Crop the Night Away

I've been trying to attract more scrapbooking customers. Some of my friends laugh about how much stuff I have in my stamping workshop and that they would love to come and just use my stamps, inks, tools, etc. So I thought why not -- I'll have them come over and they can work on their projects and use my supplies. I also know through personal experience that scrapbookers like to stay up late and scrap, scrap and scrap! So I came up with "Crop the Night Away" (everytime I say that the Van Halen song -- Dance the Night Away -- comes into my head. I was even thinking of playing that song while we cropped!) I also thought it would be fun to make it a monthly event, give it a different theme every month and design a 12x12 two-page layout for them to make based on the theme. I love it when I have those brilliant ideas!

Last Friday night was my first Crop the Night Away event from 7pm to midnight. The theme was BACK TO SCHOOL and I designed this great 12x12 two-page layout using the green apple paper from the Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper. (I was thinking -- an apple for the teacher! Plus, this was the only DSP that was included in the new catalog that I had so I didn't have to order any new stuff.)

Now I had to come up with my "themed snacks." I went for pre-packaged snacks kids would put in their lunch boxes -- small packages of chips, snack-sized candy bars, snack-sized packages of animal crackers, peanut butter & jelly Uncrustables by Smucker's and to drink, of course, Capri Sun pouches. Four scrapbooking friends came and we had a blast. Two of them stayed until midnight and we actually got some scrapbooking done.

Of course, my three dogs had to join in on the fun. Casey, a Sheltie mix, is my big paper-eater. She loves to sit next to you and wait for little pieces of paper to drop. One of my friends dropped her small "apple" embellishment and she didn't pick it up fast enough -- Casey had grabbed it and eaten it!!

My pointy nose sheep dog!

Libby, an English Springer Spaniel mix, is just lazy and slept on the bed in my stamping workshop.

My couch potato!

Then there is Luke. He is my baby (even though he is the oldest at 10). He is an English Springer Spaniel who is truly a lover. He made the rounds to all of my friends that evening wanting them to pet him. Of course, he is too cute to resist so he got plenty of love that night.

My lover, Lukey!

I'd say my first Crop the Night Away was a success. Now I must get busy and design my next 12x12 two-page layout for October. The theme -- you guessed it -- Halloween. I LOVE HALLOWEEN. This one should be fun!!