Scrappers Paradise

What a fab weekend we had at Scrappers Paradise!! Lots of laughing, scrapping, cropping, learning, shopping, painting, getting messy and not so messy, cutting and sticking- a truly wonderful weekend!

Here's Natalie, just doing her final talk.

This is the crop room, where we cropped in between classes and late into the night! I only stayed Saturday night, but loads stayed Friday night as well. I stayed up till gone midnight (vvlate for me!!!) and there were quite a few still up!












Here's Alison, Natalie's partner in crime! They did a really good job of organisng the weekend. The classes ran like clockwork, everybody was where they should have been at the right time, no hanging about waiting for rooms to be ready or teachers being late. The only things that went wrong were the hotel's fault (like not having a room booked for Anna, and horrible cold food and cold coffee!!) In the end Natalie and Alison had to go and stay the night at another hotel!

This is in the crop room too. Look at the LOs on the wall. They were part of a challenge, 'Autumn Bling'. We were given a small kit (£5) when we got there, so we didn't know what was going to be in it, only the title. I entered 2 : Autumn Bling and The World Goes Round and Round.







Here are the helpers, Zoe and Nura. They were brilliant! They made sure we all had what we needed (and fetched more when we cut the papers wrong!!!), cleared away our rubbish, and were really helpful.


To the left of the pic is Tracey who also goes to the Crawley crop that I go to with Natalie, Zoe and Nura among others.




Here are Caroline, Lorna and Jackie. Lorna goes to my Brighton crop, and we sat together. She is so lovely! Friendly and interesting. (She has led a very interesting life, which makes for very interesting LOs!!!) She met Caroline and Jackie at a previous SP, and we sat with them in the crop room. I had a very interesting chat with Caroline on the Saturday evening. C and J have a huge scrap 'barn' for crops and have invited Lorna and myself up there next year!





Here's MJ and Maria (hiding behind her tote!) We were pointing our cameras at each other and I just managed this shot! MJ runs the Newbury crop that I have been to a few times, and came with Maria, Angela, Anna and Liz.

MJ's crop is still the best crop i have ever been to, and I just wish it was nearer! She has wonderful stash in her shop too, and is about to open an internet shop - watch this space!





Here we are in the classroom, being taught to decorate an MDF Chrsitmas tree by the wonderful Dyan Reaveley from Blonde Moments (www. blondemoments. org)
and her shop: Art from the Heart. She is a top teacher! I loved her paint effects class, in which we made inspiration cards.




















Here's Dyan in full flow!












Here are some of the goodies I made:












And here are the goodies I bought! (I really loved those mdf Christmas trees when i was in the shop, but now I've got them home, I am wondering why I bought them! Am I really going to get time to do them before Christmas???)

more photos

Blogger is playing up, and I have to go and make tea for DD and DN Izzy before they go to play volleyball. I was going to put up a few more photos, but yoy will have to be content with just these two!

Thsi is Merlin with 'Daddy's shoe'. DH leaves these horrible old trainers to go out in the garden in, and Merlin often takes them down the garden, it is his latest game! When you ask him 'Where's Daddy's shoe?' he knows exactly what you mean., and goes to lie down next to it!

cybercroppin'

Here are some of the LOs I did this weekend. First one is a photo of me when I was about 2!! My claim to fame was that it was in the photographers window for ages!























This one is roses at Mottisfont Garden. This LO uses the masking technique. The title is done by sticking letters down with non perm adhesive, then painting over the top, then peeling the letters off when the paint is dry. Not bad for a first time, can you imagine how messy it could be?













I love this one! As soon as I saw the class, I thought of this photo! It was taken in 1993 LOL. I've messed up the title a bit by trying to use white letters. They didn't show up, so I tried doodling and colouring them, oops!












This was taken a couple of weeks ago at Michelle's (DN) 18th birthday party. It is DD running off the bouncy castle, but I think it's a great photo!













I love cybercropping! I love the chat that goes with it - it makes you feel like you are not alone, and it is really interesting to look in the gallery and see everyone else's takes on the classes. Mine are all pretty close to the original class, becasue I really liked the classes this time.

Alexandra Palace

Here's my stash I bought! I spent about £90!!! I am feeling a little bit guilty now at the amount of money I am spending - maybe it's time to actually USE the stash, and not spend anymore!!!LOL

Anyway, Ally Pally is an awfully long way to go from here. I met Lorna on the train to Victoria, and then it was about 20 stops on the underground to Wood Green, AND THEN A BUS!!!!!! We finally got there about 11.45am, just about 3 hours after leaving home! Was it worth it? I am not sure. Yes, it is a brilliant show, and it is really nice to see everything in the flesh - but all that travel for such a short time there. I probably won't go again, but glad I went once.

On the way back we caught the bus, and were walking to Wood Green ug station, when we witnessed a bit of raod rage. A man jumped out of his car, with a hammer, and smashed the back windows of the other car!!!! Bit of a shock! Especially as we had crossed the raod just in front of them seconds before he did it! Another reason not to go again!! LOL

Look at my lovely stash though! I've been buying a few sb books lately, and absolutely love this Elsie Falnnigan book. I also bought a few minibooks (I should make my own much cheaper!!), and these great wooden letters to alter for LUCY for Xmas. I've asked Dad if he can make me Michelle and Isobel for my neices, so i can give them for Xmas. Also bought another cropper hopper paper folder, and have spent quite a bit of time sorting through pps and kits etc. (Must start using these kitsLOL) for the cyber crop on Ukscrappers over the next few weekends.

Might be busy then, using my stash!!!