Crafty birthday adventure, Days 2 and 3

It’s taken me awhile to get back to the tale of my crafty birthday adventure — this week was looong, and I am exhausted. But I do want to share my photos, so on with the show! If you missed it, check out the beginning of the story in Crafty Birthday Adventure, Day 1.

The second and third days of the trip, Oct. 16 and 17, were primarily spent at the crop. It started at noon on the 16th and went until midnight. Then on the 17th it started at 7 a.m. and went until midnight.

When we arrived we found goodies at our tables: a reuseable bag and a scrapbooking page kit with fun papers and cut-outs specific for the crop and Memory Bound’s 25th anniversary. (I didn’t think to take a picture of it. Oops!) There were so many crafters there! The two pictures above are the room setup; the first picture was my view (that’s my aunt Terry at the bottom), and the second picture was behind me.

Here I am, set up and getting to work:

And Penny was ready to help:

For the weekend I had decided to work on the desk calendars I make to gift during the holidays. I went with a Tim Holtz theme, so I brought my collection of Tim Holtz mixed media sets, my Distress Oxide inks, stencils, alcohol markers, and ink-blending tools.

To be honest, the first day was really overwhelming. With everyone coming in and unloading their stuff and catching up with friends they had met before, it was loud and chaotic. (Some people are hard-core scrappers and had a lot of stuff, wagons full of supplies and even their own chairs. I was not prepared for that.) It was a little too much for my introverted self, so I didn’t get a lot done that day.

For dinner that night they served chili (soup for the vegetarians like me) and cinnamon rolls for dessert. In the evening there was popcorn for snacking, which Penny enjoyed (see below). Lisa and I only lasted until about 8:00, then we headed upstairs to our room. Terry crafted until about 9. We were exhausted!

On the next day I got off to an early start. I didn’t make it down right at 7:00, but it wasn’t too long after that. I was a little more prepared for the commotion on the second day — I brought my earbuds so I could listen to music on my phone, which definitely helped me focus and block out some of the distractions. But before we got too into our crafting we had to take some photos, first the gnomes and then us.

With Penny’s help, I managed to finish four calendars. (I’ll post better pictures of the calendar pages after I’ve gifted them.) In the evening I decided to work on a few Halloween and fall cards.

After I ate lunch (soup and sandwiches) and finished the calendars, I went up to our room and took a long break. I knew I needed some downtime if I wanted to craft later into the evening. Dinner that night was cheeseburgers/veggie burgers and fries. We had cupcakes and popcorn in the evening, and Penny and I also knew we needed to caffeinate. I took my work very seriously (or maybe not, but Terry and Lisa were hard at work).

I used my Tim Holtz supplies to make two Halloween cards and two fall cards before I called it quits for the evening around 10:00. Still not midnight, but at least I did a little better.

Stay tuned for Day 3 of the crafty birthday adventure.

Thanks for stopping by!