June 16, 2025
What a whirlwind celebration! Sketchbook Revival (SR) 2025 Binge Fest was so much fun. And Wow! Two jam packed weeks of creativity was over in the blink of an eye!
Karen Abend, SR creator, host extraordinaire, and wonderful artist, came up with a brilliant idea for the SR 2025 session. I would swear the creative gears inside her head were spinning with delight as she declared, “Yureka! I’ve got it!”
Beginning on May 27th thru June 9th, Karen generously opened up the SR historic vault and set free all of the workshops conducted the first 5 years of SR (2018-2022)! That unbelievable offering came to more than 130 one-hour-long workshops of inspiring, hands-on, and creative play time all instructed by well-known experts in artistic fields associated with Sketchbook Journaling.
Challenge presented ……. Challenge accepted.
Since I’ve been participating in SR each year since 2018, and attended most of these workshops in the past, my goals and strategies to tackle the challenge were these:
- Complete a minimum of 4 workshops daily;
- Two workshops should involve a project outside of my comfort zone, such as portrait drawing, fantasy, word play, collage, and properly stitching my own SR sketchbook so it wouldn’t fall apart during the 2-week challenge, etc.;
- Two workshops should involve projects within my comfort zone, such nature subjects, urban sketching, whimsey, and lettering, and those using watercolor pencils, graphite, and ink;
- Develop fresh, interesting, and imaginative sketches during the workshops;
- Allow Flambé to play along;
- Slow down, breathe, and enjoy the 2-week marathon without becoming overwhelmed;
- Recognize and gather take-away tips and techniques to bring into my Nature Journaling practice and Zentangle storytelling.
- Keep sketching and sharing.
After two weeks of play, I was able to fill up my handmade and successfully stitched SR 2025 sketchbook! With a total of 46 pages completed (doubling up workshop projects on a handful of pages), including several pockets with inserts, I was pretty happy (and a bit exhausted).
If you’ve participated in SR in the past, or maybe took on the 2025 challenge as your first time, you know how intense (in an exhilarating way) it can become. If not, and would like to learn more, check out this link
This link will take you to Karen Abend’s website where you can ask for more information about Sketchbook Revival. https://karenabend.com
Hope my collection made you smile and laugh! I certainly got a kick out of the experience.
Well, until Sketchbook Revival next year, thanks for coming along!
a curious nature 
I just found Karen’s Sketchbook Revival last year, and I LOVED it! I splurged and bought the VIP pass for the Bingefest, and I have no regerts (lol).
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Oh Lisa! Of course you have no regrets! And what a treat to not only discover the amazing Karen Abend and participate in SR 2024, but an even bigger treat to splurge on this year’s VIP pass! I hope you take on each and every workshop. What a fun deep dive into creativity! Thanks for sharing your fun.
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Yes, I so agree that Karen provided us creative souls with a bountiful feast. I love your approach of doing a few workshops a day, inside and outside your comfort zone, and your work is delightful, as always.
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Wow! Thanks so much Wes for commenting on my SR collection. I’m sure you had a great time honing your creative prowess. For me, Binge Fest was such a blast!
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I so enjoyed the journey through your S.R. Binge Fest sketchbook! I’m so excited that you stitched your own book to create in! You did some incredible pages, and I did some similar ones, but many that I wanted to do and didn’t get time for. I am happy with what I did and learned — my mission was to start with artists that I knew and then branch out to others that intrigued me. What an incredible buffet of delicious treats! The cat faces made with numbers is too cute! And the blobs and line drawings turned into objects is brilliant. I can see that you had an immense amount of fun this year! Thanks for sharing your fabulous talent, curiosity and pages!
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Thanks so so much, Karen! Oh boy, my biggest challenge was definitely the hand stitched sketchbook. Once that seemed to work out, I knew any of those Binge Fest videos were possible! Hahahahaha! When I let Roy browse my SR sketchbook, he thought a lot of them were pretty weird, but interestingly those were my favorites (cat faces, continuous line drawings, sidewalk cracks and blobs) and his favorites were not my favorites. Hopefully I can take a peek at your creations too! Thanks again for such cool comments!
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It is funny, sometimes, that we like the things that we didn’t think we would at first! I wanted to try the sidewalk cracks class, but didn’t get to it. My creations are coming out tomorrow, and I hope you don’t mind, but I included a link to your blog post extravaganza of pages!
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Oh goody! Can’t wait to see your SR masterpieces. And of course I never mind you linking to my page. I really am honored and do appreciate the nod! You can do sidewalk cracks …… so easy, and you have the imagination to locate crazy images in the crack. The hardest (easiest) thing is finding a cracked up sidewalk, one with lots of cracks in haphazard fashion. Photograph the crack in one big photo. Download the photo and use it to outline whatever you see ….. remember, if you add a beak to any shape, it magically becomes a bird! Go for it! But beware. Sidewalk cracks are addictive!
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