Raevn's Nest Art Retreat, Cedarburg, Wisconsin October, 2008

I have been very busy preparing for a brand new Art Retreat being held in Cedarburg, Wisconsin this coming October. I am hosting a chunky book swap and participating in a charm swap, as well as making personal trades for the retreat. As the host of the chunky book swap, I thought it would be fun for every book to contain a page from each instructor. Two of the instructors created their own pages and emailed them to me to copy and finish. The other instructors gave me permission to use their photos, personal information and scans of projects from the retreat website to create their pages. Behind the instructor pages I am including a blank page for retreat members to record any info from their classes, emails of new friends made, perhaps a photo of their completed project, etc. I thought these would made great memory pages of the retreat!

Below are some of the things I have been working on for the last month or so:

These are the charms I created for the charm swap. I used various color ink pads for the backgrounds and then stamped a raven image in black India Ink and sealed them. Punched a hole and added a feather charm. I stamped the entire image that included the raven on card stock and used glue dots to adhere the charm in the proper spot. To date we have 23 signed up for the charm swap.

Below are some of the Art Journals I decorated for the swap. I found the blank journals at a dollar store in my area. I stamped the bird image using black India Ink on white glossy card stock and then colored in each individual feather. Added a rhinestone eye, the name of the retreat and placed on a black glossy background and adhered to cover.

Close up of one of the journals, front and back.

On the inside of the back cover I added another stamp and my information:

Because I can never seem to turn off my brain . . . . I thought it would be fun to put the chunky books in a neat black funky bag for everyone. I searched EVERYWHERE and couldn't find anything I liked. I ended up purchasing these kraft bags and decorating them. If I never cut out another bird or made another white dot, it might just be too soon :) (In case you can't tell, the raven in the party hat has a paintbrush in it's beak!) The back of the bag has my signature "SweetPea" stamp and another raven with "Cedarburg, Wisconsin 2008" written on it. Not sure if I am completely done or if I will add more . . . . because for some reason I never seem to think anything is finished!! I thought that attendees could also use these bags to hold their trades, charms, etc.

Here are two of the front covers of the chunky book. I used all different types of backgrounds but the images are all the same. I couldn't decide if I wanted to use "Got Art?" or "Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures", so I did half and half :) Problem solved!! As some of you will recall, I had a very difficult time finding a white pen that would show up WHITE on these covers (the dots!). I finally broke down and got out my white acrylic paint and some toothpicks. Each cover has anywhere between 75 and 90 dots . . . . . . . . and I made 45 covers . . . . you do the math! ROFL! You will be glad to know that about 1 week after finishing these covers I did find a PERFECT white pen . . . better late than never! It is a Signo Uniball #UM-153 and it is WONDERFUL! I used that pen to create the dots on the fronts of the bags above!! No more toothpicks for me!

Here are the backs of the front covers. You will note that there are NO white dots!!

Now that I have finished these projects . . . . until I start binding the books . . . . I can go on to some other projects that have been waiting in the wings!