Day 2 Finnabairs workshops

Sunday was two half day Finn workshops.

In the morning we did a canvas called Imagine and this was my version:

Oh my it was so scary when once we had put all the embellishments on Finn said "now we are going to paint it black" My jaw dropped I can tell you! We only painted half so that it graduated to light and then sprayed and painted over it. The end result though was fantastic, the picture doesn't really do it justice.

In the afternoon our second project was Everyday Treasures and there were more new techniques to learn.

This time I chose to use purple and gold, not my usual choice of colours but Finn inspires you to try different colours. This rocking horse is lovely and I have some  ideas of using it in a slightly different way.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my projects.

Take care

Joan

Finnabair Craft weekend in Derby

Good Morning everyone. Oh I have been such a bad blogger - but my excuse is that I have been so busy with my new craft ventures that blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.

However I had to tell you about the amazing weekend I have just had with Finnabair. That lady is so talented and I actually finished all my projects which is so surprising as I always have to finish off at home or maybe not and they end up  in the UFO cupboard (unfinished objects!!) But she has a philosophy of not thinking about the composition and just go with gut instinct and pushes you along so much that you don't have time to faff.

The workshops were organised by the lovely Sharon & Jamie at Artist Trading Post in Derby and a great job they did too. There were about 30 ladies on both days and I was with my daughter Rachel and my friends Freema, Kay (of IndigoBlu) and Lou.

I have a sneaky preview for you. Kay had a little present for me:-

These new stamps are being launched on Create and Craft on Saturday, aren't they fab?

Also to go with them there is this:-

which are from IndigoBlu's Altered Ego mount board range. Perfect for those stamps!!


Back to the workshops. The first day was the Grungy Spell book and here are the front and back covers that I did:

 Wow. So pleased, I have always admired Finn's work but didn't dream that I could produce anything anywhere near the same league. Shows you what a good teacher she is!!

We did both in the morning session and in the afternoon we did some journal pages.

This is me and my Dad on a trip to Bruges, oh he so enjoyed it there and was converted to Belgian beer!

Again this is my Dad the day of his 81st birthday, I took him out for a meal. Sadly this was his last birthday as he died the following year.

Well that's all for now but I will post another blog tomorrow of the other projects we did on Sunday.

Take Care and Happy Crafting.

Out With The Girls at Anything Goes

The new challenge at Anything Goes is "Out with the Girls" and we would love to see your projects.

My teamies have created some lovely cards so please do pop over and have a look.

I apologise for the poor quality photo but hope you can see the detail. I chose a black and white theme as you can see , the black shiny card is some Kanban card I have had in my stash for forever and  the white is centura pearl which I randomly stamped and embossed with creative expressions black aurora sparkle.

The stamps were freebies from don't know where! But they seemed to fit the bill. I decided to keep it simple and not colour the image just highlighted the flowers with a red promarker and added some red brads. The glittery spots on the ribbon looked to me as though they could be champagne bubbles? What do you think?

This challenge will run for 4 weeks and then hopefully we will return to our normal fortnighly challengs.

Take care! Have fun!

By The Sea Challenge #99 at Anything Goes

Today we are launching our new challenge over at Anything Goes and this time it is By The Sea which is open to a lot of interpretation so please come and join in with us. The other DT girls have splashed out to produce some fabulous projects do pop over to cast a look!

The project I am sharing with you is one I did some time ago at a Paperartsy weekend in Warrington when I was lucky enough to have a workshop with the lovely, talented Lynne Perella herself.

Lynne provided us with the image - she is quite enigmatic don't you think? Rather like the Mona Lisa?  After  we had painted and stenciled the triptych  with the gorgoeous Paperartsy paints I thought she looked rather  like a mermaid especially with the wispy strands of died string and sequins around her head.

I had been to Largs in Scotland a few weeks before the workshop and had collected shells, small pieces of driftwood, feathers, dried seaweed and grasses as I had a project in mind to hang in our bathroom however I thought they would be ideal to use on this project to create an underwater scene.

I was really pleased with this project and it has pride of place on a shelf in my hallway.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2013-08-09T13:11:00-04:00&max-results=7 -  By The Sea must use seashells

http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/splish-splash-having-some-summer-fun.html - Splish Splash

http://drunkenstampers.wordpress.com/ Beach

http://craft-roomchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Bingo - Blue, stencils, gems

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.co.uk/ Create a scene 

Artsycraft Wall Hanging

I have been meaning to post this wall hanging on my blog for ages and having just seen Sue Carringtons wall hanging on the PaperArtsy blog  gave me the impetus to finally show it.

The Artsycraft weekend which Sue referred to was held in Warrington and I too was lucky enough to be on it for all three days, sadly it was the  very last one they did and in my opinion it was the best - the projects were amazing!

As Sue says one of the projects was a sewn book but I decided not to do it that way but make mine into a wall hanging - and here it is:

The most difficult thing for me was not to stitch in straight lines!! Here are close ups of each of the squares , not all of them were created in the workshop as I did more later because I wanted a big wall hanging to hang on the landing wall.

Paperartsy die cut dragonfly using waxy craft paper

Fabric stamping and coloured

Paperartsy die cut bird in acetate, stamped and coloured

Image stamped onto canvas. To the side are Belgian lace making spools.

This stamp is from Lynne Perella collection 008, stamped on fabric and coloured with inks

A Paperartsy die cut heart, appliqued in place with cotton wool inside to puff it out.
The stamp is from Paperartsy Hot Pick 118 

This stamp is from a sheet of stamps featuring musical instruments which
I have had in my stash for years. Again stamped on fabric and coloured with inks

The stamp used here is from a sheet of stamps called
Across the Miles, another one I've had for years but don't know the company.

This was a transfer technique we did using the At home plate 1,
 it was covered in netting and then using a soldering iron melted some of  it away to outline the stamp.

As you can see I have used a lot of embellishments  and lots of fabric flowers but this type of project is ideal for running riot with them. Some gold braid across the top and a couple of gold tassels and across the bottom some beaded ribbon oversewn with lace.

Thank you for visiting 

I think I shall enter this into the Paperartsy challenge #3 -  it would be rude not to don't you think?

Anything Goes Challenge #98 - Coffee Break and/or Food

Well, its time for another challenge at Anything Goes, goodness where has the last two weeks gone to? 

Our challenge this week is Coffee Break and/or Food and I decided to do another sewing project - afterall our sponsor the lovely Lynn at the Craft Den also stocks quilting fabrics and notions.

My little contribution this time is a coaster:

This was made using scraps of fabric in my stash. Just like in my papercrafting I keep even small pieces as they do eventually come in handy but more so with fabrics as they can be sewn together in a patchwork manner.

The pattern for this design was a freebie I downloaded from the internet but unfortunately can't remember where.

Please do take a look at my teamies creations over at Anything Goes