Mixology I - Michelle Webb

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a good weekend doing something you love doing.  I did some things I love doing, and some that I don't particularly but they are necessary!

The weekend before, though, was full of crafting fun as I was lucky enough to be at the inaugural Ministry of Mixology weekend.  They're hoping to make it a regular occurrence, and aiming to vary the geographical location too.  The event was brilliantly organised by Di of Tando-Creative.  As well as fantastic day workshops with Michelle Webb and Andy Skinner, there were demos, a pop-up shop, great food, and a "play area" equipped with lots of supplies for when we were off-duty.

I also had the joy of meeting up with lots of my Vintage Journey team-mates - Brenda, Anne, Jennie and Julie (and a delightful bonus rendezvous with Jenny at the NEC on Friday) - as well as bumping in to Sue the Iron, Jools, Dee Adams, Nina from It's Crafting Time, and more... and in many cases it was the first time of real-life meeting up.  So lovely to spend time with you all!

Today I'm sharing what we made on the Saturday with the brilliant and lovely Michelle Webb... and it's a bit of a break from Autumn, Winter and Christmas creations!

We were playing with the great Beach Hut kit from Tando, as well as lots of fabulous DecoArt paints and mediums.

I dashed out to take these photos in the only smattering of sunshine we've had in the week since the workshops, but with a deep shadow box like this, you obviously get deep shade when you try to take pictures.

Some of these are at slightly odd angles to try to compensate for the shadows!












The beach huts are actually made out of several layers glued together so, if you were to buy the kit, you could make many more scenes by not gluing them together, or gluing fewer of them at a time and having shallower huts.  But I love this chunky look.











I'm a slight maverick on workshops (or a naughty schoolchild perhaps, not doing quite what teacher tells you) so although I followed Michelle's guidelines I went freestyle with some of the colour choices.  I'm pretty sure she forgave me!

Yup, my ocean blues and greens took the place of the bright colours of Michelle's project.











I did concede the yellow sunshine (painted freehand, and such a cool idea of Michelle's to add the clock stamp).









It's always a difficult one for me, yellow... I'll do orange - though I think of it as rust or autumn leaves! - pink, even red on occasion but almost never yellow.  But having painted the sun, I found myself quite enjoying the colour.

So I dived in and used yellow for a couple of the beach huts, and I do like it - something about sunshine and sand and it therefore being natural and necessary in a beach setting (though one of them did get a touch of green shading).










I even went as far as a touch of red and orange for the life belt and the seagull's beak!














I won't spill all the secrets, as they're Michelle's to share, but I loved building up her layers to give the beach huts a really weathered look...














... and adding the cute doodled doors.














I was really pleased with the effect I got on the stencilled lettering.












That'd be me at the beach - my thoughts drifting among the clouds in the sky...













... and letting my imagination roam as I lie there.  You can also see some of the Texture Sand Paste here - perfect texture for a sandy beach of course!














All the extra elements also come in the kit - the lighthouse...














the sandcastle...













the shell...















the flags (painted to tie them in with everything else - I like harmonious colour work, as if you didn't know)... 













and not forgetting the seagull, of course - brilliant tips from Michelle on getting the right look for him.













I'm so thankful the sun came out long enough to light this one up... Life really is better at the beach!














Of course there's loads of fabulous crackle around the frame which makes me very happy...













... inside and out!

Huge thanks to Michelle for a really happy-making day and a happy-making end project.







I hope you like it too, and I'll be back later in the week to share what I created in Andy's class on the Sunday.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'm off working in Norway again this week.  Since I'm away from my craft table I'll be getting my crafty fix by doing some blog-visiting I hope.  See you out there soon!

My dream is to have a house on the beach, even just a little shack somewhere so I can wake up, have coffee, look at dolphins, be quiet, and breathe the air.
Christina Applegate

A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.
Henry Grunwald