Class at Nancyz Crafts No 2

I was really pleased to be asked back to do another class at Nancyz Crafts. This time our theme was floral and butterfly cards, using stamps, images, and frames from Crafty Individuals. Nancy lent me all the items I needed to make the samples, so I used Dovecraft Pigment Inks, Archival Inks, Laura Ashley Velvet Brads, Twinkling H2Os, and some plain flowers, and some of the lovely background papers she sells in her shop. The Crafty Individuals stamps I used were CI 135 (4 square butterflies), CI 206 (Flower Heads), CI 207 (Ferns), and CI 235 (Swirls). I used the die cut square frames from them, and also their glossy scroll die cut frames. I made rather a lot of samples as you can see, but there was just so much scope with the items provided, that I wanted to show the class, some of whom are new to stamping, as many ideas and techniques as possible.

The Dovecraft Pigment inks are lovely for sponged backgrounds or for colouring the flowers, in the same way I would normally use my Distress Inks. Obviously the archival are great for stamping detailed images, or for stamping on glossy surfaces, so I wanted to explain this to the students who may not know what to use the different inks for. I have really fallen for the Cobalt Archival ink Nancy has been lending to me, so now I have my own one. It makes a card look so different to stamp in blue rather than black. The swirl stamps are amazingly versatile and you can make some pretty backgrounds using the cobalt, and with the glossy frames it worked well to sponge it then stamp with it, for a tone on tone effect. The large velvet brads worked well for the easel cards, and the Twinkling H2Os were great for colouring the glossy frames and the die cut swirls.

I enjoyed making the samples, and I really enjoyed the class. Everyone made about three beautiful cards, all different, and we had good evaluations. We are now planning some future classes. We had twice as many book for this class as we could fit in the classroom, so we are offering it as a repeat class too.