Card Maker Success Summits

I've attended a few of these, and they just aren't my thing. Many of the classes usually aren't of interest to me, and the instructors go so fast that you are practically forced to purchase the All Access VIP pass so that you can re-play the videos to follow them. It's not worth the price for a video or 2, plus a few SVG files or patterns. And some of the instructors just aren't very good teachers. JMHO.

I "attended" the free version last year and I agree with riversong1963 and marg. I wasn't impressed and so glad I didn't pay for it.

So, I'm well aware that I'm nearly the only one here who loves coloring, but I've just watched three videos on that subject from the CMSS and I'm pretty happy.

Two were on alcohol markers -- very different styles of using them -- and the third was on colored pencil over watercolor.

It's just a PDF and most of it isn't worth printing. No real usable step-by-step instructions or anything that I've noticed so far. I'm finding it useful mostly for figuring out what to skip.

Just watched Justine Hovey'd Q&A on stenciling and looking at her website's free resources. Those look worthwhile as well. I have enjoyed the stencils I've used and have more to experiment with. I'm ooking forward to going back to watch her recorded demo.

Yes, I think that I've gotten my money's worth. I'm thinking of it more as a technique-learning/tips kind of thing, not really an actual card-making kind of thing.

I had never seen her before and watched all of both. I think she settled in and got more comfortable in the Q&A later.

The Q&As weren’t all that visual, so I listened to them instead of the radio for much of work@home day. Then occasionally scrambled to find where I’d put that window when it sounded like I wanted to see something.

If you like interactive pop up cards, Karen Burniston is doing a live demo today at 1:20 Eastern time. I have some of her dies. I found her at a convention once, and she does some fun things. Her pop up designs are very clever, but she has an engineering background.

I definitely won’t be watching everything for the summit. I missed yesterday’s classes and live demos, but I don’t feel I missed anything that I wanted to see. A lot depends on what your style is. I think there is something for most, but not everyone will want to watch every presentation.

I downloaded the worksheets from the two classes I’ve watched. I love interactive cards. The MFT interactive shaker card was super cute. I even have the stamp set and cloud template that she used. I think I need to make that one this evening. It didn’t get me to do any shopping, though.

I also really enjoyed the Live Demo by Karen Burniston. I thought it would only be available live, but it looks like it can be viewed again. I love her pop up/interactive dies and cards. It was a great presentation. I think I’ll watch it a couple more times tonight. I have several of her dies.

I also watched part of the castle pop up card presentation, and I downloaded the free SVG cutting file, but that instructor didn’t seem as professional. She provided a castle die cut for the card front in the free file, which was nice. If I make the card, I will probably add more to the card, both inside and out. If I do, I have some stamps that should work well with it.

I watched a couple yesterday. Meh. I watched 1 today which was OK. I'm on the fence about a couple of the discounts from yesterday. It's the dang sipping that says no.

Got my SLoC sketch this morning. It's one I will use. I watched the ink bending and alcohol ink ones as well.

Actually it says SPONSOR livestreams will stay on the YT channel, so maybe the Q&A sessions will disappear. Not sure about that.

The mix your coloring media (watercolor and colored pencil) video has me lusting for Prismacolors. Which is a little weird since I don’t have a watercolor set (though I could probably borrow DK’s. Her free download was her blending recommendations; i might take a closer look at that, see how the list overlaps with available sets, and start my 2023 Christmas wish list.

I was more impressed/intrigued by the two shaker cards than I expected to be. I don’t have and don’t want an electronic cutting machine, so I turn off any video at soon as Cricut or SVG file is mentioned. I don’t have and don’t want to be tempted by a hot foil machine, so once it clear the foiling was that kind of foil, I stopped that one.

Karen Burniston I started to watch. I really appreciated the thought that goes into these sets — ensuring that you don’t need extra parts or multiple sets to make a card, but also designing them so they can work together. But it seemed way too fiddley for me. I got a little anxious and decide to turn it all off and get to my crafting.

I have a Cameo, so I wasn’t interested in the Cricut classes, but I did download three of the free designs used on cards during the summit. They were all SVG files, so I can use them with my Cameo.

The Karen Burniston pop up mechanisms are a bit more involved to make. The die cutting isn’t bad, but I have to watch the video to create the pop up mechanism, at least if it is a new one, or if it has been awhile since I have made the pop up. However, I love making and giving cards that have a “WOW!” factor. Karen Burniston is a civil engineer. I married a civil engineer. Our oldest son is a civil engineer. So I find things like that interesting and cool, and I like the resulting cards, even if they take more time to make. KB’s pop up cards are fun to give because they usually impress the receiver. Not everyone appreciates a hand made card, but KB pop up cards usually impress everyone.

I have never taken any Copic classes, so I got a lot out of the class on Sunday that showed how to create dimension with your Copics.

The Fun Fold card class on Sunday was a more elaborate version of a card that I already knew how to make. She used a 6” paper pad that was from some company I have never heard of before. It sounds like she is Australian, so maybe it is only paper sold there. It was gorgeous paper, and I’d love to find it, but I will probably have to use something else to finish the card, but I doubt it will be as lovely as what she used.

At the very least, since I paid nothing for the summit, I got a lot more than my money’s worth.

I think I looked at the sample card and had the same reaction. 

I had a really, really hard time finding the log in link, Don. Then found it, logged in, closed that window or tab in my browser at the end of the day, and lost it again.

I emailed their support/customer service address and they sent me a new link!