What a fun weekend!
This Mixed Media Adventures Workshop was my favorite so far.  Judith and I have been teaching these workshops for the past 4 years in various locations and with different projects and I think we have figured out the best venue, the best content, and the best group of creatives to bring together to create an atmosphere where we thrive at an affordable cost.

When we announced our February workshop, it sold out in a week so we scheduled another one in March and that too, sold out.  I don't know if we can put on another one this fall but we will be thinking about that.

In any case, we will definitely be creating a new workshop for next Feb 2020 so if you are interested, be sure you are signed up to my newsletter where I will be announcing the details.

Hope you are having a creative day.

In case you haven't heard, I moved to an apartment and am selling the house we have lived in for 30 years.  Quite a change.

But part of the change is going through all the boxes and things we have stored, thinking we would need them some day.  One of those boxes contained my husband's postal stamp collection.

Discovering he collected stamps was a surprise to me since that was a hobby I spent many hours doing with my Dad.  I've always loved the stories and histories that stamps reflected and when my husband said he didn't want them any more, I took them to my studio.

They weren't worth more than the postage printed on them but I didn't want to use them for regular mail.  Besides, it would take eleven 5 cent stamps to mail a letter today!  

So I decided to make them into art tiles.  

Here's the one I inserted into my Valentines Day card this year.  He loved it!
​

It all started with a text message...

"Hi grandma I was wondering if u could make me a pouch for my drawing tablet.  Could it pls be gray and pink.  The measurement if 14.2 x 8.6 so could u pls make it a little bigger.  Love u so much.

Of course, I checked out my stash and incredibly, I had no pink or gray fabric!  (not my favorite colors!)  So I went shopping and bought some FQ's in a variety of values and started making the fabric using my left-over Stitch & Slash technique.

Because I have been making wallets and purses for a while, I was pretty confident of using a zipper to close the top and attaching the lining for the inside.  

I thought a 9" opening would be fine but no!  Did you know a 9" zipper doesn't open to 9"?  I didn't until the entire pouch was made and I couldn't insert the cardboard tablet I made in the dimensions of her tablet.

Back to the drawing board.

But problem solving is a part of all my artwork so instead of starting over (which I hate as much as ripping out stitches) I cut out the zipper and finished the raw edge with some couching.  Then, it was too short.  So I added some Sari ribbon to the edge and added more couching.

So instead of a zipper, I created a tab and added that with a couple of magnetic closures.

To personalize it, I added her name using some alphabet beads.

​All in all, I think it turned out cute.  I hope it fits and she likes it.  If not, I can always make another one now that I know how to do it right!