I'm back from this weekend's
Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington! Wow! It was pretty unbelievable. The shopping was amazing, my classes were amazing and the time was amazing.
I drove up on Thursday evening to prepare myself for the convention on Friday. I enrolled in 3 different classes for Friday...we'll get to those in a minute. The shopping opened at 9:00, so I wanted to be there just in time for the doors to open. Since my first class was at 9:30, I wanted to take a loop around to see what was out there and start making my list. After a few minutes, it was a little overwhelming. There was a lot of paper...a lot. A lot of kits, a lot of ribbon, twine, card stock, dies. I started my list and had to be on my way to class.
My first class was a little disappointing. I did learn a little bit about misting, which I have never done before, but the layout that was created was a little
blah for me. Misting, however, was fun, and several other classes used the mists, so I'm wondering if I need to bite the bullet and buy some. That was one thing I resisted at the trade show portion.
After the first class I was able to take a little more time shopping and really looking at some supplies. I recognized a company called Jenni Bowlin and browsed through it for a little bit, but couldn't figure out how I knew that name. After leaving, I stopped at some other booth to look at ink and then it hit me - INK!! Jenni Bowlin has ink that I want. So, I rushed back to her booth and bought some ink:
The Vivid ink and two chalk inks are from different companies, and I'll get to that in a minute. The Jenni Bowlin inks have been on my list and in my Amazon cart for a couple of months, but I didn't want to pay shipping. I can't wait to try out the Malted Milk and Brown Sugar. I heard they were supposed to be close to Kraft color, so I'm excited about that.
My second class was sponsored by an online company called
The Whole Kit and Kaboodle. Andrea Deer, the owner, was the class instructor and wow, her kits are awesome! She uses her die-cutting system to cut everything you need for a 1 or 2 page layout. All you have to do is put it all together. We created 3 pages in the class, and there was an option to buy the companion pages - which I did.
I don't want to mess with copyright stuff, so I'm sending you to the links of the kits we used.
-The first one was titled "
The Heat Is On". In the class we created the left page, and I purchased the right.
-The second was titled "
Just Beachy." Again, we created the left page, and I bought the right.
-The last layout was titled "
Summer...A Whale of a Good Time." We built the right page this time, and I bought the left.
Again - misting was a big thing in this class, and that whale is super cute!! If you are going to the beach or expecting to spend a lot of time outside this summer, these kits will make for some quick and cute layouts! Also, remember those chalk inks in the first picture. It's Andrea's fault that I bought those. She chalks everything, and I love the look, but often forget to chalk my edges until the paper is already adhered. These inks are great for that! Love the colors too! That blue is beautiful and the brown is a deep, earthy color. I had to buy the brown because the pad on the brown ink pad I had fell off in the middle of a class.
I had a few minutes to run through the trade show portion again and passed by a ribbon booth. One of the racks at this booth was selling a baker's dozen of ribbon for $5.00. So, I picked this:
I know...who needs more ribbon? Everyone needs more ribbon!!! Are you counting the pieces? There are more than 13 there. I bought the front ruler ribbon because I just loved it and the texture reminded me of my grandma's measuring tape in her sewing box. It was cloth, not vinyl. Loved it.
I happened by a booth selling clear stamps. Everyone needs more of those too. And this girl's style is so up my alley. The set that drew me in was a set of Easter eggs with different designs. I don't really have an Easter set, so I loved this one. As I went through the booth, I began writing down so many sets that I loved. I knew I couldn't buy any of them until I really thought about which ones I really loved. So, I had to go to my next class and think about the stamps, and then go back after class was over.
My third class was sponsored by
SEI, and the class kit was HUGE and beautiful! The paper was flowery, glittery and just beautiful and some of the techniques in this class were so different. The two (out of six) layouts that we actually finished had elements of the layout on the outside of the page protector, which is so hard for me to wrap my brain around. Aren't page protectors...used...to...protect...the...page? So, between that and the fast pace of the class, I was a little exhausted when it was over.
I left. I didn't go back and buy stamps. :(
My second day began again with a stroll around the show floor. I hadn't seen any twine on the day before, even though I was looking for it. Finally, I saw some at the very top of a booth. They were selling 8 packages of twine for $20.00. So, after much deliberation, I bought this:
My Mind's Eye has some wonderful color choice, and 5-yards more in the package, so I tried to get as many as I could of theirs, but the three colors from The Twinery were too pretty to not get. So, I did. I also bought this paper pad, because I needed more patterned paper
(like a hole in my head.)
I went back to the stamp booth I was at yesterday, and did another round of writing down and making decisions. Still needed to think about things.
My first class on Saturday was sponsored by
Quick Quotes, which is also a company that has kits. The line of paper that we used is called "
My Michelle," and is awesome. We created six pages with the line, and these are some of my favorite projects from the convention. The picture below is from the GASC website and isn't my layout, but it just shows how awesome the projects can be.
I learned some tricks that I'm excited about for adhering vellum. Again, the kits had everything already cut and I'm super excited about the layouts.
My third class was sponsored by
The Whole Kit and Kaboodle again. I was excited when I realized that when I walked in. I didn't even do that on purpose. This was a card class. I signed up for this one to give myself a change of pace, and I'm so glad I did. The kits were all ready, everything cut, and all I had to do was adhere things down as Andrea was instructing. The problem was that I ran out of adhesive runner in the middle of the second card and had to finish the 2nd, 3rd and 4th card with Scor-tape and glue dots. I didn't even start the 5th card. Not having adhesive is a burden.
Here are the cards we created. The thing about Andrea's cards is that the pictures don't really show how cute they are. Many of them have unexpected folds and don't use the traditional A2 fold. Love that!
CUTE! And again - misting was involved.
After class, I went and bought this:
They were on sale. I bought a 5th one, but it's already in use. The bummer part is I walked down a differnt aisle and found them $1 cheaper. Grrrrrr...
I finally had time to sit at the stamp booth I had been stalking and made the Make and Take. The prize for finishing their card was this cute thing:
The stamp company is called
The Stamps of Life. Apparently, I missed the announcement when this company started up 18 months ago. The owner, Stephanie, is full of energy and has great ideas. Her designs are beautiful, whimsy, fun and creative. Some of the sets are images that I haven't seen on a stamp, and love how easy they look to cut out and paper piece - my favorite technique. Stephanie was at the booth all day and talked to me every time I was there.
Here's her blog. Lots of inspiration - lots of videos.
Go...go now!
No wait! See what I bought first.
I finally made some decisions on the stamps and bought these:
banners4all
Been looking for a banner set I couldn't live without. Love the different holidays in this one.
bunny4Easter:
Yeah, I didn't get the egg one; loved it, but thought this one would be more versatile.
cars2drive
I have a boy. No explanation needed.
dictionary4me
Again, I've been looking for something like this. This set has a lot of options!
scream4icecream
This one has a companion set I really want, but I resisted. It was between this one and her cupcake set, but if you remember, I have several cupcake stamps already and had to go with something different.
stamped4you
Wow! I really liked this one and don't have anything like it. Had to get it.
I bought six sets. I know. I splurged. I'm OK with that. Because I bought 6 sets, I received 2 free ink pads from the booth. That's the other ink you see in the first picture. They love this ink at this booth, and I have to admit the two colors I chose are pretty "vivid!" I guess that's why they named the ink what they did.
I had one more class to attend. I was not crazy about it - at - all, even though it involved misting, which apparently everyone is doing. So, I'm going to go ahead and finish up this post. It's a long one.
I loved the convention! If there is a convention near you, I would try to make it. So much to see, so much to do. It was nice to be around thousands of people that share the same addiction as I do. And scrapbookers are nice people. That's for sure.
I'm still not buying mist.
Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!