Toscana Americana

Sunday – Arezzo Antiques Market
Chris’ first passion is collecting vintage photographs, linens and china, so our 1st stop will be shopping in Arezzo where we will discover “other people’s junk” and spend the week creating it into our own treasures! Later, we’ll begin to explore pathways to use the ephemera we’ve discovered from our everyday life, travels and experiences in collage works. Chris will have a variety of items from “grandma’s trunk” that she will bring out a little at a time to ooh and ahh over, and yes, even share!  

Sunday Evening
Coffee-dye, tea & walnut staining and color washes will be on the menu. Our first course is customizing our papers, lace, fabrics and trims. 2nd course relax and share your story. Dessert? if wine isn’t enough, we will be out on a search for the best gelato.  

Monday Morning
We will begin our fabulous morning creating our one-of-a-kind hand-bound journals. It will be loaded with envelopes, pockets and different types of paper. We will have fun saving all our brochures, maps, menus, receipts and tickets and collage them this week in our journals. It would be a great idea to keep it with you throughout the week and jot down thoughts, favorite foods and happenings each day. Take photos of your “new best friends and make a page to place them on once the photo is developed. Draw something you see or take a rubbing, just let your creative juices flow! You will adore your book when you get home and your friends will be green with envy then you can tell them all about the workshops what a wonderful experience you had. 

Monday Afternoon 
Continuation of morning topic and collage clipboard frames.  

Tuesday Florence
Day trip to Florence…”the paper chase”

Wednesday Morning & Afternoon  
Vintage Scrapbook Collage Class I, II. Bring several great VINTAGE photos of real or "borrowed" relatives ( if you do not have photos or can not find any to borrow just to color copy try eBay-look under vintage photos. You need  at least a dozen old vintage photos to work with for several scrapbook pages. Make sure you copy the sepia photos on a color copier to keep the rich sepia tones of the original photograph. PLEASE DO NOT bring original photos! I will bring some color copies as well. Copies may also be made in Cortona.  

Wednesday Evening
Tuscan Cooking Class at Fontelunga 

Thursday Morning & Afternoon
Card Collage and Rubber Stamp Art. Using our coffee, walnut-ink, and tea stained lace and trims along with rubberstamps, buttons, old keys ,and dozens of vintage items Jill will have, we will use a culmination of many techniques and apply them to a " mini-canvas" called a card! We will have more beautiful photos of Tuscany as well and the surrounding areas to "transfer" onto our cards along with bits of souvenirs we are picking up as we explore the countryside. I will bring plenty of stamps to play with. Participants are encouraged to bring a set of small alphabet rubberstamps, as well as favorite words or phrases for yourself and two dozen blank ivory or white large or medium cards (you can get them any art & crafts store). These cards are works of art, that is why I refer to them as" mini-canvases"; you will love them!  You will learn to make charming vintage image transfers (several different techniques). We will have many images to choose from and we will update our journals as well.  

Friday Morning & Afternoon
The last day’s workshops will open your eyes to a new way to see things through a relaxing workshop featuring "Memories in Italy- Mini Round-Robin". We will pass our Scrapbook Journals on to another artist in the group and share our creations; each one adds to it their own memories- then you get to keep the gift made from all at the end of the workshop as a remembrance of new friends and your trip.