The Kim Archer Blog

A little video..

Here's the link to a quick video I put together of photos and some footage from the NZ weekend. Click the image below to view:)

NZ wrap up...

So Sunday dawned and I headed back to the scraproom after another lovely breakfast in the restaurant..

The weather was quite nice..cool but still sunny and only really one day of overcast and miserable weather which was Saturday and I was inside for the entire day anyway.

Taupo is lovely. So pretty. And surrounded by snow capped mountains. Here's the view as you drive into Taupo.

The resort was about 5minutes drive north from the Lake.

Sunday was more scrapping - not that I did any while I was there. More make and takes..More shopping. More giveaways!

And the announcing of the winners of the name tag and album competition.

Each participant was invited to create a name tag for themselves and then enter it into the competition to win a prize. Everyone went to SO much trouble and each name tag was SO detailed!!

It was VERY hard to choose just one winner. I decided on a happy, fun name tag by Andrea. I loved the colours and the fun layering!

And special mention must go to Suzz, Jo, Pat and Harriet who made a matching set of name tags, table place cards and drink bottle hangers to hold lollies and chocolates. So much detail!!! They won runner up prizes!

And then it was time to judge the album competition.

Each participant was given a timber Kaisercraft "arrow" shaped album when they first arrived back on Friday night. And they had the weekend to decorate it and turn it into an album on any theme and using any products they liked.

I was floored that SO many completed and beautifully detailed albums showed up on the judging table by lunchtime Sunday! It was amazing!!!! And made my job much more difficult as I had SO many albums to choose from.

A gorgeous wedding album jumped out at me. So much attention to detail, beautiful photos and a classic black and white theme was what made me choose this one as the overall winner.

I don't have a clear shot of the album but you can see it in the lower left hand corner of the top photo showing some of the albums.

Now, if it was ME creating with that "arrow" shape I would have instantly turned it into a house - I do have a thing about "houses!!". I didn't even SEE it was an arrow shape. To me..it was a house. So I was surprised that NO ONE made a house album!!!!!

BUT. One girl made this piece of gorgeousness!!!

Isn't it delightful!!!

Now, technically it wasn't an album which was what the requirements were for the comp BUT I could NOT go past this and she got a special mention and a prize as well.

And finally, another special mention went to another girl, Jo, who created an Autumn Retreat album. Already! She had brought along her own little photo printer and had already printed out her photos from the weekend and added them to her album! Talk about speedy!!!!!! Very impressive.

Here's all of our happy winners!!!!

We then headed outside for some group photos..

Thanks Nic and Lucy for a wonderful weekend!

Saturday Workshops - NZ

Ok..NZ post overload but I want to get all of these photos and memories down before too much time goes past and then I forget details...

We were up early and ready to go with the workshops on Saturday morning. Nic and I taught two workshops each and all classes ran for 2hours. I didn't have to start until 11am so we had time for a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant.

And then off I headed for my first class. Now this was my Fast, Furious and Fabulous class which was causing me some stress as I had decided that perhaps I was a tad too ambitious with the projects and the expectation that we could achieve creating THREE layouts in only two hours.

Here's the classroom after Nic had finished teaching and just before my class started...

It was a great classroom space actually and we even had another row of tables at the front of the room that you can't see in this shot. Lots of space.

And then everyone started arriving...

And we were off and racing..

Everyone worked SO hard and kept up.

And here's the only photo of me teaching...well this one and a hideous photo Nic took of me with my eyes closed and a stupid look on my face..

I had such lovely students in both classes. And they kept up and almost everyone completed all three layouts. I was shocked but also thrilled because I had been so worried that we wouldn't get finished. 

I then had a break of several hours before my next workshop. It ran from 4.30-6.30pm. It was a more relaxed class and not as fast paced which was perfect because I think there were some very tired ladies after a full on day! And I was feeling weary too!!!

Nic taught her second class after lunch and before me . I must make special mention of it as I loved the idea and I thought it was a truly excellently designed class concept.

Nic's class was called her Card Buffet class which she has taught at other retreats and conventions with great success. She set out a magnificent buffet of product!!! It looked excellent all lined up on the table at the front of the classroom.

She had jewels, buttons, flowers and ribbons.

And she guided the girls through the process of creating five different cards using a class kit and then she let the girls loose to create as many cards as they wanted to. The record was 15 cards made!!!!

After the classes wrapped up it was off to the scraproom for more festivities and frivolity and a 2am finish!!

Friday Night Games - NZ

Friday night ran through until midnight and Nic and Lucy had plenty planned for everyone. Besides shopping and scrapping the girls had designed some make and take mini workshops plus some fun games.

One of the games Nic organised was a memory game based on a British tv show that I hadn't heard of but all the NZ girls seemed familiar with! Basically, a name was drawn out and then we had 15 or so "helpers" who were each given a product or item to display.

We had blow up toys, scrapping products, cake mix packets and all sorts of wildy wonderful objects!!! The chosen participant had a small amount of time to walk along and memorise everything on display.

Then everyone turned back around to hide the products and our contestant had 45 seconds to remember as many things as possible. As she guessed each item, that person turned around again. Whatever she remembered she won!

I tell you what, ALL of the contestants had excellent memories and remembered a good deal of what they saw. Me? Well I would have felt the pressure of those 45 seconds and walked away with that blow up pink thing and a cake mix!!!

The make and take tables were very popular throughout the weekend. Each make and take was sponsored by a scrapbooking manufacturer and the girls all had the opportunity to come along and learn a few new techniques and make some cute things! We had small groups of girls per "session" and they all crowded around to "make" and then "take" their finished item back to their tables.

We also had a few Stampin' Up demonstrators there (I LOVE their stamps and bits!!) and Delys taught how to make this gorgeous little stamped bag!

Such a cute project modelled here by Pat!!

Nic and Lucy also taught a Tattered Angels make and take and the girls got busy with the glimmer mist!

and created these cute butterfly tags..beautifully modelled by the lovely Kate and Tanya!

Saturday was our BIG day of workshops!

Friday Night Registration - NZ

Ok. Rewind to Friday night in NZ and almost 70 excited ladies arrived to join in the weekend and the retreat officially kicked off.

The original plan was to have me and Nic set up at the registration table between 5 and 7pm in the bar area so that as guests arrived they could register and meet and greet with everyone while Lucy and her helpers ran around like mad things behind the scenes and got the ginormous scrapping room all set up and ready to go.

BUT the convention before ours, a Women In Business seminar had completely overtaken the entire area and had gigantic posters, tables, food and display booths everywhere and they were running overtime! And they weren't going anywhere fast.

They were also occupying the room we needed and weren't due to get out until 5.30pm which meant a huge amount of stress for Lucy and the girls as they had to then wait for the room to be cleared and then had only a smidge of time to get the room set up for 70 ladies, plus a shop area plus set all the tables and get them looking all nice and pretty!

Eventually, the resort staff tucked us away in a room off the bar area which we had to use for registration. Not quite what the girls had planned but it turned out ok.

 Here's Nic and Lucy waiting for the registration rush hour.

 

Lucy then ran off like a mad thing to get the room organised the minute the other seminar cleared out.

I stayed on with Nic and we did the meet and greet thing. This was a good op to meet the girls as they arrived and I did a lot of smiling and chatting and greeting:) Each participant got a little pocket which included a name badge, a "menu" of the event so they knew what was happening as the weekend progressed plus coupons for the make and takes and classes.

I didn't get a photo of their little pockets!

Then Nic had a bit of a panic that the room wouldn't be ready in time so she rushed off to help Lucy leaving me to man the registration booth! Which I thought would be easy enough. BUT of course as soon as she left I was asked lots of questions.

Thankfully Nic introduced me to two girls who adopted me as their friend and they kept me company and helped answer the questions.

Here they are..Kate and Tanya. They were such nice girls. Very friendly and welcoming and chatty. And this was Tania's first scrapping event and she had only completed TWO pages in her entire life! And she scrapped like a machine the entire weekend. I would say she's got the scrapbooking bug now!!

The girls even organised some food from the bar menu for us for dinner as I couldn't leave my post.

At 7pm the doors opened. And it was time to head off to the scrapping room...Lucy and Nic and their helpers had done a marvellous decorating job. Very exciting to see the room set up...here's a pic..

Each table was set with a white cloth, balloon centre piece and more goodies than you would believe for each person!!

The room was far bigger than this photo shows. In fact is was enormous.

On each table the girls received..a mini bucket of chocolates, an Elizabeth Arden face cream and a LOAD of Basic Grey and Kaiser craft products. Very generous sponsors.

Plus..bowls of lollies on the table and lots of starry glittery sprinkles and flowers...

And then the girls arrived...

And some dived straight into scrapbooking...others shopped til they dropped and everyone chatted, laughed and relaxed!!!

Nic jumped on a chair to grab everyone's attention and then gave her welcome speech and officially kicked off the Autumn Retreat for 2009.

Lovely Lynda manned the shop over the weekend - helped out the first night by Nic, Lucy, Trina, Tana and others as it was so hectic! The shop was stocked to the brim with all the latest and greatest!!! Here's Trina and Lynda.

I roamed around doing more meeting and greeting, had a turn behind the shop counter and generally just mingled!!!

Ken organised himself Friday night and headed into Taupo and grabbed Thai takeaway and came back to the room to watch the footy. He spent his time text messaging the kids - he's very slow at texting so that kept him occupied for a while!

The Resort

We arrived late Friday afternoon at the resort as all of the other scrapbookers were also arriving and checking in.

The resort was HUGE and lovely.

Beautiful buildings and gorgeous grounds...

 

Autumn is certainly an impressive season in Taupo.

 

We had a downstairs room with french doors opening out onto the garden. Very picturesque.

and on each bed for all the participants (including me!) was a pamper pack...beauty products PLUS a Mills & Boon book..which was a humorous touch!

Here's the view from our doors...a cute little bridge takes you back over to where the convention was held.

And here's the bathroom...

and mini kitchen..

We then found the girls and delivered some of the boxes of prizes and things they asked us to bring with us in the car. They had SO much stuff. Boxes of prizes, all the kits, table decorations and oodles of things....SO many generous sponsors.

Here's a pic of me, Lucy and Nic outside before the whole weekend officially kicked off.

And it was almost time for registration, meeting and greeting and the official launch of the Autumn Retreat 2009. More tomorrow....