When Debbie met Tim

Is that REALLY my post title ...

When Debbie met Tim

you better believe it ... because I can't!

Never imagined for one moment I would ever get to meet the first person to influence my crafting in such a massive way ... was struggling making cards ... trying to find the "something" that I felt was missing and then i happened across Tim Holtz

Can't even remember how or where now 

but there he was using words like "distress" and "grunge" and doing the swishy-swooshy thing with his inkpads

Now, anyone that knows me knows that the swishy-swooshy thing is what I love to do most of all

and Tim Holtz is ENTIRELY responsible for all those tag cards you get sent

yeah, yeah, even though they are not "proper" cards and a few of you 

feel hard done by!

Tags are good enough for Tim so they are good enough for me !!!

So ... to Harrogate and the wonderful Art From the Heart workshop to attend Tim's Creative Chemistry Live UK workshop.

If I ever did get to attend a Tim workshop I always imagined I'd be at the back of some huge conference room, one of hundreds, with him a tiny speck in the distance and me watching him on a screen

Well, I was at the back (out of choice) of the room, and there was a screen but there he was just a few feet away from me and with just 24 students ... 

and Mario! 

Must not forget Mario!  

What with losing daddy and everything else that was going on we were not going to go to Scotland this year ... but then we figured Harrogate is on the way up north so changed our minds and just four days after getting home from ten days in Cornwall for Alfie & Nicola's wedding we packed up the caravan and it was a case of "Tim Holtz here I come!"  

Met up with my dear friend, Shaz (ShazSilverwolf) and before long we were sitting in the workshop hardly daring to believe it was really happening

Got to admit I kept nudging her and nodding my head towards the front of the class and mouthing "it's Tim!" to her

The workshops were just so brilliantly organised and Tim & Mario are just the most lovely guys ... having seen SOOoooooo many of Tim's video's I thought I  knew what to expect but I was wrong!  He is so funny and so, so talented and his style of teaching just blew me away ... from the get-go the atmosphere was relaxed and there was so much laughter and - well, it was all just simply perfect.

On our desks were our kits and an apron and all the tools & equipment we would need ... 

The kits were full of the ten tags we would be using - all prepared and ready to go by Mario and a gift of two bespoke stencils ... stencils that won't ever be for sale and were just for these workshops.  Lucky, huh!  

This is getting a bit word-heavy so will just cut to the photo's ... pretty much explains everything anyway ...

No, I did not use my apron ... no way was I getting it dirty!

  My ten tags 

 Then we were given a folder in which to keep them all 

Oh, I got an "awesome" from Tim for that tag!!!

But I cheated and used what I knew to be his favourite colours

I had pushed myself hard using colours I would not normally choose for the first three tags but then thought I'd do one in colours that are more to my taste ... dark side and grungy, you see!

 All too soon the workshop was over but the gifts just kept on coming

First was a zipped pouch in which to keep stuff we try out

Then came one of Tim's District Market notebooks in which to jot down all our ideas or notes on how we did something

And, of course, a notebook means an opportunity not to be missed!

Having heard of the trouble we all had to get our places at the workshop we were given a necklace with three lucky charms 

Believe me, we all knew just how lucky we were to be there

And finally a bag in which to take everything home

 So, when I consider I so very nearly backed out and didn't go I had the most amazingly wonderful time and would have regretted it for ever ... what an idiot I would have been!

I wasn't going to get a photo' with Tim but Shaz's husband Doug was having none of it and practically dragged me over to him announcing "she's a bit shy" ... so in this photo' Tim does actually have his arm around me !!!!!  An awful photo' as I look every bit at poorly as I was feeling (but that pales into insignificance alongside how very, very poorly my dear Shaz was feeling) and, hey, it's me with Tim!

And Doug was right, of course, that photo' was an opportunity not to be missed and I would have regretted not getting it 

 See, dreams can come true.