"Art is my vehicle through life; may we share the ride together." Ron Wickersham

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Back from Retreat

I'm home from retreat and what fun we had! This is an annual gathering for an online group of about 45 women - we had 22 attending from all over the country this year.  Each year we have a theme and do an involved book project with that theme. Lots of members also bring make-n-take projects for us to do and we also have a swap. This year we made 3 x 5.5-inch flower-themed "skinny pages" to share and then bound them into a booklet.  Here is mine with 22 pages in it.  One of the gals (thanks Joan!) brought nametags for each of us and I added mine to my book so I wouldn't get it mixed up with the others. The name tag is adorable and so clever - she used a base of corrugated cardboard and a canvas strip, stitched wire for the name and wrapped bailing wire to frame it.


And here are some of the flower pages:

Liane's watercolored iris on glossy paper

Jeri's shabby chic peonies with tissue tape

Joan's foxgloves picture with lots of bling


Ellen's embossed and colored sunflowers with bling on pretty stippled background

Roxanna's poppies on vellum with leaf ribbon and black German scrap border

Nancy's watercolored lily with fun title

Annette's paper pieced bluebonnet (lots of tiny pieces)

Sue F's watercolored hydrangea

another hydrangea - by Diann

a primrose by Joyce stamped on vellum  over a leaf-stamped background

Linda S's roses on a metallic paint background framed with crackle paste

Whitney's stamped and colored sunflower with a Zentangled petal



The retreat was a blast but I'm exhausted as we were busy every minute.  Also attended the Heirloom Stamp Convention on Saturday which was next door to our hotel. That was a disappointment - only twelve vendors this year and very little new products or techniques. At least I didn't spend much!

I'm off to unpack, regroup and repack for another retreat tomorrow. This time it's for the Little Blue House and should be far more relaxing. We are going to be brainstorming ideas and planning for the fall and holiday seasons - classes and events. We'll also be working on our personal projects. I'll be back in a few days with more photos of projects.

3 comments:

DeeDee said...

i am not sure my creative brain could keep up with you ladies.. what a lovely flowers book and have fun at LBH retreat... cannot wait to see the results of your brain storming.... :D

Elaine said...

Wow Susan, what gorgeous flowers for your flower book! Sounds like the retreat was a good one for you. Sad to hear about Heirloom convention though. Have fun with the LBH gals!

Diann said...

Had a great time with you, Susan in TX...I'm tired too but it was just worth it! Diann