My first ever crop!!

After the fantastic Bloggers weekend at the beginning of March I was determined to find somewhere local where I could meet up with like minded people and craft.  I had previously looked into the idea of attending a crop but to be honest I felt a bit inadequate as an inexperienced scrapper and definitely wasn't brave enough to meet up with complete strangers!!

But the time had come to get involved and seek out fellow paper crafters who would be happy to share their space (and possibly ideas and stash!) with  me.  I contacted one crop via UKS and 2 via their websites but only had one reply via UKS followed up by a reminder when the next crop was (yesterday!) so I decided to go along.

I thought I would be ok as I consider crafters to be among the nicest people I have ever met and you know what, I was right!  I met up with a wonderful bunch of girls who were really welcoming and friendly and despite the fact that they had all known each other for years, and I was the odd newbie I felt at home almost straight away (I think the bowls of mini eggs on each table definitely helped lol!)

Here is a shot of most of us minus the photographer and another scrapper who came after this pic was taken

I even managed to make a couple of scrapbooking pages from start to finish, a process that can often take me days (I am definitely a slow scrapper!)

The first is for this weeks challenge on UKS  I went for a B&W photo of the everyday with bright coloured papers and lots of journalling.  It is a lot brighter in real life as the grpah style paper in the background is a fairly bright green!

The second layout is yet another from the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  THis is for the UKS monthly challenge which was taking the third letter of your user name and searching under that letter in the members gallery to find inspiration.  I used my teamie Roxy52's page found here and took inspiration from the 2 photos, embellishment placement and large rectangle patterned papers.

DS and I are posing in a pretend fireplace to look as though we have just travelled via the Floo Network!

So for me a hugely successful first time crop and I don't think I upset anyone too much as they are letting me come back for the next one in May and I can't wait!!

Julie Kirk in collaboration with Jennie Bowlin Studios asked us to share ......  this is definitely one good thing that blogging has done for me..... allowed me to get to know some people virtually, feel confident enough to meet up with them in real life, helped me discover and feel competent in the hobby that I am now really enjoying and love and ultimately meant that I could walk into a room of complete strangers this weekend who I know share the same passion as I do (so I am definitely a braver person too!!)