Social Sketch Event at Two Hands Paperie with Camille and Ben + Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe

Last night Camille, Ben and I took part in the Social Sketching event with Courtney Cerruti, hosted at Two Hands Paperie in Bouder and we all had an absolute blast. I think it ended up being way more fun that either of the kids had expected.

Courtney Cerruti works at Creative Bug, a place where you can take all manner of online art classes. She also travels around teaching classes and hosting these social sketching events. We were not sure what to expect, although I knew it would be fun.

I picked up the kids in the late afternoon and headed to Boulder where we had a quick and tasty slice of pizza at Nick and Willy's.

Once we arrived in the store, we picked out some seats and checked out what was on the tables. There were the usual piles of fun and interesting paper that is a trademark for Two Hands. There were note cards for drawing on and bowls of lovely washi tape.

Courtney talked a little about the history of this kind of event and invited us to play along, drawing for ourselves in our own sketchbooks, or taking part in collaborative pieces where several people contribute something to each card, or back and forth trades. I loved the idea that this was all about just having fun making art; it did not need to be finished, or fancy, or artistic or accomplished. It was all about playing.

It took me a while to get my head in the artistic game as I was having fun just making designs with the washi tape.

Ben was in the groove pretty quickly. He sat next to two young professional artists and across from Courtney. They engaged in some lively chat and talk about what they liked about being an artist. The young professionals (Rebecca Green and Neil Yarnal) talked about their youth and when they knew they wanted to be artists. I loved how they all talked as equals.

These are some of the cards the traded. Ben drew the fox and the owl.

Camille also had a great time. She loved learning how to make packaging tape image transfers and talking about her recent volunteer working trip to Guatemala. She traded cards, too. She made the wonderful card with Santa's beard on it. I love the nose.

Rebecca and I also traded cards.

I did not want the evening to end, but alas, it had to as we all had work or school in the morning. Here are a few images of the cards created during the event:

And of course, you have to have a little paper shop eye candy to stir the creative soul in all of us.

Everyone loved the event and many people are hoping that Courtney teaches at Two Hands again soon.

Here are two videos about the work that Courtney does:





Here is a video on making packaging tape image transfers. Her technique is much more fussy than what we did, but at least you can get the right idea.


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Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles
via: Allrecipes.com

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.