April SCT Crop & Create - my box arrived!

I wish I had signed up for this one! Have fun everyone!

I can't decide what to do for the Fall C&C events. I've done 2 card making ones and I'm also doing the scrapbooking one next weekend. 

My main issue is - I have so many cards now! I've made 30+ for both card making events, and I love having a stash, but I also only send about 30 all year. I love making cards and I have a million stamp sets but I'm finding myself less motivated to make my own cards now.

Really silly, I know. But it's a lot of money and a lot of product - however, I love the events and enjoy being a part of the community even if i don't participate a lot on FB or anything. 

If I love the scrapbooking one next weekend I'll probably do that one again because I can always use more scrapbook pages. I may adapt the mini album to 12x12 pages, though.

That box is really jam packed - it really is worth the $250

That's a good idea, although I don't think the nursing homes/shelters accept drop-offs right now - things are still pretty shut down where I live. I actually work in the charity industry (but on the Foundation side, not the day-to-day side) so maybe I'll just email a few contacts and see what they say.

Thanks!

Have fun, Ladies! I am all packed up for a LSS in person crop this weekend. Still fighting with myself about registering for the fall event.

How was everyone's day? I only caught a little bit here and there but it was fun to see what people are doing.

I had a real problem with Vicki’s album class. The papers were not anything I would ever buy and use. They are very beautiful and look like Anna Griffin to me which again, beautiful, just not what I use or buy. Ever. Thought I would just use another line instead. I happened to have a full kit of Simple Stories Hearth & Home. I have the 6x8 pad and coordinating thickers and die cuts. Seemed like it should have been an easy swap but it wasn’t. @mdscrapaholoc, you are right. There were so many cuts. So many cuts. Lots of scoring too. I didn’t find the photos of her album pages very helpful and there were some mistakes on her page cutting diagrams and the written instructions were just not very clear to me. The blue Simple Stories album doesn’t coordinate with my papers and I tried to find a collection that I have to match it but wanted to stick with SS products to make it easier for me to sub what was in the class kit. I stopped cutting my paper really early into the class because it was just too much for me with my different papers! I’d like to rewatch the class and try again but…..it’s a lot. And no I won’t just make this album with the pretty papers it comes with and use it as a gift. I quit making things like this for gifts a long time ago because they aren’t appreciated based off my past gift giving experiences.

Paige Evans class was so cute. I debated hand cutting all those circles but I went ahead and did it and glad I did. So cute and really liked the handouts of the extra pages we can make.

That’s all I did so far. I’m sorry to say that I’m not looking forward to Victoria Calvin’s class because it’s the same products that they sent in last fall’s box. It’s the Jen Hadfield line and I liked it so much that i bought a bunch of it after the crop was over. Very disappointed to find it in a class kit again because I already have it. And have used it. Now they want me to use it again. Why?? ETA: should clarify, it is the same product line that they sent us a kit of last fall. 

I’ll be back to post my thoughts on todays classes.

Oh, I saw that Close To My Heart album kit and I’m scratching my head and wondering why it’s not in an actual album……will it fit into an album?? I’m going to see if it does and then I’ll make it. If it doesn’t, I won’t be using it either. Or the Easter products we got. I have two grown sons. We don’t do the Easter bunny anymore. I’m complaining! I’m sorry! I know they can’t please everyone. This is my second Crop and Create. My first one was last fall and in my opinion, the fall box was just so much better. And I swear Vicki had a new line recently and I’m wondering why her album class didn’t use her products. And isn’t there a line of hers that came out a few months ago? Woodland something? My guess is pandemic shipping delays. Oh well.

I signed up for Vicki's Winter Wishes album class last year. I was hoping to use it for DD. But the class was way more than I expected. I knew going in that it was an all day class. However, I found it too overwhelming and the size of the album is huge. Looking forward to two more classes today!

LOL, yes, there are stupid questions! The ones already in the booklet- can you please refer to your handouts rather than asking the instructor, who then has to refer to HER booklet and give you the answer!
I enjoyed Vicki's techniques last fall, but hated the "cut all these sizes and paperclip together". And rather than "cut all these sizes", it would be better to wait until you had the photos and could exactly size to fit.

Please someone tell us: what line did Vicki use for the album?

I did not sign up for this one because I discovered last fall that it's just not how I scrap - I design around my photos; I don't choose my photos to fit a very specific layout.

I wasn't really interested in the idea of the CTMH project. However, I did it and find that I like it better than I expected. I wish that the homework had been announced a bit earlier than it was. I was trying to keep up with getting the proper die cut and adhering and just had to give that up. It was very necessary to have all of the die cuts out of the backing, into their proper stack and the "journal cards" cut out! I gave up on the doing and just started getting the die cuts organized and watching the presentation. I have taken time for a couple of pages since. I am more than a bit miffed at the album situation -- I would prefer a "real" album over the jump rings -- but just try to find a 6x8 3 ring album -- anywhere BUT Close to My Heart! Oh - Hobby Lobby had one, but it is a chip board one so doesn't add anything to the project. I shouldn't be surprised!

I like - maybe that should now be past tense - Vicki B. I appreciate - maybe that should now be past tense - her enthusiasm. When the Indigo Blue first appeared I was interested - but decided there are too many birds and butterflies. Then Vicki is using it for this project and I was interested enough to take a deep breath and jump in for the project - there is nothing else I will do with the paper and (I thought) she usually has a pretty bold look. I was one with "echo" issues -- after she shifted the camera, her position changed to the mic (I think) so I was getting a lot of echo I did everything she suggested - which then made my replay not in sync with the live - but those adjustments did nothing. When it was clear that there was nothing she was going to change on her end, I just "lived with the echo". I had 2 big cutting errors -- the first was totally my fault with a measurement and it isn't so far off that I can't "live with it"; the second is a bigger mistake. VB was saying just listen to her instruction and don't reference the cutting guide -- I HEARD her say 4 3x12 strips - the cutting guide said 3 4x12 strips -- nothing to be done but find a new pink sheet of cardstock. Which is a real deficit in my cardstock stash. I'll deal with it. But - now I suggest my "like" and "appreciate" is "past tense" -- she is a bit ... for me ... too much. Maybe not too much for a 1/2 hour -- but totally too much for 3 1/2 hours! She is too "free wheeling" on the presentation when there is a cutting guide which she says she created FROM -- too many free wheeling mistakes in the presentation when the cutting guide (that we were told to ignore) had the RIGHT information! Too many "too cute" mannerisms; she started saying "boop", and making a joke with Cathy Z about it (I've already complained about that terrible "tic" from Cathy Z - I think it is juvenile and "coyingly affected" - I totally know she is riffing off a popular "cult" TV show - It drives me crazy!) Anyway -- I think the order of the presentation by VB was oaky -- cut everything THEN arrange it into pages. She said that was what she was going to do at the outset. At the outset she said we would adhere and finish the book LATER. There is no reason anyone should be upset about the pace since VB said we were not adhering at the time. But, as someone else said, getting the pieces into page order was a trial since so many of them look exactly the same, front and back. I'll finish the book -- sometime, probably sooner than I would ordinarily get to it since it is now stored in a container than I want to use someplace else!

I like Paige's cut files; I don't necessarily care for her pages. I'll check out the presentation on replay .... later .... maybe
I can follow the picture and the directions for the remaining double page layouts. There were things I needed get done today so all I did was peek at the presentation, the material -- to see if there was anything of particular interest. Nope

The evening wind up is substantially different -- no "keynote" speaker. The prizes are much fewer and smaller and it seems that there is much fewer manufacturer donation to the prize bucket.
I'm going to go back and look, but the paper crafting sessions seem like there are fewer classes -- oh yes, they added stuff on Friday - an advertisement from Scrapbook.com and Totally Tiffany, the CTMH project, the Simple Stories card kit, But what they "sold" was just 4 classes: one mini album from VB; 3 other classes with 2 double page layouts and plugged in two other "mini classes" from Paige and Victoris Calvin. The seems like fewer classes than previously -- perhaps not .. maybe it is a timing thing but it "feels" like less.
I doubt that I'll do the next session -- this one already felt very repetitive but still Less.

I totally agree with the poster who spoke of the "stupid questions" -- there are WAY TOO MANY stupid questions and unfortunately "have to keep everyone happy" instructors. They should each have a moderator to run interference for them -- I'd volunteer, but they wouldn't like my moderation! LOL!!