Great things come in small packages

What an awesome day we had on Saturday.  My friend Dottie and I traveled to the Great American Stamp Store in Westport, CT to take a class.  We took a class called Demystifying Distress Stains & Sprays by Marjie Kemper.  Check out the following YouTube video where she shows a sample from this class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdQoT0kFQyE

Here's a link to Marjie's blog, please take a look at her work, it's AMAZING.  I am such a fan.  She's so down to earth and really taught us a lot of great techniques.  I have so many ideas flying around my head and all I want to do is make art.  It was a blast to play with all kinds of fun products. I'll be working to complete the pieces I started in the class, and will post more about them in the coming week.    

http://www.marjiekemper.com/blog/

First things first, when we arrived our friend Brenda, who was joining us for the class, and works in the area, greeted us with these beautiful gift bags she decorated with one of the techniques we learned in the Creative Jumpstart class.  I LOVE it.  

Even the tag is beautifully embellished.  Then she included two bottles of the dylusions ink sprays and a Distress Ink!  I can't wait to put them to use and to show you what I've made.  

Finally, just a final thought about all the stuff we artists love to accumulate.  In preparing for the class I went through my supplies to pull out embellishments that I thought would work well for the class.  I went through my collection and was giddy when I stumbled upon a large box full of treasures.  I had watch parts, metal dog tags with sentiments, game pieces, metal letter stickers, keys and dozens of packages of cool things that I had accumulated.  I found this initially so exciting, but then I felt a bit sad to think I had all this stuff just stashed away.  

So for all you fellow artists who love to collect things for future projects, join me in my mission to try and use up all my stuff and make great art with it.  I don't want these wonderful embellishments to be locked away, I want them to be used, loved and "employed" in some meaningful way.  It's a goal I have, just like taking all my boxes of photos and putting them in albums. Use them or lose them, quite literally.