PaperArtsy workshops at CHSI Stitches 2017 in Birmingham

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took five workshops with PaperArtsy at the CHSI Stitches show in Birmingham.

Each workshop was 2 hours so I left home with 5 projects that needed more work and/or finishing touches. I didn't want to rush it so I took pictures of the sample projects and decided to finish them in my own pace at home. Knowing myself, I decided to focus on one project every evening after coming back from the show. Because if I hadn't finish them shortly after returning, I would never have done it.

1.  Jo Firth-Young (JoFy)

For those who know me, I have tons of patience for hand-cutting stencils but none for colouring in images. The colouring-book craze leaves me completely indifferent. Even as a kid, I couldn't be bothered. So, with this project, I came home with stamped flowers that needed to be coloured in. Well, it took forever... I also had to go over the designs with a black pen because I just simply couldn't stay within the lines.

2. Tracy Scott

There was a lot of fussy cutting involved in this project but it went surprisingly quickly. All that was left for me to do at home was to add some highlights with a white pen and a bit of glitter.
I really love those flowers. I can't wait to use them on other projects.

3. Lin Brown

Lin's new stamp sets are my favourite. They are absolutely ideal for backgrounds.
The original project used a grass stamp in the background which I chose to exchange for a different plant. For two reasons - I was impatient and didn't want to wait to share the stamp so I used one I had in front of me - and - I already have the grass stamp and overuse it because I love it.

We were also supposed to do the leaf in a frame of sorts. But I damaged my acetate sheet during the workshop and decided to do multiple separate leaves instead in the comfort of my home.

4. Leandra 

Leandra was demoing the new Zinski art stamp sets. They have a lot of these quirky "monsters" and flowers. We were doing this 3D box - with all the elements peeking out of a "drawer" at the bottom.
This one took some time as well - colouring in and shading and fussy cutting. But it was worth the effort.

5. Seth Apter

The last class was closest to the "art" that I'm doing. Seth is the master of layers and proficient in rust. It's amazing how he can create rust colour with several different colours. And his monoprinting technique - I adore it. As Seth says "more is more", I feel my canvas still needs a few layers. Normally, I would add some stencilling but unfortunately, I don't have any of Seth's stencils. So I'm keeping this canvas for future considerations.

I left home full of creative energy. [That might explain why I pushed myself to finish all the project in such a short time...] And with a suitcase full of products to use later. [Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, the paints proved to be an airport security problem...]

It was my first time visiting the show. Everyone kept telling me we were lucky to have a classroom outside of the exhibition hall. Later, as I took another workshop in the hall, I must admit, they were right. I would survive the open surroundings, and the buzz from the exhibition. Though, I found hearing the voice of the teacher in the workshop area next to us a bit distracting. But what annoyed me the most was the terrible lighting. There were strip lights behind our backs that cast shadows over what we were doing. And that was terrible. So all thumbs up to PaperArtsy for providing us with this quiet and well lit classroom away from all the buzz (and with our own toilet ;-)

Thank you Team PaperArtsy for making this happen!