Wham, bam...

...I'm Studio Sam (or Samette?), back in the thick of it.

My first guests in the new studio brought it on in style.  It started with Lynne Mizera making this fantabulous 3D new studio card complete with an extensive array of fussy-cut items on the walls including photos of me, and in-progress works on the table.  Call me gob-smacked!

When you realize the whole card is about 8 inches in width, 4 inches high and 2 inches deep your eyes will cross and head roll when you imagine doing all those teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy cuts!  Accompanying a lovely little art journal (more play time coming up), it is a stupendous gift.  

She brought it when she joined three others here for a play date.  While we normally have a theme for our playtimes, this particular morning was a free-for-all.

Maureen worked on this fabulous collage - Here's to Hue! indeed.  Could it get any more colour-full?!

Eileen finished this watercolour she'd been working on,

and then started another one in her dog series.  She was on a roll, and so intent that I'm not sure she even heard the conversation around her.

 Deni was tearing into the Gelli plate, making prints and turning them into cards.

Lynne worked in a journal, and was delighted with the bits and pieces she found in the scrap box - why is it that they always look better when they're in someone else' box?!

Those of you who know of my struggle when it comes to spatial relationships will laugh when I tell you it took near three hours to figure out how to make an envelope for a booklet I'd created (more on that later).  Had there been a photo of me, it would have shown me staring stupidly into space as I faced the task with confuddled bemusement.

While still in progress, it's likely to get done today or tomorrow, delivery will happen soon, and I can do a post for you on the envelope contents.

I did have 20 minutes or so at the end of the morning, where I was able to toss all thought aside and play with the Gelli plate. 

As always, I enjoy the look of the newly-painted stencils, too.

I'd love to hear about your week - catch me up in the comments below, and feel free to add a link!  

I've been flitting...

about from town to town this past month, and have found little time to play in the studio.  Isn't life just like that sometimes>

When all else fails, though, I revert to a Gelli plate session just to keep the juices flowing and retain my creative sanity.  I knew that time would be short to do any leaf printing (how the heck did it get so close to winter so quickly?!!!), so I tore into it with great enthusiasm.  John was about to compost the flower boxes, so I stole some dusty miller before it disappeared, added some fern, Japanese maple and other goodies, and had a blast.

There was a huge range as I worked back and forth from first to ghost prints (and even a few haunts).

And while I know it's fall, I couldn't help but put some sunny spring and summer prints through their paces as well.

 Each print was so delicious, it was hard to stop.

Were it not for the fact that the family likes to be fed occasionally, I'd likely still be there.

Of course, being Canadian means that we were in the midst of Thanksgiving colour this past weekend, so that certainly added fuel to the colour schemes.

I can't get enough of green and orange lately, and there were quite a few of them in the pile!

I used all the brayer-cleaning sheets up before I finished, and the geometric lines through some of them pique my interest.

These will all make marvellous backgrounds or additions to journals,

and I suspect they'll grace a few cards and tags as well.

I'd LOVE it know what you do creatively when your time is short and your need is tall.  Please tell me in the comments below so I can add your expertise to my arsenal; post a link if you like!  

Guests...

...in the studio are always fun, and this past weekend proved the rule.  Louise Olinger, a consummate watercolour artist, and her sister Kelly LeBlanc spent three days playing with me, and we got up to the usual chaos that ensues when one is hooked on play.

Kelly's been tearing into the Gelli prints - can you tell?

Louise has prints everywhere

The scene before Saturday (day 2) start

Stacks of prints

Louise paints while Kelly prints on fabric

The intent truly was to do mixed media for the weekend, but we got so far into the Gelli printing that somehow we finished nothing at all.  The up side of this, though, was that we were blissed out on colour, texture and pure, unadulterated fun!

I hope you've have as much enjoyment in your studio this week...if so, we're both on the right side of overdosing!

The Kootenay Fibre Arts Festival...

...is tomorrow, and I've downright pumped.  I get to play there with my Gelli plates, showing newbies the amazing things that can be done with paint, textile and and these wonderful plates.

I've been making samples like someone possessed, playing with the Gelli plate, ArtFoamies, stamps and stencils till the cows came home (we've got seven cows in the back yard now, vying for room with the two dogs, and I've NO idea who they belong to).

I've printed on coloured broadcloth,

 on linen-coloured UFO (Unidentified Fabric Originating-from-goodness-knows-where) ,

 and on white lining.

 As always, I've way too much fun,

 and apparently I've no idea when stopping might be a good idea!

We were asked to bring an epic fail, and I have to say this was my all-time favourite.  This owl takes wonky to new levels.

The Kootenay Fibre Arts Festival is an event not to be missed.  If you're anywhere in British Columbia, Alberta or the Northwestern US, I suggest you get here tomorrow and play.  There will be indigo dying, felting, silk colouring, drop spindling (??!) and far more to try, to say nothing of wonderful articles to purchase and giant knitting needles to wield.  Come and play.  10 am at the Wynndel Hall.  You'll be so glad you did!

I'm always looking...

...for new ways to create interesting backgrounds, and I thought I'd share a couple of ideas with you this week.

I wound up with this, which I thought would be a good start to a painting.

The process started last week with a 6 x 6 tangle on fun foam (below right), and I immediately made a Gelli print (or ten) to see how it would look.

I liked it enough that I started a 9 x 12 piece (here) on fun foam,

and then went nuts with my beloved Gelli plate,

printing one

after another,

after another.  These ghost prints made with Golden Open Acrylics (have I told you how much I LOVE them for Gelli printing?) pleased me no end.  I thought this one would make a good start for the first photo,

so I created a house wrap stencil of vines that had been tickling the muse for a while.  I printed a first print on a clean sheet (not shown), and then over-printed the above with a ghost print.

I'm pretty happy with the results and just as soon as I finish my manic mandala fixation I'm going to be making more of both the fun foam tangles and the house wrap stencils.  I'll keep you posted with the results no doubt.

It's Gelli, baby...

...all the way, and I'm packing my bags for it.

It's rather like mounting a campaign in a foreign country to pack for a workshop.  This one will require three different types of paint - fluid, heavy-bodied and open,

a bag of goodies for each participant (including their Gelli plate), drywall compound, foil candy wrappers and wax crayons,

masking tape, a binder full of stencils, sticky tac and a toilet roll holder (?),

extra mat boards for participants in case they really go crazy,

templates of all kinds (foam, blue jeans and texture plates),

cleaning rags, string, reams of paper, and more jean fabric so they can make their own templates,

 stamps, cotton swabs, masks, wax paper  and stretch wrap plastic,

and enough lace to start our own hoity-toity emporium.

Do you think the participants are going to have fun?  Hardly at all!  Bring it on...'cause Saturday is the start of something new in town.

Are you teaching? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments section below.  And here's my Helpful Hint for the day...always pack much more than you think you'll need, because the one thing you're sure that nobody could possibly want to use will be the one thing that's an absolute necessity!