I've Been Waiting a Year!

I've been waiting almost a year for this day! Today I took the advanced class with Michelle Zindorf, a Stampin' Up demonstrator from Ohio. You will recall that I took the beginner's class last year in Grinnell. Well, this time it was here in O-town! My class didn't start until 2:30 and the morning just seemed to crawl by! We made 3 cards in class. This is the first one. It's a relatively simple brayered card. All products, of course, are from Stampin' Up! These cards are much prettier in person because the colors are so vibrant. Michelle didn't know that the balloon races were in Ottumwa until last night, but she had this card planned for a couple of months - very appropriate!
The second card is this butterfly one. It wasn't so simple! I'm so glad I did it, though. Next time I try doing a reflection in water, I'll do better! Now that I know how, I can line up the plants a little better and get the butterfly a little more distinct. I had Michelle re-ink my ink pad for the blue shadow (middle right). Unfortunately when I went to sponge the shadow on, I got in the new ink and made a mess! I'll know better than to do that next time too! This is our third card and I LOVE IT!! The bird and the plants on the left have clear embossing powder on them, so they are shiny! I love the sun rays - cool technique that is soooo simple!


Taking these classes is kind of expensive, but it is worth it. We got two stamp sets, a stamp pad of Versamark, a Versamark pen, and all the supplies to make these cards. We used her inks and embossing powders. You also get to meet ladies from all over. We had two who were from Cedar Rapids and 1 from Omaha in our class. The rest were from O-town! I only knew one of the ladies, though...so I met some new people today! Fun!!

More later...