Love the Simple Things. Wynyard Mixed-Media class

What a magic day its been!

I was teaching a Mixed-media class in Wynyard,Teesside.

Loved every minute of it, even though I was very nervous this morning.

I don't know why really they're all a lovely bunch of crafter's and one serious potter (Bryan).

Here is everyone making merry with the paints.

There was definitely a hive of activity, and lots of funny conversation. Daisy Lou was in tears at one point!

Me with the canvas they were creating.

Susan in deep concentration and her daughter Jane watching on.

Debbie Happy, Lou serious!

Donna is taking on the challenge of doing it all with her eyes shut!

Errr actually Donna what are ya doing here?

In family corner 

Daisy showing me my stamp! lol and Gemma needs to be reminded of her name 4 times! ha ha love it Gemma x

Karen and Jane, lovely ladies x

What are Gemma and Annette saying to Susie lol!

Naughty Sam, nuff said! 

Joan, what's up luv?

Sue tries to rein in Lou, ....no chance! 

Helen's canvas, loving the texture.

Action shots

This is Sam stroking again, only its her own this time! lol

The END

What a day, what a blast!

Roll on the next one.

From left to right. Back: Sue, Bryan,Karen, Annette, Joan, Juliet, Susan, Debbie, Jane, Diane, Gemma, Jane. Louise Wither's hiding her face!
Front: Daisy Lou, Kay, Sam, Me, Donna.
Susie lying down :)

She was in charge of her own destiny

I'm loving this sunny weather, it means I can get in the garden and get an early start on the Spring clean up. I hope the snow doesn't come back and bite us in the butt though!

Today I felt like a bit of drawing, so these little iddy biddy (4" x 4") canvases just needed something small and dainty on them, so I drew the house, the flowers, the mushrooms and the girl under the tree. I drew them on paper and coloured it with promarkers, then cut them out and stuck them on with gel medium.  I painted the tree directly onto the canvas, (love the way that it continues around the edge).

Here's a little walkthrough. Get 2 iddy biddy canvases and stick lots of bits of paper and washi tape on them with gel medium. (Yes even the phone book didn't escape this!)

Paint up the canvases with 3 paints, here I used, teal, white and lime green.

Edge with gold paint and stamp a text stamp with dark blue paint.

Add gesso and a bit more teal paint to knock back the harsh colour. 

Add some background stamping and some coloured texture paste through a stencil.

Then rub the edges of the canvas and the raised bits of the paste with Treasure Gold.

Here's a close up of the house with it's climbing plants and the mushrooms.

You can see the raised texture of the paste.

I always invite the edges of the canvas to the texture party :)

Here I've also used Kate Crane's amazing self made stamps (arrows).

Kate sells her handmade stamps on Etsy, but you gotta be quick, they sell out fast.  

Off to have a nice soak in the bath, we did 26,000 steps yesterday walking round Newcastle before the Russell Howard gig and now I'm aching!

Have a great week 

Michelle xx