Wednesday 17 October 2012

I'm baaaaack!!

Lia and I at de Craftorij

Wowee! What an amazing, fantastic time I just had when I spent  few days teaching at de Craftorij, Ede, in The Netherlands :-))  Look out, this is going to be a long post with pictures galore ........!!

I arrived last Wednesday after a super-quick flight from the UK (just 50 minutes! That's all!) and was met by Lia and her lovely husband Marcell, who drove me through the beautiful Dutch countryside to Ede, in the middle of Holland. I even saw a windmill!!

We arrived at de Craftorij ... wow, look at this! What a craft shop! You could do some serious damage to your wallet in here :-)


I met up with Joan again, who was to become my invaluable helper over the next few days. We last saw each other at an art journaling workshop at Art from the Heart, UK:



The studio. The calm before the storm....:


Day 1. A full and busy class making inky year books using Dylusions:


Even the mop-up sheets looked good!


The Dutch girls LOVE their arts and crafts and I was greeted by amazing passion and enthusiasm every single day:





The end of the first workshop, and a whole host of gorgeous colourful inky journals to share:


On the evening of day 1, I met up with the super-talented Design Team for de Craftorij. These girls have amazing and yet totally diverse talents, ranging from metal work, to clean scrapbooking, to art journaling. I was blown away by their fabulous samples in the shop:


We had an inky get together .......



...and even the 'clean' girls got (reluctantly) inky! LOL! Too funny!!


So far, so good. Day 2 was the Journal Inspirations class, covering a variety of techniques, using acrylic paints and inks, and even a bit of collage. The studio got more and more colourful as the day went on, and even one of the walls was turned a beautiful shade of pink. Oops.


It was so nice to meet up with some of my blogging buddies .... Audrey and Karin (aka the dirty hands brigade):


You can tell that Karin was enjoying herself!


 And here the Friday group proudly show off their amazing art journal collages. Nice work!




Day 3. More inky year books using Dylusions. It doesn't take long to turn the clean studio into a riot of colour!!


And look who I bumped into on day 3. Astrid! My friend from the Stampotique Design Team! It is always wonderful to meet bloggy friends in real life:



And this is the fabulous, inky, colourful result of day 3:


Now, I don't want you to think this was all work and no play. Oh no. We still managed to find time to sneak off for a bit of this:

Leoni, me and lia.

The final day arrived, all too quickly, and this time we were making calendar journal pages. The popularity of this challenge seems to grow and grow .... just when I think it might be drawing to a close, there is a burst of enthusiasm!


 This class was busy, and a little crowded, but the results were amazing, and the calendar pages were glorious!



Neline is a clean card-maker. Usually. We soon put a stop to that!


And Nicole is keen on clean 3-D, but once she got her hands on in the acrylic paint there was no stopping her!!


And here are the amazing results from the final day at de Craftorij:


It was great to meet up with some of my lovely Dutch friends again:

Joan, me, margo, Hetty

And it was also great to meet new friends. Marjan called in to the regular crop class to say hello, and brought her gorgeous little 4 legged friend along. Look at this. What a way to travel!


And before I reluctantly left de Craftorij, I got to sign The Wall .... all international teachers are asked to leave their mark here:


So, which quote did I use? Why, this one of course!!


All in all, I had an amazing time in The Netherlands with some amazing people. The kindness and hospitality shown by my hosts was second-to-none. It was such an honour to spend time with such enthusiastic and passionate artists :-)

A HUGE thank you to de Craftorij team: Lia, Marcell, Joan, Irma, and Leoni. You are all amazing! xxx


34 comments:

  1. Looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing your trip.

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  2. Great photo's, sounds like you had an amazing trip. X

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  3. O wow, well what do you say to that...Kate, you're the best! Really, you were lovely & amazing and that from the first to the last day...100 students...I am sooo happy to hear and read you had a good time. It was our pleasure to meet you and to have you here. The least we could do is take good care of you! Next time we will do some real sightseeing. That's a promise! Thanxxxx, till next time. Big hug, Lia

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  4. So wished I had been there I could have helped translate for you, anyway it looks you had a fab time but I am going home next week so if you wish for something from the Netherlands let me know:)
    ManonX

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  5. Oh Kate the workshops looked amazing, wish I could have been part of it, what amazing work they all did.
    I did laugh at the wee dog in the basket...lol
    You will need a bit of a rest now, but hope to see more of your super work soon.
    DX

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  6. It looks like you had a brilliant time and so did they. Not jelous of course ;)

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  7. It was great to meet you Kate and let your colourful personality and inky techniques rub off on us...
    Greetz ;) Miranda

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  8. What a great post Kate, loved reading the lot! You had a fab time spreading the word of colour. And what a very happy bunch of ladies all with mahoosive smiles on their faces. I don't blame them either your classes are so much fun....oh and addictive. I could do with a Kate pick me up right now. Michelle xx

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  9. What A lovely post Kate....I'm glad you've had such a fantastic time in our country !!

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  10. Wow, looks like a fab time was had by all...Now we need to get you out to Oz Kate :) Will take you a lil more than an hour I'm afraid though!

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  11. WOW what a LOVELEY post!!!!!!
    We must THANK YOU for such a WONDERFULL TIME!!!!!!!
    I had the time of my life!
    I hope you come back next year!!!!
    Kind regrads Patricia

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  12. What a wonderful wonderful time everyone seems to have had!

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  13. Glad to see you are home safe :-) It was so nice to meet you and your teaching is awesome! Do you speak of personal knowledge when you say the store hurts your wallet? I can say that mine did after leaving the store ;-) XOXO

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  14. HIHI, love your post! Thank you for your great workshop! x

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  15. Looks like you had a fantastic time in Holland Kate ! The Dutch are really passionate about art too. Fab work all round !

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  16. Great post, it was great to meat you, you're such a nice person and I really hope to see you once again in Ede. Love the pictures!

    Groetjes coby

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  17. Hi Kate , It was AMAZING to see you and craft with you. I had 2 wonderfull days ,thank you for that , you have really inspired me . I hope to see you next year at the Craftorij !!
    Thank you very very much !
    Big hug Rosita

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  18. This is fantastic! Do you want to come to Norway? How can I contact you?

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    1. Hi there Marina, well I always say 'never say never' LOL! There is an e-mail button in my sidebar if you would like to contact me .... crane.kate@yahoo.com

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  19. Looks like a fab time was had by all......

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  20. Welcome home! I can see you had a very inkily fabulous time :D Loved looking through all the piccies! x x x

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  21. It was realy lovely to see you again!! I'm very glad you came to Holland!! It were wonderfull days. Thank you so much for you teaching! You're a wonderful woman.
    A big hug! xxx
    Margo

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  22. Hi kate what a lovely post, it was a great workshop. When you come back to Holland i hope i can follow a workshop again. Thanks for your inky inspiration!! Greetz Fieneke

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  23. Great photos, no doubt at all that you & everyone else had a wonderful time.

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  24. Great pictures!!!! It was a great workshop with much inspiration. Thank you!!!!!
    I hope you will come back to Holland.
    By the way.....my fingers are not clean yet....under my nails....grrrr.... I can't get the paint off.
    Hugs,
    Neline

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  25. Looks like you all had an amazing time - so when are you going back again?? lol . Good to have you back. xxx hugs xxx

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  26. Looks like everybody had a blast Kate! Love all the pics and dirty hands :)

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  27. WOW is all I can say!!!! What a fun and exhilarating experience for all!! thanks for sharing Kate!

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  28. Great post! It was a pleasure to do this workshop.Hopefully we see you next year again :o)). Hugs lynda

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  29. Hi Kate,
    Thank you so much for having such a wonderful inky, colourful and inspiring day at Saturday!
    Very nice meeting you, you're very kind and patient with all those talking, laughing and inking people in the room.
    And again thank you so much for signing my own art journal.
    Hope to see you again next time!
    Yvon xxx

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  30. Oooo looks fabulous!! Glad you had a great time xxx

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  31. Busy, Inky, Enthusiastic and FUN, Kathryn!!!! Just the way an artful life SHOULD be!!!! Thanks for the very warm welcome back to Blogland!!! I've missed my art and my creative friends!!!! Sending lots of warm hugs and wishes, Terri ♥

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  32. Great pictures!!!!
    It was a pleasure to meet you, thank you so much for a WONDERFULL and INKY workshop.

    Hugs Jolande

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  33. Those look like some verrry happy students! So glad you had a lovely trip. You are rocking, girl!

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