Girls Day Out

Hello sweet peeps and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a fabulous day.

A little while ago, I mentioned that I had a fantastic day out with four amazing ladies .. Heather Jacob, Astrid Maclean, Adriana Bolzon and Helen Wallace.   Not only are these ladies amazingly talented as scrappers but they are also the sweetest, loveliest people you could ever hope to meet.  I feel so blessed to be able to call them all 'friend' and to have been included in this wonderful day.
The main reason for this 'Girl's Day Out' was so we could meet with Astrid in person.  Heather and Astrid had already met a few years ago, but the rest of us only knew her online.  Those of you who are familiar with Astrid will know that she actually lives in Scotland but, at the moment she is in Australia visiting relatives in Melbourne.  Luckily for us, she was able to come to Adelaide for a few days and Heather arranged for all of us to get together.  We ended up in Hahndorf and had the most wonderful day just chatting .. laughing .. chatting .. eating .. shopping .. chatting (LOL!!) ..  it was awesome!!
 A kind passer-by took this photo for us.

For those of you who don't know us from right to left is Adriana Bolzon, Helen Wallace, Astrid Maclean, Heather Jacob and myself.

We also exchanged some handmade gifts and I thought I would share them with you.
 First up is this amazing card by Adriana.

I love the embossing on this card, especially the gold heat embossing on the front .. absolutely  gorgeous.  

Lots of inking and I love that sweet little swallow ..

.. and the flower cluster is so very pretty!! 

I also love the die cut words .. love, faith, hope, blessings.  Such beautiful sentiments ..

.. and the angel wings in the center.  Absolutely stunning.

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Next is a small booklet created by Astrid.
It was presented in this lovely little hessian bag.

Anyone who knows Astrid's work knows she is a master at mixed media and this little booklet was made in her distinctive style.

She blends and matches colours to perfection ..

so many different techniques and mediums used in creating this booklet .. simply awesome!

I adore the quotes Astrid used as well .. so inspiring.

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Last, but certainly not least, is this stunning tag by Heather.

Heather also presented her gifts tucked into a gift bag. 

Love the warm subtle colour with that touch of black .. and she added our initial on top of those gorgeous layers .. fabulous!

Just look at all those layers .. awesome!!

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We all wrote some personal messages on the backs of our gifts as well.

You've probably noticed that Helen didn't have a project and that's because she had been on holiday and didn't think she would be able to make it.  As it turned out, she rang Heather the day before to say she was able to join us after all.   We were all so very glad she could come along but, as it was at the last minute, we were not able to exchange gifts with her though her presence was certainly gift enough for all of us.

I created a small photo folio for the girls and I will be sharing those with you in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, here are the links so you can take a look at these 'uberly' talented ladies creations.

ADRIANA BOLZON - AB Inspirations
ASTRID MACLEAN - Astrid's Artistic Efforts
HEATHER JACOB - Art and Life
HELEN WALLACE - Textures and Tales

Here's a few more photos from a fabulous 'Day Out'.
The first one is from Heather's camera.  The last two are from mine.

Thank you so much my gorgeous friends for an absolutely wonderful day.  It was such a great  pleasure to finally meet Astrid in the flesh, so to speak, and she is even more lovely in real life than she is online.  I will treasure the memories and the beautiful gifts you all gave for always.  Love and hugs to you all.

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And thank you all so much for dropping by and making it through this very long post.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your day and that the weather is being kind to you.
Take care and God Bless.

Friends are connected heart to heart ..
Distance and time cannot break them apart.