What a way to spend a Thursday

Wow, yesterday was a great crafting day. I spent the day at an Artsycrafts event and had the privilege of a 4 hour workshop with the amazing Tim Holtz and then a 3 hour workshop with Lin Brown and Leandra Franich. The workshop with Tim was using his 'Configurations' boxes and we got to play with a lot of stuff. We used a great product which was Claudine Hellmuth Multi-medium Mattte and I was surprised how much of that I could get through. It glues anything and dries clear but with a matte finish rather than a glossy finish. It seems to stick everything to everything and once it has dried completely - it ain't moving anywhere. Tim was superb and really friendly and funny. He has a great way to get you to think differently and I must admit that I did not think that I would like what I made, I loved what I did and even bought some more blank configuration boxes to make more - although I have decided that I will call them my 'memory boxes'. The embellishments that were provided were superb and Tim had a way of not making you feel rushed. I left a couple of spaces to put in some nick-nacks I had at home which I would like to go into it. It really was something different for me and took me right out of my comfort zone but I went into it thinking that I would learn new techniques and was always good to be made to think outside of the box. It ended up being something that I really enjoyed and had the added bonus of ending up with something that I really liked.

After I had finished Tim's workshop, I did a workshop with Leandra and Lin and this was a Colourwash Tree House. It was made using a variety of techniques that I had not really used before but was messy! I tried to use gloves but in the end gave up and just put up with messy hands. Although it was only meant to be a 2 1/2 hours workshop, most of us needed 3 hours to complete but as this was at the end of the day, who is going to complain of extra crafting time given. Some of the cutting has been done before hand to ensure that we would all be able to complete our items but this did not take away any of the techniques - only the parts that we could all do. We used paper, metal, chipboard, Ranger colourwash spray, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint, some of the Ideology goodies from Tim Holtz and of course Tissue tape from Tim.

I really enjoyed my day and felt that it pushed me in directions that I would not usually take but that was good. The amount of work and preparation that must have gone into this workshop was very much appreciated and think that a tremendous job was done to make an extremely enjoyable day for all.

I even got to go home with 2 finished samples which was an added bonus as did not expect to at the beginning of the day.

Mother-in-Law's Birthday Card

I obviously found my packs of Dufex in the cupboard as I have made yet another card using it! This card was for my Mother-in-Law's birthday and she just loves cats. On seeing these designs by Dufex I knew that I just had to use one of them on her birthday card. The hardest thing was choosing which one of the three cats to use so left that choice to my husband.

Although it does not show up on the main photo, the design has been decoupaged and then matted onto shades of blue card that I bought in a pack from The Range. I also used the same card to matt and layer the greeting. I wanted to keep the background plain so as not to detract from the cat image and the main card was a blue pearlescent card from the Centura Bright card pack from Crafter's Companion. The side of the card was punch with a Martha Stewart punch and then a layer of the blue card laid behind as a border.

It was obviously the right choice of card as I received a phone call from my Mother-in-Law who was very pleased with it.

Crafter's Companion Challenge 9

I thought that I would use this card as my 'Romance' challenge card. It has been made for my Brother-in-law but trying to get near to the Claret and Blue of his beloved football team. I used a hue lighter as I did not want the card to be too dark.

I have used Dufex for the images on a background of a paper from Core'dinations Gemstones. I used some heart ribbon that I bought up in Fleetwood for the side borders and cut out a wrapture in more paper from Core'dinations Gemstones and then used more ribbon that I bought in Fleetwood.

Although it does not show in this photo - there is a lovely pearlescent sheen to the card. inside the card, I have put a border or Dufex down the right hand side and finished it with an insert that has the image of the main topper faded behind the words.