the usual amount of goodies, I boughtTim Holtz Pulley Wheels, a couple of sheets of Graphic 45 Curiosity Shop papers and THIS.

(excuse the crumpled-ness, I threw it away before I checked the brand!)

It is a wooden frame with chipboard boxes and measures 6x 5 3/4″