Lots of work...

...but it was certainly worth it.

Saturday was another of Andy Pearson's inky, mucky classes over at Pinnacle Crafts, Barleylands Craft Village.

9.15am saw me sitting in the café with a sausage sandwich and a glass of orange juice waiting for Hilary to arrive - she joined me a few moments later with her toast & coffee.

10.00am and we were in the classroom listening to Andy explaining what we were aiming for and then we watched a short video of another crafter (can't remember the name) making a very detailed mixed media canvas. We were then let loose to attack our 12x12 canvas that had been pre-gesso'd.

There was stacks of stuff to select from - Andy said projects like this are ideal for using up all those odds & ends (especially those flowers from multi-coloured packs that are colours you will never use).

This is how my selection of embellishments looked just layed onto the canvas...

 ...along with some greyboard die-cuts...

...and my Nicecrane Designs image framed by a metal book-plate.
I picked a selection of frames, locks, keys and timepieces...

 ...and when I was happy with the layout - I carefully moved it all onto a sheet of paper so that I could start working on the canvas.
Using two of the Tim Holtz stencils (wood & clocks) I applied textured paste onto the canvas...

 ...and cut up and frayed some burlap fabric which was then applied randomly to the canvas.
You can see the wood grain texture more clearly in this photo...

 ...and the threads are the strands of burlap that were removed from the cut pieces.
This photo shows the clock faces that were roughly stencilled on the top corner...

 ...there was no need to be too fussy as a lot of the texture design would be covered by the time the piece was finished.
The embellishments were gradually glued in place...

...you may notice a few changes to the original layout.

Mod-podge was applied all over the canvas to help seal everything and to provide a 'key' on the non-porous items. Then the colour was applied. This took a lot of time due to the need to dry the piece at each stage so I didn't take any photos of this process.

I started with a coat of Antique cream acrylic paint and then applied several colours of Artiste Mica spray - Electric blue, Ocean, Hematite, Black Night and White. To stop the spray from damaging the image I used good old Post-it notes to mask the image and took care not to allow the spray to pool and seep under the Post-it. Once this was dry I used brown acrylic paint to dry-brush certain high points and then used sand coloured acrylic paint to dry-brush other areas.

 This was the piece almost finished...

 ...I removed the Post-it notes and fixed the frame in place...

 ...and continued to highlight certain areas of the piece.

The class was fairly small so that we would all have plenty of space to work in and not have to wait to use pieces of equipment such as die-cutting machines.

This was Linda's finished piece...

...she went for mainly peachy tints with a touch of brown & gold.
Hilary decided to go for a soft pastel look...

 ...sticking to soft greens and pearl.
This was the demo piece that Andy did during the class...

 ...it wasn't finished but it is mainly metallic shades.
Sue attacked her canvas with lavenders...

 ...and a touch of blue.
This was the beautiful finished sample that Andy had prepared for the class...

 ...it is difficult to see all the shades that were used on this but it is truly beautiful.
Finally, this was my finished piece...

...I love the texture that the burlap has given to the background and I'm really pleased how the colours worked.

A fabulous class Andy - thank you so much for the idea and the inspiration you provided so that each of us came away with a lovely completed project...................................................................