Creative Heart & Soul Retreat, Coventry

At the weekend I attended my first Creative Heart & Soul retreat, organised by Debbie Nicholas and Tracey Hudson.  They had booked a beautiful venue in Coventry, and had invited Giltz Design and Fancy Pants to come over and teach.

So my weekend started off on Friday when I went  over to Sheena's house where we were joined by Sam and we had a lovely lunch and a catch up

Then we went in convoy to the hotel which was only 20 minutes away from Sheenas.  We spent the weekend at this lovely hotel (photo taken early evening)

the reception had a lovely open fire

The weekend involved completing 3 mini books and 3 double page layouts - all of them I've still have to finish and will be a 'work in progress' over the next few weeks.

This was what greeted us at our table, Debbie & Tracey had had done each attendee a lovely decorated bird house - this is mine

and a bag with produces to make a name badge - I did attempt to do one - not sure where it is now - lolx

When everyone had arrived it was time for a Champagne cocktail welcome.  

Debbie & Tracey introduced our teachers for the weekend and they each introduced themselves.

Erin & Laura from Glitz Design

Jodi from Fancy Pants

my room 

All the teachers at the end of the retreat

Final photo of me and the Glitz girls

Anna had set up a photo booth, I was able to taken this one of my buddies on the Friday night, there are more to follow.

I had such a great time, and learnt loads.  Thanks everyone for making it a great weekend and special thanks to Rachael E (great to see you again - as usual) and Carol as well as Sam and Sheena for being my table buddies - love to all.

 View from the front of the hotel early Sunday morning.

SJ Papercraft Blog Challenge No. 9 - School

Over on SJ Papercraft blog the latest challenge is up and you can find all the information here .  As the challenge was to produce a layout/card on the subject of school/learning I did this layout.  Photo of James on his 1st day in Year 10

Products used - Studio Calico Yearbook Collection

And a few close ups - the added extra was to use scallops - so I added a scalloped piece to the bottom.

Of course, my layout would be the same without some Studio Calico wood veneer.

and a cameo die cut and the new Studio Calico number paper clips

Thanks for stopping by...

And the winner is ...

Oh my ... this is what happens when your laptop is down and your emails is not working,  you forget to blog hop on a daily basis.  But I'm back online and checking in on all my regular blogs and came across this ...


here 


yeah!!!! I've won the 6x6 blog challenge on SJ Papercraft blog.


This is my entry

and you can find the details here


Thanks everyone at SJ Papercrafts for your votes, much appreciated.

Scrap 365 blog - Shake it Up Recipe - Oct 2012

Over on Scrap365 blog they have introduced a new challenge called 'Shake ip Up' you can find the details here.  So trying to get back into the swing of things I decided to give it a go, and here is my attempt.

So I've ticked all the boxes with this challenge, 

I also added a stamped image - something I hadn't done for a long time on my layout.

Then instead of adding a title, I just added these wood veneer speech bubbles from Studio Calico to the layout.

Thanks for stopping by.

Top 3 - SJ Papercrafts - Blog challenge

Yeah! I've just been going through my blog reader and noticed that I've been choosen as a top 3 winner over at SJ Crafts here

This is my layout

You can find all the details here

Again I would like to thank the girls on the DT for choosing my layout as one of their 'Top 3'.

I've been scrapping but for some reason, I've been finding it hard to upload here, maybe it the fact the 'blogger' has changed the format and it is taking me a little bit longer to work me way round the system, but I'm trying to get back into it and update regularly. 

This one uses a cameo die cut from Studio Calico and documents the fact that James is growing a 'tashe' I can't see that I hadn't noticed it before because I had, but whilst we were having "a catch-up with our day' time I looked at him and it just dawned on me how noticeable it was, boy hes growing up so quickly. 

Products: Studio Calico August 2012 kit

cameo dies - arrow background, arrows and awesome

Use a Studio Calico stamp set and journalled on the tag

Moreton Quay - I love this photo so you might see it again on anther layout (yes, I have no qualms about scrapping a photo more than once).  This was the sight that greeted me when I was waiting for a boat to take me seal watching in April, the morning was just perfect.

Last week I got some of the new Amy Tangerine 'Ready Set Go' collection from Sarah's Cards , and I was itching to cut into it and make a layout.  So here is my first layout

Layout - On target - using a photo of J & J playing a target game on the beach, a simple game but loads of fun

and the final one for today is using several photos of our recent visit to Liverpool.

Superbananalamb - that a around the city again using a tag with hidden journalling  at the side of the photos.  

Thanks for stopping by, 

Project Life - August 2012

I've finally got around to uploading my August pages, as mentioned if I think I need to add more page protectors I do, so this month with a week spent in Norfolk and a day in Liverpool, I've managed to add extra pages, so here goes, again I've mainly used my Studio Calico August 2012 kit



Side 1 - finally taking my weave out and going 'au natual', getting James passport approved after several attempts, flat tyre

Finding a cricket on the roof of our car, getting my Studio Calico kit very late in the month - that I thought it had been lost - lol, storm cloud moving in, finding James's pram in the roof of the garage, our cinema trips, and the impression of a bird that had flown into the conservatory window.

Our week in Norfolk, starting with the town's annual carnival, complete with town cryers and marching bands

and the town people all taking part on various floats.

our journal down, the launching of the lifeboat, 

Beach fun, visiting Priory Maze

The cottage we said in, James and I enjoying some Norfolk ice-cream and a stroll along the prom one evening.

Then our day trip to Liverpool,  I added a different sized page protector here and typed my journalling so that I could add more words.  I also added the names to each photo, so that when you read the journalling it co-ordinates with the photos.

 So that was my month of August, come back soon to see some layouts.