Craft Retreat in Beamsley

A couple of friends have asked to see what we did at the Beamsley Babes retreat this time. September is usually "Do your own thing". And usually I make some Christmas cards for my Dad. But this time I thought I would make a start on my own. I recently bought one of Tim Holtz's blueprints range and wanted to use all 4 in the set to justify having bought it in the first place!!
I really enjoyed using them as they are not my usual sort of Christmas stamps. And here is what I made.

So these are the stamps. My friend Liz had the snowman with dies set so I was able to borrow the dies to die-cut my snowman.

My next choice was the toy soldier. I thought this was my least favourite but I really enjoyed using it.

Next up was the Christmas tree and I did a few variations on this one.

The punched green strip was a new Woodware punch I had just been given. You can set it to punch just an edge or a double sided strip which I thought was a great idea!!
Then my final image was the snowflake.

The snowflakes in the background were embossed with a fine crystal glitter powder but sadly that doesn't show up in the photo.
Janet also lent me another Tim Holtz stamp of a Santa and this is the card I made with him:

Janet also had a little extra project to try of an advent calendar made from a small block of wood. This was a lovely fun thing to make and I was quite chuffed when I finished it.

The numbered tiles just flick over towards the bell as you count down to Christmas. 

So thanks Janet for the idea.They all looked quite different as people put their own twist on it.
Talking of inspiration, my friend Liz made me a lovely box. The image was a stamp I had previously given her and she had used pyrography onto the wooden box. How cool is that!!

We all had a great weekend. It just goes far too quickly. But we always come home with lots of ideas and things we want to try.
Thanks again Linda for being such a good friend and crafting buddy ... it would not be the same without you.
Siobhan xx