Being frisked... scrapper style!

Yep, that's me getting frisked at the Atlanta airport on my way to ScrapFest.  I had emptied my pockets and taken off my shoes like a good little passenger, but I set the machine off twice so the guard gives out the call for "female pat-down assistance" and I have to step into the little glass cubicle of shame.

Enter the TSA lady.

She begins our exchange by saying, "Do you KNOW why you set off the machine today?"  Um, no.  I'm just as surprised as you are, to be honest.  So then the fun begins with both "THE WAND" and the physical pat-down.  The physical pat-down includes having to roll down the waistband of my jeans (huh?) and standing like, well, like you see above.

Now of course all of this strikes me as very funny.  The situation is kind of absurd and I have a nervous laugh response anyway (anyone who knows me knows that I laugh at terribly inappropriate times, like when people are CHOKING, but I digress).  So what happens?  I am laughing... THE WHOLE TIME!  Needless to say, the TSA lady is not amused and probably thinks that I am deranged as well as being a suspicious character. 

But what makes it ever funnier?  The fact that Kerry is there taking pictures of the whole thing.  Only a scrapbooker would think to take pictures of this event.  I was so proud of her for doing this for me since I figured that if I yelled out, "Hey Kerry, take some pictures for the scrapbook", I would have been escorted out of the cubicle of shame into a much more sinister room where cameras are discouraged.

So that's how our trip began.  Ten minutes into our trip and we were already causing a scene.  It was great.

Oh yeah, and the thing that was setting off the metal detector?  The underwire in my bra.  I kid you not.

And I won't even get into the frisking I got at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.  Let's just say that I though that TSA lady owed me at least dinner after it was over.

OK, so the pictures are upside-down. So sue me... I'm tired. Anyhoo, this is the project from Teresa Collins Designs using the "Friendship" collection. It was put together using the DreamKutz and Bind-It-All machines as well as the acrylic BIA covers from Zutter.

Our favorite projects of the weekend were the notebooks from Reminisce. Their products from their "Halloween Collection 2009", "Autumn Forest", and "Christmastime" collections made plain spiral-bound notebooks into the cutest notebooks ever!

A photo pocket tag from The Paper Company (TPC) Studio using their "Time to Travel" collection (they also have some directions for other cute mini projects on their site).

A super-fun little project from KI Memories... a Halloween goody "basket" made from a single sheet of 12X12 paper and embellished with their cute epoxy Halloween stickers and ribbon!

12X12 layout from Me and My Big Ideas... very cute!

Card from Making Memories using the Slice machine and their "Wedding" collection Blossoms

A fun card from Imaginisce featuring their "Let's Roll" collection (great for boy pages!) and using their new I-Top Brad Maker. The brad maker was easier to use than I expected and you can make brads from paper, fabric, pictures, etc!

Great gift card holder/birthday card from Karen Foster Designs. The ribbon is attached to a "slider" (made from a small piece of paper and a brad -- how clever!) that holds the gift card!

A really cute baby card from Hambly Studios made from a transparency! The envelope looks like a fancy lined envelope, but it's really just got a piece of patterned paper attached to the inside!

Card from Doodlebug Design featuring their Crushed Velvet brads and
Chunky Sugar Coating glitter.

"Hey Pumpkin" card from Cosmo Cricket

"Smile" card from Cosmo Cricket

"You Melt My Heart" card from Cosmo Cricket

Butterfly card from Me and My Big Ideas using their "Soft Spoken" embellishments

Christmas accordian mini-album from BoBunny, made from 1 sheet of 12X12 paper!

BoBunny's Halloween accordian mini-album

12X12 layout from Creativity Inc. using Stampology inks,

Autumn Leaves papers, and Scrap Metal embellishment.

Card from American Crafts using their Zing! embossing powder and Flair embellishment

Set of 3 Basic Grey cards featuring the new "Indian Summer" line of products

ScrapFest 2009 make and takes

My friend Kerry and I though that people may want to see some pictures of the various make-and-take projects offered this year at ScrapFest so I'll be posting pics of everything that we did.

Some vendors had one project all weekend, while others had a different project each day. All of the projects took about 6 minutes or less and are super-easy to recreate at home! Happy crafting!

And lots of love and kudos to Kerry for providing the pictures! I'm too lazy to take them, plus the deer on my Reminisce notebook project had an unfortunate accident in which he lost his butt).

$10 coupon from Lettering Delights

Just a heads up to all those who love cool fonts:

Lettering Delights is running a promo right now -- become their fan on Facebook and you get a coupon code for $10 off any of their products!

They have wonderful fonts, graphics, and printables that are all very inexpensive anyway, but then $10 off makes it even better!

Once you are a fan, the code can be found on their Facebook page (or "wall").

This offer expires September 30 so you have to hurry!

Another new template

As proud as I was of the last template I had here on my blog (since I actually installed it without putting my foot through the monitor AND I put my own text and pictures in the header!), I have to admit it was a little... well, busy. "Busy" as in "Sweet Jesus, my eyes. MY EYES!"

So I have gone back to my old tried and true blog template. Simple and much easier on the old peepers. Thanks to suckmylolly.com who provided it!

Scenic Route closing!

Why, Scenic Route, why?!

I bought your products religiously. Your die-cut arrows are to die for. Your papers are always so cute and versatile. I was cleaning up my paper explosion... I mean, paper stash... just today and saw some of your papers and thought, "How cute is that?"

Now you go and tell me you are CLOSING?! Say it ain't so.

Break ups are just too hard.

ScrapFest 2009

THE GOOD:

1. Location -- The Mall of America is unbelieveable! Over 500 stores AND an amusement park inside? Sign me up! While walking around that behemoth got old by Sunday, it really was a great place for Scrapfest.

2. The vendors/make-and-takes -- There was a great selection of vendors at ScrapFest. My favorites, Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket, were right next to each other and their make and takes were so cute and quick. Also big props to Reminisce... those ladies had it going on! Their make and take notebook was by far the cutest project there and they were so well-organized.

3. The Archiver's staff -- I never saw anyone who worked for Archiver's without a smile on their face the whole weekend. Whether in the store, at the Savings Spot, or helping out with a class, these ladies were on top of their game the entire time. Great job, y'all!

4. The classes -- My friend Kerry and I took 6 classes and they were all great! We especially liked the Basic Grey card class lead by Layle Koncar. But the most awesome "woo hoo moment" was by far when, at the end of our Fiskars class, Stephenie Purl Hamen gave away ALL of the Fiskars punches, stamps, and stamp presses we had used (because it was the last class of the weekend and she didn't want to cart all that stuff back with her)! I sure love me some swag!

THE BAD:

1. The location of some classes/vendor booths -- I felt really sorry for Kelly Purkey from American Crafts. The class we took from her was in the "Sears Court" and it was LOUD! Even with a microphone, we had trouble hearing her (but she and her class were awesome). Also the ladies from Moxxie were right beside the Rainforest Cafe... the loud "thunderstorm" every 15 minutes really is annoying after a while (however, their flower project was BEYOND ADORABLE!).

2. The crops -- We heard that the crops were great but we didn't sign up for any b/c they were quite expensive. However, we heard that all the attendees (except for the crop sponsored by Sizzix) got lots of swag so I guess it evens out.

3. The class length -- Each class only lasted 45 minutes. That is definitely NOT long enough.

4. The lines at the booths -- The longest that we waited in line for anything was about 45 minutes. However, we heard that at one point, the line for the Little Yellow Bicycle booth was approaching a THREE HOUR wait time. Um, no. No 1 page layout, no matter how cute or free, is worth that.


THE UGLY:

1. Back to back classes -- Only having 15 minutes to walk from class to class really sucked, especially when your class was on the mythical 4th floor. No one told us that you had to take an elevator (not escalator) to the 4th floor. We were beginning to think that it was like Platform 9 3/4 and that we would have to run through a wall to get there (if you don't get that reference, read Harry Potter!).

2. Running out of make-and-takes -- The Little Yellow Bicycle booth proved to be one of the most popular, so much so that on Thursday they ran out of the super-cute layout they were doing. They replaced it with a Halloween banner. Yuck... which leads me to #3.

3. Halloween -- I do not have kids so Halloween lines of product do nothing for me. And you can't tell me that even people with kids have enough Halloween pictures to consitute soooo much Halloween stuff. It seemed like tons of the make-and-takes were Halloween-related. I'll bet that the "Halloween-is-Satan's-holiday" people were freaking out everywhere they looked.

RESULTS:

In all, I LOVED ScrapFest! I loved it so much so that I am planning on going again next year, Lord willing. While the Minnesota accent grated on my nerves after a minute ("Can I put that in a BEG for ya?"), the whole experience was great.

Now if I can just get a job with a crafting company so that I can be working there next year......