Another Creative Art Retreat kit and card "one" reveal

My favourite virtual class kit in a box last year's was Jenn Shurkus's Art Retreat mid-year and I enjoyed it so much that I told myself it was a definite yes for 2024. As I follow Jenn on social media I looked on as she was planning an in-person retreat at Cape Cod late Nov 2023. The venue looked amazing and I told myself if I won Lotto I would go, of course I didn't win Lotto but think I won the Lottery as I actually managed to snag one of her extra kits that she sold after the event. The day they went on sale her website couldn't cope and kept on returning error messages. I though oh well it wasn't meant to be BUT around 30 mins after it was live I managed to order one. And no I wasn't sitting on my PC trying, think I'd actually given up and gone off and made coffee and toast for breakfast. Shortly after that time they were all sold out, so I was lucky.

I chose the cheapest shipping option and lo and behold USPS got it here in under 2 weeks. This is how my box of goodies looked when it arrived.

Opening the box:

Peeling back the tissue paper; of course it has to be teal ;)

Below; Simon Says Stamp stamp set, Gina K stamp set, another exclusive stamp set from Stampers Anonymous (the images are from other sets but have been resized), last but not least a small pack of Distress Watercolor Pencils from Ranger in the wee striped bag. As I already own all 3 sets I have a few spare pencils now, which I probably will gift to a friend to play with.

Below; stamp sets from Pinkfresh Studio (and bling), Trinity Stamps and Honey Bees (and bling).

Below; stamp sets from Hero Arts and Colorado Craft Company plus a Floral Banner die from Gina K.

Below; Lawn Fawn goodies, Corner Rainbow stencil set and Fruit Salad 6x6" DSP pack, both of the latter I already owned but surprisingly I didn't own the stamp set.

Below; wee racoon stamp from  Purple Onion Designs, stamp sets from Avery Elle and Newton's Nook. Jenn has also collaborated with Stuff by Belle to design her first stencil.

Below; last but not least all 17 card kits ready for us to create with, in each card kit there will be Ranger Heavy or Distress Watercolor card stock if needed. As you can see no stamp sets came with dies this time and finding them can be problematic and expensive to get to NZ. This time quite a few of the sets are quite old so it will be even more problematic to track down would be my only negative I can say about this class kit. It's great value and I love, love that everything is just waiting for me to colour and make colourful backgrounds, it really make it so fun. I normally only try and find the die if I want to play with the stamp set again and it's fiddly like the CCC Hedgehog one.

It's a 3-day weekend here and it's a bit wet and dreary so it seemed the perfect weekend to start on my 17 cards I will be creating. I was very diligent yesterday and Copic coloured up all the stamped images.

This little cluster of sea-faring images have all been fussy cut out by hand and then the outlines have been inked up with a Black Memento brush marker. I can't wait to make this little scene card it is fabulous in the guide book, looking above you can see the wharf scene we still have to colour up.

I'll finish off today's post as it is very long with "card one" in the guide - the main supplies are the Colorado Craft Company's Hedgehog Day stamp set, Lawn Fawn's Corner Rainbow stencil and Fruit Salad DSP.

Isn't this just adorable! There is no doubting that the Anita Jeram images they sell as stamps are stunning but isn't that a fun rainbow too. I also love the Copic dotted "ground", plus of course there is glitter and the bling from Honey Bees (Crystal Glimmer Enamel stickers) gives just a hint and looks almost like a wee water drop.

✿Karen✿