I am exhausted and all crafted out! I am writing this Sunday night after spending the day learning new crafting techniques at Craft HappyRetreat. Lisa Cherry, owner of The Makery, is the brain child behind the day retreat and gathered some pretty talented instructors to show how it’s done. I had entered a giveaway for tickets to the retreat and was so excited to find out that I had won. With my sister Stacie in tow, we headed to Community to get crafty!
After coffee and donuts for breakfast – my favorite – and a
little mingling we headed over to our first workshop: Art Journal Making. The
class was taught by Rachel Hillberg who I had recently met at a crafting event
at Look in Anaheim. We had also connected and collaged just last Thursday at
the OC Etsy Craft Party. We got the 101 on bookbinding from scratch, with basic
materials like paper and wax string. Rachel also talked about how to fill our
new journals with art using different mixed media techniques. Busting out stamps,
markers, crayons, scissors and colorful paper, we went to town on brightening
some pages. Rachel left us with some prompts to continue our art journaling
experience, and I left really needing to buy this awesome jar stamp she had for
us to use. I hear she teaches a bookbinding class that teaches how to make some
awesome leather journals…
During our first break we headed over to A Little Known Shop’s
make and take station where we got to screen print an ampersand onto vintage
book pages. During lunch we returned to screen print the cutest little red fox.
Note: My Papillon Oliver looks like a fox and I am without question his human.
As a joke (because it is funny at least to me) I screen printed my red fox on a
page that talks about marriage.
Reaching the halfway point to our day we were getting a bit
hungry and could smell deliciousness from our designated eating area. Catered
by The Lime Truck, they offered a Crav On French Fry bar with delicious pulled
pork and steak toppings. I’ll be honest, I was a little hesitant on loving the
French Fry lunch option until I tried it. The pulled pork was delish and the
steak was amazing. The chipotle honey sauce was really tasty too. As a side we
got a bag of Lundberg Farms sea salt rice chips – yum.
Stacie and I headed to our final workshop, beginner’s letterpress. Lauren Macaluso from Creative Outlet Studios showed us a diagram of what parts make up the letterpress and how to properly ink it. Stacie and I had made gift tags on the letterpress last Thursday, but it was great to hear more in depth about the machine. We each letterpressed 5 thank you cards and got to see how the machine worked first hand. One of the most interesting facts was how the machine had to be tuned correctly to get an even print. I like that each card I pressed is different due to the antique mechanisms of the trade. It makes for a real unique print.
Thank you to the wonderful instructors I met today and big
THANK YOU to Lisa for organizing such an awesome craft day!
It was such a fun fun day! Love your recap xoxo
ReplyDeleteIt sure was! Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteLooks like you two had a blast! The cupcakes look amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa. They were tasty too!
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