Over the river and through the woods... to scrapbooking retreat we go!

Friends,

It is time to switch gears from sewing to scrapping for this coming week, as I will be going to a scrapbooking retreat with 30 other girls.  I leave bright and early on Thursday morning to head to northern Wisconsin for 4 days and 3 nights of girl talk, wine, good eats, and scrapbooking!

I'm packed and ready to go.  Here's a picture of all my stuff.  I'll be posting from the retreat and will show you my space once everything is unpacked and set up.  I'll also send some pics of finished pages.

Now, I know what you are thinking..."You're taking all that???"  Well....yeah.  I have my 12" Cricut machine in its travel bag (far left), along with cutting mats, cartridges and other accoutrements.  I have all my papers (a must for scrapbooking, kind of like fabric is a must for quilting), ink pads, tools, embellishments, ribbons, acrylic stamps and blocks, laptop, printer (not shown), and the Gypsy Quilter's Sit Upon.  Now you are probably thinking..." I hope she has a large vehicle like an SUV."  Fear not, I have a KIA Sorento. 

My pride and joy is the two matching pieces of MIMI craft luggage (the red bags in the center, toward the back).  They are made of red suede and feature many clear vinyl pockets inside for maximum storage.  The bottom one has wheels.  I have all Close To My Heart inkpads in the tall narrow black tote on the right.  The smaller black and white square tote in the left front is by Creative Memories and holds all my tools. 

I never use preprinted photos, but print my own on my wonderful HP color inkjet printer.  I also take my laptop computer, so I can crop, resize, recolor my photos before printing.  We have internet access where I am going, so I will also use my laptop to use Cricut Craft Room online.

I have a great camera.  An Olympus DSLR.  I took the shot of Chicago skyline from the Shedd Aquarium.

We stayed in Shaumburg.  I took the shot of the clock tower at dusk.  P.S.  I love large photos...can you tell??

I am scrapping a trip Denis and I took to Chicago several years ago.  Can you believe it, but I started this scrapbook at last year's crop.  I have really lagged on this project, and like all UFOs, I want it DONE!  I am using many premade layouts for this, much like the one I showed you several posts ago (from scrapbooking group night).  As a matter of fact, all the pages I intend to use are from scrapbooking monthly group.  I need to work on pictures from the Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum.  I already have the Willis Tower and Adler Planetarium done. 

 Here is one set of pages from the Adler Planetarium.  The pages were premades from monthly group.

Here we are "on the ledge" at the top of the Willis Tower.  Again, premade pages from monthly group.

I'll be busy tomorrow night, packing the car and making some treats...my contribution to the food for the weekend.  My next post will be from retreat on Thursday evening.  I'll tell you more about the retreat itself then.