About Michelle

What do talcum powder and volcanos have in common? They both erupt into a gorgeous mess and so do I. Anyone who knows me, knows my love for getting messy. I love to dabble with media and experiment with anything in my reach. As a child, I would mix water, food coloring and talcum powder to make eyeshadow. As I grew, I learned to knit, sewed my own clothes and started my own successful catering company before the age of 16. Later, I entered the corporate world and still found time to feed my creative side. I began my current path in 1995 following a trip to Costa Rica. I went to view the Arenal Volcano, only to discover it was hidden by clouds. Returning home, I decided to put my photos in an album and when I realized I didn’t have any pictures of the volcano, I searched the internet to see what I could find. Lo and behold, I stumbled across the world of scrapbooking and rubber stamping. It was my introduction to this new world and I haven’t looked back since! I am a Copic and Ranger Certified Educator. Before owning “Everything Scrapbook & Stamps” in West Palm Beach, Florida, I traveled extensively worldwide and loved to collect unusual items to incorporate into my art. Born and raised in England, I currently reside in Florida with my husband and two rascally parrots.

Time is not on my side!

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Michelle

Time is slipping away so fast these days. I went to a Trade show in Phoenix in January and I seem to have just woken up today. Truthfully I got sick at the Trade show. I lost my voice the first day which of course makes it a little challenging to place orders and ask questions about new products. I am still not 100% recovered but, at least I have my voice and energy back.

I am excited to receive some of the new items that were ordered so that I can experiment with them.

Some of the items that has come in is the new line from Seth Apter with Aladine. ICE is a new dimensional glaze that has the look of ICE – Shiny and Transparent. The colors can be layered over each other. The only thing I have managed to do so far is play a tiny bit in my art journal. I can’t wait to have some time to really discover what this can do and you know I want to try it with the Gel Plate

It is so hard to see from the photo but, look how black the stamped images still are with the ICE on top. Stamps are from a Tracy Scott PaperArtsy set. Click the link to see the whole set.

I will be back soon with the results of my Gel Plate experimentation

Feeling a little sad today

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Michelle

Someone took an art journal that I had been working in since 2010.. I kept hoping it would turn up or be returned, but it has not been. I even emailed all the store customers to see if they knew anything. The person who took it is probably not even on my email list.

I wish I had taken the time to photograph all the pages I had done. I probably have a dozen images but that is it. The funny thing about this particular journal is that I could look at an entry and know exactly the products and techniques I had used.

So today I was thinking about the loss of the journal and it made me sad. Two days from now it will be a new year and I will work in other journals but today I just feel the loss.

These are some of the pages I did photograph

SAMSUNG CSC

Art Journal Believe in your Dreams

I found my word

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Michelle

Do you do the Ali Edwards “One Little Word” for the new year?

In a nutshell “In 2006 I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January—a word to focus on, to live with, to investigate, to write about, to craft with, and to reflect upon as I go about your daily life.” You can find out more here: Ali Edwards

I have done this for a few years but struggled with focusing on my word. I did not do it the last two years. This year I feel an inner pull, a shift within and I picked my word “Soar”

I started my Art Journal with this word. (This art journal is part of the #essartchronicles series we just started at the store)

I will add my journaling on January 1st

P.S. if you want to find out more about The Art Chronicle Class you can click here and search for our next monthly class.

A new class

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Michelle

We started a new class this past weekend called the Art Chronicle. A year long art Journaling class that can be customized to everyones own needs.

An Art Journal Class with a purpose. Each month we will be making a number of background pages using different substrates, products and/or techniques. There will also be a list of exercises which will you help you to continue to make art throughout the month.

You can use this as a:

Planner
Scrapbook
Technique book
Book of quotes
Collage book
Book of Lists
an A to Z of you
Make cards with pages

You are only limited by your imagination

So each month is a new substrate and a new technique. Although January has not started yet. . . . . here is a peek at one of my August pages.

January’s class is about Beeswax and Faux Encaustic. February we will be working with Alcohol Inks.

You can always find out about it on the Classes page of Everything Scrapbook & Stamps

Seth Apter

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Michelle

I was lucky enough to host Seth Apter at Everything Scrapbook & Stamps. Seth was teaching a two day Bento Box class.

Everyone had so much fun creating little works of art. I had fun as I got to eat at a new Indian Restaurant. I always love to chat with other artists over dinner but it is always extra special if we are eating Indian Food. . . . and this new location was fabulous!!

Traveler’s Notebook Stamp Caravan

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Michelle

Ok I will admit I am a bit of a geek when it comes to the original Traveler’s Notebooks. I use three of them and am trying to find justification why I need another one (I neeeed the Camel color, lol) So anyway, I was super excited that Everything Scrapbook & Stamps is a stop on the Stamp Caravan.

{For those of you that do not know: You can go to their store in Japan and use their custom stamps to stamp in your notebooks. They decided to make duplicate sets of stamps and loan them to special stores for customers to use.}

Everything Scrapbook & Stamps hosted the stamps for the month of November with a special day on November 10th where we had goodie bags and a meetup to show each other our TN’s

here is the Traveler’s Notebook area in the store

and a photo of everyone’s TN’s stacked up

Geek Out!!

Julie Nutting

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Michelle

Julie Nutting was the guest teacher at Everything Scrapbook & Stamps this weekend. I think this is her 3rd visit. Julie has a lovely line of doll stamps and beautiful scrapbook papers. I so very cleverly forgot to take photos from the class. This is my norm, sigh. I have great intentions but always get busy and forget the photos.

I will have to make sure to take photos of her projects when I am back at the store tomorrow

and you can see more of her work at her blog: Julie Nutting Designs

The last Day

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Michelle

Day four and five was more education with Golden interspersed with amazing food. I was sorry to leave. I forged friendships with my fellow artists, ate some incredible food, learned about mediums, acrylics, oils and watercolors and was spoiled beyond imagination by the folks from Golden Paints. I could easily have stayed another week. It was fun to get away from the hustle and bustle and stress of my everyday life.

Day 3

Posted on October 26, 2019 by Michelle

The morning was spent with Golden and then we had a free afternoon. I took a tour of Graveyard #1. This is the second oldest cemetery in New Orleans built in 1789

In New Orleans they can’t bury their deceased people as they are too close to the water table. They have above ground tombs. Once a person dies, they place them in a pine box inside and seal it up for a year and a day. The temperature reaches 300 degrees and it cooks the body. Once they open up the crypt they take the bones and the ash that is left and pulverise it before putting it back in a shaft in the back of the tomb.

Voodoo queen Marie Laveau is buried here and Actor Nicolas Cage also has a tomb here.

Tried another Beinyet and then back to the hotel for a show before dinner.

Golden Paints took us down the river on the Steamboat Natchez for dinner.

After dinner we listened to a Jazz band as we went down the Mississippi river.

This has been a really amazing experience.

Day 2

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Michelle

We spent the morning playing with paints and then Lunch in the courtyard

Banana on top of the fish and it was delicious. Actually everything I ate in New Orleans except the oysters were delicious. I did not know that New Orleans was known for it’s food. but, I know it now.

Back to paint in the afternoon and then

Dinner was at Antoines – open since 1840 fine French-Creole dining & birthplace of Oysters Rockefeller. We also were in a private dining room. We got to sample all the appetizers on the menu.

desert was Baked Alaska which was flambéed at the table. Coffee was then added to the flaming alcohol and served in the cups below. P.S. I could not taste any coffee!!

Then a few of us went to the Hotel bar to listen to Jazz Music.

Michelle McCosh

Making a mess in the name of Art

Author Archives: Michelle