WOYWW 336

Nope, I did not find my witch hat and nope I did not do any painting or even any drawing.  Went to the craft club on Saturday to do an owl picture in a similar style to Finnabair and said I would take some of my old ones to help Lorraine (who was tutoring) out with some ideas.  On checking through my blog I found that I never shown you this one which I did for Chas for his birthday.  Why a horse? Not a clue except it was the closest thing to a rocking horse which was the workshop Lorraine and I had missed out on and really wanted to do. (Incidentally the horse is brushed with silver, not gold as it shows up in the picture - tried to keep to 'cold' colours)

Did try to get another one finished which I was doing as a gift for someone but I can't show it to you until I give it to her.  Forgot all about nylon net melting with heat and wondered where it had gone when I had tried to speed up the drying process - DOH!  However here is my owl one done on Saturday.  I didn't want to do it the same as all my others, with cogs and wheels etc, so I raided the pot pourri for the elements and added bits to the leaves I had die cut and coloured with Distress Inks. I think I got my inspiration for this from Angela who had made a super picture for Halloween and used leaves which has stayed in my mind ever since seeing it.

Love this stencil I used of the window

Well, this is my desk this week.  Full of churches I have been busily cutting out for days.  This is a Spellbinders die and you can get it from Oyster Stamps but be warned there is only one die in of the window frames and you need six of them.  That's six passes through your machine - took me ages to get the packs ready for everyone but I guess not everyone cuts them out for a class of 20 (20 x 6 = 120 passes but it worked our more as I could not always get all the dies on the one sheet without wasting card for so many - fine if you are just doing a few for yourself).  Excuse me from advertising but they have an offer on of 4 Spellbinders dies for £40 at the moment. That's £10 a pop!

Jo 'begged' my sample church when she was here last week (but she said she really loves it when I spoke to her a couple of days ago so I didn't mind doing another sample yesterday) but now I have cut enough out.  Hope nobody else wants one as I think I would have to say "no" as I am all "die cut out" after all that cutting and I still have some window frames to do so I guess I had better get on with it.

In the meantime pop along to see the lovely Julia and visit some more desks - you never know you might just find inspiration for that special "C"Card you have been looking for on someone's desk.

Will be bringing my ceramic poppy (one of the Tower of London ones) in tonight as I don't want the frost to get it over winter and I might forget it if I leave it until later. Tonight seems an appropriate time to me.  Thankfully it has a lovely box to rest in until the frost has all gone.  Are you bringing yours in?

WOYWW 333

It's all the three's today - where?  Over at Julia's blog - and heading the posts for all her faithful followers.  Go and have a peek, nobody bites.

Well, as I said last week, I was away with a friend at weekend doing another of those Finnabair workshops that we seem to be hooked on.  Gosh she is a tremendous tutor and so nice with it too. This time it was up in Teeside and under the supervision of Sue Tucker.  Anybody and Everybody should do a workshop organised by Sue, there is such a lot we can all learn from her.  Nothing is too much trouble in the organisation, she puts 110% into it (and more if truth be known).  Thanks Sue, thanks Debbie (Sue's helper), thanks hubby, thanks Anna and thanks everyone who went - some real nice people participating.

So what did we do:

close-up of the brush part

I want to do a bit more to this canvas as I feel the rays need to be a bit wider and feather out a bit more - patience and I should achieve what I want.

The other canvas we did was also with a brush so I did it landscape to detract from the eye a bit - but it was using different colours and also a totally different method of working.  Looks much better irl as you can see the sheen of the powders, sprays and the tiny micro glass beads.

As is always the case when you have been to one of Anna's workshops you come home with lots of goodies and this was no exception.  Two workshops and we were given all that you can see used above plus most of what you see below on my desk.

The red bag at the back was a gift from my wonderful friend, Lorraine.  The suitcase tin was mine, the pouch was a gift (for every participant) from Debbie; the ArtBin pages, the cogs, wings and Texture Paste jars are what I bought.  I think it is safe to say the remaining stuff was what I had left over.  I just love those cardboard flowers - not seen them before.

So now my desk is getting ready for a couple more canvasses which is why I don't want to show it to you as I have them laid out in readiness for sticking down.  I would rather show you the completed versions ... but I have been spurred on by the two amazing workshops I attended at weekend.

Thanks everyone!  See you over at Julia's.

A Day with Finnabair

Had a lovely day out yesterday with Lorraine (ok, I said Finnabair above) when we went to Harrogate to a workshop by Finnabair.  It saw us leaving home quite early in the morning and travelling up in the rain.  Poor Lorraine driving as usual with me as chief navigator, assisted ably by the Sat Nav I must add.

Anyway, in the morning we had a workshop entitled Beauty and the Beads and it was in my favourite dark dark colours.  The metallic sheen on the canvas that comes from the sprays we used is just wonderful.  I wish you could see it on here.

The first workshop I ever did with Finn was down in Wiltshire (I think - take me south of Lancashire and I don't know where I am) and I came home with a gorgeous pale blue and green journal and a canvas that shaded from black to a very pale blueish colour.  I just loved them.  Then at another workshop, yes I was hooked, I did a black journal (similar to the canvas above) and I was totally head over heels in love.  So you see, I just love the canvas above and was so glad we did a black one.

That is not to say I do not like what I made in the afternoon.  Because I do.  This workshop was called Time Capsule and the pocket watch centre piece was perfect for a photograph but I decided to leave mine 'faceless'. However I am hoping to make another one of these and this time it will contain a photograph.  That is because I like it and can see me making even more than one more of these.

Can you see the metal flower top right?  I love this which is part of the new collection I think.  Also I liked the screw heads (Junkyard Findings) and the twirl at the bottom.  The paper roses are lovely too and I can see I am becoming addicted to these embellishments but rather surprised myself that I used so many on each canvas.  Usually I am a bit "skinny" when it comes to sticking them down.

Well, hope you like what you have seen although I realise they have been seen a lot on Facebook so I don't expect many, if any, comments on here.

If you did see them on Facebook do you notice any difference with the black one today?

Artful Times - A Bit of Finnabair

Here we are with Challenge no 79 - a bit of Finnabair - we mean for you to look at her work and use some metal pieces, lace, flowers - whatever takes your fancy and see what you come up with.  Here's a link to her blog to get you started:

http://tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk

I just love her work and I so enjoy going to her workshops.  I think I have become a bit of a 'groupy' as I have been to several now and am hoping to go to another two this year.  Oh dear!  I have featured some of the things I have made in her workshops and there is a link on the right hand side of this page if you want to see some of the things I have done.

For this piece I was left entirely on my own - had one or two wobblers but eventually came up with this.  The photo is of my mum and my gran.

You don't have to have photographs in your work, it doesn't have to be a canvas or a book cover, you can just do a card.  I have made some cards and used some of her stamps in the process so I could easily have used those but thought I would attempt a canvas.

top left corner

and bottom right

Now should I put some stamping on or some lines, some torn strips of paper?  Oh dear, what shall I do?

Pop along to Wendy's blog and see what she has to show you and then please join in and make something for us to feast our eyes on and enjoy.

A Bit More Finnabair

I have just been so busy of late and tried to do some Finnabair type things last week ahead of the show at Harrogate and then found out the show was Friday/Saturday and not Saturday/Sunday as usual - so I lost a day.  Just got back from an overnight stay in York - but more on that one later.

This is one of my canvas samples that I was going to finish off at the show (other work in the posts before this one)

I used the ColorBloom sprays for the background and used some water to dilute them once I had sprayed.  Hard to believe it is Deep Teal and Glistening Waves that I have used - the water has really worked wonders at making it such a light background.  One of Finnabair's stencils (Grungy Grid) with her 3D Opaque Matte Modelling Paste completes the background apart from the strips of Designer paper which I have stuck on following the lines of light emitting from the stamped image. These then have an orange line painted underneath them as does the torn edges of the image and the other little bits and heart.  I used Spiced Marmalade with touches of Fired Brick to liven it up on the heart and on the butterflies too.  The images are all Finnabair and are all stamped and embossed.

I was going to carry on with this canvas but Tracey thought some people might like a "less is more" canvas and so we left it as it was and it went down to Oyster Towers with the gang on Saturday.

A small canvas I did also had the butterflies on - more or less same colour scheme I am afraid and this time I went over the circles on the butterfly wings with Sepia Glossy Accents to accentuate them a bit. These are double butterflies and they graduate to a deeper shade with more of the darker ink applied.  They have wire antennae attached.

Side View:

This stencil is called Ripped Fishnet that I used for this one.

Will leave it there for today and see what else I can come up with. Am so far behind with blogging that I need to play catch up for at least a week.  See you later.

Guess Where I Am

If I show you a card I made - before I set off I hasten to add - it might give you a clue as to where I am at this precise moment (yes, this is a scheduled post):

Yeah!  It's a Finnabair stamp (from Oyster Stamps at the Leigh weekend) and I am with the lady herself!!  I am on another Finnabair weekend but this time in Stockton on Tees.

Went up with Lorraine on Friday and home again after a class this morning and one all day on Sunday.  Can't wait to get there and see what we are going to make.

The card above?  Well, it is a birthday card for my dil - no worries they never go on my blog - do they know I have one?  Neither of them like handmade cards, well mine, but I thought I would try this new stamp out.  Just did some Distress Inks for the background and then painted some circles with H2o's, and there is a tiny gem in the bottom right hand corner.

Oh, it's Sam's birthday Tuesday.

Will have to see what I do with the other stamps - watch this space - I have three sets ... at the moment ...

More Finn (and Annie's Smile)

Continuing the workshop I attended in Swindon last weekend (is it really a week since I set off for the wonderful event?) and which is in the previous post, here are some more photos - this time of my journal.  This is definitely something I will be making again and I have already sent off for a smaller one to do.  Remember, I had shown you in yesterday's post how the two covers met in the middle and almost spelled out my name - well here is the whole cover:

Front

Both back and front together

Because I had not thought to take any photographs to include in my pages (or on my LO and canvas shown to you yesterday) I had to use some Vintage ones that the shop had printed off for us. That suited me fine as I like vintage and I am not as young or photogenic as Anna is either.  (Plus I did like the Anna photo on my canvas and it serves as a nice memory of her workshop.)

I have not finished the third set of pages yet but thought it about time I showed you the two I had done - and finished off at home I must add.  Here they are:

I had to add the photo and the circles to this one

This just needed some flowers so I used canvas ones

I really am itching to get some more pages done for this journal which is going to be an experimental one in various versions and adaptations of Anna Dabrowska style.

Before I leave this workshop post I have to share with you some photos of an incredible sunset we witnessed on the way home. Unfortunately we could not stop, all we could do was look in admiration at the painting in the sky.  We managed to stop in a lay-by just before we lost the picture which could only be described as "awesome" so I am sorry you don't get the "wonder" we had earlier but it still is pretty impressive.  I am entering these sunsets into Annies "Smile week" because it makes me smile to see Nature as an artist that so many people can enjoy.

Finn Weekend

As mentioned yesterday I spent the weekend in Wiltshire on workshop with Finnabair (Anna Dabrowska) and as promised (finally Karen) here are the things I made:

a 12" x 12" Layout

All of those wonderful metal pieces and the flowers were provided and there are several layers of Finn's fabulous papers stuck down together to make it a substantial piece of art.  You really need to check out what she has and what you can buy - some really great stuff.

Then we did a canvas.  This is my favourite piece.  I just love the colour achieved with mainly the use of Gesso.  Sadly it does look so much better in real life.  (ok Sam, it's a bit floral - I got carried away trying to give it depth)

and finally

We were given two Journal covers which are foamy on the inside and the outside is canvas with a resist design on it.  Not sure if we all had the same but on our table we had letters.  Am going to make you wait a little longer for the pictures but you can see a small section where the back and front covers join - this almost spelled out my name - see

OK, will upload my Journal and a couple of pages for the inside another day.  Hope you enjoyed today!