More from Dyan's class.

Dyan's class was excellent, such fun, humour and mess.The first thing she handed us was a straw...see point one..and suck it up was the key to everything. She looked after us well and worked us hard and taught some wonderful new techniques. (well they are new to me!) I came home with a journal ready for journalling in. Just need to practice my writing and doodling. I can see the need for another class coming along.

So some other key learning points:

• If it is not going well or someone has the colour you want or it is too messy..get a straw and suck it up.
• A background is a background.
• Fingers are as good as brushes. You know where they are, don't cost a fortune and don't go solid if left unwashed. If you don't like dirty fingers... see point one.
• There are warm colours and cool colours. Keep them separated especially when learning and using inks or else you may end up with mud.
• When buying paint and you cant afford the whole lot you should a light, medium and darker of the same colour, not 3 or 4 different colours. Why have I not been told this before?
• No ink is wasted. Use card to mop up spray on your mat, wipe a your messy inked baby wipe over card or tag, use the sharpenings of you water colour pencil. These do make interesting backgrounds but if you don't like it see point 1 and remember point 2.
• Do lots of the same at once. Cut all your pages, gesso any pages if you wish, ink your pages, then ghost them all, then large stencil them all, then small stencil them all and finally stamp them all. You then end up with lots of backgrounds to stick in you journal.
• When putting the journal together alternate your made paper with scrapbook paper from your stash.

The main thing I took away is that there is no wrong and if it is or your think it is see point one. Now I wonder if I can hand out straws to people at work....