Retreating = Fun with Mixed Media

What a fabulous weekend the Embellees Team (and friends) had at the Scrapboutique Retreat at Noonaweena last weekend. 

Thanks to the lovely Chelsea from Scrapboutique, her delightful and talented Design Team and all the other lovely ladies we spent the weekend scrapping, laughing, eating, drinking and enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Noonaweena with (did I mention eating and drinking...oh yes I did). 

Check out the view from the patio area off the back of the scraproom at sunrise on Saturday morning (courtesy of Miss D).  This is just the most perfect place to relax and scrap, so much so, we have already booked our spots for next year ...... that's if Chelsea will let us

come back - we are rather a rowdy bunch and with a few 'bubbles' even more so.

While we were away, Miss Lisa and I played around with some canvas art, getting ready for our Mixed Media Workshop scheduled for September (check out the Workshop Tab above).

I wanted to do something quite simple with a fabulous wall art birdcage I had purchased from Kmart (great value with 3 large birdcages in the pack for $10). With some 'tweeking' and finishing touches it has come up very 'noice' if I don't say so myself!

To create this canvas I used:

• Prima journaling spots, bling, birdcage (see the cute metal one hanging in the left corner from my cotton twine) and lace/bling trim.. just scruptious.
• Donna Downey canvas bird - added some embossing and some distressing techniques (thanks for your advice Miss Jen). 

• Loving the beautiful new thickers from the Dear Lizzy range at American Crafts (see the word Beautiful).

I finished off using a gorgeous silk flowers from the local quilting shop and a play with some 'rub & buff' on my birdcage to give it that final antique feel... nothing a few hours, some paint and inspiration can't do to change a boring canvas into a work of art... very satisfied! 

While I played around with my own birdcage, Miss Lisa was busy playing with lots of different textures and techniques to create this beautiful work of art with some gorgeous papers and bits and pieces Scrapboutique have on offer.

Lisa used some beautiful papers from the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden range .... one of our favourites at the moment!! 

Lots of gorgeous Prima flowers and bling on this work of art...

Notice the beautiful background with lots of old dressmaking pattern pieces used as part of the subtle collage effect.  I put in a big hint that this would make a very nice birthday present for my big '0' birthday later in the year... so just in case Miss Lisa pretended not to listen, I thought I would remind her here on our blog... hint, hint!!

We got lots of great layouts done with all the challenges that Chelsea and her team kept coming up with and, with the great range of products that Chelsea had on hand - well we did some serious shopping. 

So now we are head-down finishing up the kits for our sold-out 'Christmas in July' Workshop on 3 July 2011. We have some more sneaky peeks on the camera ready to load to the blog with our updates over the next few days... so stay tuned!!!

Be back soon...

Lizzie and Lisa