The Queen's Inkling: icing on the birthday cake...

The Queen's Ink celebrated its twelfth birthday this past weekend, Nov 30 - Dec 2, with two weekend-long events: a toy drive for underprivileged children...

and there were more as the weekend progressed

Queen Patti with a toy ~ she loves toys !

and four inspiring classes featuring the incomparable Donna Downey!

I took three of the four classes: two featured learning about/using Pan Pastels and the third, creating an inspiration journal. Pan Pastels are a wonderful medium and we actually created three pieces of art between the two classes. I'd been introduced to the pastels in one of Karen Bearse's art journal workshops over the summer and looked forward to learning more about the medium and using it. I'm glad I took the classes and Pan Pastels are definitely going to be a go-to in the future. Donna has really delved deep and experienced Pan Pastel's potential. In our classes, she shared with us the benefit of her experiences and learning and made us eager to plumb Pan Pastel's depths. Donna has created a series of online video workshops about Pan Pastels...and two are featured this week on her blog.

Donna demo-ing Pan Pastels

For several years now, I've followed Donna's Inspiration Wednesday online journaling video series she walks us through as she creates pages in her handmade journal. A perk of our class included selecting one of her handmade journals to work in; trust me, the decision was hard.

So many journals...so little time...

In the class, we learned many simple techniques and ways to get beyond the blank page syndrome. Donna says she is a "journal junkie," wooed by every pretty, pristine journal she sees and has many that have been untouched by her hands. (I know the feeling very well ~ I added two more to my stash just today! They were a steal at $1.99 each! Who could resist? Maybe I'll give them as gifts ... or not...)

Spending three to five+ hours being creative is enervating! I was plumb tired at the end of each day's class and at the same token, pumped up to go home and create some more...of course, when I got home, I just crashed!

I am still reflecting on the classes, thinking about the total experience and what my take-aways are. One that immediately comes to mind: designate a weekly inspiration day. I'm leaning to Wednesdays for the obvious reason plus that day also happens to be fairly free on my schedule. So, if you were in any of the classes, I'd love to have you share your take-away in the comments ~ please do and thanks.

In closing here are a few more photos...enjoy!

Cheers~

Honoré