A crafty few days away...

Hi everyone,

So, the week before last me and Emma H went up to Harrogate to take some classes with Dina Wakely at Art From The Heart.     We had loads of fun ...

We arrived Wednesday afternoon (after our 4.5 hour drive!) and checked into the hotel up the road.   We then decided to jump on the train for the 3 minute journey to Harrogate ... and do the most important thing you have to do in Harrogate ... have cake at Betty's!

We then wandered around some lovely shops, before deciding on a place for dinner.   Cocktails were half price ... so we were really pleased we didn't drive!

The next day was our first workshop with Dina.   What a lovely, inspiring lady she is.   The class was fast paced, but also freeing ... I loved that her most used saying is "Oops. Oh well".   I often have trouble just going with the flow when journaling, and can be a little OCD (as Dina observed! lol), so not having time to dry layers in between and getting out of my comfort zone (drawing a human figure!) was interesting but fun.   In this class we decorated a Tim Holtz folio, and then made some pages to go inside.    Some I loved, some maybe not so much, and some techniques definitely need more practice!   A nice suprise too was that Hazel (one of the #PATWITS) was also on our class ... not that we had much time to chat!

On Friday, me and Emma H headed off to Fountains Abbey.   Wow!   That is all I can say.   This ruined abbey and the water gardens blew me away.   The photos do not do it justice.   If you ever have a chance to go - please do.    We spent all day there ... and of course cake was also involved!

  

Before we left we just had to have a cream tea (yes, more cake!) ... and look what I found in the lids of our little jam pots ... they had to be saved for a future creative project!

So on Saturday we had our second class with Dina. This class was all about different techniques with acrylic paint. Dina's Ranger paints come in beautiful colours and are very heavy bodied (and therefore can take a loooooong time to dry) ... I'm interested in trying some of the techniques with PaperArtsy's Fresco paints and seeing how they turn out. The close-ups are my three favourites from the day...

Favourite #1: Image transfer with paint ... I rubbed a little too hard in places, but it was my first time!

Favourite #2: Reverse Masking ... this was so much fun.

Favourite #3: Negative Stenciling ... definitely going to be using this in the future!

So there you have it ... we drove back Saturday night (thank you Emma H for doing all the driving!!) ... shattered, but happy, and full of creative inspiration!