VISTA -- When Cheryl Lindsay and Jeanne Brandone landed terrific tickets to David Cook's Thursday night concert at the San Diego County Fair, it didn't take them long to come up with the idea of presenting him with a scrapbook.

"He (Cook) might not want to look at all the pictures of himself, but we know he's an artist and we thought he would appreciate it because of the artwork," said Brandone, a mother of three from Carlsbad.

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"We figure it will probably be passed on to his mother," added Lindsay, an Oceanside resident and also a mother a three.

A fair spokesman said late Thursday that Cook's general manager had said no to a meeting with Cook. But the women said they still planned to take the scrapbook to the concert, and that they were upbeat about their chances of making the presentation.

Both women work part-time at Ever After Scrapbooks in Vista and have been ardent "scrappers" since they were teenagers. But they only forged a friendship in January when they discovered they were both "nuts" over David Cook.

Born in Texas and raised in Missouri, Cook rose to fame during the seventh season of the music reality show "American Idol," in which he beat David Archuleta by 12 million votes. Archuleta is scheduled to perform at the San Diego County Fair on Saturday.

 "I'm a huge 'American Idol' fan, and after every show, we all would talk about it in the shop the next day," Brandone recalled. "One day I was telling the girls that I couldn't get hooked (on the new season) because I was still in love with David Cook, and Cheryl poked her head around and said, 'I'm a David Cook fan too!'"

So, in March, when they heard Cook was scheduled to perform at the fair, they wasted no time and went straight online to purchase tickets.

"I didn't want to get (standing room) tickets right in front of the stage," Brandone said. "We're short, and you can't see. Besides, we're old and we'll want to sit down sometimes. We don't want to see up his nose."

Lindsay said they have first-row seats in the middle of the third section, right above the dining area.

They put in a request to fairgrounds officials to present their scrapbook to the performer before the show Thursday evening. Fair public information officer Ray Mooney said he would make every effort to pass on the women's request to Cook and, after that, it would be up to the performer whether he would agree to meet fans backstage.

"It's our dream to meet David Cook," Brandone said, "but if we don't, we're not going to give the scrapbook to just anyone."

The scrapbook -- they have affectionately dubbed it the "David Cook Book" -- has 84 elaborate pages with photos chronicling Cook's life from his childhood in Blue Springs, Mo., to his first bands Axium and the Midwest Kings, and to his first solo album. There are even pages dedicated to the pop star's five tattoos, his favorite pastime (crossword puzzles) and his favorite food (cinnamon popcorn), Lindsay said.

Brandone said the scrapbook has taken them well over 100 hours to make and hundreds of dollars for materials, but it has all been worth it.

"We don't really have crushes," Lindsay said as she and Brandone put the final touches on their scrapbook Thursday morning. "We have sons his age. We're just fans. Official fans."