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}

EVENT: LUXE NIGHT at MADE WITH LOVE POSTPONED 

DATE: TUES. 20 MAY 2008 FRI. 27 JUN & SAT 28 JUN 2008

TIME: Details in Jun ‘08 Loveletter to be released on 1 Jun ‘08

VENUE: Made With Love

Our hearts go out to Jennifer Lynn Moody as she has had to deal with a sudden family crisis and will not be able to fly in tomorrow for the Luxe Night event originally scheduled.

The good news is that we’ve got even bigger and better things planned for Jun 27 & 28 where not only will she be hosting a meet-and-greet and make-n-take party but exclusive workshops that she’ll be teaching.

So make a note of these 2 important dates on your personal calendars and join us on 27 & 28 June for Fun with Luxe at Made With Love. For those of you who are familiar with who Jennifer is and what she does, it’s a great chance for you to meet and learn from her in person! And if you’re new to scrapping, come meet this oh-so talented and dynamic lady who’s done much to add excitement to the international scrapbooking scene!!!

EVENT: LUXE NIGHT at MADE WITH LOVE 

DATE: TUES. 20 MAY 2008

TIME: 7pm - 845pm

VENUE: Made With Love

Just when we thought National Scrapbooking Month could not be more exciting for us at Made With Love, we receive word from Jennifer Lynn Moody of Luxe Designs that she’s flying through Singapore and she’d like to pay us a visit, for a time of fun and a little scrapping with all Made With Love scrappers!!! Her visit also coincides nicely with Luxe Designs’ soon-to-arrive newest product releases!!! How cool is that!!

So make a note of this important date on your personal calendars and join us on the evening of 20th May for Luxe Night at Made With Love. For those of you who are familiar with who Jennifer is and what she does, it’s a great chance for you to meet her in person! And if you’re new to scrapping, come meet this oh-so talented and dynamic lady who’s done much to add excitement to the international scrapbooking scene!!!

And just a glimpse of what you can expect, this is the programme that we’ve whipped together for the evening … …

7pm-730pm: Cocktail Reception for Scrapaholic For Life members - Time to chat, snack, mingle and schmooze with Jennifer Lynn Moody and fellow scrappers. Take photos with her and collect her autograph as a keepsake!

730pm-830pm: Make-N-Takes with Jennifer Lynn Moody - MAKE a quick and easy to complete but highly attractive  paper-crafting project designed by Jennifer and TAKE it home with you! Open to all.

845pm: Luxe Night Lucky Draw - More details on how you can qualify for the draw will be revealed that evening, with  prizes to be given away to each of the 3 lucky winners!

How’s that for another truly exciting event to top off all that we’re doing this month to celebrate our love for scrapbooking!

So make yourself free on the evening of 20th May cos we’re really looking forward to seeing you and let’s show Jennifer a truly warm Singaporean welcome at Made With Love!!!

Lotsa love, {e}

P.S.

Scrapaholic For Life members, kindly call 6837 3464 to r.s.v.p. by 16th May ‘08 so we’ll know how many people we’ll need to cater for at the cocktail reception. ;)

Thank you soooo much to EVERYONE who was able to clear personal schedules, negotiate childcare arrangements, haggle with hubbies for time-off, drop work, go through the works, do all that was necessary to make it to one of our biggest events of the year - the National Scrapbooking Day Fun Fair at Made With Love.

This celebration would not have been what it was without your infectious enthusiasm, cheerful smiles and gung ho attitudes. And kudos to every fun fair attendee for having the patience of saints as you waited in line, without an utter of a complaint, for practically EVERYTHING that day as hundreds of scrappers gathered to celebrate this day with each other … …

Here are some photos of the event for us to reminisce over … … it’s slightly over a day since it ended and i think we still can’t believe how crazy we all were on that day as we celebrated our love for scrapbooking together … …

 

This was the scene that greeted us that day … …

A number of scrappers remembered our pledge to be as environmentally-friendly as possible/’green’ and came dressed trendily in green in support of it … …

 

Our mascot of the day … … we had a male tree … …

A skinny tree with scrapper M who looks really cool and hip in purple!!! We loooove your hair!!!

And as some of you teased mercilessly …. the boobsy tree ….

We had green candy floss for everyone, thanks to Sally who at one point in the day, tirelessly spun her way to one candy floss after another without a break for 4 hours and a chocolate fountain to make chocolate-covered marshmallows for anyone with a sweet tooth, from the kiddos ….  

Budding scrappers A & K … … wholesome sweetness captured in a pix these 2 are … …

… … to cheerful grown-ups with equally sweet smiles … …

Free Make-n-Takes of these adorable fridge magnets designed by Kelly were taught to one-and-all at our demo bar by Gazel practically non-stop all day … …

Scrapper C with her darling daughters … all smiles and waiting patiently in line for their go at the make-n-takes …

A faaaabulous hubby, taking refuge from the crowd in the store, waiting cheerily with baby girl outside for mommy, Scrapper E as she got some serious retail therapy … … isn’t that great!!!  

Early-bird scrappers who cleverly managed to get seats at our cafe for a bit of munching and a rest to sort their selection of supplies … …

And the ingenious things that they do to get around obstacles  … no more shopping baskets? … just grab an empty carton box and get down to some serious hoarding as our Resident Designer Aida did!!! LOL!!!

A terribly long queue that snaked all the way past Swensen’s at it’s peak, as scrappers waited in line to make payment for their scrapbook stashes … …

And still …. all smiles … patience of saints we say!!! We’d reeeeally like to thank you one and all for bearing with the situation and understanding that we were really doing the best we could. Despite having 2 POS systems running, we heard some of you queued for 1hr 30min!!!! Thanks for sticking it out, and being so kind about it everyone … we are truuuly deeeeply touched!!! *sniff*

 

Thanks for understanding the constraints and being creative in your own ways to cope with the situation … by roping in your amazing hubbies to stand in line as you went about your way doing all that you needed at the fun fair … … we’re really floored by the lengths that us all scrappers go to for our love of scrapping!!!

But this really takes the cake … we know many of us can get really absorbed when we’re surrounded by scrap supplies and stop at nothing to get our hands on the best deals … … but honestly… … what were some of you up to on that day as you scrambled for scrap supplies … look what Malee found on the floor???? And that’s not a shoulder pad mind you … your guess is as good as ours!!! LOL!!!  Thanks for making this day yet more unforgettable for us!!! Priceless!!!

Mad shopping aside was equally insane determination shown by scrappers to win at the games Kelly and Teresa planned for us all!

Scrapper G here … a testament to how packed the place was … plastered against the glass wall of Scrap Lab 1!!! LOL!!!

Oh how everyone really got into the games … very quickly sussing out which were their fave ones … …

And you played ….

and played …

and played … …

and WON!!! ….

and WON!!! ….

and WON!!! Perfect matches in under 6 secs… record-holder Scrapper K here!!

And there were pleeeenty of prizes to give away that day … over $10,000 worth of prizes!!! A BIG THANK YOU particularly to the good people of American Crafts, Autumn Leaves, Die Cuts With A View, KiMemories, Making Memories, Maya Road, My Mind’s Eye, Pebbles Inc and Prima Marketing for their generous sponsorship of products for our prizes, in support of this truly important event for us at Made With Love!!!

And for our National Scrapbooking Day Fun Fair Lucky Draw which was conducted at the end of the fun fair … Sandra picked 3 winners in front of all who were still present and partying with us!

and the 1st prize

… …is a K & Company limited edition scrapbook embellishment kit with over 3,500 glorious pieces of embellishments. We are the only LSS outside of the US to receive this special gift from K & Company. So this tells you how rare and special this prize is and we’re giving it as the top prize of the National Scrapbooking Day Fun Fair Lucky Draw toooooo …. ….

Dorcas Yam (M’brship No. 06090263)

Our 2nd prize of a Making Memories album goes to…

Yvonne Lam Li Min (M’brship No. 0706o288)

… … and our 3rd prize of a Ki Memories album goes to …

Chong Chui Fui (M’brship No. 05100205)

Congratulations ladies!!! Prizes are ready for collection at Made With Love!!!

And there were other reasons to celebrate too that day … like these 3 scrappers who had an impromptu birthday celebration during the fun-fair!!! Happy Birthday ladies!!!

More friendships seen here with these budding scrappers below … such photogenic sweetie-pies … must be the product of scrapping-mad moms!!! LOL!!!

And random shots of craziness and lovely touching scenes witnessed that day … …

…this tree needs watering …

Aww… another wonderful glimpse of family love that day … …

Marcus …. our in-house ‘clown’ … never failing to make us stifle a giggle with his antics but able to be serious when it comes to stuff that needs to be done.

Malee … awww … the makings of a wonderful dad … …

Chenta, juggling a plenty in between supervising our in-house cafe operations so that we can all have something yummy in our tummies, helping at the front counter and many other behind-the-scenes stuff that are so important.

… our love-hate relationship with trees epitomised in this short skit … we need them for our beautiful patterned paper…let’s make sure we use them well for the perservation of memories so they don’t die in vain … … :(

And finally, once again, Swee Ching, Sandra, the rest of the MWL team and i would like to say a big THANK YOU to one and all for helping to make this a most memorable day for all of us at Made With Love. We thoroughly enjoyed hosting this celebration for you and hope you had an equally fun and unforgettable day!!! Looking forward to seeing you again this month as we continue our National Scrapbooking Month celebrations with other uber fun activities and promos!!!

Thanks also to Erlia and Eric for supplying additional pics of precious moments i didn’t get on my camera. :)

But just before we go … here are some sneak shots of the team hard at work in preps for the big day … …

Kelly seen here sorting out the prizes for the fun fair and preps of game props … thanks to her creativity, we had such fun games to play that day!

The rest of the team, hard at work, like Angeline here, preparing product specials for us all.

And for the finishing touch, thanks soooo much Kelly for going the extra mile and surprising us with these lovely tags of Maya Road chipboard trees which you stayed up to make for every single one of us on the team so we can be easily identified.

And not captured by the camera are others like Iris who worked tirelessly on that day at the front counter, but always ever ready with a smile. You are one stoic babe!

Thanks heaps also to Jas and Anita for running the game stalls and helping out with all kinds of other preps!!

Thanks peeps … you guys are the BEST!!! We are blessed to be together. Thanks for always putting your heart and soul into everything you do, for no other reason at all but simply becos you take pride in what you do and aim to bring joy to every single person who comes into contact with you! You derive happiness when others are happy and that’s what’s so great about each and every one of you who helped make this event possible. Much love from Sandra, SweeCh and i.

Lotsa love, {e}

 

One of our BIGGEST EVENTS of the year is coming soon and we’d really love for you to be a part of it!!! Join us at this year at our Annual NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY Fun Fair to celebrate this much loved craft of ours!!!

 

So whip out your diary and please pencil in this most important date so that you’ll remember to squeeze us into your hectic schedule!!!

DATE: SAT. 3 MAY ‘08, 12pm-7pm
VENUE: MADE WITH LOVE

Have heaps of fun as you play wild scrap related games to win yourselves fabulous prizes worth thousands of dollars!!!

But that’s not all!!! As usual, come the stroke of midnight on the eve of National Scrapbooking Day, we’ll be releasing our special NSD fun fair e-coupons which you can download from our online forum to print out and exchange for special discounts, perks and freebies at the fun fair!!
So make a date with us and take your loved ones along with you to just about one of our biggest events of the year at Made With Love!!!

P.S.
Do look out for updates on this event on our online forum throughout the month!!!

And if you’re new to us, you may want to check out our online gallery for photos of this most fun-filled event we had last year!

And visit our online forum to read scrappers’ comments on last year’s fun fair to know what you can look forward to, because we reeeeally look forward to seeing as many Made With Love scrappers as possible, so that we can celebrate the joy of scrapbooking together!!!