What a weekend!!!!

I, and most if not all the ladies, have never met someone with so much knowledge about mixed media products!!!  Cindy is like a walking encyclopedia, even showing us how to create a beautiful item with plain old Tacky Glue!!!!  We were blown away by all that she taught us, and she couldn't get over how much we wanted to learn - there was no stopping!!!  Cindy gifted us all more than 27 hours of teaching, and that doesn't include the one-to-one and small groups that went on into the early hours - 5.30am!!!

It was a true privelege to spend the weekend with such a humble and talented lady.  Cindy is wonderful person - she has a huge passion for the mixed media/scrapbooking craft and desires to share her knowledge, skill, creativity, and enthusiasm with as many people as she can - she is not a 'well known' name, she does not have a big online presence, but her skills and knowledge match the big names!!!! What a gem!!! Thank you, Cindy :)  If you are ever in Melbourne be sure to check out her store Scrappe Angels.

We will be sharing much of what we learned on the Scrappin' Patch blog via some 'tutorial' posts over the next while.  Meantime please enjoy some pictures from the weekend...
 

Setting up tables with product kits...

Counting the lollies - five chocolate fish, six orange jelly beans, eight green ones.......so there are no squabbles about who has the most LOL!!!

 Heidi contemplating the next technique colour combo!!!

 

 The 'drawing game', courtesy of Cindy :)

Friday night 'Hat Dinner'!!!

Stamping with Darkroom Door rubber stamps

 Hard at work with Ferro...

Cindy time with Anna..

Speaks for itself....this was a beautiful red and white tablecloth!!!

An inspiring, challenging, creative weekend with a fun and friendly bunch of girls, and a wonderful tutor and friend.

The snowball almost reached it's target!!!

Project Sneak Peek....

Well, I have been sharing sneak peeks of the techniques we will be learning over the weekend, but had forgotten to share a sneak of the actual project we will be creating!! So without further delay here are a couple of images of the finished project...

Hope you like it....
xC

Another Teaser

Time for another sneak peek.... I must admit I am  getting a little excited now.... ok more than a little...
I can't wait to be sharing all these techniques with you all...

xC

Teaser Time!

As you were warned by Adrienne I am not a great blogger.... basically, I get too busy and forget to do it, lol! But anyway I have been telling myself for days now I must put up another sneak peek.... so without further delay here it is hope you like it!!

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks....
xC

Retreat Update

Good morning from a cold and frosty Canterbury!!!  You should have received an email from us in the past couple of days - if you haven't please let me know on adrienne@scrappinpatch.co.nz.

Activity is hotting up on the Facebook page so if you have an account and have registered for the weekend why not join in the fun!!!  Come and 'meet' Cindy and others who are coming along.  There may even be a prize or two up for grabs :)

Details of what you will need to bring will be emailed and put on FB and the blog as soon as that information is available.  We are aiming to provide you with a full product kit so the list of what to bring shouldn't be too long.

There are a few places left - registration form is available here.  $285 for 48 hours of tuition with Cindy, qualified international Ranger U tutor with a raft of experience!!  Cindy doesn't sleep much so you can work into the wee hours and she will be there inspiring and teaching you as much as you want!!!!

Words or Whatever... WOW....

Another of the generous sponsors for the retreat is WOW, words or whatever.

WOW is an amazing Australian chipboard company on the lovely Central Coast of NSW that is owned by Suzanne and Neil Webster. They have been going now for over three years and in that time have expanded to take over RW Lasercuts. WOW use a great quality chipboard that allows us to use it with all sorts of mediums and products without fear of it falling apart like some of the chipboard products currently on the market.
WOW now incorporating both their own designs, and the RW Lasercuts designs have a very extensive range that Suzanne is constantly growing. To this end Suzanne now also makes Altamatz. Altamatz are amazing acrylic stencils. They are fantastic to work with. Being a bit thicker than most of the stencils currently on the market, you can achieve some amazing texture and depth with them using all the mixed media products that are so popular at the moment.
WOW also specialize in providing custom made items and can also create exclusive items for retail outlets upon request. So if you would like something personalized, why not ask Adrienne about getting WOW to create it just for you! You can check out all their designs on their website here, and they have an inspirational blog here.
What more can I say about WOW, they have a great quality product at the most reasonable prices around, and I am so grateful they are sponsoring us in September.

Cindy.

Darkroom Door

One of our generous sponsors for the retreat is Darkroom Door.

Darkroom Door is an Australian company owned/operated by Rachel and Stewart Greig.

Darkroom Door designs and manufactures quality art rubber stamps and photographic based products for your papercraft and mixed media creations.

I have had the privilege to meet and work with both Rachel and Stewart, and they are amazing people, both very creative and inspirational. Rachel is an award winning photographer and many of their stamp designs and photographic print products are made from her original photographs.

If you are an ATC fan or card maker, then you are just going to love Darkroom Door products, and their blog is a great source of inspiration too. You can find the Darkroom Door blog here.

One last thing to note about Darkroom Door is the company motto: Unlock the artist within! I think that statement says it all, don't you.

Cindy.

Teaser....

Hi everyone,

Adrienne has asked me to put up some sneak peaks of some of what you will be doing at the retreat....

I love to teach techniques. I enjoy nothing more than showing someone how to get the most out of a product or recreate a particular style or look, there is nothing else like it. So with that in mind I plan on teaching you lots and lots of techniques over our weekend together. We will be playing with a large range of products, including Distress Inks, Alcohol Inks, Ferro, Inka Gold and Impasto just to name a few.

I also have a very special project to teach you all once we have mastered our techniques. We will be creating a mixed media canvas using goodies such as impasto, glimmermists and Altamatz, just to name a few.

So over the coming weeks I will be putting up teasers of the techniques and our mixed media canvas to hopefully get you all geared up for the weekend....

So stay tuned for more sneak peaks and I'll see you in September...

xC

From Cindy.....

 

Well, flights are booked, YAY!! Not long now until you'll have this Aussie invading your shores.... Hope you're all getting ready to get messy inky fingers!

We have a sponsor that we will announce very soon too along with details of what you need to bring etc....

Check back here regularly for updates, or on our Facebook page.
xC

I am excited to announce our tutor.........

CINDY PORTER 

Cindy is a Fully Certified Ranger Educator (combined Education program begun in 2008) from Melbourne, Australia. She is a super talented, enthusiastic, creative, inspirational tutor who has taken classes with Tim Holtz, is a professional photographers, doesn't require much sleep and loves to have fun. She has taken classes with Tim Holtz, and is also a professional photographer. If you are planning to attend this event be prepared to be challenged and to get dirty hands at least LOL!!!!

Total cost for the weekend is $285.00 - includes everything including product for classes. 

Bookings open now for those who have pre-registered interest, all remaining places will be advertised after 30 April. The registration form is available here (hopefully the link works!!!)  If you are unable to open the form using the link please email Adrienne at retreats@scrappinpatch.co.nz (also available as a Word doc.)  Forms must be printed out and sent in, or completed and emailed back.

What a weekend

Well, I'm back from Glen Tui and it was wonderful. You guys have a wonderful little spot there to get away and have a scrapping retreat! The hosts were amazing, the food stunning and the company so welcoming. Thank you to Adrienne for a GREAT weekend and thank you all for being so welcoming!

So  thought I'd share some photos I have from the weekend....

First off here's some of the little fudge packets I made up for my class participants. I found this idea on Lowri McNabb's blog, and just had to give them a go. They are super easy to use, and fitted just the right amount of fudge in nicely.

I flew down on Friday and the lovely Megan Gourlay picked me up at the airport and took me out to the retreat site. Thanks Megan. Glen Tui. I got started straight away on one of two classes for the day. This one is my first Smash Album class.

We had sewing, and embossing

Painting and inking, masks, cutting, painting, glimmer misting, a whole range of wonderful, fun, messy things to do..

We all got totally messy but came away with big smiles.

I think we're missing a few people here? I LOVED how everyone ran with the eclecticness (is that a word?) of the album. Everyone took my ideas and ran with them in their own way. It was FANTASTIC. I think 'most' people got their albums finished or 'just about' over the weekend and to see them all developing was so exciting!

I also took a LO class during the evening. And we had a lot of fun too. We had a wonderful chat all about what they have been through with the traumatic events of their earthquakes. I made a few feaux pars this weekend, but one of the worst had to be when I stamped my feet on the floor to get the people downstairs to come up to class and half the women in the class thought it was an earthquake. OMG! I'm still cringing. So sorry ladies!!!!! Although it became a great laughing point of the weekend.

The next day Adrienne, Heidi and I went for a wee wander down the 150 steps to this meadow and a river even further down in the valley....

All the way down the path, there were beautiful blackberries growing. I just had to pick some to eat. They were GORGEOUS!

Finally at the bottom we found some cool sheep (nuff said ;) ).

And a gorgeous wee river. There weren't even too many mossies. Bonus!

We did have some great laughs! But I'm being good. What goes on tour stays on tour. Grin.

At the end we had some lovely photos with everyone who was at the retreat....

And a fabulous typical Trina 'yahoo' photo. We had lots of fun yahooing our way through the classes. Grin.

Again, thanks so much to Adrienne for asking me to come along, and to the whole group for making it so much fun. I can't wait to see other photos around the web!

Smash album update

You see these albums are so darn addictive, that even after my post yesterday I kept adding pieces and pages and oh dear!

So if you have them can you please also bring:

Heat gun
Corner rounder

Thanks so much!

I'm hoping I can stop creating to start packing kits now! We will see. Grin.

Smash Album Sneaks

Well, I got my product on Friday and have been working on the smash album ALLLLLLL weekend. It's been so much fun! And finally I'm able to share some sneak peeks....

We're going to be using all sorts of mediums. Paint, ink, mist. Ahhhhh, the fun of those wet mucky hands!

Pockets are a big part of standard smash albums and in our one, it will be no different! We have a ton of cute pockets to enhance the look of our albums.

I got asked if we could use masks, and well, who am I to turn down such a reasonable request? We're using a couple of masks and I hope my ideas will help open the creative mind to different ways of using them.

Tags too. Always a fantastic staple in a smash album. Ready brought, home made. It's all good!

I'm really glad I held out for the new stock. It's so cute! We will be using new papers from Glitz and My Minds Eye. Yummo! Plus a ton of other fun and funky papers and pockets and well, all sorts!

Yes, there is some pink, but there is a ton of other colours too (as you can see). I LOVE that about smash albums, they're so eclectic you can put together any combination of papers and colours and it works.

For me, a smash album just wouldn't feel right without a doily.

Or for that matter a little white tag that I'm known to use. Perfect.

I am so excited about this album. I knew it was going to be fun when Adrienne and I first talked about it, but man, it's so much more fun than I ever thought!!!!

And there are just so many possibilities for how each page can look.

Speaking of which here is what you are going to need to bring to make those gorgeous pages:

Your standard scrapbooking kit

A variety of adhesives (I used a glue gun, double sided tape, glossy accents).

Stapler / staples.

Brown ink (plus any other of your favourite colours - bring your ink stash!).

Your favourite paint/s.

Your favourite glimmmermist colours.

Things to bring IF you have them:

Cuttlebug.

Crop a dile.

Foam Brush/s.

Sewing maching (Adrienne is supplying one, but if you are happy for others to use yours, please let Adrienne know and bring it along).

Baby wipes.

Additional items/scraps you might like to add to your album.

This class contains product/supplies for you to complete 22 pages (thats 44 pages all up) and your covers, the additional paint/glimmermist/ink that I'm recommending you bring are so you can ensure the feel of your album is exactly right.

There are a ton of techniques we're going to be using during the construction of the album, from stamping to masking, making our own pages to making our own pockets, from die cuts to trimmers, from paint to glimmermist. It is chock full of  F . U . N.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

See you there!

Trina 

Sneak Peeks of Trina's LO class

Hi everyone!

I'm so excited to finally show you sneak peeks of the LO class we'll be making next week.

My class is based on boy photos (but could easily fit girly ones too), there is lots of yellow, blue and brown.

There are a few pretty Prima flowers straight from their new ranges, as well as some beautiful My Minds Eye papers. Seriously GOR . G . OUS!

We are also super lucky to have 2Crafty sponsor the chipboard piece you can see swirling through the above sneak.

You are going to need to bring:

Your standard scrapbooking kit.
Brown ink
A variety of adhesives (I've used double sided tape, glossy accents and a hot glue gun).
A sharp craft knife / pair scissors.
3 small photos (I used 3 3x2" portrait photos). Feel free to bring along other sizes that you can cut down.

Can't wait to see you next week.

Trina.

What to bring for Megan's Class

If you are booked in to attend the Exploding Box class you must bring the following items:

Basic tool kit - cutter, scissors, ruler, rubber, adhesives etc

Pinecone ink

two different edge punches - or you could use the same one all the way through

x7 black and white wallet size photos

Some type of foam adhesive for dimension

 

Many thanks,

Megan

Thank you Dusty Attic Chipboard

Thank you very much to Dusty Attic for sponsoring the chipboard gate in Megan's Exploding Class at the retreat!! Make sure you pop over and 'like' their page. They have a gorgeous new release coming out in March so be sure to keep an eye on our site for the new goodies!!!

Weekend now fully booked

This event is now full but there is space for day croppers - cost is $50.00 per day (Friday and Saturday only)  and includes morning/afternoon tea and lunch and dinner.  It also gives you access to attending classes.  Bookings for this close on 29 February - no bookings will be accepted after this date.

Smashing SMASH album Class with Trina McClune

All this for only $55.00!!!!!! ($60.00 for non-retreat attendees)  Email retreat@scrappinpatch.co.nz to book.

Three Classes....

LAYOUT WITH TRINA MCCLUNE Friday 7 - 9pm

Thsi will be a STUNNER in true Trina style - she is still busy designing it but here is her little teaser.....  Cost is $45.00 for retreat attendees, and $50.00 for non-retreat attendees.

 HERITAGE EXPLODING BOX WITH MEGAN - Saturday 9 - 12pm

Megan has created a stunning "Exploding Box' class using heritage style papers and embellishments.  This is absolutely gorgeous, those who saw it in the shop when Megan brought it in to show me will verify..... it is beautiful.  Kaisercraft is generously subsidising this class which has enabled us to keep the cost down for you.  THANK YOU KAISERCRAFT.

 Box when 'closed'

  Box when open

Cost for the class is $45.00 for retreat attendees and includes everything that you will need, and you will have some leftovers too!!!  The class will run for 3 hours to allow sufficient time for everyone to complete the project.  All attendees will also receive a lovely handmade gift from Megan.  Cost for this class is $45.00 for retreat attendees, $50 for non-retreat attendees.

SMASH ALBUM WITH TRINA MCCLUNE - Saturday 2 - 5pm

Trina's other class is a SMASH album which she is currently working on - sneak peeks to come.  You will be creating your album from start to finish using a variety of techniques.  Cost for this class is $55.00 for retreat attendees, and $60.00 for non-retreat attendees.

All class costs include all materials to create the project however there will be a materials list supplied regarding photos, and any other specific things needed but you will need your basic tool kit and adhesives as tools will not be provided.

BOOKINGS

Bookings for classes are on a 'first in first served' basis.  Class payments must include your name and 'classes' as references.  When booking please include youur name, address, phone number, and email address in your email to retreat@scrappinpatch.co.nz. 

Once your place is confirmed the deposit must be paid into our account BNZ 02 0810 0052080 01 using your name and 'classes' as the reference, we will accept eftpos or CC if that is more convenient for you..

Bookings are open to non-retreat attendees after 16 February for an additional $5.00 per class. 

GLENTUI DAY VISITOR CHARGES

Glentui Meadows charges $10.00 per person who comes onto the site during the day for activities such as classes.  This charge is in addition to the class fee and must be paid when booking your class.   

If you would like to come to the retreat for the day on Saturday the cost is $50.00 and covers morning/afternoon tea as well as lunch and dinner and the whole day to attend classses and crop  You can arrive anytime from 8.00 am.

Have a lovely evening!!!

Adrienne

Class Information.....

Classes are almost ready now - be sure to check on here, our Facebook page, and your email inbox for information about the three classes that will be available during the weekend.  Retreat attendees will be offered a 'special' class price until 16 February after which any spare places will be advertised to non-attendees.  So please ensure you book promptly once the information is released.  If you would like to register before seeing the images - some have already done this - please email your information to retreat@scrappinpatch.co.nz.  Once prices are released you will need to deposit payment promptly to confirm your place. 

The schedule is:
Friday 16 March 7 - 9pm - Trina layout class
Saturday 17 March 9 - 12pm - Megan OTP class - Exploding box heritage style
Saturday 17 March 2 - 5pm - Trina SMASH album class

Have a fantastic day!!!!

Trina's classes questions...please read and comment :)

Alrighty everyone, I'm sitting down now putting together my classes. I'm going to be doing two.

I have ideas of what I'd like to do, but would LOVE your feedback.

What do YOU want to learn? Be taught?
Layouts, altered items, jewellery, a mix, girl/boy, adult/child, more than 'x' photos, more than one LO in a class..... so many options...

I can't promise to deliver what everyone wants, but will try and work in what I can.

Can't wait to hear.          

September Retreat - think Ranger!!!

We will be blessed with the presence of a lovely Aussie tutor to take us through a Mini Ranger U weekend - techniques, fun, mess as you play and learn with lots of products and create something beautiful to take home. 

Dates are7 - 9 September at Glentui Meadows.  Registration form will be available by late February once costs are finalised.  If you would like to reserve your place you can email me and I will add you to the list. 

Update

Time is marching on and this event is getting closer and closer!!!  Already 2012 and five days gone......

Class information will be released soon and will be available on here and on our FB page.  Be sure to check back regularly for updates.

There are a few places still available for this weekend.  Fill out your form and deposit $50.00 into our account to reserve your place.  Full payment is required by 3 February 2012.