A Wonderful Day with Andy Skinner

Hello all!  Thanks for your lovely comments on my pocket watch tag - as always I'm so deeply appreciative of your generous feedback.  As I mentioned, I've no follow up New York post for you I'm afraid, thanks to the collapse of my laptop while I was over there - no photos!

So instead here's a little look at the altered book I made at a brilliant Andy Skinner workshop at Crafting Time in Cambridgeshire during the quick flit back to the UK I had in the middle of my New York trip.  I was so thrilled that the workshop (which had been postponed from July) fitted so perfectly into the time... and even more thrilled by the end of it.  I had a ball and here's what we made.

It started out as one of those bog standard black hardback notebooks, but thanks to Andy's fantastic painty techniques and great teaching, it's ended up being one of my favourite makes ever.

I'm not going to spill all the how-to beans - they're Andy's to spill - but here are some close-ups.

Within the techniques, we had some flexibility to choose our colour palettes - no surprises that I ended up with blues and rusty browns!











We were using lots of the new DecoArt Media products (hence the postponement earlier in the year, when there were supply issues) - including texture pastes and lots of fabulous fluid paints...














... as well as good old embossed card to create other textures.













From the start, the chipboard compass lying on the craft mat had probably been working its way into my subconscious... 










(Yes, it's plain old chipboard under that apparently rusty surface.)















So when it came to painting the textured panel, it was almost inevitable that it would start to turn into ocean waves - with a froth of dry-brushed white dancing on the tips of the waves.











I just love how Andy's techniques enabled us to create the fabulous burnished rusty look on the pegs...
















... and, of course, around the edges of the cover.















As for how he did the back cover - words fail me!













It's actually a fairly straightforward process, but what a brilliant effect.















And lots of these stencils have gone on my Christmas list.









I'm afraid I succumbed to quite a few of the DecoArt products we'd played with, but thanks to my immediate departure to Heathrow the next morning I haven't yet had a chance to play with them.  I'm looking forward to some time at the craft table soon.

As for whether I'd recommend an Andy Skinner workshop... well, shall we just say I immediately booked myself on the next weekend with him - so I'll be back in Cambridgeshire this Saturday and Sunday for more.  Can't wait!

Ocean is more ancient than the mountains and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.
H.P. Lovecraft