At the end of April and most of May, I had the pleasure of taking a cruise with my husband on the Viking Orion. His calling was to teach the game of Bridge on sea days, to share his love for the game and to teach and entertain the Viking guests.
This particular cruise also afforded ME a wonderful opportunity to teach Card Making in the mornings on sea days. This was my first time teaching on a ship thus I wasn’t sure what the guests would like or even if they would be interested. But to my great delight, the first day I walked in early to a crowd waiting in line to come into the restaurant –I mean my classroom.
I had prepped seven cards that we could do…not knowing if all would get accomplished but I would give it a try. We were only able to do 6 cards. Since I was the only teacher, I asked that no more than 20 guests come at one time. So many showed up that we had up to 30 at a time. Yet it worked extremely well because they all began to help me and each other. I hope that if YOU were in the class to please post a comment and/or post your cards on social media and tag me. Thank you all for coming!
I tailored our cards to our itinerary: Tokyo to Alaska. Here are the examples I taught during ten days at sea:
Card 1
Participants learned various card-making skills including basic blending, using cardstock and vellum, coloring with alcohol markers, inking, and card design.
In each kit was the Altenew Reflections die, 5 Vellum flowers from the Sakura Blossom Die Set, centers precut from the same Sakura die set, and a card base. I was only able to get one pagoda design die (from Frantic Stampers) but purchased precut pagodas in different designs from KraftKittyPDX on Etsy. Each guest got to choose their own pagoda. My card was simple yet I suggested ways to change the background with ink blending, embellishments, and changing the orientation. I invited people to copy my design but encouraged them to be creative to make the card of their own design. In the end, there were no two cards alike and many were very creative.
Card 2
For this card I taught using dimensional foam tape, layering petals to complete a flower, making a shaker card (with elements under an acetate card front), and how to use shimmer pens.
This is a Shaker Card. I used the Altenew Craft-a -Flower Water Lily, Altenew Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover die, Spellbinder’s Essential Stylish Ovals Etched Dies, Hero Arts Koi Bunch stamp and coordinating Fin Friends Fancy Die, Altenew Ribbon Waves 3D Folder, and assorted sequins. Each kit contained a 5×6.5 card base, a piece of acetate, blue paper embossed in ribbon waves, white A2 size debossed piece with oval cut out, fish stamps and cut as a whole, and all the layers of the water lily and bud. Each guest could cut whichever individual fish they wanted from the HA Koi Bunch, add shimmer if desired, and choose their own sentiment from various sources.
Cards 3 and 4
Here, guests learned ink blending, coloring with alcohol markers, use of an action wobble, and how to build up dimension with foam tape.
There were two options for these two sessions. Because we were on a Viking ship, we were highlighting Gnomes on land and sea. I purposely did not complete full cards for ship as I wanted them to design their own…and boy, did they! On land, there were mushroom treehouses (Simon Says Stamps) to color, gnomes (Simon Says Stamps) to color and the opportunity to create their own design. On the sea, I gave the option of a Viking-like ship (Stamp Anniething) that was put over an embossed waves cardstock from Altenew Mighty Waves 3D embossing folder. Guests colored their gnomes, blended ink on the waves background and the ship and then put the gnomes on or off the ship as they wanted. I gave them each an “action wobble” form Simon Says Stamps. This is a small plastic spring that is sticky on both sides so that they could stick the wobble to the ship and then to the waves background. When struck, the spring moves to show movement of the ship. Some choose to put their gnome on the ship that “rocked” and some chose to make their gnomes stationary. On those that made gnomes on land, many made one of the gnomes wobble and bounce in the same manner that the ship did. The rocking ship was very appropriate at the time as we were crossing the Bering Sea and the waves were active.
Card 5
Card 5 used techniques of die cutting, layered stamping, creating a different card fold, blending color, using sequins, and coloring.
I started each guest off with a pre-embossed card that included Simon Says Stamps Pine Tree Meadows embossing folder done at both ends of the 8.5x 5 inch card base. This card featured some icebergs, Picket Fence Studios Glacier scenery stamps and dies in water with Hero Arts whales and wildlife. I demonstrated how to layer the different colored inks on the same whale shape by using Altenew’s Stamp Wheel. After the demonstration, I guided each guest, as needed, to create their own “Orca” whale from Hero Arts Coloring Layering Orca stamp and die. A different die cut whale, from Hero Arts Dream Accessories Fancy Dies was offered for variety and practice in die cutting. I stamped some wildlife – eagles, moose, bear – so that these could be cut out. The guests enjoyed learning to use a small die cutter Hero Arts Compact Cutter – putting the paper on one plate, the die face down then the over-plate and cranking it through the die cutter. Once they did this, they were able to die cut for themselves whatever critter(s) they wanted for their card. Guests especially enjoyed creating the critter by die cutting or stamping and producing a finished product of their own design and making. After creating the cards, once again, there were no two cards alike. To a teacher of creativity, this is music to my ears. I loved seeing them so excited about both the process and the end result.
Card 6
Techniques used were stenciling, blending, a new way to fold the card, die cutting, taping items together, and coloring.
Most of the process of constructing this card was the coloring of the inside of the card to create Alaskan scenery. I had several Altenew Mountain Scene stencils cut in half. Some started with the mountains and others with trees, then switched. I kitted card fronts by using Simon Says Stamps Tall Pines embossing folder. They had to cut it in half then add critters and trees, etc. to each side of the gate fold card. Critters and sentiments came from Hero Arts Fuzzy Winter Animal stamps and dies and Gina K Designs Fearless Flyers Coordinating stamps and dies. One of the best compliments came from a guest who told me the Alaskan scenery looked just like what she put on her card!
EXHIBIT
The day before the cruise ended we had an Exhibit of the art that students/guests had created. In another class, a different instructor taught water-color painting, so both cards and paintings were exhibited for our art show. These pictures only represent about half of what was actually made.
Supplies Used:
