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Monday 14 June 2010

Time Flies

Well, after an extremely busy week, I'm here to report back on our mini Retreat near Bedford. I went with my fellow bloggers from http://craftstampingquartet.blogspot.com/ Elaine, Jo and Lesley. We hired two adjoining apartments on a farm near Bedford, and spent a few days together just chatting and crafting. The accomodation was excellent, as we had two large tables, which meant that we coukd split up and work on our circle journals, or leave one table cluttered with craft stuff, and eat on the other one! We also booked a day class at LB Crafts with Linda Elbourne, and had a fabulous time with her, and then browsed around the shop afterwards. We may have made one or two purchases as well! I have almost finished my project from the class, and will post a picture of that when I have, as it is gorgeous.
While we were on the Retreat, we taught each other a few bits and pieces, and tried to work on some projects as well as our journals. Some projects were finished, and some things have been saved for next time, too much chatting I think! I showed the girls how to attach beading to Stampboard with jump rings and headpins. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of their projects, but here is one of mine. I have used Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord DIs on the stampboard, and then used a Lavinia stamp with Imperial Purple Versafine Ink. I have then atached an assortment of toning beads, finishing off with a pretty toggle clasp at the back.







I managed to get two lots of circle journal pages finished, first Elaines, based on a Secret Garden theme, as she is a nature lover at heart. I used a gorgeous green paper from a K & Co pad as my base. I made a handmade flower with book pages, and stamped a door with a Crafty Individuals stamp, placing another CI image behind of ferns and flowers. I used  larger versions of the ferns and flowers to stamp around the edges of the pages from an Elusive Images set of stamps. I used the words Secret Garden from the new Paper Artsy Hot Picks Stamp set. I used various Tim Holtz ideology pieces to finish off my pages.Apologies about the background of my photo, we worked in a right mess while we were there!
For Jo's pages, I went for a Venetian theme; we both share a love of Venice, and Italy in general. I used some Darkroom Door stamps as the basis of my design, and wanted to include mosaics in my design. I painted some Terra onto the top half of one of my pages, and brushed wild honey over the top, to give a plaster effect to the page. Lesley very kindly donated the perfect colour mosaics for me. Again, I made some handmade flowers with Italian newspaper this time! I used one of Jo's own masks to make the background for the second page by inking through with Wild Honey DI. I made these pages with a migraine, and really struggled to pull them together, but page number two with the mask went better than page number one, and I think that it shows. I used the word for 'friend' in Italian, a little ticket, and a motivational Crafty Individuals stamp to finish everything off.
We had a lovely time together, and are already in agreement that we must go again. We think that we need a month next time to get everything done...I'll be back soon with more bits and pieces to show you, Judith xx

9 comments:

G Peplow said...

How busy were you:) Lovely creations all of them. Sounds like you all had a fabulous time xx

Aquarius said...

Your retreat was obviously a great success - some lovely items made and more to come I'm sure.

craftimamma said...

Oooh wasn't it a lovely time (apart from your poor head)! As you can see Blogger is behaving itself now so I can comment.

It still think I like the page with the Venice scene best and no one but me (who shared your workspace) would guess how poorly you were. I just love that scene and the texture on the page.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Phree said...

Your necklace is beautiful, love the soft smudgy tones of the inking.

Jo said...

How proud I am to own the beautiful Venice pages now! And it's nice to see the Secret Garden pages again after watching you put them together. Such lovingly crafted pieces, Judith. Looking forward to sharing our completed journals and planning our next crafty jaunt.

Elaine said...

Judith
I cannot say just how proud I am to have these pages you made me - you know how important my own secret garden is to me and ferns are one of my favourite plants - just perfect.

We did have the best time didn't we (apart from your beastly headache). It was so lovely being together - we were so lucky to find that accomodation (I think we better keep it's location our secret!) and really hope we can all get together there again before too long. We might just be less ambitious with how much we plan to do!! We forgot to allow for the amount of talking and eating we needed to do!!

Thanks so much again.

Elaine xx

Anne Essex said...

Wow, you have been busy making some lovely things. I must try to leaf backgrounds they are amazing. x

Anne said...

What a wonderful idea your retreat was, lovely projects and lovely memories too :)

Lynne K said...

Wow, what fabulous projects! I love the necklace. You must all have had a wonderful time on your retreat.

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