Dang! No April Blog Post -- But Here's A Little Something For May!

Hello Art Peeps, 

Well, my intentions were good for my New Year's Resolution of posting every month, but April kind of got away from me! Crazy busy at work and at home. Quick post tonight, just showing a couple things I've done recently that I haven't yet posted. April was so busy there were weeks that went by that I didn't even get a chance to get into my studio to play. That is NOT good! Hoping May is much better! 

You may remember that I painted my Midori Traveler's Notebook some time ago. Then I decided to paint a pair of Dansko clogs the same way. This is my favorite color palette as many of you probably know. So I also decided to paint a Dylusions Journal cover to match. 

Here's my first (and only) journal page in this book. I have been going to Weight Watchers since early January and I was documenting my weight loss to the point where I did this page at 21.8 lbs. I'm happy to announce that as of today, I'm down 29.4 lbs. I was sort of wavering thru the busy times in April and bounced up and down a bit and didn't make as much progress as I'd hope, but I'm very pleased all in all with my numbers. Besides the weight loss, my bloodwork numbers are way down and really looking better than they have for years, so I'm thrilled about that. Hoping to get them down to where I can get off some of these darned meds I take. 

I streamed last Sunday and did a collage I but down into ATCs. I just love the way these little works of art turn out when you cut up the larger collage. I use these as a little thank you note for my customers that purchase items from my Etsy Shop Inky Obsessions. Ustream seems to be giving everyone problems and I've not been able to upload my recordings to YouTube for my last two streams. Very frustrating because there's no one to call and speak to at Ustream to figure it out unless you are on the professional level of service and pay for streaming monthly. However, all is not lost. If you missed the live broadcasts and would like to view the recordings, you can do that by visiting my Ustream channel page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see all my recent recordings. 

I'm planning to stream live this Sunday morning, a little earlier than I usually stream, hoping to start at 10AM EST. Its been raining here daily for almost three weeks and calling for a break in the weather Sunday, so we're hoping to get the lawn mowed. Its never been as high as it is now and will be quite a job for sure. Hope to see you on the stream! Until then...

Happy Arting! 

Patti 

New Stamps & Teaching @ Creative Studios NC

Hello Everyone! 

In keeping with my New Year's Resolution (for a change!), here's a blog post for March! Yay me! 

Lots going on in my life, and all good (except for having to replace one of our heat pumps and some vehicle expenses, but I digress!). 

I have a new set of PTP Elements Rubber Stamps coming out very soon. I should have some of these in stock later this week in fact. Once I receive them I'll add them to my Etsy Shop - Inky Obsessions. The entire image below will be sold as a full 5" x 8" sheet of unmounted red rubber. The images circled in red will also be sold as a separate cling mount set. These images have been requested by my viewers that are fans of my polymer clay mosaics and the black and white tiles I include in all my designs. Using these stark graphic images stamped in black ink on white clay, you get that poppa black and white throughout your project that really makes the designs pop. I have a checkerboard stamp I got years ago with no branding on it. People were having trouble finding a sharp checkerboard and harlequin patterned stamp with distress markings on it so I thought I'd include some of these favorites in this stamp sheet. This also includes some of my new designs on my latest iStencil release of 8" round patterns. 

Exciting news -- I've been invited to teach at Creative Studios NC, in Vass, NC. I'll be teaching my Gelli JumpStart Journals that were featured in the 10th Anniversary Edition of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. My class will be on Saturday, 2 April. Spots are still available and you can register on the Creative Studios website. Creative Studios is fairly new to the area. It was created by and is run by Jan Nichols McClay, Jean Skipper, and Jodi Ohl. I've taken a number of classes with Jodi over the years at Create Art Retreat and just love her both as a person and an artist. I then joined Jodi, Jean and Penny Arrowood at their ReMe Retreat in Ocracoke Island, NC in October 2014. If you ever consider going to an art retreat -- this should be at the top of your bucket list. These ladies know how to put the 'retreat' into an art retreat. We were pampered and catered to from the minute we arrived. What a wonderful and fulfilling experience it was to become a ReMe sister. I will do this again, no doubt about that. 

Jodi has announced her next book release coming out later this year -- and guess who was invited to be a featured artist??? OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! So exciting and such an honor and amazing opportunity. I can't thank her enough! As soon as details are available for the release and purchase of her new book, I'll be sure to help her spread the word. 

Our 2nd Annual Maryland Art Gathering Weekend is coming together nicely. This year we'll have 30 ladies gathering together for a jam-packed fun-filled weekend of art, laughs, fellowship and fun. I'll be sure to share pics here of our time together and projects we create. 

I've claimed Sundays at Noon Eastern as my regular weekly Ustream LIVE broadcast time -- Sunday Crafternoon with Patti. This is working out well so far with my schedule, however, I will not be streaming on 27 March and 3 April due to Easter Sunday dinner at our place and another conflict on the 3rd. I'll resume on 10 April as scheduled. I always push the recordings of my live events to my YouTube channel, however, there have been some issues with Ustream lately that have garbled my audio. For some reason though, the recordings playback perfectly if you view them from my Ustream channel. Odd! But if you'd like to meet a great group of artists and interact with myself and them during my live broadcasts, come 'follow' me on Ustream and join in the fun. We share all sorts of information about products, techniques and links to both, and have a lot of laughs too. 

Here are some pics of projects I've done recently on my live streams: 

Gelli prints using my new iStencils:

Polymer Clay Tile mosaic coat hook:

Collages into ATCs:

Happy Arting! 

Patti