Inspired Retreat

I've just come back from an amazing weekend.  I've been at a luxury scrapbooking weekend at Crabwell Manor with my lovely friend Gwyneth.  Inspired Retreat organised by Michelle Grant was totally tremendous.  A luxury venue, top class teachers, 2 great stash shops (Scrapshed and Bellaboo) and lots of extra little treats.

Gwyneth and I even slept in style, in a suite.  There were 2 magazines and a chocolate bar waiting on the bed as a welcome gift - very sweet.  The room was huge, although as normal at a retreat I spent very little time in there!

 

There was a great mixture of classes and lots to take away and finish.  When I finish some I'll post them on here.  We did pop-ups with Karen Burniston - that girl has a fabulous brain, got arty with Dina Wakely - woo hoo it's been a while since I got that inky, looked at things in a different way with Emma Trout - I now hate you as everything I do will take that much longer!, did a fabulous project with Lida de Witte - thank you for the flowers and a layout and a minibook with Lance - super fast style and very amusing.  I also did the extra Friday class with Monique - I've never seen a kit so beautifully put together and so much in it. 

I went with a great friend, made some new friends and met up with some old ones.  So mix that in with some paper and glue and a girl can't help but have a fabulous weekend.

Will I go to the next one?  Oh yes - I've already sent my form in :)

Birthday Boy

It's Stevies birthday this week, so although I won't see him as we're both working away, I did make him a card and left him a bottle of champagne.  We go skiing soon, so we'll celebrate on the slopes.
I'm also entering the card into this weeks Quixotic Challenge, which is one for the boys.

Stitches

The whirlwind of Stitches - the UK trade show for craft - is now over and I'm back in the office.  The show went really well but I did have some help from Peter Rabbit.

The stand looked great and everyone on the stand worked really hard.  We also picked up several Crafts Beautiful awards for Best Website, Toolbox Essential, Best General Craft Gadget and Best Character Range for Popcorn, there were lots of certificates to pick up!  We also won  'Best Crafting Website' award, and also came runner up in the Best Character Range for Popcorn the Bear, in the awards organised by Origin Publishing.  A big thank you to everyone that voted for us. 

Strictly Come Dancing

Wow, wow, wow!!  I had a fabulous time at the Live show of Strictly Come Dancing.  It was everything I hoped it would be and so much more.  As well as spectacular dancing it was such a fun show too.  My favourite male professionals were there, Darren Bennett, Matthew Cutler and Ian Waite.  However it was Brian Fortuna that completely won me over.  That boy has so much charisma when he's on the dance floor.  The ladies were fabulous too, with my favourites being Lillia and Christina.

I know they're not the best photos but it gives you a flavour of the evening.  The dance floor was huge and all the dancers did a great job of covering the floor.  Bruno wins the funniest moment of the night when he fell off his chair!

We're hoping to make this an annual event as we all had a great evening.

Headless Chicken!

It's going to be one of those crazy days.  We need to get the van packed for Stitches as we're leaving first thing in the morning.  But we'll be leaving early today too as a few of us are off the see Strictly Come Dancing.  I'm so excited as I love the show and adore watching any kind of dancing.
So in preparation for this manic day I made a few cards last night.  There 's nothing more relaxing than playing with paper and glue and taking part in some card challenges.
First there's the Quixotic Challenge on which the challenge was Something For Mum.  So I thought I'd get organised and make one of the 3 Mother's Day cards I need to make. 

The papers are Bo Bunny, I love pink and brown together, so gentle and warm.

Next up is the BasicGrey Challenge.  I love card sketches and here's my take on it.

I couldn't decide which paper to use so used 6 of them.

Over at A Spoon Full of Sugar this weeks challenge is Spring is in the Air.

I love the little birdie sitting on a stamped swirl branch.

I'm off to pack the samples for our stand now :)

Beatrix Potter Launch Day

Woo hoo, I love being in the office on launch day.  There's such a buzz about the place.  All the final preparations have been made and Sara and Leann are off to the TV studios for the launch show at 9pm tonight.
With the help of 2 of design team (thanks Jacqui and Debbie) we finished the display boards at silly o'clock last night.  I had been out for dinner first, so don't feel too sorry for me!

So in anticipation of the launch here's a couple more cards to share.  I love simple cards and both of these fall into that category.

I love this backing paper on the Tom Kitten card.  It's printed directly onto snow white pearlescent card stock to make the base card.  The panels are form the sentiments section and just inked and then popped onto some punched oval scallops.

Mrs Tiggy-winkle is adorable and these delicate backing papers and the simplicity of the card suit her so well.

Beatrix Potter - Sneak Peak 2

I've had some more fun with the new Beatrix Potter products from Crafter's Companion.  This time I made a set of 6 Thank You cards with matching envelopes (look at Peter Rabbit on the envelopes - he's adorable) and a gift box.  I love making sets and giving them away as presents.

It's satisfying to make too, as I cut all the parts out and then just popped them together.  The little frame is cut with the Slice.

The bows are made from paper!  You make them the same way you would with ribbon.  Make a loop and attach the ends to each other and tie around a button to pinch the bow in the middle.

Zing went the strings of my heart

This is the song that brought a skip to my step when I was out for a walk this afternoon and how fitting for Valentine's Day.

I was a lucky girl today and for Valentine's I got some perfume with maching body lotion - Hugo Boss Femme.  Steve was equally lucky with his gift, a box full of mini Green & Blacks Butterscotch chocolate.  It might stop him stealing mine!

The box was made from the utterly gorgeous Bo Bunny Love Bandit papers as were the matching card and envelobox.  I just love the way the shaped card gave a great shape to the lid of the box.  Also the messages on the panels of the card are just too cute and made Steve smile.

The challenges on Cute Card Thursday and Daring Cardmakers this week were a love themed creation, so my little trio fitted the bill.

Beatrix Potter Launch - Sneak Peek

Yay - Beatrix Potter from Crafter's Companion launch day is nearly here.  I've known about this for a while but had to keep it a secret until now.  I can't say what exactly is launching but I can tell you it's totally gorgeous. 
This card is my first sneak peek of what's to come.
I love it all, it's so gentle and elegant.  I accented the frame with glossy accents to make it really pop and give it even more dimension.
To find out more about the launch pop over to Crafters Companion or tune into the launch show on Ideal World on Tuesday 16th at 9.00 pm.

In the pink

As well as getting back to blogging I thought I'd try and take part in a card challenge every now and again. 

The difficulty is which one as there's lots to choose from.  This week I decided to take part in the Moxie Fab World - Tuesday Trigger  I just loved all the pink and loveliness of it all.  The flash of black velvet ribbon on the card comes from the black of the cabinet in the trigger. 

The paper is SEI Lovebirds collection.  The stamps were borrowed from my lovely friend Anna.  As for the flowers, if you look very closely at the white flower you can see it's glittery.  So how do you make glittery flowers without warping the paper?  Just a quick blast of Spray and Sparkle Silver - glitter in a spray can.

I wonder what I'll be glittering next!  I'd give the car a coat but that would be an awful lot of cans!

Is it wrong?

So is it wrong to nearly buy a top just because it would match the colours on your blog?  I got as far as trying it on but it didn't look as good as it did on the hanger so I left it at the changing room door.


The pretty design on my blog is from DCWV - a big thank you to the lovely Michelle for showing me their 300DPI digital range at CHA.  I did my first ever digital layout and even with lots of her help it was a challenge!  So I'll be sticking with real paper and glue for now.  Blogging is enough technology for me.  So saying that I'm rather pleased with myself that I've managed to "re-decorate" my blog.  They've got a $5 saving if you spend $10 or more in their digital shop at the moment.  Let me know in the comments if you want the voucher code.

I'm Back!!

I've decided it's time for me to start blogging again!  I'm not sure where I think I'll get the time from but I figure it's worth a try.  So what have I been up to since May 2008:
Lost 2 1/2 stone
Been to CHA Florida and Anahiem
Been on holiday to the South of France x 2
Been dancing with Big Pete and Julie in Toulouse
Had 2 great skiing holidays in Morzine
Had lots of new product launches at work including the Flower Fairies and Popcorn the Bear
Been to visit lots of friends
Spent Christmas with our lovely families
Made lots of cards and the odd scrapbook page
Laughed lots and generally had too much fun

I'll be back with some crafty bits and pieces very soon