It ain’t called a CROP-A-THON for nothing!!! 9 solid hours of scrapping and shopping fun!!! No joke considering it’s also done till the wee hours of the morning!!! Starting at 10pm on Friday night, it only ended at 7 yesterday morning!!! This rare and one-of-a-kind crop happens because only we are crazy enough to do it!!! And you!!! Our luuurvely Made With Love scrappers are crazy enough to join us in the looniness and we love you so much for that!!!
The last overnight crop party we had was in 2006, a pyjama party, so this was a crop we were really looking forward to hosting because it’s such a rare treat!!! It’s all the more fun cos sleep deprivation brings out a drunken side in many of us … … and the things that happen and are said at these overnight crops can be mind-bogglingly hilarious!!!
Check out what went down at our recent overnight crop party of the year, a night ago!!!
That’s SweeCh dressed up as a half-human green dinosaur … her creative project with her boys sure came in handy … and me with a hairdo i’ve always wanted to have. NOT! ;P
Scrapper F above had flowers growing out of his head in the middle of the night … …
And SweeCh and i desperate to get some scrapping done, but with all our scrap lab tables taken up by 22 crop attendees who came in full force, SweeCh bought a portable picnic table for $30 from the supermarket below us in the middle of the night (thanks to late night shopping specials going on at Plaza Singapura last night) … and we set up ’shop’ right smack in the centre of both scrap labs … if you think that’s insane … check out her attempts at fixing this “totally suitable” umbrella to the picnic table. Guess the heat and glare from the scrap lab lighting and tears of laughter threatening to rain down on us got her going!!! LOL!
And … ta daaah! Scrapper E here looking ravishing in green. She came complete with green scrap bag, green metal tin of mints, green adhesive, green underwear (i took her word for it), green hair accessories, and self-accessorized green bling studded glasses!!! Wowoweeeeee!!! Pheee-weeeet!!!
As you can see, if you don’t already know by now, our dress code for the evening was to come in as much green as possible, in keeping with this month’s pledge of ours during National Scrapbooking Month to be as environmentally-friendly as possible!
But that wasn’t all, as scrap challenges and shopping specials began in earnest early in the crop party … … not before goody bags were given out … each scrapper received over $30 worth of scrap supplies from Making Memories, My Mind’s Eye, Around the Block and Cropper Hopper!
And to encourage crop attendees to get lots of scrapping done, incentives were thrown in. Each of them had to shout out “I’m a total night-bird and i will crop till i drop!!!” the minute they finished a layout. He/she would then have to wear a lei around his/her neck. But the clincher was that at random times, a buzzer would be rung randomly by someone at the cafe and whoever wearing the lei when the buzzer goes off would win a RAK from us!!!
Scrapper S in the pic above got a total of 6 layouts done in the course of the evening!!! Unbelievable!!!
Scrapper TN here, barely arrived and she whipped out a layout archiving her state of mind at that moment, as she had just rushed to the crop party with no time to even change after work …
Multi-tasking scrapper K here, already wearing a lei moving on to her next layout but still chatting with fellow crop attendees in the process … this is one cool babe!!! Not to mention, she managed to squeeze in lotsa shopping time too ….
And many others completed one layout after another … …
And Scrapper F here who was one of the few who won my Love Jar RAK cos she was wearing the lei when the buzzer went off … and look at what else she created that she wore around her neck … how cute is this!!
Plenty more crop attendees got to wear the lei throughout the course of the crop party … a pity i couldn’t keep up with the photo-taking … …
Anyway, these are special jam jars that were filled with specially coordinated bellies which i personally bottled and packaged with love. Love this cute idea i got from Kelly … … you should do it too for scrapping friends … it’s heaps of fun!!!
Of course, what’s a crop party without shopping specials … … and as usual … the typical scene at our crop party changes almost immediately the minute shopping specials are announced … … and it looks something like this … …
In a mere matter of seconds, from this … …
… to this …
LOL!!! 
And here below, are a couple of candid shots when crop attendees got down to some serious shopping … … a few imaginary conversations i reckon they might be having as i go over these photos … …
“To buy or not to buy … … that is the question.”
Promoting supplies hoarding amongst themselves … … “Die die must buy! I tell you!” translated from Singlish for all our non-Singaporean friends who’re reading this … “You absolutely must buy this!” … …
Scrapper K to SweeCh at the front counter, “Tell me Swee Ching!!! Tell me i’m NOT over-spending!”
“I really want this but i don’t know if i should. Tell me why i should get it.”
And other shots that say it all … …
One pleased shopping scrapper bouncing along the aisles … …
Joined by 2 others dressed beeeee-autifully in green!!! All smiles … even though 2 of the scrappers in this pic confessed that their usual bed-time is 10pm!!! Amazing what a few shopping specials can do to keep them awake and smiling!!! LOL!!!
Was in stitches when i was told by some scrappers who said they were shopping to stay awake!!!
At times, the shopping moved into the scrap labs as we carted out boxes of supplies that we put aside for the shopping specials!
And for a photo opp., me interrupting a conversation scrapper E here was having with Sandra in a scrap lab on the virtues of having your very own die-cutting system … …
A midnight snack was lovingly prepared by camera-shy Marcus to fill the tummies of crop attendees after the first round of shopping specials … …
Fusilli pasta with chicken and mushrooms topped with mozarella cheese and sauteed potatoes … yum … thanks Chenta for cooking this with so much love … i could taste it … … :)
And thanks Weimin for sticking around to make sure we were continuously fed and had sufficient liquids to last the night. ;)
And with everyone’s tummies filled, it was time for the first group challenge of the evening … our Speed Shopping Challenge where the winning team gets EVERYTHING in the basket!!! A whopping total of scrap supplies worth over $140 from brands such as Maya Road, Glitz Designs, Around The Block, Scenic Route, to name a few!!!
For our Speed Shopping Challenge, teams were given little envelopes like these containing abstract shots of scrap supplies found around Made With Love. Their job was to hunt down these items and the fastest team to collect all the items accurately wins the entire loot!!
Teams huddle for some quick strategising … …
And with the flag-off, they’re off … see how this scrapper moves like wind in the wee hours of the morning … … see that look of determination on this scrapper’s face … signs of a seasoned crop challenge addict … …
A quick check of the photos … poorly printed with colors a little off for good measure to throw them off … haha!!! Fully intended …. NOT!!! ;P
The heat is on … … as teams jostle and manouvre their way around the store … to find those seemingly illusive items … …
Holler at fellow team-mates to check that they are on task …
Holding their finds up high to catch the attention of fellow team-mates elsewhere running like headless chickens in the store … …
Squat for a quick check … in the middle of a shopping aisle … cause obstruction to opposing teams …. good strategy …. quick thinking … these people are unstoppable!!! LOL!!! :)
And finally, the last team to arrive with their shopping basket actually won!!! All 3 preceding teams were disqualified one after the other for being swift but not accurate in their shopping!!! All smiles here as they win for themselves the $140 worth of supplies from us for their enormous shopping effort!!!
With a test of speed, strength, agility and physical stamina from the Speed Shopping Challenge out of the way … we decided to test their mental powers as well at the most opportune time … … 630am … near the end of the Crop-A-Thon !!! *evil laughter all round! Muahahaha!!!*
Playing a traditional scrappers’ game, teams were asked to finish the sentence “YOU KNOW YOU ARE A SCRAPPER WHEN … … “. The team with the most number of entries for finishing this sentence wins!!!
Check out Scrapper L here as she puts on her thinking cap … … may the force of the green Shrek ears be with you … … ok … my knowledge of movies is getting all mixed up now …. woops! :P
And here are some of the things the teams amazingly came up with even though the sun was rising and many of them had not slept in almost 24 hours … …
You know you are a scrapper when … …
you lie to your boss and go on medical leave to visit Made With Love every Thursday.
you check the MWL blog every Wednesday.
you don’t buy clothes, shoes and bags to buy more scrap supplies.
the word ‘crop’ doesn’t refer to plants.
your children hate to have their photos taken.
you use roller-tape to seal your envelopes.
you sacrifice sleep for a crop.
you look for words like “acid-free” when you buy something.
you pay $2 for paper.
your child’s school project is held together by glue-tape.
your best parking skills are in the Plaza Singapura carpark.
Ultimately, it all boiled down to a tie-breaker as 2 teams had earlier come up with 12 sentences each in under 3 minutes.
It was a war of words between the teams … as they took turns shouting out even more sentences … the tie-breaker game rule being that the team that is silent and can’t retort with a unique comeback line within 3 secs loses … …
And the clincher … die-hard scrapaholic C saved the day for her team with the final comeback line of the morning … … “you have Made With Love’s telephone number 6837 3464 stored on speed dial on your mobile phone” which left the other team (who by all counts through team member scrapper K gave many a good comeback line) utterly speechless!!!
Talk about mental prowess!!! She actually memorised our phone number and could spew it out even at the crack of dawn … … We’re NOT WORTHY!!! *me bowing in amazement*
For their good mental stamina, they each received a Love Jar of wholesome goodness from me!
Other winners at the Crop-A-Thon include scrapper P here below who won for herself $20 worth of Made With Love vouchers for scrapping the Most Attractive Layout … … she used a Hambly overlay for her background paper and included all kinds of bellies to make a really fun interactive design element on her LO, not to mention the hunky photo of a Korean cop she grabbed to have a pic taken with, got my attention certainly!!! LOL!!!
And to celebrate the end of this most gruelling crop party of the year … the time came to announce the winner of our Most Dressed in Green challenge!!! All crop attendees had their votes cast and a quick count had it narrowed down to these 2 finalists … …
Scrapper E here who was in so much green … you’d think that was the only color she recognises … check out the self-accessorised glasses i mentioned … she came the day before the crop and asked if we had green bling!!! Kudos to her too for never taking the green head band off even though it was giving her a bit of a headache!!!
And scrapper S here, caught in a candid shot holding up all the Go Green Bingo cards she’s been filling up … who came complete with self-created green button bracelet, lovely green halterneck dress and matching accessories.
They had the highest number of votes from fellow attendees but ultimately it was Scrapper E below who won the prize of $100 worth of Made With Love vouchers for her enjoyment!!
Oh!!!! What a party it was!!! Still trying to recover from it … i’m getting too old for this … blaaah …. But i wouldn’t have missed it for the world!!
Loved getting to know so many of you better and you gals and guy are a swell bunch of scrapping mad addicts who really helped make this crop party a truly unforgettable one!!!
And the last one for the road … You know you are a scrapper when you wear so much green, it’s ridiculous and don’t bat an eyelid at having to pose for a group shot, still all smiles at 7 in the morning with no sleep for the last 24 hours!!! Now that’s what i call a scrapper!!!
Hope all of you who attended had a blast and i’ll catch up with you on our online forum!!! Thanks for the lovely thank you messages on the forum even before this blog entry’s up!!! It really made our day!!!
Lotsa love, {e}
