paper: Avada Kedavra | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Every so often, the amazing team at UK Scrappers hold a weekend long online party known as a cyber crop. Seriously, the work they put into these is crazy, and they’ve been doing them for years and they just put in more each time. The first one was probably fifty or sixty people? There are hundreds upon hundreds now. It’s a great unifying moment for scrappers in the UK. Almost makes you want to sing Jerusalem or Rule Brittania or something.

That ‘every so often’ is this coming weekend. And each event has a theme. This time it’s the Harry Potter cyber crop. When you register to participate, the sorting hat puts you into your proper house and so forth. {I’m in Hufflepuff, by the way. Am yet to decide what this says about me, really.} The weekend is filled with challenges, games and project-based classes. So in theory, you can get lots scrapped, use up lots of your existing stash because you’re cropping at home and still have the social interaction of a crop, because you’re guaranteed to find active threads on the boards and people in the chatroom. I have trouble keeping up with all that because the conversation goes by so quickly and when I am in the making-stuff zone, it can be hard for me to comprehend much, but it’s one of those things that really does have something for everyone…as long as ‘everyone’ is referring to scrapbookers, of course.

As a lecturer at Hogwarts Scrap&Magic Academy, I’m teaching a class there this weekend. It’s all about a composition trick and called The Magic in the Middle. This has been the first time I offered a real kit to play along with the project and I have been bowled over by the response. I had prepared a lot of kits. They sold out in three hours and I spent a week tracking down stuff to make more. Definitely learned something there. Today all those envelopes you see above went in the post. Finally I can walk through my flat without falling over kits. It took me five trips from flat to car with those giant Ikea bags full of envelopes just to transport them to the post office. So thank you all so much for your enthusiasm for wanting to play along.

Here’s the other new thing: you can play along in my class this weekend without a kit and without being in the UK. My class projects will be posted here, with instructions and photos and all sorts of good stuff. Like prizes. Did I mention there will be prizes? Just stop by here at the weekend to take part—it’ll all make sense when you get here. No need to sign up or buy anything…just something to get you crafty this weekend. Harry Potter fandom optional, but I do expect to see Rosemary in fully scarf-and-radish-earrings get up, at the very least.

And an obligatory moment of everyday humour: when I arrived at the post office with my five giant Ikea bags of envelopes, I fully expected them to hate me. They got me back: the franking machine wasn’t working. Every single one of those envelopes had to have three different old-fashioned, lick and stick postage stamps. I have certainly answered the age-old question, If you lick enough postage stamps, will you glue your tongue to the roof of your mouth? I was totally wishing I had brought my house elf along.

And a special message for Nick, who requested more cupcakes for his English class at school: I am happy to bake for you provided you remember that English teachers like proper spellings, and have a particular fondness for the ‘ch’ in ‘school’. Or really, I promised already: high grades on the Wuthering Heights presentations and they’ll be Heathcliff & Cathy cupcakes galore. See you in class.

xlovesx

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20 November 2006

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