The Chatsworth hotel was such a lovely venue to host her first retreat( first of many I hope!), it sits smack bang on the seafront at Eastbourne and we all had a lovely view and wonderful weather....we really were spoilt all round!
The following picture was stolen....er I mean *borrowed* from the ever so lovely Zoe's blog ( she is one SERIOUSLY talented lady....such a shame...she doesn't like sprouts mwahahahaaa!)
I stupidly forgot to take along my camera ( and I call myself a scrapper....pah!!) so I guess I shall be trawling the other ladies blog and borrowing pics from them too he!he!he! ;)
There were lots of classes going on over the weekend, including both scrapping AND cardmaking, Jill's daughter Angie taught 2 absolutely stunning classes designed by Karen Burniston, this was no easy job let me tell you, one of the classes was 4 hrs long and the other was 3 hrs, both were very detailed and Angie was amazing....I think the ladies who were in her classes were very lucky.
Zoe Pierson taught some absolutely scrumptious cardmaking classes, check out her blog for some total inspiration! And on top of that she made me laugh ALL weekend....I thought I was going to have to buy shares in Tena lady!!! Thank you Zoe if you read this.xx
Jane Gill also taught some beautiful card classes, with stamping and also exquisite punch art flowers, she is one talented lady.
I was lucky enough to join in on a couple of classes, this one entitled Truly Madly Deeply was one of S-J's . I have known Sarah Jane for a few years now but have not been lucky enough to take one of her classes....until now. And let me tell you, it was a real pleasure, she is such a lovely, gentle soul and a great teacher....I thoroughly enjoyed myself and i really LOVE my layout, which has pride of place in the lounge on a stand at the moment :)
We had a fab kit to work with that was filled with lush products, I just added a few bits of bling and some stitching.
I also sat in a class with Laura She too is an absolute Sweetheart and is brimming over with enthusiasm and encouragement and she just made me want to get into my stash later on at home and just let loose with lots and lots of things and not try to be frugal but really let go and 'use it or lose it'. Unfortuantely I cannot show you my layout from Laura's class as its a LOT of miles away from me at the mo lol, but I will def blog it when I get it back :)
There were a few challenges over the weekend....one of them being to create a name badge....using the theme of the seaside. So here is my badge lol, its actually quite large....and heavy, so I only wore it on the friday( when it then left 2 rather large holes in my t-shirt!!)and from then on it sat either on a desk or back in my bag lol. there really were some wonderful creations made, i wish I had my camera to have taken some shots.
Over the weekend I hosted some make and takes and thankfully they seemed quite popular :) ( thank you to all the ladies who made me feel wanted lol)
these were some of the earrings i made for make and takes using Basic Grey brads, this seemed to be a popular M&T and I had some lovely feedback from it ( thank you ladies)
dont'cha just luuuuurve the pink zebra/bark looking ones!
I also held some M & T's to make bag charms and the ladies made some beautiful ones which i think they were pleased with( they were certainly beavering away around the tables)
My lovely and talented friends Linda and Lynn were both hosting make and takes too and made some delicious cards and cup cake gift boxes using the Cricut and Cuttlebug