Secret Garden     

What a fantastic weekend I had with my fellow JoLLiStaMpeRs in Rochdale, kindly hosted as usual by Joan. Most of the 'gang' were there plus a couple of new ladies which was lovely: Joan, her daughter Rachel, Lou (whose birthday was on Sunday), Sue, Lisa, Siobhan and her sister Roisin, Lisa W, Debbie and me.

Our weekend workshop was led by the one and only, truly inimitable and delightful Hels Sheridan. We started off with a Configurations Box each and various colours of acrylic paint with which to put on a base coat using Cut'n'Dry foam; most of us chose a light sandy colour and that took nearly all morning (those boxes have a lot of surface area!). This is my initial configuration which changed a lot along the way:

During the afternoon we made lots of textured pieces of card and coated them with the wondrous invention Treasure Gold from PaperArtsy. I have never used this wax before but am now completely addicted ...

On Sunday we started to put the whole thing together, and an atmosphere of festivity abounded since it was Lou's birthday. Hels had made her a wonderful gooey and delicious chocolate cake which we all tucked into with gay abandon!

It was while we were stamping our boxes and card pieces that the Secret Garden idea came to me: Hels had brought a PA Hot Pick stamp which I have had for a few years but which has been sadly neglected of late, so I decided to base the box around the sentiment. We were shown loads of Melt Pot techniques during the day, and the 'goodie bag' of embellishments which Hels provided was definitely on the generous side; I hardly used any of mine and have lots to dip into at a later date.

This is how my box looked when I brought it home:

I have since spent several hours on it and here is the finished result. The top left box opens to reveal the 'Secret Garden'.

Although nothing like what I had first envisaged, I like it! The Treasure Gold is fabulous stuff and gives a sheen to the whole project. Here are a few close-ups of some of the boxes:

I do hope you enjoy looking at it almost as much as I enjoyed making it, and huge thanks to Hels for another fabulous day.

Thanks for looking, Sarah x