We had more snow today

The snow arrived again. This is more snow than I've ever seen in this country. Everything was covered in about 4 inches of snow when I came out to the office this morning. So I just had to grab the camera and get a photo.

An artist needs refreshment during the day and I've been taking a Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle up with me to the studio with milk in it for my hot drinks during the day. Today I was treated to my own personal fridge on the deck just outside the door.

This little guy sits on the wall at the bottom of the garden looking down the stairs. He was looking extremely unamused by the snow by the time I took this photo.

Zandy couldn't get into work this morning because the roads hadn't been gritted sufficiently so, after lunch we went for a walk down to the river.

I love the view over the fields nearby. Absoutely beautiful. As long as I don't have to work in it, I love it.

So this has been my work today. It's the poster for our next concert. If you want tickets, I can get them for you too. The background was created with alcohol inks on glossy cardstock. It's a little blotchier than I normally do. This is really thick photo paper. As I carried it up to the studio, the paper got wet and damaged the emulsion. I inked over the top and the blotches show through the inking.

Snow it's not!

For those of you who haven't heard, the UK had the worst snow in 18 years fall today. Now, I love snow, so I think it's brilliant. But I have noted that when the snow falls in Britain, the entire country screeches to a halt. This year it has been fun to watch the chaos because they were warning us about this snow two days ago. But a lot of councils didn't deploy the gritters so this morning when we all woke up to a white carpet, the roads weren't prepared. DH got sent home from work at lunchtime so he's working in the house, while I'm up here in the studio.

Speaking of which: this is the studio in the snow. Isn't she pretty?

I promised you more photos

I'll try to give you a 360 degree tour of the room so that you can get a feel for how it feels at the moment. Today, we moved in two of the three desks that will eventually be in the room. Now, if you look over to the IT corner, you can see my glass-topped desk and my Herman Miller chair that I picked up at an auction for a 6th of it's retail price. The desk will host my computer and main printer and the bench next to it will be my main repair station and the location of the other two printers. Underneath the bench will be storage.















This is my craft table. It's an old kitchen table that a friend of mine gave me. I've now covered it completely with a non-stick craft sheet to protect the surface. The second photo shows the 13" square light box that has been sunk into the surface. It's facing toward my IT desk so that (once I've got my desktop working again) I can watch DVDs while I craft.





















This is my craft desk from the other side. As you can see, from my seated position, I can reach most of the things I need without having to move too far. My Distress Inks are on a display next to me and I have a little netting bag with my Cut N Dry foam squares easily reachable.





















Right, so this is a close-up of the bench next to my desk. The drawers are from Ikea (but they don't make them anymore, pity) and they are screwed to the wall. Underneath, is a curtain pole that is designed to be hung from above and about 120 curtain rings with clips so that I can clip all manner of things to them. It's working out really well. To the left of that is a letter organiser thingy that I have all my cutting mats in. There are three stamp displays that I picked up from a store going out of business. On top of the drawers is currently where I'm storing my Radiant Rains, Colour Washes, Zig pens, Heat guns and little clock radio so I can listen to Radio 4.

Above the drawers I have two cupboards that I bought off eBay. One is currently where all my Bind-It-All stuff is stored. The other side doesn't have much in it yet. Fixing it to the wall was interesting because the fixings that came with the cupboards originally where broken and my plasterboard walls weren't strong enough. I screwed a piece of timber across the top of the inside of the cupboard which afixes it to the wall, and then put another piece on the bottom to support from underneath.





















If you turn 180 degrees upon yourself, you can see my bench that I showed you yesterday that is covered with non-stick craft sheet. Because I like to keep this clear for when I'm doing really messy stuff, it is also a really good place to put out stuff that I need to photograph at the moment. However, I have another glass desk that will go in front of this bench. So, I may move the non-stick craft sheet over to the bench on the left.





















We have all the amenities here. That's a coffee machine and a water cooler. The water cooler also doubles as my water source for cleaning brushes etc. Immediately to the left of this bench, are the double french doors.



























Excuse the rubbish boxes on the floor. Now, I have to explain this large frame. This is the frame for a "cupboard" that forms part of my stand at Craft, Hobby & Stitches. It gets clad in white corrugated plastic and provides a great storage space during the show. I will clad it after CH&S is over, but the plastic is too tall for the ceilings in my studio. To the left of that, you can just see the start of the storage area.



























My stamp storage. I've removed most of the wood blocks from my stamps (and they are now providing nice heat for us on our fire) and stored them in a combination of CD cases and file folders. Everything fits neatly onto this shelf and at the moment I even have space for my Wizard and Big Shot. This shelf was given to my by a friend who has returned to New Zealand (thanks, Bron). There is even space for my chipboard shapes on the top shelf.



























Okay, so this is the storage. These are two Billy bookcases facing three Sten shelving units (both from Ikea, but Sten is now discontinued). At the moment, I am simply dumping things on these shelves as they come into the studio in vague categories. I will do more organising once everything is in and I know how much stuff I have to put away. I also have left-over stuff from the construction of the studio stored here and again, that will be moved out - either to one of the garden sheds or given away on Freecycle.

These shelves will also hold all my books and magazines that I keep. Being a book person, I have quite a few so this may take a bit of sorting out, when the time comes. You can just see agains the back wall, my Really Useful storage boxes that will hold all manner of small bits and bobs once I'm more organised, but currently just hold extra screws from the building.



























These are the Sten shelves I referred to above. I have bought some inexpensive boxes from Tesco to sort things out into and this process has started today. Somewhere I have a labeller which I will use on everything.

So, that is the tour of the studio as it currently stands. I do need to do a lot more, because I looked at the house office today and was gobsmacked as to how much craft staff I still have to move up and that doesn't even start to take into account the IT stuff that has to go up. Anyway, this week I will be concentrating on moving all the stuff that is still in the barn up so that my neighbour can have his barn back. Then, I have to prep for Stitches, so I probably won't journal about the studio for a while.

If you're trying to find yourself a place to build as a studio, I hope that this might give you some ideas. If you're not, then hopefully it has been a little entertaining!

I'm creating again

I've moved enough stuff into the studio now that I can be creative again. Which is wonderful and just in time to pull together more stuff for Stitches which is in two weeks' time. I found this beautiful clock in my local supermarket after Christmas for £10 so it went up today.

I created these canvases a few months ago. I love Paris. I particularly love Le Tour Eiffel and I'm working on getting images of it all over my studio. I bought these coasters off a tourist trap seller's stall on the banks of the Sienne when we went over in 2007. I picked up these canvases from Hobbycraft and painted them with Adirondack Dimensional Pearls (the stamps are also done with the Pearls) before adhering the coasters on with Glossy Accents.

Today I've been working on two projects: The first is an altered cigar box for a class I've been asked to teach. I don't think this sample is finished, but it's definitely something to start with.

I removed the lid and as much paper as would tear off by hand. I then took some Midsummer Night's Dream paper and sprayed Interferance Violet Radiant Rains on it and ironed it dry. I covered the lid seperately, but have learned that you need to trim the lid down first or it won't fit once covered with paper. The inside of the box is covered with watercolour paper that I painted the Adirondack Dimension Pearls on to tie it in with the Scrapperdashery paper. I reassembled the box with hinges, added a clasp on the front and added corners to the bottom of the box. The lid was stamped with Tim's stamps in Pitch Black Adirondack Pigment Ink, then dusted with Black Sparkle Embossing Powder. I messed up a bit with the stamp, so I took three Prima flowers, covered them with Pitch Black Pigment Ink and dusted with Black Sparkle and set it.

My other project today as been to work out what the best Make N Take I can do at Stitches can be? It needs to be something that can be done in less than 10 minutes and that retailers might want to recreate when they get back to the shop. This little tag book uses one sheet of 12x12 (Romeo & Juliet), Radiant Rains, Distress Ink, Pitch Black Adirondack Pigment Ink and Black Sparkle Embossing Powder. It uses two sections of O-wire and the Bind it All to hold it together. It's simple, but I'm not sure if it's simple enough. Need to think about it more.

So, how is the rest of the studio coming along? Well, I haven't shown you any photos of it for a while (because my camera has been on the blink). So the photo of the cigar box shows you the work surface that I have covered completely with non-stick craft sheet. Wonderful stuff. So easy to keep clean. The corner that my computer equipment will go into is now ready for me to start moving in. I have network up in the studio (I'm writing this from the studio as we speak), so I need to move my desk up and then start to get the computer equipment in place. The desk will go where the white chair currently is. Behind the desk is a set of Billy bookcases, facing a set of Sten shelves that I painted white. This is my main storage and still needs sorting and organising. Somewhere in storage I have a label maker so that everything can be labelled once it is in it's permanent home. Underneath the benches, I have loads of Really Useful Boxes full mostly with paper.

This is the opposite corner - the one where the bench is entirely covered with craft sheet. There will be a desk going next to this. You can just see my paper racks to the right of the photo and I have a little oil heater which I can roll around the studio depending on where I'm working most that day. I have to be careful: this place is so well insulated that it doesn't take much to warm up and if I forget to turn it down, it gets too warm quite quickly.

I will take and share more photos so that you can see how things are progressing. But not right now, I need to go find dinner.

2.5 day workshop

We're about to start the last day of my workshop here in my studio. The girls have been doing fantastically.

On Wednesday night we managed 16 techniques and yesterday, clawed our way through another 30 or so. But, that still leaves another 34 techniques and they have to complete their projects after that! So, we might have to miss out one or two things along the way...

The girls say they've eaten better here than they do at home, so no complaints on that front. It didn't help that one of the toilet in the house decided to block up on Tuesday night. No time to call out a plumber, so we're having to restrict ourselves to only using the other two toilets.

I'd love to share some photos of the event, but when my camera came back from repair just before Christmas, they'd stuffed up and it still wasn't working. I had hoped that it would be back on Wednesday, but no messages, so I guess not.

Just know that we're having a blast of a time. We're all three of us exhausted - me from teaching them all this stuff and them from having to take in all of this information!

Classes:

I'm teaching some classes in the next two months that may be of interest to some of you if you're in the locality.

Firstly, this Thursday (27th November) from 7.30 to 10.00 ish, I'm teaching an 8x8 album class full of sliders, pockets and pull outs. This little wire-bound album is a great opportunity to learn how to add interactive elements to your projects. Although we're working in an album format, most of them can be adapted and scaled down to card projects. If you're interested in attending this class, contact MJ at sales@everymomentmatters.co.uk or call her on 07708 951 575.

On Wednesday, 3rd of December at 3.30pm and repeated at 6.30pm, I'm teaching a class on Perfect Pearls from Ranger at Stamparty in Aldershot. In this class, I'll teach a large number of different techniques that you can do with these marvellous mica pigment powders. Plus, because we're leading up to Christmas, I've got a great small project to add to the class that will brighten up your Christmas. If you want to book a place on this class, please email Alison at sales@stamparty.co.uk or call her on 01252 321 999.

Finally, I'm teaching a workshop at my house. The dates are 14-16 January 2009. The workshop will run from 3pm on the Wednesday, til 6pm on the Friday. This will be a technique workshop. The format will be as follows:

Wednesday:

4.00-6.30: Techniques

7.00: Dinner at the restaurant across the road

After dinner: we can continue if people want to

Thursday:

8.30-9.30: Breakfast

9.30-12.30: Techniques, stopping for breaks as people wish

12.30-1.30: Lunch at my home

1.30-6.30: Techniques, stopping for breaks as people wish

7.00: Dinner at my home

After dinner: we can continue if people want to

Friday:

8.30-9.30: Breakfast

9.30-11.00: Techniques

11.00-12.30: Start work on our project

12.30-1.30 : Lunch at my home

1.30-5.30: Finish projects

5.30-6.00: Pack up and clean up

The price for this workshop is £180. This includes all the food including eating out on Wednesday night. It also includes all the materials we'll use during the classes, plus a significant amount of goodies for you to take home with you.

I have accommodation for two people sharing a queen sized bed, or there are local B&Bs that I can recommend that are a short hop, skip and a jump away. There is no extra charge for accommodation if you stay with me, but you will need to meet the cost of the B&B, should you choose that.

If you'd like to do this workshop, please let me know via the Email Me link at the top of this page. I need to know if you'd like to attend by Christmas. A non-refundable deposit of £50 will need to be paid by the 24th of December, with the full amount paid by the 2nd of January 2009.

Lizzi's Album

A very good friend of mine asked me to create a scrapbook for her daughter's 18th birthday. Daughter had requested one that she can put all her favourite photos from school into.

You have to remember that when I scrapbook, it generally takes me two hours to create one page. The birthday is only two days away and I still have to get my day job out of the way and our Concert on Saturday really ate into crafting time. Plus the majority of my stash is still in storage. However, I'd picked up a bargain pack of papers from Costco made by Memory Stor and some of their albums.

So I decided to set myself a challenge. Could I create an album with limited stash and tools? Actually, what I've found is that it's faster to create an album if you don't have the worry of what photos are going to be in it! I'm not matching colours in photos to the album. I'll leave it to Lizzi to determine which photos she wants to put on which pages. It's quite liberating, actually!

I've limited myself to one sheet of each design. Besides the paper (which admittedly is 100 different designs, double-sided), I have glue, double-sided tape/photo squares and Distress Ink (because you're not going to get me to create anything if I can't use Distress Ink). My tools are limited to my Sissix Big Shot and only two dies, plus two texture plates, one set of Build-A-Swirl clear stamps by Prima, a non-stick craft sheet, Cut-N-Dry foam and my CM circle cutters. Everything else is off limits. I've managed to make and photograph 13 pictures in total and these are displayed here.

I'm going to continue working on the album tomorrow and hopefully have something complete for her mother to pick up on Wednesday. I hope she likes it.

I have to apologise for the poor photography. This was taken with my mobile phone as my camera is being repaired.

The Technology

All the benches have been put in now and I'll put up photos of them once I have them.

I haven't blogged the technology that has gone into The Studio yet. There aren't any photos of it, because most of it you can't see as it's hidden.

Doorbell: I needed to be able to respond to people at the front door no matter where I was. I have large doorbell on the front of the house labelled The Studio which is attached to a wireless unit. At my end, I have a handset that is wireless, so no matter if I'm in the house or the Studio, I can respond to whoever's buzzing and let them know that I'm on my way.

Networking: I have three cables running down a pipeline through the garden to the guest house at the back of our house. These will be attached to a switch which will pick up one cable running to the main house. Only two of those cables will probably be used to start off with (but Zandy says he'll set up Voice Over IP for me in the future if I want more sophisticated telephony up there). They will feed into a wireless switch which will also feed four cables that run through the walls over to my main work space. So, I'll have wireless and wired up there.

I also have a 16-port switch that will hang on the wall over my work area. This will allow me to have my two printers networked, plus my network attached storage as well as my main desktop and secondary laptop attached and still give me plenty of space for having customer's computers on the network. I have a nice, large screeen for my main desktop so that I can watch DVDs while crafting.

Telephone: I have a DECT wireless booster that allows my digital phone to reach up to the Studio. The phone system has an intercom facility, so Zandy can call me from the house if he needs me.

I'll blog more about the technology as it starts to go into place.

Moving in

This is how I finished the plastering. As you can see, it's not as neat as if it had been done by a professional, but it is good enough.





I was a little concerned about the finishing where the plaster met the rafters as it really didn't look very good and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to ignore it. So I purchased some lengths of quarter-round and they have edged the bits of the plasterboard. Now that they're painted in, it looks almost professional - almost.



So, I started painting. I had bought a large bucket of brilliant white paint with the idea that I'd paint it all like that. However, as you can see in this picture, I'd put up some second-hand cupboards I picked up on eBay and against the white paint, they looked grey. I have also tried every gadget available on the market to supposedly make painting easier and I have to say that there's a reason why most painters still stick to the old roller and tray method. However, one tip I picked up from a painter was to put the tray into a plastic bag then pour the paint into the tray over the plastic bag. Work like that and when you're done, you simply turn the bag inside out over the dead paint and throw it away. No clean up of the tray required. I decided to leave the ceiling white so that I get the most light reflection and to paint the walls a gentle cream. A friend, Richard, came over to help me paint and over the course of a weekend we got all the painting done bar a few touch ups which I went back and did later. He also stayed on an extra day and helped me lay the floor which was an added bonus.



This last weekend, Zandy came and helped me put up some of the workbench. My neighbour, David, is coming back to cut down the other workbench so that it can go in place, but this means that I have started moving in. Things are not in their final places, by any means, but I've started to sort things out. As you can see, I've added another set of drawers under the cupboards. Hung underneath these drawers is a curtain rail with pincer clips hanging on it so that I can hang just about anything I want and have it within easy reach. I've seen these sold as a commercial product in the US and thought they were a really good idea but very expensive to buy and import. This cost me about £65 in total and it is exactly the length I need for my work space. It has 120 clips on it so I'm not going to run out of space any time soon.

Underneath one of the worktops I have a display stand that I picked up from a shop that was going out of business. It is designed to dispense small bottles of acrylic paints. So far, it is holding my Folk Art acrylics, my Making Memories Acrylics and my Glimmer Mists. As I unpack more, I'll see how much will fit into it.



One corner of the room has a different type of workbench on it. This is because I already had this length of workbench which I had used on the Scrapperdashery stand at Stitches last year. It seemed a pity to waste a perfectly good piece of workbench. This will be my "wet area". I have a water cooler that supplies 4 litres of water which I just refill from the tap when I need a top up. It even has the facility to chill the water and dispenses either chilled or ambient temperature depending on what I want. Not bad for £50, I thought. I also have a little kettle so I can make myself tea and coffee. At present it is also the home for my iPod speakers, and anything else that I bring up from the house, but that may not stay that way as I have other plans.



I have 40 Display Dynamics paper trays that I bought from the shop going out of business and I have another 9 that I bought years ago at great expense. I've been trying to decide what to do with them. I think they'll go under a workbench, but we'll see. It will be great to have the paper I use a lot out where I can see it.

At the other end of the room, I've put up some of the shelves from Ikea that I mentioned in a previous post. They cover most of the width of the room. Facing them I've placed two of the largest Billy bookcases and backed them with white corrugated plastic left over from the Stitches stand. As you can see they provide me with a kind of storage cupboard so that I can put unsightly things out view. It also increases the amount of space I have for storage by a vast amount. What you can't see in the photo to the left is that I have a frame (you can see two of the parts of the frame leaning against the shelves) that forms a tall cupboard in the corner of the room. This will be clad in more of the white corrugated plastic and will give me a storage cupboard for things that are too tall to go anywhere else. It has a shelf at head height so lots of the tools that I don't use on a regular basis will go there. As will some of the network that is yet to be installed.

I have yet to attach the fixings for the car roof box to the ceiling so that I can store the roof box out of the way when it isn't being used. I also have two of these Really Useful sets which are going to be attached to the wall somewhere.

So, the next week or so is going to be spent with me moving things in slowly. There's about three or four car loads of stuff in storage and I really can only move one car load a day - some of those boxes are very heavy - and I want to sort things out as I move in as much as possible so that it goes in in an orderly fashion. I hope this weekend to start moving in some of the furniture out of the house but we have a concert coming up this weekend so that knocks out Saturday. I'll see how much I can get done on Sunday.