The Retreat - Viva Mexico!

As I mentioned in my last post, this year's retreat's theme was "Viva Mexico." As always, we decorated the conference room/classroom with all things Mexico.

Part of wall decor and "Mercado" - the pole on left held a giant piñata;
I brought the papel picado back from Mexico at Christmas.

The "Mercado" - everyone brought 20 whatevers for each of us and we "shopped"
for our goodies.

Before the retreat, we each made 3 art pieces which were our "money" for shopping. They were all placed in a bag and we each picked out three.  I received these: a beautifully-colored balloon trio 4x4; an adorable little cactus; and a lovely Lady of Guadalupe Altoid tin lid "shrine."  Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take photos of the three pieces I made!

Four ladies were assigned brief topics to share with us. One was on the foods of Mexico, one on five interesting Mexican artists, one on cacti and one on The Day of the Dead.  Below is the wonderful display that was made for the DOD. We learned a lot and it also brightened up our room!

On Thursday we always have some "Make 'n Takes" to do, shared by several attendees.

Jeri helped us make these vintage tin shrines with images, German glass glitter and beads.  I shared making ceramic tiles decoupaged with napkins.

We made these darling cactus gatefold cards after Joyce's cacti presentation.

Card closed

Card open

Kris showed us how to make tassels with beads, felt balls and a skein of embroidery floss.

And, last but not least, Jeri gave everyone a configuration box to do whatever we wished.  I decided to make mine for our 2016 Christmas memories in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  I added photos as well as some of the little goodies from the Mercado.

The entire box was painted turquoise and orange and then the front and back covers decoupaged with paper.  I love the decoration on the front of the box - I used a colorful straw, some fibers and a doily, all goodies shared by participants.

Front cover

Inside

Right side close-up

Whew! You can see we were very busy at our retreat! Tomorrow I will share the 

book I created on Friday.

Christmas Shadowbox

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, filled with good food and fun times with people you love. We went to Austin to visit two of the grand boys and had our feast at our oldest daughter's house. Now I'm home for just a few days before leaving again for babysitting in Albuquerque next week!

This month I participated in a holiday shadow box swap with my online art group.  I created this shadow box with a wintery Santa scene.  The box is painted a dark blue and the background has a portion of a beautiful patterned paper with a church, houses and snowy trees which I fussy-cut. I made the snow with texture paste, sprinkling on mica while it was wet. The tree and light are purchased items (I added alcohol ink to the "glass" of the light to make it shine, but it's not visible in the photo). The Santa is a vintage Victorian "scrap," which I cut out, added Mod Podge for added strength and glued a piece of rigid plastic packaging to the back to get it to stand. I added a painted wood title piece and red bells for feet.  I covered the back with a coordinating paper from the same collection and added one of the journaling cards from the collection to sign my name.

Front

Back

Yesterday I received the shadow box that was made for me by Judy. I love it - it's a Tim Holtz divided configuration box filled with all sorts of Christmasy items. The entire box is covered with a vintage-colored snowflake washi tape and embellished with a printed twill ribbon, a little glass knob and ornate metal feet. Isn't it spectacular?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!