Scrapapalooza

Area women turn out for event at Grand Pointe Conference Center

By RACHEL LANE, rlane@newsandsentinel.com


VIENNA — Almost 150 women spent Friday evening and Saturday making pages for their scrapbooks.

The first Scrapapalooza event at the Grand Pointe Conference Center encouraged scrapers of all ages to spend the weekend learning new techniques and sharing what they know with others, said organizer Keith McClung.

His company, Crown Marketing, decided to put together the scrapbook conference.

“This whole weekend is for the novice and the advance scrapbookers,” McClung said. “It’s a unique group that loves sitting around scrapping with each other, sharing what they know.”

A $40 admission charge purchased a small scrapbook and all the materials needed to fill it, he said.

“With everything you get, it was well worth the price,” said Becky Goudy, who won a contest for the best page layout during the weekend event.

“I won a free pass to next year’s event,” she said. “I think they’ve done an incredible job for a first-year event.”

Goudy said she has been scrapbooking for several years, but recently lost most of her materials in a flood.

“I decided to just start over again,” she said. “This is helping (replenish) my scraping materials.”

She said she has three sisters who also scrapbook.

“Scrapbooking is fun when you’re by yourself, but it’s a lot more fun when you’re with people,” Goudy said.

“I love to scrapbook. I get to meet a lot of nice people. I get to share my ideas— pass on what I know.”

Gracie Beha, 8, of Coolville, said she started scrapping because she saw her grandmother, Teresa Pollock, of Amesville, Ohio, scrapping.

“I thought it looked like fun, so I started doing it,” Beha said. “We’ve been getting a lot of scrapbooking done.”

Pollock said she has been scrapping for about six months.

“I started because of the pictures of my kids. The photo albums, with their acidity, were eating through my pictures,” she said.

Scrapbooking seemed like a good way to preserve the memories, Pollock said. She said she learned a lot at the conference.

Kira Holley, 20, of Athens, has been scrapbooking for nine years.

“It’s a good way to preserve memories. And I’m kind of artistic. This is a way to express my creativity,” she said.

Holley said she learned a lot at the conference and when the demonstrations were of things she already knew, she would work on her own pages.

“I (scrapbook) when I have time. I make myself have time to do it by scheduling weekends like this,” Holley said.

Michelle McVaney, owner of Get Crafty Studio in downtown Parkersburg, said she was one of the sponsors of the event to help publicize the business.

“There aren’t a lot of scrapbook events happening in the area, and we usually arrange them. It was nice to just be able to attend,” McVaney said.

She said many people purchased items and it was worth the time to attend. The business will probably be attending again next year.

Other sponsors included Crafts 2000, Stamp it Up and Scrap Shack.