Card Making Workshop - October 2008

This month's workshop was a little different than usual, because there was a decidedly pink flavour to the evening! Part proceeds of the evening went to Breast Cancer Awareness. There was about 12 or 13 of us, and all up I think we raised just under $300. Lots of pink and red lollies to keep us all energised, and the most delicious pink cupcakes and cream puffs. Yum! Good job we don't eat like that every month!

The workshops that I attend either focus on a particular project for the night, or a particular technique. This month it was a technique - using watercolour crayons. I loved the feel of the crayons, and the colour range in the biggest pack is awesome, but oh my goodness they are expensive! Now I have had some watercolour pencils here for ages, but haven't really been comfortable enough to try them, so this was a good opportunity for me to be a little braver. These are the cards that we made, each using a different type of technique (either applying directly to paper, via an aqua brush or directly to the stamp).








I have never been much of an artist, and I think that I probably need to practice at being a little more subtle and even handed with the watercolours.




This one was one where you coloured directly onto the stamp, then spritzed, and then stamped and then spritzed and stamped another two times to get the graduated image. It is fair to say that the instructor made this look a lot easier than it turned out to be!



This is one where we concentrated on getting the image, and then need to finish the cards off. I think I might end up taking it off the white card so that I can use it for something else. This appeared to be the easiest of the techniques that we used in my opinion, but there is more than one colour in there and we were trying to get a kind of graduation of colour.

I think it is fair to say that I need some more practice at the whole watercolour thing. Today a friend of mine who is just starting to make cards came over, and I introduced her to our local scrap booking store. I was very good and only bought a few things. Then we came home and made some cards. Actually I spent most of my time reorganising all my things, and I think it will be much easier to be inspired to make things now as I think that I have found a home for most of my craft items.

I did make her this handbag card to give to a friend. Unfortunately the picture is a little blurry but the other pictures I have don't really show the handbag shape very well.



Whilst I do think that I need more practice with the water colouring, last night's workshop did at least inspire me to get the pencils that I already have out and have a play. In fact I did lots of playing with different colour embossing as well. This is the images that I stamped and coloured this afternoon. I am hoping to put them into cards in due course.




Next month's challenge theme is a blue and silver Christmas. I think I am going to make a trifold card similar to this one that I made today. Normally I wouldn't have put this red check ribbon with this card, but it did echo the flowers nicely. You untie the ribbon and the card opens out.



I did make same maroon and gold cards using this idea last year and everyone really liked them. Now I just have to find the right card and paper. There was some gorgeous paper in the shop today, but we were looking at it thinking it looked more purple than blue, despite what the store assistant called it, and when we tried to find stock card to match it it turned out that the closest coloured card was purple, so will need to keep looking I think.

Catching up!

Well...it's been a while since I posted, but I guess that is because I haven't really been doing much card making! Still been buying up big equipment wise, and still have a wish list, but not making much! I do think about making things though. I actually need to make a Thank You card in the next few days...maybe posting tonight will help my inspiration to kick in....or my motivation at the very least!

The biggest piece of equipment that I bought was a heat gun for embossing...haven't even taken it out of the box yet though! How slack is that?


Since the last time I posted we have had two classes, so I thought that I should post those at the very least.

The first one was the Easter class, and the focus was on using glitter. I made this card for my son, but then ended up leaving it behind when we went away so maybe he will get it next year.




We also made a bookmark using the same technique. I would like to make more bookmarks but I will have to buy a laminator, so I will wait to see when they come on sale and get one then! Unfortunately I couldn't get a very good scan of this, but you'll get the idea! Where ever you see the white lines there is actually glitter there.



Actually the class where we did this was pretty disappointing in terms of learning new things. The teacher is pregnant and has just gone back to full time work so doesn't have the time to focus on this stuff...and you could tell. Fortunately, there is someone else who she can hand onto and we did some good stuff in her first class.

The focus in this one was punching, although you probably won't be able to tell that from the pictures! The first thing that she had us make were these cute little gift boxes...well hers were cute but so fiddly to make. Mine are a little deformed! But I still have the template so one of these days I can have another go and see if I can get the lids on properly! When the leader made hers they all sat together beautifully and then she had some punched flowers stuck on the top. Here are mine:



She also had three cards for us to make but in the end I only got to make two because the boxes took so long. The first was a Mother's Day card. One cool thing was that I finally got to use the sticker maker I bought when I went to the craft show a couple of months ago! Worked a treat.



The last card I made could have been a Mother's Day card as well, but in the end I made it into a Happy Birthday one. It hasn't photographed very well because there were lots of shimmering bits on this card. The pink was torn along the edge to give it a less than perfect seem if you like, and then the punched flowers were added along the seem. I liked this one and it was pretty simple. I could do something similar again I am sure.



Next class is not this Friday night but the one after, and it will be the new girl teaching again. I look forward to seeing what she has us doing this time!

Card Making Workshop - February 2007

This month's workshop was on Kid's celebrations, and featured a focus on using watercolour pencils. Found them a bit frustrating at first, but once I got the hang of it, I liked it...and may even use them more!

First up, a birthday card for a girl.





Next up is a card for a new born baby boy. One of the girls I work with had a baby boy not too long ago, so we have ended up sending this card to her. Have to admit that it secretly gives me a little thrill to know that people are actually receiving the cards that I am now making.




The final thing that we made was a birthday party invitation, presumably for a younger child. I have to say that given the intricacies involved in this (stamping, embossing, colouring etc) I would only be doing this if there were only a couple of families that were coming or someone else was assisting...otherwise it is far to time consuming to have to make 20 or so! It does look good though!



I did place a big order this month as well - well it was really only one thing, but it's a bigger expense than I would normally order! More on that when I actually get it!

Card Making Workshop - January 2007

Someone I know is starting to have monthly cardmaking workshops - each month will be a different theme, and tonight's was Special Occasions. Very timely for me, as my cousin got engaged a couple of weeks ago! My sister and I are both doing the workshop though so we ended up having to decide who was sending which card, so she is sending her version of the black card and I am sending the white and pink card.

I didn't follow instructions properly so my purple card ended up being a horizontal card instead of a vertical card...but it still looks pretty good (well,except for the fact that I didn't get the stamps lined up properly, but it's easy to be critical.)







If nothing else we had a lot of fun, which is what it's all supposed to be about right?