Cord Scrapbook Studio

 

And so another season of Cord Crop Camp comes to a close! The number one question we heard over the weekend was "will you have it next year?" And you know... I can't very well predict the future, but I do think we will certainly try! It may not be at the same place or take place during the same time of year, and I'm sure we'll change up a few things or bring back a few things from past camps that we didn't do this year--WHO KNOWS! But even with all of the ups and downs I think it was a successful event, a great time to "hang" with our customers and a chance for us to do something special in return for all of your loyalty and support! We sincerely hope all of those who attended the Crop Camp Spring Fling 2009 had a WONDERFUL weekend and for those of you who were unable to participate this year, perhaps we'll see you at the next one! (Hmm... Crop Camp #5... that should be a big anniversary-type event, you think?!)  

Special thanks to the following scrapbooking vendors whose products and support helped us make it happen!

 

Extra special thanks to Powell Prints of Hilliard, OH for hooking us up with some pretty sweet t-shirts for our campers and staff!  They do an awesome job making superior quality t-shirts and we can't thank them enough!

For the super sweet, super "green" badgeholders, thanks to Lowepro for not only supplying these for Crop Campers but for proving that products made from recycled materials can be super cool!

And finally, thanks to the 160 campers for making this the most exciting Crop Camp ever!

A Bertram Tribute

The Bertram Inn is absolutely beautiful... we've held Cord Crop Camp here all four years and each year has been incredibly wonderful. The Bertram staff is excellent, the food is excellent, and the beds are extra comfy! If you live in the Cleveland/Aurora area, I highly recommend it and while I was there I learned that it's one of The Knot's top wedding locations! (Totally cool.)

I wish I would have thought to take more pictures--especially of the food--but the weekend just flew by so quickly! Here it is Monday and I'm still catching up on "filling in the gaps" in my blog posts! Also in the works is a photo album here on the blog and on our website for campers to select and purchase any of the pictures from the weekend. They're not all that great (as I am SO not a professional photographer and was really more of a stand-in "reporter" for the weekend!) I figure, a few is better than none, right?

Anyway... back to the "Bertram" part of the "Bertram Tribute". I think the after-effects of Crop Camp still have my brain a little fried as I'm finding that my mind wanders a bit... (SO TIRED!)

 

As you can see in the photo above, the rooms are pretty nice (and the beds super comfy--did I mention that already?!) There's also a really nice fitness center (which I had every intention of using, but who wants to take a break from camp fun to run on a treadmill? Not me!), Wi-Fi internet access (which was so nice this year allowing me to blog the whole time we were away) and then there's a nice outdoor pool, too (but it was a LITTLE too chilly still for any of us to be caught there!)

  This is a picture (borrowed from their website) of the infamous couch and fireplace set up that's just outside the crop room doors. Down that hallway (if you can image) was the buffet setup for midnight snacks and then the beverage stations that were open all weekend long. (Again, kicking myself for not having taken better pictures!)

 

And I showed you pictures of the Mega Make-N-Take and class session the other day, but here's a different view of the amphitheater where classes were held...

Thanks Bertram for allowing us to "invade" your beautiful facilities for the weekend! We loved it!

A Special Thanks

I woke up this morning and realized I hadn't yet passed along the credit where credit was due to the hard-working on-site store experts who carefully watched over the on-site store throughout the weekend.

This is Alicia. It's her first year at Cord Crop Camp and we're excited she came along! Alicia is actually the store manager at our Reynoldsburg store and is a photofinishing, camera sales and custom framing expert! She's not a scrapbooker YET, but we're workin' on it! (It's only a matter of time, Alicia!) :-)

Then there's Michelle (pictured here at right). Michelle wouldn't let me take her picture, so thankfully Amy stepped in and [gently] held her down for me!

Michelle works out of our Hilliard location and thanks to her, I'm now on the road to being hooked on the "Twilight" series. 

Pictured with Michelle is Amy Kennedy. This is Amy's fourth camp, working behind the scenes with all the planning and preparation and her knowledge and experience are invaluable! Each year she pours her heart and soul into making camp a positive experience for each of our campers and this year was no different.  Thanks Amy for all of your hard-work, blood, sweat, and tears! We love ya!

Nap, anyone?

Inside the Bertram, just outside of the crop room doors is this gigantic fireplace and this really comfy couch. I've looked forward to that couch every year as it's the best place to sit when you need a place to relax your feet and stretch out for a moment after a long, long weekend! But apparently, it's even comfy enough to take a nap on!

This group from Strongsville, OH had come out to the couch this afternoon to take a picture "staging" yesterday's nap since they didn't have their camera with them at the time. Since I had them all together, I figured I'd jump in and snap a picture too. :-)

After such a long weekend of scrappin' I think we'll all be happy to take a nap wherever and whenever we can catch one over the course of the next few days! 

The Last Day

Today is the last day of Cord Crop Camp 2009... and it's bittersweet because on one hand you've gotten all these pages and projects accomplished and you're really in the creative groove and on the other hand you've gotten so much done that you're tired and ready to head back home! Sunday always seems to go by so quickly, with room check-out at noon, the Cord store closing at 2pm and everyone packing up to head out at 4pm when Camp closes.

I'm going to get goin' here pretty soon and start snappin' more pictures of our weekend so I'll be back posting later on this afternoon (hopefully!) The goal today is to get a TON of pictures so that we can create a shared album online that campers can access to have prints made of their weekend! Stay tuned!

Otherwise known as...

This is Stacy, Donna, Penny and Nancy...otherwise known as "loper", "dleerich", "penny" and "shortyscrapper" from the Cord Message Boards!

 

They are an absolute hoot and what's cool is, they didn't know each other before the message boards! To spend 15 minutes hanging out with them, though... you'd think they'd been friends for YEARS! I think that's so awesome so I just had to snap a picture! Thanks for hangin' out with us, ladies! See you on the forum! 

Mega Make-n-Take Session

I am blogging from inside the Bertram Inn Amphitheater where we're hosting our special Crop Camp Make-n-Take/Class this year and it's so cool! I'm like... totally in the midst of all the fun and I LOVE it! Woohoo! At the beginning of class, campers have a chance to participate in a cheesy (but fun) little contest! The "cabin" that unwraps all of their packaged kit items the quickest wins a prize! The cabin to beat right now (we're halfway through) is ORANGE... 30 people finished up in three minutes, 14 seconds! Way to go, orange! (You should have seen the adrenaline pumping in this room! CRAZY!)

So anyway, this is the book we're making...

 

Step One: (after frantically unwrapping all of the packaging and peeling the blue protective paper off of three acrylic accent pieces, that is...) Stamp three butterflies onto acrylic using Staz-On ink and let dry. Did you know that Staz-on ink is specially formulated to dry on non-porous surfaces? hmm... learn something new every day!

 

Step Two: Run all our 12x12 papers through the Zutter Dreamkutz machine to make 24 pieces of 6x6 paper! (This part was cool... I love the Dreamkutz because there are so many different sizes you can quickly cut paper down to and the cuts are straight and clean every time! We had these on sale $40 off the original price this weekend and after the second class, we'd completely sold out of all of the inventory we'd brought! These machines are HOT!)

Step Three: Use the Fiskars border punch to add a scalloped diecut edge to two of the cardstock pages for our little mini album. These punches are so fun... I am totally addicted to "threading water" which happens to be the one we used in class!

 

Step Four: STICKLES! We added stickles to the backside of one of our stamped acrylic sheets to really add some sparkle and shine to our cover! (And you know me with my little stickle addiction... this was my favorite part!)

 

Step Five: We punched holes in the clipboard covers of our albums using the Crop-a-Dile Big Bite Machine. (This is how we tied the book together on the ends with ribbon... nice!) It took a lot of good old-fashioned "elbow grease" since the covers were so thick, but we made it!

 

Step Six: Use the Zutter Bind-it-all tool to punch the holes in the album covers and pages and then bind together with wires. (Who knew making little mini books could be so simple?) It is a pretty nifty machine!

  

And finally, Step Seven: Run a few of the accent flowers (for the inside pages of the mini book) through the Cuttlebug machine using the Swiss Dots embossing folder to create a nice, raised accent for our albums...

 

And a special shout-out to Terri Meehan for walking us through each step of the class today! She started bright and early at 8am and the last class ended around 10:30! It made for a long day, but you know... she never stopped smiling (or laughing at me because every time I tried to take her picture, I caught her making a funny face)!

 

Terri has been with Cord Camera for 9 years and one of her passions is teaching. She does a lot of stamping and card-making and if you've not taken any of her classes before, you really should. She's got a real knack for it and just loves to do it.

 

Terri is also the one who approached Cord a couple of years ago about carrying the Zutter family of products (the Dreamkutz and the Binditall). She stumbled upon their line a few years back after doing a google search on the best paper cutter ever. Thanks, Terri! we *heart* Zutter!

 

She's going to kill me for this, I know, but she's such an expressive person and has so much enthusiasm when she's teaching I couldn't help but share some of the "outtakes" from our Mega Make-n-Take Sessions...

    

   

 

I suppose it's only fair to share an incriminating photo of my own since I've asked so many others to allow for their photos to be posted...

Amy calls this my "Stickle face"... you'll have to ask her, on that one! If nothing else, it's proof that we have a good time hangin' out and joking around with one another... We're all having such a great weekend. Camp's not over yet, but I'm thinking... this might have been the best one EVER.

It's all fun and games...

They say that scrapbooking these days is a lot like the quilting bees of yesteryear... women getting together to talk, laugh, and share in something they have similar interests in. And you know... I think that's so awesome. Our friends are the people who lift us up through the hard times, rejoice with us during the good times and scrapbook with us all the other times. We had, if I remember correctly, about 18 large groups who joined us this year for Crop Camp! SO AWESOME!

This group here joins us from the Toledo/Bowling Green area and they're a great group of campers! (I may be a little biased though... they are a part of MY cabin! WOOHOO!!)

Their shirts read...

"It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eyelet."

Ahh... so true. :-)

Welcome Ceremony

onight's welcome ceremony took place after dinner... we rallied the crop camp crew outside the crop room doors and did our special cheer... PEACE! LOVE! CRICUT! (I've never been a cheerleader, but I can appreciate a good chant every now and then!) Amy then introduced each of us and had cabins compete... the cabin that cheered the loudest for their counselor would receive their goodie bags tonight instead of tomorrow! Everyone cheered, whistled, stood on the chairs, you name it... and the winner was... EVERYONE! (Of course we couldn't resist giving everyone their gifts tonight!)

It has been a Crop Camp tradition since our inaugural year in 2005 that the camp counselors make a little something for their campers...so I thought I'd also take this opportunity to introduce each counselor to you as well!

In Roy G Biv order... first off we've got Ruthie Darling. Ruthie works out of our Clintonville, OH store and teaches classes at both Clintonville and Reynoldsburg. This is her first year experiencing Cord Crop Camp and her cabin is the "Pink Pixies".

 

 

Next we've got Vicki Harper, the Scrapbooking Coordinator at our Nora, IN location. She drove 5 hours to join us this weekend and we're happy to have her! This is Vicki's first year as well and she is the leader of the Red "Scrapbook Sweethearts" cabin!

 

Wendy is the camp counselor for the "Sunshine Scrappers", the orange cabin. Wendy joins us from the Delaware store and this is her first camp. She loves stamping and is a great resource for all your stamping questions/needs!

 

Another Crop Camp newbie, Toni Wicker, joins us from the Reynoldsburg store! Her favorite color is green and she was born on St. Patrick's Day so its only fitting that she be the conselor for the Green "Lucky Ladies!"

 

Joining us from the Warren/Youngstown area is Becky Feicht! This is Becky's second camp (joining us for year two and now year four). She's heading up the "Blue Jean Beauties" this weekend and on top of that became an alcohol ink expert in preparation for the weekend's demos! 

 

And then there's me... Stephanne. This is my third camp (having worked the first, third and fourth) and my cabin is the Purple "Cupcake Cuties"...

It's been a privilege to have participated each year in one way or another and to see how different/unique/wonderful each year has been! I'm especially excited this year because I get to blog about it while it's happenin'... which is just SO MUCH FUN I can't even describe it. We have a GREAT group of campers this year and they've all been so willing to let me take their pictures!

 

Whelp, my cabin is scheduled for the first make-n-take session bright and early tomorrow morning so I really should get some shut eye. Stay tuned for more updates! 

Sometimes you gotta try it before you buy it!

Sometimes after you've been cropping for a while, your butt kinda goes numb. (Don't deny it... you know it's true!) So it's nice to have an opportunity every now and then to stand up and take a walk to stretch your legs. At Crop Camp this weekend, we've set up several different demo stations to give everyone a chance to try out some of the different tools and techniques out on the market that perhaps you haven't seen or heard of before!

 

The picture above is Becky demonstrating the alcohol inks by Tim Holtz. You know, we had these for a while in the Cord stores but I never really got a chance to use them and to be honest, they kind of intimidated me a little. As it turns out, they're pretty cool to use once you get the hang of it and at Becky's station we had little acrylic flowers to decorate and hang onto our namebadges or add as accents to our pages!

 

Ruthie's a big Cuttlebug fan and uses the embossing folders in a lot of her classes at the Clintonville store. She's using the Core' dinations cardstock here with a piece of sandpaper to demostrating the cool effect you can get when you pair the embossing folders with cardstock that has a colored (or white) core...

 

And then of course there's Margie, demonstrating the Cricut Machine and Design Studio. She's got examples of a lot of the different fonts/shapes each of the different cartridges can cut out as well as a few custom 12x12 Crop Camp themed cutouts she created using Design Studio software.

 

Scrapbooking (and papercrafting in general) can be intimidating at times. There's just SO MUCH out there to use, so many different products available, that it is often hard to try every one or learn all there is to know about what's out there to use. That's where we come in... trying to learn what we can to prepare for our classes and make-n-takes in our stores so that we can pass along that knowledge to you and lessen some of the tension, opening up the doors to creativity. So we encourage everyone to stop by and ask us your questions! If we don't know the answer, we'll research it right along beside you... we love it and it's honestly one of the best parts of doing what we do!