Big, Huge, Enormous, Announcement!

UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE NEW DETAILS. THIS POST IN FUTURE WILL ALWAYS APPEAR AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG.

Please check below for the latest updates and sneek peeks.

Two Scrap Ladies

are very scared, but proud to bring you

A Magnetic Year in a Day

Now - 31st October 2009
10am to whenever!

Ludgershall, Nr Andover, Hants
2 Scrap ladies, 2 scrap styles, 2 kits to choose from

1 fab result!

We'll provide 1 magnetic board, framed in untreated pine softwood and a kit to make calendar layouts for each month of the year Kits will contain all the papers, and embellishments you need, and illustrated instructions for each month's layout. This way, you can come along and work at your own pace without fear of having to finish by tea time.
We'll work in a warm and friendly workshop environment with plenty of room, a kitchen and a dedicated 'beverage gal' to keep you continually refreshed.

The day now includes lunch, since we have relocated to a slightly cheaper hall, and details of this will be given nearer the time.
The catch? You will have to stain or paint the frame at home, and you have to choose which kit you'd like to work with!

Price Now - £75 per person

Deposit: £25 with booking

Then, for the those who would like to split the payment:
An Interim payment of £25 by 25th September 2009
Balance £25 by 25th October 2009

We are limiting numbers too, so please book as soon as you can! Here's the skinny:

From the blog: 'Contact Us' - click here and email us - let us know how many spaces you'd like to book, and give us names and if necessary, an email address for each name. We'll then email you an Invoice for the deposit.
Alternatively you can phone us to book tel: 07968 151450 (which is Julias' mobile cos she remembers to turn hers on and Ally doesnt!).
The balance will be due by 25th October 2009. If you want to break the payment down further and make a second payment by 25th September 2009 please indicate that when you send your deposit and we'll send you a interim invoice as well. You can pay by post with a cheque, or you can use Paypal - details will be forwarded when you book.

Here's the small print - please read!

Your deposit is not refundable in the event of your being unable to get to the event after booking a place; we've kept it as small an amount as possible to help mitigate potential loss. Interim and/or balance payments will only be refunded where we have two weeks notice in writing; not turning up on the day will not automatically entitle you to a refund. Your place and kit choice is transferable to another person, of course.

In the highly unlikely event of our having to cancel the event, refunds will be issued within 24 hours; if it helps to reassure you, we are 'ring-fencing' the payments and not using them to fund the event.

Ludgershall is incredibly easy to reach, literally 10 minutes west of Andover. When you book, you'll receive proper, girly directions that include local landmarks to help you travel easily through local roads! If you'd like to consider making a weekend of it, or if you're likely to be chauffered to the event, there's plenty to see and do; walking and sightseeing. Ludgershall is for example, minutes from the River Test and all the attractions that has to offer, probably ten miles from Stonehenge, 20 miles from Salisbury and Winchester...so a day out for the driver would be easy! Local B&Bs and hotels are plentiful - the nearest is a Premier Inn.

Any queries, please feel free to email either of us (Ally or Julia) and we'll endeavour to answer them.

Here's another

You will expect me to be a lithe and supple person when we meet - all the angles that I'm experiencing to photograph these tasters 'for the sake of mah art, dahlink'. But that just ain't so!
Had fun with this today...sunshine on the worktable, stable door open and crispy leaves dropping off the russian vine - and actually scaring the beejeesers out of me at one stage, so carried away was I! Hope you like the rich colours. Not my doing of course, you can thank Basic Grey for that!

My take on Julia

As she says, we first met at the inaugural meeting of the Ludgershall Scrappers. I went along feeling very nervous about meeting all these fellow croppers who I didnt know, but was soon put at ease by this very friendly and welcoming person - Julia.

Many of the things I've done since then I put down to her, though I am sure she will deny it. My utter love affair with my Cricut is totally her fault, since she showed me her little bug, let me borrow it for the weekend, and then ordered me my big bug. She's encouraged me into teaching the odd class at the notsolocaltomecraftshop and now this - 2SL!

I can't pin a certain style to her work, but then I am bad about labelling things. I do know I love her way with colour and pattern. Love the way she can put together papers I just wouldnt have looked twice at and make me want to buy them, and hanker after stamps she has used in her cards. The only drawback is her insistence on journalling, but we're safe for a calendar right? Who journals on a calendar?

I really wish we'd met back when she had her shop - I bet it was fab.
:-)

Ally, Scrap Lady. By Julia.

I met Ally on UK Scrappers. She bravely came to the inaugural Ludgershall Crop and is now an honourable founder member. If we gave out titles and capitalised, you could describe her a A Founder Member of Ludgershall Crop.
When we first met, I was hugely intimidated by her. She was in the middle of a photography course and was scrapping some of her photos. Wow. Those poppies - an amazing LO. She was also just about to start getting kits together for her first time as a teacher on the UK Scrappers cyber-crop. The kits were for beading projects and because she's incredibly patient, the classes were a huge success. It's possible that even at our very first meeting, it became obvious to me that she had more knowledge of scrapbooking than I knew existed. No wonder I was intimidated.
But all that got blown away really quickly. Turns out that she loves a good chat, is not afraid of having an opinion and like most scrappers, needs a little chocolate to feed her scrapping mojo. And of course, she has a laugh that truly reveals her sense of humour, eye wateringly wicked!
If I had to, I would describe her style as clean, graphic even, with an obviously good eye for colour and balance (the photographer in her I suppose). I think her LOs are always well composed and her Cricut Design Studio skills are really evident in titleing and embellishments. One of her specialities is 'little'. Her attention to detail is all about getting the small right so that the big picture is perfect. Here's an example - she's chosen to use lots of double sided papers for her calendar - she wants you to have a choice within her kit so that you can control your own big picture. (I'm a fascist and decided that with my kit, you get what I choose!)

She will be more nervous on the day than I am. Only because I've been more involved in this sort of stuff. Believe me, a scrapping session with her will reveal techniques and ideas that you'll be thrilled to try, but she's incredibly modest and so will be a bit scared to begin with. Make the most of this because about half an hour after our first coffee and plate of biscuits, this will change and the chat will start. You're gonna love her.

Ok, a big clue

Huge in fact..good photography means that you can see which month I'm using this for. And more to the point - it includes HANDWRITING! Golly gee, you book to come to a fun event and make a few LOs and they expect you to do your own writing. Oh yeah. But don't be scared..there will be people around with enough nerve to help if you really feel the need to not write, and remember, it'll only be on show for a month!

Are you starting to get a feel for this Scrap Lady's chosen papers? Yeah, I'm a Basic Grey junkie and this Kit will be based on the 'Lemonade' Collection Pack.

Something for everyone!

Dont forget ladies that at some point soon, we will have to ask you to choose which kit you will want to have on the day, which brings me to one of the papers in one of the kits (ok hands up its mine), its funky, a bit loud and out there, and I totally love those mental butterflies. Don't worry though, the reverse side is an equally nice but very subtle pattern which would work equally well with the calendar.

Mr Dunnit has been working very hard on the frames for the calendars, and will be offering them in a choice of oak or ash so they will look just gorgeous stained, or you can of course paint them to match your own decor.

See we try to cater for all tastes.

:-)

Not-so-sneaky

Well, I got to thinking (!). Here I am, turning and twisting my bendy body so that I can photograph the calendar layouts in a fun and dare I say, at a provocative angle

to provide some fun pictures for you to look at whilst anticipating our Magnetic Year in A Day thing. And of course, I come upon the understanding that they can't be 'sneak' peeks because you aren't sneaky and I'm posting them deliberately. Of course, if I log in tomorrow to find that all 12 of my proposed calendar pages are here published, that will be a sneak view for sure. But that's not going to happen. I know this with immense surety. And I'm willing to have a prize waiting on the day for the first of you to tell me how I can be so sure. Meanwhile, enjoy a preview angle of a page I did for one the months ending in 'ary'. Lord, how much fun is this!

Something Old Something New

Sometimes its nice revisit something older, whether its an old favorite or something you didnt get first time round.

I have always thought skeleton leaves were rather useless things. I didnt like the colours they came in, didnt really know what to do with them, well, you get it I just didnt like them.

Till now.

So even though this isnt anything to do with weddings, we have something old - the leaves, something new - the yummy if bright and bold American Crafts paper and something blue - one of my Anemone paper flowers.

So I guess its my turn

So I guess its my turn to introduce myself and tell you a bit about me - those who know me can go and make a cup of tea or something for 5 mins.!

I'm Ally the other Scraplady. I have always done handicrafts ever since the dinner lady in jr school taught me to crochet. Mostly I quilted, beaded, made a few cards, did a fair bit of photography and spent a too long on the internet. Then one visit to the US to a quilt show, I kept finding scrapbooking stuff and people talking about it everywhere. I was quite taken with the idea, and as a keen photographer it seemed the perfect hobby. The idea itched away in the back of my mind for a few months longer, until the end of 2004 when I decided to have a go. I went online had a look around and soon found UK Scrappers, where I've spent too much of my time ever since.

My Style? I love colour as well as pattern and the two are equally important to me. I can't have one if the other doesn't work with it. Photos always feature (except in our calendar of course). I love fiddly paper engineering and coming up with new variations of things for embellishments. Most of all I love my Cricut and the Design Studio, and most of my work features some sort of Cricut use.

Inspiration? Karen Burniston and her paper engineering projects are just amazing, and I want them all, I wish I could come up with stuff like this. Other than that, the posters on UKS are my contant source of inspiration.

What do I bring to this? Unbounded enthusiasm. I am the energizer bunny of ideas. Julia innocently mentioned this idea over lunch one day and I was off before she could take the diet coke away "you could do this" and "you could do that" and "oo what about?". Pretty soon you became we, and so 2SL was born. Oh and I have some experience in teaching - online (I did some bead classes for uks cybercrops) and one2one tutorials for the Cricut and Design Studio. I love to teach other people, and share my enthusiasm.

So that brings us to todays sneakpeek. I am going to have you sewing! Bwahahah! If the thought of actually stitching on a LO brings terror to your little hearts, fear not, there is always faux sewing with a pen, but then you will miss out on this very pretty sparkly red thread.

:-)

Scrap Lady Julia. By er, Julia.

I've gotta history and it might be a bit boring to rake over, history is after all the operative word. We thought you might like a bit of background though, so that when we meet at the Magnetic Year in a Day workshop, we'll pretty much know each other already.

So......I was introduced to stamping by my sweet sissy, who had moved to California. She sent me an Easter card, embossed in gold and coloured in. On the back she'd written - 'PS I made this!' and I practically booked a flight to visit just to find out how! Later, much later, I opened a small shop (Stamping Ground) in my home village - Ludgershall. I sold rubber stamps and ran workshops. It was such a great five years. Eventually, scrap booking started to arrive and I resisted. I couldn't work out why it was fun to spend so much time fiddling about with each page. Until of course, I stepped out of being a card maker to try. By the time I learned that I didn't have to scrap chronologically or develop a new arty style, I was half way down the slippery slope!

I don't have a style to call my own. But I can tell you that I like my stuff colourful, I'm not too afraid of pattern and whilst I don't mind it (a project) being a bit time consuming, I certainly do not want it to be be difficult. This for me, is meant to be fun. I tend not to measure unless it's absolutely necessary, and I'm OK to cut out with scissors even if the straight lines end up a little wonky - but I also totally understand that others can't. I think this is why although I admire it, I cannot reproduce a graphic, clean style! In terms of ability? I can scrap - we can all scrap. I don't believe it's about anyone being better than anyone else (although there are some techniques that can be mastered) -it's all a question of liking a style. My favourite scrapper in the world is Helen Miles.

I met Ally on UK Scrappers; I had by then decided to try to set up a monthly crop - I think more than anything I love the social side of this craft thing - and Ally was a 'founder member'. We became 2 Scrap Ladies over a plate of egg and chips whilst ruminating on the lack of 'event' type workshops in our area. In the past we have both happily swapped a lie in for a two hour car journey to attend something scrap-related or project based, and I couldn't shake off this magnetic calendar idea. I've been involved in organising card making days (we call 'em Marathons') locally for a handful of years, so I have been able to bring experience to our arrangements - planning and kitting etc; I'm pretty good at that stuff. So, as I remember it, Ally was foolish enough to suggest that WE did something about the calendar idea, and here we are. It was very definitely Ally's idea.

I blog at www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com

and PS: the photo is NOT the July page from my kit for your calendar. More sneaks soon, promise!

Careful hands...

..are right now producing the frames with the magnetic insides. See - you'll be able to paint, stain or varnish to suit your whim. I don't want to create a stampede, but on the day, when you finally choose your frame - choose will be the operative word. Because those careful hands are going to make frames in a variety of wood. He believes that you'll enjoy the luxury of choice. We believe him. Unless it causes a fight!

BIG Enormous announcement Part II

NEWS * NEWS*

One of the Scrap Ladies (and it wasn't Ally) has been involved in a cock up on the venue front, so as total professionals would, we've had to change the venue and the day:

A Magnetic Year in a Day
NOW on Saturday 31st October 2009

in Ludgershall, Wiltshire

Price (change to) £75.00

Depending on your location, this is plus or minus six miles from the original location. This is a firm, no change, guaranteed date and location; we recognise that a change isn't great, but, the more we thought about it, the more positive it became!

1. It's a little bit cheaper to hire - therefore we are having it for longer...less pressure, and

2. It's a little bit cheaper to hire so you pay a little less to us and...

3. It's a little bit cheaper to hire so we're going to do a lunch

4. It's a Saturday - no rushing home to get ready for a working day

5. Stay the night locally and make the most of Sunday in the area too

6. It's Hallowe'en - we can have even more fun with that running through the day like a silvery cobweb thread......

oh, and don't say it's only the other Scrap Lady who ever publishes litle sneak peeks. These are meant to help you decide

which Kit you're going to want to use, so take notice!

Sneak Peek

Ok here is a sneaky peek, a montage of some of the goodies from just one of the kit options.

More piccies to follow soon...

The Journey

Several people have talked to me about how lovely it would be to come to 'A Magnetic Year in A Day', if only they lived closer. My answer to that is to check your map - please! A couple of girls have discovered that Andover, although 2 counties away, is actually only an hours journey - it may well be more possible than you think! Especially as it'll be an early Sunday morning..perhaps the one day of the week when early traffic really is at a minimum!
For example, from here, I can get to the NEC in about 2 hours, Oxford in just over an hour, Swindon in 40 minutes, the New Forest and South Coast in an hour and just over, so it may be possible! It will be worth it, promise!