Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Paper-ED October Schedule

Unless otherwise noted all classes are $25 and require pre-registration at Michaels on West Broad Street.  All class also require that participant either purchase required supplies from store or bring supplies from personal stock at home, limited supplies are provided.

4th 11:00-1:00
     Paper Bag Mini Album
6th  6:00-8:00
     Halloween Party
9th 2:00-4:00
     Altered Canvas Trio
10th 2:00- 4:00
     Kid's Scrapbook Frame*
12th 6:00-8:00
     Tim Holtz Halloween
13th 6:00-8:00
     Tim Holtz Halloween
15th 3:00-8:00
     Crop Night **
18th 11:00-1:00
     Sketched Out
20th 6:00-8:00
     Card Tricks in a Flash
27th 6:00-8:00
     Sketched Out
30th 2:00-4:00
     Tags of Christmas Past

*This is a Kids Event, cost $15 per child,  and is appropriate for children kindergarten and up and requires parental supervision. 
**Crop Night is a monthly event, register for $5 and bring all your half-done projects to our classroom, meet-up with friends, get advice from the Scrapbooking expert and use the store's Cricut machine to put the finishing touches on all your projects.

Paper-ED Halloween Party

There's still time to make amazing paper Halloween decorations!  Sign up for Paper-ED Halloween Party October 6th for 6-8pm and create these stunning pieces for your Halloween celebrations.  Make a banner with paper rosettes, a two page 12x12 layout, an invitation, greeting card, decorated envelope, and table top decoration. 







Paper-ED Classes At Michaels FAQ

If you're looking for more information about the paper-ED classes (or Spotted Canary School) at Michaels Arts and Crafts, West Broad Street Store, you've landed in the right place. This is a work in progress; I'm adding more information all the time. If you have a question that isn't answered on this blog please feel free to contact me via email at GoodOnPaperRVA@gmail.com, and I'll do my best to answer your question as soon as possible. I'm going to hit the big questions right here, right now.

What is paper-ED?
paper-ED is a series of classes developed to teach the essentials of paper crafting while building students' confidence to create a hunger for more. We strive to present current, fresh, on trend curriculum that you won't see taught anywhere else. We also offer a scrapbookers and paper crafts an arena to socialize and network with their peers while building lasting relationships with others who share their passion.

What are the paper-ED classes?
At this time they are Card Trick, Tim Holtz Halloween, Paper Bag Mini Album, Texture Wow!, Halloween Party, Sketched Out, Altered Canvas Trio, Card Tricks in a Flash, and Tim Holtz Tags of Christmas Past. More classes are added all the time, and we've got at least one Crop Night scheduled each month.  (See additional posts for class descriptions).

Who teaches paper-ED?
Hi. my name is Beth, and I'm a craft addict. I've suffered with this wonderful affliction for most of my life, since I was old enough to grip a pair of safety scissors. I'm come to terms with this and I'm no longer seeking a cure of any kind, rather I've embraced my crafty nature and have become a Certified Scrapbook Instructor. I'm thrilled to be your guide to the wonderful world of paper crafts and I love the paper-ED curriculum developed by the Paper Craft Team at Michaels. I also teach the Spotted Canary School for beginning scrapbookers.

How much does the class cost?
Tuition is $25 for a 2-hour paper-ED class. Materials are not included. When you register for a class you will receive a syllabus with a list of necessary materials. You can either purchase the suggested materials, or bring materials from home.

How long are the classes?
Classes are 2 hours long unless otherwise specifically noted on the schedule.

Is there an age limit? Can I bring my kids?
That’s a fuzzy one. There are some kid’s classes, and those classes are specifically noted on the schedule, for example “Kid’s Scrapbook Frame”. Kid’s classes are recommended for children who’ve started elementary school and do require parental supervision. Responsible high school students are welcome to sign up for paper-ED classes, with parents permission and do not need to be accompanied, however to do love to see parent/child pairs in our classes. On the flip side, our classes are GREAT for seniors, we offer daytime as well as evening classes, and we can help you start to organize a lifetime’s worth of photos into beautiful, well-preserved scrapbooks! 
UPDATE: If you have middle school aged children (9-13) who would like to take a paper-ED class, please contact me, and we can work something out.  I'd suggest a ratio of one parent to three children, just to keep things moving.  In these cases all parents and children would be paying participants.

Why should I take your class instead of reading a blog, watching a YouTube video or just playing with products on my own?
Well, because quite honestly, there is no substitute for hands on learning. We’ve developed these projects with the product manufacturers and a team our corporate Paper Craft Team, to bring you what we believe to be an amazing finished product. We’ve done all the trial and error work for you already, and in taking just one class, you'll learn dozens of new techniques you can apply to all your paper crafting and scrapbooking in the future. PLUS you’ll meet some other people and make some new friends who share your interests and passion for paper.

How often do you introduce new classes?
Short answer? All the time. We’re constantly adding new classes to keep up with changing trends in paper crafting, introduce new products, and integrate seasonally appropriate themes. But all of our classes are modifiable by YOU to meet your needs. For example, our “Paper Party” series can be Halloween, X-Mas, Easter, a child’s birthday, a retirement party, and so many others. Our “Card Tricks” series is sampled with as a Thank You card set with a Chandelier theme, but could be changed to Dinosaurs and Happy Birthday for a young child, or Wedding Bells and Save the Date for a newly engaged couple. If you have a special need that you don’t know how to meet, just ask, I would be thrilled to help you.

I want to take a class, but the scheduled time(s) don't work for my schedule.
I realize that everyone's schedules are very busy these days.  Most of my classes are scheduled up to two-three months in advance at various times of the day and days of the week in an attempt to provide many options for everyone's schedules.  That being said, if there is a specific class you want to take that isn't scheduled at a good time for you, contact me, phone, email, blog comment, and we'll see if we can work something out.  Most of the time I will be able to accomadate you, with a reasonable amount of advanced warning.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Altered Shadow Boxes

This set of three boxes represents a rescue attempt on my part and I must say I think I can out better than I'd planned. What I had was a very generic set of three black shadow boxes and I liked them fine until one fell off the wall and the corner broke off.  I repaired the corner with wood glue and clamped it back on but it was a very noticeable repair, so they sat in the garage for months while I decided what to do.  Finally I got around to pulling out some patterned card stock and framing out the front of the boxes.  I layered some dye-cuts in a few places then sealed the whole shebang with a walnut stain to give it an aged appearance.  After the stain dried I loaded up a few more coats of medium, building thicker in some places and thinner in others, for a more dynamic appearance, but I don't think that comes through in the photos at all.  I hung them just in time to load them up with some Halloween tchotkes, but these will be a year round display. 






Saturday, September 3, 2011

Halloween Hamlet

I couldn't resist the alliteration, it makes everything better.  The kids and I made this little glittery village as this afternoon's craft.  I first saw the little paper house idea in this month's issue of Scrapbooks, etc. but upon further investigation, I found that they used the idea with permission of Claudine Hellmuth (who is uber amazing) so I'm sending you to her blog to take a look around.  I should not that I did modify her instructions, I didn't want to cut up any sheet music, so we used black card stock, cut out the places for doors and windows and lined those places with newspaper.  We also added glitter.  Lots and lots of glitter.   I didn't have any LED tea lights sitting around so I have to post lit-up pictures later. 

Friday, September 2, 2011

Stamped Gift Tags

These little cuties are from a while back. Maybe around February or March that I got my first Martha Stewart punch,the little birdie.  It's a combo stamp and punch set, so you've got a few options with the birds.  I found it easier to stamp the detail, then  line up the punch with the stamp.  Then I punched out the embellished square with the Martha Stewart Flourish Square Punch.  And while I'd love to say that it was simple to use, I had to put some muscle behind it, or it didn't get through the card stock all the way.  The birds very glued to the squares and the backs of the tags are stamped with TO: and FROM: once again using a Martha Stewart product, the Custom Stamp Setting Kit.  I wasn't very impressed with the Stamp Setting Kit.  Overall I though it gave only okay results, many tags were scrapped because the impressions didn't come out evenly or the letters worked their way out of position after several stamps.  In fairness I may have used it more heavily than intended as I probably made several hundred of these things, but if I make more, I'll just look for a static "To/From" stamp.   After the birds, more friends joined the party, sheep, birthday cakes, bees, etc.  There are still more that I don't have pictures of.  My new craft space should be ready within a week or so, and I'll be able to unpack all my goodies that haven't seen the light of day since I fled Church Hill to the suburbs!  Here's some pictures for now, more later...





Halloween is my Christmas

True Confessions from the All Hallows Eve Obsessed...
  • I'm that girl who hits the post Halloween sales and stocks my attic with Styrofoam tombstones and skulls LED lights starting November 1st.
  • I purchase skull decor items at Halloween and use them year round.  Skull salt and pepper shakers, skeleton salad tongs, skull and cross bone dish towels, the list goes on.
  • When the Spirit Halloween store opened in the previous Border's location my children and I were literally waiting outside the door when they opened on August 31st at 11:00.  We were the first sale, I had to wait for them to finish installing the POS machine. 
  • I finished my son's medieval knight costume in May.  
  • And I'm just a few yards of black tulle away from the final stitches on my daughter's costume.
  • In fact, my only problem with Halloween is that it only happens once a year. But if we start crafting now, we'll have at least two solid months of creepy, crawly, crafty goodness!
So, without further ado, please allow me to introduce to you the newest addition to my Halloween display, the Tabletop Halloween Curio.

I used A Tim Holtz Configurations Box*.  I think it's the Medium sized box.  This was my first time using this product, overall it was great.  Very easy to use and the options are pretty much endless.  I'm sure there are more of these boxes in my future because I've got lots of little collections. Here's some in progress photos of how it all came together.
Collection of possibilities.

The empty box. Each interior box is
separate and there are myriad of
configurations.

A dry fit of little pieces in the box. 
I removed a few of the individual boxes to make
room for the lion. 

Papering the back of the box.  The paper is from a 12x12 stack called
"Street Lace"

Dry fitting paper for the back of the trio of bottom boxes.

The bottom boxes are wrapped in black on the inside and bottom.

And this is the look once all the compartments have been papered.
I used ModPodge throughout and glued each object in place and well.  Originally
I used a silver Sharpie paint marker to color the front lip of each compartment, but then I decided to cover
them in ribbon for a more finished look as seen below.

Compartments lips are covered in purple ribbon.  Some objects on display include a
glow-in-the-dark LEGO ghost and Tim Holtz skeleton keys and escutcheons. 

This lion says Bordeaux, he came from the jewelry section, also a clip on glittered spider.

Here you can see one of the last additions, plastic skeleton hands, from my Halloween stash. 
I had a hard time figuring out how to adhere these guys because
they are not flat backed.  Finally, with assistance from my daughter, I used
Bendaroos.  If you have kids, you're probably familiar with
Bendaroos, if not, it's a bendable sticky stick thing.  Worked great.
That's it for now. I'm pretty new to this who Blogatorium thing, so my format will be changing.  But please to keep checking in, gentle reader, you never know what you will find.  However, I'll give you a sneak preview and say if you live in the Richmond, VA area and you are interested in paper crafting and/or scrap booking I will be starting to offer classes very soon at a very convenient West End location.  So, stay tuned for updates. 

*For more info about the Tim Holtz Configuration Box, visit his blog.