One way I let myself play is by being a beginner.  When it comes to sewing, I feel like a total newbie.  So when I heard about the Snip, Sip and Sew retreat hosted by Glenda Miles, I signed up!

If you’re a frequent blog reader you know I make quite a few Oopsies…and me with a sewing machine created plenty of opportunities for oopsies!  I actually managed to sew my fabric to the foot on the machine.  It wasn’t stuck.  It was actually stitched on to the free motion foot.  I have no idea how I did it, but it took me quite a while to cut it off of there!

You can see my sewing talents in a short video on Instagram here. You’ll see I like to sew fast and loose!

But that wasn’t the only Oops.  Check out the photo below.

I was actually being careful when I was stamping on the fabric as I spelled the word oops…and misspelled it!  OOPS big time! No problem, I just did it again right next to it!  What did we do with all this painted and stenciled fabric that we made?  It became a purse!

The purse has pockets, both inside and out.  And I didn’t have to use a pattern or carefully measure a thing!  It felt so good to accomplish this project even feeling like a newbie…I credit the 3 talented instructors for that!

Thank you Linda Willis, Kecia Deveney,  and Kari McKnight Holbrook for all the techniques, tips, and generous supplies!  I was so amazed by all the purses created by all the amazing women this weekend.  Every one was so unique!

There was far more than art to this weekend. There was heart. Glenda Miles orchestrated the weekend and she has a gift for creating safe spaces for creating and connecting.  I got to meet the most amazing women and the creative energy in the room was soul nourishing!

St. Mary’s Retreat is an amazing location.  So peaceful. So tranquil. Worked into our schedule was time to explore the grounds and take walks along the trails around the center. The rooms were extremely clean and the building was very well maintained and all our needs were taken care of!  Thank you Glenda!

This event included all our meals.  Homemade meals.  Scrumptious morsels for the taste buds like fresh homemade bread.  If you wanted to eat outside, you could.  Oh, was it ever glorious out there too!  The way it was planned allowed for freedom to be yourself. If you wanted to be around people you could.  If you wanted some time to yourself, you could.  Love that this was designed for both introverts and extraverts!

Want to create and connect with others?  Glenda puts together fabulous creative events and I highly encourage you to check them out! Glenda’s next event is Jacqueline Sullivan teaching at St. Mary’s Retreat- you can find all the details here!

Why do I love modeling paste so much?  It’s versatility.  It can give me texture and color variation -just like it did on this art journal page when I used it with Dylsuions spray inks.

In the video you’ll see how to use modeling paste plus you’ll see how I use spray inks for more than just spraying.  Dip pens were made to be dipped in ink…so why not Dylusions inks?  That’s how I got all the writing on there

Watch How to use modeling paste with a stencil on YouTube.

Here’s just the modeling paste and one color of Dylusions spray ink.  Two coordinating colors appear but I only used one color of spray ink.

Spray ink is ink…so why not dip a pen in it and write!  This way my writing coordinates so perfectly with the blue diamonds. It’s the same exact ink!

The one drawback to modeling paste for me is waiting for it to dry.  I’ve found several ways around that, like with these dimensional ladies running across the page.  They were made previously with modeling paste in this workshop so it has all the texture and goodness I love without having to wait for it to dry as I made this page!

Want to know more ways to use modeling paste? Or texture paste…or dimensional paste…or embossing paste…it goes by many names but each does about the same thing!  Find out more about this self paced, downloadable workshop and the bonus lesson here!

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!

Alternating Diamonds Stencil	Dip Pen	Finding Your Tribe Stencil
dylusions spray ink	Flexible Modeling Paste

InLinkz.com