Weekend Workshop

Hello again,
It's been a busy old morning with one thing and another.  I was doing quite well catching up with the washing pile and the housework, but then this months Craft Stamper magazine dropped through the letterbox. 
What a great read it is this month, and the free stamp is a gorgeous butterfly, designed by Indigo Blu.  Grab yourself a copy and check out the designs Kay has done for the magazine, using the free stamp - they're stunning!

Before I go back to being the 'housewife', I want to show you the cards we made on Saturday at the workshop with Maria Simms.  I had a lovely (busy) day crafting with some familiar faces, and some new ones.
If any of you get the chance to go to one of Maria's workshops, do it!  We all had such a fab day, and you learn so much.  She does work you hard though, we never stopped.   At one point we were 'speed' crafting just to fit everything in.  It was well worth it though, see what you think.

These were the stamps that we worked with, from Crafty Individuals.  Check out their website here to see more of their great designs, along with other great products.

I have to say, they've somehow found their way home with me, along with a load of other stuff.  Well I couldn't not shop now could I!? and the stamps are really nice.......

This is the first card we made .....

I told you they were stunning designs.  This is so pretty and full of different techniques, so it did take a while to do.  We started by making the background to go behind the birds, using the 'faux silk' technique.  I'd never actually tried this, but it was fun.  Maria took us through it step by step.
You use card, tissue paper and PVA glue.
Scrunch up your tissue paper and open it out again, colour it with a little ink, we used Spun Sugar and Tumbled Glass DI.  Add more creases if you like by scrunching again, be careful at this point as your tissue will be a bit wet.  Cover a piece of plain card with PVA glue, just a thin covering all over.  Lay the tissue paper over the top of the glue and press down, don't worry about it being perfect - you want some creases in it.  Add a little more glue over the top to make sure it's stuck down fully.  Do this gently so as not to lift the tissue paper back off the card.  Once you're happy with it, set aside to dry. Once it's dry, trim and ink around the edges.  You can also stamp on top of it once it's dry.
My first attempt didn't turn out too badly.

'faux silk' look

Next was stamping the birds onto heat-resistant acetate - always a challenge for me.!   We coloured the birds on the underneath side, so we didn't have to be too precise, using Cosmic Shimmer Coloured Pearl PVA (something else I hadn't done before).  They looked so pretty when they were done.
The main background was done with a mask which we embossed through the Grand Calibur, and while the mask was still in place, spritzed through it with Cosmic Shimmer Mists.
Time to put everything together - you can just about tell in the photo the acetate is slightly domed over the bacground piece and a die-cut birdcage has been added along with a sentiment cut from the background stamp.  Extra acetate leaves and some stamped flowers were added and everything was finished off with gems and a bakers twine bow - fabulous design!  I'm afraid I won't be giving this one away, it's for me!

Next we did a bit of 'speed' crafting before lunch.  Talk about fast!

This may have been quick to do, but it's still a beautiful card.  Same stamps, same colours of ink with the addition of Milled Lavender for the background.  This time the outline of the die cut birdcage was used as a stencil to ink through which gives a really nice look.  The text background was stamped over the top then the birds stamped in black.

A bit of matting and layering, some beautiful organza ribbon, a few small gems and a heart shaped 'Dazzler' to finish off - Gorgeous!

Card No. 3
This isn't exactly the same as Maria's as I finished it off at home yesterday.  We just ran out of time on the day.  Well, we did have a Cricut workshop to fit in on Saturday too - I told you it was a busy day!

Again, same stamps (shows how versatile the set is), same colours of ink, different look.
For the background on this one I used a new template from Splodge Away.  I believe these and the Splodge Away Blending Mat are appearing on Create and Craft (Channel 671 on Sky) on Thursday at noon, with Maria and Tom from Splodge Away, put it in your diary.  You can check out their Blog here, or Maria's Blog (http://inkymits.blogspot.com/ )  for more information.
I've been using one of the mats for a while now and I love it.  It makes all the stuff you do with inks so much easier.  Blending, distressing, you can even use alcohol inks on it too and it'll just wipe clean.

Well, what do you think?  It was a great workshop, I really enjoyed it.  I'm just sorry I can't get to more.

I think I've gone on long enough for now, so I'll leave the Cricut project for another day.  Plus the other half has just come home from work early, he's managed to spill coffee down his shirt!
Better get back to the house work!

Enjoy the rest of Tuesday.

Bye for now

Linda

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