wishin' & hopin' ...

Felt a bit encouraged to just have a go at something ... anything ... to try and bring myself back from the brink of walking away from all this art business so just grabbed a canvas and my boxes of treasure and with a tiny scrap of an idea in my head I just had a play

Stuck to my newly discovered pale colours - but was fighting all the way not to paint it black!  

PRODUCTS USED:

Finnabair (Prima Marketing) 

Art Basics -

Heavy White Gesso / 3D Gloss Gel  / Heavy Body Gel

Art Ingredients -

Mica Powder - Lilac Opal Magic / Green Opal Magic (diluted in water)

Art Stones / Mini Art Stones

Glass Glitter - Midnight Blue / Violet

Micro Beads - Silver

Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint -

Opal Magic  : AquaRose /VioletGreen (old release)  

VioletGreen (new release)  / PinkBlue

Metallique : Ice Queen / Vintage Rose / Soft Satin / White Pearl

Metallique Wax : Old Silver / Rose Gold / White Gold / Blue Lagoon

Mint Sparkle / Heather Hills / Sweet Rose / Peacock

Old Denim / Electric Violet

Art Extravagance :

Icing Paste : Frosty Pearl

Glitter Set : Ebony & Ivory

Lindy's Stamp Gang 

Starburst Sprays - Frozen Jack Frost / Gag Me With A Spoon Gray

Glitz Spritz Sprays  - Steel Shimmer

DecoArt Media - Shimmer Mist White

My Finnabair weekend

After WEEKS and WEEKS of worrying and stressing over how I'd even get there, let alone cope, I made it to Amelia's Creative Crafts in Studley for a weekend with the wonderful Finnabiar ... the amazing lady that is Anna Dabrowska

Have done many of her classes now (20 actually!!!) but was so poorly last year, the effects of which have changed my life completely, so honestly thought I'd never see her again

Couldn't even contemplate that so as I got a bit stronger again I contacted Nikki, the owner of Amelia's, and told her of my concerns and she went out of her way to reassure me and so I booked in

Stress levels through the roof as the workshops drew ever closer - more meltdown's to both Finnabair and Nikki - but so, so wanted to get there

And get there I did!  Helped enormously over the weekend by Nikki I managed the two very long days ... but the time just flew because I was having such a wonderful time

First project was an all day class on Saturday called

"FLAMING HEART"

I very deliberately left a lot of white space because this is what I struggle with and I also chose a very different colour palette to anything I have ever done before - will certainly use similar colours again in future

Sunday morning saw us starting with

"POETRY OF PATINA"

Everyone used the same colours of Finnabair's rust paste and patina paste sets 

I bought the patina pastes when they were first launched but did not like them at all ... do now though and would like to do another project using these techniques at some point

The words under the dome in the centre of the pocket watch says

"be you, bravely"

Because I think I was this weekend!!!

Final project on Sunday afternoon was

"RUST PAINTED"

Again went with colours totally different to what I would normally choose but was disappointed at first as it was so pale compared to all the others and I feared adding the rust would just be a disaster

I even took it to Finn and asked if it was salvageable

She assured me it was 

and she was right OF COURSE!

All in all I was pleased with my projects ... not al quite as I had in my head but am happy with them none-the-less 

HUGE thanks to Finnabair herself and then to Nikki, Tracy, Holly & James of Amelia's Creative Crafts ... you made the whole weekend just a dream from start to finish and I loved every minute.