A Great Weekend Away

Well the retreat last weekend went really well, despite the fact that there was a terrible accident on the M42. Which held up traffic all day, Hubby and I took a detour and missed the last part of the motorway and arrived early afternoon. However a couple of the other ladies who left later sent me a text a 8.00pm on the Friday evening to say they were 27 miles away from the hotel. But they were sitting in a traffic jam, they finally made it to the hotel at 1.30 in the morning. Despite this we were ready to Craft at 9.30 on Saturday morning (all 8 of us). Our first day was spent discovering the delights of The Art Journal (ran by Mickey) and various ways to decorate the page (I'll show you some of what we did at a later date). The following day was a workshop that I ran and another (ran by Elaine) where we decorated a box frame (again I'll show you later, when I get it finished). The workshop that I ran was to decorate a canvas, and the idea behind this is that you decorate several canvases with photos and then join them together, sort of like a family tree.

My first canvas was my sample and used a photo of the family when they were much younger. First I added paste through a stencil and then when dry painted with a mixture of gesso and a few drops of vintage photo distress ink mixed in. When all of this was dried I gently rubbed a little gold gilding wax over the paste areas. The photo was placed in a frame made from a cricut cartridge, along with some swirl and the wording also cut on the cricut ( this could be done with other cutting machines or suitable dies). After distressing with vintage photo they were glued into place.

This second canvas was started at the retreat and finished at home, and shows my in-laws on their wedding day back in 1949. My next job is another canvas only this time with my parents on their wedding day. Glad to say there were no hold ups on the way home Sunday evening.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue