Interactive Year In The Life Class By Mel

This is one of the layouts I taught over the weekend of the retreat. The house opens up to reveal an expandable pocket holding months of the year bingo cards. The idea being that you document the year ahead by adding a small photo and some notes to the back of each months cards.

 

There is some journaling behind the door (mine is about what kind of a year 2012 has been) and then the roof pulls up to reveal a second journaling spot to journal a similar piece about 2013 next December.

 

To add extra "ooomph" to the sun, clouds and dots I outlined them in black pen to make them "pop" more. 

 

Below you can see how the roof lifts and the expandable pocket inside the house

 

and here is the layout with the house open.

 

Thanks for stopping by. Come back later in the week to see my Long Weekend Delegates bonus class and the triple layout class I taught using My Minds Eye All Is Bright!

Scraplift Saturday

Resurrecting an old challenge idea for you lovely blog readers out there... welcome back to a Scraplift Saturday! We will be creating a blog post every other Saturday with a layout by one of the design team to use as a scraplift inspiration for your next project - perfect for crop days or a weekend where some crafting time is on the agenda.

“Scraplifting” is a term that refers to copying/borrowing (or taking direct inspiration from) the idea behind a layout or design and using it or modifying it for your own layout.  This week we are hoping to inspire to create your next page by drawing inspiration from this layout by yours truly.

You can replace a photo with a journalling spot or section of patterned paper, rotate the page for landscape photos, incorporate banners onto a layout -  the choice is yours. Papers used on the layout above are by 7Gypsies from their Postale range.

Leave a comment to this post with a link to your scraplifted layouts and lets see how many different variations we can get!
Happy Saturday lovely people!!

Mels Mini Book Class

I totally loved the Studio Calico Yearbook range and used this to teach my mini book class. Now I do usually opt for the majority of my classes to be layouts but my all time favourite class I have taught is my 7 Gypsies Travel Mini Book and I do like to do a mini book here or there.

In this class we constructed the book which includes pages which are pockets and little sideways pocket spaces in which you can tuck tickets, leaflets and memorabillia. My example is blank at the moment and the delegates only had time to make the book itself in class but it will be ready for photos, journaling and additions when the right subject comes along.

 

Despite some precision scoring needed to create the binding and a little confusion over pairs of mountains and lonely single mountains the delegates got on really well with this in the end and I saw lots of lovely examples in the crop room over the weekend.

 

Back over the weekend with another of my classes!



The Messy Class

Back from a fantastic weekend away with an amazing group of ladies, this was my first experience of a retreat and I loved it, gorgeous hotel - a desk for me with lots of goodies and a shop stacked with paper and embellishments....and then lots of classes, inspiration and new friends - I think it was the largest amount of scrapping I have ever done in one go and just a great time.

This is the page I did for my messy class which involved some spritzing and dripping with cosmic shimmer mists and also bottle top printing with gesso.  The papers are some from the Cashmere Dame collection by Glitz which has a lovely painty/distressed effect on it already.  I had a fantastic group of ladies (do link me up with your pages as I want to see them and I only saw a few completed ones) who had a go at printing with bottle tops, spritzing and distressing with me.

Behind the main photo are a couple of tags with extra photos and journalling on too.  The flowers are all by prima, and the orange lace is by Websters, the alphabet (one of my favourites and comes in lots of colours) is by prima too.  I used a couple of the cosmic shimmer mists Aqua Lagoon which you can see in some of the extra paint drips in the corner and then Mango Blaze which we used to colour the prima flowers.

And for more from the classes check out Karen's and Ann's.

Katherine

What a Difference!

Hello, Karen here with a quick 'show and tell' of the class I taught last weekend at the retreat.  It was made from just two pieces of paper and a set of stickers plus various office supplies.  I also took a couple of typewriters into the class so that the ladies could type their journaling. 

The class focused on using normal stationery products such as post it notes, labels, staples and page reinforcers on your layouts.  My two pages also illustrated the big difference between how boy's like to play and how girl's like to play!

A gentle girl version

 

about the companionship of baking.

 

A frantic boy version

 about competitiveness of boys playing sport.




p.s.  If you like my class enough to want to make one yourself I believe that ATDML may have some spare kits.

My Retreat Classes

As promised sharing some retreat inspiration with you this week in the form of my first class using Simple Stories Harvest Lane papers, which are so perfect for your autumn/fall photos. Notice the banner style pieces in the layout which are a popular sight on pages these days and featured on Katherine's technique Tuesday post last week.

I created two layouts from one of the Simple Basic kits that Simple Stories do which contains 5 double sided patterned papers, one of which is the suite of bingo cards. I also used a Sizzix die available from Stamping Up and a matching set of stamps for the leaves and acorns on the pages and supplied a template to create the owl from the left over papers. Titles using  a set of Thickers in my favourite font Jewellery box completed the pages.

Retreat news and What's new...

Evening bloggers, and a very tired Ann saying a quick hello to you all having safely returned from another successful retreat in Stoke-by-Nayland. Surrounded by a bunch of lovely ladies, hosts with never ending patience and enough inspiration to sink  the Titanic all over again we have once again stunned a hotel full with our wonderful hobby.  With classes taught by Mel Hand, Debbie Jewell, Jane Hewitt , Karen Moss, myself and a debut class by Katherine Sutton, the general vibe I picked up was one of very satisfied customers.  We will have plenty to share over the coming week and will be telling you all about what we got up to. In the meantime why not take a look at the some of the newest items we have in store and scrap up a storm yourself.
Graphic 45 Place in Time - a great calendar range.
7 Gypsies Epicurean - Double sided papers where one side is filled with vintage graphics,  the others are simple restaurant inspired backgrounds or their Santa's Journey range which as you would expect has a festive feel.
If Christmas preparation is on the agenda take a look also at Royal Christmas from Websters Pages or Joyeux Noel from Glitz.

Happy Shopping!