Layouts from the Retreat...

Firstly, my versions of the layouts from Sarah's (Gertie) class. I have been in awe of her work for years so it was great to see how she puts layouts together. I absolutely love how these turned out. I've already used the idea of cutting the waste frame from a die cut out again; I would never have thought to do that before.

What has now become a bit of a December tradition: going to the Christmas Markets and eating big sausages!

'The making of the cinderella pumpkin' Two years ago it was Dora, last year Cinderella. I think I'll choose the character next time!

Next we have my interpretation of Lou's class. As I scrap in A4, I had to adapt the 12x12 classes. The 'ribbler' that corrugates paper is fantastic and has been used loads since the retreat weekend.

The photo is me with Evie and my niece at her Christening.

Lastly, a very poor picture of my layout from Rachael Elliott's class. Again, adapted to fit an A4 page. I was a little bit out of my comfort zone with the colours but I took so much away from this class: the swiss cheese effect using a hole punch (oh the jokes we had with Trina about exercising her limp wrists with her cropodile!), using a cotton bud to ink hard to reach areas and looking at patterned paper in a whole different way. I don't normally do cutting out of bits of the page but this class made me realise that there are so many useful bits that can be cut out to make embellishments.

Our first holiday as a family of four, July 2009.

I didn't know what to expect from the retreat but it was so nice to see new ways of using my stash and I've since used lots of the techniques on my layouts. I feel thoroughly inspired and fired up again for being creative and most importantly, scrapbooking.