Planning another Nelliepalooza

A friend of a friend emailed me to inquire more information about my Nellipalooza scrapbooking retreat and I realized that I do not have a website or a way to share information about the event beyond my Facebook event page. As I was typing out a response to her questions, I realized I was going into so much detail that it would make a great blog post.

This was from the first ever Nelliepalooza!

If you are interested in a wonderful crafting retreat, please keep reading. You can email me or leave a comment below if you would like the link to the registration form. The next event is scheduled for March 30th-April 1st. Registration is due by St. Patrick's Day (March 17th). Cost is $16 per night, you can sign up for both nights, a total of $32. The only other requirement is that you sign up to help with a meal/snack/supply for the weekend. Guests bring their own crafting supplies and stick to their own schedule.

I started Nelliepalooza about 2 years ago for my birthday. I found a local campground...and realized it was really reasonable to rent for a weekend, so I invited all of my scrapbooking buddies to join me for a retreat. I used to sell Close to My Heart so I knew a lot of people from crops and crafting events. I think we had about 13 people the first time.

Everyone had so much fun, that we decided to plan a second event in the fall (in order to include the people that couldn't attend in spring). This will be the 5th Nelliepalooza event.

It is very simple, and easy to plan. I just ask for everyone to pay the $16 per night fee that the campground requires for overnight guests and to sign up to pitch in on a meal. I call everyone who is registered about two weeks before to follow up with them about their menu selections. (If I get too many breakfast casseroles, it is easy to make changes at that point). People sign up to bring whatever they feel comfortable being in charge of.

This year, we will be planning meals for Friday dinner, saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner; as well as sunday breakfast and lunch. We will depart on Sunday around 5 pm....so people can help finish off the leftovers or snack on the other stuff until they go home. This has worked well in the past, some people prepare everything before they come, and some use the fully functioning camp-kitchen to make their meal when they get there. Some people sign up to be in charge of beverages or other supplies (like plates/cups/etc) so everyone is comfortable with what they need to provide.

The campground has a great facility for our activities. They have a big building which houses the kitchen and all of the 'scrapbooking' tables, so we don't have to go far to cook or snack. Just a few paces away is the founder's lodge, which has sleeping spots for up to like 40 people (or more!) in bunk rooms. Basically, just like going back to camp! You have the option of sharing a room with 3 other people, or if you are getting a large group together, there is a large room with more bunk beds. (OR, having a room all to yourself!) The building is air conditioned, has several showers and group-bathrooms...its a great place to stay for a couple of nights.

The camp is very scenic, out in the country so you feel like you are really 'away', but it is located just 6 miles south of the OLD Richardson's Candy House (reddings mill area)....a short drive away from the Neosho Wal-mart (and south Joplin area).

I am expecting about 20 this time around....which should work out well since we are planning lunch on Sunday (which we didn't used to do). People can come and go on their own schedule...stay for one or both nights, and they can even take a nap/craft/read/play on the internet....pretty much they do what they want, when they want....very informal...comfortable clothes, take a walk, watch movies, take a nap.

Hope this answers most of your questions. Please let me know if you have any other questions, feel free to forward the information on to other friends! The more the merrier!

To see photos from previous Nelliepalooza events click here, here, here, and here. 

Here is the flyer with additional details:

Live Blogging at Nelliepalooza!

This is the third round of Nelliepalooza. I started it last year for my birthday, and it was so successful that everyone voted for a second session in the fall and now its my birthday season again so we are at the campground for another weekend of fun.

I've got a bunch of craft-loving ladies at a local campground. It is super cheap to reserve for a couple of nights and everyone pitches in on food so we get to eat tons of yummy snacks and home-cooked meals.

Tonight we had yummy enchiladas and now we are all working on individual projects. I am quilting.

Some people are scrapbooking.

My friend Caralee brought her spin art machine and we were wow-ed by its spinning powers.

Michelle brought her extreme couponing notebook and people are taking notes, learning her way of amazing money saving using coupons.

This is one of my favorite places to be: surrounded by friends, good food, and working on inspirational projects. It reminds me of camp. When I was a kid, church camp was my favorite thing to do every summer.

I just wanted to take a minute and reflect. Back to work!

Nelliepalooza--best weekend ever!

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about a really, really fun weekend that I was getting ready for....Nelliepallooza!

This was one of those weekends where I said, "I have a dream..." and "If you build it, they will come...." and you know what? I did have a dream and I did build it and they did come!

A local campground has a wonderful facility and a very reasonable rate it is available to groups that want to rent it out. I started advertising my 'crafting, birthday, retreat weekend' several months in advance...at first I was worried that it would only be a group of 4 people (or less)...but soon it grew into a group of 13 wonderful women that were just as eager as I was to get together and craft.

 I advertised a flat rate for anyone that did not want to be in charge of cooking or providing meals....and I offered a cheaper rate for anyone that would be willing to be in charge of meals, snacks, deserts, and supplies like cups, plates, etc. This worked out extremely well, my friends are great cooks! We pigged out all weekend.

(This was my afternoon snack soup!)

We stayed up late and got up early and it was so relaxing and fun! We listened to all types of music and played games on Saturday night. We watched movies while we crafted, and I even took a nap on Saturday afternoon--(when I was a kid away at church camp, I always wanted to crawl up on my bunk bed in the heat of the day for a little nap!)

It was an amazing weekend and I am really excited for our next installment--September 17th, 18th and 19th. If you live in Missouri and are interested, email me for the details, I would love to have more people and I would love to meet you! Most of my friends are scrapbookers--but any artist or crafter is welcome!

(Thanks Abby for my awesome cupcakes and thanks Michelle for my birthday cake!)

Love this girl! So much fun!!

Thanks for reading, hope you are having a great week!!

A gift for Emma

Sometimes I really HAVE to make some traditional scrapbook pages. I took a class, From Something to Nothing...and I didn't exactly do the prompts....but the class did inspire me to create this book for my cousin's 4th grade graduation. I have tons of pictures of her (way more that I just need to have printed) and I have tons of supplies that match her style...She loves owls (just like me) and she loves turquoise (just like me)....and she is my art student! You might notice that she is wearing either turquoise or black in almost every picture below!

This was such a fun album to work on. I hope I can get some more pictures developed and more pages made before the end of the school year. It was so fun using up all of my supplies and making something so lovely. I actually did all of the work at Nelliepallooza, my scrapbooking retreat--the 8 1/2 X11 format allowed me to get lots of pages done in a short amount of time and in the 3-ring notebook, it will be easy to store, add more pages and look through.

My inspiration for this page truly came from Shimelle's class....I have tons of letter stickers...and this set is super old, I decided to use ALL of the letters to create a custom background! I actually used this same picture twice....but I really love it...I may keep this layout for my personal scrapbook!

Here is another layout that uses the same picture twice....Once I get my photos developed, I may substitute one of them for a newer picture....I just had two versions of it and happened to use them both.

I haven't really added any journaling, mostly it is just stickers and papers...with some real stitching.
I know that Emma will love her book...she made ME a duct tape clutch purse for my birthday! She is super crafty and creative. I can't wait until she is older, I know we will be friends!

Thanks for reading!

Something from *Almost* Nothing Class

I just signed up for a new class: Shimelle's Something From Almost Nothing. It is a class designed to help me use up all of my scrapbooking supplies! And it starts today----YAY!!.



I actually had to sit out a paper train at a crop on Saturday because I just have SO MUCH paper. I love it, but I need to use up what I have. Paper flowers, buttons, brads, and stickers. I could be a candidate on that show, hoarders. Its crazy!!

The pre-class challenge is to show some pictures of our stash of stuff....



Here is our basic supply list:
They are...in no particular order...
Cardstock
Patterned paper
Ribbon
Buttons
Chipboard
Metals (brads, eyelets, label frames - that sort of thing)
Flowers (hands up: who has full jars of basic paper flowers?)
Stickers (both letters and designs)
Page protectors
Transparencies

Her classes are emailed in a PDF form to my email so I can work on the prompts whenever I have time, they never expire. This is great for me right now since I will be gone next week--I really love her classes, they are great!

Are you taking any classes right now? Are you taking this one with me? I would love to know!!

Wrapping UP

Not my presents! I am wrapping up Project 52. Wow, what a year it has been. I have been really good at staying on top of my journaling this year!! I love this 8X8 calendar album because it allows me to create one little page a week and write a bit about each day. (I bought another one for 2010) Daily writing varies, sometimes it is a list of things that happened, sometimes I just write one word or phrase, but it helps me to know what was going on every week this year.

I am not looking for scrapbooker of the year with this, I love to scrapbook, but this is mostly just a chance for me to play and use up some of my favorite photos alongside the journaling that corresponds. Here are a few pages from this fall:







My goal was to use up some of those great papers that I buy and never know what to do with...and also to use a lot of stickers if at all possible.

Blogging for the Scrapbooker Class at Shimelle

Today I was browsing through a long list of posts on my google reader and I came across Shimelle.com...(one of my favorite blogs) and a new class 'Blogging For Scrapbookers' was starting today.

On a whim, I decided to sign up and give it a whirl. Not that I need another thing to do and keep up with, mostly for the inspiration and the drive to be a better blogger.

My goals include, writing better blog posts, connecting with other bloggers in a more meaningful way and using my blog as a way to inspire others to find their creative side.

Over the next three weeks, I will be studying the class notes using the class as a jump start for my mojo....I have had time the last 3 days to create...but I have just wanted to sit on the couch and watch t.v.

So, I need the motivation. I need someone to force me to tell the important stories that I am just not inspired to tell without a class or a challenge.

p.s. I subscribed to an online photo editing software picnik.com and I am completely in love with the ease in which I am able to edit, add text and modify my photos. This picture is from a photo shoot I did this weekend....I love it! I haven't ever considered myself a digi scrapbooker, but I definitely love the idea of combining text with my photos...So I am pretty sure I will be doing quite a lot of that through this class.

Hope you are having a wonderful week. The forecast looks gorgeous here for the next few days!!

On scrapbooking and paper art.

The term scrapbooking is a little dorky. My friends (the non-scrappers) tend to make fun of me for my late night scrapping habits. They just don't get it. I love photos. I love paper. I love techniques. I feel like what I do is more than scrapbooking. I create art with paper and photos. I am inspired by other people who make art with paper and photos. I am not inspired by boring photo albums. I want beauty. I want art. I like to combine good design with text and stamps and stickers. I love making cards. Here is a kit from Close to My Heart that helped me to combine all of my favorite things. I made 2 'scrap book' pages and LOTs of cards using this awesome Twitterpated kit. I changed it a little to make it more mine, but the workshop guide made it easy for me to get it completely finished in a reasonable amount of time. So great for me. I haven't had a lot of time to make anything lately. I actually made all of this last weekend when my brother stayed the weekend with me. In between going to the recycling center, lunch, hitting up a scrapbooking sale (thanks Yvonne and Stacy!), where the wild things are (fantastic, I want to build a fort!), chuck-e-cheese and the late-night spookhouses, I was able to create a 2 page layout and 12 cards.






WOW! This was perfect for me. If I am not 'feeling it' with all the creative mojo...which is often....a kit like this helps me to break through and actually complete SOMETHING. And it was fun. And I am proud of myself. And I like it. So yeah. I don't care if scrapbooking is dorky. Or if it makes me less of an artist. It is fun. It is a creative outlet. It keeps me going. I need it.

p.s. I followed the workshop guide for my first six cards. They look exactly like the ones in the guide. These additional cards, I made up using the same layout but different paper and stamps.