Workshop with Sheena

While everyone was trying to get to London for the Marathon and the football, I was trying to get to Milton Keynes for a workshop with Sheena Douglass. I decided to catch the train as I knew that there were problems with the M1 but did not realise that the trains would be out as well! I knew that things were not going to be easy when at first the ticket office area of Virgin trains was closed as everyone was queueing up to get their tickets from just one ticket office and one machine. I found a quieter machines and got my ticket only to be confronted with no trains due to overhead line problems in the Wembley area - still, the ticket area was now open! Twenty minutes after scheduled departure time I was still on the platform waiting.

The train eventually pulled out just over 25 minutes late - giving everyone a run down to the platform to ensure they got onto the train before it departed. Luckily, on arriving at Milton Keynes station there were plenty of taxis waiting and managed to get one that got me to the workshop just on time. It certainly was not a good way to start and I did not want to miss any of Sheena's workshop.

The workshop was for Sheena's "Paint Fusion" and we were informed that we would complete three projects, which we did. One thing about a workshop with Sheena is that you know that you will get plenty of humour as well throughout the day and she certainly did not let us down.

The first project was the Lavender bookmark. This was using one of the "Simply Sweet" stamps in her "Paint Fusion" series. Instead of painting a white card with a dark colour, we used a dark mountboard and then added the pva glue and paint to create the crackle effect. The image was then stamped on and using the acrylic paints added the green for the stems, the rope around the bunch, the two colours for the lavender and the shading underneath. The bookmark was then aged with distress ink and edged with one of Sheena's WOW embossing powders. To finish, it was sprayed with gold Spray and Sparkle. Although you cannot see it in this photo, the Spray and Sparkle really finishes the bookmark.

The next project was to make a card and for this we used the same stamp set but the bouquet stamp. This was stamped onto watercolour card with perfect medium and embossed with Sheena's WOW embossing powder in gold onto card cut with a spellbinder die. Colour was then added to the middle of the bouquet with a brush to create a stippling effect. The leaves were then coloured using green and white and then using a cotton bud, colour was put on to create the flowers. The centre of the flowers were also using a cotton bud. The dots were made by using the end of a piantbrush and each time you stamp, the dots get smaller. This piece was then mounted onto a faux spellbinder shape and then mounted on white card to finish.

The last project was a painting on a frame that can be bought from a well know swedish store that will not break the bank. The frame was first lightly sanded and then stamped with black Stazon using the "Berries" set. The leaves were made using a light and dark green double loaded onto the brush and using small zig zag strokes. The leaves were then joined using thin brown strokes. The berries were made using my thumb to create the berry shape in pink and then using the eraser on the end of a pencil to put the blue colour on top, creating the texture. Light was then added by adding white paint and some slight shading under each berry by mixing blue and brown together.

All the these project look far better in reality than I can photo as the texture does not really come out but it does show that you do not need to paint to be able to get good results with these stamps. Sheena really does make her workshops fun - but does also make sure that you go away having learnt new techniques.