When Jane met Tim...

Ok - so this time, not a birthday experience - but a Christmas gift - in fact this treat came from Santa (he even sent me an e-mail to tell me I was getting it!!) ~Thank you Jonathan!

In the February holiday I Squeezy jetted down to Luton - hopped in a very expensive taxi up to Newport Pagnell and stayed in a grotty stain laden room in a hotel all because... well to have a workshop with Mr Holtz himself...

The squuezy jet flight, expensive taxi and grotty room were all worth it! What a day!!

I was in the first of the four Tim Holtz workshops (2 on Thursday and 2 on Friday) organised by Lin Brown and Leandra Franich of Artsy Crafts. We each had a pack of goodies from Ranger, our configurations box and lots of Tim Holtz goodies. Once lots of us had had our photo taken with Tim we began work, covering our boxes (with ready trimmed papers to save time), we then covered all of the joins with tissue tape before painting, inking and generally distressing our boxes. Tim was a great teacher - so patient with us, funny and very good at explaining what we had to do.



There must have been about 70 of us in the classroom but somehow there was enough of Tim to go round! This is the table where I was working - the empty chair is mine!

After a tea break (Tim seemed to get a kick out of the fact we had tea breaks!) we returned to our table to find a little calico bag - we weren't allowed to open it until Tim told us to - inside we discovered a treasure of ideaology bits and pieces and other little items with which to fill our configurations box...

We then had the remaining time to fill our box - I decided on my birthday experiences as the theme for mine since there were 12 boxes to fill inside the big box and I had some calendar tissue tape to hand. I think my favourite things in the box were the little bird cage and the way we taped a vintage photo printed on acetate to the battery operated tealight - it really made it look like a candle in a small glass holder. I also loved using the Studio Matte Medium to hold everything in place - I love the way it dries clear (and matte!) yet it really holds things down! Here's my box...

Boxes finished (or almost - I would add the feet when I got home) it was time for lunch, but first I gave Tim the picture that I had drawn for him...

After lunch there was a little time for shopping in Lin and Leandra's shop - then it was back in to class - this time in with Lin and Leandra to learn some paint techniques.

The afternoon session was great and I really learned a lot - I especially liked the very matte white paint (Frescoe Finish in snowflake) we used and the way we added colour to it using the adirondack colour wash inks. I've got to get some of that paint. We painted onto embossed metal then rubbed it back. It was a great class but I was on a different table and some were not as friendly as the lovely table I had been with in the morning. It didn't matter - I knuckled down, listened to Lin and Leandra and got my work done - this is what we made...

I also loved the waxy stuff we used to make the grungeboard hinges look metallic - going to have to do some Googling to find out what it was called and then buy some!! We inked them after we had added the wax and it gave a really aged metal result.

A big thank you to Tim, Lin, Leandra and all their helpers for a fantastic day and thanks to Jonathan for a wonderful gift!