Spring Trade Show and Education Event - Recap part two

If you are just joining me you can read part one HERE

So are you ready to hear about he second day?

Remember, due to lack of planning I had to drive up in the morning; but since it was a Saturday traffic was light and I arrived in time for my first class at 8:30am.

My first class was with Maya Road.  It was a very cute shadow box with lots of fun embellishments.  They have an adorable set of glitter in glass vials that I wanted to buy just for the bottles.  If you are interested in doing this as a class let me know and I will order the kits.  The nice thing is it comes with a full set of chipboard so you could do a different word, like "Hope" if you want.

Next up was a mixed media class sponsored by The Crafter's Workshop and taught by Cheryl Bogioli who is scheduled to be at The Inspiration Station on May 12.  We used a canvas album cover and stenciled on it with embossing paste, sprays and paint.  It was a fun but very messy class. just the beginning of the abuse my hands would suffer this weekend.

Lunch was again underwhelming.  A pizza buffet of bland frozen pizza. Dessert was something resembling chocolate cool whip topped with a slice of strawberry.  I was thankful I had a yogurt in the cooler of my car.

The afternoon started with a class at 12:30.  Jenn Shurkus taught the class for Lawn Fawn and we made a bunch of really cute cards.  I really love Lawn Fawn products, they are so cute and easy to color. We did some with Copics and some with Distress ink as a  watercolor. Here are 3 of the 5 cards we made in class (I didn't have time to finish the other two).

At 2:15 it was into a class with Fancy Pants.  The owners were very sweet and we did a cute Instagram album/brag book. I have not carried much of their line in the past but I am looking into their summer release because it is very cute.

The next class was Graphic 45.  They have such beautiful papers and they always have unique was of using them. They used their baby line, and took out the most beautiful florals and created this window pane shadow box. Isn't it gorgeous?

So after 4 very intense classes in one day you would think we would get a little time to recover, right?  Oh NO!  Saturday night is the legendary"Sample Making Frenzy".  

Imagine being given 3 hrs to go into a room with 40 or so vendors and trying to do make and take projects at each one...  It is impossible to do!  But - we try!  The rep group who sponsors the show does their best to keep our energy up by running a dessert buffet down the center of the room. Still, there is no way we can get to everyone so I start by scouting the room and looking for the tables who have products we carry so I can bring back ideas.  Next I look for the vendors who I WANT to bring in, to get a chance to play with the products before deciding; because remember, we still haven't gotten to the trade show portion of the weekend yet!

So I stopped by and saw my friend, Ken Oliver, and his Color Burst paints (very cool!) We also talked about having him return to the store to teach a class or two and are looking toward the summer (June or July).

Visited with Elizabeth Craft Designs and fell in love with Karen Burniston's new barn yard collection.

By the way - I spoke with Karen Burniston and we have tentatively scheduled to have her come here and teach the weekend of June 13-14.  I do not have a set day or time yet, but I will let you know as soon as I do.  We are looking at a class and hopefully also a demo if time allows.

Other tables I stopped at and made samples included: Sizzix, Impression Obsession, Ranger (Wendy Vecchi has new Archival inks and powders), BoBunny, Little B, and Stampendous who has the cutest pop up Kitten and Puppy stamps & dies along with new House Mouse for summer.

After the frenzy, I headed back to my room with the intention of checking my email and preparing orders for the show, but it didn't happen.  As soon as I climbed into the bed I crashed, right there under the pile of catalogs!

Sunday was the trade show during the day, I spent some time talking to several vendors and placing orders. I loved the graduation products from Impression Obsession. 

 I thanked many would had been very generous with products in their classes and got a little silly (ok. maybe very silly ) with the guys in Ken Oliver's booth.

So at the end of the show I was pretty wiped out.  I skipped dinner to spend time chatting with Kim, the owner of Kept Creations in Mass.  Then it was on to another workshop - Yes! Sunday night from 6:30-9pm I had a workshop with Sizzix.  Again, they were generous with the goody bag and we each got a precision cutting plate and a die brush tool.  I was also lucky enough to win an extended magnetic base plate as a door prize.

By the time I was done I was exhausted, but the fact that I skipped dinner was catching up with me so I made a quick run to McD before bed and picked up an extra yogurt parfait to put in the ice bucket because, well, breakfast at the hotel left a lot to be desired and my class with Dyan Reaveley started at 8am!

We had a chance to play with her new paints and stencils and get very messy.  The paints are very fast drying so they are perfect for art journals.  That is one reason I don't like to art journal - I am too impatient to dry between steps and with her paints and her application technique that is really not an issue.

After another awful lunch service, we moved into another room for our afternoon workshop with Tim Holtz.

Tim is always a great teacher and gives wonderful tips for using products.  Did you know you can use his Tiny Attacher stapler anywhere on a page?  Come to the After-Party on May 1st and I'll show you how!  Mario was there, of course, and I have to say he is one of the sweetest men in the industry.  He is the force behind all of the prep work that goes into Tim's classes and makes them run so smoothly.  This is the project we made in class.

That was it.  I was beat. I didn't hang around since I needed to head back on the Mass Pike during rush hour traffic. I have to say it was a wonderful weekend.  The promoters did an excellent job.  The vendors were wonderful and all of the classes I took were worthwhile.  I also appreciated the chance to network with other store owners and share ideas.

So that is my recap.  I really hope you will come and join us at our Trade Show After Party on Friday, May 1 from 5:30 - 8pm.  You will see everything is person, including the stuff I didn't show here.  Don't forget, Kim also came up and took several classes so those projects will be at the store then too.

As always, your comments are appreciated so I know that people actually read my long-winded essay!
See you soon.