Notorious Scrapaholics Retreat 2007
After diligently searching for weeks and weeks to find the location for our second retreat, we discovered Camp Skyline in beautiful Mentone, Alabama. What a load off of our minds! We anticipated more ladies attending. So, it was quite a challenge to seek out a locale with a large enough room to accommodate more tables for each person to crop on. In addition to that, we also hit the jackpot with beautiful scenery, delicious food and very friendly folks at Camp Skyline.
Mentone is located in the mountains of northeastern Alabama and sometimes the weather can affect plans made in that area. Well, we were surprised that week by an unexpected snow. Some of us went up on Thursday to get things ready for the weekend. We were welcomed by beautiful scenery and got a few photos of the snow covered hills and valleys. By the time everyone arrived on Friday afternoon, most of the white was gone, but there was enough left behind for us to see and enjoy the cozy “wintry” feeling.
Many generous businesses and individuals donated gifts, prizes, and goodies for our attendees. We asked everyone we could think of and learned that very few people say, “No” when you ask them for a contribution. What a blessing to see that the world is still filled with so many charitable people! Because of those donations and our thrifty shopping, we were able to give away gifts and prizes with a total value of over $2,500! Each lady received a box personalized just for them, filled with goodies, papers, embellishments, and other scrapbooking supplies. In addition to those freebies, every lady won an additional prize (or two) at the event.
Rheba Long brought her Creative Memories store with her so that everyone would have merchandise available to purchase during the crop. She had everything from adhesives to albums. Jan Bonka, Stampin’ Up!® Independent Demonstrator set up a small store as well. She had catalogs to order from and lots of beautiful hand made, hand stamped items, too. There were three (Jennifer Holloway, Misty Martin, and Jenny Nesselrote) Close To My Heart consultants who had catalogs with them so that anyone interested could place orders. Carrie Harris had scrapbook themed earrings for sale and FREE buttons to give away to everyone. Glenda Champion also brought paper piecing kits to sell.
On Friday evening, Misty Martin, Close To My Heart Consultant, held a card making workshop. Eight women chose to participate in this prepaid class with reserved spaces. They learned about creating assorted beautifully hand stamped greeting cards.
For the convenience of avid scrappers, we asked Tammie Brand and Sandra Britnell of The Paper Cart Embossing to be there with us. These ladies, who are featured in one of our spotlight articles, were equipped with their embossing machines and tools. They set up shop and embossed scrapbook album covers and spines all day Saturday for anyone wishing to dress up their special memory books.
Fifty eight ladies shared a weekend of scrapping February 2-4. With the crop hall open for forty eight consecutive hours, many great ideas were “scrap-lifted”, friendships developed, and dozens of layouts were completed. Another perk of the camp is the delicious food served to us for lunch and dinner by the exceptional cooks! Talk about some good eatin’! The chefs were showered with praises by scrapbookers throughout the weekend. Each attendee also brought a snack to share or else a breakfast item to contribute to our Continental breakfast served each morning at Riverside Hotel. On Saturday night, everyone (who so desired to) enjoyed an Ice Cream Feast! There were toppings galore to dress up a dish of cream as one chose to. After all, a girl can never have enough ice cream. Some of the items for this special treat were also brought by ladies (in place of their snack donation).
Back in the summer prior to this retreat, Paulette and Rheba had been shopping at Three Ladies & a Scrapbook in Rainsville, just 28 miles from Camp Skyline. One of the owners there, Debra Talley had once been Rheba’s Creative Memories up-line. When Debra learned that we would have our event so close to their location, she offered to open after hours and allow our attendees to come to their store and shop during the retreat weekend. We decided to take her up on the magnanimous offer and on Saturday evening of the retreat, over half of the ladies attending went on a shopping excursion in Rainsville. Some of us even wore our pajamas!
We gave away an exceptional prize to one lucky attendee who had qualified by making all payments on time or paying in full by July 1st. Those who pay early enable us to make deposits to hold our spot at the camp and begin purchasing prizes when we find sales and bargains. The ability to purchase items early in the planning stages allows us to seek out the best prices and get more for the money we spend. That's one of the reasons we can give away so many prizes! Therefore, we reward those who pay early &/or on time by giving them extra "perks" like the chance to win the $150.00 Hobby Lobby gift card which was won by Jennifer Holloway.
Again this year we asked each lady to create a scrapbook page about themselves for us. Since we had more attendees, we knew that a smaller album would be too thick with all of the pages added. So, we decided to put two individuals' pages side by side on a 12x12 page. Everyone was requested to make a 6x12 project with a photo and an expression of "who" they are. Just like the first year, we were thrilled to see all of the unique styles represented in each work of art. We hope to have the cooperation of everyone to do this for us at future retreats as well.
Games were planned for the weekend, but we absolutely dropped the ball on that one! Time just got away from us and lack of proper organization is to blame for our not sharing that bit of fun with everyone. However, we have since worked on a plan which will help us to be better prepared for our next event. We will have helpers at the 2008 retreat who will share the privilege of making certain that everyone has what they need and has a wonderful time. We realize that no matter what we do, it’s impossible to please everybody all of the time. But, we want to do our best to see that everyone is enjoying the retreat and having the best time they can.
It is our greatest desire to make you feel as SPECIAL as you truly ARE!
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