Summer Song - a craft day!

Six of us spent last Tuesday crafting together!  In honor of Tami's visit, Suzanne drove down the day before and had a slumber party with Tami and I; then, and Rebecca, Lisa and Jeanelle spent a precious summer day-off from work and kids, with us!

Because four of us had been together at Karla Nathan's Birdsong Two event earlier this year, we were joking about this being a mini event (although it really was NOTHING like the wonderfulness of Birdsong...) and trying to come up with a cute name for it.  After much discussion, we decided upon Summer Song!

Early Tuesday morning I set up an extra card table in my living room/dining room area, and set out all the supplies for our layered collage project...

including an assortment of scrap booking papers, ephemera, stamps, and other stuff we use to make fun textures on the canvases.

Sweet friends Suzanne and Tami even made up and brought goodie bags for us -- how awesome is that?!

Tami's contained a bunch of crafting goodies...

and Suzanne's was an amazing vintage egg box FILLED with crafty, vintage-y goodness...

which I will show you later!  (Here's a peek at it all wrapped up!)

We all opened our goodies and then got started on project!  Everyone brought more paper, ephemera, stamps, paints, ETC. to share, and their own blank canvas(es) to work on.

Here's a sort of step-by-step of the one I did:

First, a layer of tissue, sewing pattern, and other thin ephemera pieces.

Then, more layers or paper and some paint.

Next: rub ons, and some random stamping.

 We all worked so hard and everyone's piece came out completely different -- which is much of the fun of it!

So. Much. Fun.

Here's how my piece ended up; Shakespeare was a last minute addition, and my piece became an exhortation:

"Just Write"!!

Here we are, all showing off our works of art!  Then, we had a potluck lunch, and THEN -- some of us stayed and made more!

(Why, yes, that big bottle of wine is empty...)

After the second round, I brewed some coffee to eat with the homemade pumpkin cake and black cherry pie that Jeanelle and Suzanne, respectively, had brought (YUM!)  Then we made quick trip to Michael's and Archivers for MORE SUPPLIES!  Finally, when the group had whittled down to just Tami, Rebecca and I, we finished it all off with dinner at an outdoor cafe with a view of the Peak.

(Oh, did I mention that the day before, Suzanne met Tami and I at our town's BIGGEST antique mall for an afternoon of shopping?) 

I REALLY should have gotten this hat, don't you think?

I can't wait to show you all the goodies I did get while hanging out with all my gal pals on all those shopping trips; that is next!