About Us

What We Do

Welcome to Cool Crafty Crops.  We offer monthly crafting retreats at the Hampton Inn in Aurora, IL.  The crops begin on Friday afternoon and run through Sunday afternoon.  Crafters may come and go as they please during the weekend.  We provide a generous snack bar with awesome homemade goodies while the hotel provides complimentary coffee and soft drinks.  We also provide a “tool bar” to help lessen the load of scrapbooking tools you need to bring along.  You can choose to participate in games throughout the weekend to win raffle tickets, with the drawing held on Sunday morning.  We also bring a pop-up store in case you forgot something.

Who We Are

My name is Toni Thryselius, and my love of creative endeavors and all things fiber-related began back in 2000 with the impending birth of my Nephew, Marco.  I wanted to learn to knit and found a store that would teach a left-handed newbie.  Fast forward a couple years and I found myself owning that very same yarn store.  It was one of the best jobs of my life and I loved being in a creative atmosphere.  Motherhood took precedence and I closed the store after a few years, but felt like something was missing.  In April of 2012, I had the opportunity to open Your Scrapbook Stash, an online scrapbook store, and branched it off to Cheap Scrapbook Stuff in 2013. We began hosting crops in 2024, amidst some health issues.  Eventually my health issues took forefront and I sold Cheap Scrapbook Stuff, but kept the crop business.  Cool Crafty Crops was born.  

Besides my family, my passions include scrapbooking, knitting, quilting and baking, in no particular order. I’ve often dreamed of creating a “Fiber Fanatics Warehouse”—a huge emporium for paper, yarn, fabric, tools and anything else a fiber fanatic could crave. Watch out if I win the lottery!

If you’d like to reach us, you can email us at toni@coolcraftycrops.com or call us at 630-406-6387.

Frequent Questions