I don't know whether to feel happy or sad writing this post. After such a long time in preparation, sitting here writing about it, means that it's happened. It's done and dusted. And all the thoughts, and dreams and hopes can be put away.
But the thing is that it DID happen. And it was fabulous! Wow, didn't we all have fun?!
So I thought I'd share a wee bit of the weekend with you, in photos and a few thoughts along the way. All these photos were taken by myself (except the group ones at the end - thanks Trish).
Alot of work was put into every little aspect of the event. As goes to show by the welcome sign and registration packs (Didn't Lyn do an amazing job of those registration packs?!).
And not just by us. Denise Spicer-Boyes created this gorgeous box for a friend who was planning on coming and couldn't. She was devastated not to be able to come, and we wanted her to feel part of the weekend still. So over the weekend, we all put little bits and pieces into the box and it was delivered on the way home.
And it was this type of thoughtfulness that made the weekend, and the lead up to it extra special.
Lyn and I decided to have a mid winter Xmas theme for the weekend, so the crop room was set up and decorated throughout with lots of Xmas glory.
Megan created a huge amount of stunning decorations for us and you could find them dotted around the crop room...
Kerry and her Mum made us a heap of Xmas Tree decorations. They were gorgeous. Some were added to our goodie boxes while others were hung on strings around the room.
Lyns sister was incredibly clever and created this stunning wreath to hang in just the perfect spot. She had brought a ton of ivy to pop around the room, and the leftovers were made for this wreath.
For registration we met in one of our classrooms had some afternoon tea, then wandered across to the crop room. We asked Brenda to lead the way as she has been such a huge support to us and it was fabulous to see everyone come into the crop room and see our dream become a reality.
As a special treat we offered the first 10 people who paid in full a chance to have a glass of bubbles with our tutors on the first evening. We had a lovely time chatting and laughing.
Soon enough it was time for dinner. Lisa a friend of Lyn's kindly set up the table with all her Xmas decorations. It looked AMAZING!
Lyn had had a fabulous idea, and to change things up a bit, and we had desert first. It was unusual and unexpected and such a fun idea!!!
At night the Grand Mercure lit up and looked beautiful.
Plus we had another friend of Lyn's create some amazing decorations for the outside of the crop room.
Talk about it 'feeling alot like Christmas'...
Our Angels were amazing and were working behind the scenes well before the weekend came about. Even their husbands as you'll see a little later, but for now you'll see the most gorgeous letterbox that Joy's husband made for us.
The Angels were amazing. I don't think they got a chance to sit down all weekend. We couldn't have done it without them and their support. Thank you doesn't quite cut it, but thank you angels. Here are three of them....Trish, Jaqui and Kerry (Joy wasn't in this photo).
Megan was our "Technique boutique" specialist. Here she's showing how to make embellishments with Dusty Attic's layered flowers.
During the day we also had Lowri do some demos...
Akiko was absolutely amazing. She came into our event and just 'made it'. Akiko created beautiful Japanese murals for the attendees.
Karola was our very special guest tutor. She came all the way from Poland and treated the ladies to some wonderful classes.
First thing in the morning, the windows along main street looked like it had been snowing. It was delightful.
Our busy crop room
We had a few naughty elves pop along for the weekend.
We were lucky to have pretty good weather, considering it was the middle of winter! And everyone took time out in the beautiful surrounds to enjoy their lunch.
A full Christmas dinner
with tipsy elves
and wonderful friends
Once Christmas dinner was over, we had a visitor from the North Pole.
Again, our angels came through and Santa was Jacquis amazing husband, and his very cute elf was Joy! They both had us all in stitches!
Everyone had a chance to sit on Santa's knee and were given a little present.
Including us...
Each morning we had something awaiting the attendees when they came back into the crop room, Sunday was cupcakes.
We asked everyone to make a Christmas decoration to bring along and pop on the tree. They didn't know why, but we did.
(doesn't the tree look amazing?!)
We had a fantastic prize donated to us from Bo-Bunny. Two handbags filled with Bo-Bunny goodness. The winners of each bag, were chosen from the Christmas decorations.
Brenda and Julie were our winners. Julie wasn't there to receive her prize (she was a Saturday, day lady), but Brenda was, and she was overwhelmed. We LOVE her to bits!
The bag even had 'B's' on it to match Brenda's name. So funny and perfect.
We were lucky to get so many sponsors for the event and had a lot of giveaways on Sunday morning...
Thank you Collections. Congrats Michelle!
Over the weekend we had a raffle going. The money we raised went to the Heart Foundation. Carol won the bag filled with goodies and a lovely lady from the Heart Foundation came to do the draw and present the prize.
Finally we made our way outside to take a group photo (or 10!)
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the other thing that Denise conspired to do. She created 4 amazing booklets for Lyn, myself, Lowri and Karola and then had everyone create tags and popped them into the booklets. She did it all on the sly, getting Lyn's help for mine, Lowri's and Karolas, but then got even more tricky not letting Lyn know she'd also arranged one for her! It was fabulous! None of us knew anything about what was going on until she got up and gave them to us as we were finishing up. There weren't many dry eyes in the house! Everyone, especially Denise went to such a great effort to do this for us. I don't know what to say, and again, thank you doesn't seem enough. Here's a couple of pictures of my one...
It is sooooo full of beautiful, incredible amazing tags, that it can't shut! How cool is that?!
After pouring over it many times (!!!) it now sits prominently on my scrapbooking hutch where I put my scrapbooking work. Denise, and everyone, thank you!!!
And that was it. All over in just a couple of days. Alot of fun and laughter, learning and growth. Alot of friendships made and renewed.
Biggest hugest thanks to my friend and 'business partner' Lyn Jordan. A dream of two people came together for Scrapfest and I feel honoured to call you a friend and so incredibly proud of what we achieved.
After all the amazing photos and thoughts, I just know I'll have forgotten something. We definitely have enough for a bloopers post, so perhaps I'll do that sometime, but for now. Have a wonderful weekend!
