2015 A year to remember and a year to forget

Hello my crafty friends, you've not heard much from me in 2015, I'm very sorry about that.

I didn't lose my mojo or anything, I lost my Mum and it threw me for six. :(

But when one door closes another door opens and I was blessed with a beautiful granddaughter in June, called Autumn Rose. She's wonderful and she makes me smile lots. :)

So here's a round up of my crafty year, with many things that didn't make it on the blog.

Lots of painted driftwood

 

Painted wooden plaques

Driftwood Seahorses

I belong to the sea Canvas Class at Art from the Heart

Crackle ATC's playing with DecoArt Crackle Glaze

July Tag class at Poppy Rose in Stockton-on-Tees

25th July Seahorse Canvas at Art from the Heart

23rd July day out to York with Crafty friends :)
Mell, Kate and Gemma x

Gelli Plate beach huts, just playing in my craft room :)

19th September Cherry Blossom Canvas at Art from the Heart

4th October Cambridge, Mixed Media Fest, at It's Crafting Time

7th & 8th November Coventry.
DecoArt & Tando Creative classes The Beach Hut box
I'll do a separate blog post about this class :)

15th November Seth Apter class
I will do an update on this project when I finish it :) x

There are other things which I'd like to write a blog post for, but I'll put them on soon. xx

I hope you all have a fantastic 2016!

I'm starting the New Year as I mean to go on....with painty fingers!

Michelle xxxxx

Blooming Marvellous! Dylusions Flower

I love the summer, its so rich with colour and the heady scent of flowers everywhere.

Well especially in my back garden anyway!

It's inspired me to make this little canvas of a flower from my garden.

I've used Dylusions paints, mediums and Pitt Pens. 

There's a walkthrough on Dyan's blog if you'd like to see how I made it.

See you there :) xxx

Mixed-media Lighthouse, Seahorse and Cherry Blossom Canvases

Where has the sun gone in the UK? :(

The clouds are in my garden what's that all about!
And there's drizzle everywhere.

Last week we had a heat wave. 

Fingers crossed the heat comes back next week.

Just thought I would share with you a canvas I made for a class at Art from the Heart in April this year.

I love everything about the sea, and I'm doing more and more arty projects with a sea or beach theme. I'm doing a Beach Craft Fair at Seaham on the 1st of August, at the Masonic Hall, so if you're in the area I'd love to see you. xx

I've used acrylic paint, paper, inks, stencils and stamps on this project.

All the ladies had so much fun making it, and they all put their own take on the project too, love that. 

Thanks for coming girls xx

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I have another two canvas classes on at Art from the Heart in July and September.

Saturday 25th July 2015 in Harrogate

Seahorse Mixed-media canvas

At Art from the Heart, from 10am - 3pm

This seahorse has lots of special interference paint on it, so it shimmers in the light.

And Saturday 19th September 2015

Cherry Blossom Mixed-media canvas

At Art from the Heart, from 10am - 3pm

Have a good week peeps

Michelle xxx

Gentleman Jim Archivist Journal

I went to a fabulous class at Art from the Heart in Harrogate last Saturday.

We made this awesome Archivist Journal from scratch, taught by the amazing Gentleman Crafter Jim Hankins. He's a complete sweetie too, really lovely funny guy and so is Cesar. 

If you're thinking of doing one of Jim's classes, DO IT! You'll be as happy as a little lamb in Spring :)

We got a huge class pack, some mints from Texas, and a perspex spacer bar that Jim had got made for us :) Thank you x

It was only fitting that I used a top hat on the front of the journal :)

Lots of lovely pages too :)

Love this tiny little compass I've been waiting for the right project to use it on.

We made the whole thing including the binding and all the pages.

Genius way of using the garment pins, like that. xx

I used some rub-ons on the page below.

Love that big butterfly from Tim's stickers. 

I filled my little boxes with lots of goodies.

Love the "Fabulous" button :)

Thank you Jim, I enjoyed myself immensely xxx

Jim really wanted the opportunity to drive on the left side of the road, so I let him drive my car around the industrial estate. He did good!

It was such a great class and a lovely group of ladies too. My table were especially awesome, Carol, Gill and Debs xx

I'm hoping that Jim comes back very soon,so I can do another one :)

Get your'e craft on this weekend, it's supposed to be raining! lol

Michelle xxxx

Driftwood Art Class with Kate Crane

Went to a class at Art from the Heart yesterday taught by the brilliant Kate Crane.

It was all about painting on driftwood.

I adore being at the beach, seeing as I only live about 10 minutes away from one. 

I managed to add to Kate's driftwood supplies with a couple of beach combing trips before the class :)

It was nice to catch up with Kate and my crafty friends too, I hadn't seen them for a while :)
Sam you naughty girl, always trying to half inch my makes ;)

This is what I made, I love it, I might have to make more and sell at a craft fair in my local town. 

I found lots of good samples to paint on at the beach to take to the class.

I really liked the big block, so I could paint on all 4 sides!

 

The nails were perfect for hanging little flags off. :)

I still need to put a hanger on this one.

I think I have the painty bug back again. Thank you Kate for finding my mojo xx

See ya

Michelle xxx

A year went past in a blur! Where did 2014 go?

Last year was a bit of a blur, everything went so fast. I'd gone back to working in geology, working very long hours, so I didn't get much time in the craft room. :( But I did get very muddy though!

My Mum started 2014 off in January in hospital in critical care for 3 weeks followed by a whole year of endless hospital stays and appointments, which is still ongoing.  I still had lots of classes to prep for in 2014 though, so when I wasn't working, sleeping or at the hospital, I was frantically beavering away in the craft room.

Well it all got too much by September as I was working away in Cambridge too and I had to stop teaching for a while. I miss it very much.

Here's some pictures that never made it on the blog from last years classes I taught. 

 February 2014 Mixed-media canvas AFTH -  Believe in your dreams, follow your heart and create.

  

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March 2014 Preview class AFTH - I'd rather be crafting desk sign.

I love neon paint on Kraft card.

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March 2014 Wynyard Canvas Class - Birdhouse and Bunting

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April 2014 AFTH - Give your heart the wings to fly

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July 2014 Wynyard Canvas Class - The Beach Huts Day 1

Hinged Canvases Day 2 at Wynyard

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August 2014 AFTH - Altered Book Class

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August 2014 AFTH - Colour Theory Class.  

This was my last class at AFTH. :(   But not forever though!

 This is Karen, she's super talented and she's now teaching at Art from the Heart too. Go on girl!

                    Steven Macari was over from Paris to see family and managed to fit a class in too. :)

Those colour charts will come in handy. 

These were the amazing flowers that Ben gave me for my last class. They were absolutely stunning and they lasted for weeks! :) Thank you x

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This was my last class of 2014 in Cambridge at It's Crafting Time shop in Shepreth.

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I did a large acrylic painting in September for a local Mexican restaurant called Mahujo's.

It's a Mexican tree of life. I'd like to do a Los Muertos skull for the next one.

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Mum went to the Butterwick Hospice in the summer and I went with her a few times. They had a watercolour painting class on so I had a bit of a dabble too. 

This was my first one, I liked it, but didn't like the clouds. :)

Then I tried this one from a watercolour book. 

I like this too, but I wrinkled the paper a bit.

So then I had a go at painting a photo I had taken of some bales of hay at the foot of Roseberry Topping. I enjoyed my little flurry with watercolours. I could easily retire with all my hobbies, but it won't pay the mortgage, so I had to put my paint brush down for a while.

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Me and Helen went for a couple of days to Llandudno in July, a well earned break and a walk up the Orme. Worthy of a quick scrapbook page I thought!

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Well that's kind of it for 2014. Sorry the blog posts were a bit thin on the ground.

I've dragged my sewing machine out of the cupboard lately, so I'll do another update this week. 

I think its high time the blog got a revamp anyway, don'tcha think? :)

Have fun in your crafty room, whatever you're doing

Michelle xxx