ScrapFest 2011 and Blog Hop Winners!

It is time to announce the winners from the Blog Hop Friday night. I wanted to give more people a chance to win, so I am actually going to give away 3 gift certificates to Custom Crops!

And the winners of the Gift Certificates from Custom Crops are . . . .

Cathy Sobotka

Irene Sprick

Madison Womack

I will be contacting each one of you to get you your prize.  Congratulations and thank you for playing along in our hop!

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The other night, on the chat before the Ustream for Getting Cricky, the topic of ScrapFest came up . . . okay, I brought it up.  🙂

I am going to try and answer some of the questions that I saw on the chat.

What is Scrapfest?

Scrapfest is an annual event at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.  I happen to LIVE in Bloomington, Minnesota but I have not been able to attend a Scrapfest because I normally need to work and cannot find anyone to go with me . . . but this year that could be different since I have met so many new crafting friends online in the last year.

Scrapfest includes vendor booths, Make and Take projects, workshops and LOTS of shopping.  There are also crop events going on, and several of the hotels will have rooms of ladies that are there just to crop.  If you are coming from out of town, check with the hotel you are staying at to see if anyone has a space reserved for scrapbooking and you can probably join in the fun.  Local scrapbook stores will also have huge crop events going on.

If I had to sum up what is Scrapfest I guess I would say think of going to the State Fair, but EVERY booth/display is something to do with scrapbooking or card making.  And since it is at the Mall of America you even have the rides like going to the State Fair.  🙂

When is it?

September 16th – 18th, 2011

Check in is Thursday the 15th at the Mall of America, and the next day there are workshops starting as early as 9am.

How much does it cost?

The cost really depends on what you want to do.  The admission and Badge price is $20.  This gets you in to the vendor Make and Take stations, allows you to mingle with the creative experts that are there and sign up for workshops and classes.  Click HERE to get your badge.

There are classes and workshops put on by some of the major crafting companies . . . EK Success, Graphic 45, Doodlebug Design, Reminisce, Cosmo Cricut, Fiskars, Stamping Bella, My Mind’s Eye . . . just to name a few.  There are also creative experts who have classes, such as Tim Holtz and Teresa Collins!  Each one of these classes or workshops have a fee.  So the more things you sign up for the more you will spend, but you will also gain more knowledge from the experts teaching the class and maybe even learn a new technique from them.

How do I sign up for the classes and workshops?

There is a full workshop schedule on the Scrapfest website.  Click HERE to see the daily schedule break down.  When you click on the title of the workshop it will show you even more information about the class . . . the name of the instructor, an image of the project you will be working on, supplies to bring with and the Difficulty Level.  From this view, if you want to add it to your list of workshops you can check a “Select this time” button for the date and time of the workshop.  You can either sign up right from there, or continue to add other workshops to your list and sign up all at once but remember . . . if someone else completes the sign up process BEFORE you then you could lose your spot.  If it is a workshop you really want it might be better to just sign up for that one and then come back and do all of the others after you KNOW you have the one you REALLY want.

Any tips for Scrapfest?

Here is one I found on the Scrapfest website which I think is a great idea.

Visit Make & Take booths in any order—Vendor Make & Take booths are very popular at ScrapFest. While some waiting is to be expected (after all, good things come to those who wait), we don’t want you to spend all day in line, so here’s a hint: We’ve noticed that sometimes the booths closest to the registration table have the longest lines. Perhaps start at the opposite end and work your way back, go out of order, or visit your top-priority booth first

How can I find other crafters that are going to Scrapfest that might want to meet up . . . I don’t want to travel all this way and then end up eating dinner by myself?

I did find a Facebook Group for ladies going to Scrapfest this year.  Click HERE to join the group.  There are a lot of ladies making plans for lunch and dinner on the different days of the event, and I believe some of them might even be setting aside rooms at the hotels they are at for cropping once the mall closes.

Also, I live in Bloomington!  I am literally minutes away from the Mall of America.  Send me an email or connect with me on Facebook and we can figure out a place to meet.  We can eat, check out the mall and crop until we drop!

Okay, did I miss anything?  If so leave your questions in the comment section and I will try to address it.