The Creative Connection

Friday class registration closed. Saturday open. Memory crafting is something Big Picture teachers Stacy and Wendy are experts at conceptualizing, with their combined experience of 20+ years in the scrapbooking industry. Spend time in this workshop creating a memory display piece that represents your personal heritage. You will make a button-tufted family tree that will be housed in a hollow frame, made from up-cycled wood. Learn the basics of upholstery tufting, wood staining, and paper crafting. You'll also make the foundation of a mini-album that will be displayed with your piece to tell your favorite family stories. We can’t wait for you to join us in creating an heirloom piece that you will proudly display in your home for years to come!

Join Wendy Smedley and Stacy Julian from Big Picture Classes in this lively presentation and project class where you will fashion an adorable lunchbox frame and companion mini-book to celebrate someone you love. Together we will paint, distress, cover, and craft a personal keepsake, and as a bonus, we’ll expose the power of collaborative community to infuse creative muse with more meaning. Note: Kit contents will allow you to personalize your project for a girl or boy.

Registration Closed. This workshop will inspire attendees to burst out of their comfort zones. You've finished your novel, polished it, and queried agents...what's next? With a little elbow grease, grit, and determination you can make things happen even if the only one who believes in you is...you. Learn how to jump start your career path from someone who did it her way, and learn how to build an audience to help garner a mainstream publisher’s attention. Colleen Houck, self-published turned mainstream author of Tiger’s Curse, book one in a new YA series from Splinter, will lead this class.

Friday Class-Open. Saturday Class-Registration Closed. Betz White teaches her adorable felt trio, The Woodland Sewing Set. In this class you'll learn to make a woodsy tree stump pincushion, an owl scissor case, and toadstool tape measure. The $25 Kit Fee, payable to the instructor at the time of class, includes all the materials you'll need: pattern, felt, trims, and tape measure. Knowledge of basic sewing machine operation is required. Sewing machines will be available, but feel free to bring your own.

Pair your favorite found objects with steel wire for a whimsically edgy pendant, ring, or both-in-one! Cage Contender teaches you how to capture any object—drilled or un-drilled, found or unfound—inside an intriguing and fun wire bezel. This transferable technique will work for any number of item sizes and shapes, and with all wire types. Neck ring design and creation is covered along with steel wire manipulation, forging, and finishing!

Materials provided for attendee use in class:

• Tool set designated for use with steel wire
• Hammer and hammering surface
• Files
• Wire brushes and steel wool
• Tissue
• Finishing wax and application rag
• Ring/other mandrels
• White pencil

Fashion your own set of bangles by shaping, forging, drilling, texturing, twisting, and looping steel wire into edgy urban style. A fun grouping of trinkets, objects, and beads will be given to each attendee, but do bring your own to add and make as many Wrangled Bangles as time will allow! Jump ring forming will be covered as well as steel wire forging and finishing. Techniques are adaptable to other wire types!

In the professional image workshop, you will learn basic theories of personal style and how to apply them towards a distinct, polished persona. In this course you will:

• Discover your personal color typing - makeup, hair color, and wardrobe.
• Identify your body type.
• Categorize style types.
• Master your individual look - current and professional.
• Take home an exclusive style look book.

Come learn how to keep your creative energy up and your projects organized with the use of inspiration boards and inspiration collections. In an action-packed three hours we will run through countless techniques to keep your visual inspirations together and useable for all of your design and craft projects. Learn different ways to hang your inspiration collections on the wall, fun collage and journaling techniques, as well as a clearer starting point for your creative voice. No matter how you express yourself, be it decorating, scrapbooking, card making, quilting, cooking, or crafting of any kind, organized inspiration boards and collections will help you be more productive and achieve your creative goals. We will finish the class with a portable inspiration board you can take home!

Friday Class Open-Saturday Class Registration Closed. In this class, we aim to erase many of your artistic fears while giving you the tools and confidence it takes to create a gorgeous multimedia portrait of a stylish retro gal. You'll be tracing, painting, cutting and pasting, collaging, and color washing, etc. We promise that no prior experience in drawing, painting, or collage is necessary. Aside from freeing yourself to create, what’s great about this workshop is that you’ll leave with a unique piece of portrait art for your home. In the end, you'll create a piece of artwork that uses all of the techniques taught during the class. Each student will leave with a read-to-hang canvas showcasing her new artistic skill set!

Creator of the award-winning website, www.thetoymaker.com, Marilyn Scott-Waters will take simple paper and show how cutting, pasting, and folding create simply delightful toys. Join Marilyn as she teaches you how to make a koi kite, paper butterfly, miniature fairy book, cornucopia, and an accordion folder! She'll demonstrate tips, tricks, and more. Skill level: beginner. Materials supplied: paper. Printed instructions and tips will be given to each student. Skill level: beginner. Materials supplied: paper. Printed instructions and tips will be given to each student.