Be Good and altered art ....

..... Good morning.  This is likely to be a long post as I've a lot to show you!!  I'll start by sharing a card that I've made for two challenges:

• My Favourite Things Wednesday Sketch - MFTWSC92
• Waltzingmouse Christmas Card Challenge - WMSCCC12-02 - February

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse -Around Christmas Time
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Real Red
Spellbinders: Pinking Circles Sm (S4-172) #5, Circles Lg (S4-114) #5
Accessories:  Design Paper - SEI - Berry Melody; Sakura Clear Stardust Pen, Glitter, Flock and Card from stash

I used this photo as the colour inspiration - red, cream, pale turquoise and this fab sketch for the layout.  The is very little stamping involved, most of the design comes from these super paper by SEI - so pretty.  I love this Santa stamp - I kept it very clean and simple as the papers are quite busy.  I stamped in red, cut it out with my Spellbinder dies and added some glitter and flock for sparkle.  Done!  Below is a close up of the Santa stamp showing the different textures and types of glitter - it looks super in real life.

Now, the rest of this post is all about the classes I attending on Saturday 6th October - which just happened to be World Card Making Day!!  The classes were held at Stampeddler, my local shop, and run by Amy Flowers.  She is an amazing artist and great teacher.  I was booked in all day to attend classes on:

• The Bee's Knees - how to use beeswax in collage.  It was such fun.  We made a small ATC size canvas first and then moved up to a large piece of art.  I'm already planning to attend Amy's class again next year.  Not only was it fun, but the class smelt great too!
• Art Journal Adventures - I've been admiring some of the Art Journal pages produced by many of you out in Blogland.  But I've had no idea where to start.  Amy gave us a huge A4 watercolour paper book for our journal and we then spent the session learning different techniques to decorate pages.  This is very much a work in progress and I've lots still to do.  But I think I'm hooked.
• Altered Book - the last session was to make, well start, an altered book.  Amy had prepared some old books by cutting a shaped edge and then we learnt how to prepare the pages for us to work on.  I managed to get a few pages completed, but this one will take a while.  I've always kept a journal of sorts with sayings, quotes, poems, even whole songs, and I intend to make this altered book a place to keep some of these words.

It was the best way to spend WCMD!!  Kathryn had a super time too - she went to stay with my friend for the day, and they were out at a Fall Festival.  And Jonathan was in Las Vegas taking photos - which I hope to scrapbook - eventually!  Here are a few photos (in totally the wrong order) of the work I did on Saturday:

The photos above are the pages we worked on - using paints, spraying, stamping, etc - I've still got lots of empty pages to fill and techniques to try.  I was covered in paint by the end of the day!!

These are pages from my Altered Book.  I've started to firm up the pages and there are a few that I've decorated already.  I've made vertical pockets in one page and included a tag - I'm going to put one of my favourite quotes on the back - not sure which one yet!  The cover is really dull at the moment - but will be done in due course.

These two photos are of the beeswax work done at the start of the day.  The little ATC canvas with the playing cards was the first one I made.  Working with wax is very strange - not only is it very hot, but it sets really quickly too, so you have to move fast!  The ATC has a very autumnal colour palette, while the clay board picture is much lighter and more subtle.

That all for now - time for some house stuff! Bye for now.