Spring Retreat

Last Saturday I hosted my very first luxury Stampin' Up! craft retreat. I spent four months planning and preparing for it and I was so excited by the time the day arrived.

I came across the venue, Ye Olde Bell hotel in Barnby Moor almost by accident when I met some friends there for a meal. Its right round the corner from me but I hadn't had a reason to ever go there before. As soon as I walked in I knew it was the perfect place to stamp with friends in a beautiful place. I have to giggle but it was the ladies loos that really did it for me!! I fell in love with the opulence of chandeliers, massive gilt framed mirrors and leather armchairs....in the loos!
Anyway, back to the crafting. I planned three projects for the day. I wanted to offer some home decor, a memory keeping project and a card making based item.  I need to thank my mentor and wonderful friend Monica Gayle for the home decor project and the idea for the box in the card making class.
I had ladies from Leeds, Selby and Retford, most had attended classes with me previously but they hadn't all met each other before.  So,  after a quick introduction and some coffee and Danish pastries we all took our places ready

for the first project class.

First up was home decor, a cone full of flowers to hang on a wall. All the ladies loved this project. Using the Bigz die Bouquet each flower was cut, stamped, crushed and assembled. We all got good and sticky with hot glue guns but we all had fun.
While we were all working on this project we were served hot drinks and delicious home made shortbread.
We worked on the flower cone all morning and then lunch was served ... And wowee what a lunch! Classed as a ploughman's lunch we were served home cooked chips, mustard baked ham, pork pies, salad, pickles and hunks of home made bread!

After lunch it was all about memory keeping and the project I chose for this class was an explosion box.

I utterly love these and I have some of my own wedding photos in one. Throughout the day we used Painted Petals DSP and this box was a BlackBerry Bliss and Blushing Bride coordinating theme. Also using the Bouquet Bigz die to make two flowers which adorned the top and inside the box.  I'm in love with the Artisan Embellishments kit from the summer occasions catalogue, throughout the day we used items from this kit on all the projects. Everyone commented on how much they loved the kit too.

After more refreshments and freshly baked scones with jam and cream ....I know! I Need a detox weekend now ;-) the last project for the day was a box of cards. Using the empty box from the Artisan Embellishments kit we turned it into a handled box to store four gift cards in. Everyone got a stamp set 'Choose Happiness' and this was used on the cards and box and also on the explosion box.
It was sad to close the day as we had all had such fun but I went home with a happy heart and a head full of plans for the next one!  Thank you to all the lovely ladies who attended and made the day such a success. It was a dream realised for me.