Stamper's Dream Weekend-Day Two

It's day two and I am the facilitator for the day. It is going to be a jamed packed day! My approach for teaching this class was different. I was going to teach them, their design uses as well as the their use of design elements in definine themselves in each and every project. I was going to teach the Who, the What that makes each of them a distinct designer we want to emulate and learn from in our own artistic journey.

I asked 4 designers to create a project for me that I could used on this day and the stampers to complete in 30 minutes or less. They were asked to use the Signs of Spring and anything that we carried in Flourishes. Their projects are dazzling!

The four designers are :

Julie Koerber--Flourishes DT coordinator extraordinaire!

Laura Fredrickson, Latisha Yoast and Linda Duke.

Here are their creations:

Julie designed this very simple but adorable Chick It Out Box:

Laura's great card:



Latisha!

Linda Duke:

Whew! They are all so wonderful.

I addressed the elements of design on each project. The focal or entry point of the card as well as color, movement and unity. We also addressed the embellishment's. To top it off we discussed each artist, their designs and their signature points.

Those things ranged from Julie's wonderful creativeness, her organization and orderly instructions...all signature points that set her apart and gotten her to be a Rock Star and very published.

Laura always has a keen eye for color, scale and motion are things that set her apart and this came across in the two cards she designed. Her choice of designer papers that work in beautiful balance and scale with just the right scale of embellishment make her someone we all want to learn from as we grow artistically. She uses readily available things in an unsuspecting manner that makes one smile and experience the AH moment!

Latisha's fresh, clean and simple look is one that lends itself to other obvious stamp company images, BUT she has chosen to work with our timeless images and teach and share with us her keen eye for what is always the just enough, but never too much--to keep that young and fresh look that may so often be missed by many good stampers that go for the obvious image styles. This sets her light years apart from the others in a good simple clean and fresh way....her use of natural craft paper, dotted ribbons, linen or thread or her ever present buttons make he stand apart as well.

My most scary undertaking teaching was my dear friend Linda Duke. She has long been my secret mentor. I study her creations when I can and do so in depth. This lady always has perfection, beauty that ooze from her work. She is a queen to the technique of layering and perfect embellishments. For this card she did a woven background piece which I knew was just not practical for the class, so I improvised...I created a soon to be released basket weave 4 x 4 background to create the image. This was one of the free stamps that each attendee received.

In each of the projects the stampers received the special pointers to create in the mindset of each of these wonderful stampers. The last part of the class was a 2 1/2 hour class taught by none other than Marianne Walker of Copic. She took the elements of design and elaborated on all of the points that I had covered. We learned about emotions and color as well as the basic aspects of the use of colors. It all went so fast. We could have stayed for more, but supper was calling...so next time Marianne we will expect to learn even more.

We finished off Sunday by a gathering of the Stampers Dream Weekend participants joined by the Copic class for a supper to savor good food, good friends and lots and lots of getting to know you better. We dined on a typical Mardi Gras menu with Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice. Dessert was Doberge cake and King's Cake both specialties I bought back from New Orleans ...the theme was definitely Laissez le bonnee temp rouler!

Viola...Day two was gone, the Stampers Dream weekend retreat was over---but will not be forgotten. We made such wonderful new friends, and enjoyed our friends we know thru email and Flourishes. It was a delight for the three Flourishes to share our Atelier, great teachers and food. Our greatest thanks to one and all!

Ciao,