CREATE NJ--Day 2 + a Giveaway!

I'm having a giveaway to win one of the new Tim Holtz stamp sets. Click here to get in on the fun.

Day 2 began with our first big class ... The Archivist's Relic with instructor, Leighanna Light.  This was the class I was most anxious for!  Here are two of Leighanna's books, that she sells for $125 & $150!

The materials list was a mile long, but the class was oh, so worth it! Working with the metal covers in this class started a little spark in me.  I only had a sheet of aluminum (not all the techniques will work on aluminum, so I was limited), so I wasn't too excited about my cover.  During class, I did pound it with a hammer, and then swiped some patina on it.  I finished the cover at home during a playdate with Andrea, and this is what I came up with:

Aaaaah!  Loved working with copper!  Wait til you hear about Day 3 classes!  But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

We began by stamping designs on our large sheets of watercolor paper with gesso.  Then, using Adirondack re-inkers, we added color to the papers.  We used a ruler to rip them down to small pages.

I have this thing for earthy colors, and leaves and nature, so I kind of got carried away.  The nice lady at our table had some homemade papers with lots of grains & seeds in the fibers, and she shared some with us to add to our books.

It was so much fun playing with the colors ... adding water, drying, layering on more color.  It seemed to take forever to dry my pages with the heat gun!

After lunch, we sewed our pages into signatures and added the covers.

She gave us oversized pieces of canvas in case anyone messed up on the pages measurements.  A quick 'ripping' off (did I say quick?  I  meant struggle.  lol) the excess canvas, and then we glued our covers on.  We clamped the book, and then added some tiny screws.

I finally got to meet one of the 'other' Stephanie's from the All Things Tim group, Stephanie Navatski.  She's just delightful, and soooo talented!  The dolls she creates are just awesome!  You really should check out her blog here.

I got my photo op with our instructor, and we also got a pic with Stephanie.

After the class & dinner, we were excited about the 'artists faire'.  The instructors had booths with some of their artwork for sale, and a couple vendors were thrown in.  It was fun looking at all the art from the instructors, and getting a little shopping in!

Here's my haul:

Detailed pics:

Can you believe this whole package of honeycomb paper was only $4 bucks?!  I think I paid that much for one color online!  Ouch!

These are very cool--like mini Configurations boxes!

I had to buy a bag of  'old & rusty bits' to decorate my new book!

This was the most expensive package of tissues I ever bought, but my daughter loves this saying, and I wanted to support Stephanie's friend who had a booth  (I also bought the really cool ribbon from her, pictured above).

And, finally, I discovered Sept Apter this weekend.  I had to miss his Text Tiles class because we were taking the Banner Wrapped Beach Glass class, but I went into his classroom when ours was over to check it out.  A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!  So bummed I missed it, but he's actually going to teach it again in September here and I'm already signed up!  You have to be a member of their group to sign up, but it's no biggie to register.  His blog is here.  If you scroll down a few posts, you'll see the class info.

I bought one of his little books, and I felt like a stalker trying to get a good pic of him.

Very cool!