A touch of teal as we retreat!

Happy Saturday Polly lovelies! I am so excited about today, as it means that I will be on a weekend long scrapbooking retreat, Camp Paper Scissors, with some of my favourite ladies, including our Polly girls Carol and Kate!

I don’t know how many of you have been on a scrapbooking retreat but if you haven’t you must! It is such fun! I had been on a number of retreats with my friends, but last year when I went to Camp Paper Scissors it was the first time I had been on a retreat with people that I didn’t know. Not that it mattered because by the end of weekend I had made friends for life!

Today’s pocket scrapbooking and traditional layout both document last years’ Camp Paper Scissors. I decided to use all of the teal elements out of the Passionfruit Soufflé, Salted Caramel Icecream and the Peppermint Tea add-on. It was so great that we were able to use teal elements and raise money for Ovarian Cancer awareness through Polly!

The colours of the kits went perfectly with the coloured Instax film I used to document our time at Camp Paper Scissors. In addition to the kits, the only thing I added was some stamps designed by my fellow camper, Kellie Winnell.

First off I tackled my pocket pages. Now, in pulling together the supplies from the kit that I wanted to use I grabbed all of the teal elements from across the three kits, plus some of the transparencies that I felt conveyed the right sentiments about my time at the retreat. White and kraft cardstock were the bases of my pages.

The left hand side of the layout has pictures of me and my mess, along with my fellow campers. The Studio Calico alphas went perfectly and the transparencies mounted on kraft paper were great, and they had hints of blue and white. I then used teal ink and stamps to make an arrowed patterned paper to mount my photos on. Arrows were a great way to also tie the pages together - I am so in love with the silver arrow embellishments in both of the kit! They are too cute!

Camp Paper Scissors grew from the Project Life Australia Facebook Group and was the brainchild of Polly’s own Carol, and Michelle Stokes. It was a great chance for Project Lifers to come together with like-minded people and craft their hearts out! Carol and Michelle did an amazing job and had so many surprises for us – including videos from Amy Tan, Ali Edwards and Becky Higgins!! You should have heard the room scream; it was our version of rock stars!

I decided to use the Bo Bunny – Baby Bump – Miracle patterned paper as a base for the pages, including my traditional layout. You can see how I have used snippets of the paper across all of my pages. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I love using paper this way!

I love this layout and what it documents – Becky Higgins mentioned our retreat and us! Definite superstar moment! For this layout I got out my mist again and started with drops of ink, I then worked from there with my layers. By the way, how great are the wood grain enamel dots in the Salted Caramel Ice-cream kit that I peppered through my layouts? I think I need another 20 packets of them! Also, to keep the arrow theme going, I stitched a couple of arrows on the page too!

So, now you’ve seen how much fun we had at Camp Paper Scissors last year I can guarantee that as you are reading this we are having even more fun at this year’s camp! Now, going to a retreat is no small task – it is 2.5 days of intense scrapping! So, what do you take? The first few retreats I went on my answer was everything! But now, while I still have a car full, I am a bit more strategic in what I take!

In this photo are all of my supplies for camp. In my Raskog cart I have my washi, embellishments and stamps – essential items for all of my pages. In the blue trolley bag I have all of my papers and kits that I want to use – packed by collection or kit. In the tubs I have my Project Life core kits, tools (pens, adhesive, ink, scissors, cutter, cutting mat, grid paper), a natural light lamp, two containers of alphabet stickers and all my memorabilia for my pages. I also have my 2013 albums (which I just finished!!!) to show my fellow campers. To add into this before I go will be my Selphy to print my photos, my laptop and my snacks!

So that is what I take to a retreat now for the weekend and I know that I will use the majority of what I bring. Before I used to take the entire craft room just in case, now I take post-it’s to stick on my pages to remind me to add in things that I may have left behind.

Anyway, I hope that you have all enjoyed taking a look into what goes on at a retreat. Have a great weekend, I know I will be, I will be at Camp Paper Scissors with my gorgeous new friends! Lauren xx