SHARON'S INKIE FINGERS: Cropping Weekend

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Cropping Weekend

Marianne and I had a fun weekend at the Scrapbook Creations Paper Craft Festival in Spartanburg. There was cropping, make and takes, demos, classes and lots of socialization! Sonny and I had lunch with Marianne in Lincolnton on Friday and then she and I took off for the festival. We went with an open mind but we really weren't sure what was in store for us as I mentioned in my last post. Upon our arrival, I got my goody bag and tee shirt. The goody bag was supposed to be $130 worth of product - not so sure about that but it was ok. I got a large pack of Graphic 45 paper, a 6x6 stack of patterned paper, some embellishments and 6 packets of double page scrapbook layouts. Friday night we participated in a Make and Take event where we went to 8 different tables making various things. I thought the make and takes were a bit too simple but it was fun anyway and midway through, they had a fabulous dessert bar! a representative of Bazzil Paper was doing one of the make and takes and she showed us the samples she was doing for her classes on Saturday. One of the classes was an 8x8 Mini Album that was super cute so Marianne and I decided to sign up for it. We took the class on Saturday and as is usual in most classes, didn't get it all finished. So that gave us something to do back at the crop table. We were having such a good time working on our album that we decided to stay another night. We stayed at our hotel Friday for free with Choice Reward points I had earned so paying for one night was no biggie. Since we had already checked out of our hotel, we had to find another one. We stayed at the crop until about 11 pm. There were several hotels within a couple of blocks from the Expo Center so after striking out at the Howard Johnson's, we headed across the street to the Econo Lodge and got one of their last rooms. We went to sleep around midnight but shortly after we fell asleep, the occupants of the room next to us woke us up with their noises which continue for 2 1/2 hours! Banging on the walls and hollering "shut up" did nothing to stop them so Marianne finally called the front desk. At first we were told there were no rooms available but a bit later, they called up to tell us they had a room. The attendant brought us another key to a room down the hall and told us we could have both rooms - just leave our things and go down the hall to sleep. So at 3 a.m., Marianne and I are traipsing down the hall with our stuff (didn't want to leave them unattended) in our nightgowns! It took forever for us to get back to sleep and we were both zombies today! We ended up sleeping through breakfast service and heading back to the convention center around 10 a.m. We worked a bit more on our albums until I ran out of glue / tape. Well, the way they had everything set up, it was easy to just go to their store and purchase what you need. So, I bought a brand new bottle of Zip Dry Liquid Glue. After I snipped the tip off of it, I was squeezing it onto one of my pages when the top came off and over half the bottle ended up in my lap!! Only at a Scrapbook Crop would someone run over with a camera to take a picture of someone with glue in their lap!! Now I have to figure out how to get all that glue washed out of my jeans!! Anyway, long story short ... it was a fun weekend. On the way home, we were starving and found a great restaurant just by chance. We were looking for somewhere to eat when we drove by a restaurant called Wade's in Spartanburg. There were a ton of cars in the parking lot so that's always a good sign plus the line of people to get in. It was good ole' home cooked food that was delicious! I had fried chicken, field peas, creamed corn and squash casserole plus some melt in your mouth rolls! The restaurant has been in business since 1947 so you know it's good!

We were shocked to see how much STUFF people bring to these crops. It was like packing up your whole craft room and taking it all! Here are a few pictures to prove it: