What a FUN day!

~ The Orange County Scrapbook Expo falls around my Birthday, making my Birthday celebration more enjoyable. Last year I volunteered 4 hours and recieved $30 which I used towards my day of fun. This year however, the first day of the expo fell on my Birthday, the next day being Valentines day, so we went on the last day Sunday.
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Some booths begged us to take photo's of their examples:
Here is one of my favorites!

Here I am with some of the girls from my Scrapbook Group!
Kimber-who was there all weekend helping out in the classrooms. For $5 she got a free for just helping out!, She also called me up before Sunday for show special 'updates'
Teresa- She's my scrappin', coffee stop, anytime best friend! Both she and her hubby are from NY, so hence the wireless mic in her ear. She's either on the phn or texting!
Pam- That day was Pam's Birthday and she came to the expo for the 1st time with her Boyfriend Jeff, who is a total sweetheart and was nice enough to take this photo with 5 different camera's!
Yes, that Me! I'm liking orange right now. It's fun and frisky, and my craft apron with the orange tutu on the bottom got ton's of compliments!
Kathy - Has a heart of gold. So nice and genuine. She and Teresa are doing the 365 LO project. What a task! She's a talented paper crafter and always amazes us with her creations!

~ Here's some more LO inspirations. I think it's a fun way to fill in space and those journal cards really add to the page!

~ Teresa and I got there when it first opened, so it was not too busy. Nice for shopping....

Loving the colors on these LO's!

I'm seeing this idea for a possible card or even altered-art...

~ At lunch, Kathy was done and headed home, and we were joined by group member Dawn and her friend, Susan. Dawn works at a local Michaels craft store, (enabeling us with store specials) and Susan has a blog called Red Bess Bonney.

All of us with the exception of Pam, have know each other since our children were still crawling! We met through a Mom's group and have been close friends since! Having the Scrapbook group

keeps us connected as friends and occasional kids playdates even though our kiddo's are attending different schools.

Here are some of my yummy purchases....

Overlays by Heidi Swapp

Vintage inspired stickers, a Tim Holtz mask, chipboard album and Cosmo Cricket stamp set!

I got this paper pack kit for $5!

I thought it would be perfect for my (condensed) version of the 365 project.

Read it and weep....lol!

I got each of these Heidi Swapp masks for $1 each!

and they work great! I've already used the alphabets and polka dots!

The Storytellers club always has a free LO coupon.

I recieved the Halloween one for free, and splurged a whopping $4 on the cute Owl kit!

~ For the girls, I made them each a new Nest Pendant creation, and Dawn gave me the sparkely heart/crown treasure.

The tape runner was free just for watching a demo at the Pioneer booth, They have this fantastic new product that replaces those annoying screw post in post bound albums. Check it out here! I'm going to order some soon!

I also picked up some crackle paints and distress stickles by Tim Holtz, and some hard to make shades of Glimmer Mist!

I found this Baby Book kit at the Rusty Pickle booth for $10!

I plan make a book for my Sisters new baby!

Last but not least, I used Birthday Money, to score this Sizzix Big Shot for $71 plus tax!

Don't get me wrong...I Love my cricut, I do, but it can't do what the big shot can do...like cutting through felt, material, leather, chipboard, and other materials. I also can't wait to use it for embossing onto chipboard! The nice thing is, that it is compatible with most any die or emboss plate!

And I LOVE the color!

~ Next up, what I did on my Birthday...and who's the fairest maden of them all!