LB CRAFTS / PAPER ARTSY Weekend

Gotta tell you all about my weekend... it was the BEST!!! WEEKEND EVER!!!!
Gabby and I booked up in October last year to go and do a workshop with Linda (of LB CRAFTS) and Leandra (of Paper Artsy) and this weekend the time arrived for us to go.
Oh joy and excitement, I was like a kid on Christmas morning.
I tore myself away from home (lol) and headed down the road with Gabby, didn't get far, had to return as I had left my glasses... how would I craft without them!
Anyway we hit the road, no traffic on the M25 or M1, SHOCK!!! we arrived in Olney just before 2 p.m.
What a quaint place Olney is, a lovely little village round a market square. Parked up and headed for LB Crafts. Imagine a kid in a candy store, that was me in this delightful shop full of the most wonderful goodies. What was a girl to do? Spend money that is what so I did!
We pottered around in the shop, Gabby and I and then went and had some lunch in a small brassierie in the courtyard. Fatal really as it was too close to the shop so naturally we went back in and spent some more pennies...
A little walk around the square looking in the delightful gift shops and then we headed off to our hotel.
Friday evening was a quiet affair, watching more people arrive, sharing a drink with Sally and Hazel and just chatting - a really pleasant evening.
Oh, I never said who Sally and Hazel were.
Well Sally had travelled from Toulouse in France for the event so she definitely got the prize for the person who had travelled the furthest! We hit it of so well, what an absolute star she was - we did a lot of the projects together, and made each other laugh - if you drop by to read this blog Sally - it was a pleasure to meet you.
The picture below is of myself, Gabby and Sally.

Hazel travelled from Graystoke in Cumbria, and she was another lovely lady - she tended to be working on different tables but she was fab company when we did hook up.

Had an early night as had to set the clock for an early start Saturday morning.
The shop was open before class, resisted for a time then bought a few more little bits and bobs *shush* don't tell anyone lol.
Then it was time for the introductory talk, introduced to Linda and Leandra and the other girls who would be helping, gotta give a BIG HAND to Karen, Jo and Lynne - absolutely stars all weekend, so willing to help...
Then I peed my pants or should that be Pirates of Penzance? no matter I thought I had died and gone to heaven when we were shown what we were going to make... wait till you see (but that is later in the post - so bear with me!)
We started off making crowns which we embellished with metal work, the crowns were our name tags.... wonderful idea!
Then we had to decorate a chipboard/papier mache candle with crackle paint, forget the brand name.. craco I think? anyway it crackled like you can't believe. Stamped on some acetate with Paper Artsy Castle stamps (photos to follow. Decorated a cd with alcohol inks, and made some feet for it to make a candle stand (again photos to follow).
And then we started on prepping the main project... are you dying to see what the main project was? I know you are, so without further ado I will show you, are you ready for this?..........


Can you believe it? now do you understand why I peed my pants (well nearly!) This was a plain cabinet which we painted, and glimmer misted, we made backgrounds out of paper and metal, decorated the front door with metal... what fun, what a delight to see it coming together, oh my gosh it was a delight.
And that wasn't the end of it. Oh know we made little beeswax collages, and did image transfers, oh so much - but the cabinet is not finished yet, I havet to decide what is going in to the cubby holes and assemble them, then I will share the end result with you... but don't you just LOVE IT!

We were so well looked after during the weekend, the meals at lunchtime were superb. There were plenty of coffee breaks and times to shop through out the day.
It was wonderful to meet so many lovely ladies, all there with one common purpose to have a great time.
My phone on my camera was not co-operating this weekend, kept going into video mode so I gave up on it for a time until I could figure it out, more important craftin to do... but I did manage to take this photo of Leandra and Wendy.
Wendy, who is Wendy?
Well Wendy received my altered letter rack as she was Girl of the Month on UK Art Swaps Yahoo group and she was at the weekend. It was fabulous to meet her and to hear that she really liked the piece I sent her (Thanks Wendy xxx)


I will now show you the next project we worked on during the weekend, prepare yourself for more eye candy as I present a Platter fit for a Queen...


We all used exactly the same wooden bowl as a base, painted it different colors (of our choice) and added the tiles and embossed some metal.. the results were amazing, the collage shows the effect using different paints and embossing plates



So the weekend was jam packed. There were 60 ladies attending and it was FUN! FUN! FUN!
Linda and Leandra have to do it all again next weekend and I am sure the ladies who will be attending will enjoy it as much as I did.. if you made it to the end of the post Thank you for caring enough to read this post :-)
I have condensed it (really I have, lol) but I just had to share with you my experience. My 1st workshop, but after the time I had, not my last x