Sanctuary Arts Art Retreat Part One

A couple of weeks ago I went on an art retreat over in Saltburn-on-sea, organised by the fabulous Beth Sigsworth of Sanctuary Arts.  It was a fabulous weekend, full of workshops, meeting new people, and of course, the sea!

One of the workshops I took was run by Beth, who usually works with the driftwood and sea glass she finds on the beach, but for the Saturday afternoon session had chosen to offer a slightly different take on working with wood.

For aaaaaaaaaages I've had 'do transfers using magazine paper and gel medium' on my 'to do' list.  I have all the materials, and an idea of how to do it but had never got around to having a go!  We started by choosing a word (mine was 'grace') then choosing some imagery to go with it.

A song has been going round and round my head for a few weeks now, one we've been singing in church, which includes the line

"caught up in grace like an avalance"

which was my reason for choosing the word 'grace'.  I can't, however, explain why, when I thought of avalanches I thought of water and picked shades of blue from the magazine lol!!!  I transferred some lettering but mostly used my trusty rub on letters before coating the whole board with wax.

My next workshop was a painting one, all about responding to the paint/supplies/resources rather than worrying about what the final piece looked like.  My favourite activity was painting blindfold!!!

We worked in pairs, one person blindfolded, the other making sure the painter knew where the paint was and the paper!  We were painting the jar of flowers in the centre of the table.  It was amazing how interesting the paintings turned out

One lady didn't have a partner so Keith (the tutor, above) guided her whilst she was blindfolded, then when it would have been his turn to work blindfold, asked her to paint the jar with her eyes open.  I wish I'd taken a photo because the blindfold version was so much more lively and interesting.

I need to take some photos of the other work I produced over the weekend to share the rest of the time with you but hope this gave you a bit of a taster.  I'd forgotten I'd not blogged about it, and remembered when I saw Dyan Reaveley's list of workshops at Art from the Heart where 'faith journaling' was one listed.  This sounds fab, and Bernice and Caroline both went to the first workshop and had a great time!  Click on their names to read their accounts.  I'm gutted I can't make either of the next workshops, ah well!

Kate Crane - a mini journaling inspiration!

Saturday saw my good friend Chris and I heading up to Art from the Heart, Harrogate to take this class from Kate Crane:

It's aaaaaaaaages since I took a class so I was really excited.  I love little books and have been really keen to get journaling in some, but for some reason I find it really hard.  I can happily journal on small tags, or decorate tiny squares or envelopes, but adding paint to small pages throws me!  I LoVe the colours Kate uses on her pages, well, everything about them to be honest!  They're always STuNNiNG!

I'm usually a baby wipe girl, slapping the paint on my page; Kate had us paint with a paintbrush over gessoed pages.  I HaTe gesso!  And probably for the same reason most people like it - I don't like things to move once I've put the paint down, and I know how paint etc is going to behave on paper, gesso makes it behave differently.  

I do LoVe the pages I made on the day though, and as well as learning a different way of adding the paint to the page I challenged myself to work in a different way.

 It was also great to meet people from blogland,

http://patacake-patcrafts.blogspot.com/2011/08/mini-journalling-at-afth.html

http://gezzybscraftybits.blogspot.com/2011/08/well-i-promised-my-next-post-would-be.html

http://craftyshe.blogspot.com/2011/08/birthday-weekend.html

http://gotpaintinmyhair.blogspot.com/2011/08/fabulous-weekend.html

http://flutterbycrafter.blogspot.com/2011/08/warning-contains-scenes-of-sexual.html#comments

 and not forgetting those without blogs, and to share in Sheila's birthday cake :)  

I've worked on a couple more pages since the workshop - thanks so much for the inspiration, and for a great workshop Kate! I'm getting there I think, although I still don't get the nice, distinct areas of colour like you do ;)

unfinished; meant to try NoT working across a double paged spread in class

and forgot,  so had a go here

no gesso; bit busy this page; little tag book in bottom RH corner

is covering up a picture I added last night and didn't like!

more later, as promised ;)

Met two very busy people, one gave me a sample, the other didn't...guess who!!!

 [Sue, next time we see an old ledger, we MuST buy it, this one was FaBuLouS!!]

Dyan's ledger book was 'absolutely fabulous darling'!  Full of colour, images, writing, and wonderful snippets of someone's handwritten numbers.  Every time I saw Dyan the ledger was held close with both hands!

It's that first mark in such an old book that's the hardest, but this ledger would never be looked in otherwise, so a great new use for it!

Carol was very taken with Dyan's Dina Wakley style kitchen roll, used to mop up excess ink:

Then of course my yummy tag was from the Timness himself. 

I AdOrE the new distress ink stains, the colour is so easy to apply, and looks fantastic layered, and is oh so, so vibrant.  The kraft paper is a must too for lovers of kraft paper with black printing on - fab, fab, fab.

And check out my 'crinkldy' ribbon!  So easy to customise with the ink stains.  I did like the perfect pearls mists, which spray the shine without a coloured ink, but I don't use that idea enough to warrant them ... yet!

But the distressing tool has been added to my birthday list - so much better than my scissors!  There was a very cool looking little dispenser for tissue tape, which just looked too cute not to have lol!

I must also share a pic of another special person (I'd show you Wendy and Jennie and Kate and Colin too but didn't take your photo!!!) learning to knit/crochet with some fabulously therapeutic wool from the Wendy wool company:

We called it 'monkey wool' as it looked like monkey's tails, and the pieces on the wall looked like monkeys!  It's texture is like fleecy jumpers - cosy!

Craft and Hobby International Show, Birmingham

What a treat I had on Sunday - Carol (of Cubby Hole fame) and I spent the day at the trade show in Birmingham.  I've been to a variety of shows in my time - bears, crafts, miniatures... but this was my first trade show.  It was weird seeing stuff and not being able to buy it!  

I mean, how GoRGeouS is this enormous hydrangea stamp from Stampendous!  Fran had a fabulous array of embossing powders to 'colour' the outline of the image with...

before using chalks to 'colour in'

I also fell in love with a paper pieced poppy, which I think is also by Stampendous but would need to check that...it was on the Woodware stand.  

I love, love, love buttons

so the button company stand was a great one


Whilst browsing some yummy, yummy beads

I spotted a sign ...

Oh,,,,,,,,,,my,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,goodness!  It was Steampunk heaven!  So many beautiful elements, which will definitely be finding a home in my stash, via The Cubby Hole!

It was also great to see some familiar faces at the show, of which I will share more tomorrow :)

WOYWW

Have just returned from a wonderful holiday on the Isle of Wight and for the last couple of weeks my 'workdesk' has been my lap, a field, a camping table... and I've been very tidy and kept everything organised and in it's place - cos you have too in a tent lol!

The bag to the right contains my wools and crochet hooks - crochet is very portable (I crocheted some of those flowers whilst standing in a fish and chip shop queue on Cowes night!) so easy to take away on holiday.

My little craft bag is pretty portable too, with pencils, pens, paints and blank ATCs to hand.  What you can't see is the small suitcase filled with other bits n bobs, and the jute bag that contained the little craft bag lol!

I decided to catch up on my ATCs whilst I was away.  These were made using Dyan Reaveley's Altered Originals Spray inks (collection 1).  I sprayed the card, allowed it to dry, then used a watery brush to merge the colours.  The flowers are Daisy Daisy (Stampotiqu) from The Stamp Attic, coloured with a white gel pen.

I also had a bit of a play with my new Stabilo Woody pencils (a watercolour, pencil and wax crayon all in one).  I picked these up in an art shop in London, but you can see them here, they are YuMMY! [think you're gonna love these Sue!!]  

I scribbled with the blue and brown pencils, used a wet brush over them, then a walnut ink spray.  I've wanted a white spray for AgEs and finally tracked one down at The Cubby Hole, Crewe.  It's a Memories Mist in Whipped Cream and I used it with a Tim mask over my coloured card.  A bit of stamping, a touch of collage and the ATCs were done!

Happy WOYWW!  Looking forward to having a sneak at your workdesk, and if you're wondering where all this started, head over to the lovely Julia's Stamping Ground for the info :)

WOYWW?

Hurray!  I've managed to clear space on one of my desks in my cellar room that serves as my space :)  It's an old oak bureau that my Mum and Dad gave us, and took a bit of  getting down to the cellar I can tell you!   I'm so glad I can at last share my own bit of table in WOYWW? 

I've been playing with my Altered Originals spray inks from Dyan Reaveley...

and need to find time to play with my yummy birdcage stamps by Basic Grey that I picked up from the Stamp Attic last time I was down.

Ok, that was the tidy space, here's where everything else is ...

I've got most other things piled onto the tables in the middle of my craft space, waiting to be sorted into plastic boxes and given a place in my newly organised room. 

I'd like to just say a huge THaNK You to everyone who pulled together to make Saturday's workshop at The Stamp Attic happen.  Both Wendy and I truly appreciate it.  We can only put workshops on if we have enough people to run them, and we have - YAY!

And also a big THaNK You to everyone who helped us exceed 100 entries over at The Play Date Cafe.  Some numbers have more meaning than others, and we were soooo close to 100 we just wanted to reach it.

I'm in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't feeling great on Thursday (suffering with sinisitis and waiting for my antibiotics to kick in - they now have - hurray!!) so when the postman knocked on and gave me TWo parcels, I was very excited, and they cheered me up no end :).  The first was from the lovely Dyan at Art from the Heart, and inside, a gift of her yummy new inks.  So I had to have a play straightaway - expecially with the granite one, I've wanted a grey ink for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages!

Then my favourite blues and greens:

which I then sprayed over using 'burnt orange', masking with a torn envelope.

before dabbing the envelope edge elsewhere on my page.  So what has made me fall in love with these inks?

well,

the colours are vibrant

they spray in a grungy way, a mixture of fine mist and splatters

you can overlay them

and best of all, you can work back into them with a baby wipe (or a wet rag/paintbrush) just like the Adirondack sprays

so watch this space for more play and journal pages :)

I can't share much of my second parcel as it contains highly classified play date cafe material ;), but will share what I can tomorrow.

Meanwhile, had a bit of a shop (ok, five carrier bags full over 2 days lol) on Thurs and Fri.  Since my painkillers weren't working, I decided 'distraction' might work against my headache, and went out to my local antique and collectables place to get some hardback books for my texture workshop at The Stamp Attic in Wantage on Saturday (click here for deets)

Some other bits n bobs happened to join the books in my pile :)  I can't wait for the workshop, we'll be playing with texture which makes for a great journal cover, but also looks fab on Maya Road die cuts or even around the edge of a picture frame.  [great for Chrissy pressies] 

Then yesterday, Sue Roddis asked if I'd go with her to her local antiques and collectables place and not to disappoint a friend I dragged myself there [ok, my antibiotics were working so I sang along to my music on the way and bounced into Sue's ;)  ]

and came home with this little lot and more!