I had an ULTIMATE time ....

... on ScrapMap's Ultimate Scrapbook Cruise. We were on the Carnival Freedom, leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and hitting three cities in the Caribbean: Key West, FL, Georgetown in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios in Jamaica. And in between shore stops, excursions and meals, we scrapped! Some of the top teachers in the nation were on this cruise: Heidi Swapp, Donna Downey, Karen Russell, Teresa Collins and Margie Romney-Aslett (Making Memories). ScrapMap owner Jim West, who is also an author, conducted a journaling class, as well. There is WAY too much to fit in one blog entry, so I will be blogging about our adventures and projects over several days.

I am so excited to say that YES, I won a trip on next year's Ultimate Cruise! I am so excited! ScrapMap announced a postcard contest when we checked in on Sunday, the first day of the cruise, and gave each of us a Carnival Cruise line postcard. We could then make anything out of it and all of the 110 scrappers aboard would have a chance to vote for their favorite. The criterisa included creativity, craftsmanship, humor and use of the postcard. I brought NOTHING but tools and adhesive, so thank goodess they gave us a great goodie bag full of paper, embellishments and more, because I used some of Teresa's beachy paper and some Grafix thin transparent 4 x 4 sheets to creat a "Crazy 8 Ball" sort of cube that would answer the question: To scrap or cruise? Just let the Die of Decision make the decision. There were 45 entries total and it was announced at the ScrapMap cocktail party the last night that I WON! So, does anyone care to cruise? You can find out more on the ScrapMap web site. I hear we might be cruising the lower portion of the Caribbean. Looking forward to that!

So, starting tomorrow, I will go through the cruise day by day, class by class, adventure by adventure. But here is a quick preview, of sorts....