Saturday 12 July 2014

A day at Birds in the Barn

I have had a very busy few days. On weds I travelled down South, on 4 trains. I was met by the lovely Leandra from PaperArtsy and off we went to PA headquarters. It takes around 5 hours from my house to hers. A quick catchup and a cuppa and then straight to work prepping some exciting new products. Keep your eyes peeled for sneaks coming soon.

On Thursday we were all up bright and early, Leandra gave me a lift over to the Marks Tey hotel, where the Summerfest was taking place. This is a great 4 day event hosted by Janet and her staff from Birds in the Barn. 

This is the quirky mini book that we were to make on the day, entitled 'Dreamy Bird and the Doughnut Tree'


My ladies started to arrive, and though I was super nervous they were all so lovely and made me feel at ease .  We began work straight away, and wow did these girls work hard. As you can see the room was a comfortable size with plenty of room for people to move around. 



Jayne obliged with an action shot.


We worked on lots of techniques involving grunge paste and stencils and stamps and paints. 


Here is Deborah, working on her book covers. 


Sally really got into the bumping method of stencilling. 


Ginny was a star, being my helper for the day. her book cover turned out brilliant. Here she is painting grass. 


Here is Denise, blending and shading flowers through a stencil. 


Here is Margaret adding stencilled stems to her front cover.


Karen, concentrating hard on her front cover layout.


back to Jayne and another great action shot lol I totally loved the colours that Jayne used, she created some beautiful blending. 


We were treated to tea and coffee throughout the day, a 2 course lunch and then in the afternoon the hugest doughnuts arrived. We worked right up to the last minute. I had hoped we could have made tags to go inside the book, but everyone went home with blank tags and instructions, so I hope they are having fun playing with those. 

Here is a final pic of us all with our books. 


Huge thanks to each of these ladies, they are the ones who made it a wonderful day. Thanks also to Janet and her staff for inviting me. 

While I was teaching in this room, the wonderful Lin Brown was across the hall teaching in another room. Once our clearup was done, Lin and I set off and following instructions in an epic text from Leandra we found our way to a really nice pub. Inside we found Leandra and Mark and Jo Firth Young. We had also been joined by a lovely gentleman. Mister. Treasure Gold. He is the most fascinating man and we all had a great evening. In fact we  had a meal then stayed and chatted till midnight. 



This one deserves a caption... 



Such a great night, it is always a pleasure to catch up with Lin and Jo...Mark,leandra and Hans were perfect hosts. Thanks to everyone. 

Friday we were up early again and straight to work, it is always busy,busy at headquarters, always so much to do....I became an temporary helper elf, and sat painting paint labels. At one point Leandra and I popped out to a local award winning butchers, where I bought some of their amazing sausages. 

I bought 32!!! I don't normally buy so many sausages at once, but these are not available online, and they are just so scrummy. So I stocked up and brought them home. 


All too soon it was time to leave, and I set off on my mammoth journey home, another 4 trains. There were a few delays on the tracks, and I finally got in the house just after midnight.... wow, we crammed so much into 3 days lol

Darcy x

8 comments:

  1. the class looks great fun and everyone was working so hard! Looking forward to sneak peaks...always like a sneak peak!

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  2. Sounds like you had a great time. Wonderful how nerves dissolve when the students make you feel at ease. I love the quirky little book design. I love the look of the large space you had to work in. It is nice to be able to move easily around a classroom. Julie Ann xxx

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  3. Great news that there are more of your designs in the works, hoping for some stencils, especially of your flowers & stems.

    Wish i could have been there to join in all the fun & taste the huge doughnuts!

    Fab projects, loved seeing Debs finished book up close on her blog & a lovely touch with the twigs, banner and beads.

    Always great to teach those who are eager to learn... Glad you enjoyed the experience, now all i need to know is when you are going to be teaching in my neck of the woods.

    Great blog post, tfs about the sausages, we are partial to a good flavourful sausage, hope you enjoy all your different flavours:-) xxx

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  4. Great post, glad the workshop went well and think the project looked fabulous!

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  5. looks like a fab class - just a little jealous (well a big bit!) - how many sausages lol xx

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  6. Thanks a lot for sharing all this Darcy, so much fun for you and everyone surely in your workshop... The mini-album looks amazing! I'm looking forward to seeing the new products or releases haha!! :) xx

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  7. Looks like a great venue. Lots of light and space.

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  8. looks like a fab class - and that dessert on your table looks just the right thing to finish off the day….ohhh new releases - August 3rd? hope so, I'll have birthday money burning a hole in my pocket!! hope those sausages were good. xx

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