Last weekend was spent down at IndigoBlu HQ at their biannual secret retreat, three days of pure crafting, no housework just inks, paints, papers and great company. Bliss!!
Here are my projects
Friday was our first day and this was spent playing with clay, not something I have done a lot with but good fun none the less.
Blue is always my go to colour and I chose blue. teal and white clay to work with. We cut various shapes and stamped into the clay, made clay embellishments and added some metal pieces before baking them. I dusted all my tiles with mica powders which gave the tiles a lovely iridescent look. The frame was a deep box and the starkness of the white frame seemed to highlight the colours of the clay.
Saturday was spent creating the large canvas, these are new in and they come with their own frame which when painted sets off the canvas beautifully don't you think?
We used lots of stencils through which we applied different mediums - molding paste, granular and bead gels to create lots of texture. I decided to go way out of my comfort zone with Country Cottage paints, Hot Cocoa, Burning Bonfire and Banana Custard!
I firstly applied the Banana Custard, then the Burning Bonfire and lastly the Hot Cocoa, that's when you really see all the texture. One of IB's new stamps is Caitlin and this was stamped and embossed onto one of the new mixed media papers from the Belle Epoche range. I decided against colouring her as I rather liked the effect of leaving her au natural. Then the best bit for me is embellishing - I always like to take a few bits and pieces with me to workshops even though there are always some provided - I just like to have options I guess.
Sunday was a bit of a techniques day but we still made a project using the new framed canvas I guess what you would call a DL size.
We created texture using shredded newspaper and painted over this. Again I went with a colour I don't go for a lot but, as I had decided to use the stamp from the Sewing Mends set, pink seemed to fit the bill being a 'feminine' colour. I used the metal cottage garden Cinderella paint and as a contrast I mixed this with Snow White to give me a lighter pink
I had taken a few bits and pieces with me and these included some TH Sewing Room alterations mount board cut outs which were painted in the two shades of pink. I stamped the mannequin with IBs Sewing Pattern stamp, the cotton spool and button stamps from IB's In stitches set fit beautifully on the die cuts! A few bits of lace, cotton thread around the spools, some silver gilding flakes, frame painted and gilded to match and job done!
On one of the 6x6 Belle Epoche papers we did some 'drippy drippy' as my friend Barbara kept calling it - so much so that it is officially the new name for the technique lol!
As we were only playing this was not a finished project although I had stamped some flourishes and a Limor Industrial lamp and put on the embellishment. Baby Aloysius was painted with a watered down hot cocoa and his crown with metallic gold, cut him out and mounted him and added a couple of gems to the crown.
Last night at home I decided to mount it on and 8 x 8 canvas. I covered the canvas with some calico, a piece of frayed hessian and a square of dark brown card which I distressed then glued on the Aloysius card. Really pleased with the overall effect.
So much fun and looking forward to the next one. Kay has invited Finnabair over next month for 3 days of workshops yay!! Can't wait.
Bye for now, take care
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