Project for June (written by Judith)

Well, slightly later than normal,we'd like to let you know what our chosen project is to be from the June edition of Craft Stamper magazine. Elaine has chosen the project this time, and it is 'Flutterby Flag Book' on page 16 by Willy Anderson. The lovely vibrant colours against the black are really striking, and the butterfly theme running through the book pulls a large amount of different stamps together.
Willy has suggested the option of a yearbook, or using tags for the flags, so it will be interesting to see what we all come up with. Jo has made a start and you can see her sneaky peek here

As you know, at the beginning of the month, we went on our mini Retreat near Bedford. We had four days of chatting, cooking, and crafting together. We had two adjoining appartments,which were stuffed to the brim with our crafty stash. We spent one day attending a class with Linda Elbourne at LB Crafts, making a hanging consisting of three mini canvases. We worked on our circle journals, making pages for each other, and trying our hand at skills that we taught each other. Elaine taught us how to make leafy backgrounds, using leaves from her garden and Adirondack inks. I taught the girls how to add beading to Stampbord, and they made a necklace. We didn't achieve everything that we had planned, but there is always next time! 

The farm where we stayed was brilliant, we made friends with the resident dogs, and admired the horses. The owner even brought her chickens round to meet us! She had a very large great Dane called Dufus, who was a little disconcerting, but if you were brave, and fronted him out, he was okay. 

As well as the four of us meeting up, we took our Art dolls, and photographed them together too. It was lovely to see each other's work in the flesh,because we only get to see photographs too.

We have lots of happy memories of our time together, and were very sad when we came to say goodbye to each other. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can meet up again.