Faith - My Last DT Inspiration for Christmas Card Challenges

Hello everyone!

It's time to post my DT inspirational card for the last time. My six months of designing a weekly Christmas card for Christmas Card Challenges has come to an end. The challenge for this week is to design a card using "Faith" as the theme. Designing a card based on the whole reason we celebrate Christmas is very special. I decided to go with mostly cream with a touch of gold and green.


This card is made entirely with scraps and I'm very happy with the outcome.

Dies for this project were Spellbinder's Fleur de Lis Squares and Circles, as well as Sprig With Berries by Elizabeth Craft Designs Dies. The stamp is an old JustRite stamp that I think is no longer available. The 1/4" organza ribbon in olive and pale gold work out wonderfully with the colours. I wondered about putting jingle bells on the card, but the card needed a little more gold than just the gold embossing, and they are thought of a part of Christmas.

The following photos are just different views of the 5 1/2" square card to show the layers and how it was constructed. I wanted to make a card box to go with it, but I didn't have the time. If I still get to it before Christmas, I'll post it and link it to this posting.





Thank you so much for checking in on me today and having a look at this week's challenge design. Stop by the Christmas Card Challenges blog to view this week's design team inspiration, or click below to visit their blog.

Alanna -  DT coordinator 
Sabrina - That's me!
Sparkle-- Owner
Happy Christmas card making!

Honeymoon Bay, BC Retreat - Four days of Scrapbooking and Relaxing

This isn't a craft post, but I want to share with you about time I spent at a four day scrapbooking retreat! MY FIRST SCARPPING RETREAT EVER. Those four days were wonderful! I actually had time to do a little scrapbooking for myself rather than preparing for classes!

Scrapbook Parade has two retreats every year. One in April, and one in November. The November one I was told was the best one to go to because it is all decorated for Christmas with three large beautiful trees, all decorated, throughout the facilities. And where is this retreat located? It' in Honeymoon Bay, BC. Click here if you want to read about the lodge/retreat.

We had 34 people in attendance, and had to use two rooms to fit us all in with our stuff. Here are some photos of everyone busily creating. These are photos from all four days in the large room where there were 24 working away. The first two are taken by me in the evening when some where in the hot tub and others getting their PJs on before continuing.



These are taken by Carol, owner of Scrapbook Parade.

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There was someone that brought their own little tree to put on the table were she worked. Loved it!


Then there is the room that I was in with 9 other women.



This next photo is of me along with a friend that has taken classes from me and has helped me so much with kitting for classes. She's been a great help to me. I'm the one further back.

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Here are the photos I took of the 3 trees.




And here is our chef Kevin. Great food!

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While there I took the opportunity to take a long walk every day. It is so beautiful there, I couldn't just sit and scrapbook the whole time! The first day I went for a walk with two other women and because it was out first day there we got off too late start and just walked around the Lodge and went to the creek to the lake. But the battery in my camera went dead so I didn't get any photos of the creek and lake on our first walk. It's so beautiful there, I wanted to take a ton of photos.

We started out to see the Aslan Garden.


The building behind me houses the hot tub. We then walked around the grounds.





Day two it ended up only being two of us that went for a walk and it was raining. Not hard, but after an hour and 15 mins we were starting to get wet. These are some of the summer cottages not far from the lake and lodge.


We learned from a local that in the winter there are about 600 people living there, but in the Summer, it's five times that many!

You can see in the photos that it was foggy as well.


This creek ends up at the lake.



We took a different route to the lake this day, and this is what it looked like in the rain and fog.


There's this tiny island in the lake at this beach, and it has a building of some sort on it. Not very clear in the fog, but interesting.



Our day three walk had four of us going, and we took a lot more pictures that day. Bear with me, I just want to share these photos for those that couldn't go to the retreat, and for those that might want to come for April or November 2014.


We saw a lot of birds that day, but we couldn't get pictures of them. But we did see a lot of grouping of trees like these.


And, some of them had a few different kind of mosses on them, like this tree.


We also found this tree memorial. Most of trees are in memory of someone or a couple that has passed on. It was very touching and lovely to walk there.


We went to the lake the same way as we did the day before to see it in clearer weather.



And we took pictures of each other. I'm in the middle.



We then walked the other direction, like we did the first day we walked. There is this cute little market (closed now until Spring) and one of the buildings is this tiny little church/ It actually has a pulpit, and two one person benches inside. A local informed us that they actually have had 2 or 3 weddings in there. I guess it is Honeymoon Bay!


Here is another of the buildings with a little pool or pond.


We then went off to the creek to follow it to the lake.







Now we arrive! And guess what, not only can we see the force of the creek running into the lake a fair bit, but there were a couple of men and their dogs fishing!



Isn't it just gorgeous scenery here!

The night before the 4 day people were to leave, Kevin the chef, took out a tall ladder and took this group photo of us all.

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Well for those of you that want to go to this four day or five day retreat in April...I wonder what it looks like in the spring? We had someone this time that came all the way from Saskatchewan! If you'd like to come contact Carol Volk at scrappix@scrapbookparade.ca. You'll love it! You can even book a one hour message, or a facial, pedicure & manicure. Use the hot tub and just relax, eat great food, and scrapbook all hours!

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I enjoyed at my very first retreat. I'd sure go again!

Thank you for stopping by.