Convenzione 2009!

I took some amazing classes this week at Convenzione in Pleasanton, CA! The first was a beeswax collage class with Anna Corba. I had a great time rummaging through my stash of paper and ephemera to come up with the collage above. Anna was also very generous and shared a whole heaping pile of vintage music sheets, books, reciepts, handwritten notes, photos, postcards, Cavalini papers...all kinds of artsy goodness!

She also showed us a fun technique of applying a colorful wash over antique paper with fluid acrylics (or watered down acrylics) and then stamping over it to create our own unique paper.

The next day I took an amazing class with Brandie Butcher Isley. She taught us how to give an indoor/outdoor appearance to our backgrounds when working with vintage photos. Collecting vintage photos of my family was half the fun. This project was very personal to me because I felt a connection to the people in the photo.


The first is an example using a collage image from Paper Whimsy. If you click on the photo, you can see the great crackle texture she showed us how to do. The "hardwood floor" was painted with walnut crystyls and the "planks" were scrached in with a straight pin.

Below is the "outdoor" piece we made. I used paint and paper to create the bark and branches and Brandie showed us another amazing technique for painting in the smaller, whispy branches with a straight pin (my new favorite painting tool!) Brandie showed us so many amazing techniques and was very generous with her vintage supplies!


The photo is of my great grandma, Tami Kato, and the little baby with the bowl cut (cutie!) is my grandma Linda (born Kinue Osabe).


Today was the Art, Paperie & Pleasantries Fair. There was an amazing assortment of vendors selling vintage supplies, stamps, ephemera, jewelry, and orignial art. There were make-and-takes throughout the day. Today I did a make-and-take with Pam Carriker.


She showed us some great techniques like adding texture with stamps, shading with charcoal and how to do a transfer using hand sanitizer! Very fun.

And today, Julee Herrmann showed us how to make cute ATC shrines!

This was just the dose of creativity I needed before the baby arrives...which could be any day now! I am now 38 weeks. I'm hoping (selfishly)! to make it past my due date so I can attend Teesha and Tracy Moore's journaling workshop at A Work of Heart. I told the baby if she wants to come early, she can arrive on the 5th or 6th. Otherwise, she'll have to wait until the 17th! ;) Either way, we are very excited and can't wait to add another little cutie to our growing brood!