Hi Fellow Stampers,
I just returned from a fun weekend at the Auntie Amy Stamps convention in Ft.Wayne, Indiana. I attended three classes, as well as the Saturday evening party, and came back with a ton of ideas (and new stash!). First off, this convention was smaller than the one I attended in Novi, MI, last year. A couple of reasons why this was. Novi is near Detroit, so it's probably easier to get vendors to attend, plus there ended up being two other stamping conventions in the USA on the same weekend, one of which was in Atlanta, GA, so Auntie Amy said that many vendors elected to attend the Atlanta show instead of hers. At the same time, there's something to be said for a smaller, less crowded show!
I tried uploading scans of some of the cards we made at the classes, but yahoo photos is being a pain and says, "Your photos have been uploaded. Zero new photos in album." ???????? I'll try again tomorrow and post when I'm successful.
Class #1 was using one 8.5x11" sheet of cardstock, randomly stamped then cut into pieces, to make 8 different cards. Class #2 made 6 cards each using a different technique to color the image (water colors, markers, water color crayons, water color pencils, chalks, blending pens). Class #3 was some quick and easy cards. My favorite new technique from that class was taping a small ziplock bag that had clear hair gel in it behind a piece of cardstock that had a window punched in it, then layering that over a stamped fish image, to make it look like the fish is in water. Neat! We made 11 items at the Sat. evening party. Glitter, Twinkling H2Os, various favor boxes, texturing tools, new one-tool eyelet punches and setters, and other techniques were among those featured.
What did I buy? Well, some unmounted stamps (and stuff to mount them for use with acrylic handles). Also colored stapes, a ton of different brads, including some really cute dragonfly brads, round pliers for bending wire, various wire embellishments, some glue dots for dimensional gluing, and TWINKLING H2Os! (Kare, I'm a convert to these!).
I saw a bunch of other neat things demonstrated, such as mica embossing powders (used to make cards and on charms to make some really snazzy looking jewelry!), and "Cow powder" from CowTown Stamps, which changes color the more you heat it, giving you a variegated look.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, and now I'm pumped for some stamping!
Barbara