The One with Gelnhausen, Germany

On Saturday afternoon a few of the ladies at the workshop asked if I'd like to tag along with them and explore Altstadt Gelnhausen (the old town). I was planning on going by myself Sunday morning, but going with scrapbooking buddies? Even better!

We found a parking place, walked for a bit, turned a corner, and saw THIS:

Made me such a happy girl :)

Self timer group shot:

Human being group shot:

Such a darling/charming/quaint town! I mean really.

Keep this funky building in mind.  We found a cute cafe recommended by Tina. The inside reminded me of Anthropologie.

Cute table settings.

Sandra trying to take a bite of my chocolate & vanilla cake. 

I ordered white hot chocolate and had to melt the chocolate in the piping hot milk myself! Never had to do that before, quite the experience! Remember that funky building? When we exited the cafe we saw THIS:

Say whaaaat? This room pulls out like a drawer!! Crazy!!! Never seen anything like this before!

Scrappy friends :)

Then we walked up to the Obermarkt.

O.M.Goodness. Looooooove.

Half timbered buildings everywhere. Crooked half timbered buildings no less! We walked to the church and took a gander inside. 

A"door"able! Hehe.

A final view of the Obermarkt.

Okay Gelnhausen, you win, you're officially my new favorite German town :)

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The One with Scrapbook Werkstatt!

I've been looking forward to this past weekend for months, nay, years! - because Kristina contacted me about teaching before we even moved to Germany! I was invited to teach a layout and mini album workshop at Scrapbook Werkstatt near Frankfurt Germany along with the über talented Janna Werner whom I've known for a long time through American Crafts and it was so wonderful to finally meet in person. Sign me up! Friday night after Chris got home from work I loaded up the car with all my supplies and drove straight to Kristina's lovely abode. She welcomed me with open arms and we sat right down for a delicious dinner of pumpkin soup and bread and an assortment of drinks. I also got to meet her pilot husband, two beautiful daughters, and cute doggies. I felt right at home and it was a fun experience to work through our English and German translations. Saturday morning we headed to Scrapbook Werkstatt! Oh what a beautiful day! The building is HUGE! Oh. My. Goodness. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! People. I have never ever in my entire life been surrounded by SO MUCH scrappy goodness in one place, at one time. Lots (and LOTS) more pictures as you scroll down. But first, let's talk about the workshops!

My first class, the mini album workshop, started at 10am. We dove right in and got messy with some white paint.

This was the album I was originally planning on teaching. But, there weren't enough supplies to get 40 of everything. On to plan B.

This was the mini album we ended up making using the Shimelle line, a Maya Road chipboard mini album base and rub ons, plus a baggy full of embellishments I made. I won't get into the fiasco of getting my boxes and supplies, all I have to say is, thank you Chris for putting up with me :) I hoped people wouldn't be too upset the album wasn't the same as the promotion. I only know of one person who was really upset for sure, the rest were nice about it. That, or maybe they complained in German and I'm none the wiser! Ha!

Everyone was SO QUIET as they worked on their albums, I felt like I was doing something wrong! But apparently that's just how it is here. Phew! They were focused and concentrating and really it's not like you could hear crickets chirping, there was chatter and laughter and small talk. Then on Saturday I taught how to make this layout using the Office Hours scrapbook kit by Studio Calico:

Snapshots from the workshops.
A few months ago I found all of the Scrapbook Werkstatt Design Team member blogs and instagrams and have been following their work religiously. A handful of them came to the workshops and it was SO FUN to meet in real life! And also a little intimidating because, let's be honest, mini albums are not my forte, and they were showing me up getting all creative with their albums! They should have been the ones teaching :)

Such lovely and nice ladies! Seriously, my heart is bursting with gratitude.

Working away!

"Can I make picture?" :)

I love when people get creative and do their own thing. Here are a couple samples of ladies' album covers.

Saturday afternoon Janna showed up to teach her layout class. THE Janna Werner! Janna and Paige selfie! Okay, let's get back to how amazing Scrapbook Werkstatt is. 

I think they literally have every product from every company ever made in the history of scrapbooking!

Rooms and rooms and rooms and aisles and aisles and aisles FULL of the latest and greatest supplies!

Washi tape wall.

Boxes and boxes full of lines that I could swear were only announced yesterday!

Cardstock slots. Mister Huey's cubbies. Nine & Co by Teresa Collins - this is one collection that came home with me!

Cute baskets with stickers.

I'm in love with Pinkfresh Studio!

Swoon. Chickaniddy Crafts. I dunno what I'd do with these paper straws, but I love them.

Baker's twine, doilies, tickets, more twine, oh my! Don't forget the Tim Holtz wall!

Ribbon wall.

DIY crafts wall.

Another washi tape wall.

An entire ROOM dedicated solely to Project Life.

This place is huge.

They've even got Filofax - an up-and-coming trend.

Albums galore.

More albums. A fancy blue dresser I wanted to steal.

Prima wall. Kesi' Art wall.

THICKERS.

American Crafts and Elle's Studio spinning racks.

Brand new Rhonna Farrer.

Even old school Hambly! Seriously!

Paints and inks.

Of every name and brand under the sun!

Happy little corner.

Stickles!

Basically, this store is amazing and I highly recommend shopping here :)

And it was fun to be vegan for a couple days! Tina's husband, daughters, and dogs stopped by on Saturday to say hello.

Thank you to Kristina and Mireia for this wonderful opportunity! I hope we can do it all again soon, wink wink :)

Post about our afternoon trip to Altstadt Gelnhausen next!

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