Els van de Burgt Studio Joset Designs Soft Finish Cardstock

Class-Y Ladies: Anita and Els

February 16, 2016

It’s Els here today to share photos from a wonderful class I took at Doe@ding with Anita Izendoorn on February 13 while I was in the Netherlands. We made several projects including a pull card and a strawberry-filled circle. And since the class was timed for Valentine’s Day, there were cookies, chocolate, coffee and tea – as much as we wanted!

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All of us here at Elizabeth Craft Designs are great fans of Anita’s and we know you are, too. You see a lot of her projects on our Facebook page! She is a talented artist whose cards are amazing – elegant and beautiful, the perfect mix of die-cut and hand-colored elements that are evidence of her great skills as a designer.

I just love how she uses Distress Inks and blending tools. She will start with White Soft Finish Cardstock (she calls it ‘Anita’s Choice’ and her ‘cuddle cardstock’) and before you know it there is a luscious red strawberry in front of you with equally beautiful green leaves and softly-shaded white blossoms, and she does great things with the background layers and flourishes and she has such a way with Karen Burniston’s interactive dies, plus she is a wizard with Brusho crystal powdered watercolor pigments, and so much more! For this class she wove in dies from Joset Designs (the Strawberries set) and some of mine from the Els van de Burgt Studio collection. You get the picture. In fact, you can see from the photos just what I’m talking about.

Anita is a gifted and generous teacher, too. She shared her techniques and some great tricks. I came away feeling very happy, with wonderful finished projects in hand and my mind filled with ideas.

I’m going to practice what I learned – I’m not as skilled as Anita, but it is very easy to get good results. Everyone in the class created terrific projects.

I’ll share one tip, something that is fun and gives me control and confidence: Start with just a bit of color on the blending tool and don’t use much hand pressure, building the color values from dark to light a little at a time, using a circular motion and some tapping to apply and spread the ink. (In other words, you can always add more color, but you can’t subtract/remove ink that is already absorbed into the surface of the cardstock.)

OK, I’m going to share two tricks, not just one: Use several blending foam circles, assigning each to an ink or color family, to save the work of cleaning and drying them. With the mini blending tool these foam pieces easily store under the Distress Ink pads. You can use a single blending tool handle, or if your budget allows get several, it speeds things up. (That’s what I do.)

Thank you, Anita, for the wonderful class. Thank you to the people who took the class – you were wonderful company! And thank you to Doe@ding for taking such good care of all of us.

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Anita explaining some fun tips and trick to the students.

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Here I am working on my project.

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Work in progress. We’re making the card in the middle.

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All pieces ready to finish my card.

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Some yummy delicious treats during class!

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  • Sharon Morrison February 18, 2016 at 12:29 pm

    Just finished playing with your daisy die, might have to get this one next!

  • Sandy Diller February 16, 2016 at 8:32 pm

    Oh Els,
    This is so great, I would love to take a class with Anita. Your card turned out so beautifully and can’t wait to see a video on this technique.

  • Kathleen Adams February 16, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    Els, the card is absolutely fantastic! I hope you will be making a YouTube video demonstrating the techniques you learned. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would benefit. Thanks so much for sharing!

  • Pat Braszell February 16, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    Wow what an amazing card.

  • Anita Izendoorn February 16, 2016 at 10:26 am

    Och wat heb je een geweldig mooie post gemaakt Els, en wat hebben we genoten het was echt super kleur-rijk en gezellig. Geniet lekker lang na en allemaal succes met het mooie Soft Finish Cardstock , de inktjes, blenden en mooie producten van Elizabeth Craft Designs…. Ben trots dat ik voor Nederland de ambassadrice van ECD mag zijn ik geniet iedere dag enorm…

    Warme Groetjes uit Nederland,
    Anita.

  • PA February 16, 2016 at 10:18 am

    When I first saw the leaves thought they were made with Brushos! Nice results with Distress Inks! <3

  • Marjorie February 16, 2016 at 9:00 am

    The card was amazing. Thank you for the tips on the blending tools. Sometimes I have a hard time getting it just right so I’m going to be practicing.

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