Retreat with Lisa

We held our retreat at Western Hills Lodge which is in Sequoyah State Park. The winding pine tree lined road was about three miles from the main turn off before you reached the lodge. The speed limit is about ten miles per hour and you definitely do not want to drive any faster because there is so much wildlife. The lodge also is surrounded by the lake. This was about a forty-five minute drive from my house!

Lisa Engelbrecht was invited to teach her "Book of Intentions" workshop for our three day retreat. She was absolutely delightful and I believe everyone enjoyed their time spent with her too!

This is definite organized chaos! It was an awesome experience where like-minded artists created! I chose not to make the "Book of Intentions" and instead wanted to make my theme about my sister, Annie. This book is going to be her birthday present.

This is my work surface....and guess what....everyone had pretty much the same messy work space. I shared my table space with my daughter and that was a lot of fun.....we had the best time!

This is my stash of stuff that was under my table! I must have taken everything I owned to the retreat! There were plenty of sewing machines and irons to use...everyone was very generous with their tools, too!

These are the beginning pages for my sister's book. I did end up making a lot of pockets on different pages.

I love the colors I choose to paint my fabrics....terra cotta, butterscotch, and navy.

I also enjoyed using stencils and color washes. I used FW Acrylics to write "sister" on another piece of canvas and attached using French knots. The heart shape that ended on a branch was pure chance of accidents. Lucky for me! The bits of lace was used as a stencil and when I was finished with it, I cut it up for pieces to be added here and there.



The letter "K" was first drawn and then painted with navy acrylic paint..the same color I used as one of my background washes. The embellishment was in my goodie bag and was perfect for this project!

There are so many elements on this page that I ended up changing in the end. I removed the doily that I used as a stencil and the tape I used as a gold accent. The pocket I did keep.

I also altered this page a few times before I was pleased with the results. I had a good beginning of an "A" but the other design work needed help. I did a lot rework on this page.



The cover is a lot of fun to do. This is my beginning stages....and there is lots more to do. Most of the fabrics I used in the book and a few strips I borrowed from others that worked for my color pallet.


Here are photos that show the pages grouped together.


I did decide that the last page of my sister's book would be the "surprise" page.

These are photos from our retreat with Lisa Engelbrecht. There were awesome artists in our class! Enjoy!