Adventures in Dina Land

A couple of months ago Art from the Heart put an announcement on Facebook at they were having a surprise visit by Dina Wakley, 3 days of classes at the end of October.  I did classes with her back in March so I knew they would be amazing.  I didn't have to think about it for long and as soon as they went on line I signed up for two of them, Playful Printmaking and Make Your Mark.

As we didn't have loads of holiday left we drove up after work on the Thursday and stayed in a Premier Inn in Wakefield.  Mark had planned out some things in Leeds he wanted to see, he went off on the train from Wakefield and I carried on up the M1.  I love going back up to Yorkshire, going into Harrogate feels like going home!   

Playful Printmaking was the first class, we started by making prints from collaged tags, one was covered in molding paste, one with corrugated card and one with thick watercolour paper, other things we used were funky foam, acetate sheets anything we could find.  We used these to tear up or cut shapes from to use in our art journal pages.

Art journal pages using the deli paper and card from the print making.

Using the Collage Tag on a journal page

We stayed in a lovely little Bed and Breakfast in Harrogate for the Friday and found a fab Chinese Restaurant.

After a hearty breakfast the second day was all about Mark Making.  Dina got us to soak a length of string in black paint, you can tell its going to be a messy day!  What do you do with the wet string, throw it at pieces of card of course, being careful not to cover the person in front of you!  After we finished making marks with the string, bottle tops and many other things we had a session of what can you see in the marks, just like looking at the clouds to see pictures in them.

Everyone could see something, to make it come alive we added for a few extra lines and painted out the marks we didn't need.  There were some amazing paintings made from just from throwing string!

These were my string paintings.

Mark had gone to Barnsley to watch Bristol City, he wasn't back until 6.30 so I had some time to kill in Harrogate.  I had a wonder around the shops, made a few purchases in The Works and the little art shop.  Waiting at Harrogate train station who should walk towards me but the lovely Kate Crane, what a lovely surprise, and I had someone to talk to for a while.

Tonight's accommodation was a pub near Ripon Racecourse, The Black a Moor Inn, lovely room and a great Lasagna! 

One more page to finish off.

Can't wait for next years classes!

October Calendar

Well I am well ahead of myself this month, October page is all finished.  I loved doing this one, full of orange and blacks, with pumpkins and spooky cats, looking forward to Halloween now!

Happy October!

Finnabair Workshops

Last weekend I took two great classes organised by Tracey Hudson with the very talented Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair at Ansty Hall in Coventry.

The journey to the hotel seemed to take forever, lots of roadworks and traffic, the sat nav arrival time seemed to be going up before my eyes!  Eventually I reached the hotel to meet up with Alexa, check in and get some dinner.

The Saturday started early with breakfast then met up with the other ladies to start the first class at 9.30 am.  Each class was 4 hours, she worked us hard but somehow managed to kept everyone at the same point.  The morning class was a layout using lots of metal embellishments, inks and paints.

We had a break for lunch which was baked potatoes, soups and salads, once we were all fed and watered we headed back for the second 4 hour class.

In the afternoon class we made a shadow box from a canvas, used fabrics and lace for the background, then covered this with inks, added the embellishments and the chipboard rocking horse.

Another stop now for dinner with all the ladies staying over night.  We had another canvas we could work on after dinner with the techniques we had learnt through the day.

Some photos of my finished projects: -

My goodie bad and kit for the first class

Layout from first class

Me with my layout

Shadow Box with chipboard horse

Evenings free project

Me, Alexa and Finn

Alexa outside Ansty Hall

Had a great time on both of these classes, look forward to Finn coming back again!

September Calendar Pages - Just in Time!

Here I am sliding in last minute with my September Calendar page.  It was finished a while ago but only just got around to posting, and as you can see I haven't filled in the boxes just yet.  I have written down all my days entries else I would never remember what I have been doing!

I've used the Dylusions stamps and stencils.

Now to finish off October.

I went to an amazing class with Finnabair at the weekend, photos of my projects to follow......

In the Hen House!

So my dilemma on a Saturday afternoon was do I do the housework or do I do my August Calendar Page, um difficult decision but after much deliberation (of about a micro second!) I chose to do my calendar page.

I couldn't decide what theme to do for August so rummaging through my stamps I found the JOFY hen house set and thought I'd give them an outing in August.  I stamped them onto paper and coloured them with pencil.  The background is a blend of orange and purple.

I am ahead of myself and have nearly finished September which I will add later.

July Calendar Challenge

I can't believe it is nearly the end of July and I haven't put this up yet.  I did get it finished whilst I was at the last Bristol Scrappers but with holidays and other things I've not got around to posting it yet.

As it was holiday season I thought I would get in the mood and do a holiday page with beach huts, bunting and beach babes.  Had to include my favourite saying "Gone to the Beach".

June Calendar Page

After my weekend with Kate Crane what else could Kate's calendar challenge be but a whimsical girl!  I colour blocked the background and used some new stencils I bought from the craft show last weekend then added my little girlee in the corner.

I also finished some scrapbook pages at Bristol Scrappers today, haven't done any for a while but I bought this paper a couple of weeks ago for just these photo's.

This was a stencil I also bought from the craft show, it's a prima poppy stencil really pleased with the finished effect.

A little bit of Whimsy with Kate Crane

A couple of weeks ago I spent another creative weekend with Kate Crane at the Stamp Attic learning how to draw whimsical faces, I've been wanting to learn to draw Kate's style of girls for ages so this was a great opportunity.

The first thing we did on the Saturday was make a tiny little journal in a matchbox, using Dina Wakley's mini face stamps and washi tape we ended up with a great little mini journal ready to fill with mini ideas and thoughts.

Next was working on a bigger scale in our art journals, creating painted and layered backgrounds to which we added downloaded images and journalling.

I always seem to have some mishap when I am at the Stamp Attic before it was the windscreen wipers on the car, this time it was trying to stay on my feet!  I admit I wasn't exactly wearing sensible footwear but they do make me taller!  I managed to get over the cobbles fine, with the help of my stick, but whilst I was walking back through the car park, loaded with with my bag, shopping bags, handbag and walking stick, I turned to try and get the car keys from the pocket in my bag and wallop, down I went in the car park, my glasses flew off in front of me and I landed on my bag.  Two guys came over to see if I was ok, one of them picked up my glasses and bag and carried it to the car for me, but as you know when you do something like that it's always 'oh I am fine!' and then say ouch when they are gone!  I was most upset about denting my pencil tin after I fell on it!!

Luckily I wasn't driving home, only to Didcot Railway Station to pick up Mark, we had booked a hotel for the night which turned out a good choice, the room was lovely and the good was brilliant.  Plus they had my favourite Brandy, of which I needed a few medicinals!!

After a yummy cooked breakfast I headed back to the Stamp Attic (wearing flat shoes) for the second day. Again we started off making a little mini album in the matchbox.  Then it was time for drawing, there were a few moans and groans and 'I can't draw' comments but after we followed Kate's exercises everyone ended up with some great whimsical girls.

Some photo's of the projects: -

Drawing and shading practice

A small banner made with the whimsical girls

Mini matchbox journals 

And Kate, I have been practicing!

I think she looks like an England Player!

Thanks Kate for another great weekend, looking forward to the next one.