2015 In Review

No out-of-town art trips this past year, but two of my bucket list instructors and another favorite came to OKC for classes. There were lots of great vintage finds, too. Here are a few highlights from what went down in 2015. Click on each month if you'd like to see all the posts from that month. There are also links to specific posts.

JANUARY

A new dress form took up residence in my craft room, and my original dress form got a glamorous new look.

FEBRUARY

There was lots of lace to be found - see here and here -






and I did a bit of Valentine crafting for myself and for a Paper Crown swap.

  



MARCH

In March I shared a tour of my creative space,




and found some wonderful vintage clothing.

  

The original owner of the blue suit wore it for her wedding in 1941. It has since gone to a new owner who plans to wear it for her wedding in 2016, which makes me very happy!

APRIL

Only one post in April, but it highlighted some sweet gifts from my friend Laurie.



I attended Paper Crown's Glitter Retreat at the end of April, and posted about that in...

MAY

Glitter Retreat was three days of creating, shopping and visiting with a awesome group of ladies. Click on May above to see posts about each day including projects, swaps and more.

  

One highlight was taking a class with Lesa Dailey, one of my bucket list instructors. How cute is this?



JUNE

In June I made some cards...



and hit the estate sale trail for a few finds.



JULY

July included this fun class with Jackie at Paper Crown...



and a journal class at Paper Arts in Edmond.



There were fun finds (more here)



and I was excited to get a mention on Suziqusthreadworks blog after she purchased some vintage lace from my Etsy shop.



AUGUST

In August I was inspired to do a little crafting,



and enjoyed a day of great thrifting with my friend Kay, who shared some of her favorite spots with me.



I found a new model for baby clothes, and there was a bit of gifting, too.

SEPTEMBER

September is usually vacation month for us, so most of the month was spent getting ready to go here.



OCTOBER

October included vacation highlights and finds,



and a pumpkin-themed Halloween class 



and swap.





NOVEMBER

November included a trip to visit family in Texas for Thanksgiving, and some vintage finds from that trip...



and an amazing and so very enjoyable paper marbling class taught by my friend Chris.



November also included Glitter Market, which I never posted about - too much going on! 

Photo by Jackie Peters

This was my third time to participate, and it just keeps getting better. You can see more about it on Jackie's blog here.

DECEMBER

In December I finally got around to posting about an October class with another favorite, Kaari Meng from French General.

Photo by Jackie Peters

The second of my bucket list instructors was here in November, Terri Brush, and I was excited to take two of her classes.





So, that's my year! I'm spending tonight in with the DH and doggies, totally NOT enjoying the worst cold I've had in years. 

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and healthy New Year's Eve, and an amazing 2016!

Terri Brush Class in OKC

Terri Brush was at Paper Crown in Oklahoma City last month for three classes. As an added bonus, Terri brought along some of her creations to sell at Glitter Market that weekend (more on Glitter Market in my next post.) She also bought a lot of things from me, so a huge thank you to her for that and for the awesome classes! 

Here are Terri (center) and her wonderful assistants for the classes, Heather (left) and Billie.



I enrolled for two of the three classes. The first was a bezel necklace class. We thought we were making one necklace, but actually got to make several bezels that can be used for jewelry or for mixed media creations. They'll be filled with fun things and sealed with resin. I've yet to make up my mind about what to put in mine so they're not finished yet, but you can get an idea of what they'll look like. 

Bezels were a new thing for me, but Terri and her assistants helped to make them easy. 

The second class I took was the Holiday House class. Here are my friends and tablemates Lisa and Chris working on their pieces...

and a shot of the classroom. Everyone was working away and having a great time!

And finally, here is my completed Holiday House. The glass front is soldered on, as is the metal piece at the top. The center is an old earring that I glued on at the end, and the diamond-shaped piece is an embellishment that I'd been saving for years for just the right project.

This was such a fun piece to create with enjoyable instructors and attendees! Terri has online classes and sign-ups for hands-on classes on her website here. I'm hoping for the chance to take another class from her soon.

If you'd like to see more class photos, visit the Paper Crown blog here, and Jackie's blog here.

Merry Christmas to All!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas

and a beautiful holiday season! 

Catching Up - Stitching with Kaari Meng of French General

Kaari Meng of French General visited Paper Crown in October and somehow I managed to miss posting about that on my blog. I'm a long-time admirer of Kaari and French General, and have purchased all of her books as they were published. In 2010 I took Kaari's necklace class at Silver Bella. 

I also bought one of her beautiful bracelet kits at Silver Bella that I completed later.

In 2012 my friend Chris and I went to LA for French General's Art of Craft Weekend (more on that trip here.) Visiting French General was a thrill for sure! 

Kaari taught two classes at Paper Crown - a necklace class that I didn't sign up for and of course wished later that I had, and a Boro and Sashiko stitching class. 

Here I am with Kaari during the stitching class.

There were wonderful French General and vintage fabrics to choose from for our class project. It was tempting to use those, but I wanted to stitch with some flour sack and other vintage fabrics that were my grandmother's. I did incorporate a few bits from Kaari's fabric stash. Here's my piece at the end of class.

The indigo strip in the upper center and the pale blue and navy stripe came from Kaari's fabrics. The rest were from my grandmother. I've since added some fabric and stitching but I'm not exactly sure how I'll use it - maybe a pillow, maybe sewn to a tote, maybe a framed piece - so it's not complete yet.

It was such an enjoyable and relaxing class. As well as history on Japanese boro and sashiko stitching, Kaari shared a bit of French General history and the process of creating their fabric lines. Their fabrics for Moda are produced at Fabricut in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is just one of the reasons Cindy at Paper Crown was able to entice Kaari for classes here.

If you'd like to see more, check out Jackie's blog here and the Paper Crown blog here.

My next post will be all about Glitter Market weekend and classes with Terri Brush, so be sure to check back!