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Today was so very exciting! I attended both a beginner and advanced brayer workshop given by Michelle Zindorf. I know many of you know who she is, but for those who don't, check out her blog - she does some really cool things with ink, a brayer, sponges, and post-it notes. http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com

We made three cards in each class. And the stamp sets and brayers that we used were part of the class fee, so I came home with everything but the ink.

Holy smokes! Those are gorgeous! I have tried to duplicate her work, but you nailed it!thet are all works of art. I'm so glad you had a great time. amazing!

I would so love to take her class!! You did an awesome job. I love them all

Thanks! Can I just say, that what she taught us in the first 10 minutes is the thing I would never in a gazillion years have been able to master without having seen it demonstrated? By the 6th card, I was feeling really comfortable with all of the layering and how far to go with each color and how many passes it was going to take before it was time to stop.

That said, I still don't think I could ever design one of those style cards from scratch. It takes more of an artistic eye. However, I feel like I could now follow any given one of her blog tutorials with complete comprehension and confidence. The classes were pretty expensive, but I did come away with four complete SU stamp sets, a white paint pen, a versamark pad, a versamark pen, a brayer (which she autographed), and a massive pad of grid paper. So between the product and the instruction, I am perfectly happy with what I got for what I paid. I would highly recommend that anyone with even a remote interest go take one of her workshops if they get the chance.

WOW!!!! Those are totally awesome cards!!

Monica

those are fantastic! You learned a lot, and I had a feeling that it's one of those things you have to see and do with her there, not just read it on her blog! She was here before and my friend Tracy took her class, but if she comes back I'll sign up... unless YOU teach us Julie!!

Awesome cards!!!

Fantastic cards! Those techniques are best learned in person, I agree.
Can't wait to see what all you do now that you know the secrets.

those are flippin fantastic!
very awesome

Wow!!! Great cards Julie!!

Thanks everyone!

And Nancy - I'm afraid that to properly convey the technique, I'd need to post a video. And even though there's nothing really earth shattering about how she gets her looks, I can't re-teach the cards from her class because her cards are under copyright. But I'll tell you the two most important things I learned:

The very first thing she told us, was to load up the brayer, and start just off the edge of the panel, and then come on to the panel with steady back and forth strokes. And brayer all the way into where you want the color to end, even though you'll have almost no ink by that point. I will just take several applications, and that's how you wind up with the cool gradient look.

The other tip that I thought was most important, was to keep your pressure light, and to work fast. And that tip is especially true for the lighter colors. If you use too much pressure, all of the ink will come off the brayer in the first few strokes, and if you move too slow, the ink will dry on the brayer.

From there, a lot of what we did also involved sponging the ink on, and masking with post-it notes.

I'm going to order a bunch of those inks in the specific colors that she uses most, so that I can follow those tutorials on her blog now.

WOW!!!

Very impressive, and quite frankly, if those are
beginner's cards, I'd probably flunk beginner class.

They are all stunning pieces of art!

Wow, Julie, those are stunning! I am so glad that you got to do the classes, learned a lot, and enjoyed it. What a nice break from the real world!

Julie, those cards are awesome! Maybe you can make one at retreat or just bring them to see IRL.

WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!