My Magical Day in Zindorfialand…..

Are you all ready to hear my wonderful story of my journey to Zindorfialand??? Isn’t that card to the left a beauty, if I do say so myself? (Nothing like loving your own stuff, but I do love that card….) Let me back up….. For a long time, I have admired, more like drooled over the work of Michelle Zindorf who has a wonderful gallery at Splitcoaststampers.com – that’s where I have my gallery and when I’m not checking my own cards to see how many hits they have had, I am looking at everyone elses. Michelle’s cards stand out on a page…..so I went to her gallery a few times and read her profile, and low and behold I found out she grew up in Dayton, OH which is where I work! So one day I left an innocent (??) little comment on one of her cards saying that I realized I live very close to her…..I would never have boldly just said what was on my mind which was, “Hey, I am stamper starved, I have no friends around me who stamp…..and actually, I have very few friends period since I only moved here less then 2 years ago, and this is actually a desperate worm I am throwing out there in an attempt to fish for friends…….” (Sorry Michelle if you are reading this, but there you have it…..) I never dreamed that the great Zindorf would send me an email msg back in about 1/2 hour that was subjected, “Let’s get together to stamp” – Can you picture me, doing the happy dance??? Picture it sister, cuz that’s what I did. It’s no secret that I actually love my own stamping,,,,,,but Michelle’s stamping is a notch above anyones that I know, including and definetely my own. :):):) She is actually a watercolor artist first, and on her blog you can see some of her beautiful watercolor work. I tried to act nonchalant, but it was hard. Let’s see, let me check my calendar, is later this afternoon okay? Ha-ha – For all my fine NY/NJ friends who know me, I am a social kinda gal, I NEEEEEEED friends, and as far as stamping goes, I crave friends that I can share what I do and they can share what they do……and now I have one!! YIPPEE!! To make a long story short – OH….quick look to the left – and that is the card that Michelle helped me make step by step at her house, (I wormed my way in pretty fast, huh??smile……) And the rest of these are me playing with her wonderful brayered sky technique ad: obsession like I do everything……help me – I can’t stop – how much FUN is this???? So anyway, we met for lunch….at a wonderful quaint little restaurant called the Twin Creek Tea House, and turns out Michelle is no more bold then me but wants a stamping buddy too!! 🙂 Must be a GOD thing…..but what fun!! We ate at the cute little restaurant, (anyone who comes out here to see me I am going to drag you there for sure, it’s so cute and has well,,,,,,you know how they use the term “chick flick”? Well, this place has a “chick menu” – like stuff your husband would say, what’s up with this place, where are the hamburgers…..where are the french fries, no -they have stuff like quiche, and fruit salad, zucchini bread, and iced tea, and the BEST carrot cake you ever ate!! Definetley girlie stuff…..so come see me and I’ll take you there!! Okay- so anyway- we ate, we tooled around the gift shop(Cindy and Fran, it has Vera Bradley….come to Ohio….come to Ohio…..come to Ohio…..) and then we went to Michelle’s stamp room for the afternoon and she gave me a lesson in this brayered sky technique…..it’s so darn cool…….and if you want a tutorial, hey- go to Michelle’s blog,,,,,cuz you know ME and tutorials, they tend to be pretty, well, um…. S-H-O-R-T……but Michelle’s is awesome AND you can see her original creations instead of mine!! 🙂 But isn’t God good….cuz he not only gave me a stamping friend, but an ARTIST!!! How cool is that???? (If you are reading this Michelle, I promise you I really am NOT stalking you……..just thanking God that we got to meet and stamp) and now I have invited Michelle back to my house in a couple of weeks and I will take her to my favorite restaurant in Miamisburg, what it lacks in charm and possesses in downright tacky decor, it makes up for in the best THAI food I have eaten around here and equal to my favorite restaurant in NY!! And then I will bring her back here and I think I will show her my Black Magic stuff and see what gorgeous twists she will make with that technique!! Everyone on SCS accuses her of having a magic brayer……but hers really did LOOK just like mine….hmmmmmm…….the only thing was that once I accidentally started to pick hers up instead of mine and that was the only time she got borderline violent the whole time I was with her….other then that she seems so nice….hmmmm… do you think she really DOES have a magic brayer?? Anyway, Michelle is very humble and down to earth – she is a flippin celebrity in the SCS world….. and I have gotten more, “I’m so jealous comments” on my cards….cuz I got to have a lesson and they didn’t – come on, grow up, cry me a river, build me a bridge and GET OVER IT ladies……… just kidding………JUST KIDDING……… but I do feel so blessed to have spent the day with Michelle not only because of her amazing talent – but because she’s just plain sweet!! Do you like this birdy one? There is no end to the possibilities with this technique……good thing I started on Wednesday night, cuz man, I stayed up so late I was like sleep walking at work……have to save that for the END of the week, Friday we have no patients, and that’s a good thing cuz I was borderline comatose today………diet coke to the rescue…. several times!!! Anyway- here comes another one at ya, these last two were my first two
attempts, and I wasn’t too sure about placement ~ but I liked the finished product……can you believe these start from whisper white cardstock? yep, they do…… Okay- now – you all know I don’t do maps, right? well there’s another thing I don’t do……..sorry guys but I don’t do “links” – ain’t I a sorry excuse for a blogger?? I DON’T DO LINKS!! This is my round about way of sending you to Michelle’s gallery and/or blog…. Go to my gallery which Claire put a link to on the right side of this blog up a ways…….from there you can go to that elephant card, or for that matter almost any of the cards that use this brayered sky technique and Michelle Zindorf, aka, the GREAT ZINDORF has left comments for me, (I ASKED her to leave at least one comment so all those jealous groupies of hers would know I don’t come from la-la land and it was really the truth that we met…..) From Michelle’s comment, you can go to her gallery or her blog….cuz they say gallery and blog and you just click and voila!! Hey, while you’re in there, you can leave me a comment to , cuz after you see HER creations, you won’t think mine are so great anymore,,,,,,haha…….give me a little glory while I still have your respect, okay??? In fact, you might decide to visit her blog instead of mine after this…..boo-hoo…..it’s okay, I can stand it…… after all she actually explains what she does in terrific tutorial fashion…….but remember who sent you there, okay? Friends? Yeh, you’re gonna love me for this……haha. Well here is my last first creation here, I mean the last on this blog, but actually my first solo attempt at a Zindorf
brayered sky inspired creation!! It’s a kind of a fantasy card……a magical mystical place….. Don’t ask me why flowers would be like out there, in the desert with a purple sky……with swirls coming up around them……this is Zindorfialand and it’s MAGIC and anything can happen!! Thanks for coming along on my journey with me….and don’t ask me if you can borrow my brayer either, cuz the answer is NO!! (Or my white gel pen for that matter either…..)unless of course you come to Ohio to stamp with me, and then you can borrow anything you WANT!! That’s all for this chapter ladies, keep on stampin!