ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY FIVE, Sunday, May 6

Maggi and I both took a day off from classes today. We took a walk after breakfast to Target and Walmart. Unfortunately the day was less than pleasant . . . . gale force winds, highs in the 50's, and rain threatening. We decided that the walk around town was a bust. Headed back to the hotel, gathered supplies for Monday's classes, packed what we could of our supplies into the shipping boxes and started to work on finishing up some projects. We both just about finished up the recipe boxes, I worked a bit on Whimsy, Maggi worked on her Passion Book. We went downstairs for cocktails with Jill Berry, Kim Nugent, Margaret, Nancy & Jim, then went to Cypress for dinner. Had a FANTASTIC meal! The Lump Crab Cakes were delicious! Headed back to the room and worked on some more "stuff" :)

Notice anything not "normally" found on a bathroom countertop?

that's right - our paint brush holder . . . . LOL!

Maggi hard at work on her recipe box

Pea spread out on the floor - where she does her best work . . . LOL.

ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY FOUR, Saturday, May 5

I got up about 4:00 am this morning and finished the binding on my Fusion Collage Journal and added some beads and charms on the threads. We headed down to breakfast and then off to our class, the Passion Journal which we were both taking. We arrived early and went to find Zana from Stamp Zia. Had a nice chat with her and made some tentative plans to get together over the summer and hopefully again in October.

Back to class where we saved a seat for Margaret "Empty Spot" Rogers . . . . LOL! We had a fun time in this class and actually got pretty far in it . . . PHEW! Less for me to catch up on when I got home. This book is all about pockets and hidden images, got lots of ideas! We finished up about 4:00 and dropped off our supplies in our room, ordered in some dinner and played with our books. We went down for the cocktail reception and then headed off for Vendor Night. There was a wonderful array of goodies from most of the instructors. Lost Aussie stamps was there - and I managed to get a bunch of "have to have" stamps!! Bought just a few things, but had a fun time with everyone. We went back to the room and ordered in some pizza and went through all of our stuff and trades again :)



Front cover



Pages 1 and 2



tag exposed



Pages 3 and 4. Page 4 is split in half.



tags exposed



split page



Pages 5 and 6 - house stamp on page 6 is from Lost Aussie!



tags exposed



Pages 7 and 8


picture exposed

ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY THREE, Friday, May 4

Slept in until 4:30 am today - yippee! We got our supplies gathered together, went down for breakfast and headed over to the Convention Center where we both were taking Traci Bautista's Fusion Macrame Journal.
This was a great, fast-paced class! I was glad that I had taken the class last night as that gave me a head start. We used the same techniques as last night - creating on paper towels, newsprint, some heavier paper and also file folders. We could make the journals any size we wanted, each containing 5 signatures. The only part that was new to me at this point was each signature had a "cover", the file folders. I used my large collage from the day before for my front and back signatures - as that made the front and back cover for the entire journal. We then made a template for the binding with an awl - and started sewing them together. We used waxed linen thread making a button hole stitch, and added some beads. First time I have used this method, and being used to coptic bindings, this was much quicker and I really like how it looks!

Cover of Fusion Macrame Journal

some of the pages and a signature cover made out of a file folder.

More inside pages.

some more

Back cover.

Maggi, Traci and Pea, taken at Vendor Night (because I forgot in class!)

Class ended about 4:30, we dumped our stuff in the room, and headed down to happy hour! We had a great time with Margaret, Melissa, Toni from NC and others. I decided the room needed a wee bit of cleaning up . . . . .

Pea cleaning

Still at it . . . .

Margaret, Melissa, Pea and Maggi

Eventually headed back to our room, watched some TV and hit the hay!

ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY TWO, Thursday, May 3

Well, I am already following in the path of A&S, California . . . . . I got up at 2:50 am this morning! What the heck is that all about anyhow ? ? ? I read a book for a bit, and then started organizing my supplies for my class today, Clearly Visible Journal with Kathy Wasilewski, and for my class this evening, Fusion Dyed Collage with Traci Bautista. I am SO ready for this!! Maggi woke up at 5:20 (a much more respectible time!). We got ready and went down for breakfast . . . . WOW . . . . I was certainly not expecting all of this for a complimentary breakfast. Made to order omelets, any type of eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, hash browns, fresh fruit, bagels, muffins, hot cereal, cold cereal, you name it! After we ate I called the boys and gathered my supplies. Maggi doesn't have a class until this evening so she planned on scouting around to see what we might need to know about :)

I headed over to the convention center and my FIRST class! WOOHOO . . . . Kathy is truly a delight! A very informed teacher, with clear instructions! I sat with Margaret and we had a BLAST! We made our resin boxes this morning so that they would be mostly dry by the time class was over - and then started in on our Acrylic covers! We collaged transparencies between two acrylic sheets for both the front and back covers, then put copper tape around the edges to hold them together. At this time we broke for lunch, met Maggi back in our room and ate. Maggi went to Target today and worked on her recipe box from opening night.

Back to class where we drilled holes in our covers . . . . I split the cover at one of the holes, Kathy indicated that I was the first person to do that . . . . LOL . . . . what an honor! She gave me the necessary supplies to make a new front cover at home - which I have since completed! We all worked on our pages during the afternoon, painting the water color pages with acrylic paints and adding embellishments, I didn't finish my book, but that is no surprise for me :) Class ended at 4:00 pm. Back to the room where Maggi and I ordered sandwiches for dinner and then off to our evening class.

Here is my finished cover! I have a piece of white paper behind it so you could see what it was! We made a tripe slide glass embellishment. Put a piece of collage paper behind one piece of glass, layered on a crow's head on top of that piece of glass, added another slide, added the egg, added another slide and put the words on top. This is all held together with copper tape.

Page two has another transparency layered between some thicknesses of mica. Punched some start through and added some yellow vellum in between. A coin ribbon was added between the two pages.

The blue side is painted and collaged. We melted the edges of the fortune transparency and attached to page.

We added a velum envelope with a crow transparency on both sides. I added the left-over coins on the bottom - and placed tarot cards inside.

This is the resin plastic case. We placed objects on choice in here, then covered with resin and left to set up.

Back side of same page - and the next one has a large window with the figures incased between layers of mica.

Large piece of mica with lady and crow images along with some cheese cloth.

This page also used a crow transparency in between more mica. There will be a tiny bottle wired on to the two punched holes on the right. The bottle is filled with beads and has a hand charm hanging from it. I just haven't located my wire yet . . . LOL!

Back cover is created in the same fashion as the front cover.

Pea and Kathy Wasilewski

Maggi's class was Tin Souls with Kathy W. - and she had just as much fun with Kathy as I did!

My class with Traci was FANTASTIC! I was a bit apprehensive about this one, but found out that was groundless! Traci is just a WAY COOL person! We tossed around paints, made mono-prints, using paper towels and newsprint paper - and also made two large collages for using in journals. Learned a lot and had tons of fun!

Painted paper towel. We used liquid water colors first - and dipped areas of the paper towels in different colors.

another one

and another one with mono-printing on top.

This is one of the collages we made that I will use in my journal tomorrow.

Maggi and I both got back to the room about 9:45, talked about our classes, watched some TV - and went to bed about 1:00am.

ART and SOUL 2007, Virginia - DAY ONE, Wednesday, May 2

WooHoo - Art and Soul is FINALLY here! Maggi and I sent some packages of supplies directly to the hotel. (See we did learn something from our trip to Art and Soul 2006, Asimolar, California!) This proved to be the smartest thing we did! 1 suitecase, 1 carry-on, and my purse and I am ready to roll. Craig and I left for the airport at 4:45 am, met Maggi and we were on our way! One stop in Atlanta with a 3 hour layover gave us plenty of time to get some breakfast. Next stop . . . . VIRGINIA! My luggage was the 2nd last off the conveyer belt, right as they shut it down . . . . PHEW . . . . !! We did have one small moment of panic when we realized there were no shuttle buses to the hotel, which we thought there were! No problem, we took a taxi :) It was only about a 12 minute drive and came to $22.00 . . . . not too bad divided by the two of us. It was very warm when we arrived, high 80's and gorgeous. We were staying at an Embassy Suites Hotel - and it was wonderful! We checked into the hotel, went to our rooms and unpacked quickly . . . it was after 3:00 pm and we wanted to get over to the convention center. The Bellman brought my two boxes up, and Maggi's came just a short time later. It was a huge relief to realize that they arrived safely, as ALL of our supplies were in them.

All of the rooms are suites, all have a refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker . . . . BONUS!

living area



bed room

another view of living room



another shot of bedroom

Next we walked over to the convention center where Glenny quickly and efficiently checked us in and gave us our wonderful Goodie Bag! These are SO much fun!

We also were given the classroom listings so we would know were to go. Next we hit the Art and Soul store, just to see what they carried in case we found that we forgot anything. The store was perfect with a very nice selection of everything you could need! Some of the Doo-Dad houses were already in place to be voted on. I had forgotten to bring mine to the center, but would do so tomorrow.

Next we walked over to Target to get some basic supplies, water, Diet Coke, a lighter, some granola bars, bagels and peanut butter :) (I had brought along a large bag of pretzels from home that lasted the entire week!) It was close to 5:30, so we headed down to the FREE cocktail hour, had a drink, some snacks, and met Nancy and her husband, Jim from Lubbock, Texas. Had a wonderful time with them all week. We all headed over to the Opening Night Party together.

Melissa, Margaret and Maggi

Margaret!

WOW - what a spread. The room was gorgeous, with old, beautiful tablecloths on all the tables, along with a great cookie jar centerpiece, complete with chocolate cookies inside!! The food was fantastic; beef sandwiches, artichoke & cheese appetizers, bacon wrapped scallops, fresh fruit, chocolates, and much more that I can't even remember any more. We all ate and got to know those at our tables. Lots of trading going on. One of the highlights was meeting Cindy Trobaugh, who was in our 5 book swap a few years ago. It is so much fun to meet people whom you have interacted with in all of our groups!

Very friendly chef!

Maggi sampling some wine

our table at the reception - lots of trading going on.

Here are the trades I have found so far that I received, just awesome!

On to the class. Ranger sponsored this evening with a Recipe box! We all made 60 recipes cards to share with each other - and left with a full recipe box! They gave us EVERY supply needed - it was fantastic. The instructors were GREAT - and they stayed the rest of the week and took classes themselves! Maggi and I sat with Margaret R and Nancy and had a blast, drinking wine, creating and talking. The evening ended about 10:00pm and Maggi and I headed back to our room to check out all the trades and get ready for classes tomorrow.

Maggi, Margaret and Nancy.

Nancy offering a helping hand to Margaret.

My box - still needs some finishing touches . . . . . . . .