Ministry Weekend April 2017

Hello everyone. The year is travelling fast and another weekend is almost upon us.
I recently spent a very busy weekend in Coventry at the Ministry of Mixology Retreat. For those of you who don't know, the Ministry of Mixology Retreats are run by Tando Creative and Andy Skinner. Most of the wet mediums we used over the weekend were supplied by DecoArt.

There were two main tutors. France Papillion and Kate Crane. Although their styles are very different both are lovely, patient and very talented in the world of mixed media. I really enjoyed both classes. I learned new techniques and got to play with products I'd not used before.

On Saturday I attended France's class. We made a book box to hold ink pads. The actual kit was supplied by Tando Creative and was easy to assemble once France explained it all.

The box was then covered in several layers of paints and finishes to achieve an old wood effect.

The final part was to decorate the top of the box and thread the string.

Kate's class on Sunday was a divided box to hold tags and four tags to put in it. I didn't manage to finish all of the tags on the day.

The box was decorated and assembled in the morning session. The colour palette and techniques were great fun to work with.

I managed to paint and embellish one of the large tags (6"/15cm square) and start painting the other tags in the afternoon.

On Saturday evening there were Make & Take sessions. I managed to do three of those. 

The first project was Dee Adams's Steampunk heart.

My second Make & Take was Hannah Oxberry's stencilled tag. I really need to practice this one.

My last project of the night was Nikki Killinger's acrylic media board. I now understand the principle of working backwards! 

I'd like to say a very big Thank You to everyone involved in organising and participating in the Ministry retreat weekend. I had a fabulous time and learned so much.
 I shall be attending a Clare Charvill workshop on Saturday and working with some pretty Graphic 45 papers. Have a good weekend everyone, I hope you have something nice planned.