Fun Weekend

Well what can I say about this past weekend that would sum it up, other than I do not think I have laughed so much in my life.

It all came about when PAPERARTSY decided to hold a retailers training day, to educate shop owners and teachers about the fabulous PaperArtsy products, including FRESCO PAINTS and GRUNGE PASTE.

Myself, MICHELLE and GILLIAN were invited to go along to the training day too. partly to help out and partly to brush up our skills with paint techniques etc. (go and see both their blogs, them make awesome stuffs)

Gillian got the train down from Scotland to a station near me and Michelle, we picked her up and set off.

Here we are in the car.

We sang and laughed and tweeted all the way to Art from the Heart, where Michelle was teaching a taster class for an hour. 

While she was busy with her class, Gillian and I mooched around the shop and chatted with DYAN and KATE

Here we all are just before we set off again..

On our way again we drove down to Essex, to PaperArtsy HQ. As soon as we arrived we jumped in the van and went to the training venue to get everything set up. it took us about 3 hours, but looked great. 

Just look at all those awesome stamps!

See that huge..HUUUUUUGE banner at the back, I helped put that together, and took it down all by myself. it was all attached to this weird metal frame and trying to figure it out was like being on the Krypton Factor!

Lots of samples were placed around for people to see and take photographs. All the projects that I had made were on show..

Once we were all set up we went back to PaperArtsy HQ, where the very lovely Leandra and Mark had invited us to stay with their family. We were treated to a great bbq. We also got to see where the stamps are made, that was so very cool. 

Here is Mr.PaperArtsy. 

Sunday morning we were all up early and off to the venue about 8.15am, where we did final prep for the day. 

People started to arrive, claim their seats and wander around the samples on show. I got to try out my painted apron for the first time..

We then got busy,busy. Leandra and LIN taught around 20 samples between them. Everyone was having a great time getting messy.

At lunchtime we stuffed ourselves silly with this gorgeous buffet.

and followed it up with these deserts..

The only problem of the day was the heat, boy was it warm....roasting in fact. but the venue staff kept us supplied with jugs of iced water all day. 

With all that food inside us and the heat it was hard to stay awake lol but the excitement of the wimbledon win kept us alert, and we managed to complete all out samples. 

This one is my interpretation of the techniques taught by Lin.

I was totally thrilled that I got to meet JO, I had missed her at Ally Pally so it was great to chat with her on Sunday. Jo is the designer of the JOFY stamps that I used to make my girls with big hair. 

Such a fantastic weekend, with some of the nicest people I have ever met. Huge thanks to Leandra and Mark for their generosity and hospitality.