Blog – Birds of a Feather

Scrap The Boys

Hi everyone, well it’s been a while since I did a blogpost so what better way than to announce getting onto a new DT team, called Scrap The Boys.

As the saying goes ‘as one door closes, another one opens’ and that is just what has happened. One of my DT positions has come to an end, and even though I would have loved to stay on it was time for a change… low and behold my application got accepted for this amazing team.

It’s a great challenge blog site, that like the title says ‘Scrap the Boys’, all layouts are based on boy layouts, so right up my street.

I’ve met the team (on line) and there is a real mixture of scrapping styles so it will be good to see how we each interperate the challenges over the 6 months.

My term starts February 2018 and lasts for 6 months.

I do hope that you will follow me on IG (jackiescraps), and also follow Scrap the Boys IG and Facebook pages and see what we are doing…

Even better, why not join in.

Till next time…

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Black Friday – what have you bought?

So you would have had to be walking around with your eyes shut, not to notice that today is Black Friday!

Its origins started in America and always fell on the Friday following Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

Turkey is the dish of the day, followed by Pumpkin Pie I believe?

And if you didn’t remember that our friends across the pond were celebrating, you’ve got Google to remind you!

I must admit, I’ve often thought why would you spend a day with your family ‘giving thanks’ only to go on a massive spending spree the next day!

But actually it’s no different to us on Boxing Day… so many people choose to give gifts on Christmas Day, only to raid the shops on Boxing Day and grab that bargain!

I can honestly say that I’m not a Boxing Day shopper, nor will I ever be. I think we should all boycott the shops on Boxing Day to give everyone who works in retail the chance to have two consecutive days off. After all, if we as consumers didn’t partake, then there would be no point in the shops opening!

Ok, like that’s ever going to happen!

And this Black Friday I have to be honest, admit that I too have sucummed and confess as to what I have purchased!

You can probably guess that most of it is scrapbooking related!

Temptation started last week, when Jackie mentioned that Curry’s had the Kitchen Aid at half price – an early Black Friday deal… She was having one and hoped that it would arrive in time for last weekend so she could christen it and mix her Christmas cake in it!

Guess who therefore also needed one?

Then our fabulous friends Sarah and Lianne at Hey Little Magpie launched their Black Friday sale yesterday afternoon…. So of course I indulged!

They were very fair and said that each item was limited to one per customer… a great idea. They didn’t want a repeat of some of the scenes from Asda a few years ago, where people were physically fighting over TV’s!

And then today, I happened to receive a Hobbycraft email promoting Black Friday! Since my birthday in May I have had an unspent gift voucher, so today have joined the Big Shot club!

Then lastly, I just happened upon the Black Friday sale on Sizzix site, as a Big Shot isn’t much good without some dies!

So, have you been as easily swayed as I have this Black Friday?

Leave a comment and let us know what you have bought… One lucky person will be randomly selected and a little Black Friday gift from Birds of a Feather will be sent via carrier pigeon to you!

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Vlogged memories of our Amy Tan workshop…

Whilst many of us can relate to the ‘curve balls’ that life throws us from time to time, equably many of us find that a craft is a welcome distraction!

And if you’re reading this, like us Birds of a Feather, you probably share a love of scrapbooking?

We have met some fabulous people whilst sharing the love of this hobby and I’m sure that there will be many more friendships to discover in the future.

Two such ladies who we met recently at our Amy Tan workshop were Claire and Georgia. These ladies ‘vlog’…. and if like me you’re not familiar with ‘vlogging’ the easiest way to describe it a video diary or a filmed blog!

Like scrapbooking, Claire and Georgia’s vlog styles are very different. I can’t categorically say why but they just are!

Having already watched Claires’ vlog, Georgia’s vlog is equally as great… It gives you an insight into so much more than simply the workshop, starting with a tube ride, then onto her hotel room for the night and dinner at Pizza Express, all before any filming of Amy Tan or indeed the workshop!

Why not watch it yourself and see if you agree with me?

Either way, it brings back some amazing memories…

From Amy demonstrating her wonderful talent and techniques to a reminder about just how packed full of lush stash the kit really was, not to mention the adorable Amy Tan herself… Her character is infectious, as is her laugh!

She chose to share some of her curve balls with us on that weekend, but her amazing and positively strong outlook on life gives others the feel good factor that Amy exudes so well!

Sadly for Georgia, today it is the funeral of her brother in law. He didn’t have enough ‘magic and sparkle’ in his life and felt there was no other way out…

Georgia has been crowd funding to raise money for his funeral. If you would like to make a donation, please visit his just giving page.

Think we would all benefit from a bit of Amy Tan ‘magic and sparkle’ in our lives… I know that I for one certainly felt blessed t have been in her company that weekend and can’t wait until our paths cross again!

The mad cow with the stats is back!

Hard to believe, but it is a fortnight since we greeted Amy Tan at Birmingham New Street station!

In our opinion, the weekend was a massive success, with umpteen positive comments and messages, along with so many happy faces… even just typing this, my mind is flooded with so many happy thoughts!

As always, we really value your feedback. All comments, ideas and thoughts are taken on board to better the experience for everyone on our next retreat, which by the way is only in a weeks’ time! Yikes!!!

Anyway, back to our Amy Tan workshop…

We ask everyone to rate a set number of criteria, 5 being excellent and 1 being unsatisfactory….

We were delighted that 82% of you gave the Chateau Impney 5 stars as a location, ideally situated just off junction 5 of the M5.

92% of you lovely ladies scored the food 4 stars or above. The ‘breakfast butties’ went down exceptionally well, a great energy boost to a very busy day, which even included a Travellers Notebook!

100% of you scored the crop room space as 4 stars or above, with over 90% of you giving the room a big thumbs up no. 5. We were delighted to be located in The Elizabethan suite – blimey that room was so big you could crop, party and have a disco all at the same time LOL!

Comfort of the crop room also scored top marks, with 100% of you scoring it at 4 stars or above…

The teaching space and the classes both equally scored 5 stars by 94% of you – the classes were totally down to Amy, so massive thanks there Miss Tan xoxo!

WOW is the word that best describes the Hustle & Heart kits… 98% of you scored it as 5 stars, with some of you adding a + sign! Rammed with lusciousness and products galore, I’d like to see the first lady that uses her kit up completely!

And I can tell you that it won’t be me, Jackie or Sheena as we all succumbed and raided the Hey Little Magpie on-site shop and purchased the 16 papers that weren’t included in Amy’s kit. Hard to believe I know, but the hustle & Heart collection has a massive 24 different 12 x 12″ papers!

So would you recommend us again? Indeed you would… In fact 98% of you lovely ladies rated the overall workshop as 4 stars or more!

Thank you to all who completed our questionnaire and we look forward to seeing you real soon – some of you in seven days!!!

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Memories of a wonderful weekend….

It seems very hard to believe that this time last week we had arrived at Chateau Impney, were busy setting up for our Amy Tan weekend workshop.

Driving up to the Chateau still makes my skin tingle – it really is such an amazing building set in the heart of Worcestershire…

Amy really didn’t have much time in the UK at all – she flew into Heathrow on the Thursday, spent the day with Shimelle last Friday and then returned to London on Sunday and back to LA last Monday. That’s some serious travelling in such a short space of time!

The Saturday ladies…

And the Sunday ladies…

Mind you, we had plenty of time to get to know Amy, when we met her at Birmingham New Street Station last Friday! What an epic journey that was! We were mightily excited to meet Amy and had left in plenty of time. However we didn’t account for the standstill we found ourselves in the middle of in central Birmingham!

It was so bad that Sheena and Jackie resorted to jumping our of my car and walking directly around the standstill to get to New Street – crossing over a couple of roundabouts… comical now looking back!

I had managed to finally crawl to New Street station and after observing other cars do a three point turn right outside the main John Lewis New Street entrance, I threw down the gauntlet and joined in! Unlike some of the larger vehicles, ‘Betty’ my little Fiat 500 did her three point turn with very little effort!

We finally delivered a jet lagged Amy back to the Chateau at around 21.30. Fun, laughter and cocktails ensued with the fabulous Sarah and Lianne from Hey Little Magpie. They had bought their delicious ‘pop-up’ shop to the Chateau and this did not fail to disappoint causing a dent in many delegates pockets!

Still what would be a scraping workshop without copious amounts of fabulous scrapping stash?

Amy’s Hustle & Heart kit was rammed with delicious stash too, over £90 worth of goodies, so even after making four fabulous layouts and being introduced to a Travellers Notebook, there was masses of the kit left!

A truly fabulous weekend – what a memory!

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And we have our first vlog!

A big thank you to Claire Murphy, aka Scrappy Nerd UK for introducing us to the wonderful world of vlogging!

For those of you not in the know, or for those of you who thought predictive text had been un-predictive, vlogging is in layman’s terms video blogging!

Here at Birds of a Feather we love it, not just because Claire’s vlog has documented the amazing weekend we shared with Amy Tan (although that is mighty special) but because we got an insight into Claire’s world!

It’s like an unedited episode of Big Brother, but whereas the housemates are all filmed, they would be filming themselves!

Claire currently has over 1700 subscribers to her You Tube site, let’s aim to get her to 2000 followers real soon!

We’ve had some amazing feedback which we will update you all on very soon, but in the meantime why not take a quick trip down memory lane and remind yourselves of the wonderful experience we all shared.

And if you weren’t lucky enough to be a part of our fabulous weekend at the stunning Chateau Impney, why not sit down with a cuppa and see for yourself what you missed!

My new little motor even gets filmed – see if you can work out which car she is, as Ive aptly named her ‘Betty Blue Eyes!’

Ultimately weekends like this are all about meeting old friends and making new ones… In fact, Claire and Georgia hadn’t met Roxy, all of whom feature in the vlog until we put a call out for a car share for Roxy… Claire and Georgia said that they were more than happy to give her a lift and arranged to meet up at a local crop, prior to the Amy Tan event! How cool is that?

It’s through scrapbooking that us three Birds of a Feather met – who knows who we’ll meet next?

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It’s Friday the 13th!

Is today your worst fear? Unless you suffer with Paraskevidekatriaphobia, today will be no different than any other day! Today is Friday 13th…

And if you suffer with a fear of the month of October, then I guess you could refer to yourself as suffering from Paraskevidekatriaphobia Shiyuephobia! Perhaps this stems from Halloween too?

Gotta love these words and embrace them. It’s like the irony of the word Dyslexic – a feat for anyone to spell, let alone anyone who suffers with the condition!

Considered unlucky by a lot of the population, some people suffer with Paraskevidekatriaphobia so badly that they won’t leave their homes today! Sounds like a good excuse to get your scrap on to me…

This fear stems from Triskaidekaphobia, which is to be afraid of the number 13.

You may notice that many hotels do not entertain a 13th floor? Hospitals avoid having rooms numbered 13. Theatres tend to miss out row number 13 as do airlines. In fact, Brussels Airlines received superstitious complaints about their logo, which used to feature 13 red dots (to save you counting them, there are now 14!)

There are thousands of phobias listed once you start looking for them and a few of them made me chuckle!

Gingerphobia is mentioned, so it seemed apt to include it, in light of Sheena’s hair colour LOL xoxo.

There is even a fear of Donald Trump’s hair!

Yes you heard that right – Trumptrichophobia is the fear of that famous combover!

Anyone who suffers with Mnemophobia should maybe consider taking up scrapbooking, as this is sadly the fear of memories…

Sadly, I can’t see how you could ever scrapbook if you suffer with Papyrophobia – the fear of paper…

And if any scrappers have ever suffered with Psalidiphobia, then I guess they don’t class a kraft knife in the same category as scissors!

Likewise, I’m sure any scrappers that suffer with Molyviphobia can always use another implement in place of a pencil…

Lastly, and I can sort of relate to this one is Koumpiphobia – the fear of buttons!

I don’t have a fear of buttons, but feel uneasy if I have to empty a can of baked beans, so most of my cans get stored in the cupboard upside down so that the juice rises to the base of the tin. Hey presto, when you open the can, they come out easily and I don’t have to use a spoon to get the last few out!

Do you have any fears? Why not share you fear, or better still why not scrapbook your fear – you never know it might help to set you on the route to being cured!

I got the ephemera tiger…

…which should be sung to the tune of the Katy Perry song “I got the eye of the tiger” LOL!

And you’re gonna hear us ROAR, because only yesterday, Amy Tan was finally able to send us an image of the kit for our forthcoming workshop with her at Chateau Impney, Worcestershire.

In case you hadn’t heard (where have you been in the world of scrapbooking?) but we have managed to secure the amazingly talented Amy to come over to the UK and teach on behalf of Birds of a Feather!

The kit image is still missing a few items but is already rammed with stash and has an RRP of over £80.

Amy is teaching four layouts as well as giving you an insight into a Travellers Notebook. And, if all goes according to plan she is also hoping to give a lesson in her iconic, hand painted script font!

Can you Adam and Eve it?

How adorable is the Hustle & Heart Ephemera?

And these 3D Stickers melt my heart – they are simply delightful!

Not to mention the Enamel Pins? What’s not to love about an enamel pineapple or typewriter…

Even the gorgeous, dinky suede effect bows are super cute – I’m guessing that there may be a few left over in the kit. I for one am totally glad about this as I would struggle to use them all up!

However, if I did I could always head straight to the Hey Little Magpie shop and buy another set!

If you didn’t know, the Hey Little Magpie shop will be on site at Chateau Impney! Such a bonus for our bank balance!

The kit so far contains:

7 patterned papers
1 gold die-cut paper
Cardstock
3D diamond wood veneer shapes
Layered sticker pack
Sticker book
Ephemera
Enamel pins
Glitter phrases
Inflated ephemera (think puffy stickers and you’re nearly there!)
Faux suede bows
Museum pins
Pom pom stickers

Reminds me of the Generation Game!

We do still have a couple of spaces left on both days, so why not come and ROAR with us?

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Crafting Weekend Fun …

Hi everyone, well I’ve just returned from a crafting weekend away in the country with my crafting buddies.

I managed to do 8 layouts, and part of a quilt … yes I’ve decided earlier this year that I need to make a quilt for my son, well it got cut out, then ended up back in the back, this weekend I managed to pin and sew a few of the squares together … don’t hold your breathe for it being finished any time soon … it will definitely be a work in progress – lol.

Back to my weekend, did I say we had fun, loads to eat, loads of laughter and of course the usual silly photos.

Every time I get set to go away, I say I will not take as much stash as last time, but really I just end up throwing it all in, and hoping I hadn’t forgotten anything, always forgetting that I’m going with 6 other crafters who will no doubt have that one thing I really, really need to finish my layout – lol x

So this is the morning after our first night of scrapping, I think we had it all covered for stash – don’t you ???

We made a lovely afternoon tea

Washed down with some alcoholic beverage …

and also had to have a coffee fix …

A mini demo was provided by Julie on using distress oxide inks

And a beautiful sunrise on one of the mornings …

on Sunday, Julie made us all a yummy Roast Beef dinner …

Saturday evening was spent watching Strictly and X-Factor as well as being silly with face mask – lovingly supplied by Sam.

The following day we tried to have couple of serious group shots … as you do … but it never goes to plan at first …

Until we get our ‘stop being silly’ head on and get a couple

Cant leave us being too serious now can I, so a snapshot of me, Sam & Julie will sum up our weekend away.

Thanks Julie, Sam, Sue, Barbara, Kay, Sheena for another weekend of memories, heres to the next one.

Happy scrapping

Jackie x

Is it too early to mention the C word?

Do you craft for Christmas or document your Christmas?

Have you already started getting organised?

Whilst out and about today I noticed that some Christmassy things are making their way into the shops in town! I know its September & its getting colder, but Christmas, really!!

You may not already know this but I made cards for years before turning to scrapbooking. So at this time of year, once the children were back at school I would set up shop on the kitchen table & make ALL our Christmas cards by hand. Usually making one design & reproducing it. Here are a few examples of Christmas cards I’ve made in the past. These days I only send a few to close family & friends.

More recently I’ve started making some of my Christmas gifts usually by quilting or crochet. A lot of time & love goes into them & people certainly like receiving handmade gifts. This was one of the first crochet gifts I made.

As a scrapbooker I like to record my christmases too. For many years I did my version of Journal my Christmas but since I started doing Project Life I didn’t feel the need to document our Christmases in 2 places. Here are a couple of pages from our Christmas last year. I particularly love how looking through PL brings back all the memories.

Do you make things for Christmas or document it each year? we would love to hear what you do x

Sheena x