So, as you all know, I went to the Great American Scrapbooking Convention with my mother this weekend. I was very excited - we signed up to take 5 classes and I always enjoy classes with my Mom.
We got the Arlington Convention Center around 5 pm and headed straight for Will Call to pick up my packet. Then we grabbed a snack - hey we came straight from work and knew dinner would have to wait until after our 6 o'clock class. So we grabbed our snacks and walked over the class examples displays. These displays had showed samples of all the classes being taught that weekend. I was super excited to see a few of them...and a few others I was a little hesitant...I wasn't sure I liked what I saw and kind of wished we had signed up for something else, but too late, we were already there. We finished our snacks and headed straight into the Shopping. Imagine 100 of your favorite Scrapbook stores all in 1 GIANT room....that's what we walked into. We stopped at several booths. I stopped at the Embellish It! booth because I was awed by all the papers..Lots of Basic Grey, Webster's Page, G45 and Glimmer Mist. I ended up with Pyrus from Basic Grey and a coordinating cardstock bundle as well as 3 new colors of Glimmer Mist. I was so tempted to grab their last paper pack from Curtain Call (G45) but I knew we had a lot more shopping to do the next day. While I was there, Mom was in the booth across the way and picked up some super adorable page kits to crop my sweet niece and her silly faces. After our shopping we realized we had 20 minutes to get to class, and it was a Prima class so we had to rush to make sure we go there in time to find a seat together. We made it with plenty of time to spare.
Our very first class was called Prima Possibilities and was taught by Rebecca at Prima Marketing. Sweet lady..and her Apron was completely decked out with yummies from Prima. Loved it! The class was packed with 60 people - all super Prima Fans, and mostly very nice. The class started with an introduction and warning that we would not finish the books today -I was ok with that, I'm a slow scrapper anyway. We got our kits and can I just say WOW-WEE! The kits were stuffed with Prima goodies. Each Kit contained:
7 - 6.5"x6"book board pieces
1 tube of Essentials No9 Annalee Flowers
1 -6x6 Paper Pack - Annalee Collection
1 yard Prima Lace Trim
Some yummy Prima Bling
an assortment of white Flowers and white roses
Assortment of butterflies
Prima Pebbles
A Prima Branch
4x6 die cuts or canvas stickers
We did a lot of prep work and got through the first 2 pages before time ran out...but that was ok - I was a tired hungry little girl. Below is a my album cover...not sure if I'm going to add something to the top left corner....
After that we went back to the hotel, ordered room service and went to bed...we had an early morning on Saturday. Saturday morning was awhirl wind. The alarm in the hotel alarm clock did not go off...luckily my Mom's internal clock wakes her up at early so we got up on our own at 6:30....ok, Mom got up on her own...and prodded me out of bed. :) We checked out and headed over to the Convention Center.
Our first Saturday class we took "Vintage - So Dear to My Heart" with Quick Quotes. I had never been in one of their classes and didn't really know much about the company. Let me just say WOW....Our Instructor, Michelle was AWESOME!! The papers were fun, the Layouts were so great, and the kits were FANTASATIC. All the die cuts were pre cut, and there was VERY LITTLE extra trimming involved. Made the class go much faster...we actually finished 2 pages....which is rare when there are so many pieces on a page to ink and play with. The Vintage Pages were designed using the Damsel in Distress and Khaki Collection papers, Frosted Butterflies (new this year)and some fun chipboard dies and bling.
Below is my Favorite Page...I love the center and I love that big brown flower....this is another awesome handmade flower technique I've learned and can't wait to duplicate for my own projects.
In between classes we had a 2 hour break so we went shopping again. ;) I found a booth that had the 2oz bottles of Glimmer mist for $4.50...that's nearly 1/2 price. I stopped and grabbed several.... Next we headed to the Quick Quotes booth where I snatched up a tote to carry all my shopping. I also found a super sweet canvas kit that I think will be perfect for my next wedding anniversary. We also stopped by a booth that was covered in trims and prima flowers. I bought 2 yards of Prima lace, 2 yards of this beautiful rosette lace trim, some acrylic flowers. We also stopped by the Prima booth where they were offering make and takes for $3. Mom and I stopped and did one - a 12x12 Layout featuring papers, bling and flowers. We had a good time chatting with the Prima guy who was there promoting the Live With Prima site. We talked about basket ball, Prima, and Drew (Cardofmyeye on YouTube and owner of Scrappyhappiness.com). We finished our layouts and realized our next class started in 20 minutes. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the class halls.
Our third class was also a Quick Quotes class - So Many Faces, So Many Places. This was another Layout class. The kit makes 4 pages and was designed using Julie Je T'aime paper line. Michelle also taught this class and was equally awesome. Much like the last class, all the pieces were die cut and there was very little cutting with my trimmer involved. These pages were a little more complicated than the Vintage class and there were a lot of fun techniques used. I always forget about library pockets...we used 4! One of the pages also included a "bonus album" - See below. This class was so fun - we will definitely be taking more Quick Quotes classes next year.
Class Number 4 was 30 mins after so we headed straight to our next class - For the Man in My Life by Xyron and Creatopia. This class was an altered cigar box and mini album for the man in your life. We were able to finish the outside of the box, for the most part and we got to play with Xyron's new Creatopia. It was a great class and I really liked getting to play with the tools from Xyron. I think the Mini Album is going to be really cute...but you'll have to wait to see it. :p
After the Xyron class we had 3 hours till the last class so we headed to the gallery for a quick lunch and rest, and then back to the Shopping! :) Our first stop was Melissa Frances! I had been eyeballing her booth every time we walked past and we finally made it over...and it was relatively quiet. We did some shopping - bought some yummy trim, some die cut chipboard. On our way out we saw they were offering a Make and Take for $5 - proceeds go to Breast Cancer. We sat down and paid our $5. We created this super cute Pocket and Tag using distress ink, glass glitter and paper/ Die cuts from Kitschy Kitchen. While we sat there, the lady giving the Make and Takes chit chatted and taught us about Zip Dry adhesive, glass glitter, and the proper techniques for using distress ink and the ink daubers. We talked about Breast Cancer and her own battle with this horrible disease. She was so open and nice. We had a really good time playing. I finished mine before my mother so I got up to make room for more shoppers wanting to play. When I walked back over to the booth, I saw a poster with the lady's picture "Make and Takes with Melissa Frances". I looked back at the woman teaching the Make and Takes and realized her name tag said "Melissa Frances" where your name goes. OMG...I was just chatting and crafting with Melissa Frances...and did not even know it....my knee jerk reaction was to jump back over there and take a picture, but at that point I was so embarrassed about my obliviousness that I just quietly waited for Mom before walking away....LOL!
After stopping at Melissa Frances we walked around a bit more - stopped at Clear Scraps and picked up some Acrylic albums and Tags - we decided we're going to build acrylic albums together. I've only done one and loved it, but Mom hasn't done any so I think that will be a fun for us to do one together. We stopped several other places - found a few more "must haves" and then headed to our last class.
Our last class was another Prima classes - 30 minute Layouts. I was very excited - did not realize this was a Prima Class when Mom signed us up for it, but saw the pages Friday night before we had the album class. We settled in and the instructor came in. She said "I have good news and bad news. Bad news is, there are 60 students and only 53 kits." Somehow 7 of the kits had walked away....bummer. "Good News is, you are here early and have the opportunity to choose whether you stay to take the class, or, if you volunteer to give your kit to a late comer, I will not only email you the instructions, mail you the class kit, but I will also send you a kit to one of our Live with Prima classes." 11 of us volunteered. She took all of our names/ address/ emails and Mom and I will be getting 2 Prima Classes for the price of 1! I was a little relieved to get out of class. Don't get me wrong - I know the class would have been awesome, but man I was tired. Mom and I picked up our bags from the Check Room and headed home. It was a wonderful weekend, and I cannot wait until next year!!
