Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo

Bona, Marie and I hit up the Scrapbook Expo yesterday, and boy did we have a blast! We were there by 8:30am and were nearly the first bunch of ladies in the door! Of course, we had to hit up the Dollar booth first and we jammed pretty quick! LOL! Although there was a line to get into the booth, we managed to score TONS of great deals at our first stop... AND get a free page LO at a neighboring booth! Marie was even lucky to score a whole package of BasicGrey designer paper! :-) I have to say my favorite booths were the Tattered Angels booth and the Scrapyard.com booth that carried all the Tim Holtz favorites from the Ideology and Ranger lines. We also managed to score some AWESOME deals at the S.E.I booth where they had double-sided S.E.I. designer paper for only 10 cents a sheet --- score!!! :-) We did a make & take at the S.E.I. booth, which was a lay-out using the new Windsor paperline and the super cool iron on velvet sheets (which I bought 10 of since it was buy 10 get 50% off!!) We also stopped by the Close to my Heart booth and did a 12x12 LO with this super cute Owl stamp set. I was amazed by their products (as I've been using mostly Stampin' Up stuff.) I managed to buy a mini file folder colluzle system from them and a colluzle cutting blade and just in time too because seconds later a lady came in asking for the colluzle cutting blade and I took the last one!! lol! :-) Okay... and what a super small world it is. I was just exchanging emails with my GGS sister Velma over the past week... Bona and I were at a booth snapping up some Shimmerz and flock, then a lady walks up to me and says "Are you Arlene??" I'm thinking to myself "who are you?" lol! And right behind this lady pops in another lady and says "Arlene, it's Velma!" OMG, how super funny! But it was such a fun time seeing each other in person as we had only known each other by our blogs, YouTube videos and emails. We took soooooooooooooooooooo many pictures (ok, I kid you not when I say many! hehehe) Velma and her friend Rose were the sweetest ever and it was so nice to see and meet them in person! If you're reading this Velma and Rose.... muuuuuuu-ah! :-) You two are the best! :-) All in all, Expo was such a great time and we did so much shopping damage! I won't be shopping for a long while (hmmm, well... one can try right?!) hahaha!

Marie, Me, Velma And Bona - GGS girls rock!!


Above are pics from the Expo.

Bona, Marie and I also did our mini album swap. It was so much fun. Bona got my mini, Marie got Bona's and I got Marie's. We drew names to determine who got who's. Below are some pics of Marie's awesome mini. I love it and can't wait to fill it up and embellish. :-) Also below are some pics of the super cute mini album Bona made of my three boys. This is very sentimental for me and I'm very touched by this very special little album -- luv ya Bon!! :-) Thank you so much Marie and Bona for your awesome little arts of work! :-)

Marie's little one Leilani, Marie, Bona & me following our mini-album swap.

The mini album Marie made for our swap.

This is the sweet little mini album Bona made of my boys.


Here's the YouTube vid on the two mini albums:

That's it for now. But I wanted to send a special message out to those who have responded to my Blog Candy. Thank you so much for your subscriptions and for all your super sweet comments. I hope you stay in touch and check in every once in awhile. I'm slowly visiting everyone's blogs and becoming a follower myself. If you haven't seen me on your blog, you will soon! :-) Thanks again!

Hugs & best wishes,
Arlene :-)