A weekend of contrasts

Saturday was the first of my new workshops in St Helens and it was certainly a good day to be inside crafting as the Heavens opened and it poured with rain almost the entire time. David and I were there bright (mmm that's debatable!) and early getting everything ready before everyone began arriving in various states of drenchedness!

David got everyone settled in with drinks and biccies and then we got straight to work with alcohol inks and Stazon spray cleaner. You can bet that the tables didn't stay as tidy as this for too long! This was the first card that we made in the morning. Everyone made an alcohol ink monoprint and then spritzed it with Stazon before heating the card to make the white speckles appear. The ladies all used a variety of colours, so the results all differed tremendously, some being light and airy, others more dark and brooding. There were a mixture of my fairy silhouette stamps and various trees and flowers etc for stamping over the surface. A little white pen detail just adds some highlights to the silhouettes. The next card hasn't shown up too well in this photo, but was achieved by stamping the images onto old book paper with a Watermark ink pad and embossing with clear powder. Distress Stains were stroked across the page to colour the background before covering the images with brown paper and ironing over the surface to remove the shiny raised areas which leaves a lovely bleached effect. We finished the morning session with a small card using Stains and Perfect Pearl Mists to create a sky background and used my Castle ATC stamp as the focal image. The moon was just a punched circle which was backed with sticky backed adhesive sheet rubbed over with fine glitter. After lunch it was straight back into getting messy! I think this was everyone's favourite card of the day! We used the Tim Holtz Kraft Resist stash to create the background and flowers which had been coloured with Stains and spritzed with perfect Pearl Mists. The velvet leaves were also coloured with Distress Stains. Here are Kath and Elaine with their versions of our second card of the afternoon which focussed on Tissue Tape and ribbon. They were enjoying the day - honestly!!! Here's the sample card which doesn't look as pretty as the ones everyone made...I used quite a dark tissue tape as I wanted to leave the lighter ones for the ladies to use. I think I'll replace my flower with a new one to give a softer look. Here are Melanie and Jacqui with their cards - love this photo! We finished the day by making a tag...I'd thought everyone might be a little weary by this time, so something less complex was called for! We used the Stains directly onto Darkroom Door silhouette flower stamps to create watercolour effects - the great thing is that you don't need to spritz them or breathe on them to reactivate the ink. This will be even more fun when the next 24 colours come out - soon! My top tip here was to use the edge of a piece of card dipped into Stains ink to stamp grass at the bottom of the tag. Well, that is a quick run through of yesterday's workshop! Everyone had great fun including me and David! I worked everyone quite hard, so hope all of you are recovered now! It was great to meet up with everyone that we haven't seen for ages and also to get to know new crafting friends. Sheila brought the Chunky books that she had brilliantly put together for me and Heather - they are just gorgeous and I will be photographing mine and posting the pictures to share with you on here. Thank you Sheila and everyone who made the pages.
The cards and tag are, or will be, featured on the Personal Impressions website under the projects section along with a product list and full instructions for each one.
After yesterday's busy day we were ready for a quiet day. It has been raining all day and I spent most of this afternoon with tears running down my face! We switched on Sky Arts and were treated to a concert by André Rieu which was a mixture of very rousing, jolly music and some tender songs which had a tear jerking effect. These concerts (which seem to be on each Sunday at the moment) are set in a different European city each time and are in the open air. They are so uplifting because there are hundreds, if not thousands of people singing along, dancing and generally having a wonderful time....I always imagine a world wide concert where everybody is joining in together at the same time. I know it won't ever happen, but it's a lovely thing to imagine. Immediately after the concert there was a new(ish) production of Tosca from the New York Metropolitan opera house. It's my favourite opera and was beautifully sung and acted so, I was awash with tears almost the whole afternoon!
It's been a lovely weekend of contrasts - busy, busy and full of laughter on Saturday and filled with music and tears today!
I'll just finish by showing you the stunning card which Joanne sent to me to wish us luck with the new workshops. The background is even better than it looks here! Thank you Joanne!
Right, I had better sign off now - will be back with photos of the chunky book pages next week.