After a wonderful Saturday's crafting...

...I haven't done much this week.

The reason being...

 

...a rather painful touch of the old 'arfa-ritis'. This damp weather really isn't helping.

 

I so enjoyed Andy's class making the box and I had lots of ideas that I wanted to try this week but I haven't done anything.

 

Now I'm right-handed and as you can see from the photo - that is my left hand...but it is a bit difficult to concentrate when all you want to do is wrap the painful joint up warmly. So no crafting from me this week.

 

This Saturday was bright and sunny but a rather chilly start to the day - to the point that I couldn't even grip my earrings to put them in. After warming up the joints a bit I was able to get over to Barleylands to see the free demo session that Andy was holding at Pinnacle Crafts.

 

The aim of the demo was to show folk that you can do so much more with your metal dies than just cut. Using some 'funky foam' and one of the Tonic Verso dies...

 ...Andy showed how you could make your very own stamp of the same design...

 ...some EzMount and a pair of scissors...

 ...and he had a very large sized stamp to play with...

...you can just see a sample on the right-hand side of the photo where he used this stamp with gold embossing powder on a dark blue background.

 

He also showed how to make an embossing plate from the same die.

 

Here are just a few of the samples that Andy had made to show how versatile your dies can be...

 ...the sentiment on the Pink card below is from the Tonic "Everyday sentiments 1"...

...Andy also showed how easy it was to turn the sentiment into a very useful stamp.
This blue card was made using the embossing plate that was created from the Tonic Verso die...

...it certainly looks very effective. The anchor below was cut in miri card for the centre of the design but by making a stamp in funky foam...

 ...and teaming it with Inkadinkadoo's "Stamping Gear" system a larger design was created.
Here's that stamp made by the Verso die again...

...just using Flitter Glue to stamp the design and covering it with Glamour Dust...

 ...a beautiful White-on-white card with just a touch of silver.
This card showed what a lovely effect could be achieved by combining several different brands...

...again white-on-white with just a touch of silver - very classy.

 

I came away from Andy's demo day with lots of ideas for making more use of my dies - I just need my joints to start behaving so that I can actually have a play.....................................................