Sunday crafting at the retreat

First up on Sunday was an Echo Park mini book class with Karen Moss. There was a girl and boy option and Karen had made examples of each.

In the crop room Debbie got everyone creating fabric flowers with voile and a heat gun! It turned out to be very addictive and even I managed a go at this!

Simple stories is a favourite of ours and of Anns and she had been very quick to request that she used the 'Awesome' range for one of her classes. There was stencilling and paint as well of some lovely papers!

Fabiana and Claire kindly did the painting Lynn who had a gorgeous manicure that was still drying!

Back in the crop room there flowers were still being produced - Tracey was thrilled was the results of her efforts and here she is with a before and after.

And just to prove it here I am making my flowers!

Then it was time for lunch... Mmmmmm Sunday roast!

Denise did a very popular make & take after lunch on Sunday. She is amazing with distress inks and she kindly agreed to do a make & take with them.

Helen even got chance to have a play.

In this photo Ann is hard at work doing Debbie's fun My Minds Eye class.

The last class of the weekend was Karens beautiful Bo Bunny layout.

that just about rounds up the weekend. I will post some pictures of the challenges and challenge winners in another post.

Saturday part 2

After Janes hinged canvas class Debbie was back at the front of the classroom teaching a layout class with October afternoon Sidewalks.

The class featured two single layouts as shown below...

later in the afternoon it was time for my final class of the weekend and we were getting inky and messy with cosmic shimmers and distress ink combined with Prima resist canvas and Glitz French Kiss papers.

part two of Janes class saw thEm hinging their dry canvases together and decorating inside and out.

after dinner which was delicious but sadly unphotographed there was an evening of cropping, challenges and a make and take by Jane. Once again I seem to have captured a little bit of craziness as Ann and Jane pose like professionals!

Janes canvas inspired Clair so much that she bought four canvases and created a larger hinged canvas. She particularly enjoyed watching the paint dry!

Saturday night was a late one for me - bed a little after 3am and there were still several scrapers working when I headed upstairs for bed!

Saturday part 1

First up on Saturday morning was Ann's My Minds Eye class, she had made two layouts with the kit and kept the delegates busy with punching and distressing.

Debbie managed a bit of inspired free styling and built up a layered star.

After her class Ann did her make & take and the ladies made layered, stitched and embellished felt flowers.

Being a bit silly....

Karen Cole taught her class next, a beautiful double layout using the new Websters Pages Everyday Poetry line.

Lunch was a buffet and as always very tasty. I didn't manage to get a photo of the stunning fruit platter before it was devoured but it was very tasty.

after lunch it was back to the classroom for part one of Janes Cosmo Cricket Hinged Canvas. First up was a layer of brown paint, then a layer of crackle glaze and then cream paint.

 

 

part two of Saturday coming soon....

 

Friday Fun

We started the classes off at 1:30 with my October Afternoon Sasparilla class.

This is Pat who several retreats ago decided that we should always have a relatively straight forward class to start the weekend off, not too much measuring and nothing too complicated so when the timetable is organised that is what always come first!

 

Once the first class is done the straight forward and simple rule goes out the window and next up it was Janes absolutely stunning book. Inspired by the smash book craze she used Graphic 45 Kraft Reflections and a selection of recycled materials to create her own book to house everyday thoughts and information!

It was also Janes birthday and her VERY thoughtful husband had contacted me in advance to check how many delegates we had - he then arranged for this tray of beautiful cupcakes to be delivered.... Delicious!

Some of the ladies were settled ready to begin Janes class with all the essentials - Class kit, party bag from Jane, cupcake and champagne!

 

By now the hotel know to make sure the champagne is on ice as invariably a few ladies indulge over the weekend! There must be a lot of thoughtful husbands around as another lady was greeted in her room with some Champagne ordered for her by her husband

 

The next class was my second of the weekend, two single layouts with the Prima Almanac range.

 

During the afternoon Karen Moss ran a little mini book make & take....

 

After the class it was dinner time, Lasagne, Quiches, Jacket Potatoes & Salad followed by Apple Pie and Fruit Salad.

Rather against our better judgement the post dinner & wine class involved using heat guns to create voile flowers, beautiful if a little smelly during the heating process. Debbie was teaching the class and used Crate paper 'Random' collection.

The rest of the evening was spent scrapping, shopping, chatting and laughing before eventually I went off to bed at around 12:45. There were around 10 people still scrapping and I am told that the first person to get up to start for the day was up at 3:30am and arrived before the last person went to bed!

 

 

Ready, steady, crop!!!

We were really fortunate to be able to get into the hotel to start setting up on Thursday afternoon and the extra time really made a difference as we were able to get the cropping room set up and a significant proportion of the shop set out on Thursday.

On Friday morning we finished the shop and this is what it looked like on Friday just before the delegates started to arrive!

 

 

more soon....

Getting Started Early!

As I was uploading some photos from my camera for the class instructions I have been writing I found this photo which I had forgotten about.

I work part time as a teacher so my Mum looks after the girls doing the school run in the morning and occasionally looking after Olivia in the afternoons.

A few months ago I came home late one afternoon and found this on my scrapping desk.



Obviously while Mum was getting her lunch Olivia decided to help herself to some stickers, a piece of paper and a photo of her and her Daddy.

Now both girls know that they have their own "craft supplies" and they are not supposed to help themselves to mine or fiddle with projects on my scrap desk however it wasn't a disaster - the paper was left over from a DT kit which I had finished with and the stickers had come out of a box I unearthed in the loft so nothing I was desperate to use.

I had to smile at her pretty composition and use of the stickers to frame the photo - a future scrapper? What do you think?

PS she was only 3 at the time!

Multi Manufacturer Challenge Winner

Karen Williams is the winner of our challenge to mix it up and use more than 5 manufacturers on a layout.

Karen has used:
Echo Park
American Crafts
October Afternoon
Crate Paper
Bazzil

Karen drop me an email and I will send you your shopping voucher!

I will try to post a few sneak peeks of some of my retreat classes over the next few days. Preparation is in full swing here for the retreat which will be over in two weeks time!

Kits are being packed, emails sent out with photo information and classes available to book as add ons and the menu choices for Saturday night are flooding in! Busy busy busy and there is the small matter of completing my classes and instructions! Wish me luck :)