Scrapbook Retreat 2013

Ever since the rush of the holidays ended, I had thought about nothing else but the scrapbook retreat that I had signed up for. I even started packing the weekend before it.

Gaby helping me pack.

 

Then the morning of, I texted Janel to see if we could come earlier. She texted back and said that 9:30 was still the check in time. So I waited. Then I got lucky. She called shortly after 8:30 to say we could come now. So I jumped in my car and headed that way. The retreat was at Hidden Springs in Altamont, so it wasn't that far for me to go. I knew I would be up late each night, so I planned to spend the nights there too. Scrapbooking until 2 am and then up and back at it by 8 am, I was one happy girl.

 

Last year, I was the 1st to sign up and I was able to get a room upstairs and only had to share with one friend. This year, I was too late for that. But I actually liked it down stairs more. We only had 4 people in our room so I was able to get some good sleep. Last year, I could hear ALL the noise going on and I didn't sleep as well. But I did miss having my own bathroom. So I guess its a toss up of what I liked most. Also, we ended up sitting in the same area this time, which I loved!

 

I think my one of my favorite things, this year, was the first 25 to sign up, were able to preorder some of Janel's adorable kits. Karen and I each joked about the amount we would limit ourselves too. End the end, we couldn't decide if the winner was the one who spent the most, or the least, since we were both way over our budget. But it was all worth it.

 

I ordered some kits I knew I would use immediately. Then I also ordered some that were just too cute to pass up. I spent all day Friday, and most of Saturday, scrapbooking the pictures I had brought with me. I got so much done! In the end, I created 39 pages total (using 17 different layouts). Most of them, were from the stuff I bought there, but I also ended up making a few pages from scratch so they would better match the pictures I had.

 

 I loved the coloring of this kit, but didn't know if I would use it. Then Janel reminded me of how cute I looked on my horse. I don't have any pictures yet, but I'll take some this summer.

 



 This kit was another one too cute to pass up. But as I was putting it together, I asked where the stamp was for the "make me" part of the title. Turns out, Janel had drawn it on free hand. I am not that kind of artist. I was sad, until I remembered I had some rub ons, so I used those instead. I love how it turned out!

 

Of course, my FAVORITE page(s) were the ones that I bought to use with my nephew pictures. I had so much fun making these pages because of all the happy memories that flood in when I look at these pictures. I was able to make 3 of each of some of them, so now I'm set for Mother's Day's gifts. I wasn't going to blog these so I didn't spoil the surprise, but they are too cute to not share now. My mom and sister are just going to have to be patient and wait. But hopefully, that will mean I get a few more made between now and then too. ;)

 

1st time painting was one of the kits I ended up making on my own.

 

The Christmas pages, were premade kits from other workshops. But I only had one of each. So I had to measure everything out and make 2 more sets.

 

Valex's 1st hair cut was another one I made on my own. I even left a spot, on the page for my sister, where I can attach the hair she saved from it. I also learned something. I LOVE my nephew's names, but when using cut out stuff from an embellishment kit, they only come with 2 letter "x's". So when I need to make 3 pages, I don't have enough. I ended up borrowing my friend's Cricut to do the last one. And this was a problem with only one name. I'm really going to come up short when I need to spell out Valex and Daxsen. Not that I really mind. Cute boys deserves cute names and those cute names deserve cute embellishments.

 

I had planned to just work on the kits I had pictures for all weekend, but everyone in my area kept having problems with pieces missing, or not knowing how to do something that looked complicated. So Saturday evening, I switched gears and just worked on the other kits I had bought. I didn't get them all done, but I tried to work on the ones that looked complicated. Until I got tired, but was too stubborn to go to bed. Then I worked on the easier ones.

 

 Late Saturday night, my friend closed out her account to prevent from spending more money. I thought it was a good idea, so I had them add up my stuff. But my wallet was in my room, so I decided to pay in the morning. When I went to bed that night, I checked my cash and realized I had just a little bit more. Probably because even though I told myself, I will only spend this much, I took twice as much. You know, just in case. The next morning, I wanted to scrapbook one more page of the boys, so I looked at her kits again. She had a couple Mickey Mouse pages, but I'm not a fan, so I hadn't bought any when I did my preorder. But I got looking at the colors of this one Disney page and decided it would work. I added a few more spots for photos, gave the Disney cutouts to someone else, and viola, one more adorable page.

Can't wait for next year!

Janel's Blog

Janel's CTMH website