Scrap retreat

On Friday Haylee & I joined Kylie for our trip to Penrith for the inaugural Dragonfly Scrapbooks retreat at Castlereagh Academy, which is on the site of the first Westleyan Church in Australia. Right behind the academy is the Lake that that was used for the Olympic rowing events. In fact the cabins we stayed in were the Olympic Village cabins.

We had a wonderful time over the weekend, meeting new people, eating good food, and just plain having fun.

My BIG task for the weekend was to run an OTP class. A few ladies had wanted to make the Kaiser Advent Calender so that's what we did. Over two 2 hour sessions each of the 7 wonderful ladies completed the putting together & painting of the box and also the covering of the 24 little boxes.

After the class most of the ladies continued to embellish their calenders. I am extremely proud of what all my ladies went home with and I know each one of them were very proud too.

I didn't expect to get to much scrapping done over the weekend as most of my time & energy was put into the class, so I took bits to make up a heap of cards, I did manage to complete one LO also but have not taken a photo of that so will show you when it is done. We were given a challenge kit, we could make anything we wanted with the PP, piece of card stock, ribbon, 4 flowers and 2 brads. We were allowed to add three elements. I made this little box from a piece of chipboard, some ink and dimensional magic.

Haylee & I also took Kristy's simple card class using a Kaiser 6X6' pack. There was a lot of cutting involved as we cut enough pieces out to make 24 cards but only made 6 cards during the class. The purple cards are the three I actually completed as I wanted to add something to the other 3 cards.

It was a fabulous weekend and I WILL be back next year. Maybe you would like to join us. It was a very reasonable price and possibly the most relaxed retreat I have been to. The food was good and I believe it will be even better next year.

Blogtoberfest day 28 - Recipe holder and other bits

Quite a few weeks ago now, when we had Jess & Kristy over for a scrap day, Kristy and I both made an altered recipe Holder. It was SO fiddly. Painting that scroll at the top and on the end of the legs took so long to do. BUT I am happy with the results and it looks great on display in my kitchen. I must say that I will NEVER do another recipe holder again.

here it is in use.

This little collection of dolls are mostly swap I have received over the years. The doll with the big bow on her head, Faith, was made for me by
Chrissy in my first doll swap - which was my 2nd ever swap in the craft forum. I made her a doll exactly like the shaker doll down the other end of the chair (which incidentally was my John's chair when he was a little tike). I can't remember whether the one I made her is Violet or Daisy - but whichever hers is called mine is called the other.

The purple doll, Sally, was made by Dawn in the forums paper bag swap. The bear I believe came in an advent swap by Hope and the Gold doll was made by Dianne in a Christmas in July swap.

This little collection of altered items (OTP's) is Haylee's monthly collection. Each month we alternate as to who has a display of their altered items. Its almost the end of October and I have not made anything for my November display. Better get a move on.

New Tutorial up

POp over to my tutorial blog for instructions on how to alter a tin. A great beginning altered item project AND you can use any tins you happen to have.

Some shares

Over the last few weeks I have done a little scrapping. I made a small canvas just like this one for a gift and one for me. I still have one canvas left to do & I am going to do that this week and share it on my Tutorial blog as my first project. But for now I have an upload over there on OTP tips. So pop over and have a little looksy.

I have also completed another 4 of my Wedding LO's. AS you can see my LO style is still very simple and I don't use a lot of journaling. Sometime the photo says it all.

I love this pic of Simone looking over my shoulder as I am signing the Marriage certificate saying "what ya doing Aunty Gail". I may add a little journaling to this one, not sure.

My mum just looked so lovely and very happy for me on my wedding day.

I felt I needed to journal on this one as the situation was quite funny and needed recording.

"When it came time to give away the bride Dad missed his cue and left us waiting for some time & then finally blurted out Oh I guess I do"

No further progress has been made on my Sparkling Gemstones quilt but I am hoping to get to it on my days off this week, so I should have some more pics later on.

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