Scrap Retreat

This year I finally plucked up the courage to attend the Merly Impressions retreat ... and I am so glad!  Despite the journey on 3 motorways including the M25 I survived and loved every minute of my time at Wyboston Lakes.  A great venue, great people, amazing kits and a host of ardent scrapbookers.  

It's hard to capture the thrill of it all in a single blog post so I am condensing it with a collage photo to sum it up. I was pleased to be in a smaller room with a wonderful group of people ... scary enough to meet strangers but so much easier when there aren't to many at one time.  Our wonderful desk space with such prettily packaged kits and extras. An endless supply of drinks, biscuits and sweets was a very pleasant surprise and scrapping with wine was a new experience for me ... AND there were no accidents with sharp blades under the influence!

I applied myself to the stitching and fussy cutting which was a whole new experience for me.  At the start I thought I would never stitch or cut again as I found it very slow and tedious.  However, as time passed I improved and actually found it quite soothing to lose myself in the activity.  I opted for the layout option rather than including the Beyond The Page projects and I am so glad I did not stretch myself too thin.  I had not expected to be as slow as I was but I absorbed myself and enjoyed creating layouts outside of my comfort zone.

All the collections were from Kaisercraft which can be purchased from Merly Impressions. They are devine designs and I was very reluctant to cut them, but needs must ...

I diligently worked through the layouts, but despite staying up until 1am I still only managed to complete three and a half while I was there.  Today I have finished the fourth and thought it was worth posting.  

So here goes ...

My first layout which perhaps should not have been my first ... and a few close ups

 I'm not used to scrapping without journaling but the Collectables provided plenty of sentiments which gave the same message that journaling would.  This isn't something that will always work for me but for people who don't like journaling it's the perfect solution. I couldn't quite depart from my 'norm' and still had to have a title so was thankful that I had taken my own.  A slight spillage of clear gloss resulted in a thicker dollop but it didn't spoil the over all effect.

2nd layout ... and more stitching!  Never been so distressed ... oops that came out wrong ... I've never done so much distressing!!

And now for the third ... more stitching and fussy cutting but this wasn't quite to plan as my photo was too large and it isn't quite to proportion but I still like it.

Once again the collectables captured the sentiments.  I seem to have trouble photographing the layouts without getting the floor in too but you get the general idea. And now for the fourth which I completed this morning.  

Once again not in keeping with the scale in the instructions but a chance to scrap the most amazing experience. I used the 'what a day' sentiment from the Mr Fox collection as it summed up perfectly what an incredible, awesome and amazing day it was!

If you've managed to make it this far with looking at all the pictures ... Thank You!  And I hope to post my final layout when I've done it (aiming the end of the week now I'm on a roll)  That gives you warning not to pop back too soon if you've had enough ... hee hee!