April Loft Art Retreat: Mixed Media

Nautical Configuration Box

I have been wanting to teach a Nautical Configuration Box for a long time now. I have been teasing my Loft Art Retreat attendees with the idea it might happen for over a year now. I am so happy to have finally taught the class and how well it went. Coming up with a project like a configuration box takes a lot of planning and design work. Coming up with products that would work, keeping the cost reasonable and making sure everyone will create their project in the allotted time.  I am happy to report that besides a teeny bit of mis-measuring which was partially my part due to my poor math skills and partially because the configuration boxes have a lot of give to them so exact measurements just don’t work- other then that the weekend went off without a hitch! I am a lucky girl in that I have been able to take many classes with Tim Holtz and 2 of them have been configuration boxes. So you know… learn from the pro 😉

Set Up and Preparation

This time I mainly worked with Ranger to get the products for the kits and for selling.I love that they are in New Jersey so product gets to me SO fast. Usually the day after they ship it! I am a Ranger U grad so I already had an account with them so this made ordering easy peasy! The kits were loaded with fun product it was so fun to get the order in and start sorting it for everyone, but when I came home to the VERY large stack of boxes of product to sell- WHOA! It was like Christmas morning. I was excited and then a bit overwhelmed… how was I going to merchandise it all?

As I was finishing up the design process of the project I needed “just one more thing” and chatting with some creative friends on google hangout they mentioned “how about some fishies!?!” So that’s when I decided to add in the Fred Mullett Ox-Eye Fish Stamp. I emailed Fred and asked him if he had some stamps we could use during the class since there was technique involved so each table needed one to work with. He generously sent the fish stamps, prizes AND coupons for all attendees 🙂

Thank you Fred Mullett & Ranger! Without you guys there would be no Loft Art Retreats!

The day before the Loft Art Retreat I came home from work and Chris and I started setting up. At 8:30p when we were done I felt either we were getting REALLY good at this… or I forgot something VERY important LOL. Luckily I hadn’t forgotten anything and we were able to relax and goto bed early. We had kept most of the decorations up from the March Loft Art Retreat, since they were so close together so that saved a lot of time. And, we are getting a system down. What needs to be done, best way of doing that etc. You can read more about the decorating of the event in my March recap here.

The Event

Edited to Add: Check out this fun InstaVideo I created of a QUICK (15 sec) tour of the event 🙂

This time I made fun little name tags out of shipping tags. I just scored them so they would stand up. A little splash of Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink and a fun octopus stamp from Fred Mullett and then I hand wrote every ones names, pretty easy! For the Mixed Medica Loft Art Retreats I have fewer seats available as people need more room to work. I also do a number of demos throughout the event so this way people can get up and stand around me and see what I am showing.

I think if anyone asked me why I like hosting Loft Art Retreats I would tell them

• I love to teach! I absolutely LOVE showing people new techniques, getting them a bit out of their comfort zone to try new supplies etc. This is why I have this blog, why I travel and teach and why I continue to put in all the hours on top of my regular day job.
• Connecting with old friends: Over the past 12 years of teaching around New England I have made a lot of creative friends and I LOVE that the Loft Art Retreats are bringing us all back together, doing what we love 🙂
• Making NEW friends: I honestly didn’t see this one coming. I didn’t think about all the fun new people I would meet. People taking a chance and venturing to my Loft to see what these Art Retreats are all about. I LOVE THIS! People traveling long distances or even people realizing we live so close to each other 🙂 It’s FABULOUS!

Rocking The Hashtag

Again peeps were really rocking the hashtags! I LOVE this- so fun to look back over everyone’s pics and see the event through their eyes!! The main # used is #loftartretreat even if you aren’t on Instagram you can see the posts here.

Of course Mister Harley has his own #iammisterharley and another one I am trying to take over ? is #creativechick

Wrap Up

I’m not sure if I say this enough so I am giving a shout out to Chris. I would never be able to pull off these Loft Art Retreats without him. He helps on so many levels and then he also keeps me sane 😉 He helps with inventory and ringing everyone out. He helps with the heavy lifting. He helps clean the loft as I run around frantically getting last minute things done. He makes countless trips up and down to our storage unit. He runs out to get the lunches and gets all that set up. He even rubs my feet after a long day of teaching and not sitting… and of course wearing flip flops 🙂 I’m not sure how I got so lucky and I hope he knows how much I appreciate all of his help. xoxo

Whats next?

I have been getting a lot of emails asking me when the next Loft Art Retreats are, what the themes are etc.

First I want everyone to know I am going to be offering the Nautical Shadow box as an online class and kit right here at shurkus.com. I am in the process of filming the lessons and waiting for more configurations boxes to come in stock so the kits will be ready to ship. Stay tuned for that and as always to be the first to know when they are available be sure to sign up for my email newsletter.

I take the summer off from Loft Art Retreats. I NEED my beach time and lets be honest, everyone is SO busy during the short summers we have here in New England. I will pick up with Loft Art Retreats in the fall. I will be sure to announce the dates and themes late July. This way you can mark you calendars of the ones you are interested in and hopefully you can plan your busy lives around the dates that you want to attend.

Have thoughts or ideas for the next Loft Art Retreats? Let me know! Send me an email 🙂 or leave comments below. I am always open to suggestions!