I had a great time at the crop

I hosted another crop this weekend. It was an intimate gathering of fun, spirit-filled ladies who got a lot of work done. Each cropper got either a fall brad set, fall ribbon set, and epoxy sticker set or an acrylic stamp set, stamp block, ribbon spool, and epoxy sticker set all enclosed in a fall color take-out box as a gift. Also, everyone received a door prize which was a perpetual scrapbooking calendar, a Rainbow Color Selector with masks, or an 81 piece chipboard letter set in fall colors.

I decided this crop would have a holiday season theme since it's almost Thanksgiving. For the crop I served a mini holiday dinner of roast turkey, cornbread dressing, green beans with sausage, gravy with giblets, and German chocolate cupcakes. Hmmm, hmmm, good! I was pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully my turkey came out. Martha you've got competition (smile).


While the croppers were here, they asked about some of the things I have in my studio. This got me to thinking that I should share some of these finds with you.

I bought this "Hand Stamped by" rubber stamp from Paper Angel about 10 years ago. I don't think they carry this exact style anymore. However, they have a lot of wonderful designs to choose from. I just placed an order for three more personalized stamps.

I keep an inventory of my tools and supplies in a 6" x 9" binder. I have a companion binder that I use to catalog my stamps. The inventory book has a front cover sleeve. I made a simple cover using American Craft sticker letters for the title, green grosgrain ribbon, and K & Company paper, all of which I've had for ages.

Inside are tab dividers for various categories.


I modified some of the insert pages to fit my needs. Here is a page where I cataloged my Making Memories paint. (Sorry my photo software wasn't rotating my pictures properly.)




You can get this inventory binder system from Create A System, although I think the binder cover they offer is preprinted with design instead of a sleeve.

During the crop I worked on the CD calendars I will give away as Christmas gifts. Because I'm using some bulky embellishments on some pages, I need to think of a better way to store the extra pages when they are not in use. I am also considering binding the calendar using a Bind-It-All instead of using a CD case. But I haven't acquired that tool just yet. One cropper mentioned that HSN had a great deal on this item. There was a vendor at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention who offered a special during the show. However, I wasn't sure I would use this tool often enough to justify its purchase. Now, I wish I had bought it.


Finally, some of the croppers expressed an interest in attending classes that I may offer. I love making mini albums and they were interested in my "Friends" album. If I can find all of the supplies I used in this album, I'll offer this as a class. Stay tuned.

If you're in the Washington, DC metro area, I hope you can join us for one of my monthly crops. In 2008 I'm going to hold them on the second Saturday of each month.