Hello friends! I finally found the time to make a post and gather all of my photos together so that I can share a post with you from last week’s “Crafty Retreat” that I went to at my friend’s house.
So the “theme” for the crafty retreat was called “Hats off to Painting!” The majority of the group likes to tole paint, but we all (including myself) like to try our hands at many other crafting avenues to try different products that we may not be familiar with…so there are some “mixed” projects today I’m sharing! I had such fun during the entire 3 days!
Here we are with our decorated hats on for a group photo! Even little ‘Gizmo’ had his hat on, but not sure he was feeling the fun like the rest of us! LOL! (Unfortunately the host was taking the photo!) We all had our Dick Blick aprons and shirts on which was very kindly donated for our “Painting Divas” group…they were VERY generous with the bag of goodies they gave us! We had all 3 days worth of fun, classes and prizes!
So, the reason for all of the fun crafty hats is that we were to take a hat and decorate it for a challenge. Here is a photo of all of our hats. There were some really fun and creative ideas as you can see! One of the girls was quite tired from all of the crafting and decided to take a little siesta during the festivities! LOL! It was very cool that I was the winner voted for my created hat design. (You can see on the table above and here’s a closer look below):
I guess it’s a bit hard to see in the photo above of me wearing it, but I had hubby bring home one of his hard hats from work along with a pair of goggles and then I went to decorating it in “steampunk” style! I had fun with it and enjoyed the process!
Here is the altered “Potions and Spells” book that I taught for the class! Last year at the “Crafty Retreat” they saw my “altered book” that I had previously made during my time as a Splitcoaststampers.com “Dirty Dozen” DT member and asked if I could teach how to make one for this year’s class. So instead of the “altered book” idea, I had them all use a Tim Holtz Configuration Book.
Here are some of the book covers all lined up that we were waiting on to dry before we were able to start painting them. A couple of the book covers were left at the work table, but while those were drying, we worked on the inside of the book.
Here’s another photo of me standing there holding one of the books and everyone was finished with their books looking at them at the end of class. They seemed to really enjoy this messy project! I just loved teaching these fun ladies too!
This is from my mom’s class where she taught us this cute Santa ornament that we painted on a gourd.
The host lady is the one that taught this cute penguin class! I adore penguins and I’m so happy that I took the time to finish this up when I got home!
I really hope that you’ve enjoyed all of these projects as much as I enjoyed creating them! I also had another set of calendars that I finished, but I’ll share on another post on another day as this one is pretty full!! LOL!
One more thing to share is that we have a robin’s nest with one little blue egg inside. We have a a Prairie Fire Crab Apple tree in our backyard full of pretty blooms and I guess the robin thought it was a nice place to make a nest…so we’ll wait and see if there is a baby bird coming soon!
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all of you moms out there! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!!
Stamped Smiles 
Oh Vicki it sounds like you had so much fun. I LOVE your hat – well done. And you certainly got through lots of work, which all looks great! CarolG
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Looks like a wonderful time. Happy Mother’s Day!
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I really enjoyed the video, Vicky. And I llllllllllove the hat and the gorgeous book you made with all these ladies. I am glad you had such a great time. Happy Mother’s Day, my dear friend.
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That looks like a really fun day thanks for sharing Love and hugs Carole x
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I will just give a big resounding WOW to all the great projects you and everyone else made! I’m in awe of those fun creations especially your winning hat! Looks like everyone had a great time and made some very cool items! Happy Mother’s day my friend, I hope it’s a great one!
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Wow, what a great variety of projects you made at your retreat! Fantastic!
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I adore your steampunk hat! I can see you all have had a fabulous time with great projects! Lovely video.
xxx Margreet
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Sounds fun to meet up like this and create with and at the same learn from others. Your helmet turned out totally awesome. Each hat turned out very different, not two alike. Love the spooky books too.
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Looks like a fun and productive weekend and how exciting to have that egg in your tree, what a bright colour it is! x
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I so enjoyed reading your post and you all looked like you had fun (with the exception of the odd snooze!). Congratulations on winning the best decorated hat….It is amazing! Thank you for sharing the photos and lets hope you see a baby robin x
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What a fun and fabulous post Vicki and your projects are fantastic..I loved everyones hats and the little dogs too..so cute..I hope your Robins egg hatches and you get to see the little baby bird..how exciting..
Luv CHRISSYxx
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Well goodness it sure looks like everyone had a great time!! What a FUN them – your google eye hat is super festive! I think I want to come hang out with your squad, LOL! Glad you had a great time and such a fun thing for your friend to open her home and the generous Dick Blicks! (see, when I hear that, I now try to shop there!) Awesome-sauce photos!
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Thank you sooooooooooooooooooo much for sharing your fun and fabulous crafty retreat results Vicki. It’s always fun to do so with friends. I bet it was a lot of fun and exhausting pleasures you all had. Great results by all the Ladies – love how one Lady managed to have forty winks ready for the next project. Such talent oozes from your fingertips. That helmet/goggles is the ‘bomb! Oh and THAT book with all it’s bits and bobs – AAAAmazing! Off to watch the video now – in between loads of washing hehe.
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oops! forgot to mention about that beautiful blue egg left by Mrs Robin. She certainly has a pretty environment to hopefully raise her young. Please let us know how she goes. Wouldn’t it be lovely if you managed to get a snap shot of her there too.
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WOW it looks like you ladies had so much fun Vicki!! I love all of the creations especially your steampunk hat, so many awesome details and the big eyes are so fun! Beautiful picture of the robin’s nest too.
Hugs, Tammy
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What fun you must of had Vicki. Love the decorated hard hat and fabulous pictures.
Hugs Diane
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WOW Vicki what fun your retreat sounds like and the pictures show. Awesome hat, and what wonderful projects were made. How fun that you get together with long time friends and share ideas. I used to to tole/decorative painting before I discovered stamps and enjoyed it very much. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
Hugs
Sue
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looks like lot of fun!
thank you for sharing photos with us!
these are gorgoeus projects!
hugs
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Sure all looked like fun, thanks for the video.xx
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Looks and sounds like you had a brilliant time and love love love the steampunk hat a fabulous transformation love all the other projects too
Carol x
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What a great bunch of projects! Looks like you had a very fun and creative weekend! Love all your creations!
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All of your projects came out wonderfully. I especially LOVE your hat. I really like how you can turn the plain into something so fantastical. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.
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