Scrapbook Expo 2013

This past weekend, I headed up to Pleasanton to hangout with some scrapbookers at the Scrapbook Expo to shop and crop.

Jossie, Kristen, me (blah!), and Liz

(taken by Cameron/edited by me)

I've know Liz for about 9 years now--we've attended an Expo crop years ago together.  We met Jossie and Kristen via Instagram.  Crazy, right?  (well I did meet Liz via MySpace--way before Facebook was the thing to do--it wasn't a pick-up spot for me--I met my best scrapbook buddy there!)

The price of the crop included a goody bag...here was my choice--I love the brown/pink combo! (now if I will just use it :D )

We had a great time.  I carpooled up with Liz and her daughter Cameron and we left about 4:30 (we got there a bit before 8am).

Here are my shopping goodies:

At first, I really wasn't finding much.  I mean do I really need these brads I got (only $1 per packet, but still!)?  At the last booth (first time around), I found this Amy Tangerine stamp that I have been really wanting.  There weren't very many deals...well let me rephrase that...Unless, you wanted to stay at the same cramped booth digging through items, there weren't very many deals :D  Plus, I have a ton of stickers, letter stickers, paper, embellishments to last me a lifetime, so my head was telling me I don't need anything!

Then I took one last look at the Stamps of Life booth.  I have watched her 30 second cards {in 5 minutes} videos plenty of times and find her hilarious.  The first time I walked by it, it was crazy crowded, so I figured I would circle back at the end--what a mistake for my pocketbook!

First I just had the Cupcake stamps and matching dies.  Well if you spent $50, you got the cute bag...At $32, I was almost there right (ok, in my shopping mind I was!), so I got the Princess crown stamp set--ok, my Accountant calculator was turned off because that wasn't enough to reach my $50 goal--duh!  And for the record, I have no clue what I am going to do with those stamps...so cute, but I don't really have anyone that young to do crowns for...oh well, I will figure it out.  So I needed 1 more stamp set to get the free bag.  I really like this Dragonfly for some reason.  Well not only did I get my free bag ($60 later--blah!), I also got a free ink pad--I was in a hurry because I was holding up the line (well maybe not, but I felt like I was), so I just chose brown.

I have already used the ink--I love it!  I wish I would have gotten more of her inks.  The bag...I am regretting spending so much to get that thing.  It is super cute, but it is huge!  I mean you can't put anything heavy in it because then it would just be heavy and probably break, so I don't know what I will be doing with the bag--that I HAD to have :)  Oh well that was my only real purchase of the day and I haven't bought too much since the beginning of the year. 

Now I just need to use these stamps!

I also received this goodies bag from Liz!  She is so awesome :)  She is definitely the hostess with the mostest.

Oh...what did I work on at the crop?  Not too much...I had a blast getting know my new InstaFriends!  I probably chatted too much--ha ha ha.  I did finally get my Florida trip (from May 2012) SMASHbook completed with the photos and souvenirs, but I have to go back and journal it. 

Most of this book was already started...I only had to finish the last 4 or so pages and the front cover.

The rest of the time, I spent cutting out my 2x2 pictures of my crochet projects (I will share my prints from Persnickety Photos soon).  Yes, I have a paper cutter-- no it doesn't work well...so I manually had to cut them and it took forever.  I wish I would have done that at home so I could have started my book of crochet projects at the Expo crop.

I really hope to get together with this group of girls again soon!