Stampaway Specimen Box Collage Class

Don't you just love finding something new?  When my buddy Tim introduced his large houses die cut, I knew immediately that I'd need those in my collection.  But it wasn't until 4 days before Stampaway that I knew I'd use them in my Specimen Box Collage class. 

This is a class I've taught at Stampaway several times before, but each time it's different.  The first time we created art dolls with castles in the background.  The second time around we used a clip art "angel", think vintage photos of little girls altered with wings & fairy wands, and elements from Tim's grungeboard adding dimension and interest to the background.

So it's no surprise that I didn't want to repeat an idea.  After all, the name of the class was "Secrets of a Specimen Box Collage".  And 33 ladies joined me for this little adventure.

The big surprise for me was that more than half these girls had never taken a class with me before!  Wow.  So glad you chose this year to join me!

My classes always include techniques, and this one was a perfect example.  I love introducing my students to new ideas and new "tools" for making backgrounds.  In this particular class we were applying all those techniques to a background, to houses, and to roof tops.  Way too much fun.

This collage isn't finished as I'm sure you can tell, but please check out all the textures on these houses.  Aren't they wonderful?

I apologize for my photography, but look closely and you'll see Clearsnap's Magic Stamp blocks on the table.  It wouldn't be a class with Lovely Linda if we didn't have those.  And once again, I'm amazed by the number of people who don't know about this valuable stamping tool.

Check out the upper right corner of the background; it was made with the Magic Stamp I'd impressed at home with a rubber stamp.  How dynamic is that?

Every kit was filled with pages torn from foreign text books including Greek, Russian, & German, plus sheet music,Asian text & newsprint, and my favorite for this class:  a text book on building homes.  Notice the largest house on the left:  a page from that very book.

Now look at the roof of the second house from the right.  Coffee Break Designs sells these wonderful chipboard pennants that I'd bought for my Elevated ATC class last year, but they were perfect for the roof of a house.  Not just because of their size, but because it was an added element of dimension.

Every kit this year was packaged with a 6" stencil I'd purchased from The Crafters Workshop.  They offer such a fabulous collection of stencils you can't imagine!  At the beginning of class the ladies lined up to trade their tickets for a kit.  It was interesting to see how often they'd sort through 3 or 4 specimen boxes, trying to decide which stencil they liked best, before moving on to collect the rest of their supplies.  Only 2 came back to the front to swap out their box because of the stencil choices.  I would have expected it from more.

Notice the pattern in the upper lefthand corner and on the second house from the left.  Yep, those were done with a stencil.

The roof of the house on the left was cut from a large border stamp made by Artful Illusions.  And the roof on the second house from the right is metal flashing tape that I'd run through a texture plate.  The key and token are real.  Imagine assembling 40 kits with old rusty keys and metal tokens, but that's exactly what I did.  Of course there were jewels and Bingo markers, Tim's spinners & tissue tape...the ladies had access to everything.

Another new product I introduced them to was Viva's Inka Gold...a waxy pigment that adheres to metal much like Rub n Buf, but far superior in consistency & color choices.  So lots of the gals used it on their metal embellishments, including their rooftops.  If you scroll back up and look at the houses, you'll see several of the roofs are made from the metal flashing tape that's been colored.  How divine.

As always, I thank you for stopping by to visit.  And to all the Lovelies who attended my classes, a HUGE thank you.  Maybe next year I should make name tags for everyone that read "I'm one of Linda's Lovelies".  Think anyone would wear one?