scrapfest...

this weekend, there is this little event going on in minnesota called scrapfest.  i think it's held at the biggest mall in amarica because there's no other place that could hold an event of this size.  craft peeps  gather and have one ginormous party.

five years ago, a group of girls decided to get together at this event.  we had all met through the shack, an online community about the hobby we love.  a few people were going to go to scrapfest, so we thought what a great place to get together and meet in real life!  it was one of the most awesome trips i have ever gone on and i met some of the most amazing people in my life.  luckily, to this day, they are some of my best friends!  we have made getting together an annual event (with some years doing it 2-3 times!).  we are doing it again in just a few weeks.   i can't wait!!!

 

 

 

moa circle journals...

all good things must come to an end...

or that's how the saying goes. i think it sucks. i was so sad to see the wonderful trip at moa-scrapfest come to an end. i can't even begin to say how amazing it was to meet the people who came from all over that i had only known as a cyber friend (with a few transistioning to a telephone friend!) and now i know them as a real live person. it has only solidified my friendships with them (i hope!).

we had a pretty impressive area of north america covered...sherri and ellie are from north carolina; patty is from connecticut; traci drove from ohio; chelsea drove from illinois; joanne is from tennessee; barb drove down from canada; tonii came from california; chris, robin, and debbie drove from michigan; joanie and lesa came from massachusetts; cindy and her friend tracy came from iowa; lidia and renee live in minnesota; and me and my cute mom came from utah. crazy isn't it!!

this is definately going to have to be some sort of annual event, be it with the moa-scrapfest or one we just organize on our own (hurry up, chris!). i never thought i would become such good friends with such an amazing group of people. now i just need to meet more of my shackie friends!!!

scrapfest day 3 (part 2!)...

i can't believe it was another fantastic day. i think that we are having
such a great time and it can't get any better, then it does!!!

today there was more make-n-taking, more classes to be rushed through, more trips to archiver's (they have so much of our money now!!), and another crafting session at the hotel. barb arranged to reserve a conference room at the hotel so we had our own space to play in. we ended up with about 17 people crafting together. we even had made some new friends (some invited and some not!) that stopped in to see what we were doing. michelle and cheryl, two very nice ladies from illinois, and hopefully soon to be new shackies (wink, wink) poked their heads in early in the night and ended up coming back to check on us a few times. they were so nice to take our group picture about twenty times with everyone's camera!!! the other people were just strangers walking by the room and stopping to look at our stuff. honestly!!! it was funny. we laughed so hard some of us were even crying. joanne read a fabulous poem about friendship, we gave barb a circle journal for arranging things. we took many pictures and laughed some more!! we lined up all our circle journals and showed them off (this is where the strangers came in...i think they thought it was a gallery or something!!)

i'm sad to see this all come to an end. some people are starting to head home tomorrow and the rest will trickle home monday and tuesday. i am going to have to be pretty creative at packing to get all my goodies home!!!

until tomorrow...

scrapfest day 3...

i'm so tired from laughing!! check back later for an update!!!

scrapfest day 2...

today was an exciting fun filled day!! the day started out this morning with a group of us gathered in the dining room of the hotel for breakfast. my cute mom thought she would let everyone know i'm not a morning person!! i'm really not that grumpy before 10am! after breakfast, we headed over to the mall of america, which is ginourmous, to start the scrapfest affair. some of us had classes and others just wandered the halls doing free make and takes. most of us got a cute free tote bag from some company that i can't recall. but it's super cute!! we eventually all gathered for lunch at the rain forest cafe. it was very loud, but we still had a great time.

we headed to more classes and cruised the halls (and some had naps!) until 6pm . then we gathered once again and caravaned to a local archiver's store for the crop around town sponsored by paper salon. the crop went from 630pm until 1230am. we crafted our little hearts out!!!

we got tons of free goodies from paper salon (i forgot the pad of paper in the picture!) and a huge goodie bag full of stuff from archivers. many prizes were given away. i won a cool christmas stamp set, some bare essentials chip board and some blank cards and envelopes. lidia was one one of the grand prizes that was an ellison big shot. sherri won a gift pack of chipboard and stamps from paper salon. and my cute mom won a very cute pink flowered tote.

we made this project from paper salon which is an altered journal. very cute. i just love the little owl!!

on the way back to the hotel, a deer had decided to stop smack dab in the middle of the freeway. chelsea was driving, with barb following her and traci following her. luckily, chelsea got us out of another huge pickle and swerved to miss the deer and managed to save us and the deer!! thankfully, barb and traci both missed it as well and we all made it safe and sound back to the hotel.

wow...the days are flying by!!

crop around town...

scrapfest day 1...

omg!! where do i begin? first of all, this is one of the coolest things i have ever done. i have become friends with an amazing group of people over at the shack. and now i am lucky enough to meet some of them in person!! i wish everyone was able to come so we could all experience the fun!! so today as we waited for more people to arrive, a group of us went to a lss called smudges. imagine the surprise of the owner of the store when 10 of us walked in!!! it was a store filled with rubber stamps. i have never seen so many!! it was awesome!! chelsea saved our lives (and got us out of a pickle!) when some maniac driver decided to take an exit from the middle lane of the freeway!!!


after everyone arrived, we headed to lidia's church (thank you SOOO much for arranging that, lidia!!) for a little crafting/stamping time. we had a blast!! we were there for hours!! we made our "got ink?" t-shirts, worked on the moa circle journal, learned how to make a waterfall card from joanne, learned about the bind-it-all machine from chelsea, and had a wonderful time laughing and sharing stories. we had great food, too. we also had a little birthday party for those of us with birthdays in the next little bit. it was amazing!!!

that's it for now...more updates to come!! pictures below...

lunch at rain forest cafe...

crop pictures...

scrapfest day...

well it has finally arrived. here i sit with my cute mom in a hotel in minnesota. we got in last night kinda late so didn't have time to do anything but grab some dinner and crash after a day of travel!! today will start the festivities when all the shackies meet up. we all trickle in sometime today and have a big bash at lidia's church tonight and we are going to stamp our little hearts out!! a few of us are going to take in a lss (local scrapbook store) this afternoon. then the big scrapfest starts tomorrow. i'll be posting updates of our fun and pictures, too!!!