The day today

Evenin' all.....said in my best Jack Warner voice! It's been a busy old week again but, for once, I am at home tomorrow as opposed to trotting about the country with my faithful case in tow. It's an unusual occurrence but I shan't be lounging around as I've got a final push to finish new designs along with prepping samples for two workshops and a demonstration for next week. Still, it will be nice to be at home.
Today I was teaching a full day of workshops at Crafts 4 U 2 Do where the ladies were very busy making cards, a tag and a Christmas shadow box. This is a (not great) picture of the morning session - though the central card did spill over into the afternoon slightly!
The first card of the day was the bird one on the left. Everyone's looked slightly different with their own colour choices. We used Kraft Resist paper, Distress inks, Tissue Tape and Darkroom Door "Love Birds" stamp set. The circle in the corner is a Muse token (coloured with alcohol inks) which is encapsulated in one of the plastic bubbles that are part of their packaging.
The central card features Distress Stained Kraft Resist Christmas paper and an ATC collage stamp from Tim Holtz. The red rose is just a handcut spiral of card rolled up and twinkled with a few dabs of Ice Stickles.The tag was great fun, with Snowcap alcohol ink swept across a foil covered and embossed tag. Other colours were added and then we used Blending Solution to remove ink from the raised snowflakes. The white edging was done using the Picket Fence Distress Stain...brilliant product and I love the way it stayed on the metal surface with no problem. The image is from the Dear Santa Darkroom Door set of stamps.
Here are Carol, Marie and Janet working on their tags....don't think they even noticed me taking the picture as they were so engrossed! In the afternoon the ladies were kept busy making the shadow box. Here's my sample one.... ....I pre cut the house shapes from mount card, along with seperate roof pieces and used the new Tim Holtz Tissue wrap to cover the main shape. Everyone loved using the tissue - it has a unique feel to it and it's really easy to work with....rather like non sticky Tissue Tape but bigger! Once stuck down decorated matchbox trays were attached to the back with another piece of mountboard to keep everything together and to attach a ribbon hanger to. Snowtex is the finishing touch for that really Christmassy feel. Everyone really loved making the shadow box and everyone also said that they wouldn't be giving them away as a gift! Lol!
Last Sunday's workshops were a mixture of cute and not cute! One card that everyone took home part finished was this explosive snowman pop up (I mean explosive pop up, not exploding snowmen!). My sample card was deliberately over the top to show just how much can be added to one of these tiered pop ups. It's a really fun card to make and one that I've taught several times over the years as it's such a great one to make for children or the young at heart. The other card last weekend was a "secret message" card and you can see the delight when anyone makes this and finds that it actually works! Nobody seems to be able to explain how these cards work, but it's enough that they do! This was the inside of my sample.... ......and here is the "secret" area that it opened into. I kept the card simply decorated but, today, Frances brought her finished card back to show me and wow....it looked incredible! This is the joy of teaching workshops - it's not exactly about what you go home with on the day, rather it's about ideas and inspiration to take it a step further. The above shows the opened front of Frances' card and here is the inside...... .....even wowier! The only downside was that Frances added so much to her card that the secret part doesn't work now as the panels are stuck together! Not that it matters with such a wonderful piece of art. Everyone was thoroughly impressed!
I am going to be teaching an extra workshop at Crafts 4 U 2 Do on Thursday, from 1.30pm - 3.30pm. There is one place available, so if you fancy joining us, please contact the shop on 01774 611940 to book. I'll then be at Karacter Krafts in Doncaster, to demonstrate new MS punches, stamps and inks.
Whew! Right, time for a last cuppa and then a shower and bedtime. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I'll be back next week to share more.