Party at Elena's House!!!

Things keep changing!! And it has come time for me to either give up my dream with SBR and go back to work, or generate some income. What better way, then to do what I do best...plan a party at my house...
April 19th 10 am till 2pm
Now this is a super exclusive party so there is an entrance fee :) but I promise it will be worth it!

10 things I love love love!



There are tons of cute details tips and tricks that I have to share with you.



I have 12 kits for 12 lucky crafters! The date is April 19th 10 am till 2pm-ish.
Entrance fee is $45 per person and will include:

• lovely lunch
• handmade party favor by Moi
• goody bag
• an awesome kit with full color instructions from Basic Grey worth $35!!

Bring 10 wallet sized photos with you and you will have a completed album when you leave the class! Tools to bring: Crop a dile, wet and dry adhesive, glue dots, pop up glue dots, black journaling pen, scissors.

The class is at my house in Sorrento Valley. Only 12 spots available! Email me to sign up. elena@travelingprincess.com

Scrap Retreat House Review

I just got back from the Scrap Retreat House in French Valley. I went with 5 volunteers from SBR for a well deserved weekend of fun, rest and bonding. Well, not much rest but tons of the other two.

This was the Scrap Retreat House's first weekend. So for a first run it was fabulous!

The house is beautifully decorated and big! I dont know how many sq ft but it was spacious. it sleeps 12-14 with twin beds. Here is Queen Dawn sleeping with her Tiara perched on ther breathing machine. It was a sight! and made a nice white noise for us while she slept :)

Hardwood floors throughout, i think i was laminate but beautiful.

tons of cricut cartridges, a cricut of course, cuttle bug, accucut, big shot, tons of stamps and ink pads, ribbon, computer, I dont remember what else. But I am sure she will be adding to it. I heard that Scrap inn has lots of tools but I would think she probably aquired them over time right? She had a bookshelf with idea books and some of her art on display. She is an amazing artist. I would liken her to Donna Salazar's style.

Everyone has 6 feet of table space and the chairs were comfy.

Its a brand new place and she is totally aiming to please. Everything we thought of that she did not have, we put on a list and on Saturday the few requests we came up with, she went out and bought right then and there. It was just a few things like there weren't enough towel hooks and we thought there should be more trashcans in the rooms etc... She was very very nice and I would definitely recommend this place.

We played the page pass game late on Saturday night. I printed a photo of all of us

and we each started a page. Then every 10 minutes we passed to the right and here is what I ended up with. It was really fun!

Lucky 13 and Somerset Magazine Guests

So much going on all the time!!

I just posted photos of my projects on the Lucky 13 blog. I love love love the way these canvas pages came out!

I also just got confirmation that I am going to have 3 very awesome guests for Pink Pineapple Scrapbook Club this cycle! We are using 2 Somerset Magazines this time. Somerset Memories and Stampers Ten. And my guests are...


drum roll please...

• Cheryl Waters, Lead Fiskateer
• Jenny Doh, Editor-in-Chief and Director of Publishing for Stampington & Company
• Jana Holstein, Managing Editor of Somerset Memories,Art Doll Quarterly, Somerset Apprentice, and a couple of others

So awesome! These ladies are going to make this cycle of bookclub so special! I opened up 6 spots so there might be room still. We meet the first Thursday of every month and the cycle lasts 3 months.

And I just got back from two awesome events! Jennifer P and I hosted the Crop Like Royalty Theme crop at Pink on Friday night. So fun! the girls attending were awesome!

Melanie made us a yummy red velvet crown cake and came to help pass out fairy fly bys! Thanks so much Mela! The cake was perfect!

and Jennifer hosted a fabulous make and take that I can't wait to hang on my wall. She is so talented!

At midnight when the crop ended Jennifer dropped me off at the Scrap Retreat House where I met up with 5 of the SBR volunteers and played for the rest of the weekend! it was so fun and Christine and Ron, owners of the fabulous house did a great job!

Here is our group with the conglomeration pages that we did with the 10 minute pass game. It was great. Jesse is holding her new boyfriend Billy on her lap. She is going to spend until the next event getting to know Billy very well. She is determined not to let him beat her! (kind of an inside joke) It was a great weekend and now I am looking forward to spending some time with my wonderful husband Jean-Claude- not just scrapping pictures of him :)

Do you Listerine?

Ok, I have to say that I have always thought of Listerine as really yucky! But then I was asked to review the new LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE, Anticavity Fluoride Mouthwash and when I saw it came in a shiny irridenscent bottle and that is was purple now, instead of the scary green, I was seriously into trying it! I was surprised. I kept picturing that commecial with the guy gargleing for 60 seconds and the funny faces he made and yes, I was making the same funny faces. But anyway, I really do like this stuff. I am not sure what it does exactly, besides what I read about it...

There are 6 benefits in LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE Anticavity Fluoride Mouthwash that give you a cleaner, healthier mouth:

· Helping to prevent cavities
· Restoring enamel
· Strengthening teeth
· Killing bad breath germs
· Freshening breath
· Fighting unsightly plaque above the gum line

No other fluoride mouthwash is more complete than LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE. Anticavity Mouthwash.

And I have to say, from using it the past few weeks, I do feel cleaner. don't know about the rest but I do believe in prevention so I am definitely going to keep using this product.

Thanks for reading!

Sometimes you just get lucky!

I saw this cool silk screening machine at CHA winter called the YuDu and I really wanted to try to get one donated for SBR. I didnt have any luck at the show and even tried submitting a donation request after but no luck. It would be so great to have one so that at events we could use that instead of paying to have tshirts silk screened. It just would be more cost effective and we could raise more money! So then I was blog bouncing and found Erin. http://erinbassett.typepad.com/. Besides being totally amazingly crafty, she is also totally a YuDu expert and it turns out I know her! small scrapbooking world. I actually was at CKU with a few years ago!!

Anyway... Erin called her contact at Provocraft and she was able to hook me up! So I will hopefully be getting one soon for SBR and I will be able to make some awesome designs for event tshirts! I can't wait!

Thank you Erin! You rock!

The Royal Slumber Crop

Its been an amazing month of craziness leading up to the event and now after the event I have been making trips to the Boys & Girls Club to bring the rest of the boxes back to my house then organizing the boxes and piles and piles of paperwork. My entire body hurts and my back has some spots that literally burn all the time. All worth it and all for great causes!

I have to admit, I bit off more than I could chew with this event. Scrapbook Royalty was growing like crazy and I got swept up in it. I didnt think about how much I was losing when Melanie went back to work and Liz moved to Northern California. And then some other key players that used to help were not able to do so. I just really didnt stop to add up what was missing. So even though the event went superbly well, I will not be doing that again! I learned some hard lessons:

1. I am not a spring chicken.


2. I have limits


3. I have enough volunteers and friends to help for about 50 women


4. I have lost focus on what I started Scrapbook Royalty for

So my focus will be redirected... I wanted to raise money and awareness for charities through scrapbooking and crafting events. This weekend I did exactly that but I also threw a huge party for 150 women. These women did exactly what I asked of them, they brought a minimum of $100 in donations and then helped me reach the goal of $20k raised. They did all I set out for them to do. So what's the problem? I need more. I put so much effort and energy and so much of me into this event and I need more. The friends and volunteers that worked so hard before, during and after the event need more. The charities need more. So from now on, there are going to be some changes. Wait till you see what I do to get more!

My mom and Godmother came to the event to support. I love them both so much!

This is the front room at 2:30 am when I left to go to bed.

left to right Bonnie-decorated the amazing bathrooms that some said were their fav thing about the event. JT- did all the grab bags for the flower picking among many many other things and won Queen of Sweets! Lisa- helped with pre-event stuff and donated an amazing doll house that sold for I thikn $250 that she made by hand! She won Queen of Crafts! I can't thank these amazing women enough!

Oh man, I cannot say enought of about Court Jester Nancy. She was so awesome and bought me a set of SBR towels that Jeannie and Jim donated. I love them so much! And she ran around in a Jester costume all day on Saturday. I loved it!

The last minute gems. These ladies signed up totally at the last minute and then volunteered to do a fairy fly by and make signs and raffle tins. They were seriously awesome!

If anyone can handle 150 hungry women, its Maryam, Gloria and Julie. I missed getting Julie in the picture but they handled all the food mishaps like royalty!

Here is a group shot from Sunday. Darn forgot to take it the night before!!! But here are most of them. It was amazing all these scrappers, and crafters gathering for noble causes! I am so proud!

I bought Krystie a tutu and she freaked out and wore it with me all day. She was an awesome fairy godmother and helped keep the vibe fun and energetic, despite being totally sick!

Well, suffice it to say, I can't do this alone. I can't even do it with all the people I had volunteering, so the event is going to change. Just keep an eye out and watch what I do!!!

Running Around like a Fairy on Sugar Free Rock Star!!

That's me! Running around crazy! I have to make friends hang out with me so I can force myself

to take a break!

I have to say Happy Birthday to Mon Amie Melanie! Happy Happy Day Mela!

Here's some photos of the fun life of a traveling princess!

My book club tag swap is due and here are my cute tags:

I stitched and cut out felt and played!

Here is a blinged pig from Neiman Marcus that I want to buy someday with my lotto winnings!

Here's Krystie and I shopping the mean streets of LA looking for deals for Pink Pineapple and Scrapbook Royalty

and Krystie with the perfect dress for me :) that has a sign on it that says "Do not touch... Thank you, Cinderella" We laughed our butts off when we finally read the sign. She was all over that poor dress!

And Krystie shopping for her perfect dress

SHERBET ANYONE??!!???

and Teri and I with Debra Norville at CHA. Teri cracked me up and just about killed Krystie when she confessed she did not know who that lady was we were taking pictures with!! Love it!!!

Celebrate! the test came back negative!!

Its been weird. About 3 weeks ago my mom nonchalantly tells me and my brother that they found a lump in her breats and she has to get a biopsy to check it. Total shock. I mean total. We talked about it just a little bit then didn't. Jean-Claude wasn't there when she told us and I wanted to tell him that night but I just couldnt do it. Every time I tried, I feet the stinging behind my eyes. I feel it now. She had the test on Monday. My brother, Stepdad and Me waited in the waiting room for her to have it done. I know it is silly but I just wanted her to know I was there. Then she came out all smiles and we went and had lunch but the whole time, those stinging tears were on the verge. I was thinking selfishly of myself a little too. Like what would it mean if she really had cancer. I am a carbon copy of her. And it scared the crap out of me.

But I am happy.

She got the results and she is fine. Negative. They will check it again next year. So for another year at least, I am a happy people again.

whew!

Altered Crown class, crop and raffles galore

This Sunday 11am -2pm I am finally teaching the Altered Crown mini book at Pink Pineapple 760-598-2222. Call the store to sign up! I am so excited to finally do this! The cost of the class is $38 and it is packed with all sorts of cute little goodies. I seriously put everything including the kitchen sink in it!

Here are some photos. I asked everyone to bring a snack to share since we will be working through lunch.

I also want to announce that jennifer and I will be hosting the March Theme crop at Pink Pineapple. The theme is "Crop like Royalty!" You know it is going to be so great. Each person will be getting a tiara and goodie bag. We will be doing a free raffle as well as a little bonus raffle that will raise a little money for Scrapbook Royalty. We need all the help we can get right now. This economy has really made it hard to support SBR so I am turning to my friends and family to help me keep this charity going. If you want to help. You can click on the donate button below and make a 100% tax deductible monetary donation.




Another way you can support SBR is by visiting our auction and raffle blog. There are some really great items on there and it is totally open to the public! Please take a look when you have time.

And I wanted to share a photo of Julie Emily and I going to the InterFaith homeless shelter in Escondido to drop off socks. It was so amazing. I have never been to a homeless shelter before and to be honest I was a little nervous. so lame! but I am so glad we went. The volunteers there were so happy to take our donation of 112 pairs of socks, 2 winter coats and 3 scarves. They said especially with this weather, they really need socks. This was part of the Sock it to Poverty Sock drive that I did with the Fiskateer Charity Fiskamittee. Our next big effort is to collect blank handmade Mother's Day and Father's Day cards to send to the troops overseas. Click here to see the info.

It's been a little busy..

I am off to an event at Pink Pineapple, Jennifer is teaching her owl book as part of the Royalty on the Road tour. I will be bringing fairy fly bys and goody bags for each participant. I hope we raise some good money for the Cancer Coping Center today!

My Luncheon at Summers Past Farms.

I wanted to raise the rest of the money to pay off the attny fees for the 501c3 so with Kat's help, I held a very special luncheon for 12 ladies on Thursday. the invitations were the first indication of how special it was going to be... They are in the post below. And here are some photos of the event. Kat and I transformed this.... (i had already added thes streamers when I took this photo)

into this....

Unfortunately it started raining as soon as Kat and I got there and we had to move everything inside but it worked out fine. It was just a lot of hauling stuff up the stairs in little heels that just about killed me!

First we had a little tea and sweets

Here are some of the goodies I had for them to take home. Inside that little box are flower shaped and laser etched buttons that I found in my favorite notions store in LA. They will be going in my book club kits as well!

Since we had to do lunch inside, we set up at thier seats. They were making the little owl book by Jennifer Priest. Thank God for Jennifer since my original plan to have Michelle Hill provide the kits fell through last minute. Jennifer's book is amazing and they ladies loved it! They got to keep the little lace food umbrellas. Another great find! And they got to keep the little pillows on the chairs which they all loved!

here is everyone toasting with Martinelli's my fav!

And here I am teaching the fun little owl book by Jennifer. It was adorable. Thank you Jennifer. You are amazing and as usual generous beyond anyone's expectations!

So thank you to Debby, Maryam, Birgitte, Sally, Gloria, Anita and Georgia for coming to the luncheon. I had a great time and loved spending time with you all. Thank you to Krystie, Diana and Sandy who were coming but didn't make it for one reason or another but still supported the event. and most of all, thank you to Kat who helped me all day! I could not have done this without her! And now we are officially a 501(c)(3) and paid off and I am so thrilled to have that off my todo list!

Invites all sent!

"To the Fairest of them all. Please join me for a creativity luncheon ball..."



this is the first line of the invitation that I sent out in these cute boxes.



I am having a fabulous luncheon next Thursday 10 am till 4 pm at Summers Past Farms. I am so excited! It is for 12 lucky ladies who will each be donating $200 to Scrapbook Royalty to help me pay for the lawyer fees for the 501(c)(3). Im so glad we got it but it was really expensive. So weird that it costs so much to become a charity!!!




I am doing it up big time. Inside this box is a pretty invitation and godiva chocolate! Michelle Hill, the most amazing designer and a super supporter of Scrapbook Royalty is doing a really cute class. Well, I am going to teach it but she is designing and making kits for me! She is so awesome! I am also doing a fabulous lunch and some very special gifties fit for Royalty!





I might have room for more people if you are interested in joining me! Please email me! I would love to have you! I didn't know who to ask really, it was kind of awkward. I mean I know times are tough and it is on a weekday during the day so... If I didn't invite you, please dont be offended. I just didn't know who would be interested in coming :)

i am a Fairy...

Elena Lai Etcheverry, Lead Fairy and lover of pretty shiny things.

Here are some dollys I made for a doll swap with my ZNE friends. There were 9 total but only 4 left to send out...

I used the maya road chipboard people and then added tulle, irridescent ribbon, and pearl boobies courtesy of Kaisercraft :) of course my fav part is the tiara with real diamonds!

ZNE was such a blast last year. I wish I could go again! Instead I am going to be going to some fun retreats in Dutch Flat with my friend Miss Vicky. Check out her blog for more info... She is doing the most amazing vintage apron retreat in April and June is when I will be going for a really awesome retreat that I have not figured all the details out about yet! imagine that!

Want a Fairy Fly By Goodie? Are you on Facebook?

Please spread the word about Scrapbook Royalty on facebook to your friends. Ask them to become a fan so we can keep them up to date on all things "crafting for charity". Do this and send me your address to elena@scrapbookroyalty.org letting me know you have done your "Good" for the day and I will send you a fairy fly by goodie in the mail :)
its on the honor system so I trust you if you email me :)

Peace, Love and Fairydust,

Elena Etcheverry,Lead Fairy

"I love pretty shiny things!"