What a month!

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. It's been a CRAZY few months here!

In early April we started a major remodeling project of our home: totally gutted and remodeled master bath; new wood flooring through entire downstairs, except master bedroom which got new carpet; new carpet on the stairs and upstairs "loft;" new wood flooring in my husband's office upstairs; and new flooring, countertop and painted cabinets in upstairs bathroom.  Most of March I spent packing up breakables and items inside furniture getting ready for the remodel. I also took that opportunity to declutter and donate stuff - what a job! Everything was finally completed on May 24 and I will share a bit about that in another post.

On May 1 I attended my online group's annual five-day retreat in Grapevine, TX. There were 17 of us there to celebrate our 14th retreat! (I've gone to all except one when I got pink eye the night before!) Ladies came from California, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida and, of course, Texas.  As usual, we had a theme and this year's was "It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood" which could be loosely interpreted by everyone.

We always spend at least one day with everyone creating their own book coordinating with the theme. After lots of thought, I decided to make my book documenting the different houses we've lived in since we married. I altered a book with the title "So Well Remembered," which I thought was appropriate.

This is the cover. I cut a door from the actual front of the book, preserving the title. It is added to the front with two hinges.  I cut strips out of an atlas of maps from every state we've lived in and collaged them over the cover and used inks and paints to add color. 

Where the door was cut out I added a piece of mica and added a wedding photo of my husband and I on the page behind.

The first spread is for our first house in Kansas City, Mo. For this page I added lovely peonies cut from scrapbook paper and a photo as we had gorgeous peony bushes along the porch.  I journaled on each spread about the houses and memories of any special moments spent in each.

The next spread is our second house in Kansas City. I added a kraft pocket with a kraft tag for the journaling. The "Recollections" is part of a sheet of rub-ons from, yes, Recollections which has been closed for at least ten years now. I was surprised it still stuck!

Our third house was in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, due to a job transfer. I was not in love with this one! I used a pretty napkin on the background of this spread.

Next up is our house in Albuquerque where we lived 19 years. Two of the girls were born here and the four oldest went from kindergarten through high school here.  I added a pocket in this spread to hold some photos from our real estate listing when we sold, along with an artist rendering of the house when we added a garage.

The second page of the spread has a photo of our pool with more journaling. I thought the red chile washi tape was appropriate for New Mexico!

In 1999 we moved to Keller, Texas, and built our very first house. I used one of the photos as a pocket and added a tag for the journaling. There's also a floor plan of the house in the pocket.

This spread shows our current townhouse - we downsized in 2006 when our youngest left for college.

The pocket on the right holds a floor plan.

And this is the back page and back  cover. I love that paper with the houses.  Inside the book I used several pieces of Tim Holtz's wallpaper for backgrounds.

Here are a few of the other projects that different members taught us.

A mixed media house canvas by Kris

Three little cardboard houses by Roxie - they are supposed to be mounted vertically on a
yardstick which I haven't gotten to!

A box card by Jan - it folds flat and fits in an A2 envelope

Another card by Jan

It's a Z-fold and opens up to this - so cute

This was my project - an adaptation of a "penny rug." It hangs on an old drawer pull and has a key at the bottom.

We were each gifted an original stitched house pin by our "leader," Jeri. She purchased them from phizzychick on Etsy who is from England. Each was different and equally pretty.

It was a wonderful weekend and a welcome respite from the work being done at my house!

I hope to be able to post more regularly now...

The Retreat (Part 2) - The Book

Every year since the retreat started 12 years ago, we have created a book according to that retreat's theme. At first Jeri (the organizer and leader) designed and created the book and made kits for everyone to recreate it. After several years, due to her health issues, she started assigning pages to a few members for a collaborative book. The past three years, we are now creating our own book, still keeping to the retreat theme. Everyone brings way more supplies than they need and there's a whole lot of sharing going on!

As soon as the "Viva Mexico" theme was announced I knew I wanted to make a book within a box, using one side for a Day of the Dead shrine/altar.  I found the perfect box at the Target $ Spot - it's about 6" square and was painted pink on top and white on the bottom. I repainted the bottom turquoise and covered the inside with floral paper. I painted the lips of the box with black and white squares and pink, orange and white paint dots. For the outer sides I embossed Ten Seconds black metal in a Cuttlebug border folder and glued on multi-colored flower jewels.   (Sorry, didn't get a photo of this.)

The front of the box has a metal heart which I bought in Mexico when we were there last Christmas, layered over a saffron-colored doily. The rolled rose is a metal diecut. The border is a gold Dresden trim from probably 15 years ago and I glued on red sequins. (After uploading the photo I noticed that one is missing so will need to fix that!)  I painted 4 wooden balls white with black polka dots for feet.

 Here is the box opened without the book which goes in the right side.  

And here's the book in place. Originally I was going to use a ring binder mechanism attached inside the box for the book but it was much easier to work on by making it completely separate. It just lifts in and out.

Here is a closeup of the shrine. I painted the inside of the box black and used a heavy turquoise glitter paper and Tim Holtz edge die for the top of the shrine. Turquoise corrugated paper is on the sides.  I had made my friend and I Day of the Dead aprons for the retreat and cut out some of the images from the fabric for the center of the shrine. They are layered on chipboard and popped up.  The large flowers also came from Mexico as well as some of the little trinkets in front of the shrine.  The"rug" at the base is actually a woven belt I'd saved from when we lived in Albuquerque (over 20 years ago!).  This was fun to decorate as I used lots of old rick rack and mismatched jewels.

Now on to the book.  I used watercolor paper for the pages, 6" x 12" folded over a "hidden spine." Once these were decorated, they are very sturdy pages.  On the cover I stitched a square of colorful striped fabric and a heart-shaped printout. I added Stickles over the sticker letters and glued on three fabric flowers.  The spine is sticky-back canvas painted orange and then painted hot pink through a diamond stencil. I made the "bead" string with a cut-up straw and plastic beads between.

 First spread is a generic Mexico page. I used a map for the background on the right page and a napkin for the left page. The rick rack is very old! Most of the items added to the page are from the "share" table at retreat - the flag, fiber, candy wrapper, little rug, flowers cut from soda can metal, doily, stamped cactus.

Second spread showcases the arts of Mexico. The background pages are painted. Most of the images were printed from the Internet. The yellow cut-paper banner and library card were shared by others and the red striped "rug" in lower left of left page is actually a piece from yet another belt of mine from Albuquerque! I cut it up and shared with everyone so now it's gone...

The third spread might be my favorite. It's theme is "fiesta." I hand-cut all the strips of tissue paper to make the "piñata-like" background.  The circular patterns were cut from the packaging of some of the decorations we used.  The paper banner (papel picado) is stamped and diecut from a Stamping Up set which I borrowed from one of the gals. 

This spread is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The left page has a colorful floral paper for a background with a doily and image layered over it. I added tons of micro beads around the image. I made the flowers by punching the Tim Holtz floral punch through several layers of tissue paper and securing the layers with a tiny brad. When fluffed up they look like the giant tissue paper flowers all over Mexico.

The right page is in honor of Mexican milagros. I used just cross charms.  The fabric ruffle is from the next page.

I love this spread too. This is dedicated to Frida Kahlo. On the left page is a postcard on a tip-in which opens to reveal another postcard on the back. I also made the tip-in into a pocket to hold more photos and a tag with information about Frida. The bottle caps were given to each of us by one of our members.

The background of the right page is a photocopy of a bright textile. The tin frame is a sample I made for an art lesson I taught my youngest daughter's 3rd grade class (1995). I saved it all these years and it is perfect for this page!

Here is the tip-in opened to reveal the page underneath. I added many photos of Frida and made a pocket from an orange doily to hold a larger black and white photo printed on a book page.  The ruffle is added to the bottom.

Here are the tags which go in the tip-in pocket. The image on the right is a photo of a painting that was on display in the Austin airport one time I was there. I love it!

This is the back of the tags.

Last but not least is the Day of the Dead spread.  The background on the left page is a piece of fabric and lace cut from a child's dress that was shared.  The skulls are from cupcake picks. The black diecut  skeletons, playing card and skull bauble were all shared items too.  

The right page is another tip-in. It's a printout from the Internet layered with a skull diecut and orange pompom trim on edge.

The back of the tip-in has information about Day of the Dead.

The right page has a strip of fabric under the miniature papel picado (which I also brought back from Mexico).  I stamped the shrine on painted watercolor paper and cut out the center to reveal Catrina.  It's decorated with a flower, skull, Stickles and jewels. The pocket was a glassine envelope filled with shared goodies and I added several playing cards with DOD images. 

For the back cover, I added dark purple card stock, purple rick rack and a large jeweled sticker which I got at the Mercado.

I've spent the last week sorting through all the goodies I came home with and trying to use them in my book before putting everything away.  I managed to use almost everything!  

I love how my box and book came out and it will be a great souvenir of another fun retreat!

And one more...

I forgot to post this last project from the retreat. It was hanging up right in front of my computer

 and I didn't "see" it!

This is the little banner made from toddler-sized jean pockets. Aren't they just the cutest? 

This project is super simple - add some squares of patterned papers to each pocket, make and adhere a rosette and a few pieces of ribbon, and add letters. I added Stickles to the letters and the edges of the rosettes. The pockets are threaded on a piece of twine with torn strips of fabric between each one. Easy peasy!

More Retreat Projects

The first day of the retreat, while everyone is arriving, is purely a social one and dedicated to setting up our work areas.

On the second day, we have a variety of make-'n-takes provided for and taught by members.

Jan taught this cute three-dimensional crazy birds card.  The two front sections curve out as does the firecracker.

Roxanne taught this 8x10" mixed media canvas using Tim Holtz tissue wrap, Distress Paint, modeling paste, and Distress Inks. The tag is stamped with images from the Tim Holtz "Americana" mini-blueprint stamp set and attached to the canvas.

We also made the very popular Pinterest-inspired ribbon flags. I had previously made one for myself so this one will go to my daughter if she wants it.

And that evening, mixed media artist Rita Barakat (sponsored by Marcos Paper and Faber Castell) taught this mixed media project on sticky-back canvas using gelatos, gesso, modeling paste and texture cream paint.  I have added this to my art journal.

These projects, along with the patriotic book, were not all that we did over the weekend! There was plenty of conversation, laughter, eating and just fun girlfriend time! If you ever have a chance to go on an art retreat with like-minded friends, I highly recommend it!

"Vintage Patriotic" AG Art Retreat

Every year at the annual art retreat with my online group we spend at least one day creating our own book using the retreat's theme. This year was vintage patriotic and, since I love everything red, white and blue, this book was so much fun to make!  I spent most of yesterday finishing it up and am loving the chunkiness of it.

Here is the cover which I made before the retreat as I wanted a fabric cover and some sewing on it. I used canvas for the front and back covers, backed with denim for the inside covers.  I knew it would be a chunky book, so I decided to bind it with rings.  There are four 1 3/4" rings on the spine, tied with many ribbons and fabric strips. The book is about 3" fat!

Inside front cover and first page: the vellum pocket on the inside cover holds a tag pocket made by one of the attendees. I documented about the retreat on the little "notes" tag.

Second and third pages (the 3rd page features my father and his WWII service). The photo opens to reveal a mini copy of his discharge papers and some information on his tour in Germany. He was wounded and spent a few months on the hospital ship pictured in the lower right. He always carried this photo in his wallet

Fourth and fifth pages: the photo on the left are family members of a good friend; the right page is a vintage Bingo card with a small flag I sewed.

Sixth and seventh pages: back of Bingo card features the 4th of July; the right spread is for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The seventh page above opens to reveal this spread featuring the Statue of Liberty:

Eigth and ninth pages featuring the Star-Spangled Banner song and flag:

Ninth page booklet opens up showing information about the flag:

Tenth and eleventh pages honor the Women Airfare Service Pilots of WWII. Our former neighbor, Betty Jo Streff Reed, was one of only 1,074 WASP. The top photos are mounted on a card that flips up to read her story.

Twelfth and thirteenth pages: on the left are photos of my dad and I in 1950 in the annual Memorial Day parade in my tiny hometown; the right page is about the women's rights movement in the early 1900's.

Page 14 (highlighting one of my favorite vintage images) and page 15 which is a double-sided pocket made from a paper bag to hold many of the tags that were swapped and that I created during the retreat:

Back of pocket page and inside back cover:

Tags in the pockets:

This was quite the undertaking but I'm so glad to have created (and finished) it! Several pages highlight personal memories and will be a nice keepsake and remembrance of the 2016 retreat.