Techniques Workshop

Last weekend I went to a Techniques Workshop taught by my Mum (Lynne Vowles) and Barbara Daines both from the Design Team of Oakhouse Studio (yes I know I keep mentioning this brand but they really do have some nice products thati enjoy working with, I think with crafting you go through a phase of liking one brand and then another company brings out some new goodies and you buy and use them for a while instead though you still enjoy the previous brand and often go back to it or use it alongside different brands). Anyway I digress, this workshop was most enjoyable, whilst I didnt actually learn anything new I still enjoyed creating with like minded people, something I don't often get the opportunity to do.

To create this card, we had two pieces of card, one for the baseand the second we tore in half (to avoid straight lines) to make masks. Once we had masked off two sections of our base card we took our chosen colours (mine were Golden Yellow, Lemon Yellow and Spring Green) and applied them to our basecard, blending carefully using the Tim Holtz blending tool. Once we were happy with the results (or not, yet still finished) we removed the masks to reveal our design. The class were supposed to stamp directly on to this and then use a sentiment or a quote to finish it off, me, being the class rebel decided to go off piste. I stamped the Oakhouse Studio Spring Blooms flower in Archival Ink (coffee) and then stuck them to my background, using sticky foam pads on a couple to add dimension, I then rejoined the class and stamped my sentiment in the same colour as my flowers, to finish I mounted it on brown card and then created a card to stick it to (using a card folding board).

When I got home I decided that there was something missing and added tiny gems (in co-ordinating colours) to the centre of the flowers (they weren't self adhesive so I am sure you will all appreciate how fiddly this was). As a final touch the I was dotted with a tiny gem.

The background for this 'Love' card was created in the same way as the previous card. I stamped one of the medium Walesby hearts and then masked it off using a special post it note which is sticky all over (my mum found these in W H Smiths) which I had stamped the same stamp and then cut round so it was the same shape. This meant that I was able to stamp the heart on the card again to create the effect of the two hearts being interlocked. Again tiny gems were added to the card to finish it off, this time within the tiny circles of the Walesby heart design. The final flourish was added by stamping love. This time I mounted my base on black card before sticking it to a blank card I had made.

This final card was the trickiest to make as there were so many steps and time lapses where it needed to dry. The first part of the morning was used to create a varietyof background papers using spray inks, such as Dylusions,  Cosmic Shimmers and Oakhouse Studio Colour Chemistry sprays ( I used the Oakhouse Studio sprays for the above backgrounds though I can't remember what colours I used other than Paris Pink).

After lunch these had dried sufficiently for us to move on to the next step. First we had to chose which background we wanted to use, this took a while as I couldn't decide the colour combination that I wished to use!! We all stamped the Oakhouse Studio Clematis Tower (twice) on to our backgrounds using Versamark and then heat embossed them in our choice of colour (I used Sea Foam White from Oakhouse Studio). One stamped image was cut out as a whole (though there was a bit of moaning about fiddly cutting out and most people cut off the small leaves). This was then stuck to a piece white (or black) card measuring 5 and a quarter inches, I stuck mine using 3D foam though some people simply stuck theirs flat, we were supposed to curl the edges of the image but I forgot!! I am still happy with how it looked at that point, however it looked better once I added 2 flowers,which had been cut out of the second image, using 3D foam.

This card was not completed at the class because I wanted to use some products from home. The Without Change sentiment (from you know where) was stamped in Golden Yellow and embossed using crystal sparkle embossing powder. Before mounting on the backing paper I added a few butterflies (actually from a nail art set from the Pound Shop, you can get some real bargains for crafting from there if you look carefully enough).

I am donating these cards to my friend (who i mentioned in a previous post) who is selling hand made items to raise money for her young widowed friend. If you would like to contribute any hand made items to this cause Zana would be very grateful, as would I, please let me know. Thanks for reading,

- Rebecca