Another Hero Arts Background Card

One more of the card I will do for my up coming classes at Cranberry Hill. It's a really simple design but it does take some time to make. All the Printwork images are cut out and pop dotted up. I love pop dots! It looks much better in person.

Alter Hero Arts Card

Another card for my upcoming Hero Arts Class. This is a really tame alter art look. Didn't want to make to "out there" and scare people away :) Bird is from AccuCuts.

Hero Arts Background

One of the cards I will be doing for my next round of cards. Hero Arts came out with XL background stamps. This one is done on glossy paper with various inks rub on to make the background. I'm always inspired by Michelle Zindorf's use of this technique (multiple use of inks and shading) so I decided to include a card in one of my classes.

Studio Update - Almost Done

My studio is 99% done! There is a problem with the sink that I have (it's from Germany) not having all the hardware when I brought it. So, now I have to special order the parts. It's not a big deal and doesn't effect me from getting things moved in and filling up the drawers. Lucy and Purrcy thought it was their new play room and decided to play cat and mouse while I was moving things in last night. I have lots of nice comfy chairs for classes and crops. I still have the tables in the storage Pod, so they won't be in for another week or two. I did go over budget but it wasn't a total sticker shock. I told Randy (the contractor) that this remodel is my new car. :)

Wild Time At Our House

It's been a wild time at my house this week. We are finishing up the work (remodel) of my art studio and it's bee swarm season. We are on the call list for our local Bee Keepers Guild. When someone has a unscheduled bee swarm arrive in their yard, hopefully they call the Bee Guild to have them removed. Urban bee keepers (volunteers) come out and if it's a easy catch, will remove the bees and located them in a new beehive or a hive that needs more girls. The hive in the picture will be relocated to a new home up in the hills that has a wonderful lavender.
So remember if you and anyone you knows gets a swarm, call your local Bee Guild first. The sooner the swarm in spotted the easier the removal.

New Class in the works

I haven't done a lot of design work for my classes since the start of my studio remodel. Now that we are down to the last week and just the finishing work has to be done on the studio I can focus on my classes again. I'm planning on doing a "beyond the basics" class with the Cuttlebug embossing folders so I start playing around with different technique. I rubbed the ink several times over the whole embossing folder and when it came out of the machine, I was thrilled to see this alter art look. I didn't want to cover up the embossing so I picked the smallest sentiment I had.

House Lust

I was given a GC to Borders a while back and I finally managed to get to the store last week. I thought I was going to just run in and pick up a copy the Take Ten magazine. I didn't find this issue all that interesting, so I wandered around the store. I ended up coming home with three books. Another cookbook on using slow cookers, a "what to do after college" book for my daughter and this book "House Lust". I was very surprised to find it to be a really entertaining read. It starts out a little slow but once I started I really didn't what to put it down. If you live in Silicon Valley you will totally relate to the book.

End of Week 4

These are photos at the end of week 4 of my studio make over. There was a little drama over the floor but that issue has now been taken care of. During a weak moment at the beginning of this week, I said yes to having crown moulding put in. Randy (the contractor) said that this was the first time he ever put crown moulding in a garage. He had some left over from another job and wasn't charging me much to install it. It does look nice but after what I had to pay to get the new flooring in, I should saved my money. From the pictures of the floor, you can tell I have to do something!!! The lights, outlets and most of the trim work is done. Just a little more painting, finishing off the baseboards, installing the sink and I think we are done. Because my garage slants toward the street (they all do that), Randy will be building a base for my apothecary cabinet so it will be level in the garage. He will also make a valance to cover up the cables to the garage door.

Flooring? End of week 4

I've done enough remodeling jobs to know that at some point something will come up not in the game plan. As Randy (the contractor) was getting ready to start prepping the floor, he noticed that it had been painted before. Now I know we talked about it and it didn't seem to be a problem at the start of the project. After some serious hours of research, I found out you can't epoxy over old paint. You have to start with a clean slat or in this case, clean cement. To do that now with 90% of the project done, I run the risk of messing up my walls. It could add another month to the project and could mean having to paint the walls again. O.K. I'm stressing and telling myself this was not a good time to cut back on my chocolate binges. At first I was going to just get porch paint and make big paint splash on the floor. That turned out to have some issues too, so I started looking for a flooring place that had something in stock and could be installed next week. After a long search I finally found a carpet store who will edge bind a low pile indoor/outdoor carpet to the size of my studio in the short time frame I'm working with.
It would not be my first choice to have my sink and cabinets sitting on carpet but it will have to do. I'm staying in my color palette(light yellow, gray and dark red) and using the gray carpet.

Painting the Studio

This is the start of week 4. The final paint is going on the walls and the finish work will be done on Wednesday. I went with Home & Hearth for the walls and Shredded Wheat for the ceiling and skylights. I was told many years ago (during a very stressful remodeling project) that if I want the ceiling to look the same color but not make the sky light wells look too dark, to use half the amount of base color in the paint. Same color but just a lighter tone. From the pictures and in person you can't tell (unless you look really hard) that the walls and ceiling are two different color. Makes the room look like there is a lot of natural sunlight coming in from somewhere. The floor will be a light gray epoxy finish and hopefully be done by the end of the week. The weather has been a little on the cool side so it will take a little longer to dry.

SU Swap

This month my Stampin Up group (5 levels of upline people) will meet. We swap out card fronts at this meeting. The rules are that everything has to be from SU and something a customer can make in less than 5 minutes. Since I will be swapping with everyone (over 40 people) I go for a simple basic card. Not all the ladies follow the 5 minute rule, which is too bad. This card only takes a few minutes make, which would make a nice quick demo. Yes, I would have added rhinestones and a little touch from a Stardust pen, but SU doesn't carry those products.

End of Week Three

It's now the end of week three for the work being done on my studio. The drywall guys just finished putting on the last texture coat - I can't remember what they call it and I don't speak Italian. Since most of the walls will be covered with art or display boards, it wasn't a big issue with me. Once I found out I couldn't get the texture I wanted in the time frame we are working with, I let them do what they thought was close. Overall it came out looking pretty good. I went with the light yellow tones - "Home & Hearth" for the walls, "Shredded Wheat" for the ceiling and skylights. I know most of the votes were for light green, but I had a dream of a barn made out of straw before I knew the lighter yellow was called shredded wheat. Since I will someday have a studio/loft in a converted barn, I took it as a sign to go with the soft yellow tones. Randy will start the painting and finish work on the walls, then the floor will get done. After that the sink and floor trim goes in. So far things are right on schedule.