Fiska Friendzy! - About Me ATC swap!

~ This last Saturday, I, along with a 100 plus Fiskateers from California and neighboring states , embarked on a fun filled day full of games, give aways and crafting fun!
Most of us did a ATC swap. An ATC is a Artist Trading Card that measures 2.5" x 3.5". A mini masterpiece. I started off making 125 because I wanted some left over for random anytime trading. I had batches of them drying all over the studio, but I kinda forgot a few here and there when I was adding my elements and the final count arrived at 96. Not bad.
(((Please feel free to click on ANY pic for detail!)))

~ I wanted to give Cheryl, one of the lead Fiskateers organizing the event something special, so I made her nest charm in the "true" Fiskars colors- green and orange. Only the eggs came out more copper looking than orange. She loved it anyways! And I plan to list a special series in my shop soon just for fellow fiskateers.

~ The leads did a amazing job decorating the "Royal Salon"

~ Here are just 'some' of the fabulous prizes they gave away!

~ Here I am with my friends Kimber and Laura Bray

~ The nearby fires kept us from exploring the ship. The smoke engulfed the Queen Mary so bad, we could not see across the water canal to shore. It rained ashes so bad, we did what we could to stay inside. I'm, glad I brought eye drops with me!

~ Our special guest for a class, was none other than Candice Carpenter! Yea!

Here we are with her,and she's so cute! Please visit her blog for a give away of the kit she taught us!

~ Here I am fellow fiskateer Genevieve and new member to my Scrapbook group!

~ We arrived at the Queen Mary at 9am. Played games, did crafts, listened to amazing stories, had lunch and made new friends!

~ Then we all shuttled on over to the Long Beach Aquarium for more fun. Kimber had never been to the aquarium, so it was a treat for her as well as for me because I love that place!

~ The jelly fishes and sea turtles are my favorites by far...

~Look at the beautiful coral!

~ These colorful fish are not only beautiful but very interesting! The male fish change gender when they are stressed out!

~You can see the sheer size on this place by the life sized whale and calf suspended from the ceiling! The outside was equally amazing too, but the falling ash was bothersome.

~Here's Kimber by the main indoor tank.

~and Me!

~After the Aquarium, 53 of us 'Hungry' Fiskateers took up a good portion of Bubba Gump for some serious eatin' and fun! My table mates included Candice Carpenter, and a few other fun friends plus one who is on the design team for Glimmer Mist!

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And guess what???? I won something! Through out dinner the servers did random trivia from the movies, "Forrest Gump" You can see it towards the end of this post!

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~After dinner we all went to Scrapbook Sisters in Long beach to crop until Midnight!

I mostly talked with some people I had not seen in ages and then worked alittle on my wire wrapped creations.

~ Here's my apron I decorated for the event. I added orange tulle to the bottom and decorated the top with Prima paper flowers.

~Upon closeup, you can see the detail and all the buttons I collected!

~ I also made a mini tiara using the same prima flowers, copper wire and green glass beads.

I was quite the sensation with the tutu apron and tiara!

~ Here are some of the ATC's I collected.

~Here are some more!

~ Here is one of the ATC's I traded.

~ I cut the atc's from cracker and cereal boxes and gesso'd the printed side. Then I painted a blue line down the center, and two green lines on the sides. After it was dry, I went over with pink or red glitter paint (not glue). Then I glued my photo copied picture in place, added the words and went over it all with decoupage and fancy vellum like tissue. I added the crown last, a punch newbie by Martha Stewart.

~ Look at the goodies they gave away in our goodie bags!

I won the clear stamp set and mini stamp press at bubba gump. So excited as they went with the new paper line we recieved!

~ Here is what was in my class kit taught by Candice.

And this is the start of the mini book I made from her class.

~ The following is what we received in our goodie bags!

~ Check out these yummy tools and new squeeze punches!

~ So overall it was amazing and wonderful day. So nice to meet the ladies that I talk with on the fiskateer site and do swaps with often. It's a wonderful community of friends that all share a love of crafting!

I'm happy to say that I'm a Ambassador of Crafting, Fiskateer #915!