Two weeks ago, my friend and I went to Buffalo for the CKC Convention. Aside from taking a lot of photos of the layouts in the Studio Calico booth, I totally forgot to take pictures. Mary and I both took three classes. All of hers were card-making classes (and she loved them). I took one scrapbook class with Technique Tuesday and made two 2-page layouts using papers designed by Ali Edwards. I love both layouts, but haven’t chosen the photos for them yet.
They use a color combination I love and I liked the papers so much I bought a pack of them, even though I had a few left from the class. The class moved right along, but it wasn’t had to keep up.
The next class I took was a copic airbrushing class. I have a small airbrush set-up using the air cans, but I’ve always been a bit afraid to give it a try. We used the expensive air compressors in the class, but they demonstrated the can set-up so I’m sure I’ll not have any trouble with it. The class was taught by instructors from Clear and Simple Stamps and we made three cards while practicing the airbrushing techniques.
For the card on the left, we airbrushed over a doily and then lifted it up to create the background. For the middle card, we airbrushed the ribbon tags, and for the last card we airbrushed with a glitter pen. Here’s a close-up of that.
The last class I took was called Terrific Trends by Studio Calico, and it focused primarily on using the Mr. Huey mists. We created a title for a layout by putting down letter stickers, misting and then removing the letters. I liked the technique, but the papers and embellishments they used for the layout did not fit the photos I had taken, (This is frequently the case, and I’ve learned over time, to simply take the papers home with me so I can create a layout of my own.) Here’s the layout I finished this morning.
Matt’s ADD has always made it hard for him to read without taking his medication. He did really well in college, but when he’s working he needs the meds in order to focus on the job. One of the side effects of the medication is being unable to sleep, so he hesitates to use any after noontime. Thus the amount of reading he’s done since he graduated has been limited to newspapers and crossword puzzles. When we were in Denver we went to one of my favorite independent bookstores, The Tattered Cover. While we were browsing, Matt picked up this book, started to read, and started to chuckle. We bought the book and in just a day he had read nearly a third of it. It was too big a moment not to capture!
I used a Papertrey Ink die and some stamps from All Booked Up, a Jolee sticker and button from my stash, and some patterned papers I picked up at the convention from Simple Stories called Elementary.
In both the Copic Airbrushing class as well as Terrific Trends, we got a chance to color some embellishments. The ones on the left were airbrushed with Copic markers and the Wood Veneer stars from Studio Calico were sprayed with Mr. Huey mists. I know I’ll find a great use for all of them before long.
All in all, it was a great convention. The vendor faire was a bit better this year and I got some lovely embellishment at the Melissa Francis booth, and picked up a few papers that were on my wish list. Another benefit of the classes is I came home with three new stamp sets as well as quite a few papers and embellishments from both Technique Tuesday and Studio Calico.
One of my former fifth graders graduated from high school a week ago. I’m missing her party because we’re traveling this weekend, but I wanted to get her card and gift to her before we left. The high school colors are pretty boring for a delightful young woman full of energy and enthusiasm, so I decided to use this week’s camp colors to create a card for her.
