Quite a night!

It was a mostly dreary day- cloudy, some light rain, some thunder and lightning. It was an almost totally down evening- the phone kept ringing and each call was more bad news: one of DH's aunts died; Auntie in Florida lost a dear friend this morning, someone I'd met several times while visiting her; one of our lifetime neighbors and friends is in the hospital in very frightening condition; my young nephew called that their beloved dog died today. In between getting the calls was making calls to pass along the information- to DH about his aunt, to my Mom about her dear friend's condition, then again to Mom to let her know about DB's family's beloved pet. ACK- it all lasted about 3 hours and now feels like about 30!

The good news- and believe me, I am focusing on this right now!- is that I finished part 3 of Aury's sampler! I cannot seem to get a good picture without my own shadow near the bottom- any other angle gives a weird effect from the fabric. But, here it is, part 3! I am catching up!

The Copics class last night was wonderful; Heather, the teacher, was terrific! I learned a lot of stuff about using my alcohol markers.

I also learned that, at least right now, investing in Copics is not for me. The effects that you can achieve with these markers are amazing but I am just NOT the type to put THAT much work into an image that is going onto a card.

When I look at the work some papercrafters do with stamps and markers, I am blown away by the results. Having learned last night how to do it- or at least how to approximate it, given my limited artistic talents- I also learned that spending THAT much time on an image that might be one or two inches in size, that will go onto a birthday or Christmas card that will be most likely tossed, and that is, after all, papercrafts not long term art, is just NOT me!

Don't get me wrong- I love making cards. AND, I love working the images, to get them right. But, I can create beautiful images- at least *I* think they are beautiful- in so much less time using other coloring methods. They may lack the detail and realism of a Copic-colored image with three color shading on each part of the image, but I am happy with my watercolors and my pencils and can finish a complete card in less time than coloring the image with Copics would take.

Do I regret taking the class? NO WAY!! I learned a TON and will make use of it in my cardmaking. But I just cannot see me using the Copics as much as others do, or enough to be worth the investment. More essential, while I enjoyed the class a lot- I almost always like classes- I didn't love the process.

Ultimately, for me, hobbies are about the process. I love the activities of stitching and quilting and scrapbooking and stamping. When I finish something, that is terrific, but the process is what calls to me. Stamping and making cards are good because they are quick gratification in terms of finishing something, but since I do these activities to do them, making something is the bonus, not the goal.

I took away from the class a most important lesson- I learned another technique that I like, and will use, but do not love enough to commit a lot of time and money towards. So, I'll continue to use my Prismacolor markers when I think the image will be well served by them, and I might even do a little shading and blending sometimes, but me and my watercolors are still best friends.

Before I quit, let me recommend anyone in the central Jersey area who stamps to check out One Little Spark. The shop is small, but her inventory is delightful, and her samples are WOW! They are having make-it take-its all week and a bunch more classes next weekend. The folks who run the shop are really, REALLY nice and I had a great time there and hope to get back soon.

Time to move on to part 4!!!! YIPPEE!!!