Take me away – Birds of a Feather

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

And she’s back!

Whose back?

Paige Taylor Evans of course!

We were thrilled to hear that Paige had had such an amazing weekend with Birds of a Feather that she wanted to return – and better still before she returns to the US next year!

So as if by magic, we’ve only gone and done it again!

Paige is coming to The Village Hotel in Walsall, which is literally at junction 10 of the M6 to teach four amazing classes using her brand new, hot off the press collection, which is being launched at CHA in January.

It’s so new we aren’t even allowed a sneak preview, but I’m sure it will be as amazing as ‘Take Me Away’ and ‘Fancy Free’..

Sounds like fun?

What could be better than a day of crafting, laughter and ‘you’ time?

So if you want to be footloose and ‘fancy free’ and ‘taken away from it all’ then why not book onto our amazing workshop?

Spaces are definitely limited – we only went live last night and we’ve been inundated with bookings so far, so if it does sound ‘right up your street’ don’t delay in reserving your place – and if your still unsure whether to book or not, why not check out some of the comments that we received from our November ’16 workshop?

After all, birds of a feather flock together…

How time flies…

Where does time go? In terms of ‘birdy’ talk it flies… And literally.

I cannot believe that two weeks ago today we were starting the first of two amazing workshops with Paige Taylor Evans!

Now we are in the throes of both planning our first retreat in May 2017 at the Bromsgrove Hotel & Spa and a possible workshop in early March, again with Paige…

I think this photo sums up why we do what we do!

All the hard work pays of when we think back to that magical day!

One other guy who I mustn’t forget to mention is James, our honorary Bird of a Feather! His help to make both days a success was invaluable – thank you James xxx

And equally, without Paige, the whole event wouldn’t have been possible – so thank you Paige too xxx

Making memories is what these events are all about, not just crafting or scrapping!

Check out some of the wonderful comments that we received after the weekend.

One that really stood out for me was from Madie Ager-Warner… “Almost home! I echo the same sentiments as everyone else, a lovely day spent with fabulous people! To quote Sam ‘to friendship’. Really looking forward to the event in May. Much love, have a good week everyone. x

I’m not at the stage yet where I know ‘how many sleeps’ it is, but you can bet it won’t be long before I do!

So on that note, I’m off to craft… Enjoy your weekend xxx

This time last week….

Time flies when you’re having fun and we certainly had a lot of that this time last weekend…

We can’t believe that it’s seven days ago that Birds of a Feather were in the throws of their second workshop over at Ansty Hall, with four stunning classes taught by the international designer Paige Taylor Evans.

Using her latest collection ‘Take me Away’ for Pink Paislee, Paige didn’t disappoint with her fabulous layouts, featuring her signature style!

Her first layout was ‘Too cute’

Using an adorable floral cut file, I think most of us had a ‘eureka’ moment when a simple technique was used to back the patterned papers to the cut file! If you’re not in the know, then you’ll have to wait until next time to discover what it is!

‘Awesome’ – need I say more was simply that!

Now I’m certainly one for having used many a patterned manufacturers strip, but seriously… this stunning ampersand is literally decorated with 20 different selvages!

Who would have thought of that?

Paige has the most beautiful handwriting – when we mentioned this, she replied that her husband Chris has said that her handwriting has changed three times since he’s been married to her! You can’t deny – she’s a scrapbooker through and through!

I ‘LOVE THIS’ too!

Big titles are so in at the moment, and those that are symmetrical in the number of their letters seem to aesthetically work so much better!

Cute huh? It’s so effective…

All too soon, it was time for Paige to teach the final layout of the weekend…

‘Sweet Life’ is the epitome of fancy cutting!

This class involved some serious cutting! Not for the faint hearted, it involved three fussy cut flowers and blooms from three separate papers! I’d have been having minor palpitations – not because of the detailed fussy cutting, but because of the fact that you had to cut into three entirely different papers!

Another stunning layout to finish off the most memorable of weekends!

To say we had a great time simply doesn’t do the weekend justice! IT WAS AMAZING and judging by the comments, it’s a sentiment that you all share too…

So on behalf of Birds of a Feather…

THANK YOU PAIGE xxx