Flourish Friday - July 31

For today's Flourish Friday, I thought I'd show you a few of my treasures. Most are from the IAMPETH convention. One evening during the convention, there was a Round Robin where any member could host a show-and-tell station. Last week's Flourish Friday post showed you a technique that Barbara Calzolari demonstrated during Round Robin night. There were probably 20 or more stations to visit, and I know I didn't get to all of them before the night was over.
This was what Maria Thomas of Pendragon did at her station. She had designed and created these beautiful cards with the Tennessee state flower - the Purple Iris - and then left a blank area to fill in names during the Round Robin. Isn't it beautiful? Maria and her husband, Rick, are the creators of Zentangle. You can see a photo of me with Maria during the Round Robin here.

On another night, several IAMPETH instructors and Master Penmen were penning names for IAMPETH members and for anyone from the Nashville community. White House calligrapher, Rick Muffler, penned the above for me. You can see a photo of Rick here. Directly behind him in the photo is his sweet and kind mother, Marie. Marie was a real trooper. Next to Marie is Rick's wife, Jenny - a wonderful and friendly person and a terrific calligrapher. You can visit Jenny's website here.

The above was done by John DeCollibus. He makes working large look sooo easy. You can see a photo of John at the Round Robin here.

And this is an envelope and signature from the great Master Penman Bill Lilly. Even though Bill wasn't at the convention, I could definitely feel his presence there. All of these scribes have been so generous with their time and talent. IAMPETH is a special group of people.

Happy Flourish Friday!

Flourish Friday - July 24

I'd like to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts for my son, Matt. He safely arrived home from his mission trip to Panama. He said it was the best experience he ever had with his youth group. I am still unpacking from the IAMPETH convention. It was truly a wonderful week, and I want to blog more about it in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, I am preparing to host a bridal shower for my niece this Saturday. Pictured are two photos of Taylor and her fiancee, Matt. I learned this technique from Barbara Calzolari during the Round Robin night at IAMPETH. You glue a black and white photo to some nice paper and then rough it over with a fine sandpaper or emery board. This will pull the blue ink off the photo and give it a vintage or shabby chic look. Then using white ink (I used Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White), you letter over the photo and extend the lettering onto the paper. You can stress the paper further once the lettering is dry, by crumpling the paper or rubbing in a little grime. I then sprayed it with fixative. You can see Barbara demonstrating her technique on my Flickr account here. Thanks to Barbara for teaching a very, cool technique! Check out Barbara's incredible work for the Pope and the G8 Summit here.

The 2010 IAMPETH Convention will be at the Hilton Walt Disney World the week of August 9th. If you enjoy pointed pen work, or want to learn pointed pen, I highly recommend attending. Happy Flourish Friday!

Flourish Friday - July 10

These are some envelopes I did for an IAMPETH exchange. I like adding the watercolor here and there. I think it makes the flourishes pop. I am getting very excited for IAMPETH! I don't have a laptop, so no Flourish Friday next week. Hopefully, I will have all sorts of good stuff to show once I return. I'd appreciate prayers for my son as he travels to Panama with his high school youth group today. They are going with a terrific, medical evangelism group. You can check out FAME here.

Flourish Friday July 3

I am getting excited to attend my first IAMPETH convention. I normally just keep my nibs in the little bags and envelopes they arrive in from Paper and Ink Arts and John Neal Bookseller, but I thought I better get a little more organized for the convention.

I had read about using Altoids' tins for nib storage, and since I can never seem to throw away an Altoids' tin, I thought I should give it a try. As suggested at Cyberscribes, I lined the inside top and bottom of the tin with those thin, little business card magnets that people and businesses use for advertising. Then, using the metal embossing tools I bought from Magdalena at MercArt, I debossed and embossed the name of the nib manufacturer on metal tape from the hardware store. Then I trimmed the tape and stuck it to the top of the tin. Easy, peasy.

I added little labels to help keep the nibs organized.

There's a tin for Brause, Hunt, Hiro, Gillott, Esterbrook and a catchall.

I'll have to go through a lot more Altoids before I can do my broad edge nibs!

Happy Flourish Friday *and* Happy Birthday to me! :-)