Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat 2011

table with everyone's class samples

I attended the Paper Cowgirl Retreat in Waxahachie this past Thursday thru Saturday. It was so much fun! We started off with a meet and greet on Thursday at The Dove's Nest http://thedovesnestrestaurant.com/ . This is a wonderful store full of great finds from jewelry to clothing and home decor. We had good food and Lisa Pace http://www.lisapace.com/ was the guest speaker as well as being a teacher at the retreat. Her speech was funny and very informative. I enjoyed it a lot. All the students got to mingle with the teachers (me being a teacher) and each other. It was a whimsical evening and everyone was really nice and friendly.

name badges

Nicki and Tammy

dress Ann-Denise made

This fabulous dress was made by the Queen of Crepe Paper, Ann-Denise Anderson. She is a whiz with paper in general. The dress is made from coffee filters, crepe paper and tissue paper I think too.
It had paper clay flowers on the bodice. Just gorgeous!!

back of dress

 This is the back of the dress and it's even pretty. Such detail went into making it.

food table 

 This was the food table at the meet and greet. Yummy fruit, hummus, veggies and wrap sandwiches.

everyone visiting

me and my boots

 Cindy the Head Cowgirl making her welcome speech. She really did a great job of planning things and getting it all together.

 Here is Lisa Pace during her speech. She spoke on getting published in magazines and how to write a book. She was great! So funny and her info was really good. She has a new book coming out in January of 2012.

apron swap

 There were lots of swaps to participate in. I did not have time to join any but loved seeing all the goodies that were exchanged. This was the "apron swap" participants. There were some great aprons made!

cigar box swap inside

cigar swap outside

 The cigar box swap was over the top. This is just one of the boxes. Cami did this one. Very creative!

badge swap

 This coin purse was an item in the badge swap. I Loved it! Never would have thought of this. Jennifer did it.

Tanya, Mendy, Nicki, me and Tammy

 Friday night we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Waxahachie. Some of the stores stayed open late for us Paper Cowgirls to shop at. Fun time!

Cami Wallace Dilsaver

Kristi's dress

 I know this looks funny but I wanted to see under Kristi's dress. She had pinned old photos and cabinet cards to the skirt under the tulle skirt. So you saw them thru the tulle skirt. Very cute!

Marsha Albee

 Marsha won the Prom Queen contest. She bought this real prom dress for $5 I heard. Great deal if she did!

prom table decorations

The Prom was at Polka Dots, a store in Waxahachie. They sell jewelry and clothing but I also think the owner does photography too. There were several beautiful portraits in large blown up format around the store.

drink table at prom

sweets table at prom

photo with props

Kristi, me and Marsha getting our photo taken with the glittered guns! There were some large pictures frames laying around too for props.

my students

Here is my class working away on their mobiles. They were a great group and finished stamping their tags really quickly. I got a lot of compliments on how organized and how cute my kits were. It really made me feel good being my first time to teach at this venue.

samples in class

Kristi concentrating

bag kits were in

I had a few kits left over from class and am thinking about putting them in my Etsy Shop. Just need to find time to take photos and list them. I did have packages of hangers left too and am going to list them for sure soon.

vendor night finds

Vendor Night was Saturday evening. There were some great items for sale. I got this iron piece from Leslie Venable's http://www.flatwoodsfolkart.typepad.com/ booth. She said it was from Savannah. I am guessing it came off a porch. It is really heavy!

goodies from vendor night

Here are the rest of my goodies from that night. Flowers, jewelry, collage stuff and beads.

cuff bracelet

This is a beautiful cuff bracelet I bought from Dale McLain http://dalemclain.blogspot.com/ . I thought the colors were really pretty and love the rhinestones in the middle.

bon ton trip

I made a trip to the store called Bon Ton on Saturday after my class. I had a little extra time before Vendor Night. This store is so cool! Lots of vintage clothing, jewelry (as you can see that is what I bought) and retro items. Old stuff to look through and bring back memories of when I was younger. It has been in business for around 28 years the owner told me that day. It is in Forreston I think is the city and it's about 5 - 10 minutes outside downtown Waxahachie. I think these would be great additions to the wool felt crowns I have been making.

tiara

I bought this tiara too! My first one to own. I don't have a head to put it on but will look for some statue or something to use it on. Not sure how old it is but it has all it's stones intact.

Paper Cowgirl was wonderful. Everyone was so friendly and that made it easy to make new friends. I look forward to the Wicked Tea in the Fall. I went to last years as a student and plan on doing the same this year. Watch the Paper Cowgirl blog for more info about it. Only like 30 something people will be allowed to sign up for it. So you have to watch closely for when the sign up starts.