A Bonus Class

Well the printing is underway, goody bags are packed and awaiting their pretty labels, make and takes are packed and nearly all sorted (we have one to play with tonight to make sure every one knows how to do it)

I have now finished all my class samples. Usually that is done way before now but due to late arrival of supplies it has been later this time. I am really excited about the classes I am teaching, I have two layouts and a mini book and am using MME Life Stories from Summer CHA 2009, Fancy Pants Rusted Sun from Winter CHA 2010 and Prima Pastiche also from the recent show.


Obviously I can't show you my projects now but I will post them after the retreat.


Instead here is one of my classes from the last retreat and as always you can download the PDF HERE for free

New Arrivals...

just a quick update tonight...

A carton of lovely Pink Paislee arrived here today - it WILL make it's way onto the website ASAP but not tonight as we have been kit packing and making and taking again today.

Don't forget to check New Products for it in the next day or two. :)

Sketch Inspriation Number 7

First of all if you did (or are still working on) a layout for the March Sketch challenge then you have until 6pm on Thursday 8th April to leave a comment with a link to your layout either on your blog or in an online gallery. As we will be a teeny bit busy taking things to the retreat venue and then hosting the retreat over that weekend we will not announce the sketch challenge winner until after the weekend!

Here is the first of Aprils sketches. I do have a layout to go with this but it is one of my DT projects for this month so I will add it to the post once the gallery is up for this month :)

**EDIT** - "Essential Fashion Items" has now been added below.

Leave a comment on this post or the post for Aprils 2nd Sketch which will come later in the month, with a link to your layout and we will pick a winner of a £10 ATDML shopping voucher.

5 Days and Counting...

It is all systems go here at ATDML HQ (AKA Home!) Helen, my Auntie and Jills sister, arrived on Friday and as always got stuck in helping with retreat preparations.

After a small disaster last Thursday with an incorrect kit product arriving in a shipment from America we managed to source the product in stock and available to get to us in tme so the disaster was averted! Phew!!!


Last night we had our now traditional Make & Take play evening where we sit down and all learn to do all the Make & Takes. From experience we have learned that it is far better to have at least two if not three of us who can run the Make & Takes so that if one of us is needed elsewhere the Make & Takes can continue.

Today, while I was enjoying lunch at my Mother in laws in Lincolnshire with Darren and the children, here there were kits being packed and Make & Take boxes being checked off.

This evening we have been sorting out some of the challenges and preparing some more kits to be packed.

On the "To Do List" for tomorrow is to start the mammoth printing session that is required for each delegate to have their assorted bits of paper ready with their goody bag to give them all the information they need for the weekend. Answers on a postcard about ways around this as I ALWAYS feel guilty about the vast quantities of paper that are used in this process!

Because i like to add a few photos to my posts I am going to leave you with a few pictures from our FIRST retreat back in 2007. Next weekend will be retreat number 6 and we are so lucky that we have some really lovely groups of ladies who come back time after time. Some for both retreats and some come once a year but we consider it a HUGE compliment to have so many repeat guests.


The first photo is one of our challenge winners. This challenge involved altering an Urban Lily Secret Keeper and Nicki Harvey created this beautiful house shaped project, I am just sad to say I can't show you a photo of the inside too!

Every retreat we seem to change the shop layout a little to suit the room we have and the different display stands we are using. This was part of the shop at retreat number one and it took a lot of working out how to set it up to get as much stock out as possible without making it too cramped! I will try to remember to photograph the shop this time and see how it has changed!

Below are photos of my lovely friends Annette & Sue who were in the first ever class i taught which was on using paint and transparencies. They were of course excellent and patient students and I hope they enjoyed the class. It seems a long time ago that I was standing in the front of the classroom feeling nervous. My job before I had the children involved teaching five days a week but it was way more intimidating standing in front of 20 women rather than 30 5 - 7 year olds!

So there we have it, a sneak peek into the retreat preparations and a look at the first ever ATDML retreat.

You may be forgiven for thinking that there will be nothing but retreat preparations going on for the next week but infact we have some new goodies shipping to us this week so do keep an eye on the New Products section of the website as the new arrivals will be uploaded ASAP to join the beautiful October Afternoon Fly A Kite and Thrift Shop collections.!

Another Class For You...

This was scheduled to go up in March but due to a technical hitch it is going up today!

This class uses the gorgeous new Fancy Pants products from the "About A Girl" collection. Click on the link to download the free PDF instructions.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE PDF INSTRUCTIONS

Decorated Eggs

Another Egg Post!

I hope those of you celebrating Easter are enjoying the long weekend. Today, inspired by Debbies beautiful Tesco Easter Egg tree, I decided to make a decorated egg of my own. So here is what i made:

First blow the egg. Pierce the egg carefully using a skewer making a hole at both ends. Blow the contents of the egg out by blowing through one of the holes and collecting the egg in a bowl. (I used this for scrambled eggs for breakfast!)

Thoroughly wash out the egg by running hot water and a little washing up liquid through the holes. Leave it to dry.

To decorate the egg i used Cosmic Shimmer Mists. I chose three colours; Midnight Blue, Twilight Black and Silver. With the skewer through the egg hold it over some newspaper and spritz the egg. Initially the ink did not cover too well so I used my finger to rub the mist into the egg shell. I then waited for it to dry a little before adding a second coat.

When it was dry I then used a Versamark pen to add a swirl design to the surface of the egg and then used Zing metallic embossing powder to cover the design before heat embossing the design.

Next i added a lace trim around the middle, embellished that with kaiser rhinestones and finally covered the join on the lace with a punched circle of cardstock embossed with the same teal Zing finished with a matching rhinestone.

A quick & easy Easter project

To celebrate the first day of the Easter holidays, my girlies and I decorated this little Tesco Easter Egg tree in preparation for the Easter bunnys visit. (It comes complete with a little tree in a tin bucket and 12 painted eggs.) This is a really simple project that can be enjoyed by kids of all ages with a pretty finished product to use as a table decoration.

Here's how we did it:

To start, cover the bucket using the reverse side of Sassafras Sweet Marmalade- Handmade paper and then add a Basic Grey - Sugar Rush trim to the top and bottom rim of the bucket. To add a little Spring feel to the tree, glue Prima Frosty Flowers - Sorbet blossoms onto the edge of the leaves and add a little gem to the centre of each. All that is left to do after that, is to hang the painted eggs off the branches and fill the bucket with chocolate eggs of your choice.