had the chance to crop, twice this week!!

I had the chance to crop twice...now, that's what I call a fantastic week.


the first was on Thursday.  DD had a business trip to our shop in Reno...so, I was able to pack a rolling cart and go to Scrapbook Paradise off of McCarran...for $5, I was able to set up and crop in the store.  Of course, had to do a li'l shopping....teehee.   For a crop like this, I do not take any embellies, as I really want to pack light and keep it down to one bag.  Also at a store, I don't pack very much cardstock.  As I will have access at the store.   I LOVED it.   So I do very simple, unadorned pages, that I bring home to embellish.  Like this one from our Mediterranean Cruise, oh, 3 years ago.   I tucked in a note to myself about where it was, so I can finish it.

Then on Saturday, I went to a 12 hour crop in Modesto.  It was a fundraiser for the California Youth Authority.   Very nice.  They had volunteers there to help you unload and load your car.  For this kind of crop, I pack a lot more...fill my li'l utility wagon and brought my cricut.  I tend to bring page kits, I subscribe to Scrapbook Circle and Scrapbook Nook (though Nook is no longer)  

 here is a 'monochromatic' layout I did of one of the statues of Achilles in Corfu.  (Michele, I'm doing Corfu pics!!!!)

I find that if I am just using the cardstock to border my pp, I will cut the center out.  This is the backside of Achilles layout.   Gives me an automatic matching matt when I use the inside!  The following gray layout also used this 'technique'.     

 and here is another layout of Old Town Corfu...made me think of my sis who uses a lot of say it with bling.

 This was my final layout, you can tell I'm getting tired when they get really, really simple.  I'll figure out what to add later.

and my stack of started, base, layouts that I need to embellish and put in books!

A few more Corfu pics, then some pics of the baked Alaska parade our last night on the ship...and then I'll be on Venice and can say I'm finally done with this trip!!   Maybe I'll do last October's Hawaii trip next...or San Franciso...or...well, you know.

Another funny thing at yesterday's crop.  They had hourly raffles, in which 5 women were called to pick their prizes off a table.  hmmmm, 20 to 30 women, 5 per hour...good odds, right?  Not for me, I was not called ONCE all day!  My table mates were each called 3 times, and for Megan, once after she left.  There were women being called 2 even 3 times during the same set of 5...in fact, the last raffle, they even announced, "Ok, we're hear to give Amber and Connie more gifts".  It was ridiculous, and at one point, I was really feeling down.   Even told my friend, I was going to start signing my ticket Tinkerbell.

Anyways, there were also 11 prizes out for a raffle, where you put your ticket in which prize you want.  I bought 6 tickets. There was one prize that I was the only ticket in the bag for...so I got hopeful, but before the draw there were 2 more tickets...anyways, I won!!  I actually won 3 of those prizes, and was esp excited to get the CTMH basket...

yay!!   So today will be a day of unpacking, hopefully embellishing...but, since I've been gone the past 3 days...probably should concentrate on housework first.