Crop for the Cure & New Blog Candy!

Happy Tuesday!  Hope you're all having a wonderful week.  This weekend (Sunday) was our 2nd Annual Crop for the Cure.  This was a Cricut crop fundraiser event, which raised money for "Team Monique" for the Race for the Cure to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  Btw, don't forget to leave a comment on today's post for a chance at this week's blog candy.  As promised, I'll be giving away a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind 2 page layout in your choice of theme.  What theme would you pick?

Team sign made by Steph Culton using vinyl as a stencil and then painting.

Just Monique

What it's all about.

The Crop for the Cure event was a HUGE success - I really could not have been more thrilled with how it turned out, and I want to thank a few people who helped out these last few days to make it come together: my hubby and the rest of the fam including Becca, Wendy, Stephanie Culton, Jennifer Jackson, Marsha Toms, Judie Lawrence, Courtney Lee, Rita Poteat, Gina Cross, Sharlene Melhaff for her generous donation of about 20 prizes, and so many others who helped throughout the day (sorry if I left anyone off - eeek!).

Scrappy time with friends!

Ronda and Lucy

Denise and Sandra

And would you like to know the TOTAL (rough) amount that this event with 54 scrappers raised for this amazing cause?  Drumroll, please................  $3400!!!!  Can you believe that?  Wow!!!!  We raised about $1400 from sign-up fees, $1100 from the silent auction, and $900 from the raffle.  And HUGE thank you to Provo Craft for sponsoring this event, and for so generously donating the raffle prizes - a new Expression 2 Anniversary Edition (WOW!!!), a Cake Machine, and some Cricut.com gift cards.  Thanks, Provo Craft - you are the best!!  The silent auction was a hit as well, with donations from several reputable companies, designers, bloggers and individuals, including Tim Holtz, Robyn - My Pink Stamper, Cricut Magazine, Oh My Crafts, Emma - My Creative Time, Sarah Pink Cricut, Expressions Vinyl, Craig Evans Photography, SC Photography, Echo Park Paper Co, Okieladybug, Scrappy Mom Stamps, Lisa Kirk, Paula Wells, Clare Dempsey of Scrapin Covers, Abby Grimaldi, Lisa Kirk, Martie Janway, Sharlene Melhaff, Alice Narlock, and possibly a few others I may have missed.

The Tim Holtz item.  :swoon: 

Autographed and everything!

We had four 6 foot tables FULL of silent auction items!!

This gorgeous E cover and scrap bag was sure a hit!

The crop was from 11am-11pm, and was located at my neighborhood Ranch House, which is just a beautiful location.  It always feels like a little resort getaway there.  54 ladies showed up (it sold out in ONE day!), and everyone seemed to have a blast.  A few friends even surprised me with little birthday gifts - how sweet is that?  And Wendy made everybody sing to me - how embarrassing!  My bday isn't until the 4th, so that was a fun pre-birthday surprise.  We had several door prizes donated by me and a few others, including Sharlene Melhaff who seriously brought at least 20 prizes with her.  Pizza dinner was brought in by Papa John's Pizza, who gave us a great deal, and my mom sprung for a couple of cakes.

Does it look like they're getting anything done?  I think they did!

No shortage of snacks.  Everyone chipped in and brought stuff.

Rachel Loesch made these delicious cake pops.  Yummo!

We did make a few little simple favors for the event.  We didn't have much time to make things, but Wendy and I made 60 little pillow boxes with hot pink Bo Bunny cardstock.  The pillow box was cut from the Easter mini cart, and I used DS to hide the contour line of the bunny that normally cuts into the box.  We were able to get 4 boxes out of 1 piece of paper.  Mom used the Pink Journey cart to cut out pink ribbons at 2", and then she and Lucy put candy in the boxes and tied a ribbon around each one so they wouldn't pop open (the glue wasn't quite holding).  Expressions Vinyl donated a few sheets of pink vinyl in addition to the silent auction item, so I used those sheets to make 70 pink ribbon decals in various sizes from 3 1/2" to 6".  Everyone who attended was able to pick what size they wanted.

Favor boxes with candy.

Pink Ribbon decals for everyone.

Rita Poteat lends a helping hand at the registration table.

I didn't bring any of my scrap stuff with me because I know I don't get anything done when I'm running a crop like this.  It's more fun for me to just float around and visit with people.  We even had a couple of our recent guest designers there - Courtney Lee and Lezlye Lauterbach, who did such a great job this past Friday.  They were fun to hang out with!  Overall, I'd say it was a smooth event, great location, happy scrappers, and a truck load of fun.  Oh, would you like to know who managed to get some of those big ticket items?  Ok, Janet Rhodes was the successful bidder on the Tim Holtz hand-crafted and autographed item, Janet also won the raffle for the Cake Machine, and Gina Cross won the raffle for the E2 (talk about exciting!).

Gina wins the E2, and about went through the roof with excitement.  Judie got the first celebration hug.

Gina is a total sweetheart, and is beyond thrilled to win.

Janet jumps for joy when she hears her name called for the Cake Machine.

And I'm the lucky one to get the celebration hug this time.

Lezlye seems to have a mat issue.  You might wanna get that checked out by a Cricutologist.

Wendy and Courtney Lee - my sweet friends!

Thank you again to all of our sponsors, and especially to you wonderful ladies who attended and made it such a success.  I appreciate you all from the bottom of my heart, and can't wait to do this again.  Our 5k walk is coming up this Saturday morning, and I am pumped!!  You can still donate to the team by clicking HERE.  Do you think it's too late to get in shape for it?