Our third session was a Make and Take with Therm O Web, where we were really lucky to get to play with their new product, Deco Foil Adhesive Transfers, ahead of the public release. This was such a fun product to work with, and super easy to use (I used the die cutter technique for mine).
Some of the things I loved about this class:
How simple and effective foiling is without all the fancy gadgets that I don’t own yet (although if I could find someone with one in stock, I’d be owning one pretty quickly haha).
Learning something totally new to me, which is always a good thing to do!
The new possibilities these products offer in my future creative endeavours.
Other items I used for this card were all from Gina K Designs (my favourite ink brand) – Sunshine stencil, with ink colours of Red Velvet, Sweet Mango, Wild Dandelion, Jelly Bean Green, Blue Raspberry, and Wild Lilac.
This card also used products from Gina K Designs – Festive stencil with ink colours of Applemint, Lovely Lavender, and Sea Glass (one of my all-time favourite colour combos).
Class #2 on the Friday was with Elle’s Studio and it was so much fun – I’ll definitely be doing more of these in the future! It’s a brand I hadn’t heard of before but I’m already building up a wishlist for a future purchase.
Some things I loved:
With some well placed bright pops of colour, a relatively simple card design actually shines and pops a punch – I love these!
First time using Stickles for me – and I love how the colour we received in our kits actually takes on the colour underneath, it’s just beautiful … seriously, check out those lustrous little blobs of colour in the photo above – lush!
I’ve never ink blended sentiments before – it’s so clever using the rainbow technique and getting two sentiments in one – I love the effects! The only thing I might do differently next time is to use clear heat embossing on the sentiment itself so it pops a bit more.
Those papers we were given are really gorgeous – more of these are definitely on my wishlist!
The inks I chose to use were:
Gina K Designs: Red Velvet, Sweet Corn, Wild Dandelion, Powder Blue, Blue Lagoon, In The Navy
The first class on Friday was with Photoplay Paper and I thought it was really clever. I’d heard of Photoplay Paper earlier as I’d bought a couple of the sentiment stamp sets, but didn’t have any of the dies. And it was good to have some new and old techniques for the first class of the weekend.
Some things I loved:
The stained glass technique of colouring on the inside of the card and having a vellum window is totally new to me, so my creative brain was stretched – and the black die cuts overlaid on the front and back of the vellum really adds to the stained glass window effect – it’s stunning in real life.
I love irises so the colours and style really spoke to me.
I got to pull out two inks I hadn’t tried using yet and adore the delicate die cut frames of the window.
It’s just an all-round beautiful project!
Something I didn’t like … me being a numpty and accidentally picking up an ink pad fibre on my green tape used to hold down the stencil for ink blending so I got a random red mark on inside of the card. I’ll be keeping this one for future reference anyway, so it doesn’t matter, but if I feel strongly about it later I’ll draw over it with a white gel pen, no problem!
The inks I chose to use were:
Gina K Designs: Red Velvet, Sweet Corn, Wild Dandelion, Powder Blue, Blue Lagoon, In The Navy
One of the best things that happened to me last year was learning about the Crop & Create Delivered virtual events held by Scrapbook & Cards Today. I heard about it through Gina K Designs as Gina was going to be doing a class, and I immediately signed up because, let’s face it, I was fan-girling (after I’d recovered from the conversion into AUD). The money spent was incredibly worth it, though – it’s one of the most fun and motivating educational events I’ve attended in a very very long time, and I can’t wait to sign up for the next one! The tutors, products and variety of techniques covered was exceptional.
It was also a LOT of fun within the dedicated Facebook group with everyone splitting themselves into #teampeek, #teampeek or #teamripitopen and posting photos of their boxes arriving on their doorsteps. It all helped to add up to a lot of anticipation and fun leading up to the event itself. Of course I had to show that mine had arrived safe and sound across the pond in Australia … and yes, I was definitely #teamripitopen! 😉
All-in-all there were instructions for 40 different cards (if I counted correctly) and one colouring lesson that could be turned into a card or into a piece of artwork for framing. The event officially kicked off on Friday night (CT), but there was a full day of ‘mini’ classes by sponsors of the event, that were as impressive as the main classes over the weekend. A lot of the products supplied in our kits were exclusive, or semi-exclusive (meaning they may be released publically in the future) – and we received everything in our kits aside from basic supplies like scissors etc and our inks of choice.
One of the reasons I really loved the event so much was having the ability to try new-to-me products and styles. As a relatively new cardmaker I’m still learning what my style is, so trying new ideas and styles is perfect for me and is all part of the learning process (which I have always thrived on). In all the lessons I made the cards as instructed in the class and rarely made any changes, but my plan is to now go back through each class and repeat the cards with a touch of personalisation in some cases. I’ll also slow down and take notes from the videos this time around, as we have access to the video tutorials for the foreseeable future – yay!
I’ll upload all the class details under separate posts, otherwise this post will go on for days … 😉
