Jennifer Dove's Arizona Boot Camp

copyright Jennifer Dove

Ya think you can color?  These are Jenn's boots from her Boot Camp.  I just participated in this year's Arizona camp.....and I'm here to tell you to get on her list and sign up now for the next one!!!  You won't be sorry!!!

Or take a look at her "Color of the Day" on her blog where she blends markers to create a new color just for that day.  I think she's up to 89 today!

I've taken all of her Color of the Day tags and put them into a single pdf file here.  (download it to your own desktop and the colors will show up much better than in google's online pdf viewer). You can add to it after today!

And then I've created a list of all the copic markers you need in order to complete all of the Color of the Day tags up to today.....just so you know what you need to order (and don't forget the refills!!!)  You can click here to pick up that pdf file.

I did a few quick demos with airbrushing and various inks, but I had never really spent time blending markers until Jenn's Boot Camp.  Oh, what fun!  I've placed my order for more and more and more markers.....how many do you need???  :o)

It's official! I'm certified!

OK, I've just received my senior certification in Art Clay Silver. I knew it was approved....but it came today!!!

So, does that mean I can add ACSSI behing my name? I'm going to bet that MBA still trumps that! LOL!!! Thought I'd share my pieces. My pendant has a turquoise stone set in her - called "The Child in Me" which I thought was appropriate. You know - we have to "name" our art as we give "birth" to each project!

For the longest time, I thought I'd never make another ring after this one. For me, this was the most difficult piece. It's a calli lillie bud. I probably should have tried for something with a round stone - would have been a little easier! But I love the end result on this piece.

And while this was not the easiest piece....it was the most fun to work on! A dress form (simple enough) with the skirt made using a syringe filled with metal clay over cork clay that burnt off in the kiln. The skirt is front and back and connected on the bottom where the crystal dangle. It's a pin.

So what does this mean - because I've been teaching metal clay classes all along. Now I can certify others to teach. And it seems like people are lining up right and left...I just need more days in my calendar to schedule you all in!!!

I still contend that the best thing any of us can do in this economy is to load up on classes. I finished my glass class today and can pick up my pieces on Thursday night. So while I teach.....I'm taking classes as well! It's a well balanced life at the moment!

If you are interested in getting certified in metal clay (fine silver) or if you are just interested in a beginning level or introductory class, check out my class website here:

Jen Lowe Designs - Fine Silver Classes

Just scroll across the top section to click on all the different classes that I offer. No dates scheduled....but I can probably design a class any time you want! I'll go back and add a First Level and Senior Level Certification course to these in the near future! Now, while the classes are in my studio in Colorado, I do have a guest bedroom and am more than happy to have you stay here while taking classes! Can't get much easier than that!

Attn: Colorado crafters!!!

Hi everyone! I've had a monthly play group for some time now and I'm splitting it out - growing it into 3 days a month. June will be the first go at this and I thought I'd see if any of my Colorado readers are interested.

I'm located in Lafayette which is 8 miles east of Boulder, 10 miles south of Longmont, 26 miles NW of downtown Denver.

I'll describe it below. If you are interested, please email me at jlowe54@earthlink.net. I will send out the official invitations around the 1st of June.

June 18, 10 - 3p, Technique Thursday. This will be the most expensive day as you will need to invest in tools and bring our own supplies. I sort of figure that if you are interested in something, you might as well invest in it! Each month will be a different technique. This month, we are going to experiment with crepe paper and tissue paper. We will be making vintage tissue paper garland and experimenting with how to make it glitter (it usually disolves with the application of water). We'll also be using diecuts and crepe paper to see what kind of flowers we can come up with (I'm thinking very tiny flowers) and again, how to add glitter to them. This is a more advanced group and you will be expected to already know fundamental techniques (we're just not going to have the time to teach basic diecutting and such.) Bring your own lunch. Limited to 12 each month. No kids under 12.

In July, we are going to be experimenting with acrylics over a variety of mediums. I will have a supply list by June 18 and you can order things that you might need out of my catalogs and get 25% off and the product will be here in time for the July date. We'll do this each month since I know it's getting harder and harder to find craft supplies in Colorado.

June 19, 10 - 3pm, Fun Friday. Fridays will be a time to get together and work on anything you want. You just bring your own stuff, bring your lunch, and we'll gab and play all day! No fee at all. Nothing structured although we might share some simple techniques or whatever we have learned new the prior month. You won't have to invest in tools or product for this play day. If you knit, bring your knitting! It's not limited to any one craft - it's just a day to get together and play. Limited to 12 each month. No kids under 12.

June 20. Shopping Saturday. We'll meet at Larkridge Mall (I-25 & Hwy 7 just north of 470 up north) and take off from there in carpools. Each month will be a different "loop". For June, we'll go to the Treasure Box in Ft Collins, the Creative Underground, out to lunch, and then stop at the Recycle Center in Kelum and perhaps a thrift store if there's time. We'll leave about 9 am andfor those who want breakfast, I'll be at the Village Inn about 8 am. No attendnace limit on this one and you can bring your kids as long as you are willing to drive them in the carpool! But I really don't recommend kids at the recycle center this month! Plan to give your driver a little cash for gas if you carpool with someone else!

If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, let me know and I'll add you to my email lists.

Additionally, Susan Mostek and I are going to start offering classes on all levels out of my home studio. Again, each of these classes will be limited to 12. No one under 12....unless it is a kids class. If you'd like to be on that email list, just let me know that you are signing up for the class email list. Classes will start at $10 and go up, depending on the skill level and amount of product that is involved. We also hope to put together a 3 month calendar so those of you who live on the west slope (or neighboring states) can make plans to come over and play with the rest of us!

Hope to see you all soon!

The real joy of teaching!

Got back home last night - totally exhausted! Trying to catch up on mail and emails and have some incredibly exciting news to report!! Liz Welch is coming from England to share her knowledge of Friendly Plastic at our retreat this fall! I'm so excited I probalby won't sleep for another week!!! This thing is just growing and growing! But for now, I still have so much to share from the last 2 weeks.........


My last day, my last class at Scrapbook Your Life, and little Miss Sophia brought me to tears when she presented me with this bouquet....

We made Melissa Frances altered art boxes.....these are what she and her Grandma Carol made:

But the best gift is the hugs she gave me.....over and over and over!  She ended up taking 4 classes with me and I'd have her as a student any day!  What a delight!

So, Miss Sophia, I do hope you get a skype camera soon so you and I can chat any time!!!  I need to see what you are doing!  And I hope you have fun on your summer trip to North Carolina with your grandma!  

Oh!  the real joy of teaching....meeting people, making new friends that will last a lifetime, laughing, giggling, but most of all.....hugging!!!

Mostek & Moore

So if you take Susan's married name and my maiden name......I think it sounds like a couple of lawyers!!! What if we shortened it to just our first initials???? We'd be the M&M girls???? LOLOL!!!

I cannot than Susan and her mom and dad enough. They let me stay with them for a night and treated me to a completely and totally pampered day in San Diego.   I got to lay by her parent's pool and watch birds all day long.  OK, I do not know that I have ever watched birds OR sat by a pool that long!


Of course, that was after Susan taught at Scrapbook Your Life on National Scrapbook Day.  

Have you ever heard of an EMERGENCY class????  or how about an EMERGENCY demo?  Well, at Scrapbook Your Life, we are ever so accomodating.  Susan had students who wanted to learn how to do her second class, but already had commitments during the afternoon, so she did an "emergency" class.  We simply walked around the store and got enough new students to throw in a 3rd class for the day.  What a trooper!!!

And, of course, while Susan was doing an emergency class, I was on the other side of the room doing "emergency" demos.  I had posted a schedule of what demos I would be doing and when during the day....but we threw in a few "emergency" ones for those who couldn't get back to the store at the right time.

What a totally fun day!!!

Inspired Creativity

They all took the very same class. They all had the very same paper/tools. They all did such an amazing job. Yes, there were more students.....but this is what I remembered to photograph!!!

Kristal is one of the store owners.....and look!  She made it to match what she is wearing!  Can you see the pliars in the kids hands?  LOL!

Angela.....great job!!!

 Angela, too..... (yes, it's really hard when you have 2 students with the same first name!) - absolutely love this!
And Lauren's first class ever!  WOW!!!

I am already exhausted and as I write this, National Scrapbook Day (weekend) is just about to start.  I am excited about the students and about our classes and about the endless, endless creative fun we are having here in the store.  I truly wish you could all be here!

diecut class

In the past, I've done multiple diecut classes. But this time - I'm going to have a bit of fun with this class. We're going to use the Revolution and use dies as small as 1" x 1"....and as long as 12". I'll show you how to use the big nestabilities in the revolution and more....and you'll go home with this cute storage tin.



What a clever way to store metal backed dies!



And as a bonus - anyone who takes this class will also take home all 3 of these tiny dies. WOW!!!



This class is limited to 15 - so call Scrapbook Your Life! to sign up. Now, if you call and they don't have the sign up sheets ready, just call back this Friday. And if they don't have them ready by Friday - email me - I'll call the store and we'll get them ready!!!

Well, that's it for San Diego Classes. I will try to get my schedule posted on their blog this week. So check over there and then call the store to sign up for the classes you'd like to take.

See you all soon!!!

advanced airbrushing

Isn't it just amazing the versatility of my crafting knowledge? I even surprise myself. But I just pull from my past and bring it forward to the present. Ah! The benefits of age and experience!!!

This piece is made from white paper. So this class will teach you how to use a variety of masks to create airbrushed backgrounds.



Plus...look at this. I've turned an acrylic journal into deocrative clear stamp storage....and even colored the clear stamps to match!!! How fun is that???



Now, go back and look at that first photo. Did you not even notice the miniature starfish (3D) have been airbrushed?

I'll show how to use a variety of items as masks, including nestabilities dies, frisket, masking paper......



diecuts, negative space, torn paper - and show you a clever way to store your paper masks! And as a bonus, there's a segment on using undu - oh, I do love that stuff! Hmmm...looks like someone undid one of my sandals! LOL!!!



If you like airbrushing with copics and live in the San Diego area, contact Scrapbook Your Life! for more details. This is going to be a fun class....and it's limited to just 12 students. And I'll only teach it once!

Cuttlebug Friendly Backgrounds

Once I teach this class, I'll work on a video - but I think these are just pretty cool backgrounds for cards and other projects.



All done with clear pellets and cuttlebug or sizzix embossing folders



alcohol inks and pinata inks, paint brushes, Krylon pens, Brush20s,



using both the griddle and the skillet methods - and a combination on some.



No idea which one is my favorite....



But they are all just quick and easy



I normally don't make 6 different samples for a class board....but I just couldn't stop myself. I can hardly wait to see what the students come up with. The pieces are so thin they can easily be cut with scissors....but I didn't cut any of these. I totally love the one that came out looking like a dressform....and I'm thinking I just need a hanger, some clips......

What a day!

Did you watch the news today and see that we got hammered with snow? It's not a joke! I had 15" of fresh powder on top of the jacuzzi about 5 pm. What the camera didn't pick up were the gadzillion tiny flakes coming down.....and it's still coming down tonight!  The airport and all the major roads have been shut down....even the malls (gasp)!!!



I skyped Kerry and showed him what's going on here. He decided to cancel his flight home tomorrow and I don't really blame him. He'll be coming in Monday now. So that means the "cat's" away a little bit longer.....and this mouse is gonna play a little harder!

Now, with 15" of the white stuff on the ground....and our little chihuahuas are not even 8" tall (the little one is not even 5" tall), there is no way they were even going to attempt to step out the back door. OK - I couldn't even get the screen door to open out.....that's how heavy this snow is! So the pups and I are bound to get cabin fever in a couple of days!!!

Sweet Susan emailed and asked if I had enough food (ok, I could walk to the store from here if I really needed to!) and Kathy offered to drive over (which of course I declared she was nuts!) But see, what better family than this? Oh, and Linda and I have been skyping off and on all day long - it's like having her right here. (OK, Linda, be thankful I didn't take a snapshot of you today! LOLOL!!!)

I had these "family" elements left over and decided to turn this into my "creative family".  B&W photos and lots of stuff going on with the background and papers

There are pockets that open up, there are file folders to stick notes down into, there are clocks with spinners on them......


And there are folders that fold down.  Yep, another class.  We're going to be using the color wheel to make our colored paper work with black and white photos.  I'll do a color photo class as well....but I really seem to get a ton of requests for B&W photos....and today was my day to play with them.  And I'm going to teach my students how to take any sentiment.....and "fix" it so they can use it.  Yep, here the word "family" was turned into "my creative family" and I write about how my artistic friends are just as close to me as my family is.

For this layout, I'll again use the color wheel to match scraps for background matting and show how to tell a story no matter what the embellishment says.  This is my dad.  And it says "Family established".  Well - he did establish this family and while he's been gone a number of years now, I still see glimpses of him in each of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  It's like he never left.

Years ago, Jim Croce wrote a song titled "Photographs & Memories".  One of the lines was this:

Photographs and memories

All the love you gave to me

Somehow it just can't be true

That's all I've left of you.

I am so thankful for photographs and memories, for whiteout blizzards, for time to play, for my family and my family of friends, and for Kerry who can entertain me while he's a thousand miles away.

More Friendly Plastic class samples

Well, for the next few days, I'm going to be in a frenzy around here creating and designing class samples. I'm going to teach bracelets 101. Won't this be fun?



I'm going to teach how to make a custom size just for your wrist.



I hope to teach how to make your own bracelet mandrel. Hmmm....even that may challenge me!



But mostly, I think I'll be teaching how to fix "mistakes"!



And I think we'll do all that and make at least 1 bracelet in under 4 hours! Whew!!!

For those of you who are tired of me and Friendly Plastic - don't give up! I think tomorrow I have to switch back to pewter as I need to design a couple of classes using 10 Second Studio tools. Oh me - I have an idea....but it's another butterfly! Seems it's either plastic or butterflies these days.

Kerry flies out to LA on Sunday and will be gone all next week. Perfect timing - I can turn the entire house into one massive studio and have stuff all over the place! I can hardly wait! It's going to be a blast!!! Wonder how many of my local pals will come play once they find out the cat is gone and the mice are out! LOLOL!!!

San Diego bound...again!!!

I'm going to be in San Diego from 4/22 - 5/7...teaching again at Scrapbook Your Life! But this trip, I'm going to teach a very very limited 2 classes at Stamping Details in Poway as well. I'll be at SBL! on National Scrapbook day with Susan Mostek - world famous stamper extraordinaire!!!

(OK, I can hear Susan laughing as she reads that to her husband!!!)

So today, she and I had a pre-planning day. I counted. We came up with 19 classes to work up for both stores. WOW!!! And I know at least one of my classes will be showing you 5 different techniques that I've not taught yet....so get those ATCs ready!!!

I'll be doing some layout classes this trip, cards, altered items, paper dolls, lots of technique loaded classes, and we're going to learn how to use copic markers! Here's a great new technique that I totally love...I'm calling it blended airbrush swipe. OK, not the cricut diecuts in the foreground....but look at the background:



It came out simply wonderful....but then I do love this color combination. As in all my classes, you can pick the colors you want to experiment with!

I'm going to do my very best to have all my class samples and the class schedule posted by March 15. But mark your calendars now!!! We're going to have a blast!!!

Back to school!!!

Well, ok, I am a little late! But it's time to get the classroom up and rolling here in my studio!



Sort of like "back to school" days!

You can click on my calendar to see what's going on.

You can join my meetup group and receive emails when new classes are posted.

To start, I'm offering all 94 Ranger technique classes that I taught in San Diego this summer! They are broken down into classes of 5-7 techniques each and you don't have to bring a thing other than scissors and adhesive. I'll supply the rest. And I'll bet I can find scissors and glue if you forget them!

These classes are just $10 each and you can see the first half of the techniques in this Class Album.

On November 19, I've invited a guest instructor to come and share her knowledge about photographing art projects, including jewelry! It's a true hands-on class with a chance to try out the Cloud Dome and tents. I'm pretty excited about this class myself!

I have lots of plans for the studio this winter. I'm thinking a couple of "Girls Night Outs" with pizza, movies, and a fun project. And I may just re-invent some of the other classes and projects that I taught in San Diego.

Maybe a "come as you are" party - remember those? Or what about a pajama party? Now I could go for that!!!



Susan Mostek and I are planning on some joint classes, and some joint videos. Guaranteed to be fun as whenever I'm with Susan, I do nothing but giggle. She's an artist for B-Line Designs.

Funny how fast my calendar fills up when I start thinking about fun classes to host! Speaking of calendar - you know I posted my "to-do" list while I was gone. I'm pretty excited about # 3 on that list as I finally (after 2 years) figured out how to convert cassette tapes to digital format without having to buy a machine that cost me $200 or $300!!! Yeah me! And I have it set up so I can convert tapes while doing other stuff. Double yeah!

So this afternoon I'm off to see if I can figure out more on creating video tutorials to share. Hmmm....maybe that one should come after the goal of losing weight. What? I didn't put that on the list? LOLOL!!!

And the teacher goes to class!

Oh! I just love it when I find a class that I want to take! So when I saw this copper covered journal - I knew I had to take the class!

Timeless Creations and scoll down to the bottom class. Want to take it with us? Sherri, Kathleen, Susan, Deborah - it's almost already full! We're taking the Thursday class.

And to show you how my brain works.....I immediately wondered if I could somehow use embossed diecuts in the etching process! LOL!

Now, for a little enabling, just go over to the left and start exploring their online store. You will quickly learn why this is one of my favorite places to shop when I run up to Ft Collins - just an hour north from here!

Yes, I know, it's called ENABLING! Well, it all started when I was a little girl and the ice cream truck drove miles through the country and ended up at our house on a hot summer afternoon!

Come play in my rooms

My last class project. Oh dear, what will I do now? LOL!

It's another ity bity room book:



Folds open to 4 "rooms"



First room is Lucy with the birds



And then a room that is a pop-up bouquet of flowers



As seen from the top



and then the bird room:



and room for an owl




you gotta love those quiggly eyes!



and a view from the top



So easy to do and all done with 1 sheet of paper, scraps and stamps!

Best buy that ticket to San Diego and come play!!!

Tomorrow is my Basement Babes day. I've talked most of them into coming over and helping me cut paper for class kits. Such GOOD friends!!!

And this weekend, I'll be demoing in the After Midnight Stamps booth at the expo in Colorado Springs. A 2 day show, so I'll pop down and spend Saturday night with mom.

Now....I'm sitting here, just wondering how I am going to manage to get everything done? Well, one thing at a time! Next, I have to write the blog for Scrapbook Your Life's site, then make up my class boards for these last 3 classes, package the samples up to get to the mail in the morning, and then clean the house for tomorrow. Hmmm.....I wonder if there's any chance I'll get to bed before midnight?

And when am I going to have time to pack for this trip to San Diego? I can sort of feel the panic button starting to kick in! LOL! Do you think my friends would do my laundry for me tomorrow as well? LOLOL! Maybe I will blog about doing laundry tomorrow. Anyone hate that as much as I do? The only thing worse in my book is grocery shopping! Kerry and I will put that off for weeks at a time!!!

Til tomorrow!