Scrapping Retreat

Popping in here just back from our annual weekend retreat! I have had such a fun time at the seaside. In fact, don't think I've laughed so much in ages. Of course, when I say ‘weekend', we actually stretch it to a 4 day extravaganza...... well with shopping, scrapping, fun and games - 2 days just wouldn't be enough!


We mainly chat, scrap, laugh and shop together but we are lucky enough to have some very talented ladies in our group so most years we call upon someone to do a class for us. The layout above was designed by Ali who demonstrated endless patience in teaching us nervous newbies about "messy scrapping" and the joys of spraying with abandon! It took me totally out of my comfort zone with scary amounts of inking and misting but I love the end result. It looks fabulous - thank you Ali :)

I was moderately productive by my standards ie I completed more than one layout! Here are some of my finished ones from the weekend (heck - who I am kidding - these are ALL my finished ones from the weekend!)

This one is a complete scraplift from a layout I saw in a magazine years ago. The original was in French so I am not sure who created it but I loved it so much that I hung on to the design to try out one day. Having a Cricut on hand at the retreat gave me the chance to finally cut a gorgeous tree shape and have a go. Can you tell - I am now a Cricut Convert?!


This is a double layout using very very old papers. I am trying to be good at the moment and use up papers that I bought when I first started scrapping. This is no mean feat as some of them are very themed and very twee but the faux canvas / eyelet design of these papers actually worked quite well to get a bit of a nautical feel going.


And this is my layout from the "Mystery Kit" challenge. The lovely Gaye, who organises the retreat every year, brings us each a bundle of papers and embellishments to create a layout or anything we fancy. This year we were given the new Harvest Market papers by Lilybee. I used mine for the wedding layout above. Between us, we came up with a huge range of designs which you can pop to the Gotta Craft Shop Blog to see if you fancy :)

And finally there was Saturday night. Saturday night is always fun and themed. In previous years we've been pirates, we've been characters from Alice in Wonderland and some of us have even been Christmas cakes! Next year some of us may well be radishes or potatoes. But for this year, we were 50's themed and very glam!


Only 360 days to go now until the next one. I can't wait :)