Uh, how could I not blog about THIS!?

I just realized that I did not blog about the Crops2Remember crop I hosted with fellow scrappers Nan and Naomi! Gee, what an oversight! I am excited to say that it was a complete success and everyone appeared to have a great time! I did not get as much cropped as I would have liked, but I did manage to organize my PLETHORA of ribbon and I enjoyed two half-hour massages (thanks Melissa - you'll be there next time, right?!). We are hosting another C2R crop in August, in fact, and will grow from 24 croppers to 32! Want to see more pictures? Take a look at the web site: www.crops2remember.com!

I got my scissors!

After a much long-awaited, um, wait, Fiskateer #743 finally got her official scissors! Apparently, there was a small group of us that got skipped over in the initial countdown, er, countup, for the scissors, so some of the quadruple-digit Fiskateers got theirs before the rest of us triple-digit gals. You might be wondering what's so special about these scissors ... well, they are Fiskar's gift to their crafter fan club and are engraved, with each Fiskateer's number. Mine say "Fiskateer #743." I now have them to show off, just in time for CKU!

My CKU SS is AWESOME!

She not only sent ME a bunch of scrappy stuff, she sent birthday gifts to each of the boys! And they love their cars and train! If you happen to read this, thanks SS! Can't wait to meet you next month!

MAMBI sale!

OK, seriously, anyone who was anyone in the South Orange County scrap world was at the MAMBI sale last weekend ... National Scrapbook Day weekend! After chatting about it with MAMBI owner Stephanie Rahmatulla the weekend before at Crops2Remember (www.crops2remember.com) I knew I had to go and check out the great deals - or were they steals?! I ran in to fellow C2R croppers Krystal Tran (who took the picture of me) and Christal Parker (who I took the picture of!), as well as long time crop buddy Cheryl Bartezko .. and I was only there for about 45 minutes! The gal who checked me out was well-prepared for the crowd of ladies winding their way through the boxes of scrap stuff ... she had worked for Mrs. Grossman's stickers for several years and had been through plenty of warehouse sales full of crazy croppers! The staff did seem well prepared and the check out was fast and easy. If they had only had a few more carts for everyone to roll their overfilled boxes around on!

So, who else went? I know there were a lot of us! Hope it was a success, Steph!

MAMBI on My Mind

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Me & My Big Ideas founder Stephanie Rahmatullah. An OC native like me, Stephanie was sweet, down-to-Earth, and a lot of fun! Scrappy Nan and I were there to talk with her about our upcoming Crops2Remember event and she took the time to show us around the offices and warehouse. I felt like a kid in a candy store as I walked down the long 2nd floor hallway, past the designers' creative dens, to her office. Steph's assistant was warm, welcoming and friendly as she led us to Stephanie's office ... the poor gal probably found it amusing (I hope not rude!)that I couldn't string a coherent group of words together to form a sentence, much less carry on a conversation! I was too busy staring at all the great MAMBI product that lined the walls of the hall! Knowing how visual designers are, MAMBI has peg boards filled with product, representing what different stores have on their shelves and ranking products by how well they sell. Being both a scrapbooker and a marketer by trade, I was in heaven! Thanks, Stephanie, for an office tour to remember!

My favorite album right now

Even though it's nowhere near being finished, this "Daddy & Me" viewbook album is my favorite at the moment. I can't wait to fill it little by little with black and white images of Xan and his Daddy. The cover is clear acrylic with painted edges. I found scalloped 6 x 6 (or at least it was 6 x 6 until it was cut in scallops) Bazzill cardstock at the Freckle Friends booth at the Pomona Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo a couple weekends ago. Keep an eye on their site: www.frecklefriends.com. I have a feeling that they are going to be very popular vary soon. And the fun part is that Freckle Friends' home office is only a matter of blacks from my house! DANGEROUSLY close! Then I used some of the new EK Success epoxy stickers that were introduced at Winter CHA and Creative Imaginations Film Strips to embellish. And, of course, RIBBON!

For more fun mini book and Bind-it-All ideas, visit www.zutterzisters.com!

Canvas Creations

Angels Scrapbook Garden has canvas now, so I made an April class sample (guthrie) and two store samples (Baby Boy Xan and vacation), so people can see some of the simple possibilities with them. I love canvas and wish I had the chance to play with it more often! Have you seen the triangle and hexagon canvases Canvas Concepts has now? Simply Scrapbooks in Cerritos had them. I really want to do a honeycomb-like wall decor item for my living room! I just need a couple hundred dollars for the number of canvases I want to use!

Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo

This Pomona, CA, Expo was much smaller than the Scrapbook Expos I am used to in Orange County and San Diego, but I still had FUN! My fellow Zutter Zister, Nan, and I were there, hosting Bind-it-All and DreamKuts make and takes for Scrappin' Good Times in San Dimas. Owner Trish, her family and staff are great gals, and we are so glad they invited us to join them. As always, the Zutter machines were incredibly popular and we received a number of compliments about our make and take mini book project.

I met three gals who are going to be on the CKU Anaheim Bus Tour with me, Jennifer, Angie and Stephanie. They all seemed like FUN gals, so I hope they're on my bus (there will be two).

I stopped by the Freckle Friends booth and it turns out that they are local gals, too! In fact, Debbie lives about a half-mile from me and her kids got to the school my Mom works at! It's an amazingly small scrap world! Freckle Friends are the ones with the new Michelle Hill lines ... I have a feeling that you'll want to keep an eye on them!

I also met the Morissets, the owners of the organization tool company, Block Box, who are based right here in Mission Viejo, also. It's always fun to meet local manufacturers! I bought two of their portable SafeStore organizers ... I hope they solve my embellishment problem I have at crops! I'm always digging around and it takes me forever to find something!

What Happens When Daddy is in Charge of Haircuts ...

Yes, there is some hair left, about a 1/2 inch of hair. My Dad now calls him Baldy. I think this will end up on a scrapbook page next to a police chalk outline embellishment.

A New Decor Item for the Bathroom

Seriously ... I had an empty wall in the kids/guest bathroom and needed something cool. Aussie scrap designer Rebekka Erickson (www.rebekkaerickson.com.au) had been kind enough to give Nan and I some of her product to use for Bind-it-All samples, so I took some of it and made this. Rodney even likes it, so I know it's a hit with the family! What do you think? I got the cork board on clearance for $2.50 at JoAnns months ago and couldn't decide what to do with it. I knew I'd use it for something! Gotta love those clearance sales!

Zutter Zisters has officially launched!

The Orange County Scrapbook Expo at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa was Zutter Zisters' first event and our booth was one of the busiest! Here Nan and I are manning the booth's make and take, where croppers could learn how to use the Bind-it-All and DreamKuts. Wanna know more about these machines and what they can do? Click on my Zutter Zisters link!

CKU Anaheim Registration begins March 14!

They haven't listed the classes or album tracks yet, but if you want to be immersed in all things croppy in mid-June, check out the details on www.creatingkeepsakes.com. Click on the CKU link on the left. Plus, I'm helping to organize the unofficial shopping bus tour that happens the day before CKU starts. Need details? Log on to the Yahoo Group called CKU Anaheim 2005 and see what's being said. Don't forget to add your name to the bus tour Database list, too!

Scrapbook Dimension's First Issue Published

If you are interest in, or simply curious about, digital scrapbooking and mixing digital with traditional, check out the inaugural issue of Scrapbook Dimensions by visiting www.scrapbookdimensions.com and downloading the PDF. I've only had time time to flip through mine, but there was more than one thing that I bookmarked to read later!

Zutter Zisters

There are only two of these in the whole world and I painted them both. It only took 10 hours, but I'm hoping it will be worth it. Scrappy Nan and I are working to help market and demo the Bind-it-All and DreamKuts during it's launch into the scrapbook industry this spring. Zutter Zisters is one of the components (don't bother to go online quite yet, there's nothing on the web at that address yet, but there will be soon!) to help croppers get project ideas and supplies to use with their machines. Nan and I are INCREDIBLY excited about this new endeavor and are looking forward to sharing the benefits of these machines with others. Because first and foremost, these machines are FUN to use and open up so many new scrappy possibilities!

Crops2Remember has launched!!!!

I'm so excited! Learn all you need to know at www.crops2remember.com!

Inspiration struck and I made a mini mini-book

As I was demonstrating the DreamKuts at CHA, I found myself making smaller and smaller rectangles if paper, using the back slot feature of the tool. This slot allows you to cut any width paper between 2 and 12 inches exactly in half. As I showed the intrigued crowds around the booth, I fought back the urge to drop everything, scoop up the tiny 1 x 2 inch pieces and immediately bind them into a mini mini-book. Instead, I waited until today to create the tiny wire-bound book of my dreams. With the help of the Bind-it-all (and the Bind-it-all's wire-bound catalog that was included - I used part of the 1/2-inch wire that held it together since I don;t have that size wire yet)I created a wearable scrapbook I was proud to show off. And it wasn't just because my husband and three boys were the subject, either!

I was there and don't mess with my flair!

"You are here" ... Yes I was there! The sign says it all! And I was there with my flair! Nan may tease that I required her to wear flair, but as any good "Office Space" disciple knows, you can't just have the minimum amount of flair! You must express yourself! And I expressed myself right into a sore neck! But now I have a rewarding amount of flair decorating my new scrap studio - the perfect thing for the skinny wall!

Did I mention I went to CHA?

Yeah, I'm up at 1:30 a.m. even though I'm exhausted. I'm still wired from a very "scrappy" week at CHA. Here are some of my favorite booths that were there - aside from Zutter's of course!!! The Bind-it-All demo allowed me to meet some great people ... including Creating Keepsake's Scrapbooker of the Year, C.D. Muckosky. A delightful gal who brightened my day! I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work in the months to come! Also, editors and contributors from CK, Simple Scrapbooks, Scrapbooks Etc., the new Scrapbook Dimensions (for the hybrid digi and traditional scrapper), not to mention other reporters and columnists, stopped by to see what all the excitement was about. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of writing and blogging about Bind-it-All very soon!

And take a look at the new Cricut Expressions ... 12 x 24. Maybe I should have held out before buying one ... and dang it, ProvoCraft, make my little Cricut's USB port useful already! Sheesh ...

Bind-it-All Frenzy!

Behind behind the counter of the Bind-it-All booth allowed me the best view of the epitome of CHA - the excitement of new products, great deals and FREE stuff! The crowd never diminished for long and the line to order often wrapped back around the booth! It was so much fun to show people these tools and watch their faces light up with the possibilities the Bind-it-All and Dreamkuts would give them creatively. Demonstrating the tools also gave me a lot of practice with them and now I have a ton of ideas in my head that I just need to find the time to create!

Two Peas at Two Pea's Ice Cream Social

Fun stuff for us! We rolled in to the Two Peas reception at the Sheridan Hotel a few blocks from CHA central (aka Anaheim Convention Center) to check out our fellow Peas from www.twopeasinabucket.com. Nan seriously needed some cold ice cream for her sore throat - she had been demoing the new Zutter products all day and needed some relief! I'll be honest - I just wanted something sugary and sweet. We met fellow Pea Bran, aka dontdropthespiritstick on the Pea message boards. She's a mom to two cheerleaders, hence the "Bring It On" inspired handle. We stayed for the first drawing ... I was lucky number 13. It was lucky, but not quite lucky enough - because 113 was the big winner!