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Showing posts with label retreats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retreats. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Holiday Mini 2011 Review

Happy New Year!  Nanci and I were at Lakeview Lodge this weekend preparing for next weekend's retreat - the first of 2012!  Monday morning we woke up to our first real snowfall of the winter season, so I decided to take some pictures of the fresh snow (through the screens on the porch).   

These are some cards we made earlier this fall. 
The door card design is cased from Jennifer Timko.  I love the simplicity of her design!
I love these two cards!  Nanci used the Natural White card stock, Cherry Cobbler embossing powder and Crumb cake Ink.  This color combination is fabulous-the picture just doesn't do it justice!









This card is cased from Sage Kimble's blog.  I changed the design slightly to make it easier and less costly to produce and mail!

The stocking is a gift card holder!














This card is also cased from Jennifer Timko!  The tree panel is Very Vanilla card stock sponged with Always Artichoke ink.  It looks like velvet!  
 
Nanci and I are looking forward to the creative possibilities in 2012.  We hope this season will afford you the opportunity to explore your artistic inspirations as well.  If you are looking for a craft weekend getaway, visit us at Lakeview Lodge!  We are running our Crazy Eight Special - bring your group of eight and the eighth guest is free - a $299 value!  

Friday, March 4, 2011

Stamp Club Road Trip!

Nanci and I had planned an overnight special at Lake View Lodge for February 19th.  Several members of Nanci's Stamp Club signed up, so we decided to have the February Club meeting at Lake View Lodge!  We had a blast!  We had planned to make this delicious cupcake card, but we forgot the Create a Cupcake stamp set!   
 
 What do you do when you are 125 miles from your sentiment?  You improvise! 
 
 Terry, the newest member of the Stamp Club, is modeling the re-design  with an extra cherry on her cheek!  We love the Red Glimmer paper--it makes the cherries on the cupcakes sparkle!  The Elegant Lines embossing folder really adds depth and swirl to the cupcake icing!  Nanci and I went to a Stampin' event at Carol Nee's home and she actually had the cutest cupcake stand and cupcakes that looked just like the one's on Nanci's card!  They were delicious too!

From cupcakes, we switched over to Ice Cream Parlor DSP from the sale-a-bration catalog!
The colors of this DSP are fun and fresh.  The Sew Suite stamp set is great!  I wish they had done sentiments to go with them!  Nanci and I want to suggest; Sew nice to meet you, Sew Sweet, Miss you sew much.  The possibilities are endless!  Share your sentiment ideas with us--leave us a comment at the end of this post!
 Puns from the Past stamp set does include--sew glad we're friends--I recently purchased that stamp set just because it had that sentiment in it! :)
 
The Sweet Stiches DSP paper and Pattern Pieces stamp are great too!  We used the coordinating fabric and buttons with a little bit of crochet trim to embellish our card.  Another great card using Sweet Stiches DSP and Designer Fabric! 
 Once we finished our club projects, we jumped right into full throttle crafting mode!  Michelle and Jessice were swapping pictures and the stories behind them!
 Have you ever made a diaper cake for a baby shower?  Becky's turned out so cute!
  Making sure that the stamp is inked thoroughly!
 Terry's very first scrapbook page!
A whole lot of scrapbooking is going on!
 Chris made her first Squash Book and has plans for a second one already!
These ladies are serious crafters!  Almost everyone was crafting until 2:30 AM, but I heard the first person head back to the craft room around 7:30 AM! 
 Jessica took several photos of our group before everyone left Sunday afternoon!  These two are my favorites. 

Which do you prefer the black and white or the color photo?  Please e-mail us at info@crafthavenretreats.com, if you would like to bring your group to Lake View Lodge for a crafting retreat!  We are running a Crazy 8 Special right now.  Bring your group of eight crafters and we will give you an additional $200 off our Spring 2011 Special of $199 per person!  Happy crafting!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Deck the Halls DSP Collection

We love Deck the Halls DSP Collection!  We designed these cards for Nanci's Stamp-a-stack, the November Stamp Club, and our Ladies Night Out Retreat in early December. 
Dasher was the favorite at our Ladies Night Out Retreat!  The sentiment and Dasher stamp are both stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  Don't forget to use your static pad or embossing buddy you want a really clean image when you're through.  We ran the Early Espresso card stock through the Big Shot using the Northern Flurry embossing folder.
 
We love the vintage look of the Deck the Halls DSP and fabric!  We frayed the edges of our fabric ribbon to add texture to the bow.  Nanci used colored pencils to decorate the bell stamp from Bells & Boughs.
Here's another vintage Christmas look!  I used markers to color in the stamp of the bough image and then I masked that stamp and stamped the bell in Early Espresso ink.  It looks like the bells are hanging from the bough.  The sentiment is from the Bells & Boughs stamp set also.  The Cherry Cobbler card stock was run through the Big Shot with the Petals-a-plenty embossing folder.  I think it makes the background look just like poinsettias.  We also finished this card off with a Deck the Halls fabric bow. 
We just love the Christmas Collage stamp!  Nanci inked it in VersaMark and Early Espresso and heat embossed the image with clear embossing powder on Crumb Cake card stock.  She used the same procedure for the sentiment and the "25, " but she used Cherry Cobbler for the ink.  She punched them out and used dimensionals to add depth to the card.  She used colored pencils to fill in some of the images of the stamp.  This picture doesn't do the card justice--it is really a show stopper when you see it in person.
I cased this card from Tiffany Bauer (www.mycraftyworld.blogspot.com) who made it for a Founder's Circle event.  We decided that it was a lovely card, but too expensive to make in bulk and mail--those buttons are heavy!  We tried to find a more cost effective design for mailing.
This card was my cheaper to produce and mail alternative.  I tried to make it look like the ornament was hanging from the bough.  I used markers to color the stamp.  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and is stamped in Early Espresso ink.  The Cherry Cobbler card sock was embossed using the Petals-a-plenty embossing folder.
We loved the gift tags from Tags till Christmas!  We used gold gel pen accents on some of the punches with natural twine for the ties.
 More chocolate--you can never have enough chocolate on hand for the holidays! Again, we used Deck the Halls Fabric  for our ribbon bows and natural twine ties.
  
 We loved this paper from Deck The Halls DSP for these Fancy Favor die-cut bags!  The poinsettias were so pretty on the outside of the bag.  We choose the fabric that matched the inside of the bags to make our bows out of.  Soft suede card stock accents finished them off nicely. 
We're from Illinois and the cardinal is our state bird.  We loved the look of these gift bags and mini-milk cartons with their Cherry Cobbler cardinals.  Our bags are tied with Deck the Halls fabric bows again, but our milk carton bows are the Cherry Cobbler seam binding.  The icy edge on our mini-milk carton roofs is Silver Glass Glitter which really looks fabulous in person!
The altered Scalloped Envelope die holds a regular size gift card and can easily fit inside any of our gift bags or cards.  It also would look nice just placed on a branch of your Christmas tree!
That's a quick overview of some our Deck The Halls DSP collection.  We have really enjoyed working with all the designer series papers this year and we hope you have too.

  Nanci and I wish you and your family a healthy and happy holiday season and Happy Crafting in 2011!

Monday, December 13, 2010

$99 Overnight Special and Tags Till Christmas!

Nanci and I have decided to offer a $99 Overnight Special for Saturday, February 19, 2011 with check-in at 11:00 AM through Sunday, February 20th at 12:00 PM.  Your overnight will include Saturday night lodging, make n'take, full use of our craft room and tools, Saturday lunch, dinner, snacks, and beverages, and Sunday brunch!  

We hope you will be able to join us at Lake View Lodge located on Dewey Lake in Dowagiac, Michigan for our mini-retreat!  It will be cold and snowy outside, but the lodge will be warm and toasty! Space is limited for our $99 Overnight, so make your reservation today! 



When we were preparing for our craft shows this fall, we decided to make Christmas gift tags to coordinate with the three holiday designer series paper packs;  

Jolly Holiday DSP

Candy Cane Christmas Specialty DSP

and Deck The Halls DSP

We loved the Top Note packaging that we designed for them, but it definitely did not show off the tags to their full advantage!  So we took some photos of the contents before they were packaged!


Aren't they cute!  The Tags till Christmas stamp set coordinates so well with the Stampin' Up punches--they are a snap to stamp, punch, and assemble.  We added some white and gold gel pen accents!  


Unfortunately, the gift tags for Jolly Holiday were already packaged at this point, but all three designs were very similar!   

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Retreat!

We've been keeping quite busy in our scrap-booking room preparing for a few craft shows and some Stampin' Up! events.  I thought I'd share some pictures from a retreat we had at the end of October.  The weather at the lake was beautiful that weekend--mostly sun!  The grass is not brown--it's covered with pine needles!


Sandy, from St. Louis, MO sent us this photo.  The view is from the living room of the house looking at the lake.  I love the fall color in the foliage.  I love sitting on the front porch--it's so relaxing!


 We had a varied group of crafters this weekend-- quilting, scrap-booking, and handmade ornaments.   Saturday after lunch we all ran over to Kathryn Wise's store, Sew Many Pleasures in Dowagiac, MI and we hit a sale!  Kathy specializes in gifts and collectibles.  After our guests departed on Sunday,  Nanci and I ran up to Kathy's shop and hit the sale again!





Best of all we had lively games of dominoes after dinner both nights!   Grilled Peach and Chicken Salad, Home Made Navy Bean Soup, and Creme Brulee French Toast Casserole were the favorite weekend menu items!  We are booking retreats for 2011 now!  E-mail us and reserve your weekend today!






Thursday, September 23, 2010

Harvest Time Delights


 Our 1"X8" and 2"X5" clear bags arrived and we immediately put them to good use!   We punched out Cajun Craze tags stamped in basic brown with happy harvest from Loads of Love Accessories stamp set.  We layered a small More Mustard card stock oval stamped with Cajun Craze pumpkins from the same stamp set on top of the tag.  The edges of both punches were inked with Basic Brown to give added dimension.  The Sizzix Bag with Scallop die was cut using the Big Shot. 



















The pumpkins were made with Cajun Craze and Autumn Spice DSP.  Punches used were the Medium Oval and 1" Circle punches.  The leaves are punched from the Two Step Bird punch.  Sentiment is stamped from Teeny Tiny Wishes and punched out with Word Window punch.

   
 Here are some close ups of the completed treat bags.  Both projects would make excellent table decorations and/or hostess gifts for your holiday dinner table.   These treats will also be for sale on our table at the 29th Annual Oktoberfest Marion Catholic High School Craft Fair.  We hope you will stop by and visit with us.  We will also have information about our weekend craft retreats at Lake View Lodge in Dowagiac, MI!
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