Relaxed Retreat – 14th to 16th October 2022

Birds of a Feather is delighted to announce that our Autumn retreat in 2022 will be held in the exclusive Taylor Suite at the luxurious De Vere Staverton Estate, ideally located just a short drive from junction 18 of the M1.

Like our previous retreats, this event will be run as a ‘relaxed’ retreat, with no formal structure to the weekend. Class kits, complete with comprehensive instructions will be available to purchase.

With plenty of fun and laughter over the weekend and an abundance of ‘birds’ you’re guaranteed to have a fabulous time with many like minded, happy crafters!

And some might say better still, leave the weekend feeling renewed and revitalised…

After all, Birds of a Feather flock together…

The weekend package is available in both single and twin occupancy rooms and includes two nights full board accommodation.

Location: De Vere Staverton Estate, Staverton, Daventry, Northamptonshire. NN11 6JT.

Date: Friday 14th October to Sunday 16th October 2022 inclusive.

The price for this event is £365 for a single occupancy room and £320 for a twin room.

Please download a booking form below and return to bookings@birdsofafeather.uk.com along with your deposit or full payment to the bank details which can be found on the T&C’s.

Download Booking Form: Word docPDF editable doc.

Payment Structure / Terms and Conditions: Payment details

Relaxed Retreat – 25th to 27th March 2022

Birds of a Feather is delighted to announce that our Spring retreat in 2022 will be held in the exclusive Taylor Suite at the luxurious De Vere Staverton Estate, ideally located just a short drive from junction 18 of the M1.

Like our previous retreats, this event will be run as a ‘relaxed’ retreat, with no formal structure to the weekend. Class kits, complete with comprehensive instructions will be available to purchase.

With plenty of fun and laughter over the weekend and an abundance of ‘birds’ you’re guaranteed to have a fabulous time with many like minded, happy crafters!

And some might say better still, leave the weekend feeling renewed and revitalised…

After all, Birds of a Feather flock together…

The weekend package is available in both single and twin occupancy rooms and includes two nights full board accommodation.

Location: De Vere Staverton Estate, Staverton, Daventry, Northamptonshire. NN11 6JT.

Date: Friday 25th March to Sunday 27th March 2022 inclusive.

The price for this event is £365 for a single occupancy room and £320 for a twin room.

Please download a booking form below and return to bookings@birdsofafeather.uk.com along with your deposit or full payment to the bank details which can be found on the T&C’s.

Download Booking Form: Word docPDF editable doc.

Payment Structure / Terms and Conditions: Payment details

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!

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

Bring back the good old magazine…

What or who inspires you?

Where is your ‘go to’ source when the mojo is lacking? Is it the likes of Pinterest or do you still prefer a good old magazine?

I used to love nothing better that sitting on the sofa, having a mooch at some magazines, especially the home interest titles like Ideal Home, House Beautiful and Living etc. dreaming up ideas for the next room that I wanted to re-decorate in our home. I’d buy them off the shelf from time-to-time, often meandering to the magazine aisle when food shopping!

I was also an avid subscriber of those scrapbooking and paper crafting titles – who can remember the likes of Scrapbook Inspirations and Scrapbook Trends, and more recently, the inspirational title Scrap 365?

It was like subscribing to a kit, the anticipation of the postman delivering that monthly title through your letterbox, getting home from work hoping that it had been delivered, so you could grab a cuppa and chill! The disappointment when it hadn’t arrived, yet knowing that it would be here any day soon!

With so much free digital inspiration available, it’s no surprise that these scrapbooking titles simply didn’t survive in a niche market! The paper crafting titles still remain strong, Papercraft Essentials is on issue no. 150, Die-cutting Essentials has been going for about 2 1/2 years and Simply Cards & Papercraft has been going over 13 years!

My ‘go to’ source for inspiration has to be Pinterest, along with scrapbooking blog idols! However, being all digital, I do wonder whether that has had a detrimental effect on mojo. I often hear ladies saying that they have lost their mojo… This can’t be for lack of inspiration as we have more visual sources than ever before! Saying that, I’m starting to wonder if going paperless has had a detrimental effect on creativity?

If you enjoy Pinterest, then you’re bound to spend much of your time pinning image after image! But how many of us actually go back and study what we have pinned? All too often, I find that familiar notification telling me that I have already pinned that pin, which just goes to show how long I look at these images!

If like me, your mojo wains from time to time, why not dig out those scrapbook magazines from a few years ago and see if that helps?

In fact, why not join me in a campaign to ‘Bring back the good old magazine!’

 

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And the Winner is …..

To celebrate our first year in business we offered an early bird booking opportunity, to win a £50 Hey Little Magpie voucher if you booked and paid for the Amy Tangerine Workshop before 4th August 2017.

The draw was done on 7th August 2017 by random generator and the winner was No. 34, who is Kay Hall.

Congratulations Kay, we will be in touch with your prize.

We still have availability on the workshop, full details can be found under the workshop tab above.

Jackie xxx

 

Amy Tan is coming to the UK!

OMG, goodness knows how we’ve done it, Amy Tan is coming to the UK to exclusively teach for Birds of a Feather…

Can you ‘Adam ‘n’ Eve’ it? (Amy, for your benefit, that’s cockney rhyming slang for ‘believe it’)

We can’t wait to see what Amy designs for all you lucky ladies… We certainly drool over her beautiful, hand painted phrases!

We simply can’t believe it’s happening!

Amy has a captivating style and such an engaging way! Having looked at some of her recent IG posts, it seemed apt to include this post – hope you don’t mind Amy?

As well as being able to bring the lovely Amy to the UK, we’ve managed to secure the most impressive of locations, ideally positioned just a short distance from junction 5 off the the M5… the Chateau Impney

Tempted to book?

All you need to know is on our workshops page…

In the meantime, check out the advert for more details.

But don’t delay – snooze you lose… and spaces are limited!

Looking forward to seeing you there…

Jackie, Sam and Sheena xxx

Make mine a Mini …

Hi all, well I cant say hope you are enjoying the sunny weather, as I type this blogpost its cold and raining and hard to think we are in the middle of July, but I’m hoping the weather will pick up again shortly and we can be out and about making memories.

For my post, I revisited my love of mini albums. In the past I would do them regularly, then scrapbook layouts took over, so I don’t do them as often as I used to.

But after our last retreat, a delegate, Mell Cooper who attended the event, did a lovely 4×4 mini album of her experience at our event, you can see the album here, and it got me thinking … why not compile a mini album of each of our events.

I just loved the idea of working on the 4×4 format, and as I had a few these sized albums in my stash, I dusted them off and have started on the process of compiling our past events.

Our first event, which was back in November 2016, and seems such along time ago as such much as happened since then. But getting all the photograph printed off brought wonderful memories of a fantastic weekend flooding back.

Anyway, here are a few photographs of the albums. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos, but trying to take photos of the pages without glare was proving difficultly.

I used Paige’s ‘Take Me Away’ paper collection that she used for the workshop. Helping to keep with the theme of the weekend.

 

the room all set up ready for the delegates.

Sam made some lovely little sewing kits for each delegate.

Paige’s teaching one of her amazing classes.

 

Her classes …

 

The Saturday delegates

 

We were on hand the whole time to lend a hand

 

Then we had a mini photoshoot …

I used some the cut-a-part sheets and wood veneer to embellish some of the pages.

 

 

Group shot of the Saturday delegates.

None of our Sunday delegates are featured as we did not get consent from them to publish any photographs with them in. They are in the actual album which will be available to see at our future events.

Happy scrapping

 

Jackie xxx

The mad cow loves stats!

What can I say? This Birds of a Feather mad cow loves stats!

It’s three weeks since we embarked on our first retreat and we are still buzzing from the truly wonderful weekend you guys made it xxx

Thank you to all that completed the feedback form – it really goes a long way into shaping the way forward with our future events… And some of the feedback will be actioned as early as this November.

We’re not a threesome that shies away from the truth, so in the order that the questions were asked, here is the feedback:

Comfort of the bedrooms scored a massive 91.4%.

Now I for one didn’t get to spend much time in mine, but I have to agree that those mattresses are fairly super. And I do love a decent shower in the morning – only wish our pressure was as good at theirs!

Food scored 66.1% – everyone loves the accessibility of the hub, but felt that a sit-down evening meal simply took valuable scrapping time away. We are looking into this for November. Equally, the Sunday carvery scored top marks – guess we all like a bit of tradition!

You scored the crop space as 87.6%, with over 66% of you giving it 5 out of 5 – sadly no matter how hard we try we can’t make those tables grow!

The comfort of the crop room scored a great 88.5%, with over 62% of you giving it 5 out of 5. Personally, I see this as one of our best achievements –  do you remember how hot it was that weekend?

The classroom space achieved a score of 86.6%, although a large number of you felt moving to the classroom unnecessary – again something that we can act on for November.

So how did our class kits do?

100% OF COURSE – a truly fabulous result. We are thrilled with this feedback and it seems to make all the stresses of trying to locate 30 Maggie Homes Chasing Dreams 12 x 12″ chipboards a minor blip – after all whats the world wide web for if it isn’t for locating 12 x 12″ chipboard!

And equally our kits didn’t fair too bad either scoring an overwhelming 99% in the feedback results!

And so the burning question… how did we do overall?

We were given a truly magnificent score of 95.7% and better still 100% of you would recommend us!

Perhaps that’s why we’ve now filled all retreat spaces for November and March 2018.

It goes without saying that all of this isn’t possible without your support and friendship!

After all, Birds of a Feather (and the odd mad cow!) flock together!

1st Retreat – was a Blast ….

And as usual the retreat went far too quickly … but  I wanted to share with you what an amazing fun packed weekend we all had at the end of May.

Be prepared for photo overload of the weekend, and over the coming weeks we will be showcasing the classes and layouts that some of our delegates completed.

The weekend consisted of the amazing Wilna Furstenberg teach two classes via video, showing the delegates various techniques using watercolours and acrylic paints, as well as Sam and Sheena teaching classes in person, I did two layouts that was self-paced class that the delegates could complete over the weekend.

So here goes, we set up and eagerly waited for our delegates to arrive.

As a welcome gift Sam had hand finished aprons for each delegate, we chosen aprons as a gift as we knew we would be using paints with Wilna classes, and they were gratefully received.

 

Once the delegates had arrived and settled into there places, the lovely Hey Little Magpie shop opened for business, and as true scrappers it wasn’t long before we where in there, seeing what we needed, like true Scrappers we need it all – lol.

The format for this weekend was to have as relaxed as possible craft retreat but at the same time having some fun.

So after we had our evening meal it was back to the crop room for a party game.  Which involving rolling a dice, dressing up, inflating a palm tree and putting up a deckchair – which was so funny.

With the lovely Jooles was our winner.

After the game the delegates had an evening to themselves, and to get ready for  the following day where we had planned 3 classes, including one video from Wilna.

The delegates all got struck into the classes – which we will share in another blog post,

and I just had to take a selfie, which was photobombed by Penelope – lol x.

 

We also had my son, James helping out, and he was made-up that Starbucks was on site and he could nip down for one or two during the weekend – lol.

 

And to finish off Saturday, we had the lovely Elaine attend from Stix2 to demonstrate their products with two lovely make & take gifts.

Sunday followed the same format, after breakfast we had 3 more classes, raffle prize draws, challenge winners and of course a photographs of us all in our aprons, and like I said the weekend ended far too quickly, and it was time for us all to head home.

But before I sign off,  I wanted to share an extra photo of us and Wendy in our Paris Cardigans – Wendy had attended our Paige workshop in March with this lovely cardigan, and as we were going to Paris shortly afterward, Sam set herself the task to locate Paris cardigans for us – love them.

Well thats all for now, but we want to thank each delegate for attending our retreat, all the lovely feedback we received, and we are looking forward to seeing all the delegates again in the future.

Come back soon to find out more of what we are up to.

Jackie xxx