The first class was taught by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner, from 12:30 to 2:30 PM on Saturday. Each had three cards with little kits and all the papers cut to size and die cuts as needed...
Let's start with Jennifer where cards "A" and "B" were studies in "second generation stamping". We used layering stamps to create a first generation image (the red card) then stamped again without re-inking to get our second (paler) image:
These three cards went relatively quickly although there was a drying time issue which meant that final assembly had to wait until I got home.
Kristina's card A used a resist background which was trimmed to fit card A and the remnant of the background was used to make Card B:
We were to use four colors of SSS inks and stamp the sentiments and images in a rainbow, moving from left to right, wiping off excess as we went so we would end up with a rainbow. That meant we had to do a minimum of four inkings without moving the stamps. My trouble was that, for me, clear stamps and card stock in a MISTI are like glue: the card sticks to the stamps and came up every time and no matter how carefully I replaced it, it was never quite right. My attempts at careful placement with four different ink pads were not too precise ether so I ended up with overlaps and gaps where I didn't want them - any attempts to re-ink and re stamp were disastrous. The result: a throwaway:
I KNOW I have several Kaleidoscaope pads but I can't locate them. I did find six ombre pads in my search but I wanted a rainbow, not one color in six shades. However... while searching, I stumbled upon a ColorBox pigment pad called a "Paintbox Option Pad" and it was PERFECT! After placing all the stamp pieces (and a new sentiment because I don''t own that SSS sentiment set) on the MISTI, I inked with the pigment pad. Here is what resulted with four magnets and two strips of Washi tape to keep that card down on the MISTI surface:
Later in the day (5:30 to 7:30) was Yana Smakula's class using Spellbinders embossing dies. Only one card so it SHOULD have been easy to finish --- it WOULD have been if I hadn't die cut all those blasted cacti backwards (9 times for the background cut-out and nine more for the inserts, to say nothing of having to emboss each of the insert cacti separately so that single die went though the machine 27 times! AACK!)! I came up with a fix but lost time and since my ride home was due AT THE DOOR at 7:30, I simply couldn't hang around for the few extra minutes to finally assemble the card. That I did today:
P.S. On Friday, May 5, Simon Says Stamp emailed a set of instructions and photographs for the six cards taught by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner. I now see where the velum overlay for Jennifer's Card C and the sequins for Kristina's Card C go but I can't do the former (it would require removing the white die cut from the background) and probably won't do the latter (can't see that it adds that much to my version of that card). Still, it was wonderful to get the write-ups for future reference.