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Pool view, so relaxing!
I’m
taking a few days off for a trip around Florida to do some rejuvenating and
some learning. I started off
Thursday morning and headed to Orlando for Scrapbook Expo, held at the Gaylord
Palms. This is a convention that
I’ve attended in the past and I use it as an opportunity to get out and see
what others are doing in the craft.
This will probably be the last time I travel out of town to attend the
Expo, more downs the ups for me. |
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| Waiting for the Show Floor to open |
One
of the events I signed up for was a Crop Thursday evening.
It was billed as offering “Make and
Takes” throughout the evening.
I
took that to mean that vendors would be stationed around the room and you could
visit (or not) at your own pace and see first hand, what they were doing.
That, however, wasn’t their plan! Let
me set the stage.
Cavernous space
half the size of a football field with a bare concrete floor and a high, high
beamed ceiling with no sound absorption baffling to be found. An hour into the
Crop they fired up the Public Address system and announced the first class, at
least I think that’s what they did. The sound was SO bad I could understand
about every fourth word. It wasn’t just me, my table mates couldn’t understand
either and looking around the room I saw lots of other crafters either ignoring
the racket and trying to complete the project on their own or not doing it at
all.
I chose to not do it at
all.
Honestly, I took a look at
the make-and-takes they provided in the kit I was given and wasn’t inspired,
Some had directions printed with them, some didn’t. The papers used weren’t new
and the projects not that innovative. I decided to just work on the project I
had brought with me but that didn’t last long either. Between Make-N-Takes they
played Bingo!
Couldn’t hear the
numbers and they didn’t play a whole game, just filled in the time before the
next project. After about an hour and a half, I packed up and took my newly
acquired headache with me.
Friday
I wandered the hall looking at Vendor Booths. There were lots and lots of stamping supplies, very little
paper and only a handful of it new. I was also disappointed at prices. With the
exception of Close-outs on items that were at least a few seasons old, there
were not a lot of Show Specials where product was concerned.
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| One of Melissa Francis' Kits, so sweet! |
The one highlight
of the show floor was the Melissa Francis Booth. It was beautifully decorated with lots of projects from her
line. I was beginning to explore and take pictures for inspiration (it was
allowed at this booth) when Melissa Francis came up and introduced herself!
Wow! I mean, Holy Cow, WOW! We talked. Actually, she talked, I was tongue-tied!
She even invited me to her CHA Party this July in Las Vegas! I was SO flustered, I forgot to get a
picture of us together! Her booth was filled with all of her new line and it
was all half-off! So many goodies
and it all went into my bag. I watched her demo and took away lots of
inspiration and a few new techniques and uses for her product. That alone made Friday worthwhile.
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| Inspiring, right? |
My
other find of the day was a booth that was demo-ing Ten Second Studio’s new VerDay
Paints. If you haven’t seen this paint in action, head over to their website
and watch some of their videos. The line is designed to give a worn, patina
look. Paint chipboard with copper paint, let it dry, and spritz it with the VerDay
Patina wash. Leave it alone for a few hours and you have the look of aged
copper, so cool! The kit I bought has bottles of Brass, Copper, Bronze and
Iron. I can’t wait to get home and play!
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| The show floor |
I
also attended a few workshops and the one I was looking forward to really
didn’t live up to it’s name. Class title was Latest and Greatest – Products and it was a lecture class with the
latest products being highlighted.
No real products, just a Power Point presentation at the front of the
room, which I wouldn’t have minded if the colors had been true and the products
new! It was probably half my fault. I signed up for the class in March assuming
that they’d be up to date in what they were showcasing. Here’s an example of my disappointment. Showcased for Graphic 45 were Place In
Time, Secret Garden and Kraft Reflections, not even a mention of the French
Country Collection. One of the lines showcased for Authentique was Renew. Hello! It’s been out long enough
for me to design and teach a class using the paper – last month!
Oh
well. I’ll take away the good
things and move on. One highlight
from the hotel - it's undergone a renovation since the last time I visited. One of the new venues is Wreckers Sports Bar. One whole wall is dedicated to ten televisions screens, two of them oversized, showing ten different sporting events. Insane! I had dinner there saturday night and watched The Kentucky Derby, two baseball games, two hockey games, a NASCAR race, The Bulls playoff game (boo!), a golf match and a college Softball game. Wow, is all I can say!
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| Ten, count "um, TEN! |
Today
I’m headed to Epcot for the Flower Show and then up to The Villages for a class
at She Scrapbooks. More on that in
the next post. Stay tuned!
