The May Loft Art Retreat: Handmade Cards

WOW! And just like that the weekend is over… and after a few nights of early bedtime I am caught up on sleep and feeling well-rested again. When I came up with this crazy idea last fall, to host retreat days,  I never imagined how wicked fun it would be! I love how much everyone is enjoying these Loft Art Retreats and that just energizes me to do more!

One thing I really wanted to do with these retreats is spoil and inspire the attendees as much as I can! I almost enjoy getting ready for the event more than the actual event. Well, minus the kitting part- you all know how much I despise kitting. There was even more prep work needed for this Loft Art Retreat because I wanted everyone to be able to make 24 handmade cards- so that equaled a TON of bits that needed to be pre-stamped and die-cut. Thankfully I had some help this time. My friend Amy came and helped me one Sunday, and as I got near crunch time I convinced Chris to help a bit too 😉

It was so fun to get all the fun Lawn Fawn pkgs of goodies in the mail (so very happy I invested in the red wagon 😉 ).

I used my own handmade cards from previous classes and blog posts to “decorate” the loft. Hanging them with clothes pins on bakers twine, perfect!

My friend Cheiron drove up from NJ on Friday so I immediately put her to work, merchandising product and creating name tags. I inspired her by offering that they could be rainbow colored, her fave! No matter how much I plan ahead there is always lots of last minute things to get done.

I was wicked excited to share with the attendees one of their pieces of  swag they got to take home. A custom “wicked crafty” stamp I designed! 🙂

I just LOVE how the banner looked against the chalkboard. When I taught for Lawn Fawn at a retailer event in March, Kelly-Marie gifted me the banner. Chari Moss painstakingly hand cut all the pennants right before CHA. Her banner inspired the new die set, “stitched party banners”. I promise Chari to take care of the banner and enjoy it for many events to come!

I can’t post about the weekend without sharing a little story with you. When my friend Liz registered for the event she also registered her “friend from work”, Donna Dixon. Little did I know she was being sneaky with my friend Dawn who lives in Wisconsin. Dawn was part of the A Muse team back in the day when I was and I was fortunate enough to see her a few times when we were in seattle for training. She is also part of a small group of creative friends I have from all over-  we get together monthly on google hangout and craft with each other- aka drink adult beverages, vent about life and challenge each other to create. ANYWAYS….. she was Donna Dixon!!!! She and Liz had this sneaky surprise they kept to themselves!!! Setting up false email addresses and everything…. so Liz comes into the loft Saturday morning and this lady with this weird visor on is behind her… and just as I was questioning “what the heck is going on” I realized it was DAWN from Wisconsin!!!!!!! WOW! What an amazingly AWESOME surprise!!!! So nice to see her in person again, it has been a number of years. She was even sporting her starfish earrings I helped get her from the cape 🙂

I was a bit nervous because the morning started out as overcast, but the sun broke through and really brightened the loft up! I had a mini store set up on site of Lawn Fawn goodies and the essentials like foam tape and quickie glue pens.

Mister Harley and I were both spoiled with some gifts. Such thoughtful peeps crafty ones are! Love how cute this wrapping is. I forgot to take a pic of the inside, but it is a cute shadowbox/frame with a nautical theme. Perfect!

Mister Harley loves all the tables set up- he thinks they are fabulous to sprawl out on! As people arrive he loves sniffing and inspecting all of their bags. A few people threatened to take him home, so I think I may need to invest in some sort of “cat detector” to make people pass through before they go 😉

Chris was wicked helpful again, I seriously wouldn’t be able to host these events without his help. Lugging the tables and chairs, cleaning the loft, rearranging furniture in the loft, running out to get lunch, writing up and totaling orders, group photo (hence why I forgot on Sunday because he was away on business 🙁 ) and the list goes on and on and on…..  I am a very lucky girl and there isn’t a night that goes by as I fall asleep that I don’t realize that. honestly.

One of my cape peeps made a very good suggestion when I saw her at Crop on the Cape in March, she offered the thought that if my Art Retreats keep selling out so quickly why not open a 2nd offering on Sunday. Makes sense, I already have the tables and chairs and the loft set up… so why not!?! I knew I would be wicked exhausted- but I can rally and catch up on sleep and rest another day 🙂 The picture of Mister Harley above is later on Sunday and I had to laugh… He was showing my thoughts exactly. I was pooped!
I am happy that I offered Sunday though, I met some new creative peeps who wouldn’t have been able to come on a Saturday so it all worked out!

Above Mister Harley was taking advantage of some fellow kitty lovers, extra table space on Sunday and the sunshine streaming in. spoiled. And by the end of the weekend he had just about enough with all the people invading his space. Ha! He was trying to get away as far as possible, glued to the wall where no one could reach him. Heck, we could barely see him 🙂

So we talked a bit about when the next Loft Art Retreat would be and what the theme will be etc and I will be announcing more details about all of that mid summer. I can tell you there won’t be another Loft Art Retreat until the fall and I can promise you I will give you plenty of notice of dates and themes so you can try and fit them in your schedule. Hopefully this blog post shows you what the event is like and inspires you to attend the next one! I would love to have you join us!

Stay tuned later this week for details about my next kit I will have in the {creative chick} shop – especially for those of you who are too far away to attend a Loft Art Retreat. I’m wicked excited about it!!!

• Want to see more images from the Loft Art Retreat? Check out the #loftartretreat on Instagram! A bunch of peeps posted pics including the cards we created!

• Lynn wrote a fun post about the Loft Art Retreat here

• Want to be the first to know about new kits I have available? Or Loft Art Retreat details? Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter!