Little things

Sometimes when you attend an event like a scrapbooking reteat, we are so excited about the whole prospect of scrapping uninterupted for a WHOLE WEEKEND that I forget how much my ladies appreciate the smaller details as well. I am always overwhelmed with gratitute and emotion by the end of the weekend with so many beautiful ladies thanking me and noticing the little things.  Being amongst kind and caring people is an absolute pleasure, and there are so many little things done by so many that make our weekend together wonderful.

We had 50 metres of bunting made from fabric, and a further 50 metres made from doilies. For the fabric bunting , Emily and I just used pinking shears to cut triangles then ran them up on a ribbon using the sewing machine.
The doily bunting was really easy but I didn’t even take a photo, (what kind of scrapbooker do I think I am?) but all we did was fold and tape a doily in half over a ribbon, we used 2 sizes and they looked  so sweet. Sorry I don’t have a photo. Probably shouldn’t have even mentioned it.

These old jars made great tea light holders, I glued string around the middles and Andrew fashioned handles from some wire he had in the shed. They have previously hung in our old gum trees at home for a birthday party and looked  celestial. They were great at retreat, lining our outdoor area, where we swapped out all the regular candles for citronella candles to beat the mozzies back.

Banner toothpicks, who has time to do this I ask you? You know… I even forgot to put these out on the day…. we found a boxful of them when we were packing up. So forgetful!

I am very proud of these little teabags in pockets. So cute! On each side of the hanging tab I put an image and the pockets had images too. Took me forever to get the template just right and resize the images to fit. I added prima flowers to the front of each packet when they were all sealed up and inked inked inked. You know me – add Brushed Corduroy to everything! Once I started you know… you just have to ink everything. I was beginning to think I had gone a little mad by the end of it.

I forgot to take photos of lots of things, but I remember Sharon ordered in these gorgeous little charms, they matched our theme perfectly and she hung them on the ladies gift-bags.. so sweet!
Mel used hers on her layout, so I’ve cropped a picture of them.

Another cupcake topper. This one was printed in a circle and then was cut out with the Cuttlebug scallop circle die. Cute.

Do you like the font? We like to have name tags for our ladies each year, it helps for the newbies. Last year we did fancy ones in French theme, so I figured we could give this a go again in the Disney Alice in Wonderland Font. The Scrapbook House is Disney, and the name is Alice In Wonderland. A bit of overlapping and resizing (do NOT ask how long I wasted on these), but all for a good cause…  like I said, the little things. I am just glad it was noticed on the day. I love listening to people get their bags and give a quiet little “Oh, that’s cute” or watch their smiles as they read the signs on the wall printed up with Alice in Wonderland quotes (rotated by Sharon throughout the weekend) A few even used them on layouts and most wanted to keep them. Nice. 🙂

Heres’s the production line in progress making bookmarks. It’s nice to have little momentos to keep after the weekend is long gone.

These top hat boxes were made by Jo.. and if that wasn’t a treat enough, she put macarons (that she made from scratch – the best macaron chef I know) inside each one. That’s a LOT of macarons, and a lot of boxes to make for everyone.

These lolly jars were my favourite gifts though… (well, actually that’s a lie, because the tea cups actually are my favourite retreat item) but they are pretty cute! We filled each jar with lollies, added a little tag with string then lined them up for the ladies to choose their favourites. Mine was empty before the first night, but I still have the jar on my shelf.

It’s the little things… that make it really nice. Fairy lights and pictures help too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of the “little things”… now to start planning our next retreat for October… I don’t think we can top this. I had better get the brain in gear.

Have a  great day

 

 

Retreat Scrapbook Challenge Pack

As well as having a great time dressing up we do actually spend most of our time scrapbooking and paper crafting at our Scrapbook Retreats. So, I thought I’d share some of the pages that were completed over the retreat weekend.

Here are some of the “Challenge Pack” layouts from over the weekend.

Let’s see what they can come up with these little treats in the challenge pack – VERY challenging. 🙂

To be used in any way we like (We’re not too strict, challenges are just for fun, not sheep stations) I made this little printout using elements from The Graphics Fairy

 

I can’t remember who won and I was sure there were more… but they all did a terrific job don’t you think?

Have a great day!

We’re all Mad Here

Scrapbooking in Wonderland was such a treat.. we disappeared down the rabbit hole and into a world where it is always tea time.
This is a photo-heavy post – enjoy 🙂

We made some cute things too… like these little tea bags, bookmarks and labels. A treat for our ladies when they arrived, each received a bag with scrappy goodies and also a tea cup each – how sweet!

On arrival we were given our gifts and scrapbooking challenges were revealed.

Our bunting for inside was made from doilies and outside was fabric. Jo made some gorgeous little top hat boxes and macarons inside too! So lovely.

We had plenty of decorations, oh what fun!

 

 

and this cartoon board painted by Emily and her friends was a hit too.

 

Soon we settled in to scrap… and we were scrapping up a storm! We may or may not have had enough sleep… but it sure was nice to scrap scrap scrap.

We found time to go shopping… (pi’s definitely allowed!)  at our favourite scrapbook store to stock up on supplies and see all the new and special things for retreat attendees.

And on Saturday night we all got a little silly.

 

Here’s Bronwyn and  myself all dressed up. Thanks to my gorgeous friend Ruth for getting me this costume from her friend. I am so grateful! It looked the part.

 

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee

Alice and Alice in Wonderland

Mad Hatter – we sure had fun with this theme. Love you E!

 

Another Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

More madness! Just love these costumes… I hope I haven’t overloaded you with photographs yet… there’s more to come!

 

We have a Talking Flower, a Queen of Hearts, Queen’s Soldier and Alice (love those shoes!)

 

 

Then we have hotty Mad Hatter too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the Queen of Hearts – how wonderful are these ladies?

So are you tired of photos yet?

Our dinner was fabulous, Raelene always looks after us so very well. And always makes me cry with her generosity, she gives us her all. She is the best! We love you Raelene and David.

Here is where we dined… gorgeous fairy lights (thank you to our beautiful family and friends for all the help setting up and packing up )

Raelene surprised me with this incredible cake – she is so awesome. xx

 

It was a triple layer cake with 3 flavours… so wonderful. Then we all dug in for sweets and treats.

 

I think I have made up for all the posts I didn’t do last year for retreat. I hope you enjoyed the photos. I will leave you with this last one…

Night xxx

 

What? No retreat blogpost?

How did that happen? Last night we decided on our retreat theme for 2014, guess what we have this year? Lots of decorating and dress up opportunities!

I was inspired to get into retreat decorating and organising mode again, so I thought to look back and see what I wrote about 2013 – and there was nothing! Oh dear! No photos, no story, nothing! We had a Mad Hatters Tea Party – and it was awesome, but I forgot to blog. November went by in a blur.. then I went on a family holiday for a week, then I guess Christmas happened.

So… I am going to go through the photos and do a late one… a very late one. Here’s a photo I nicked from our facebook page…

Crazy gals! More to come soon. So… any ideas what we might be having this year?

A weekend in Paris

In October I spent a weekend with 2 dozen ladies in Paris. Well, okay, it was actually outback Rural Western Australia, but a girl can pretend, right?

Our retreat was absolutely wonderful, a weekend of scrapbooking, chatting, eating and socialising. Arriving at the airport ( also known as the back verandah) travelers were met by the Air France flight attendants to check in. Each passenger needed to show their passport ( which they received on booking) to get their boarding pass, luggage tag and “barf bag”. There were a few who had trouble getting through customs and many who had excess luggage. Security only needed to be called for 2 unruly passengers who tried to get through with white powder in their possession. One snuck an animal in. Once they were checked in with their stamp, given a new French name and had their passport mug shots taken we all arrived in Paris to settle in to scrap.

Our room looked amazing, with thanks to all our helpers, very Parisian! Katie, Emily, Michelle and David, all here helping to decorate for an amazing weekend. Thye were up and down ladders, cutting and folding, hanging and sorting boxes of stuff, as well as the never ending shifting of tables and chairs to have it “just right”. Thank you. ♥

Each guest was given a French bag, with a few treats inside; some sweet to eat, some to scrap with. I handmade everyone a French lavender heat bag, and of course, the trusty tourist item – a magnet for the fridge.

Our displays looked fabulous with thanks to a scrapping friend of mine who isl also as over -the-top with her events as I am, thanks Ruth! Emily made the dress for the bodice, doesn’t it look amazing, that girl has serious talent!
How good does this lolly buffet look? Liz, my friend and collector of beautiful things loaned me some glass, and with Katie’s gorgeous glassware and the cutest little table it looked smashing! I am so lucky to know such fabulous people.
Our Saturday night dinner was lovely in the night air and the Eiffel Tower lit up the night as a great backdrop.

And of course we had plenty of dress ups!

In between all this fun and food, we scrapped the days and nights away! One weekend went very quickly! We also had a wonderful menu, with the French flair continuing here too, I might have to share more on another day as this post is getting too long ( the reason it took so long for me to post in the first place) I’d also love to share the scrapbooking side of our retreat too, so hopefully it doesn’t take me to so long to get back into blogging again.

I know this post is heavy with photographs, I have so many! If you’d like to see more, be sure to click on our Facebook page, there are plenty there! Ill be back another day with some scrappy retreat stuff to share.

Be good to one another.

Scrapbook retreats – past and present

Passports are issued for our retreat attendees who will be spending next weekend in Paris (also known as Moonyoonooka out the back of Geraldton, Western Australia)

Boarding passes are at the ready too, along with luggage tags. I love all these little home-made touches, time consuming, but worth it. I am one to keep my mementos, but rarely do something with them so have decided to make a scrapbook page “before the event” that has a place for these things as well as some photos. We all know that we take plenty of photos at our retreats! We have had such awesome themes, this year I thought we’d do the page “at” retreat and it would be sure to be done. The theme is “French” I wonder what everyone is dressing up as…
Our first retreat was back in 2003, I think the next year the theme was “Pink”, but I don’t even have the photos on my current digital media, that how long ago it was! Another year we did “masks”, I love how creative everyone is with their dress ups.
Last year we had 4 teams in colours… Red, green, blue and yellow. Have I scrapped these photo yet? Umm…no.

Then in 2010 we had the Black and White theme, with all manner of extremes…. Have I scrapped these photos? Umm… not yet.

2009 was “60’s” and the rock and roll came out!

In 2008 there was a Wedding. Oh that was so much fun! I think 2008 was my favourite retreat.

And who could forget the “Cricuts” – the best live performance I have ever seen!

Back in 2007 we had a Cowboy and Indian theme.

In 2006 we had a Gitz and Glam Gala Night.

Every year the retreat is a fun weekend, and always interesting! Many inspiring layouts are completed, new friends are made and laughs shared.
I wonder what this year will bring? Looking forward to it!

Ooh la la

I have been making these for our retreat…

Some turned out good, some not so.. I guess I need a bit more practice .
The original idea came from Martha Stewarts tutorial, where you fold 8 sheets of tissue in a concertina style, (about an inch and a half wide) and tie it up in the middle. I used string on one, fishing line on the others.
Dad was like “Pfftt, that’s a 25lb line…”,
I was cluelessly like… “So?”
Haha, anyway, whatever you like to tie it with, the tissue is super light so it doesn’t need to be super strong.
Fold it all up, the round the ends ( optional, but will look WAY better if you do), then pull each layer out GENTLY! If you are heavy handed or have very little patience, then give this job to someone else.

Now I need my to go see my friends at Jackson’s Art to get some more tissue to make some more! Swung past today after work, but they were closed already, looks like a job for next weekend… Anyone wanna help?

Retreat 2011

A couple of weeks ago I spent a whole weekend with 25 amazing funny creative fun-loving crafty women at our yearly retreat at Golden Pond. Raelene and David  at Golden Pond Retreat cared for us and kept up the food and treats and put up with our noise and banter!

For some the enjoyment began earlier with lunch in town and being driven around in a limo wreaking havoc on the citizens of 0ur town. Kaye arrived by plane and was greeted by her ‘fan club’ at the airport with a banner causing much amusement from other passengers wondering just “who” she might have been? Someone famous maybe? What a laugh. I wish I was there to meet her too. They arrived at Golden Pond Retreat with hooters blaring and ready for a weekend of girly fun.
After arrival we got  into our teams to introduce each other and learn a few things they have in common.
We had 4 teams  The Yellows, The Reds,The Blues and The Greens. Teams each had challenges, like creating a page in their colours and gaining points throughout the weekend.

 Soon we settled into some serious scrap time.

 Here is one of my pages (there were so few)

Along with all the scrapping and chatting there seemed to be a couple of tricksters amongst us and they were armed with Glad Wrap and alarm clocks, but the ‘tricked’ soon showed their revenge and showcased some sewing talents (sewing a ‘trickster’s’ bag shut) and there were laughs all round. It was fun to watch, but most of us were very careful not to get involved.

 Saturday night we had our team fun and the dress up challenges brought us out of our comfort zone… way out! We had rhymes, and performances too… even butt showing. It was all in the fun of it. Wow, didn’t these girls all look amazing? See what I mean? Talented and creative! So inspiring.

 

Just walking around the tables was a treat, to see what everyone was up to, and having a chat along the way and I think everyone learned something new, I know I was inspired to learn a new way to make flowers from my old “has-been” flowers. The layouts created were fabulous… and I can’t blogpost all of them, but you can zip over to the facebook page and I will have more layouts there (should be a link on the right – or go to www.facebook.com/scrapbookhouse) and look under the photos.. then go to retreat 2011.

Queen of the crop went to Alison with her gorgeous “An apple a Day” layout. There was a super amount of work there to choose from, and there were many pages on display. I photographed about 30 of them, mostly just the first and will post in the facebook album if you want to swing by and take a look – be sure to leave a comment if you like them… or click the ‘like’ button. THere is one extra special layout there by Sandra… the monochrome single, classically simple not-over-the-top layout that you might just have to go see. This is the only layout Sandra did all weekend, and was her entry into Queen of the Crop… how it was not voted best overall is still beyond me and I have had requests for instructions and a class based on this layout. Go check it out in the retreat album www.facebook.com/scrapbookhouse 

Sunday was a realxing day with 3 lovely masseuses who came out for the day  to rub away any aches or pains. Bliss! There was a special lady who celebrated her  51st birthday too but she doesn’t look a day over 41. Happy birthday Jen. xx Some of us slept in, some were up early. I love that everyone is comfortable to do as they please and enjoy the weekend as much as they can… a weekend goes so fast!

 Some of us made new friends, many of us reaffirmed old ones… everyone had a good time.

Thanks ladies for the best weekend!