News and Events June 30, 2013

Here’s a bit of news and information for North Texas and the surrounding areas:

LinkedIn Blog Hop

http://craftyneighbor.blogspot.com/2013/06/june-blog-hop.html

Don’t forget!  Today is your last day to stop by the Crafty Neighbor blog to check out our June Blog Hop!  Each blog in the hop will be giving away a prize to one random person who comments on the blog and offers a suggestion for next month’s hop.  Here’s a little peek of my entry:

Registrations are now open for the following events:

Scrapbooking Garage Sale

http://www.craftyneighbor.com/events/garagesale2013.html

Join us Saturday, August 3^rd from 9AM- 3PM for a scrapbooking garage sale at the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, Joann Fogg Service Center, 6001 Summerside Drive, Dallas, Texas 75252. 

Dallas Crafters Marathon

http://www.dallascraftersmarathon.com/

Crop for the day, or crop for the weekend.  This event is open to Paper Crafts, Needle & Yarn Crafts, Fiber Artist, Altered Arts, Art Journaling & Book Arts, Jewelry Making, Stamping, Quilting, etc!  Most crafts are welcome!  Friday, July 26 through Sunday, July 28th.  See website for more information.

Here’s a few events outside the DFW area:

Creating Keepsakes Conventions

http://www.ckscrapbookevents.com/CKScrapbookConventions.aspx

Work on projects, catch up with friends, and have tons of fun at one of the many CK conventions throughout the country.  Here’s a few within an easy drive of DFW:

CKC-Tulsa

Tulsa, OK

August 23-24

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CKC-Shreveport

Shreveport, LA

September 13-14

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CKC-San Marcos

San Marcos, TX

September 20-21

6^th Annual Scrapbooking Cruise

http://www.craftyneighbor.com/retreats/2013/cruise13/cruise2013.html

Join us on our 6^th annual cruise of the Caribbean departing Galveston, Texas on December 1, 2013 aboard the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas!  We’ll have 7 days of cropping, crafting, cardmaking, and cruising while we visit the ports of Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico.  Pricing starts at about $100 per day and includes all food, cruise fare, and crafting fees.  Payment plans available.  See our website for more details.

Watch for these events, coming soon:

Think Pink Crop for the Cure

http://www.craftyneighbor.com/retreats/pamspals.html

That’s right!  Our annual breast cancer fundraiser is back with a new name!  Our annual event will now be called Think Pink Crop for the Cure!  Mark your calendars now for October 5, 2013, and let’s kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a bang!  More details to be announced!

2014 Cruise!

Boy do we have some great news for you!  Royal Caribbean is coming to Gavleston Year-ROUND!  We’re cruising again in 2014 so look for a date announcement very soon!  We are tentatively looking at September or October with a destination of Jamaica and Grand Cayman.  We can’t wait!

  

Kits and Layouts:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/craftyneighbor

Coming soon to Etsy.com!  We are in the process of transitioning some of our online shop to an ETSY shop for easier maintenance!  As we do this, we will be adding new items, including kits and ready-made layouts.  Watch here and on our Facebook  page for the announcement!

That's it for now!  For all the latest information, please be sure to "Like" our facebook page at 

http://www.facebook.com/craftyneighbor

Mix It Up!

As I was looking back at my blog entries from this past week, I realized that the layout I posted of the 2009 Pam’s Pals event was the last email of that series and that I never posted the first.  Sometimes I do stuff like that…post things out of order, crop things out of order, live my life out of order…. 

The first page of the series

I was at my most productive when I worked on my scrapbooks out of order.  Don’t get me wrong, there are times when working chronologically is an absolute must like when I did my son’s Philmont Trek with the Boy Scouts.  I knew I had to work on each page in order to make sure that there were no gaps or blank pages..   But unless I’m working on a specific event that has many of pages, I prefer to mix things up.

I generally tend to divide my scrapbook pages into categories depending on what album they are going into.  For instance, I have a category for each of my children, family events and holidays, and then one or more special categories like NASCAR or vacation, etc.  I’ll plan out two or three layouts for each category and work on them in an alternating fashion.  That way I can mix things up a bit and won’t get bored working on the same subjects all the time.

A layout from our 2007 cruise.  I finally finished this album this fall.

So that’s the way I like to scrapbook, but I don’t get to do that very often these days.  Way back in 2007, I stopped working on everything else in an attempt to get Steven’s Boy Scout albums finished.  He was working his way up to Eagle Scout, and I wanted to have those albums finished before he did.  I didn’t even come close…not even with me dedicating every single scrapbook hour to working on those albums.  By the time he achieved the rank of Eagle, I was so sick of working on Boy Scouts that I haven’t done a single Boy Scout page since!  I was also woefully behind on everything else!

So take a lesson from me, mix it up a bit.  Have some fun.  Don’t let scrapbooking become drudgery.  If you’re tired of working on one album, move on to work on another.  It will get finished eventually, and you’ll enjoy it a lot more!

News, News and More News!

As you know, we’ve spent the last two weeks in recovery from our marathon Pam’s Pals crop. What you probably don't know is that we made a few announcements at the event and we're excited to share them with you here!

Introducing:

http://travel.craftyneighbor.com 

Yep, you see that right! Crafty Neighbor Travel! Pam and I have recently signed a contract with Dugan's Travel to start our very own travel business! So what does this mean for you? It means great deals on all your travel, of course, but most importantly, it means that we can bring you more retreats and more cruises at better prices without the hassle of dealing with a middleman or outside travel agent! So check us out the next time you are looking to book some travel, and stay tuned for some new cruises and retreats in the very near future!

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Want to add your Pam’s Pals experience to your scrapbook?

Check out our custom-made Pam’s Pals 12 x12 scrapbook paper. Available for a limited time, these gorgeous papers are perfect for preserving your Pam’s Pals memories! Our first 2-page set in this new series is available for just $3 a pair.

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Show your Pam’s Pal support to the world!

We are currently taking orders for Pam's Pals t-shirts.

The cost is $14.50 each and they are available in most sizes.

To order t-shirts or our custom Pam's Pals paper, just send us an email to order@craftyneighbor.com

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And now for something really exciting……drum roll please…… 

Registration is now open for our
2011 National Scrapbook Day crop! 

Join us May 7th for a 14-hour Retro Throw-Back Crop ‘til You Drop! 

For more information, go to www.CraftyNeighbor.com

Cropping for a Cause

It's always fun to do something you love and turn it to a good cause.  Just this past weekend, we had an all-day crop to benefit the Susan G. Komen 3-Day and our walk team, Ta-Ta Sisterhood.  Another scrapbooker found my email and sent me this information about another all-day, crop-for-a-cause opportunity:

Crop til you Drop Fundraiser

When:  Saturday, March 26, 2011

            10 AM – 9 PM

Where: North Ridge Middle School (Cafeteria)

          7332 Douglas Lane

          North Richland Hills

Cost: $25.00 per person for ½ day (until 5:00 PM)

          Includes lunch, snacks, drinks

      $30.00 per person for full day

          Includes lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks

Each person will have their own table to use for the day.  We will have Make-and-Takes, raffles, vendor tables, etc.

SPACE IS LIMITED SO RESERVE TODAY!

RSVP and payment made by Sunday, March 20, 2011

Contact:  Amy Ashkinazy 817 846-5922 amy.ashkinazy@aa.com   or

         Angela Maine 817 992-5634 baseballmommy1995@yahoo.com

We will accept cash or credit card.

I don't know anything else about this event, but it sounds like fun!

3rd Annual Pam's Pals Benefit Crop

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who has helped make our 2008 and  2009 Pam's Pals Benefit Crops such a SMASHING SUCCESS!  Together, we have raised thousands of dollars to help Pam, and it doesn't stop there! We had such a great time and breast cancer is such an important cause that we've decided to do it again and again and again!

What is Pam's Pals? 

Pam's Pals started as a group of friends getting together to help our good friend and fellow scrapbooker, Pam Wilemon.  Pam was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.  Shortly after that, a group of her friends got together in Conroe, Texas to raise money to help pay some of her medical bills.  Crafty Neighbor wanted to help, too, so we organized our first ever Pam's Pals Benefit Crop.  The event was a huge success and helped to raise several thousand dollars to help pay Pam's medical bills.  We repeated the event again in 2009. 

We had to skip 2010 because of the timing of our cruise, and Pam is doing much better, but this cause is so important to us that we think it's worth doing every year!  So for 2011, we're hosting the Pam's Pals event in March and we're donating the proceeds to a charity that is very close to Pam's heart -- the Susan G. Komen Foundation. 

So put on your pink and join us for our

3rd Annual Pam's Pals Benefit Crop!
March 12, 2011

10:00 AM - Midnight

Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas
Joann Fogg Service Center
6001 Summerside Drive
Dallas, Texas 75252

Profits to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure

If you would like more information about Pam's Pals or our benefit crop, please send us an email at:

PamsPals@CraftyNeighbor.com

For more information about the Susan G. Komen Foundation, visit:

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Your registration includes your crop fees, lunch and dinner.
Don't wait!  Space is limited!  Register early to secure your spot!  $ 50.00Click here to Register Now!

Christmas retreat

Thanks ever-so-much to Peter and Ida Wilson for donating a scrapbooking retreat weekend to raffle at our  Pam's Pals cause!  After all was said and done, we wound up with a group of 9 for the weekend of the 11th and we had a great time.  A lot of people passed on this great opportunity because it was "too close to the holidays" or they were too busy, but I tell ya', you don't know what you're missing!  December is the perfect time for a scrapbooking retreat, because it takes you away from the chaotic hustle and bustle and gives you time to just breathe, relax and do a little something for yourself (and you know you've been neglecting yourself for a long time!).  I also found that it was the perfect opportunity to finish up a lot of the handmade gifts that I hadn't been able to finish at home.  So thank you Scrappin' Around the Corner in Denton!  I'm sure we'll be calling you again next year!