Fun Times at Create Your Retreat!

Good Morning, crafty friends!

Wow, what a fun weekend at the annual Create Your Retreat! I was so honored to be the guest artist at this year's event. For those of you who don't know, this annual scrapbooking and crafting retreat has been held for years here in Oregon, drawing in hundreds of crafters.

Ladies and gents can craft all day Friday and Saturday, shop vendor booths from Pacific Northwest-based companies (such as Art Impressions, Close To My Heart, and Paper Wishes [to name a few]), and take stamping, card making, scrapbooking, and other paper crafting classes.  

Hanging out with the amazing ladies behind Create-Your-Retreat: (left to right) Julie, Kim, and Suzi.

The event is held at the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, Oregon, which is about a 3.5 hour drive south of Portland. The ladies book out a huge conference room so there is plenty of space for you and your friends to set up camp and peruse vendor booths.

I was totally floored at the number of crafters at the event! 

Suzi, Kim, and Julie who put on the event every year put so much detail and hard work into making Create Your Retreat an enjoyable event for both crafters and vendors. They raffle off some amazing prizes all throughout the event and also give crafters fun goodie bags. Bathrooms and ice water are nearby, along with the exit, so you can run to your car in case you've forgotten anything.

As the guest artist representing Graphic 45, I was given my own booth, which I made into an inspirational area using some of my earlier design team projects. I brought many of my pastel-themed creations for a springy feel and to offer inspiration for anyone crafting with Botanical Tea. (Graphic 45 brought this beautiful paper line back as a Deluxe Collector's Edition, yay!)

I also brought a fun little make and take, a square tag adorned with the gorgeous new Sun Kissed line.  

It was so fun meeting ladies at my booth. And it was a blast teaching my altered photo stand class as well! We had a sweet group of crafters, many who are longtime Graphic 45 fans, and some who were just discovering G45's vintage-themed collections. 

My helper, Suzi's awesome grandson, Trevor.  

Proud of her work!

The best part though of teaching classes is the ladies. I love talking to them and learning little tidbits about them, like where they're from and what their favorite types of projects are. Here's just a handful of some of the sweet gals I met at the retreat.

Well that's a wrap, crafty friends! Thank you so much for stopping by. If you'd like to attend next year's Create Your Retreat, you can grab a ticket for yourself and a friend right now for the 2019 event! Have a great weekend!

Surprise and Graphic 45 Little Women Layout

Happy Thursday!

Today I'm sharing a Graphic 45 project that I meant to post on Monday, January 8th, but this happened instead ...

That's right! For those of you who don't know yet, my husband and I welcomed our beautiful baby boy into the world two and a half months ago. Words can't describe all the feelings and emotions I have about him. He's also napping right now, so I'm determined to post my project before little man beckons. ;) 

This is a layout I made for Creativation using Graphic 45's Little Women collection. The colors and designs in this collection are so gorgeous! The theme was perfect for capturing a photo of my sister and I back when we were living in the greater Seattle area years ago (for the second time).

Thank you for stopping by! And hey, if you're coming to the Create Your Retreat event this weekend in Canyonville, Oregon, please be sure to stop by and say hi! I might have a couple spots left in my class, so be sure to check that out, too. Everyone who's coming is getting a surprise!