Wednesday, September 27, 2017

In A Word...A M A Z I N G...

Hi Everyone...buckle up while I tell you all about my trip to Art From The Heart in Harrogate to attend the Creative Chemistry UK workshop with Tim Holtz and let me start off by giving a huge shout out to Tim, Mario and Ben from AFTH for all the hard work they put in to make this the best workshop ever...in fact it was AMAZING and then some...there are not enough adjectives to describe how much I enjoyed it.
And how lucky was I to share this fabulous weekend of fun with my lovely buddy Anne and her hubby David starting off on Saturday night with a gorgeous meal at Graveleys Fish Restaurant along with another lovely crafty friend Rachel...

and of course weekends away always involve the Sunday morning traditional Full English breakfast...
a huge thank you to my bestest buddy Anne for her kind and generous gift...a gorgeous Assemblage Black Hitch and Loop Bracelet...
I'd never visited Art From The Heart before and oh boy it's amazing...jammed packed to the rafters with loads of fabulous fabulous crafty stuff...real kid in a sweetie shop stuff and a huge thank you to Ben for the lovely Yorkshire welcome and for looking after us so well...no pics I'm afraid...I was too busy putting stuff in my basket.
OK let's get started...Anne and I attended the afternoon workshop on Sunday...the last class of the event along with a lovely group of fellow crafters and our adorable Professor was in top form...Tim really is the best tutor/educator there is...so passionate about sharing his phenomenal Distress product knowledge and inspiration with his students but it wasn't all heads down and get to work. When Tim and Mario are in the room...it's going to be a whole load of fun and oh boy we were treated to a very entertaining 4 hours of Tim's wicked sense of humour
check out our cool Aprons and name tags
Each kit contained a selection of tags pre-prepared by Tim and Mario and two sets of exclusive stencils...
and guided by the Master of Distress himself we created our technique based tags using Distress Spray Stains, Paints, Crayons and Distress Oxides...
and the attention is all in the detail...self adhesive technique labels were also included to fix on the back of the tags, a Worn Cover with page pockets for storage and a self adhesive Exclusive Label printed on sticky back canvas, each one hand cut to fit by Mario...

and then it was treat time...special extra goodies to take home..
this beautiful Wallflower Tote...
a District Market Notebook and Noble Gent pouch
and last but no means least an Assemblage Lucky Charm necklace...
and guaranteeing that each and every workshop ran smoothly was this guy...the amazing Mario, King of BTS and Kitting, Chef Extraordinaire, Expert Parcel Shipper and Sweetheart all rolled into one...
he looked after us all so well...nothing is ever too much trouble for Mario...he made sure we all had the best time...how lucky were we to have our very own personal shopper/workspace tidier-upper, maker of coffee and tea and dispenser of lots of hugs.
After the workshop...Tim and Mario hung around for a few hours chatting with everyone, posing for photographs, signing aprons, bags and books and if you visit my blog on a regular basis you'll know how much I love these guys. ..they truly are the nicest, friendliest, kindest, most generous, down to earth genuine guys and I think that each and every attendee at the Creative Chemistry UK workshops fell in love with them too..they are great ambassadors for the craft industry and have that rare ability to make everyone feel special. A picture is worth a thousand words and spending time with special friends are what wonderful memories are made of...
But before I go...I know that lots of folks were very disappointed not to get a place at this event...Tim has said that he will be back but in the meantime I would recommend you sign up for Tim's Creative Chemistry Classes online...click on the links for more info...
honestly they are also amazing... the next best thing to sitting with Tim in his studio taking a one-to-one class, packed full of techniques and product information, you have lifetime access to all the class videos, you can pause, rewind or refer back to them at any time and once you have completed each class, you can print off the instructions and store your technique tags in Worn Covers just as we did at the workshop...
I use mine on a regular basis...my very own Tim Holtz Distress easy go-to reference library right there on my bookshelf.
I'm hoping to get back to work today but I'm still on Cloud Nine, dancing on the ceiling, high from all the excitement but I'll be back tomorrow to share the "lucky lucky me-what happened next" photos.
Toodle-oo for now
Hugs Kath