it's off to Tinsel Trading Company again!

I made another trip into New York City this past weekend to attend a class at Tinsel Trading Company ( 47 West 38th Street - http://www.tinseltrading.com/) with the Glitter Fairy. It took me an hour and a half. It was drizzling and warm. i was surprised as i was expecting it to be cold! I arrived at Tinsel Trading at 11:30 which gave me a 1/2 hour to look around the store (perfect!) and grabbed a seat. Terri Ventura (of Dimestoredaze) and Marcia (the owner of TTC) were already there setting up for class. The Glitter Fairy, aka Laurie Davis (http://www.glitterworksstudio.com/) was just arriving herself, having been driven into the city from Connecticut by her sweet, helpful, friend, Jane. Laurie was a little frazzled as the traffic was bad and it didn't leave her much time to set up (i know that stressed feeling!). Now i must tell you that Laurie has been on Martha Stewart 4 times and she had just done a segment with Martha on making today's project! how cool is that?

I enjoyed my little perusing of the store and made a special purchase by Jennifer Murphy (which i will blog about later).

We all got in our seats and Laurie gave us these wonderful handouts all about glitter, the class, supply resources, etc. I have to say, I really appreciate when a teacher gives out handouts. I really don't like it when i take a class and you have to constantly say, where do you get this or where do you find that? part of the reason you want to take a class is that you are attracted to what the teacher is offering, the style, the items used, etc. and it doesn't do me much good to have to hunt down these things for myself. SO- i appreciate that she took the time to do it and share her resources with us. this saves me time - and i will ALWAYS love anyone who saves my time!

today's class was on making a glittered pedestal using paperplates and a candlestick. i don't have a picture of my pedestal yet, as i don't like mine! mine warped a little (as it sat in my car after class and with the dampness and glue in the plates, it was bound to happen). so i will just make another one! we were using german glitter glass in the colors of orange, black and a tangerine orange. very pretty colors. i am just now thinking i should have taken a picture of the 3 boxes of glitter glass because it really is quite pretty glitter.

on top of the pedestal we were adding a box, a crow and a nest. the box was glitter as well and set aside to dry. then we set about embellishing our crows and nests. the best part! everyone loves to embellish and "pimp" things up as i like to say. Marcia and Terri had set out some yummy embellishments from the store that we could use on our projects. we also got to use some fabulous fiber that Laurie shared with us. Angelina fibers is what is was called - nice of Laurie to share!

Laurie was showing us how to put a message in the crow's beak using a craft knife. as she was saying "now be careful", my knife slipped and sliced my finger. of course! i sliced it good as it took 4 bandaids until the bleeding stopped! anyway, after that i asked Laurie to please slice my birds beak!

we worked up until 3:00 when class was over and then we took a little field trip to Marcia's other store, called, "The store across the street". this store contains papers, Tim Holtz products, ribbons and Martha Stewart's line of craft supplies, including her new line of glitter. i bought 6 colors and that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg from her color selections! i am going to have to make a chart of all the colors and check off which ones i've gotten! i used some of Martha's glitters last night on some projects and it is really nice. it is a finer glitter and gives a tight finish to your object versus german glitter glass which is chunkier. each look is beautiful, but different from each other.

In Dec. i will get to see Laurie again when she teaches her next class (dec. 15th). in this class we will be making an ornament tree using electrical grounding wire. the tree will be placed in an urn and then we will cement it in. (i don't believe she used the word "cement" for the product we will use, but again, can't remember what she said!) but you get the idea.

after class was over my art friend, Andrew met me at TTC and we went on a 2-hour walking tour/shopping trip around NYC! (next post with pictures!)