New Clubs At Crop 'Til You Drop!

Well now that the Three louises are all checked in it's time for me to post our latest news: Club meetings. These are different to a usual class or crop & are as much a social group as anything for specific members of our community. If you would like us to run a particular club that isn't yet listed, contact us with your ideas (you can also let us know when would be good days & times for you) and we'll see what we can do. All our new clubs start in May, and a full list of dates/times will be available in store soon. In the meantime, get in touch with any questions and we'll be happy to help. Here's an overview:



Decopatch Club: An opportunity to have a look at some of the things that you can do with this excellent stuff! We'll do a little project in each meeting/have a 'show & tell' Raffles & Prize Draws & maybe bring in your own stuff to do (kinda like a knitting circle then!). I'll also have the camera on hand if you have stuff to showcase on the Gallery. This month’s dates are: Thursday May 10th 7.30 – 9.30 pm & Friday May 25th 12.30 – 2.30 pm. You'll never look at a boring household object in the same way again (& as the papers are acid free, you can use them in your scrapbooks too!) A little image to the right just to remind you what can be done with an old chair!

ATC Club: Discover the joys of ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) in this fun & informal meeting. Each session, we will look at a different theme/technique and you will then be able to have a go or work on your own creations and take part in a ‘swap’. We’ll have a bit of a show & tell for those who’d like to take part & those will be displayed in store until the next meeting - & there will be a prize draw for those who take part! This month’s dates are: Friday May 11th 12.30 – 2.30 pm & Thursday May 31st 7.30 – 9.30 pm. This is such a fun way to use up all your scraps from other projects & we know you'll be hooked from the start!!

Member's Only Club: your very own meetings now in store twice per month. Have a go at the monthly projects under supervision, find out more about your special offers, meet other members & have your say about a range of things: what sort of projects and competitions you’d like etc… Show & tell previous projects, take part in the raffle etc. This month’s dates are: Wednesday May 9th 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm & Thursday May 24th 7.30 – 9.30 pm. The project this month is something you might have seen before: THAT HAT!! Yep, it's the decopatch hat that started life as a grocery box & has received an awful lot of attention both in store & online. In May's meetings, I'll be on hand to show you how! Here's that picture again LOL


The three Louises will be receiving their first box of goodies next week so I expect we'll be hearing from them again very soon. Please do come back often as I expect there will be something new most days. And look out for details of our Mad May Mega-Sale coming soon!!

3rd Louise checking in!!!

Hi I thought I better get on here and post too!!

Im Louise (obviously) and I live in Sidcup in Kent with my two daughters Demi (10) and Tiffani (4). They are the main reason I started scrapping. I found it in a card making mag in October 2004 and in November I attended my first evening at a scrapping club and was totally hooked. I think I love the buying of stash just as much as using it - ok more infact!! :) As well as finding a really great hobby I have made some really great friends through scrapping too!

I am thrilled to be picked to be on CTYD Design Team and cannot wait to get started.

Thats it for now - be back soon :)

Louise

Hello from me too...

I was chuffed to buttons to read the email inviting me onto the DT, and look forward to sharing my work with you.

A little bit about this Louise then...

I am 30, live in Manchester with my DH and our two beautiful boys, Oliver and Harry, our westie with an abnormally long neck, a hamster and a fish!!!

I am an art teacher currently on a break whilst baby is an ickle pickle.

I have always been obsessed with everything arty crafty, and discovered scrapbooking about 3 years ago. It became the perfect hobby/obsession for me, as I had a way to showcase the hundreds of photos I had stored on CDs. Obsession is not an over exaggeration either... I really do live and dream 12x12...LOL!!!

This is my latest LO.

DH asked why I used a flower on it... well as the only female in a house of male peeps and animals.... I have to indulge my girly side somehow!!! Wait until the pink papers come out, let's see what he says then....LOL!!!

Hello!

Just a quick post to introduce myself as a member of the new design team. I'm Looby and I'm 26. I live in Gravesend with my OH and our dog. I started cardmaking in December 2004 when I decided to make my own Christmas cards, and was instantly hooked. I took up scrapping in September last year when my mum dug out some old pictures and I just love creating pages of memories. I've always enjoyed photography (inherited from my Dad who's an absolute whizz with a camera) so scrapping has become my new passion - although I still love making cards.

As you'll see from Beverley's post below the latest HOTP personal shopper kits are now in store and today I made this layout of my OH with the February scrapbooking kit. The kits are great as they contain everything you need in one box. This is one of my favourite colour combinations at the mo - I hope you like it!!

3 Louises poised for world domination!

Well OK, not world domination perhaps but they are at least our new Design Team. A big round of applause for:
Louise Connell (Looby)
Louise Squires (LouLou76)
Louise Stevenson (Looby Lou)
Who will be our Design Team for the next three months. I suspect we will be hearing much from them in both this blog & the Forum

They will be joining the Blog over the next few days and will be making their debut designs in May. Looby will also be joining us in store to do some make n takes on National Scrapbooking Day

The decision was really tough to make & I'm not feeling good about having to say no to sooo many talented scrappers out there (card makers were SERIOUSLY under-represented!!) so I really hope that the ladies that didn't get through this time will give it another go in 3 months when we put out the next DT call. Hopefully we'll be able to expand the team by then too!

HOTP Personal Shopper Kits

They are here and they are yummy!! I only managed to sneak a peek today as the delivery didn't arrive until 4pm and it took some time to process (no time to stroke paper then!) I got a quick look at the Scrapbooking kit but soooo wanted time to play! On the plus side, as we will be showcasing them at next weekend's National Scrapbooking Day events, I have the perfect excuse to play - but sadly not until Friday! Tomorrow will be spent processing all the pending orders and getting kits out to our subscribers. Anyway, I digress LOL.

I've posted a couple of images of the kits themselves. And as soon as I've played, there will be some project ideas both here and on the gallery. Oops, lost concentration there - DH has just put the first episode of Red Dwarf on the telly box - & I recognised it from the first bars of the intro music LOL. The scrapbooking kit, as always, contains three themed sets of paper. 'Love' has the most delectable deep pink & brown combo - 'sassy' I believe is the correct descriptive - it's v. modern & will be great for wedding/engagement LO & 'young love' pages. The 'Inspiration' collection is the same gorgeous colours as in the Vintage 8x8 - beautiful teals, blues & browns - & the copper flower flourishes are to die for (I'd love a whole box full of those!). The 'Family' theme is a combination of classic red & black - always popular and sooooo easy to use! Each set has artwork, brads & embellies & there are a few extra goodies too! I can't wait to get started!

I'm not going to rave about the cardmaker's kit - if I did this would make for a rediculously long post! So here is an image to get started. The kits should be in the webshop in the next few days & if you really can't wait that long... you can always order by phone! And if that's not enough - we have a great special offer! Personal Shopper is exclusive to Crop 'Til You Drop in the UK.

Sneak Peeks & Current Classes!

I've had a very productive day today! Not only have I finished a couple of personal projects (visit my blog to read more about that) but I've finally finished and photographed the layout for tomorrow (wednesday) night's class and got ahead on the next one. Wednesday nights concentrate on a different style or trend in scrapping and this week I've created a very bold & brave layout with bright colours. So the style is modern and incorporates some stapled ribbons (one of my fave trends that never seems to date!!) I'm also trying to incorporate more variety in the styles of title and journaling as it is all too easy to get bogged down in computer journaling and rely to heavily on die cut letters for your titles (those in the know will only too aware of how much I love the big shot LOL).



Unusually, I'm a bit ahead and have started the next layout for Friday/Saturday - which I don't need for another week. In these classes (and yes, you spotted it, it's the same class held twice!) we focus on a technique (but let's not get too bogged down in what is a technique and what is a trend!!). This time, we will be exploring another simple form of doodling and this is a brilliant layout for using up scraps - so it's good for your purse too! I don't want to give away too much yet - but here's a sneak peek at what's to come. If you'd like to book for any of our classes, or just need a bit more info, you can contact us by e-mail or at the shop 7 days per week.



One last thing for today - our altered traffic cones have received quite a lot of comments so, for those of you that cannot pop down to see for yourselves, here's a piccie! I have to confess I can't claim the credit for these, they were a surprise gift from my mum & my stepbrother! They came about as we were having alot of trouble with inconsiderate people parking right outside the shop. As our lease doesn't allow us to place an A-frame outside the agents suggested we either put a couple of old crates or some traffic cones out there. I wasn't thrilled with either option as I thought they'd look really scruffy. A few days later, mum arrived with these - how cool is that?

Celebrate St George's Day!

It is St George's Day today (Monday 23rd April) so we are going to have FOR ONE DAY ONLY a special offer on ALL English Paper Company products. So, the offer is ... 10% off on ALL English Paper Company products currently in stock (that's all 6x6, 12x12 & Border Pads, plus 10 loose papers). We made a couple of cards with these papers in Friday's card class, scroll down to Saturday's post to view them.

To view the whole range on offer (both collections), have a look here - there's also an inspirational gallery worth a look. To order, either telephone the shop before 4.45 pm or e-mail by midnight & we'll contact you on Tuesday to take your card details. Of course, if you are passing, you could always drop in & pick your papers in person (there's nothing like being able to stroke the papers for real is there?)

Whatever you are doing today, have a great day!

Save The Date

May 5th 2007 is National Scrapbooking Day (well it is in America!). A couple of the UK magazines have decided to adopt the day as our own & I have to say I completely agree. So in honour of the great day we have decided to hold ..... The Scrapbooking Weekender!

Saturday will be a veritable feast of make n takes, demos, free draws & beginner's intro sessions. All day during normal trading hours (10-5) - so pop in, try your luck for a freebie or two & maybe make something or learn something new!!

Sunday brings a whole day of cropping: tea & toast followed by a cropping session in the morning; tea & cake followed by a cropping session in the afternoon. Kits will be available to purchase - or you can bring your stash along & do your own thing. There will, of course, be a few spot prizes up for grabs & an optional raffle. Spaces are limited so you'll need to book for this one!! Telephone the shop to book.

Create a Card

I thought I'd share a couple of cards that we created in Friday's 'Simply Cards' Class. As the title suggests, this is the class to come to for quick and easy cards. We focussed on paper piecing this week and created two animal themed cards. The elephant is made from just four pieces, layered and attached with foam tape. The frog is just two pieces and the head is attached on a paper spring so that it wobbles from side to side. Hmmmm... the possibilities for nodding frogs to take over the dashboard from the usual nodding dogs - I feel a moment of 70's naffness to overcome!

Both cards have computer printed greetings, which make a nice change from peel-offs or stamped salutations. The papers for both animals are from the English Paper Company - a fabulous manufacturer that produces excellent designs for card making and scrapbooking. And the background for the elephant is a scrap of handmade paper - just torn along the top edge to make blue 'grass' (and why not!!)

Design Team Call Closed!

Our search for a new design team is drawing to a close. The deadline passed 11 minutes since and we are now accepting no new entrants. The standard has been soooo high that it has been difficult to draw up a shortlist from all the entries we have had.
So far, we have narrowed it down to a potential 7 candidates, of which we have decided that THREE will be chosen for our first DT. Over the weekend I will be e-mailing all those that have so far been unsuccessful and approaching those shortlisted for some additional info ... The DT will be announced on this blog by the end of the month and will make their debut in May!

Please do check back soon as we'll also have some exciting news about events coming shortly!!

Save The Date: National Scrapbooking Day - Saturday May 5th 2007!! More Information about our weekend of Scrapbooking Events coming soon ...

Once More With Feeling!!

And so it starts again. Having mastered the art (almost) of managing my personal blog, a gallery, the forum and having the occasional play on my websites (when Gandalf isn't looking!) it's time for the shop to have a blog of its very own. Thinking ahead for a change (organisation not being my forte) I thought it might be a good idea to get the blog up and running before the design team are announced at the end of this month.

This is the place to come and find out all the latest news! I'll try to be good and post all the little details that you need to fully embrace the Crop 'Til You Drop experience - details of new classes, images of all the yummy stock before it hits the webshops, images of class projects, and tasters of design team projects - plus anything else I think might be worth a mention LOL.

So I'm really excited about this and hope you will be too! Don't forget to pop back often - there's always a chance that I'll have posted something new!